Category Archives for Uncategorized

Today Show Home Chef Challenge

I was going to return to blogging today after taking a week off for Thanksgiving, but then one of my kiddos came down with a stomach bug and we spent part of the night and all day on the couch.

But I did want to share with you some super exciting news.  I have been chosen as a contender for the Today Show’s Home Chef Challenge!! This week’s theme is pizza, and they chose my Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza as one of the top three pizza recipes.  Please visit the Today Show’s Facebook Page to vote for my recipe.  The winner will be featured on Today.com and could possibly even be on the Today Show!

Now on Facebook

No recipe today, but I wanted to share with you that Edesia’s Notebook is now on Facebook. I am a total Facebook junkie and use it personally all the time (I’ve been a member since January of 2006), and recently I have been posting links to my blog posts from my personal Facebook profile.  This has been very successful.  You may notice that I don’t get many comments here on my blog.  I get most of my comments on Facebook where I post the link for all of my friends to see.  I get very positive feedback there, and sometimes my posts spark discussions and questions from friends about various food topics.

I’ve seen an increasing number of food bloggers who have created Facebook pages for their blogs.  I think it’s really smart.  I did the same today.  You can find Edesia’s Notebook on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/EdesiasNotebook

There is also a box on the sidebar that takes you right to the Facebook page.  I like this new page because people who don’t know me personally can follow my blog and see what I’ve been cooking lately.  If you are on Facebook, I invite you to check out my new page and “like” it.  I will soon be posting links from there instead of from my personal Facebook profile.

I am intending the new Facebook page to be completely interactive.  I invite you to share what you have been cooking lately.  You can upload photos of your creations, or just share it with others in a wall post.  Also, please feel free to ask any questions there as well.  If I, or any of the other fans, don’t know the answer, we’ll find it!

So please check out my new page if you have a free moment.  Thanks!

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

This is a really easy way to make mashed potatoes when you are making a big meal with many other dishes to prepare. You can throw the potatoes into the slow cooker and forget about them for several hours while you cook everything else. Then they just need a quick mash before serving.

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
½ large onion, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1½ – 2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
½ cup milk

Directions:
Place potatoes in slow cooker. Place diced onion in a small bowl with water. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Do not drain; add to slow cooker. Add chicken stock and salt. Cook on high about 4 hours or until potatoes are tender. Mash with potato masher or stick blender. Stir in butter and milk.

Makes 6 servings.

Note:
Make them loaded mashed potatoes by adding cooked bacon pieces to slow cooker with potatoes and stock. Add sliced green onions and cheddar cheese after mashing.
Couldn’t be easier. The onions aren’t a traditional mashed potato ingredient, and you can certainly leave them out, but I really like the flavor they give and because they are cooked before adding to the crock, they get so soft while cooking that no one even will know they are there. Only their flavor remains.
These are not only great for special occasions when you are making a big meal, but also for busy weeknights. It seems like it takes forever for a big pot of potatoes to boil on the stove. And while I am definitely not above using instant potatoes, sometimes you just want the real thing.
You will have to play around with the amount of salt. How much you need will depend on your tastes and also how much sodium is in the chicken stock you use.

New Search Feature

Hey readers! I just wanted to give you a heads-up about a new feature I added to the blog today. Blogger now offers a search feature. There is a search box on the right side, just underneath the labels. You enter a search term, “spinach” for example, and it will list the last five or so posts that contained the word spinach (either in the title or the body of the post). Then if you click on “more results”, it will take you to a Google search page that has links to all of my posts that mention spinach. And even neater, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of that page, there is an option to sign up for email alerts whenever I blog about spinach. Wow! How cool is that? So if you signed up for that, Google would send you an email everytime I mentioned spinach in a new post. Huh! Technology is amazing, isn’t it?

Not quite as interesting, I also added a list of cookbooks that I own. I don’t have very many cookbooks, and the reason is that I am really bad about making recipes from cookbooks. I don’t know why. I tend to use websites and cooking magazines as inspirations more often than books. Very few of the ones listed I bought myself. Most of them were gifts, or I bought them for next to nothing at a garage sale or Scholastic warehouse sale. One of them (Martha Stewart’s Cooking School) I won in a recipe contest sponsored by Hunt’s tomatoes. I was looking at them on the shelf the other day, and I thought, “I have got to start looking through those and making recipes from them!” So having a list of them on my blog will remind me to use them more often. I am going to try to set a goal for myself, something like: make a recipe from one of my cookbooks every other week, or something like that. There’s no point in letting them sit on the shelf gathering dust!
So enjoy the new search feature and look forward to some recipes that came out of actual cookbooks!

New Background and a bunch of new posts!

So what do you think of my new background?  It’s a notebook!  Neat!  I use The Cutest Blog on the Block for cute backgrounds for my family blog, but never saw anything that would be good for this blog.  They must have recently added this background because I just saw it yesterday and thought it was perfect.  Let me know what you think.  Is it obvious that it goes along with the title “Edesia’s Notebook?”

In other news, I had a backlog of stuff to blog about because I had gone so long without posting anything.  Sorry!  I got caught up today.  Here is a list of what I posted today:
From my Easter dinner:
Two restaurant reviews from our recent trip to Chicago:
Check them out and sorry again for not keeping up! 

Calling All Cooks!

The stresses of the last few months have really packed the pounds on me. I am definitely one of those people who eat when they are stressed, with no regard to nutrition or portion size. Comfort foods got me through the last three months, and it shows!

Well, here’s where it ends! As of today, I am making better food choices and am looking forward to creating some healthful meals again. It’s long overdue. I won’t be blogging about my weight loss journey, but I will be posting healthier recipes and I promise to include nutrition values.

I know “healthy” can be somewhat ambiguous, but my main concerns are calories, fat, and sodium. Those are the numbers I keep in check when I am assessing a meal. A good recipe has a balance of lean protein, carbs (preferably including fiber), and vegetables.

I invite you all to share any recipes in this category that you enjoy. I would love to try them. You can email them to me (aseleener [at] yahoo.com) and I will post them (giving you credit, of course). You are welcome to include pics if you have them. If you don’t have the nutrition values, that’s ok. I can figure them up pretty easily.

So, please, please share and I will get to work on my own recipes.