Poor Man's Pizza

We'd been putting off making this recipe for a while. Sorry Duggars, but a piece of bread, tomato sauce and cheese just doesn't sound all that appetizing. We chose a Friday to make it for lunch, since it was a fasting day and we thought this meal would be penitential. Surprisingly, despite ample criticisms from our coworkers, this 'pizza' was not bad at all!

Layered Ice Cream Cake

This is one of our favourite recipes! It was one of the first recipes we tried a few years ago. We loved it so much and we knew other Duggar recipes must be good too, hence the inspiration for the blog. We had originally planned to save the ice cream cake as one of our last recipes, but when the office was trying to decide what kind of cake we should have for Tiffany on her birthday we knew the ice cream cake would be perfect. Tiffany loves the Duggar Family as much as we do so it was a perfect way to celebrate her birthday and show her how much we love her! The cake was enjoyed by all and we even had leftovers for another day (the perk of Duggar-sized recipes).

Quick Chili-Frito Pie Meal

After getting home from work we decided to make a Duggar recipe. It was already close to 6pm so Quick Chili-Frito Pie Meal was perfect! So quick and easy - even though we had to run to the store for some ingredients it only took minutes to prepare so we were eating in no time. Not one of our all-time favourite recipes, but we'll definitely keep it in mind when we need a meal in minutes! 

The Voeller Dressing

What is going on with Katie's hair??

As a side dish to our Quick Spaghetti with Cincinnati Chili we decided to make a salad and knew there were a couple dressing recipes on the Duggar website. Katie has a handy-dandy salad-dressing-mixer-gadget so it worked very well! Turned out that we didn't have lettuce or any salad ingredients other than green peppers, but it didn't work so well as a dip. The dressing was good, but to be honest I can barely remember it because of how gross the main dish was...I know it was great in comparison! We'll have to try it again another time!

Quick Spaghetti with Cincinnati Chili

Hailey and Katie were finally back together after almost an entire summer of various travels (including Orillia, ON and Cornwall, ON, respectively, a trip to the Atlantic Provinces together and for Katie, a trip to Spain for World Youth Day). This would be the perfect recipe to start off our second year of the blog, right? Wrong! This chili-spaghetti combo was almost flavourless and was kind of mushy. Not something we'll be repeating. If you do want to give it a try, make sure to add lots of toppings - and a can of spaghetti sauce while you're at it! Your taste buds will thank you!

Allie's No Bake Cheesecake

Alex and Theresa on their wedding day!

When our friend (and blog-follower) Theresa had to plan her wedding in just over two months, she asked some friends to bring desserts for her reception. We and the Duggars were happy to oblige!

After witnessing Alex and Theresa enter into the beautiful Sacrament of Marriage, we waited in anticipation for the reception, where we could try the cheesecakes we'd made the night before!

The no bake cheesecake was very easy to make and was DELICIOUS! The blackberries on top were our addition and they complemented the cheesecake very well.

Congratulations Alex and Theresa!

Cheesecakes with the BEST (July) wedding favour ever, a pretty fan!

Garlic Dill Pickles

So at the end of February Katie left town to do some support raising out of town. She returned in May, but then Hailey was out of town support raising. (Which is why the cooking had been put on hold.) At the beginning of July we planned a trip: the Atlantic Provinces Extravaganza! We thought the Garlic Dill Pickles would be a perfect snack for the trip since it's a Duggar road trip favourite! One problem though...we wouldn't be together until we arrived in Halifax. But thanks to technology we were able to both make a jar of pickles while talking on skype! Next issue - transporting the pickles...let's just say Katie ended up with some pickley clothes. Once we were on the road to PEI Hailey's sister Emma (the only one of us who actually likes pickles) cracked open the first jar! Her verdict: too salty. She made us try them too and they were ok, but I don't think either of us are going to be pickling again any time soon! (P.S. Katie is away in Spain for a month for World Youth Day so we will update the blog and start cooking again when she gets back)

Daddy's Favourite Pumpkin Pie

We had a little trouble starting this recipe off, trying to convert the measurements from ounces to cups, and second-guessed ourselves while pouring everything into Katie's trusty Kitchenaid mixer. Thankfully the measurements were right and the pie filling was very easy to assemble, and was the exact right amount once poured into 2 Flakey Pie Crusts that Hailey prepared. The pies looked beautiful coming out of the oven and even though Katie is not really a fan of pumpkin pie (and thought it felt a little out of season making them in February) she had to admit that it tasted pretty good... maybe a treat to make for Thanksgiving down the road!

Note: with this recipe, we are halfway through the Duggar recipes!

Flakey Pie Crust

This was a frustrating recipe! Hailey was mixing it and rolling it out and it was not very cooperative. Very sticky and when it wasn't sticking it was falling apart. She was finally able to get it in the pie plates. For all the frustration it caused it better be fantastic - well it was good, but not for the effort it was worth. Sorry Duggars but this was not a favourite - maybe we aren't the best pastry chefs and need some lessons from you.

Creamy Chicken & Tortillas

We had planned on making this meal for dinner but forgot it was a slow-cooker recipe - luckily we realized this early enough that we could run out to get some groceries and get it started! A simple meal to prepare, we felt very relaxed all afternoon knowing that our supper was already ready! Though we probably should have eaten this with extra, uncooked tortillas like the Duggars suggested, this was a tasty and hearty meal!

Oatmeal Pancakes

Barf pancake?

So last night after catching up on blogging many meals in the past couple months we decided to count how many more recipes we have to cook...well it turned out we weren't even halfway done! Time to start cooking! Since this is the last chance we'll have to cook together for a month or two (Katie will be out of town), we decided to get to the halfway mark. Since we needed to make 4 recipes we thought we better start early (well relatively) with oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. Well the recipe was pretty simple and fast to put together but once again included buttermilk - why do you love buttermilk so much Duggars? The mixture turned out rather watery, with a chunky texture from the oatmeal. Once we added more flour the pancakes started to turn out better and thicker. The pancakes were good -  the ones with syrup, strawberries and icing were the best (balanced out the healthy taste of the oatmeal). Overall not a bad recipe, but I don't know if we'll make it again...unless we are on a diet and need a healthy tasting breakfast.

Slow-Cooker Lasagna

All the ingredients!

This was the recipe we used for DUGGAR DAY! at work (the CCO office) The Duggars often find their way into our lunchtime conversations and we noticed some skepticism emerging among our coworkers regarding the size of the Duggar family, and we couldn't have that. We decided that two things would win over the hearts of our office friends; food and an episode of 19 Kids and Counting to introduce them to who the Duggars really are! With the help of Vince (a closet Duggar fan) we booked the CCO projector, emailed everyone in advance to tell them not to bring a lunch and started prepping the night before. Since we were serving lunch to at least 15 people, using Duggar quantities was actually an appropriate choice (and we didn't have any leftovers!). At the grocery store, Hailey felt like a real Duggar, but had to carry all the ingredients home on the bus (she fit the 4 jars of sauce in her purse) since she doesn't have a 15-passenger van! That night, Hailey cooked the 4 lbs of ground beef while Katie shredded 6 cups of cheese before bed.

Slow-Cooker Lasagna ready to serve

5:30 am on Duggar Day, we groaned our way out of bed, packed up all our ingredients and hopped on the bus to the office. We assembled the lasagnas in two slow cookers and worried slightly that the noodles wouldn't cook (because we hadn't bought the pre-cooked kind), so we just made sure to cover them in sauce. We plugged in the slow cookers at 7am and had time for morning prayer and Mass before coming back to the office to excitedly announce to everyone that it was Duggar Day!

Tiffany, a fellow Duggar fan!

Hailey and Cristina had to endure the smell of lasagna cooking in their office until it was finally 12:15 and everyone filed into the kitchen to begin Duggar lunch (even the workaholics who rarely come to lunch)! We set up the projector and showed them "Duggars at the Doctor" (Season 3, episode 16). Jackie was shocked that all the Duggars' names started with J while Tiffany happily recited the names of all the Duggar children along with Michelle.
The end of the episode brought a round of applause and then Katie asked, "who likes the Duggars more now than before lunch time?" There was a brief pause, but most people raised their hands - we deemed that a success! Maybe not everyone will be a Duggar fan right away, but we'll take it one person at a time!

Everyone in the kitchen, watching 18 Kids and Counting!

St. John's Banana Bread

We figured for Duggar Day we could also make a second recipe as a treat. We decided on St. John's Banana Bread. It was an easy recipe to make, although we made it at Hailey's so the oven is always an issue. Plus once we started making it we realized Hailey didn't have a loaf pan so we had to improvise. We had just planned on having the banana bread at lunch, but when we were at the office in the excitement of it finally being Duggar Day, the banana bread became "Duggar breakfast!!" It was the perfect treat to start a great day!

Snow Ice Cream

What's a perfect treat on a snowy day in January? The Duggar's Snow Ice Cream. We saw there was a snowstorm in the forecast and thought it would be an excellent time to try this recipe (requiring fresh snow). We decided to once again make it at the CCO office for 3 o'clock treats. By 2:30 that afternoon everyone in the building decided to go home because the snow was really coming down, but the CCO staff decided to stick it out - we wouldn't want to miss out on snow ice cream! It is an interesting recipe - we weren't sure how it would turn out. It's just snow, whipping cream, vanilla and sugar. Much to our surprise, it really tasted like ice cream!! YUM! Our co-workers quite enjoyed it too and it was talked about for days to follow!

Chicken Etti

This is a very delayed post, but back in the beginning of January we made Anna Duggar's Chicken Etti. We were very excited to try one of Anna's recipes, especially one we remembered seeing on the show! Well we picked up all the ingredients and headed to Katie's house to start cooking. As we started assembling the dish we realized it was definitely a Duggar sized meal - we couldn't even find a casserole dish big enough to fit it all! Since there was only three of us eating it for supper we decided we needed to find more people fast. So where did we turn? The CCO office of course - always ready to enjoy a Duggar recipe. We started texting everyone at work telling them not to bring a lunch the next day. After figuring out how we would possibly consume all this food we started eating. SO GOOD! The CCO office staff also enjoyed it the next day. Hailey enjoyed it so much that a few weeks later she made it again, this time for her and her roommate. Instead of using pasta she used spaghetti squash, which worked quite well! Probably one of our favourite recipes yet! Good job Anna - you're a true Duggar!

Cherry Vanilla Punch

We made this recipe for a tea party that we hosted for some of our coworkers' daughters. We thought that the girls, ranging from age 3-7, would be thrilled to drink punch that had ice cream in it - and while their initial reaction was one of excitement, one by one they chose to trade in the punch for some "red juice" - leftover cherry juice that we had put in the punch. Only Janna stuck it out till her punch was done, leaving us to finish off the ice cream/juice mixture - of course, we didn't complain - we thought it was delicious! In the craziness of entertaining four little girls, we forgot to take a picture! You'll just have to try the recipe yourself to see what it looks like!