Ready to snicker? These are called "Pasties". You can call them whatever you like, we say it so it doesn't sound the way it's spelled. All I need is for my son you go to school and tell everyone that his mommy made pasties!
I'm giving a version of a recipe that I found. I have made changes to the recipe and have listed how I made them. The only thing I didn't add was that I put asparagus in the pasties I made. They were fantastic! Logan loved that he could eat them with his hands.
I hope you will try and enjoy this recipe!

Pasties
1/4 cup butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1/4 pound mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 pound shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten

The Crust:
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cups butter (or Crisco)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Divide pastry dough into four equal portions and roll each one out in a square shape. Set pastry aside to rest.
3. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter or margarine and allow to melt. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes, until translucent and beginning to brown. Add carrot, turnip, potato, mushrooms, and water. Lower heat and cover skillet. Allow mixture to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. In a small bowl add milk and whisked 1 egg. Stir this mixture into cooked vegetables. Continue to stir until mixture thickens. Add cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.
5. Place 1/4 of filling on one half of each pastry square. Fold pastry diagonally and seal edges. Brush tops of pastry with beaten egg.
6. Place pasties on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

Menus

Ugh! Am I the only one who doesn't like making menus every month? I would rather clean the bathroom...well almost. I decided to try something new, hoping it would make the whole process easier. I made a list of 30 meals that I thought the family would like and that I could make a portion meat free. Then I found a great printable menu and picked 2 weeks worth of meal and put them on 2 of the menus. So far it is working out great! I can't wait to make and take a picture of tomorrows meal. Stay tuned! I will be getting more posts out soon, a lot of things came up this month that kept me from posting.

Fall=Warm yummy soup!

I haven't been posting in the last week because I really haven't cooked in the last week(good reason, eh?). I was in FL for a few days for my Grandmothers funeral and most of the food was brought in by friends and neighbors. This was my first day cooking from scratch and having it not be Spaghetti.
Here in MI, the weather has taken a turn and we are welcoming in fall. For me this means a few things. First, it means the weather cooling down. Second, it means that leaves changing(LOVE that!). Third, it means I can make soup again without melting while eating it!
Everyone loved this soup! I was surprised that even Logan and Estrella(my sweet "god-daughter") dug in with gusto.

Butternut Squash and Onion Soup

• 1 large butternut squash
• 1 medium or large sized onion
  
• 1 large baking potato
  
• Garlic powder to taste
  
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 3 cups water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional
• A handful of chopped fresh chives
  

1) Peel and cut Squash into smallish chunks. Cut Potato and Onion into small chunks(smaller than the Squash).
2) Saute Onion in Olive Oil until tender(It helps if you do this in a large sauce pan). Add Squash, Potato, and broth to pan.
3)Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 min.
4)Remove small portions from pan and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until it reaches the consistency you desire.(I put the blended portions into a large mixing bowl until the pan was empty and then poured it all back in the pan).
5)Salt, Pepper and Garlic to taste. I served the soup with whole grain french bread. Yummm.

By the way- My husband was really surprised by how filling this meal was.

This made enough for about 10 to 12 servings.

Tortilla Soup

I love this soup! It's really yummy, and one of the best parts is, if you are the only one eating it, you can freeze some and just just as good as when it was first made. Just leave the Tortilla chips out, put in a freezer safe container and there you have a meal for another day.

Tortilla Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp chili powder

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans black beans

1 can Veggie broth

10 oz package frozen corn

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup crushed tortilla chips

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice.

1. In large saucepan, heat oil medium. Cook garlic and chili powder until fragrant about 1 minute.

2. Add tomatoes with juice, beans, broth, corn and 1 cup water. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring soup to boil, reduce to simmer. Add tortilla chips and cook until softened about 2 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice. Serve with extra tortilla chips.

Pasta

I love pasta, Love it! So I decided to start expanding the kinds of noddles we use. Sunday we were having spaghetti but I decided to use Garden Rotini. It was really good. I also made garlic bread. Yummmm(and the "m"s could go on and on!).

We just used a store bought Spaghetti sauce(meatless of course)
1 box of Garden Rotini

Garlic Bread
1/2 cup butter(or earth balance), softened
Garlic to taste
about 10 slices of bread(thicker bread is better but we only had sandwich bread)

Mix the butter and garlic, spread onto each slice of bread. Stack bread and wrap in foil. Put it in a 350 degree oven for about 15 min.

There you have a super fast meal that tastes super yummy!

Vegkabobs

Rich grilled up some vegkabobs for me on Friday. I used a Greek vinaigrette to dip the veggies in. Here is what was on them:
Mushrooms
Green Bell Pepper
Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Onion
Yellow Squash
Zucchini

So good!

Salad, Yum!

I had a really yummy salad on Saturday night.
Leafy lettuce(you know the stuff that looks like leaves)
Pecans
Blackberries
Raspberries


It was such a good combination, the flavor was excellent.