Eating Dinner With My Family

Well other than the cutting of the pork in to cubes, which my wonderful husband did for me, this recipe was super easy!  It was tasty and fast, but not a wow.  I had run out of mozzarella, but I had this Mexican Quesadilla melting cheese that tasted like mozzarella, and worked great.  It wasn't nearly as good as Soft Pork Tacos I made on 11/11/11, but it was way faster and not a bad dinner.  It doesn't look too pretty as the spice blend and the melted cheese made for a brown slop like splat on the tortilla, but it tastes way better than it looks ;).  Family-Style Pork Tacos 1 1/2 Tbl ancho chile powder 1 Tsp salt 1/2 Tsp dried oregano 1/4 Tsp ground cumin 1/8 Tsp freshly ground pepper Pinch of cinnamon Pinch of allspice 1 1/2 Lb pork tenderloin cut into 1/3-inch cubes 1 medium white onion chopped 2 Tbl cider vinegar 5 Tbl minced cilantro 3 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese Sixteen warmed 6- or 8-inch flour or corn t...

This dish was good.  Our jaded palates couldn't let us go higher than 3.5 (ok the boy said 4), but it was not only tasty & healthy, but  is totally capable of being a stellar dish with a little playing around with it.  I have been really busy getting ready for vacation, dealing with a fridge that may or may not be holding temperature, and a big old case of the summer doldrums.  Hence, the blog has been neglected.  We will be gone for a week starting Tuesday, so I don't foresee a lot of blogging coming up, and I am slacking on this post as well.  I didn't want to go out to the store and I needed to use up some things in the fridge.  This dish was based on this Miso Glazed Cod Recipe .  I'm not even sure if this was where I first found it, but it was the first place to come up with the same recipe.  I had all the ingredients on hand except the cod the original recipe called for, but I did have tilapia.  I halved the recipe too. ...

The boy requested burgers, and this was one from Food & Wine we hadn't tried yet. The reviews were mixed in the family. The boy said 4 stars, my husband said 2 and I was thinking a high 3.5. I'm rounding the average to my rating. The husband didn't like it because of the texture. It was billed as a cross between meatloaf and a burger, and my husband thought it disappointed on both accounts. The boy loved it and didn't complain. I thought the texture was a bit too mushy, but really dug the flavor and loved the soy spiked ketchup.  The ketchup is a keeper. Now what else to do with it... Cheesy Burgers With Soy-Spiked Ketchup 1/2 Cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup 1 1/2 Tbl soy sauce 1 Tbl hoisin sauce 1 Tbl fresh lime juice 1 1/2 Tsp ancho chile powder 1 1/2 Lb ground beef chuck preferably 80 or 85 percent lean 1/2 Cup shredded Colby cheese 1/4 Cup minced red onion 2 Tbl minced kosher pickles 2 Tbl plain dry bread crumbs 3 garlic cloves minced 1/2 Tsp ITab...

On the way back from dropping my boy and his friend at my MIL, we went through my pins on Pinterest, and my husband picked several recipes; this was one of them.  I did make some changes to the original recipe. Mostly because the jus left in the crockpot, while a good start, wasn't very flavorful. First i strained out the onions to use in the sandwich. After I removed the fat from the jus with a separator, I pot it in a pot and boiled it to reduce. I also added about a teaspoon of 'Better than Bouillon' mushroom base. Then when I took it off the heat, I added a splash more whiskey so it would still taste 'boozy' Boozy Slow-Cooker French Dips   2 Lb beef roast 3 Tbl dijon mustard salt and pepper to taste 1 beer of your choice  (we had Yuengling) 1 large yellow onion sliced 2 Tbl whiskey (I used Maker’s Mark) 2 Clove garlic smashed 1 Cup beef stock 2 french baguettes sliced in half and cut into sandwich-size 1 tsp better than bouillon mushroom base Pro...

Well, I have found myself going to the grocery almost every day!  And, while I seem to spend more with that plan of attack, I waste less. Tonight's dinner is a perfect case in point. I had bought plain, full fat yogurt for the lassi I plan on making, but it only came in a huge portion. I used it for last night's shawarma, tonight's gyro and still have enough to make my lassi once the mango is perfectly ripe.   We liked tonight's dinner, but we all agreed it was only a 3.5.  To be fair, we all did think most people we know would rate it higher, but that was our impression.  It was pretty easy to make.  The only issue we had was that the chicken exuded a lot of liquid when cooking and it took longer to brown than we expected.  We also added shredded lettuce to the dish.  I found this on pinterest, and I'm not sure if the site it is from is a blogger or not, so I am erring on the side of caution and treating it like it is from a blogger and providing...

I was feeling kind of lazy, and I had 4 hamburger buns I needed to use, so I decided on burgers.  (only to notice a tiny spot of mold right before cooking and requiring me to make a trip to the store last minute :/)  Feeling extra lazy, I decided to try this Publix Apron Meal .  Now I think the Apron meals aren't bad, but I am rarely wowed by them, so I don't often cook them.  However they are really fast, easy and if you get the recipe they are demonstrating, all your ingredients are in one place when shopping.  This recipe was super fast and easy, even for a burger.  The only change I made was I cooked the cheese and salami on the burgers, on the grill a minute or two rather than just let them sit and melt.  I also used my homemade ranch and added a lot of freshly ground black pepper.  Over all it gets a 3.5  We all said we really liked it, and usually I think that would have merited a higher rating, but we have had some dang good...

I asked the boy what he would like for dinner, even repeats, he said Shrimp Scampi!  I said, I have no desire to peel all those shrimp!  He suggested burgers next; I didn't have many 'to try' burgers I was really interested in. Perhaps it was dinner last night at Holligans, a local place famous for its wings, or perhaps it was a vague memory of a Bobby Flay buffalo burger, or perhaps I just had a craving, but I decided on Buffalo chicken burgers. I read several recipes (ok read dozens of recipes), and after consulting with the hubby, we decided on this method. We kind of made it up as we went along, and each step had some debate. (The main one I'm thinking of was I wanted some minced celery in the patty. Yes, I lost that argument ;). We liked the end result, and it was remarkably similar to a wing, but it wasn't a wow meal. The boy said 4, I said 3, hubby said 3.5, so 3.5 it averages out to. The muenster cheese, which we added because we thought we needed some sort ...