Crecent roll, egg and facon cups

As you've probably figured out by now, I do my experiements cooking exclusively on the weekends. Well, this past weekend was my roommate's birthday, so I wanted to make him a special breakfast.  I was inspired by this recipe, but knew some changes could make it more interesting. And after you check out what I made below, take a look at the cupcakes I made that got RAVE reviews.

For my (delicious) breakfast recipe, I replaced regular bread with crescent rolls and bacon with the fake stuff. I also thought the addition of onions, green peppers and cheese couldn't hurt.

I preheated the oven to 375 then heavily greased a muffin tray and rolled out one crescent roll per cup. I then fried up the facon, onion and green peps in a frying pan before adding them over top of the crescent rolls

I then simply cracked an egg over each cup, sprinkled some cheese on top and covered each cup with any extra dough that was hanging over the side,

After about 25 minutes in the oven they looked like this:

And tasted AMAZING. The egg yellows were cooked through, but the rolls didn't burn. Good dipping sauces for these would be hot sauce, ranch or worchester sauce.

Roommate and boyfriend loved these and, while two per person was the perfect-sized meal, we were all left wanting more.

What's in a face?

Just for fun, I thought I'd highlight a few items that are pretty much always on my face:

Ok, most people hate me when I tell them this,  but I only wash my face about every other day. If I wash it more, I break out more. It's science. While I was backpacking through Europe, however, the water did NOT agree with my face, so I bought this face wash in Italy, and I now swear by it. I'm running low and I can't figure out where to buy another bottle!

 To even the tone on my face, a light, natural feeling foundation is essential. It took me years to find the perfect one, but I finally discovered and use it daily: Mary Kay's medium-coverage liquid foundation.

Ever since I got my new frames last summer, I've practically ceased wearing contacts all together. They're cute, chic and pretty unique. When people make comments about their "hipster-ness" I simply say, "They're not hipster, they're CHANEL!"

What a great man Burt is! I ALWAYS have a tube of Burt's Beeswax Lip Balm

I stay pretty simple with my daily makeup. Just eyeliner and mascara! I stick with Mary Kay since I was raised on this brand :)

What are some of your must-have beauty items?

Pizza Pot Pie: Party in your mouth

So I don't want to say that this is the best meal I've ever made, but I WILL admit that I've never thought so much about a meal after eating it. Since Friday night, anyone who has been around me has heard about this creation and seen the look of longing in my eye...*siiigh* AHEM

A certain Chicago restaurant made pizza pot pies famous, and I've been craving to go back there for a while, but seeing as I'm on a tight budget, Tom and I decided to try and make our own. I have to be honest, these were better than the restaurant's popular pie.

Since I'm not a real adult yet I haven't quite finished my collection of necessary kitchen supplies, I didn't have any ramekins to make these in. Instead of opting to make one big pot pie in a baking dish (which I can imagine still tastes great), we found these soup mugs for pretty cheap at target. They worked perfectly! Tom's instincts told him that we should use vodka sauce instead of pizza or marinara and I do believe this inclusion made this in to the glorious meal experience that I am now bragging about. These are the ingredients we ended up with

1/2 jar of vodka sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped
1/2 package fake beef tips/strips (This was the first time I've ever tried Gardein's Beefless Tips, and I was very impressed.)
1/2 package shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan (we opted for a combo package, but one or the other would do)
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 bag garlic pizza dough from Trader Joe's

We preheated the oven to 400 degrees, then combined the onion, cherry tomatoes, and garlic in to a sauce pan. We let those items sizzle for a while, then added our fake beef tips, which I thawed in the microwave for about a minute before throwing them in the pot.

We then threw in the 1/2 jar of vodka sauce and about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and stirred until everything was well mixed. I rolled out the pizza dough using a wine bottle since I still don't have a rolling pin and cut the top of our pies by simply placing the upside down soup mug on the rolled-out dough, and cutting around the mug, about one inch out from the rim.

We started packing our pies by beginning with a layer of our cheese, then a quarter of the sauce mixture, per pie, another layer of cheese, the rest of the sauce and topped it with more cheese (I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm quite the cheese fanatic). Your ingredients don't need to be at the very top of the cup, but they should be close to the top.

I gently placed the dough on top, we cut it to vent, and sprinkled some more Italian seasoning over the top. After placing them on a baking sheet, we popped them in the oven!

They were in the oven for about 30 minutes, and we knew they were ready to be consumed when they looked like this:

Some recipes call for you to turn these upside down and empty them on to a plate before eating, but we just dove in with a fork. These pot pies, with a side of Yuengling and a serving of Friday the 13th part 7, made for an excellent Friday evening!

Slow-cooker Vegetarian Tortilla soup

My weekend was great! It included a midnight showing of Wayne's World at one of my favorite places in Chicago, the Music Box, seeing an amazing local punk band, the Lawrence Arms, and having a bunch of my friends over for a friendly round of quarters.

But after the heart-breaking football game on Sunday, I'm very glad me and Tom had prepared a delicious soup to rekindle my cold, angry heart. While the Steeler's game left a horrible taste in my mouth, this stuff turned out to be QUITE delicious.

While preparing the shopping list for the weekend, the boyfriend insisted on another crock-pot experiment. After perusing the web and Pinterest for vegetarian slow-cooker recipes, we hadn't found anything too interesting. However, a recipe for Chicken Tortilla soup popped up. Being raised in a meat-and-potatoes household, I had never even discovered tortilla soup until after I had ceased with the meat, so we decided to try improvising a Caitlin-friendly recipe, taking some direction from recipes online, but also adding our own ingredients as we saw fit. This is what we ended up with:

2 cans vegetable broth
1 package fake chicken
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can crushed tomatoes
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf (i'm not really familiar with what this adds to a dish, but since one of the recipes called for it and I had it on my spice rack shelf, I threw it in)

After cooking up the fake chicken in a pan with some oil to add cripsyness, we combined all of these ingredients in a crock-pot. At the last minute, Tom decided to also throw in a can of chili beans that we had lying around (and I'm very glad he did).

 We let that simmer on low for about 6 1/2 hours. When we returned from watching the travesty Steelers game, I preheated the oven to 350, cut 6 corn tortillas in to strips and baked them for about 8 minutes.

 When they were crispy enough, we doled out the soup, and topped it with the tortilla strips and a handful of shredded cheese.

The soup ended up being great! The fake chicken was juicy, the beans offered a nice, fuller texture and the after-taste was awesome. I can't handle spicy things well, but if you are a heat-lover, adding chile peppers to the mix would have offered a nice kick. I can not wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!!

Photos from my travels

I have been very lucky throughout my life to visit some amazing places all around the world. An Alaskan Cruise, a month in Australia, backpacking through Europe; I've seen more in my 26 years than most do in their whole lives.

My parents passed on the traveling bug to me when I was very young, taking us all around the US, from New Hampshire, to Texas, to Nevada. When I was 10 they took us on our first overseas trip to Ireland, and I just haven't been the same since. Any chance I have to see a new place, I run with it. Since the invention of digital cameras, I've been better able to document these travels, thank Heavens! Now, I do NOT claim to be any sort of skilled photographer, but here are some of my favorite pictures I've taken while traveling around the world the past few years.

I like this picture because it's from a less-touristy part of Venice (that isn't saying much, as the island is only so big), and I like how they left the extremely old bridge up and just added a new one). This is also my first successful picture with a longer exposure.

Venice, Italy. Taken from on top of the bell tower in Piazza San Marco

Brugge, Belgium. As picturesque as you'd imagine.

Prague, Czech Republic. This city proved to be pretty magical and this particular picture was taken from a monastery on top of the mountain that had the absolute best view of the city. There was also so amazing home-brewed beer up there :)

Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany. In addition to the overflowing beer halls and AMAZING smelling food, at night Oktoberfest becomes a beautiful display of lights, rides and fun. I took this picture on top of one of those big slides you see at fairs. It was the only ride I was brave enough to take on.

Interlaken, Switzerland. I can't believe I was lucky enough to go here. Most of my Europe trip was comprised of making last-minute decisions, then hopping on a train. A friend and I had a few days to kill, so we decided to go to Interlaken in order to get a good view of the Alps. Well, this town was absolutely breathtaking and we ended up staying an extra two days because we couldn't get enough of the fresh air and the site of Jungfraujoch, that mountain peak you see in the background.

Cinque Terre, Italy. If you have a friend who has been to at least one of the towns along the Cinque Terre coast, then you already know how beautiful it is. The hike was a little difficult, but more than worth it.

Florence, Italy. One of my favorite cities in the world. This picture was taking from atop the Duomo, which required climbing a total of 884 stairs.

The ruins of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

Rome, Italy/Vatican City

Roman Ruins. I just like the lighting in this one!

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. The most amazing piece of architecture I've ever laid eyes on. This picture isn't that special, but the place sure is!

Train Station, Madrid, Spain. The reason I like this picture so much is because of the bleakness. I know that's odd, but after spending a few days traveling alone, I was wandering the train station while waiting for my overnight train to Paris when I snapped this. It's just always pleased me.

Salzburg, Austria. This picture was taken from the Mirabell Palace, with a view of Salzburg Castle in the background. This town city was wonderful. Small, beautiful and interesting. Everything you could hope to find in a travel destination!

Lake Bled, Slovenia. After taking a day trip to see Lake Bled from Ljubljana, I really wish we would've stayed in this town. That island holds the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary, and behind it you can see the medieval castle that sits on a hill above the lake. My eyes hurt by the end of the day because I had been trying to absorb as much beauty as possible.

 The next two photos are from Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. This is the oldest national park in Eastern Europe and is famous for its waterfalls and cascades. I hiked this park by myself in mid-November when there was very few other visitors. I've never felt more peaceful than being surrounded by this quiet nature. I can't wait to go back in summertime when it looks very different.

This is from a small church outside of Dunedin, New Zealand.

Wellington, New Zealand. On of my favorite cities. It's beautiful and cultured (the Lord of the Rings filming location tour didn't hurt either).

Sydney, Australia. This is probably my favorite picture I've ever taken. I took this from a boat in Syndey Harbor after taking a whale watching cruise (where I may or may not have gotten VERY sea sick).

Uluru, Australia. I don't think I need to say much about this place. It's amazing and secluded. Oh, and I climbed that big rock there.

Kata Tjuta, Australia. This rock formation is very close to Uluru but looks completely different. I like this photo because you can really see how flat the land is around these two sacred aborigine sites. I was also lucky enough to snap this picture from a helicopter!

Isle of the Dead, Port Arthur, Tasmania. You'll have to read up on Port Arthur's extremely interesting history as Australia's first penal colony. The Isle of the Dead is a small piece of land where they buried every inmate and prison employee. It's a lot of bodies for a small island. Creepy, yet fascinating!

Mt Wellington, Hobart, Tasmania. I love this picture with the old brewery and the mountain in the background. Cascade is Australia's oldest brewery and makes some delicious beer.

I couldn't conclude this post without a Stone Henge picture. They're the coolest rocks I ever did see, and they're just a very nice day trip from London.

Unfortunately, I'm not in possession of my Alaskan photos, or this post would be MUCH longer. Maybe if you're lucky I'll be able to post those at a later date.

Where is your favorite place that you've visited?

Mexican Casserole Love

So I guess now is the time to admit the love affair I've been having for the past four years...with burritos. Growing up in Pittsburgh did not provide a lot of opportunities for genuine Mexican food. My main exposure was through Taco Bell and Chi Chi's, which I loved, of course, but when I moved to Chicago and found a burrito joint on every corner, my passion for this tortilla-rolled delicacy really took flight. I could eat one almost any day of the year, however I restrict myself to about once every other week, due to that whole "extremely fattening" thing. 2 Amigos is my current favorite joint, and at a whole 4 doors down from my boyfriend's place, has become quite the temptress.

Anyhow, after seeing a recipe for Mexican Casserole, I knew I had to make my own version. All the recipes I perused called for different ingredients, so I just combined all of my favorites in to this absolutely delicious (albeit, not very healthy) dish.

The oven was preheated to 350 degrees. In a pan I heated together a can of refried beans, half a package of fake ground beef, 2 cloves garlic, minced, half a green pepper, chopped, 1/2 an onion, chopped, and about half a can of corn. I didn't sautee anything, just heated up so the beans were softer and everything was nicely mixed together. Doesn't that mixture look just plain scrumptious?

 In a casserole dish I placed a large flour tortilla on the bottom, then layered about half the bean dip on it and topped it off with a healthy dose of shredded cheddar cheese.

 Then came another tortilla, topped by the rest of the bean mix. Instead of cheese on top of this part, I sprinkled a decent serving of roasted red pepper seasoning, then topped the whole casserole off with another tortilla and a LOT of shredded cheddar.

It baked in the oven for about 40 minutes, and we just kept an eye on it until it looked like this. Then consumed the crap out of it (with a bunch of sour cream, of course)!

This ended up being the perfect meal for a night in with a movie. I'll probably make this in a bigger casserole dish for my next party. What are your favorite burrito ingredients that you'd include in your own Mexican casserole?

Dang, now I want a burrito...