Sweet and Salty Pretzels, Pomegrante Muffins, Egg Nog French Toast AND Alfredo Pasta!

I had a busy weekend! I took off the wrong weekend for the back up managing for our apartment building so it was kind of a little pseudo vacation.

We had gone out for a "couple's" night with some of our friends and we also had some friends come in from Minot that we went out with later that night. It was fun..

Yesterday we had jammie day and brinner. It was so great. I made french toast. Mom always made the best french toast and I remember growing up and just eating myself stupid on the stuff. I like to tweek the recipe depending on what I'm craving.. and the season of course.

Last night I made it with Silk's Nog. It tastes like egg nog, but coming from Silk it's all natural and free from any animal product, gluten, dairy, lactose.. Yadda. Honestly, I can drink sthat stuff straight from the carton. Anyway, Here's the recipe if you'd like it :)

2 eggs

Rounded 1/2 cup of flour

Pinch of salt

Cinnamon

3/4 cup of milk (or soymilk.. or egg nog)

The bread I use is Country Hearths English Muffin bread. I use it because it's a little more dry and soaks up more of the batter. When I make the egg nog french toast I add nutmeg, cloves and a small dash of ginger. There's really no science behind the amoun

t of spices I add, I just do it until I think it smells right (I won't taste si

nce there's raw egg in it. Mom freaked me out when I was younger and I am very hesitant to sample anything with raw egg in it).

Heat up a pan or griddle and cook until golden brown. Silk als

o makes a pumpkin spice drink which is seasonal and I like using that in pancakes or even in the french toast batter ... I add pumpkin spice to that batter.

After eating we sat down to watch the movie we rented. We got "Grown Ups". It was cute, but as Brent always says, it was nothing to write home about. It was

obvious why Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 9%. That sound pretty awful, but it was cute. We munched on some pomegranate. Deeeeeelicious! It's my favorite.

Today I wanted to bake.. I wasn't sure what I wanted to bake, so I started off by making some almond bark dipped pretzels and sprinkled lightly sprinkled with some kosher salt. There's something about the salty and sweet to those things that's irresistible. I gave Brent a baggy of them to take to work and he sent me a text saying he'd eaten them right away.

Then I Googled a couple recipes and decided that I was going to bake some muffins.. Banana Pomegranate muffins to be exact. They're pretty. And were super easy

to make.

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 cup sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Dannon Greek Yogurt)

1/2 cup sour cream (I used Daisy Light)

1 Pomegranate, seeded (It's easiest to score the fruit's skin and peel it apart in cold water. That way the fruit sinks to the bottom and the pulp floats to the top)

2 large bananas, mashed.

Preheat your oven to 350˚F and adjust rack to the middle position. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin and set aside (I don't like cleaning so I just used paper cups - isn't that what most people would do?)

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk the egg until well-combined and light colored.

Add the sugar to the egg and whisk vigorously until thick and combined, about 30 seconds or so. Add the butter in increments, mixing well after each addition.

Add the sour cream, whisk to comine; add the yogurt, whisk to combine.

Add the mashed banana and stir it enough to combine. Then, add in the pomegranate seeds. It's important to stir them in gently with the whisk or a spatula so as to not break the rubies ;)

Add the wet mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until batter comes together. Small spots of flour may remain and the batter will be super thick, but don't over mix it!

Add them to the muffin cups (I overfilled mine - love that!) Bake until a light golden brown and a toothpick (or butter knife) inserted in the middle comes out clean. I baked mine for 25 minutes and rotated the pan half way through to ensure an even bake.

Sooooo tasty! :)

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Then tonight I made my homemade alfredo sauce with angel hair pasta and shrimpies.

I seriously have to half this recipe, sometimes quarter it. It's so good, super rich and, unfortunately, doesn't reheat well. Just make some garlic toast to dip in the remaining stuff :) The butter just separates from the cheeses and makes it hard to eat as left overs, although, one time I did drain the butter out and spread the cheese on to a pre-made pizza crust and made chicken alfredo pizza. You could also just keep it cold and spread it on smell pieces of toast rounds or something.

Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup sweet butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 c. heavy cream

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 c. mozzarella cheese

- Melt butter in medium sauce pan over med/low heat.

- Add garlic and stir until butter starts to bubble.

- Add cream and pepper, bring to a simmer.

- Stir frequently, add parmesan cheese and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and is smooth.

- When sauce has thickened, add the mozzarella and stir frequently until smooth.

If I'm making it with shrimp, I take the tails off and drain them really well and then toss them in the sauce to heat right before serving.

Wow.. What an entry! I'll have to write an entry about my chicken curry I made a week or two ago!