Cooking with Sara: French Dip & Kale Chips

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Apparently, over at the food blog, we played a long drawn-out game of dodgeball, and I'm the last one standing.  So, as I'm looking around, with a smelly red rubber ball in my hands, I'm feeling a bit isolated and alone.  And you know what I do when I'm alone - I talk to myself (and pretend that Rory is enraptured with my nonstop monolog).  This time, talking to myself has morphed into making and posting more recipes on the food blog.  So that it doesn't feel so much like a ghost town.  I'm leaving the lights on, so to speak. 

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to post two recipes each week.  This week's pair is a deliberate step away from the sugar and butter: The first is just comfort food yum, with very little work or attention.  The second is... hmmmmm.... I'm still not sure what to make of it.  Kale Chips recipes have been making the rounds on food blogs, so I decided to finally try them.  I wrote a lot more about the buggers on the food blog, so click on over if you're wondering what the heck Kale Chips are.

Kale Chips on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Fall Flowers, Part 3

Fall Flowers, Part 1 here
Fall Flowers, Part 2 here

This last batch of photos from Sunday afternoon is actually all the same stem of flowers!  It's amazing how different something can look just by moving to let the sun light it from a different angle.  I sat on the ground and rotated around the flower as I took photos.  Isn't nature just so pretty?

Fall Flowers, Part 2

Fall Flowers, Part 1 here
Fall Flowers, Part 3 here

Fall Flowers, Part 1

Fall Flowers, Part 2 here

Fall Flowers, Part 3 here

Yesterday, our weather was beyond perfect - cooler temperatures with a crisp, easy wind and the bluest sky you've ever seen.  Bo convinced me to put my chores aside to take my camera out into the clearing behind our mini forest to snap pictures of the flowers in the sunshine.  I'm so, so glad he got me out there.  It was beautiful!  And time in nature always slows down my incessant fast-paced approach to life.  It calms me and makes me feel centered and grounded again.

So, I took a ton of photos, and here is the first batch of them.  Lucky you, I'll be posting them over the next couple of days, so it's a pretty pretty flower fest for all of us :)  Happy week!

...Toad in the Yard

Cooking with Sara: Pumpkin Praline Cake

I mayyyyyy know full well what I'm doing when I post a photo like that one above.  A shiny, perfectly dripping drizzle of homemade caramel sauce?  I mean, c'mon, that's just not playing fair! And yet, I post it all extra-large size anyway.  Devious, that girl Sara.

Pumpkin Praline Cake on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Aside from the pretty caramel drip photos, I do want to show you my new cake stand!  It's vintage milk glass, and I paid way too much for it at an antique store.  I bought it and another gorgeous stand to go with my plain-Jane Martha Stewart cake stands for the wedding last weekend.  I'm head over heels in love with both stands, and I'm already scheming ways to get my other stand into a recipe post.  (And figure out why it's got a mysterious brandy cup?  That's another story for another day, and I definitely need your help with it.)



Frog in the House

I was putting dishes away this morning (anyone else do the dishes unnecessarily before work?) and looked up to see this little guy in the window sill over our sink.  Yes, inside the house.  I think these little frogs are just about the most adorable ever.  No bigger than a cookie, and such a pretty green.  We've seen a few in our yard, and Bo has taught Rory to chase them.  (Which is a whole other flipping hilarious video-photo blog post I've yet to write.)



I have no idea when this little guy sneaked into the house (and obviously scooted across the floor mat from the looks of all the Rory hair stuck to him), but he was clinging to the window this morning to try and escape.

Bo released him in the backyard, with Rory's supervision.  I think I'll name him Cookie.

Cooking with Sara: Chocolate Truffle Cakes

This yummy little recipe posted last week to the food blog, but I was so busy posting Savannah photos here that I didn't get a chance to share it with you.  It was part of that haul I made for a wedding last weekend, and I'm hoping to get the others recipes posted during the next few weeks or so.  Assuming that I can muster up the motivation to make them again.  I'm partly traumatized by the whole experience, so please don't hold your breath.

Anyway, back to this recipe! If you like brownies (and what sane person doesn't?), you really need to scoot your tush over there to check out the recipe.  With only one tablespoon of flour, it's almost entirely chocolate, with a little sugar and butter thrown in for good measure.  And to tell you the truth, I love it way better than the brownie recipe I've been swearing by for years.  It has the crackly, lightly crusted outside of a brownie, but with a gooey chocolatey center.  My oh my, it's just so, so, so good.  Trust me on this one.  

And scoot!:

Chocolate Truffle Cakes on From Blah to Ta-Daa!

Weekend Scrapbook 7

This is pretty much how I looked for three solid days.  Well, ok, that's a lie.  By the third day, my hair was definitely more frazzled, and I probably wasn't quite so smiley.  But in the kitchen, wearing an apron, utensils scattered, and recipes hanging from everywhere is pretty accurate.

And this is the end result!  Friday was my last Sarandipity hurrah, when I did the cake and dessert table for our friends' wedding.  I made four different mini-desserts: Cheesecakes with strawberry sauce, chocolate truffle cakes, red velvet cakes, and pecan lace cups with key lime filling.

The lovely bride!

And groom :)

After putting up with my stress and chaos for three days and jumping in to save the day no fewer than six times, Bo is still smiling.  He's such a keeper.