Pork Chops and Pineapple Fried Rice

Let's play a guessing game!
Guess whose recipe this is??
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Did you guess Pioneer Woman? Because you'd be right. Guess what I'm gonna say? Delicious, family favorite, outstanding, etc. Yep. Same as always. You have to try this recipe! Loved the pineapple with the fried rice and the pork was juicy :) 

This was a great portable dinner too since my husband was on a month long detail of brigade staff duty in September. 24 hours on, 48 hours off. So on his duty day, we'd bring him dinner and eat together.

Secret Recipe Club: Sweet N Spicy Hawaiian Pizza

I was very excited to have Erin from The Spiffy Cookie as my assigned blog. I found Erin's blog around a year ago and immediately fell in love. Have you seen how adorable all those cookies are? Plus it's very purple which is only the best color ever. She is another science whiz - we have lots of them in the SRC! Erin and I have a very similar taste in food, so I do have a bunch of her recipes bookmarked.

When I got my assignment, I had no trouble at all with choosing a recipe because I had already planned to make a recipe from Erin's blog that week for dinner. Her Sweet N Spicy Hawaiian Pizza was absolutely incredible. I'm not a fan of apricots, but it was not an issue at all here. The flavors all went together so perfectly. So much better than a purchased Hawaiian pizza.

Secret Recipe Club: Raspberry Cheesecake Muffins

We had an extra blog this month and since I had such an easy time picking out and making my actually assigned blog's in like 2 days time, leaving me with pretty much the full time of picking out and making a recipe, I took on our extra: Karen from Lavender & Lovage.

When I joined SRC, Karen's blog was my first assigned blog. So it's kind of a little nostalgic that I would make something from her blog again for my 1 year SRC anniversary :)

I immediately went with her raspberry cheesecake muffins. I've made cheesecake muffins before and they were great, but I loved how these ones you just put a dollop of cream cheese right in there. It was very easy and efficient - instead of cubed up 8 oz. of cream cheese.

Tasty Treasures

Time to show off the most clicked from last week's Tasty Thursday :)

#1: Fall Food Favorites//Couponing & Cooking

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#2: Homemade Pierogies with Dad//Hezzi-D's Books & Cooks

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#3: Healthy Peanut Butter Chunk Oatmeal Bars//Persnickety Plates

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You can also grab this nifty button if I featured your recipe!

Just highlight, copy/paste in rich text or compose mode.

This week's Tasty Thursday is still open (and will be until Tuesday), so feel free to stop by and add a few recipes! :) Make sure to check out the other recipes linked up too!

DIY Spreadable Butter

As I've said before, I'm slowly transitioning into less and less processed, preservative-ridden foods. I know that the spreadable butter I get at the store has a bunch of junk in it. So I was all over this recipe. I stuck it in an old butter container and it is perfect!

Grilled Chicken Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

I've been doing a bunch of grilled chicken and pasta dishes lately...(i.e. here and here). Okay, so maybe 3 recipes isn't a lot, but to me, it is! I am big on changing it up. We never eat the same meal for dinner more than once in sometimes a span of months. But I have been on a grilled chicken/pasta kick! This one really surprised me with the tomato cream sauce. I expected more of a spaghetti sauce taste to it, but it was more rich and creamy. Very decadent. Loved the pairing of the sauce with the chicken - especially with the Montreal Steak Seasoning. This is a must-try recipe!!

Tasty Thursday #83: Hawaiian Pizza Grilled Cheese

Welcome back to Tasty Thursday!!

As a child, I always loved when I found out we were having Hawaiian pizza for dinner. I'm not sure why now as an adult, I don't ever make it. I definitely need to change that. This, however, is a great middle ground because my family loves grilled cheese and they are so quick and easy to make for a weekend lunch. It was a great sandwich!

French Bread Rolls

If you notice things appearing or disappearing - don't fret. I'm not some kind of crazy blog Houdini. I'm learning so much in the Online BlogCon and I'm trying to make my blog better for not only myself, but for you all too! If you ever have a question or comment, feel free to send me an email: fantasticalsharing@yahoo.com. I appreciate your all's feedback!

I'm still trying to test out bread recipes - I thought I would give the combo French bread - hoagie - sandwich rolls recipe from Sara & Kate of Our Best Bites out. It was a pretty good bread recipe. I didn't get to try them fresh out of the oven, but I will definitely be making these again and remembering to try them fresh!

Carrot Cake Donuts

When I first saw these on Jocelyn's blog, I was seriously in awe.  They were so gorgeous and seriously...carrot cake! A perfect excuse to have carrot cake for breakfast. These donuts were every bit as delicious as they look. They were soft and moist and the frosting was incredible.

Family Favorite Slow Cooker Roast

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot

Tasty Treasures

Time to show off the most clicked from last week's Tasty Thursday :)

#1: Quick Peppery Cheese Bread//Hot Eats & Cool Reads

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#2: Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies//Semi Homemade Mom

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#3: Cinnamon Swirl Bread//Amy's Cooking Adventures

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You can also grab this nifty button if I featured your recipe!

Just highlight, copy/paste in rich text or compose mode.

This week's Tasty Thursday is still open (and will be until Tuesday), so feel free to stop by and add a few recipes! :) Make sure to check out the other recipes linked up too!

Green Bean Bacon Bundles

So because of all the pre-Online BlogCon chatting going on in the Online BlogCon FB group, I've decided even if I have posts scheduled to mid-January (I thought I was moving this month and was preparing for at least 2 months of no internet) I'm going to try and update my scheduled posts with a little blabbering. I don't really do a lot of blabbering here because I feel like I have nothing interesting to talk about, but I also want to feel like Fantastical is a little more personal. So I'm sharing - sharing is caring! Even if the sharing is completely random.

I have two kids - Matthew, 5, and Cambria, 4. I'm one of those uber attached parents and so I drive Matthew to school daily and I am continuing SAHMing with just one kiddo. Matthew's school is like 3 miles from our house and there is this wicked awesome curve on the way there. My husband put an open cone intake on my car and I love to hear the engine go. Even if Matthew likes to remind me that my car has a measley v6 and Daddy's has a v8. :) The highlight of my boring mom/housewife life is taking that curve more than the posted 25 mph speed limit. Because it's soooo much fun!

Yesterday when I was taking the curve, I noticed that my steering wheel was acting kind of "sticky" and so I didn't speed up like I normally do. I called my husband and asked him if that would be perhaps power steering fluid low - someone in the office said it could also be the pump going...not sure what pump that is because I am completely car-illiterate. So I took on the task of finding my power steering fluid compartment. My Pontiac, Prixie, is amazing and I love her, but they did NOT put this compartment in an easy to access place. I had to wait for it to stop raining and get sunny again before I actually found it because the lid was covered in sludgey engine stuff, scientific term here, people! I cleaned off the lid and checked the fluid - and sure enough, it was just under the right amount. So I got to get fluid in there all by myself and I'm really excited about it. I properly diagnosed and "fixed" my own car! :)

Now on to these beans - which have nothing to do with my car story. What I really love about this side, other than the fact that it includes butter, garlic, and bacon, is that it looks so incredibly fancy and complicated. However, it takes so little time to prepare, you don't really have to hover over anything while it cooks, and they are out-of-this-world delicious!

Fantastical Feature: Jacques Pepin: New Complete Techniques

Publish Date: 13 November 2012

Pages: 784

Synopsis via Barnes & Noble:

Jacques Pépin is universally hailed by professional chefs and home cooks as the grand master of cooking skills and methods. Now, his classic seminal work, Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques, is completely revised and updated with more than 1,000 color photographs and 30% new techniques.

Based on Pépin’s 1978 and 1979 archetypal works La Méthode and La Technique, Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques has become a cookbook classic in its own right, selling more than 140,000 copies. Comprehensive and authoritative, New Complete Techniques includes more than 600 techniques and methods and 160 recipes that are demonstrated by Pépin in thousand of step-by-step photographs. It is a culinary course on every aspect of classic cooking, from the basics (how to sharpen a knit or peel an onion) and the practical (how to properly bone a chicken (to the whimsical (how to make decorative swans and flowers out of fruits and vegetables) and the complex (how to use an old refrigerator as a smoker for trout).

The time-tested recipes show everyone, from the greenest home cook to the seasoned professional, how to put techniques into practice. This completely revised edition includes thousands of color and black-and-white photographs throughout and is redesigned to make it even easier to follow the step-by-step techniques.

My Thoughts:

New Complete Techniques is a very thorough handbook for every basic technique you could think of in the kitchen. The design is simple and doesn't take away from what is important: the content. There are chapters for equipment, vegetables, eggs, fish and shellfish, poultry, meat, offal and charcuterie (organ meats and prepared meats like bacon, ham, pates, etc.), carving, bread and pasta, pastry and dessert, and presentation. Each chapter has a wide array of information on foods in the category. The equipment and presentation chapters are incredibly informative. Pepin drives home the point that learning the basics opens up so many different possibilities in the kitchen and is something that cannot be skipped in order to be successful. You can make a dish look pretty, but it's all about knowing how to make it that will keep people raving and coming back for more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Black Dog & Leventhal for letting me preview this amazing book.

Preorder on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Mexi Steak Kabobs

This is going to send awful/weird/crazy, but we made this recipe way back in the end of August. I've been blogging August recipes for a bit now. I got really ahead of myself with a ton of new recipes being made once, twice, or even three times a day for a few weeks. So, we knew that here in New York, our grilling days were numbered. Surprisingly, in the beginning of September it was still hitting up into the 80s. But we planned for sparse grilling - and these sounded like a good thing to grill while we still had time!

Tasty Thursday #82: Apple Butter Hotcakes

Welcome back to Tasty Thursday!!

The original recipe also had a recipe for flavored butter and a warm cherry sauce. I used leftover TX Roadhouse butter and just did syrup. It's totally up to you what you would like. I personally thought that the cherry sauce may take away from the fall-feel to this breakfast. The cinnamon honey butter was the perfect touch though!

(Print)
What you need:

• 1 1/2 cup pancake mix
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. cooking oil
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup apple butter

Directions:

Stir together all ingredients until just moistened.

Add about 1/4 cup batter to heated griddle.

Flip when top is bubbly and then cook until golden brown on each side.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens

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Crockpot Baked Potatoes

I hate having to turn on the oven for more than 20 minutes during the summer (because I made these back in August)...I cringe at the thought of more than an hour. But baked potatoes are the perfect side dish for a pot roast, so I really wanted to make them. Thankfully, there are awesome people with awesome ideas and that is how I found crockpot baked potatoes! Easy peasy and keeps your house a helluva lot cooler!

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What you need:

• Potatoes

Directions:

1. Wrap your potatoes in foil.
2. Place them down in your crockpot.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Side note: Does anyone else eat their baked potatoes like this?

Mash them down with a fork and load them with butter, sour cream, and cheese.

Recipe from Real Mom Kitchen

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Basil & Garlic Butter Pasta

I meant to make this as a lunch meal for the kids and I before Matthew started school, but I ended up using it for a dinner dish. I was really surprised at how flavorful just a few ingredients were. When we ate it for lunch the next day as leftovers, we added tuna to the mix and it was the perfect addition to an already amazing dish. I don't have many recipes that I can use as tuna meals, but this is definitely one of those that works perfectly with the addition of meat. I'm sure that chicken, steak, and ham would also be perfect additions.

(Print)
What you need:

• 12 oz. pasta
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 4 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped* - we used a mixture of fresh oregano and dried basil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package direction; drain.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil and butter over medium to medium-high heat.

Add garlic and onion. Saute until onion is tender, stirring frequently.

Add pasta, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat. Heat for a minute or two.

(I added the sauce to my pasta in a separate bowl off the heat)

Serve topped with Parmesan

**When we ate leftovers, we added a package of vacuum-packed tuna (lemon pepper flavor) to it. It was absolutely delicious with the addition and we will definitely be adding it every time we make it!

Recipe from Hot Eats & Cool Reads

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Crispy Pizza Wraps

We tried cheeseburger wraps a few weeks prior to making these. We loved them. There is something about grilling the wraps that makes them so much better than just the toppings on a plain, uncooked tortilla :)

(Print)
What you need:

• Tortillas
• Mozzarella
• Pepperoni
• Italian sausage
• Diced green bell pepper
• Diced onion
• Pizza Sauce

Directions:

Cook sausage and drain.

Build wraps - topping a tortilla with a little sauce, onion, pepper, sausage, pepperoni, and cheese. 

Fold sides in and wrap tightly.

Grill and serve.

Recipe from My Favorite Finds

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Tasty Treasures

Time to show off the most clicked from last week's Tasty Thursday :)

#1: Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches//Semi Homemade Mom

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#2: Bangers & Mash//Amy's Cooking Adventures

 

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#3: Hash Brown Potato & Sausage Quiche//Feeding Big

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You can also grab this nifty button if I featured your recipe!

Just highlight, copy/paste in rich text or compose mode.

This week's Tasty Thursday is still open (and will be until Tuesday), so feel free to stop by and add a few recipes! :) Make sure to check out the other recipes linked up too!

Pumpkin Week: Pumpkin Blondies

Now that I've had blondies twice, I am all about some blondies! They are one of the very best types of dessert, in my opinion. I knew I had to make these for pumpkin week. They have white chocolate chips and coconut in them which definitely adds more layers to the flavor and texture. Plus I added a nice helping of whipped cream on top because you can never go wrong with whipped cream!

I hope you all enjoyed pumpkin week. I am hoping to do "man food" week during the month of November, so stay tuned :)

(Print)
What you need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla. Beat until incorporated. Then add pumpkin.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nugtmeg, and cloves.

Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients gradually.

Fold in chocolate chips and coconut.

Spread batter in a greased 9x9-inch pan.

Bake at 350* for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.

Recipe from Better Recipes (formerly Mixing Bowl)

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