Eating Dinner With My Family

In a hole in the ground there lived a boy.  Some of it was nasty and dirty as it was inhabited by a tween and had an oozy smell, but it wasn't a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: (as there was a mom) it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.  If you can't tell we are huge fans of Tolkien and are also a bit nerdy. (and proud of it I may add:)  We noticed a while back that The Hobbit was coming out on DVD today and decided on planning an 'unexpected dinner' to celebrate.  So we have kept as quiet as possible that The Hobbit was coming out today, as we wanted to surprise the boy with dinner and a movie.  There was that moment when I was furiously fast forwarding through the commericals when he spied a commerical for it, but I blew it off, and he seemed to buy it.  I looked at a lot of sites for recipes and ideas.  I loved the old recipes I found (some from the 1600's) to make for this dinner.  I h...

I decided to make a dessert for a change.  Crazy schedules and lots of leftovers made for a lazy mom in the kitchen.  My daughter adores strawberries and I almost never make something just for her.  So, I decided to make yet another of the thousands of pins I have.  Was this good?  Yes.  (It didn't look too pretty that's for sure.  You can tell by the picture)  Was it something I will make again?  Most likely no.  I think it was alright but not worth the calories.  I also wasn't a big fan of the whole strawberries.  It made the pie too chunky.  I will check out other strawberry pie recipes, but this one will quietly be forgotten in our house.  It came from another blogger so I am listing the ingredients and giving you a link to the recipe. Update: My husband has now tried the pie and declared it delicious, so I guess I'm keeping the recipe:) Strawberry Pie Pie Crust Strawberries Sugar Cornstarch Water Cream...

We went to the Greek Festival today and had some leftovers from that and some other odds and ends.  I refuse to let my fridge bulge even more at the seams, so it's a pot luck dinner here tonight;).  I did however make banana bread with some bananas that were getting very ripe.  I haven't made this in years, but it was the best banana bread I have ever had.  I adore the coconut in it.  It makes the bread something special.  It is from Mark Bittman's cookbook, "How To Cook Everything".  It is a great cookbook and one I put on my list of must haves.  It if  full of recipes that are actually homemade and don't use a lot (if any) processed foods.  Mr. Bittman notes that he likes to toast this the next morning and eat it with peanut butter.  I haven't seen this stuff always last until the next morning;). Banana Bread 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp 1 1/2 cups AP flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp Kosher Salt 1 1/2 teaspoo...