Recipe Swap Thursday #26

Welcome to Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday! Please be sure to invite your friends to come visit and join in!

The most popular recipe from last week's Recipe Swap Thursday was Aloha Muffins @ Abundance on a Dime. These are perfect for the middle of February... when cabin fever has definitely set in!
 

This week I'm sharing my Roasted Garlic. So simple, so good, so gourmet. Try it in the next recipes that calls for garlic cloves!!

How to swap:

1) Link directly to your recipe. Scroll down to "Click here to enter" button. You will be prompted to enter the URL (link directly to your post), Name of your recipe, and Email (not visible), and then select a Thumbnail to upload.

2) Visit the other recipe links!!

3) Please include a link back to Prairie Story so everyone can see all the delicious recipes. Feel free to grab the Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday badge, or Tweet/Facebook this swap to your friends and followers.

Thank you to all recipe swappers, blog hoppers, my loyal readers, Twitter and Facebook followers, fellow foodies, family and friends for your support. I'm so happy to be able to share my Prairie Story, and appreciate that you take a precious moment or two out of your busy day to visit my blog!

Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic is so gourmet. It gives the garlic a warm sweetness and mellows out the sharpness. I just love adding roasted garlic to my favorite recipes like Chicken Tetrazzini, Smashed Potatoes, salad dressings and even garlic butter.

1 Ingredients:
1 head garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:
- Cut off top of garlic head exposing the cloves. Rub off any loose, outer excess skin.
- Place in baking dish.
- Drizzle olive oil over top.
- Bake @ 400° for 30-45 minutes.
- Once cooled, simply squeeze out the cloves. 
- Mash up and use in recipes that call for garlic!

Parfumerie Fragonard

While we were in Monte Carlo a few years a go, we took a drive to Eze, France to the Parfumerie Fragonard Labratory Factory which is beautifully located above the sea, on the Moyenne Corniche between Nice and Monaco. Here we toured Fragonard learning about their secrets of perfume making.

I must admit that I got caught up in the moment of being in France, in a Parfumerie, with their staff giving me personalized scent attention, and went a little crazy in the gift shop buying their perfume collections, cologne and aftershaves for my husband, and many soaps and candles for my house.

It is here were I fell in love with their signature perfume, also called Fragonard. Fragonard is an elegant scent that unites suave white flowers with mellow amber. It is sold in a sophisticated ‘estagnon’, golden aluminium bottle, which protects the perfume from the effects of light and heat. It's the perfume I wear on special occasions and always get compliments. Sadly, I have almost run out and have to figure out how to order some!

Fragonard History

Shortly before the First World War, Eugène Fuchs, an entrepreneur at heart who had already been seduced by the magic of perfume, decided to set up his own perfumery based on the novel concept of selling perfumery products directly to the tourists who were beginning to discover the French Rivera’s charms.

Parfumerie Fragonard was opened in 1926. Eugène Fuchs chose to name it after the famous Grasse-born painter, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), as a tribute to both the town of Grasse and to the refinement of 18th-century arts. Similarly, the choice of name expressed his desire to run his business in accordance with traditions.

This spirit has been loyally perpetuated by the three succeeding generations who have run and are still running the company. It was under the tenure of Jean-Francois Costa that the Parfumerie Fragonard went through a rapid expansion and modernization. As an avid art collector, during the 1970’s he amassed a large and unique collection of antique perfume related items that has both enriched the Fragonard and given the town of Grasse a new cultural dimension. Today, Jean-François Costa's daughters, Agnès and Françoise preside over the perfumery's destiny, and are as concerned as the preceding generations with continuing to build the company while adapting it to current market needs and desires.

For more information, visit The Parfumerie Fragonard website.

Fragonard is my favorite perfume. What is yours?

Recipe Swap Thursday #25

Welcome to Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday! Please be sure to invite your friends to come visit and join in!

The most popular recipe from last week's Recipe Swap Thursday was 10-Minute Amish Cookie Bars @ Retro Housewife: The Remix. 10 minutes!!! Perfect!
 

This week I'm sharing my Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup with Cheese Tortellini. The soup is good, but adding the cheese tortellini puts it over the top!

How to swap:

1) Link directly to your recipe. Scroll down to "Click here to enter" button. You will be prompted to enter the URL (link directly to your post), Name of your recipe, and Email (not visible), and then select a Thumbnail to upload.

2) Visit the other recipe links!!

3) Please include a link back to Prairie Story so everyone can see all the delicious recipes. Feel free to grab the Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday badge, or Tweet/Facebook this swap to your friends and followers.

Thank you to all recipe swappers, blog hoppers, my loyal readers, Twitter and Facebook followers, fellow foodies, family and friends for your support. I'm so happy to be able to share my Prairie Story, and appreciate that you take a precious moment or two out of your busy day to visit my blog!

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup

This soup is warm and comforting, especially when you add cheese tortellini to it! Mmmmm.

4-6 red peppers
1-2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes
1 onion
6-8 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper
1 can diced tomatoes (796 ml / 28 fl oz)
1 cup vegetable stalk
water
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup cheese tortellini, cooked

- Remove seeds from red peppers. Chop peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic.
- Place on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil over all to coat. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Bake @ 350° for 30-45 minutes, until veggies are cooked and skins soft.

- Place roasted vegetables in large soup pot. Add canned tomatoes, vegetable stalk and water to fill pot.
- Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer.
- Blend with hand blender until smooth.
- Add crushed red pepper flakes (if you like some heat) and continue to simmer.
- Add cheese tortellini 5 minutes prior to serving.

Black Heels To Tractor Wheels

I don't read romantic novels or love stories, but for Valentine's I bought myself a present: The Pioneer Womman  - Black Heels To Tractor Wheels, by Ree Drummond. This modern day, true love story gives me goose bumps. I downloaded it to my iPad and can't seem put it down.

Thank you Ree for all that you've done for women, housewives, mothers, and bloggers. Thank you for sharing your life and story! Happy Valentine's Day!

Sugardoodle Cookies

This recipe is actually modified from my family's Snickerdoodle cookies where the only difference is you roll the dough in sugar and cinnamon. For these Sugardoodles, I simply omit the cinnamon. These are good plain, or easy enough to decorate!

1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

- Cream together margarine and sugar, beat in egg.
- Mix in the remaining ingredients.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then roll in 2-4 tablespoons white sugar to cover.
- Place on cookie sheet, flatten with bottom of glass.
- Bake @ 350° for 12 minutes.
- Makes 48 cookies.

I decorated these for Valentine's with some pink icing and cinnamon hearts!

Be My Valentine

I continue my quest to scrapbook my son's first years of art! His Valentines craft were hearts that he attached cut outs of his hands to as if her were giving a hug - one for Dad and one for Mom.

Artwork
Construction paper, string.

Scrapbook Materials
Paper: We R Memory Keepers Madame Royale, BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses, Martha Stewart Heirloom, My Mind's Eye Glitter Paper.
Stickers: BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses Alphabet Stickers, Webster Pages Storytellers Magical Alphabet Stickers, BasicGrey Wisteria Alphabet Stickers, Chatter Box Together Stitched Felt Heart Stickers.
Other: SEI Chiplets Mimosa, Heart Foams, Buttons.

Artwork
Construction paper, paint on white paper, string. 

Scrapbook Materials
Paper: We R Memory Keepers Madame Royale, My Mind's Eye Glitter Paper.
Punch: Martha Stewart Hydrangea.
Other: SEI Chiplets Mimosa, Flower Felts, Foam Hearts.

Cupid's Checklist

Saint Valentine's Day is the celebration of love and affection, with the traditional expression of love by  presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending cards. It was first established in 500 AD, however I quite like this "modern" cliché Valentine's Day poem from the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784)...maybe you've heard it:

The rose is red, the violet's blue

The honey's sweet, and so are you

Thou are my love and I am thine

I drew thee to my Valentine

The lot was cast and then I drew

And Fortune said it shou'd be you

Here's my Cupid's Checklist for Valentine's Day:

□ Bake Black Forest Cupcakes. 

□ Get Valentines for my son's party at school.

□ Finish the Be My Valentine scrapbook page I started.
□ Bake Sugardoodle Cookies.
□ Buy myself a Valentine's gift - Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.
□ Have a glass of wine with my husband, tell him I love him. xo
  

Recipe Swap Thursday #24

It's Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday! An early Happy Valentine's Day to you!!

My favorite recipe from last week's Recipe Swap Thursday was I {Heart} You Vanilla Cupcakes @ Alison's Wonder Scaporium. These are ADORABLE!!
 

This week I'm sharing my Black Forest Cupcakes. They are perfect for Valentine's Day, and they are topped with one of my all time favortie icings - Whipped Cream Cheese!

How to swap:

1) Link directly to your recipe. Scroll down to "Click here to enter" button. You will be prompted to enter the URL (link directly to your post), Name of your recipe, and Email (not visible), and then select a Thumbnail to upload.

2) Visit the other recipe links!!

3) Please include a link back to Prairie Story so everyone can see all the delicious recipes. Feel free to grab the Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday badge, or Tweet/Facebook this swap to your friends and followers.

Thank you to all recipe swappers, blog hoppers, my loyal readers, Twitter and Facebook followers, fellow foodies, family and friends for your support. I'm so happy to be able to share my Prairie Story, and appreciate that you take a precious moment or two out of your busy day to visit my blog!

Black Forest Cupcakes

These cupcakes are delightfully stuffed with cherries and topped with a luxerious cream cheese whipped topping.

1 Betty Crocker SuperMoist Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 1/4 cups water

1/3 cup veg oil
3 eggs
1 can cherry pie filling (540 ml / 19 fl oz)
1 package cream cheese, softened (250 g)
1 cup icing sugar
500 ml whipping cream

- Bake cake as per directions on box, in lined cupcake tins.
- Whip whipping cream until peaks form. Beat in icing sugar.
- Add whipped cream to cream cheese slowly to ensure it combines evenly.
- Once cupcakes have cooled, cut out cone shape in cupcake and fill spoonful of cherry pie filling (4-6 cherries). Place top of cake back on, then ice with cream cheese whip.
- Makes 24 cupcakes.

Puff Pastry Hors D'oeuvres

Here's the perfect addition to any party... or perhaps your romantic evening that you have planned for Valentine's Day!!

I feel like I've tried so many different brands of frozen hors d'oeuvres - some ok, some pretty gross. I was really quite impressed when I baked up the President's Choice collection on the weekend. They puffed up nicely, were flaky and most importantly, they tasted good.

The box included Chicken Sausage Rolls, Swiss Cheese & Smoked Ham, Roasted Sweet Potato & Goat Cheese, and Apple & Gouda with Smoked Onions. 

Also, for all you iPad users out there, the PC Recipe Box App has over 700 recipes...at your finger tips, for free!

Crock Pot Chili

I love my chili because it's saucy, hearty and full of flavor. Perfect to eat with a cheese bun! If we don't eat it all, I'll freeze what's left in a container or even a Ziploc bag.

2 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (796 ml / 28 fl oz)
1 can red kidney beans (540 ml / 19 fl oz)
1 can Heinz Deep Browned Beans with Pork & Tomato Sauce (398 ml / 14 fl oz)
1 can sliced mushrooms (284 ml / 10 fl oz)
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper

- Brown ground beef in fry pan with onions.
- Drain excess fat and liquid.
- Combine ground beef and onions with all remaining ingredients in large Crock Pot.
- Cook on High for 2 hours, then keep on Warm.
- Add some flour if sauce needs thickening.

Recipe Swap Thursday #23

It's Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday! I hope every one is coping with all the crazy weather. Optimistically our Canadian groundhogs, Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam and Ontario's Wiarton Willie, both predicted an early spring on Groundhog Day Wednesday. And Punxsutawney Phil, America's favorite groundhog, predicted an early spring too!

My favorite recipe from last week's Recipe Swap Thursday was Banana Pudding Pie @ The Country Cook. Graham crust, bananas, pudding and whip cream...how can you go wrong?!? YUMMY!!
 

This week I'm sharing my Baked Potato Soup. It's the perfect soup for winter and Superbowl!

How to swap:

1) Link directly to your recipe. Scroll down to "Click here to enter" button. You will be prompted to enter the URL (link directly to your post), Name of your recipe, and Email (not visible), and then select a Thumbnail to upload.

2) Visit the other recipe links!!

3) Please include a link back to Prairie Story so everyone can see all the delicious recipes. Feel free to grab the Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday badge, or Tweet/Facebook this swap to your friends and followers.

Recipe links only please.
Thank you to all recipe swappers, blog hoppers, my loyal readers, Twitter and Facebook followers, fellow foodies, family and friends for your support. I'm so happy to be able to share my Prairie Story, and appreciate that you take a precious moment or two out of your busy day to visit my blog!

Baked Potato Soup

This is total comfort food for me. The first time I ever had Baked Potato Soup was in a restaurant in Minneapolis about 15 years ago. As soon as I got home from that trip I tried making it myself!

10-12 baked potatoes
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup margarine
2 litres milk
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup bacon, fried & chopped
2 medium onions
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup sour cream
green onions to garnish

- Bake potatoes in microwave, scoop out insides and break into bite size pieces.
- Melt butter in soup pot, add flour slowly to get pasty.
- Allow to cook for about 1 minute.
- Gradually add milk and stir constantly until bubbles around the top. If your milk is cold this may take a long time.
- Stir in potato chunks, salt, pepper, onion, bacon and cheese.
- Cook thoroughly with out boiling. Stir in sour cream.
- To serve, garnish with cheese and green onion.