12/29/12

These are a few of my favorite posts! 2012

2012 was a year like no other. Not to sound cliche, but it was the definition of bittersweet. Here are my favorite posts and accomplishments of the year.

Continue reading →

12/25/12

Merry Christmas!

From my blog to yours, Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful day with the ones you love! 🙂

Love,
Steph

12/23/12

Comfort and Joy

I love Christmas.

My mother LOVED this time of year. I was the first born, a June baby, meaning at the crawling age of 6 months I was immersed in the holiday traditions that my mom and dad began for me. Although I don’t remember those early “once upon a time” days, I have many photographs to reminisce with, and memorabilia that, to this day, grace my home. Continue reading →

12/19/12

Kindness

Every morning I wake up, snuggle under the covers just a little longer than I’d like to, get ready for work, have breakfast, pick up a cup of coffee on the road and prepare for my day. Sometimes those wakeups are a little earlier than others, depending on what’s I have prepared for that day, but each morning is the same. Continue reading →

12/11/12

Spiced Sweet Quick Bread

I love recipes like this. No-brainers; but still from scratch. No yeast or rolling; but delicious with a spread of real butter, just like a regular bread. The perfect holiday gift for a housewarming visit or a treat to welcome unexpected guests. This “bread” does it all!

What I like most about this “bread” is that it has a consistency somewhere between a cake and a scone or biscuit. The oatmeal really creates a chewy texture, and the milk and oil in the batter turns the whole loaf into a beautiful, crusty golden color on the outside.

Scrumptious!

In all of this glorious texture lies just the slightest hit of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger, mixed into just the faintest tang of sweetness from the sugar.

If you have 5 minutes and an oven, who needs a bread maker?! Here’s the recipe…

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Quaker old fashioned oats
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated Splenda (can substitute white sugar)

In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a mixer, combine eggs, oil, milk and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add eggs and Splenda (sugar) and combine well. Carefully and gradually add the dry ingredients. Mix well, but don’t over mix! Grease mini-sized bread pans and pour in mixture to about 3/4 high. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, or until fork test proves done. Remove from pan and cool. Serve warm/room temperature with whipped butter or jam.

12/8/12

Oh Christmas tree

Today we braved the mountainside, and with a really sharp saw in tow (and an awesome boyfriend who got down onto the cold, wet ground) Mr. KKM did this:

Can’t wait to get home a decorate our first tree together! Last year at this time we were getting ready to move into our new home and didn’t get a chance to have a tree (Christmas night was our first time sleeping there) so this tree is a very special one! We’re hitting the road back to Tampa (with a freshly chopped tree in the bed of the truck) bright and early tomorrow morning! See you soon, Tampa! We’ll miss you mountains! I’ll blog all about the trip on Monday. 😉

-Steph

12/6/12

We made it!

We’re here!

9 hours, 585 miles, 2 gas stops, a pit stop in a sketchy part of town, lots of iTunes, and way too many “we’re in Georgia, The Walking Dead area” comments, we’re finally settled in!
We unpacked a bit then consulted my friend Yelp for some good eats to fill our road weary bellies. This Tampa girl was able to find a Cuban restaurant waaaaay up here in this teeny tiny mountain town that earned rave reviews on Yelp. When we saw the pic of the
not-so-ham-heavy Cuban sandwich at Dan’s Grill (nothing ruins a Cuban like excessive ham) we immediately had a craving for home and decided we would give it a shot.

Delish! Delish! Delish! In fact, better than most Cubans back home. We got to talking to the owners who were Miami transplants that fell in love with the area. They decided to open up shop and bring authentic Cuban food to the
thin-air breathing masses and have had huge success! Speaking of thin air, when I asked Dan where they get their bread from (since it tasted WAY too good to be a french loaf from the local
supermarket) they proudly boasted “from La Segunda Central in
Tampa. We have it shipped every week and freeze it. We tried to bake it but the altitude didn’t work well with the baking process.” Well, you can imagine our surprise when we boasted our trek from the hometown. Such a small world I tell ya!

Not only was the sandwich satisfying, but their black beans and tostones were as real as it gets.

As we paid our $20 tab, Dan dared us to try a few of his homemade croqueta de jaiba (devil crabs). Challenged accepted. We’ll be back before Sunday, and might even bring a few
home. 😉 After dinner we headed to the store for some essentials and now we’re cuddled on the couch enjoying our “datingmoon” by the fireplace, awaiting the arrival if my cousins.

Oh, and one last thing. There may or may not be Walkers hidden in the basement. We don’t have a key to it so we can’t be sure. Stay tuned…

-Steph 😀

12/6/12

On the road!

We’re on the road!

Mr KKM and I along with my cousins Chris and Joe have rented a cabin up in the North Georgia/North Carolina mountains for a long weekend!

I’m blogging from the road as we drive up I-75 from Tampa. So far traffic is great, Chick-Fil-A is in our bellies and we’re making great time (we left at 6am!). I can’t wait to check into our cabin and enjoy some fresh mountain air. We have lots of fun and relaxation planned, including chopping down a Christmas tree at Southern Tree Plantation, hiking to a few waterfalls along the Appalachian trail, antiquing and enjoy some good ol’ biscuits and gravy! Follow me on Instagram @kitchenkm for some pics!

See you all on Sunday with a recap!
Xoxo
Steph 🙂