The World According To Kate » family

The Dessert Table – Thanksgiving 2010

Kate Czlapinski — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:50:29 +0000

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving yesterday and a restful, or perhaps productive, Black Friday today! I think it’s fair to say that we all go a little overboard on Thanksgiving, right? We eat a ton of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and all sorts of other good stuff and then pass out on the couch while watching football. That seems to be the normal game plan for the holiday.

Well, my family goes a little overboard on all holidays, and Thanksgiving, of course, is no different. Yesterday, I spent my afternoon/early evening over my Aunt Debbie’s house just like every year with about 20 family members and way too much food. No, really. I know everyone says they had too much food at Thanksgiving, but this just our dessert table - just to give you an idea of the excess I’m talking about. That’s 10 desserts (I counted) for just 20 people. Call me crazy, but that just seems a little out of control to me… Next time this happens, I think we should select a buddy and a dessert and nobody can leave until the table is clean!

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Kate Czlapinski — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:10:20 +0000

Look at my mom making my blog twice in just two days! Today is my parents’ 30th anniversary (wow, 30 years!) and Kevin and I went out to dinner with them on Saturday night to help them celebrate. We were actually “mystery guests” as my father didn’t tell my mom that we would be joining them for dinner – just that they’d be meeting “another couple”, so it was a surprise – and I do love surprises!

My dad made reservations for them at Carmen Anthony Fishhouse in Avon and boy, was it awesome! I had never been there and I am so glad we went, because it was great experience. Everything was just top notch. Great service, a beautiful atmosphere and the food was absolutely stellar!

I had the Sesame Tuna served with an Asian Slaw

Mom had Salmon a la Griglia served with their Risotto

Dad had a Pamesan Encrusted Pork Chop served with Mac and Cheese

And Kevin had the Chilean Sea Bass with Risotto

Dinner was followed by coffee and we split a couple of desserts – we were celebrating, after all! We split their White & Dark Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding and Bananas Foster. The bread pudding was especially wonderful. I wish I had gotten pictures of the dessert, but we really had to get started – the Bananas Foster was melting very quickly! As dessert was being brought out they also brought us all glasses of champagne to celebrate the occasion. Nice!

This was really a great meal and we were all very impressed. I’m so glad my dad invited us out to help them celebrate such a special day! Thanks guys and happy anniversary!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Kate Czlapinski — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:57:33 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! This is a picture of my mom that was actually just taken yesterday afternoon during a little trip to Penzeys Spices in West Hartford Center (post to come later). She insisted that I couldn’t just take pictures of the store – I needed to have a picture of her in the store, too (isn’t she pretty?). So here it is, Mom – you’ve made my blog!

My mom’s the best mom ever – and I’m not just saying that because it’s Mother’s Day. My mom is awesome…obviously, she raised me! Where do you think I get it from?

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

The Good Friday Baking Extravaganza

Kate Czlapinski — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 13:02:45 +0000

As I may have noted before, I have sucker written across my forehead and frequently find myself volunteering to do all sorts of fun stuff on my days off from work. Often this fun stuff includes cooking or baking obscene amounts of food. Yesterday was one of those days.

I have Good Friday off from work every year and I somehow always spend it helping my family do a ridiculous amount of cooking. The tasks always involve making the Easter babka (22 loaves this year… yes, 22!).

We also make something I like to refer to as Heart Attack Bread – more commonly known as Easter Pie or PizzaGaina . I don’t eat it… I don’t think anyone should. I tried it once as a kid and I didn’t like it. As an adult, I have no desire to try it again, because I know what goes into it and I fear it will kill someone some day. What goes into it, you might ask? Oh dear…

Well, you start by rolling out some dough… and then you top it with a layer of hard boiled eggs… and then a layer of ham… and then a layer of Farmer’s Cheese… and then a layer of pepperoni… and then a layer of mozzarella…then we poke holes in the layers… and we pour in a mixture of eggs and parmesan cheese (yeah, more eggs and cheese – of course)…and then another layer of dough and you seal it up and brush it with some more egg. And then bake it for forever (perhaps to kill the beast!). Sigh…

We also made pierogi this year (some potato and cheese and some others with potato and cabbage) and my Aunt Annie made a couple of cheese cakes for tomorrow’s festivities… Oh, and my dad came with us this year to help my Uncle Roland make the horseradish with beets which is the preferred condiment that we’ll be eating tomorrow with our very Polish Easter meal which will consist ham, kielbasa, hard boiled eggs, the babka, the Heart Attack bread, probably a few other items and like a dozen desserts. I know, this is why we’re fat.

I’m actually currently trying to figure out what dessert I’ll be making to add to the items listed above… because, clearly, we need more food.

Have a Happy Easter, folks!

Mom’s New Blog

Kate Czlapinski — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:23:29 +0000

Have I mentioned before that I’m up for Daughter of The Year? Have I also mentioned that I’m a total glutton for punishment? No? I am.

So this should be fun… I’ve set up a little blog for my mom over at http://LindasNovelIdeas.com. We were talking about my blog and she was saying that she should get a blog and she could maybe write reviews of the books she’s reading and other stuff. And I said OMG! YOU TOTALLY SHOULD! I CAN HOOK YOU UP!!! And now she has a blog. I registered the domain and did the basic set up of it over the weekend and I’m going over my parents’ house tonight to show her the ropes and make any changes that she may want.

This should be interesting- she’s a noob (even though she does work in IT – not that that necessarily means ANYTHING) and I don’t think she really reads any blogs besides my own. It will be fun, though… more fun geek work for me and I always like teaching people stuff. Good times

Obviously she hasn’t written anything in it yet and I’m not sure when she’s going to or exactly what she plans on writing about (other than she thought she might talk a little about the books she’s reading – mom’s a big reader), but once she gets started you should check her out, because I’m sure she’ll have lots of good stuff to share. Mom’s a smart lady – she taught me everything I know

Oatmeal Chocolate Coco Nut Cookies

Kate Czlapinski — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:48:47 +0000

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I hope you all spent your weekend eating hot dogs and hamburgers, drinking, seeing parades and participanting in shenanigans.

I just got back from a picnic slash yardwork extravaganza (minus the yardwork) at my Grandma’s house. You see, when one is born into my family it’s not just your normal deal – it’s something like a sort of indentured service where you get volunteered out of nowhere to do a lot of grunt work on otherwise beautiful weekends. I would complain (and believe me, I often do), but really it works both ways. I’ve spent a lot of weekends doing a lot of manual labor and overall BS, but I’ve also had a lot of really cool stuff done for me by family members over the years.

Anyhow, we were supposed to go over and lay down some mulch, and do some weeding and I think plant some stuff for my grandma today and then have a picnic, but SURPRISE, it just ended up being a picnic. My uncle had everything all set, so there was really nothing for us to do when we got there. Good deal It was a day of beer drinking, snacking, playing with dogs and eating hot dogs – a good day

As I’m now 27 years old and no longer a child, I’m expected to make stuff now when I go to these functions – it’s just polite. I just had to bake something today, so I chose cookies – can’t go wrong with that. When I make cookies, I almost always choose some form of oatmeal cookie, because I love the texture that the oatmeal adds… and that way you can trick yourself into believing it’s a heart healthy treat- even if you’re eating a dozen of them… and they have enough butter in them to make Paula Deen blush!

I came across this recipe on Eipcurious and modified it a bit by making the cookies about half the size the recipe calls for (I like my cookies on the smaller side) and making twice as many. Also, the recipe calls for almonds, but I used hazelnuts instead. This is my slightly modified version:

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups packaged finely shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Beat together butter and sugars in a bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat until just blended, then beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until just blended. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate, and chopped hazelnuts.

Drop rounded tablespoons of cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for approximately 10 minutes

Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute and transfer to a wire rack to let cool.

Enjoy!