"Haute" dogs

So starting off with my new adventure of cooking my way through Tyler Florence's cookbook I decided to start out with a great dish for watching the Super Bowl. These "haute" dogs are nothing more than glorified pigs in a blanket, but man are they glorious! In the recipe you are supposed to use a sausage and put caraway seeds on top but seeing as it is just me and the boys I opted for beef hotdogs and no seeds. They still turned out fantastic.

The ingredient list is a hard one, are you ready? Hotdogs....and puff pastry. I know, it blows my mind too! To be fair Tyler Florence's recipe calls for high grade sausage, puff pastry, caraway seeds and an egg white to give it a nice shine and make the seeds stick. I made mine the same he made his though.

I used kosher salt instead of caraway seeds just to give it an extra bite. Alright are you ready for the directions? Thaw the puff pastry. Cut one sheet into six pieces. Wrap one hotdog in one piece of cut puff pastry. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet with seam side down. You can glaze with a beaten egg white if you do so choose. Sprinkle anything you'd like on top. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Voila! Delicious new take on pigs in a blanket!!

Here they are! I added a little crushed black pepper to a couple to just to experiment. Phenomenal! A nice side of yellow mustard was a great sidekick!

Seeing as his plate is clean I "assuming" that Ty liked them too! But you know what assuming does! Cam ate them more delicately buy poking the hotdog out first then eating the pastry, but hey, he ate his dinner!!

A very successful dinner on the first leg of cooking my way through this cookbook. I think this is a good sign!

Cooking my way through a cookbook...

So in a julie and julia-esk fashion I decided to cook my way through a cookbook. It literally took me FOREVER to choose one. I thought about Rachael Ray or Paula Deen but they are just too well known. I thought about doing just The Joy of Cooking or even just a relatively unknown cookbook of sorts. Ultimately I decided to go with Tyler Florence. Although is he known on Food Network I don't think he is a BIG star. I like him as a person (from what I can gather!) and his food has always looked delicious and aimed towards families. This particular cookbook of his looks to be very interesting and almost all of the meals I intend to prepare for my family. I say almost all because one of the recipes is for bone marrow and even if I knew where I could purchase bone marrow since its not a real commodity at the commissary :) I don't think that would really be a taste my family would enjoy. The other is a recipe with baby squids. Again, not really easy to find and if I do for a good price I might be tempted just to try it, but we will start with all of the other recipes! Each one of the recipes has a little tid bit about how or where it came from and why its there now. Nice to read. The pictures are beautiful for each recipe and it is a very family forward book. Im excited to say the least. Its a journey and I couldn't be anymore pumped up about it!

American Eagle Online Codes

If you were contemplating buying anything off of AE.com then here are a couple of discount codes for you. Each one is 15% off, there are three just in case one or the other doesn't work. Combine this with the extra 30% off clearance and you can score yourself some very nice, very cheap thread! lol yes I said threads. Example I just ordered a couple of hoods for about 11 bucks each on clearance and discount from 40. Nice :)

65023617 (exp 1/20)

35476511

89534127
And this code is for free shipping if you'd rather have that
63982047

House Party

Through a mixture of different googling nag searching I came across this website http://www.houseparty.com/

So far I have yet to actually host any type of their parties but a couple are coming up soon. It sounds really neat. Free stuff and a party?! Sign me up! Oh wait, I already did! :) Just a link that I thought I'd share with my fellow party-nistas! 

Chicken and Dumplings!!

Trying to use things out of my pantry and fridge to last until we go to see Aaron's family this weekend I decided today would be a perfect day for Chicken and Dumplings. Its below 30 degrees outside, snowing and in desperate need for some comfort food. This is the first time I've ever made chicken and dumplings so there might be need for some tweaking in the future but for now I think it turned out fantastic! Aaron and Tyler loved it, Cameron was grumpy from no nap but Im sure he would've thoroughly! (At least i like to tell myself that he would!!) Im actually not a fan of chicken and dumplings but after my second bowl I think I've been converted!  Heres the recipe to try on your next frosty winter day!! 

A package of chicken breasts or tenders. I had about a 1.5 pound  package. Fill a stock pot full of water and place the  chicken in it and bring to a rolling boil. cook the chicken for  about 20 minutes.  After about 20 minutes pull the chicken out and keep the water.  Mix in one can of creme of chicken soup,  2 chicken bouillon cubes and a few dashes of poultry seasoning.  Cute up two cans of ready made biscuits into bitesize  dumplings. I used two cans only because I love a higher dumpling  to chicken ratio, but one can will do  just fine if thats what you have. I used pillsbury homestyle grands  but feel free to experiment! Place the dumplings  in the now chicken broth mixture and bring to a low simmer  continuously stirring so that the dumplings  don't stick and burn! While the dumplings are simmering shred the  chicken into bite size pieces. After  about 10 minutes of the dumplings simmering add the shredded chicken.  Continue to simmer and stir  for another 10-15 minutes or until the dumplings are fully cooked  through. Let sit for about 3-5 minutes because it will be very hot and it will  allow the flavors to blend! Then,  serve and enjoy!! I think next time I might add some cubed onions  and see what that adds. Maybe  some celery or even potatoes. We will see the next tome this dish  enters our menu! Until then Happy  cooking and enjoy!!!

Im back!!!!!!

After quite a long break from last post Im finally settled down and ready to go! I've got all the aspects of my life settled down so I can finally get back to my blog. Im back with more new recipes, daily deals that I find either on my own or from another blogger and tips and tricks that I have learned along the way. I am so incredibly excited about the new and improved Jill of all Trades for 2011. New year, new me, new blog (or at least new vamped!) Here's to a fresh start!!!

Hellmann's Coupon and wheel Spin

So on my quest for good deals and free finds I came across this website. All you have to do is sign up for free to get 3 chances a day to spin the wheel for prizes. The chance of winning something HUGE is probably slim...but i got a .75 coupon which doubles to 1.50 so BI WIN FOR ME! lol heres the website if you wanna check it out!

http://www.bestfoods.us/promotions/therealfoodproject/prizes.aspx