Microsoft’s OneNote has become one of my favorite software applications. It took me a while and years of hearing friends use it for a variety of purposes before I even used the program. Now the more I use it, the more ways I think of using it.

Recently I was asked by a friend if she should continue using Microsoft Word to store recipes or use OneNote. I told her I thought One Note would be a superior choice. OneNote acts like a virtual notebook. You can have several pages within a notebook that are easily accessed from one screen. You can also add blocks of text and easily move them around – so you have a lot of design freedom that is just not as easily done in Word.

I did a mock up of how I might lay out a recipe in OneNote. I’m also using OneNote to keep a journal at work of issues and solutions. So I suggested she use OneNote instead of Word but she can always save her OneNote page as a word document. You cannot save your Word document as OneNote – or I didn’t see it listed in the save as drop down menu.

Some days, well a lot of days, I don’t feel like cooking. Luckily I have this simple pasta ‘dish’ that my husband loves and never complains when it is fixed even it is the only thing for supper.

Ingredients

Spaghetti Pasta
Butter
Garlic
Parmesan Cheese

Cook your pasta to how you like it. Drain and then toss in butter, either garlic powder or a small amount of chopped garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Toss it all together and then you may want to add a little more cheese – depending how much you love Parmesan cheese. In our household, we love it a lot. The cheese is usually piled on pretty high.

This is a real easy and delicious way to prepare pasta.

It seemed every time I would visit my grandmother – who lived about three miles from us so we would visit quite often – she would offer to make me biscuits. She made the best biscuits. My mom makes really good biscuits, too. But I have never attempted to make homemade biscuits until now.

I ran across a buttermilk biscuit recipe that was on a friend’s blog and decided to give it a try. I knew there wasn’t that many ingredients in biscuits but never liked the idea of getting my hands into the dough for kneading. But with rising prices of my beloved canned biscuits, I really need to make biscuits from scratch. Here is my first ever attempt at making homemade biscuits.

They turned out pretty good and tasty. Our oven is temperamental, so it’s hard to cook anything to perfection in it. I really would like a cast iron griddle since that is what my mom uses. All in due time I guess. Right now I’m just thrilled that I will be able to make editable biscuits and won’t have to buy canned ones anymore.

My little girl loves marshmallows and so when we go to the grocery store she usually insists on getting a bag. I comply since it’s $1 and it keeps her happy even if we have plenty of marshmallows at home. But I noticed that we had nearly 3 bags of mini-marshmallows and her marshmallow eating had tapered off. To use some of these marshmallows, I decided to make Rice Krispy Treats(R).

I bought the generic Rice Krispies and then discovered that the recipe wasn’t on the box. My husband found a recipe online for Rice Krispy Treats at Cooking for Engineers. It was the first one he found that sounded correct or close to what we were used to.

So I made the treats and then my husband suggested sprinkling semi-sweet chocolate chips on top. that was pretty good, so when I made another batch, I used both chocolate chips and Reese’s peanut butter chips. Now that was divine – of course I love peanut butter.

Now we are out of marshmallows but still have plenty of cereal. I will be buying some more marshmallows since this is one of the easiest treats to make plus the little girl can help out. She loves to help in the kitchen, so I’d like to encourage her as much as possible.

Yesterday we had a tea party to attend and thought it would be fun to bring something tea party related. It was part of our play group, so the tea party attendees were all under five. I’ve read about scones and thought that might be a yummy treat to give a try. I found a scones recipe that used all the ingredients that I already had in my kitchen.

Scones are a lot like biscuits. But once scones are cold, they are hard. That’s perfect for coffee drinkers who want something to dip in their coffee. The dough was very dry even though I added extra milk. I think next time I will mix by hand instead of using the stand mixer(that I love! BTW) to see if that makes any difference.

We enjoyed them but I didn’t make any for the tea party as I just ran out of time. But it’s good to have a quick and easy recipe for something new and tasty.

A few weeks ago I had a request to make grape salad for a baby shower. I was tickled since it is seldom anyone asks me to bring something I make to a party. Grape salad is easy and tastes yummy. I first had it at one of our playgroup parties and since have made it a few times. Each time I get compliments on it.

What you will need -

4 cups red seedless grapes
4 cups white seedless grapes
1 package cream cheese
1 8 oz. package of sour cream
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few chopped pecans
about a tablespoon of brown sugar

Once cream cheese is room temperature, blend it with the sugar. Then add sour cream and vanilla extract. Next fold grapes in until they are covered in the mixture. Top with brown sugar and pecans. Let chill for overnight for best results.

This week I made something I have never made before and loved it – homemade pizza. Was it ever yummy and had me wondering, “Why haven’t I done this before?”

Here is a list of what is needed to make the pizza I made:

1 box Jiffy pizza crust mix (or any mix will do. Jiffy’s mix was only 40 cents)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup pizza sauce (more or less depending on whether you like pizza sauce)
About 20 slices of pepperoni
1/2 cup sausage

Prepare the pizza dough as per the directions on the box. Once you have your dough prepared and laid out onto your baking sheet, use a ladle to place the pizza sauce on the pizza and spread it around. Next add your toppings and then cheese. Or if you prefer your pepperoni crisp, add it after the cheese. Then bake per directions on the pizza crust box. Here is how mine turned out:

While buying all the ingredients didn’t save me money when compared to a frozen pizza, I do have enough to make a second pizza, making it cheaper than both frozen pizzas and take out. All I need is another 40 cent box of pizza crust. So not only was it a delicious meal and have fun in the kitchen, it’s a way to save money, too.

I found this simple recipe for Sugared Pita Chips and had to try it since it sounded yummy. All you need is:

Flat pita bread
Can of non-stick spray
1 tablespoon sugar

Split and cut pita bread into 8 wedges. Place on a baking sheet.

Next sprinkle with sugar.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and back for 15-18 minutes or until pita chips begin to brown. For my oven this was more like 10 minutes.

These were a nice treat especially while they were still warm. Once they were cool, I found them to be a little hard for my taste. Fast to make and fast to clean up. Definitely a nice little treat to make even with the kids.

Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, is fast approaching, which means it’s time to enjoy King cakes while you can. King cakes are like big cinnamom rolls but with icing on them in colors purple, green, and yellow. Inside each king cake is a small, plastic baby. If you find the baby, then you are obligated to buy the king cake next year. Can’t find a king cake near you or just wanting to make your own? Then here is a recipe. Enjoy!

King Cake
For cake and filling:
1 box (16 ounces) Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, prepared according to directions on box
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
For icing:
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 cup granulated sugar (large crystals)
3 or 4 drops of purple, green or yellow food coloring.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Cream the butter, sugar and cinnamon together until soft enough to spread easily.
To make the dough, follow directions on the Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix package. Instead of forming rolls, turn half the dough onto a floured surface, and roll into a 2-foot-by-1- foot rectangle. Spread half the butter and filling mixture on top of dough.
Beginning at the wide edge, roll the dough toward you into a long cigar shape approximately 2 inches in diameter. Do the same with the second half of the dough. Place dough roll seam-side down on a well-greased baking sheet. Curve each roll, pinching the ends together to make an oval ring. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes or until doubled in size.
Bake at 375F for 15 to 20 minutes or until a straw inserted into the dough comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool.
To prepare the glaze, combine sugar, lemon juice and water, mixing until smooth. Slowly add more water by the teaspoon until it spreads as easily as a thin icing.
Place 1/3 cup sugar in each of three small jars with lids. Add three drops of food coloring to each. Cover with lid and shake until color is evenly distributed throughout the large sugar crystals. Add food coloring, drop by drop until desired shade is achieved.
Coat the cake top with glaze. Sprinkle colored sugars in 2- to 3-inch alternating rows of purple, green and yellow. Cut and serve.

I actually did some holiday baking last night. This year I want to make goodie tins for family and friends. One item I want to include is dipped pretzels, but since I have never attempted to do this, I experimented some last night. I also had on hand some Reynolds parchment paper which I’ve been itching to try. I will also use it later this week when I bake cookies, which will mean less clean up for me.

I did enjoy using the parchment paper instead of wax paper. It was just so much easier to work with because it stayed in place and didn’t curl up. It was a breeze to work with and worked really well. For the dipped pretzels, all I need was the parchment paper, pretzels, white chocolate, a microwavable bowl(not pictured), a spoon(not pictured), and two forks.

I broke off a few pieces of the white chocolate and placed in the bowl. I set the microwave for 90 seconds and then checked the progress. I then placed it in there for another 30-45 seconds, stirring the chocolate to get it smooth. I then placed the pretzels in the bowl, using the fork to flip them over and then to hoist them out of the bowl.

I then placed the coated pretzels onto the parchment paper and waited for the coating to harden. Once some time had passed, it was very easy to lift the pretzels off the parchment paper.

I will be using the cookie swap tips from Reynolds soon enough as I have a cookie swap coming up soon. Who knows, I might be inspired enough to host one next year.