Eating Dinner With My Family

I had a get together, and  most were repeat recipes, but the one new one was a big hit.  I took little pieces of fresh mozzarella and grape tomatoes and put them on a skewer to make a caprese of sorts.  I personally don't like all the leafy bits of basil in the traditional caprese, so I made a garlic and basil infused oil to drizzle over the top.  Now WARNING!!!!  Garlic infused oils have an affinity for Botulism!!!  For a bit more on it, click here .  I will still sum up.  Make sure that all water is evaporated from the oil,  refrigerate and use within a week.  (I would half that just because I'm a little crazy about germs:)  I made the oil while I was prepping the rest of the menu and put it in the fridge to chill it a bit before using.  I also made a balsamic reduction.  The original recipe I used it for is my Steak Salad , and it is an all time family favorite! However I use this reduction in any recipe that...

Since Monday was Christmas, we didn't go meatless.  I decided to make up that say today.  We love cilantro, and expected to love this.  It was pretty good, not the wow we thought it would be, but good. They didn't carry Cavatappi at my store, so I went with another tube shape rather than a macaroni.  I have been really lazy lately about the blog.  I blame the hectic schedules of the holidays and utter exhaustion.  I haven't even really wanted to cook much!  So, that means short post.  Hope you all are having a great holiday season! Cavatappi With Cilantro-Pistachio Pesto Kosher salt 1/2 large head cauliflower,cut into small (1/2- to 3/4 inch) florets 3  medium carrots,halved lengthwise and then cut on the diagonal 7 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 c  lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves 1/2 c  unsalted shelled pistachios 3   medium cloves garlic,peeled 1   Tbs. fresh lemo...

This recipe was full of snafus.  Lets start with the fact my husband thought it sounded awful and kept suggesting we go out to eat on the evenings I planned to make it.  I of course took him up on those offers;).  Well he is working tonight and I have the stuff to make it, so here it is.  I had some problems when cooking this.  Lets start with the fact that the leftover feta I was planning on using up in this recipe was off.  It smelled pretty bad, so in to the garbage with it.  Now this is me: Me: "its late, and I'm not going out just for feta." ME: "it won't be right" Me: "surely one of the many cheeses in the fridge will work!" ME:  "Probably only the goat cheese you have for another recipe" Me: "I can get more tomorrow" ME: "go to the store, if it's not right (read good) you can't tell your husband I told you so!" Me: (thinking) That's a good point! (out loud) "let's have a glass of  win...

Tonight, for my darling husband, I made the French Fries With Bulgogi And Caramelized Kimchi  that he loved so much, but we tried the "restaurant" method of a two temperature fry.  Much like Jack Sprat and his wife, my husband seem to disagree on a lot of food items.  For example, I love the frosting on cake, in fact cake is a vehicle for frosting, he scrapes it off.  (what a weirdo, I know;)  I could go on, but how it applies to this recipe is that I liked these better and he preferred the start in cold oil ones we make last time.  We agreed, however, that this method cooked them much faster.  I can only assume that's because we had less in the pan at a time.  We didn't have peanut oil, we used canola.  It is interesting to note, that I was told by an allergist that peanut oil does not affect people with peanut allergies.  (at least heat pressed oil and any oil heated) I would check with your doctor first of course, but our brush with a...

We do our big dinner on Christmas eve and graze on leftovers all day on Christmas.  We had my husband's side of the family in town for tonight and my MIL brought a beautiful prime rib for me to cook.  As it is a special occasion, we had a lot of dishes.  The menu tonight: Grilled Antipasto With Garlicky Bean Dip   Grilled Romaine With Blue Cheese-Bacon Vinaigrette Prime Rib Roast For A Small Crowd        Horseradish Sauce Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Coconut Cream Pie      As there are so many dishes, I figured I would write the post around them.  We started with the grilled antipasto.  It was the first time I had made it, and really loved it. It was a bit of work in that there were a bunch of veggies to be sliced, (I did the peppers and zucchini ahead of time as well as the bean dip), and the veggies took up a lot of space on the grill.  I pretty much had to do one type at a time....

I liked this one so much I gave it it's own post :) Grilled Antipasto With Garlicky Bean Dip 1    nineteen-ounce can cannellini beans,drained and rinsed 2    small garlic cloves,minced 2 T  fresh lemon juice 2 T  extra-virgin olive oil,plus more for brushing 1/2 c  chopped basil Salt and freshly ground pepper 6    small Italian frying peppers or Cubanelle peppers 4    medium zucchini,sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thick 2    one-pound eggplants,sliced lengthwise 1/2 inch thick 24  anchovy fillets 24  marinated bocconcini (about 3/4 pound) 2    large beefsteak tomatoes (1 pound each),sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick Grilled country bread,for serving 1.In a food processor, combine the beans with the garlic, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Process until smooth, then scrape into a bowl. Fold in the basil and season with salt and pepper. 2....

I have family coming in town.  I don't like to make guinea pigs of them on special occasions, so I made the ever popular chicken and 40 cloves, but I did make a new recipe, this cheese soup.  It was wonderful!  Everyone really liked it, including the most picky eater I know, my nephew!  Since I have family here, that's it for the post, but I will say it was tasty as it is not photogenic;! Cheese Soup 2 T  unsalted butter 5    ounces small diced onion (approximately 1 cup) 5    ounces small diced carrot (approximately 1 cup) 5    ounces small diced celery (approximately 1 cup) 1/2 t  salt for sweating vegetables,plus more if needed at end of cooking 3 T  all-purpose flour 1 qt chicken broth,heated to a simmer 1 T  minced garlic 1    bay leaf 1 c  heavy cream 10    ounces Fontina,shredded 1 t  Marsala wine 1 t  Worcestershire sauce 1/2 t...

I love Moroccan flavors and harissa has to be one of the yummiest things ever!  I have loved everything I made with it.  (the pizza was my least favorite, but more due to the sausage)  I also love a good burger.  Needless to say, I loved this recipe.  If I were to make any criticism, it is that the caraway seeds were these hard little bits that occasionally made for unpleasant texture in your mouth.  They weren't bad enough to make me dislike this in any way.  I did half the recipe since there are only four of us, and I cooked it on the grill, but other than that, I followed the recipe. Cumin-Spiced Burgers With Harissa Mayo 3 lb ground chuck Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 1/4 c  plus 2 teaspoons harissa 2 1/2 t  ground cumin 2 t  garlic powder 1 t  dried thyme 1    large red onion,sliced 1/4 inch thick 1 T  extra-virgin olive oil Eight 6-inch oval rolls split 1 c  mayonnaise 1 t...

My darling husband cooked and watched the kids while I went to the wine tasting at Ormond Wine Co.   It is usually once a month, but during November and December, it is weekly, so that means girls night out happens every Thursday right now:).  I only tried this leftover, and I thought it was good.  The sauce was awesome, but reheated tenderloin just isn't the same.  My son loved it even eating around the mushrooms. Since I didn't cook it or get to eat it at its best, I will shut up now and just give you the recipe. Pork Medallions In Mushroom Marsala Sauce 2 lb pork tenderloin (about 2 tenderloins) Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 3    Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil 3    Tbs. unsalted butter 2    medium shallots,finely diced 12 oz cremini mushrooms,thinly sliced 1    Tbs. all-purpose flour 1/2 c  dry Marsala 1 c  homemade or low-salt chicken broth 3    Tbs. heav...

After the wretched excess of fat, calories and salt last night, I decided to make a salad.  It's a Ceaser salad, so it really doesn't count as 'light', but it is a heck of a lot lighter than last nights;), and my husband loves Ceaser salad.  Now my husband is constantly offering to go to the store for ribeyes and potatoes to make the kimchi fries again, but we are going to need to hold off on that recipe for a bit.  I thought it interesting that this recipe uses mascarpone in place of egg yolks in the dressing.  (plus I can mix the rest with some honey for one of my all time favorite sweet spreads)  I liked the dressing too, but next time I would put in some anchovies or anchovy paste.  I felt it's absence.  I cooked chicken for the salad, but it is perfect for leftovers, or store bought rotisserie, and makes it fast and easy.  Only thing to keep in mind, the croutons are best fresh out of the oven.  If you make them ahead, they get...

I have no idea where to start on this one!  I guess I should start with I couldn't wait to try it, but was worried that the kimchi would be a problem for my less than cabbage loving boys.  I was a little worried that I would hate the meat, as I do not like how fatty a ribeye is.  Then there were the protestations of my husband that thinly slicing the ribeye (his favorite steak) was sacrilege!  Then there was my trepidation over making fries. (which my husband did brilliantly!)  So as you can see, while excited, I was also very nervous about this dish.  I knew it was going to have a lot going on flavor-wise; it is from a Korean/Tex-Mex food truck.  The result?  MY HUSBAND GAVE IT A 5!  We  never give out a 5 star rating.  My son and I were thinking a 4.75 since we are usually so reluctant to give out a five, but my husband gave it a 5 without hesitation.  You might be thinking why did my son and I hesitate on that last...

It is meatless Monday again, and I roasted a butternut squash, made a sage brown butter, and sauteed some bok choy.  Sage brown butter is a yummy condiment that is perfect for winter squashes.  All I did is split and de seed the squash, rub it with a bit of oil, and roast it for about an hour at 350.  Half way through the baking, I made the bok choy and right before the squash was done, I made the butter.  I also made some rice for the boys that they put the sage butter on too:). One note on the recipe, I only have unsalted butter on hand, so I added salt to the recipe, but if you use salted butter, you most likely won't need to.  Having been on vacation for the last several days, I am feeling kinda lazy, so that's it for the post.  Happy Monday everyone! Sage Brown Butter Sauce Recipe 8 T  butter (1 stick) 1 ea garlic,crushed and chopped 1/4 c  coarsely chopped sage leaves 1/8 t  ground black pepper How to m...

I thought it looked best without the parm, but it tasted better with ;) Tonight's dinner was wonderful.  If you think that you are not a fan of Brussels Sprouts, you haven't tried them shredded and or with bacon!  They were wonderful.  I had made something similar a long time ago with bacon and tomatoes.  Loved it then too.  If I were going to make any changes to this, I think some pureed tomatoes would be really good, but hardly necessary.  Eggs are always a quick fix for dinner, but what I like about this dish is that it is an all in one deal.  You have your protein, carbs and veg all in one tasty dish.  Poaching eggs takes a bit of practice to keep them from being a bit scary. (well for me at least)  I have had a lot of practice poaching eggs recently, as my three year old daughter prefers her eggs poached.  (ok there is a small down side to having kids that like a variety of good foods.  I remember my son in second grade wa...

My darling husband had a wisdom tooth extracted this morning, so I planned on making soup for him for dinner.  Turns out, he can't have any hot foods today, so he had to eat it room temp.   Luckily, the instructions said that it could be served cold.  Now, I hated this soup.  I am not a fan of carrot and it was very carrot-y.  I ate it, but I deleted the recipe.  My husband thought it ok, but the boy liked it and told me to keep the recipe.  (shhh don't tell him that I didn't;)  It was easy to make, I will give it that.  If you adore carrots, then you will like this. Curried Carrot Soup 1 T  canola oil 2 t  curry powder 1    medium garlic clove,smashed 1    (1/2-inch) piece ginger peeled and smashed 1/2    medium onion,coarsely chopped 1 lb carrots,peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds 1    medium bay leaf 2 1/2 c  low-sodium vegetable broth...

For meatless Monday, I made a falafel.  While it wasn't the best falafel I ever had, it was the easiest by far to make.  We all enjoyed it; even the three year old ate some.  I only changed the type of tomatoes I used since I had some tomatoes on the vine (and some cukes) in my Front Porch Pickings basket.  I did also think it needed some sort of sauce.  As I had some tahini in the pantry, I used it mixed with some minced garlic and a little lemon juice.  My husband said he would also like plain yogurt.  (which was also mentioned in the original recipe as a possible sauce.)  As long as you have a food processor, this recipe is a snap, and while it won't be going on our restaurant menu, it was still a darn good meal. Falafel Sandwich With Tomato-Cucumber Salad 1    15-oz. can chickpeas,rinsed and drained 7    Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil 1 t  ground cumin 1/2 t  ground coriander Kosher salt an...

I had this one in the to try file because I adore arugula, pasta and avocado.  The men in the family are not the avocado lovers, and I was worried that they wouldn't like this dish.  Also, upon initial perusal, it seems like a lot of different flavors to handle.  However, just like when I make something just for them, they need to occasionally eat a recipe that was just for me.  And since I had some perfectly ripe avocados from my Front Porch Pickings basket, tonight was my night.  The recipe was a snap to make.  The only shortcut I took was that I used the green tube pre grated Parmesan that I keep on hand for the girl, rather than grate my own.  Even with squeezing the lime juice my self, making the sauce took less time than it took to heat the water and boil the pasta.  If you don't know how easy it is to get out some avocado slices, just click here  for a helpful video.  It was an amazing pesto; even more amazing since it uses avoc...

Tonight, my wonderful husband did the cooking.  I had mustard greens from my Front Porch Pickings basket and I had shrimp I needed to use and I had a recipe for Indian spiced both!  We had never had mustard greens before although we have cooked other greens.  I loved that the greens were pureed.  It made them a lovely texture.  I won't lie, the boys weren't the biggest fan of the greens, but I count this recipe as a win.  Why?  Well the first time your eat something, especially something bitter, you are going to have to get used to it before you are going to enjoy it.  An unfamiliar taste, will be perceived as bad most of the time, and almost every time if it's bitter since bitter is nature's way of warning of toxins.  Ironic that these greens are more like medicine for our bodies.  And while it wasn't a huge hit, every one ate all their greens without any complaint.  All I heard were comments as to the unusual flavors.  ...

I am kind of cheating with the declutter war today.  I had frozen scallops, not really an item I needed to get rid of, but it will still count.  I had the smaller bay or Patagonian scallops (as they seem to be called now) so I used those instead of the sea scallops.  Other than that, my only deviation from the following recipe was that I chopped the spinach before cooking and I used 2 large leeks and had way more than one cup.  The creamy spinach and leeks were awesome!  My husband called it the star of the dish.  It was easy and pretty quick.  The boys ate the kasha from the night before as a starch; I just had this.  The only issue with the dish is the price tag is not an everyday kind of price.  Scallops and leeks aren't cheap, but for an every once in a while dish, it is workable;).  A solid 4 (to 4.5) Seared Scallops With Creamy Spinach And Leeks 2    -1/2 Tbs. unsalted butter 12 oz baby spinach (about 12 loosel...

The war with my kitchen continues apace.  Tonight, I kill off one of the worst offences I have committed by getting rid of the frozen meatballs I bought.  To do so, I pick this recipe.  I wanted to try this recipe, but I knew we were going to be unhappy.  We adore our chimichuri sauce and have never tasted it's equal.  But, I want to try every recipe, and in all fairness, we haven't looked too far beyond our chimichuri recipe.  Were we disappointed?  Yes, but not horribly so.  It wasn't the magical sauce we know and love, but it wasn't bad.  I personally found it too much oil and vinegar to herbs, and I pureed it rather than just mix the ingredients as originally called for.  I think I would like try this with my personal recipe, perhaps making it with all parsley versus the half parsley, half cilantro I normally do.  The boys liked them well enough too.  They liked them better than I did.  They would be happy to hav...

Tonight, for meatless Monday, we had a bunch of sides, but really made some progress on getting rid of odds and ends that were cluttering up my pantry and fridge.  For starters, I have several salad dressings I had made, so one of them got used up on our salad.  I had a few sweet potatoes left, so I made a mashed potatoes with them and an russet I had.  The biggest victory was using up some of the Umeboshi paste.  I got some for the Swedish Meatballs in Spicy Plum Sauce .  I am still not sure that these were the pickled plums called for, but they have an unusual and interesting flavor.  And at $15 for 7oz, an ingredient I don't want to waste.  When I had looked for uses for the left overs, many sources said the 'tradtional' way to eat it was a bit in the center of a ball of rice.  I would like to try that too, but the corn recipe was raved about so that one came first.  (I also want to try the salad dressing and cocktail recipe I came ac...

Day 7 of the war on food clutter, and today's recipe doesn't even count as hit.  I decide to tackle the newly promoted fridge combatant, harissa, again.  Why isn't this really an effective attack?  Well, the harissa is like a hot sauce, and will keep in there a while, and we eat hot sauce on a lot of things and this is a tasty one.  So, I am not really getting rid of anything I am letting clutter up my kitchen as a useless ingredient.  I refuse to say it wasn't a clean up recipe, just not an effective one.  I like the pizza tonight, but I wasn't really wowed.  It might be that I am not the biggest fan of sausage.  The boys seemed to like it.  The BLT last night was so much better.  I like the topping of the pizza with the arugula.  It was nice.  I don't think this really qualifies as pizza.  There is no, cheese.  It looked like a pizza but it is really more of an open face sandwich.  I feel a little cruel....