Cream Cheese Squares

Last Friday a coworker and I decided to make breakfast for everyone in our department. We have ovens in our office which comes in very handy for cooking in the office, as well as baking cookies in the afternoon (people seriously do that and it makes the entire office smell like cookies).

Our office does not have a stovetop so we were limited on what we could make. We decided to make two casserole type dishes that can be thrown together quickly and then baked. One of them was Cream Cheese Squares which I actually baked the night before.

Cream Cheese Squares
24 servings

2 8 oz cans crescent rolls
2 8 oz packages cream cheese (at room temp)
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Unroll one can of crescent rolls and press into bottom of prepared pan. In a medium bowl mix together the cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over the crescent rolls in the pan. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and lay on top of the cream cheese mixture.

In a small bowl mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Melt butter in microwave and then pour over the entire pan. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in preheated oven until top is crisp and golden. Serve warm or refrigerate overnight.


You can see the original recipe here. The only change I made was to decrease the amount of sugar by 1/4 cup and to decrease the amount of butter from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup. A whole cup and a quarter of sugar seemed like a lot to me, and a half stick of butter was plenty to coat the entire dish.

So how did they turn out? Let's just say I didn't take any of these home with me. The dish was completely empty by noon and several people asked for the recipe. That's the mark of a successful recipe - when people ask for a copy!

Afternoon Links: Cute Farm Animals

I came across this blog awhile back when I was looking around for gardening blogs. If you like pictures of cute farm animals you should check it out:

Farm Girl Fare

Farmgirl Susan lives on 240 acres in Missouri (midwest gal - yeah!) and often posts recipes and funny stories in addition to pictures of cute farm animals. Make sure you read the part at the bottom of each post after the copyright symbol.

CSA: Week 2

This week's CSA share is the same as last week:

Radishes
Green onions
Spinach
Mustard Greens
Mixed lettuce

I did not get eggs this week though. The egg program I signed up for is a dozen every other week. I didn't get as many radishes or green onions but I got more mixed lettuce and spinach. That's fine by me because radishes are not my favorite thing though they are growing on me and I don't use green onions much unless I'm making a specific recipe that calls for them.

But guess what recipe Karin handed out with the shares this week? Mustard Green Gratin - ha! She changed it to use a mix of spinach and mustard greens instead of all mustard greens but the rest of the recipe is the same. That is funny that we both found the exact same recipe. I wonder if she watches Food Network...

Updates: Garden & Compost

It's been awhile since I last posted about my garden. In the time since I have been involved in a major remodel of not one but TWO of the bathrooms in my house. Which also means that I did not have a shower at home for four weeks and had to drive all over town to friends and families houses to use their showers.

Luckily the major work on the bathrooms is complete and I am back to showering at home thank goodness. That is also good because now I can really concentrate on the garden I've been planning all spring. Last Saturday we planted all our seedlings in the garden plot in the backyard. We also direct sowed zucchini, watermelon, pole beans, bush beans and sunflowers. Here is what the garden looks like:


To the left is the compost bin on the north side of the garden. Just past that are the pole bean supports that look like a teepee. Then you can kind of make out the tomato cages - eight in all. You can't really see the plants from that far away yet.

It's been about a week since the big planting and things are going fairly smoothly. So far I've lost one Big Boy tomato plant and one broccoli plant. I think another two broccoli plants are about to go bye-bye as well. I'll only have one left after that. I'm not too terribly upset about it. It is what it is. If they all die I'll just plant something else in that space. FIL started brussel sprouts and okra at his house and then brought them out to be planted in our garden. The brussel sprouts all look terrible and I don't think they are going to make it. The okra looks very healthy so far, however I checked them today and one okra plant appears to have been damaged by the thunderstorms we had this morning.

So what is doing well so far? Well three of the four Roma tomato plants look good. The fourth one is alive just very, very small. Two of the three remaining Big Boy tomato plants are doing well and the third is also very small. All four of my pepper plants are still alive and kickin' but they are so small. I hope they will grow soon! All four basil plants are also still alive but also very small.

We planted two hills of zucchini and as of Friday afternoon they had sprouted! Here's what they look like:


Compared to all the rest of my tiny plants these guys are HUGE.

The sunflowers had also sprouted:


FIL actually picked out these seeds and brought them over. We couldn't have a garden in Kansas without sunflowers. According to the package these guys are supposed to grow to be 12 feet tall! I'll believe it when I see it.

As of Saturday afternoon the watermelon had sprouted:


We only planted one hill of watermelons just to see how they would do. The variety is Sugar Baby which produces smaller watermelons that are only 8-10 inches in diameter. I'm VERY excited about them!

The pole beans were also starting to poke out of the dirt on Saturday. There are eight supports in all in the teepee and about three of them had seeds sprouting.

The bush beans are all still snug in the ground but I have a feeling they will be showing themselves soon.

The marigolds I started from seeds are doing pretty good except one has been completely ambushed. It had a bunch of leaves and a bud one day and the next day it was as if someone had hacked it off down to its bottom two leaves. I have no idea what happened to it. The others look great and they are all planted among the tomatoes. The zinnias are alive but they don't look so great. That surprises me too because we've grown them before and they grew like crazy. We called them the monster flowers. The impatiens all died before I could even put them in the ground. I threw them in the compost.

Speaking of compost - here's what it looks like now:


It has decreased significantly in volume from when we started the pile. Here's what it looked like on Day 1:


The pile on the left is now in the middle which is the picture above. It has decreased in volume by at least half. We have been consistenly adding kitchen scraps and a few grass clippings and turning the pile regularly. Now it's heated up really well and there are TONS of worms in it. You can actually feel the heat coming off the pile when you turn it. It's kind of crazy how that process works when you think about it. Pretty soon I think we'll start adding kitchen scraps to the other pile that has been dormant so far so we can get it going. The goal is to have enough compost made by the fall so we can turn it into the garden at the end of the season before winter.

I have really enjoyed gardening so far. It's going to be a lot of work throughout the summer and I'm sure I'll be frustrated when something dies or an animal eats my crops. But I think it's worth it. I'm learning a ton and I find it fascinating that you can grow food from just a tiny little seed. All you need is sun, soil and water.

Mustard Green Gratin

Last Thursday night I decided to brave a new recipe using the mustard greens I received in my CSA share this week. As I mentioned I've never eaten greens before thus this is completely new territory to me.

To ease my self into the land of green I chose a recipe that was not just standard cooked up greens. I chose Mustard Green Gratin from the Food Network website. I figured with all the cheese and the crackers on top it would taste kind of like spinach dip or spinach lasagna filling. I halved the recipe and omitted the mushrooms. You can see the original recipe here.

Mustard Green Gratin
2 servings

1/2 pound stemmed mustard greens
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus extra for baking dish
1 egg
5 ounces ricotta cheese (approximately)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (approximately)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup crushed round butter crackers

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove any large stems from the greens and wash thoroughly in a sink with at least five inches of water. Swish the greens around in the water and allow them to sit for a few minutes to allow the sand or dirt to fall to the bottom of the sink. I also added salt to the water to help get any dirt or sand off. After washing the greens place them in a salad spinner to dry them thoroughly. Once clean roughly chop the leaves.

Butter or spray a three cup casserole dish (7 x 5 - Pyrex makes one and it's perfect for a casserole for one or two people).

In a bowl mix together the egg, ricotta, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook for a couple minutes. Add the greens and cook until they are wilted, approximately three to four minutes. The greens will reduce to less than 1/4 of their original volume and begin to look like thawed frozen spinach. Remove the pan from heat.

Here's what the greens looked like when I first added them to the pan:


And here's what they looked like a few minutes later:


Add the greens to the egg and cheese mixture and stir thoroughly to combine. Spread in prepared baking dish and top with crackers. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool five minutes and serve.


The result? It was okay. The casserole didn't taste bad (I ended up eating the entire thing myself!) but it was a bit dry. I think I made a mistake in omitting the mushrooms but not adding in another form of liquid. Cooking the mushrooms would've produced enough liquid to cook the greens however since I left them out I only had butter which wasn't enough. I might attempt this again with the greens I have left and if I do I will add in some chicken or vegetable broth after the garlic has cooked in the butter for about a minute. I would start with 1/2 cup and then add more liquid from there if necessary. So that's my recommendation if you are going to make this recipe without the mushrooms.

All in all I liked this recipe enough to try it again with a few more tweaks. The best part about this recipe was that I didn't actually measure much of anything. I eyeballed everything and mixed it all up. That saves time and energy. In a recipe like this its not as important to have everything measured out exactly, unlike in baking where if you get too much or too little of an ingredient it can completely mess up the end result.

I have a few mustard greens left so I will either make this recipe again or I will try a more traditional method of cooking greens. I'll let you know how it goes either way!

Happy long weekend!

First CSA Share

Today I picked up my first CSA share of the season. I signed up for the produce & egg programs so I received:

A dozen eggs
Radishes
Green onions
Spinach
Mustard Greens
Mixed Lettuce



The CSA gal Karin said everything had been harvested this morning so it was super fresh! I was happy to see the lettuce and spinach because I wanted to make some good salads this week. I don't normally eat radishes but I'll give them a try and green onions are good for lots of things. The mustard greens however are another story. I'm not really a "greens" kind of gal. I never eat collard greens or cooked spinach. I don't necessarily dislike them, I just never eat them.

Luckily Karin gave me a recipe for Garlicky Mustard Greens. I also found a recipe online for Mustard Greens Gratin. I'm going to try one of them tomorrow I hope.

Picking up the CSA share was really easy and only took a few minutes. It was no different that going to the grocery store - actually faster! I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Bridal Shower

My BFF Beth is getting married this summer and I am a bridesmaid in the wedding. This past weekend we threw her a shower and of course I made the cupcakes. They turned out so cute that I wanted to post some pictures of them.



I like to decorate my cupcakes with fresh flowers. I like it because it's simple, looks classy and inexpensive. You can pick up a bunch at the grocery store when shopping for ingredients.

I also like using flowers because I can't pipe icing to save my life.



Just cut the stems down and place the buds in between the cupcakes or around the edges on a platter or cake stand. You can also cut the leaves off and use them too. I used a dozen sweetheart roses.



I thought they turned out looking pretty nice! And I think they tasted alright too because everyone gobbled them up. :)

Congratulations Beth and John! We are going to have so much fun at the wedding!