Eating Dinner With My Family

I made this for the annual Halloween party, but I am posting it tonight as the family and I are on our way to Orlando for a mini vacation and the hubby and I are getting to go to the Party for the Senses!! (Whee and giggle!)  This was well received by all and, as the name promised, easy to throw together.  The original recipe didn't have cucumber.  I think it is better this way.  (even my husband who doesn't like raw tomato liked this one:)  It was light and fresh and going to be a regular item for our cul de sac parties. Easy Feta Dip 1/3 cup olive oil 3 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced 4 green onions sliced thinly 8 ounces feta cheese crumbled (crumbled yourself preferred) 3 teaspoons Cavender's Greek seasoning (I started with 2 and adjusted.  I suggest you do too) 1/2 a large Cucumber peeled, seeded and diced fresh baguette sliced thinly 1.On a large platter drizzle olive oil until you have a thin layer on the entire platter. You may u...

I was super excited to have callaloo in this weeks FPP basket. I have seen it going out in the local basket, but it hasn't been in my basket on my weeks. Callaloo is a green. It can be one of several greens used to make a dish of the same name. (and I have no idea which particular one I got.  It can be used like spinach. However, as it is my first time with it, I wanted to use it in one of its traditional forms. What could fit the bill better the aforementioned soup named for the green?  Now, I was a little worried the boy wouldn't adore dinner. (He isn't a fan of greens in general and as a growing tween, he needed some extra calories!). Great call on my part. He really didn't care much for the soup. My husband and I (even the baby girl) really liked the soup. It was a bit spicy by itself, but served with the recommended rice mixed in to the soup it was perfect. (In fact we even added some hot sauce:).   It was a full meal even without the shrimp.  It ...

I have been curious about tofu scrambles and finally got the wherewithal to make one for dinner.  I thought this one would be the most kid friendly.  It was with one small exception: the "bacon".  It was not only the worst part of the meal, it was just plain gross.  It would have been delicious with out it.  I don't know if it is that bacon is so adored, iconic, inherently unhealthy, or what, but when you mess with it, it isn't good.  It looked so bizarrely unnatural too.  So, next time, no "bacon" in this dish.  Everything else was great.  I am looking forward to adding tofu scrambles to our meals.  I think I would really like it in a breakfast burritos with lots of salsa and some refried beans.  While I don't think it altered the flavor too much, the turmeric made the tofu look a lot like proper eggs. Vegetarian "Bacon And Eggs" Tofu Scramble Recipe 2 Tbl olive oil 3 - 4 strips vegetarian mock bacon 3 Clove garlic minced ...

I had bought shiitakes for a meal I didn't end up making.  I needed to do something with them because I didn't want them going bad.  Not only are they my favorite mushroom, but they are on the pricey side.  I found this in the to try file and thought it fit the bill perfectly.  Now I did mess up a bit, which consequently caused my only complaint with the dish: I had 1/2 the mushrooms called for.  I was thinking of the packages in terms of the regular mushrooms which are 8 oz each.  I had 2 packages of shiitakes, so I was thinking I had 1 lb of them.  Well oops, the shiitakes are 3.5 oz each.  Having half the mushrooms needed was not a making for a perfect dish, but on the bright side, I decided this dish was a great base for a lot of  veggies.  All I need to do in the future is pick one that could cook like the snow peas in the pasta water (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot coins) and one that I will sauté.  The sauce was really great, ...

I was so very excited to have delicata squash in my Front Porch Pickings Basket.  I love squash but have never had delicata before.  (refer to my many previous posts advocating being in a csa or finding a purveyor of local/organic produce)  I knew going in however, that this dish was about as far out of the zone of types of food I like as you can get and I was worried a bit.  I say all the time I do not like sweet and savory together. (I do not like them Sam I am)  I am constantly being pointed out to, by my husband, that, that isn't true, I have found plenty of dishes I like that have both. (like the lamb and date tagine ) However, that doesn't stop me from having a prejudice and an inherent dislike of them mixed.  I did object to the flavor and texture to the apples, and I thought the over all dish was too sweet for me, personally.  (the delicata was very sweet and delicious all by it's self)  That being the said, I like the dish way more ...

I am on a Pinterest roll!  Clearing out another one I wanted to try.  This one is a recipe from a food truck; a tex-mex-korean truck.  I was excited to try it after the other tex-mex-korean dish from a food truck we made, French Fries With Bulgogi And Caramelized Kimchi .  It  was unreal, so we had high hope for this one too.  It was good but I am putting it in the fixable file.  First of all, I halved the butter I used to saute the kimchi.  A whole stick was more than I thought we could handle and it seemed a colossal waste.  We also held back on the cheese a bit.  To be fair, I didn't have any shiso leaves, and I didn't bother trying to even look on line to see if I could get them.  I didn't even try to see if there was a substitute.  The end product was super greasy!  I think that could have been fixed while still keeping the tasty flavor these quesadillas had.  Another thing, I added a sour cream dipping sauc...

I was thinking of doing cheese enchiladas for meatless Monday. I had some tortillas, all I needed was a recipe for the red sauce. I spent at least an hour sifting through recipe searches on the computer before I gave up and went to bed. There seemed to be 2-3 different base recipes, and many involved lard or chicken stock. (Which I wanted to avoid to keep it meatless). There was one that I thought looked good and could work but "red chili powder" was in it. What the heck is that?  Cayenne?  I didn't think so and the Internet failed me. But I digress....  The next morning, Monday, I make a quick search of vegetarian enchiladas on Food and Wine and I thought this one sounded good and it totally cheats by making the enchilada sauce out of marinara!  The preparation of it wasn't difficult. The hardest part was mincing the onion and jalapeño. If it didn't require a 30 bake time, it would be pretty fast too. I did do some alterations. 1) I had puréed a can of chipotles ...

I had some butternut squash from my Front Porch Pickings basket, and I was browsing Pinterest for ideas. I came across a pin for butternut squash stuffed shells with a lemon sage brown butter sauce. I planned on using the recipe as a guide, but I kind of just made it up as I went along. The main thing I used the recipe for: the brilliant suggestion of adding lemon zest to the filling. I also took the sauce and cooking time from the pinned recipe. They were pretty similar in the end. The main thing I did really different, was I mashed the squash.  I liked the texture better that way.  Next time I would change the sauce.  The butter sauce didn't do anything really, so I think I just might make my sage cream sauce and put a dollop on top of each shell next time.  The best thing about this dish is the squash;  I thin I will replace 1/2 the ricotta in my stuffed/layered pastas from now on with roasted squash.  It was tasty and it adds some vitamins and lightens ...

For our meatless Monday, I thought we would try these Spaghetti Squash Cakes. I had plenty of egg whites in the freezer and a spaghetti squash from Front Porch Pickings.  (Whenever a recipe calls for an egg yolk, I freeze the whites individually). We thought these were alright; nothing a good dose of fat and salt couldn't cure, actually, was our estimation. ;)  All joking aside, for the amount of calories you get, these were great, I think they would be an amazing substitute for English muffins in eggs Benedict. Now, I know, that is seriously upping the calories and fat, but the squash cakes would be seriously lowering the calories of the Benedict;).  We didn't dislike them, but there was no wow factor on the taste buds.  If I were going on just taste, I would give them a 2.5-3 but as they are so low calorie, they get a 3. Spaghetti Squash Cake   2 egg whites ¼ cup whole wheat flour (30g) 2-3 cloves of garlic About 1 ½ cups of cooked spaghetti squas...

My daughter, looking over my shoulder as I try to decided tonight's dinner, sees green pea soup, and declares that's what she wants.  Ok then.   I really enjoyed it, and if you omit the optional creme fraiche, and cooked the leeks in oil, it would be vegan.   One thing to note, my beloved immersion blender failed me!  It didn't make the smooth purée I wanted and it flung a good portion all over the place.  Next time I will use the blender and make another dish to insure less soup flinging and a better consistency.  Also, I didn't read the recipe correctly at first and had dumped in the salt and 2 cups of low sodium broth before I realized that the store bought stuff needed to he diluted and as a result it was on the salty side. All in all a solid 4!  Maybe even a bit higher...  I'm not feeling great today and that might cloud my perception but I'm sticking with the 4, for now:) Green Pea Soup   1 Tbl unsalted butter 1 medium leek root ...

I found this recipe in the to try file and it looked good, and was quick and easy. Perfect for meatless Monday. Now that mushrooms aren't a veto ingredient for my son, I was totally psyched to have this.  I searched for the source of this recipe, and i found it on the olive garden website. This wasn't where I got it from, but it read identical. While this wasn't an omg dish, I totally dug the heavy mushroom content.  I said 3.5. The boy, who still doesn't like mushrooms, said 2.5. My husband started out at rating it a 3, but when I saw him scraping his plate to get the last if the sauce, he agreed it was a 3.5.  I'm fully aware that my love and lack of mushrooms skewed me in favor of this dish. I made sure to stir the mushroom/walnut mixture. I was afraid it would burn the nuts. I think next time, I would start the mushrooms for a bit before I add the walnuts.  And the dish felt like it needed salt, until the end where it seemed all the parm was lurking, so I gu...

Where to start?  I guess I will start with it was amazing!  We all loved it.  It didn't hurt that we had some stellar corn from Front Porch Pickings , but the whole combination was delicious.  My husband made a piggy of himself again, so he gives it his seal of approval.  That is saying something, since he likes his meat.  This was one of the best meatless Monday recipes we have ever had.  If you look at labels, you will see I have added two.  The first one, "Dad's Favorites", was added after my husband was looking at his bowl and declared, "that was good, too bad I won't ever have it again."  I pointed out that it has been a more than a year and I was willing to repeat every now and then.  He said he would never remember what he loved since there were so many dishes he has tried.  Now, he can click on his label and have a menu to choose from.  I also decided to label them with their average rating.  This one was 4.5 ...

So, I have made this dish before and have a post on them.   Why am I making another post about them?  Well to highlight not only how yummy they are, but how versatile they are at cleaning up random produce!  If you follow the link above you will see the original recipe (calling for broccoli and cauliflower), and what produce I put in that batch I made. (red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash among others).  This time I made the recipe below.  I doubled it, and added a bit more veggies.  (of the 4 cups I would have needed, I used 5)  So yummy!  Now I know that deep frying your veggies does kind of defeat the purpose of them, but I got several servings of veggies for this meatless Monday recipe.  (and I am ignoring the several servings of fried food I got;)  We had been on vacation for several days, and I needed to make a dent in all the wonderful veggies I had in my fridge, but hadn't cooked yet.  I had some Kopan Masala (Tibetan Garam ...

For meatless Monday, I am making something I saw on Pinterest, and since my Husband won't be home for dinner, something extra 'healthy' that he most likely wouldn't like.  He doesn't need to eat light; he is one of those annoying people who can eat anything, never exercise and stay thin.  (Ugh I know!)  Now I put healthy in quotes because while the original recipe was from health.com and fairly light, I did add some fat and salt. (blush)  I did this partly because I didn't thoroughly read the recipe and partly because I knew it would need it.  How did I diverge from the recipe? I did the following: 3 tbsp oil in pesto 1/3 cup pasta water saved and used More salt Cooked eggs like I normally do in butter Now while that does add some fat and calories, it is just a bit and the end dish was actually really good!  It was super easy to make and even the kids liked it.  My son added sriacha to his so I did too and it just got tastier.  By the ...

Anytime I think I think I'm pretty good in the kitchen, I try to peel a boiled egg!  I have no idea how anyone can get those perfect, smooth eggs.  Mine look like surface of the moon or somewhere they test bombs!  It was meatless Monday, so in order to keep the boys from rebelling completely, I decide to make an egg dish. (they get some protein that way)  They looked beautiful, and except for the complete pain in the butt part (peeling the eggs) it wasn't too hard to make.  It was well received by my husband(he really liked it actually) , but the boy didn't care for it much.  (too much green IMO)  I thought it was good too despite the fact that I was ready to kill someone after "peeling" the eggs)  It is Jacques Pepin recipe I found on pinterest.   Only thing I might suggest is when he says to shake the pan to crack the eggs, I think he means gently move the eggs until they crack.  I had two casualties after the "shake"  That w...

I really enjoyed tonight's dinner.  Was it an OMG?  Not particularly, but it was really great.  Why I loved it, was it was as fast and easy as making pasta and jarred sauce, and probably cost the same (or less if you like the higher end jarred sauce)  The family ate the 1/2 box of pasta with a salad and it was plenty.  It doesn't beat my all time favorite spaghetti recipe , but it was a million times easier!  The only advice I have for you is that was a lot of water you add, you might need to cook it a bit longer than the recipe calls for to prevent watery sauce. (I hate watery sauce!)  This recipe proves, that you don't need to spend a lot of time to make a meal from scratch.  Ok mostly from scratch.  I didn't make the pasta and jarred tomatoes have their own issues, but I haven't found any in glass yet so the occasional canned tomato will have to be used. Sauce-Simmered Spaghetti Al Pomodoro   1/4 Cup extra-virgin olive oil plus m...

This was going to be a rough night.  It started with me forgetting to mix in the herbs and the souffle was already in the pan.  (expletive!!)  Ok... I will just mix in the herbs gently in to the souffle base in the pan.  Ok it seems like it is going to work.  In to the oven it goes.  30 minutes in to the cooking time, it still looks pretty raw, so I go check the recipe again.  (expletive!)  It says cook at 375 not the 325 I had the oven on.  Ok... crank the oven up to 375 and add ten minutes on the timer.  Ok after 5 minutes, I smell the souffle and I check, it looks done, so I take it out.  Oh, and I noticed it was 2 tsp of tarragon not the tbs I put in.  I don't love tarragon, but in small doses I like it well enough.  I don't care how it turns out at this point, I hate the dish;).  Well, in the end, it was a tad underdone in the center, but still pretty tasty.  My husband loved it and the boy was for...

Let me begin with we DID NOT put these on the grill and were very happy we did not!  That would have been a colossal mess!  My husband and I were concerned that this dish would be a bit dry, but with the tahini, veggies and hot sauce, it was really great!  I would say that the harissa was not optional since we all had some on our "burgers" and we all really liked them as is.  Harissa has got its own unique flavor that other hot sauces can't duplicate.  I did have a hard time finding it around town; I ended up finding some at, of all places, Marshall's/Home Goods!  I am almost out and will need to order some off the internet!    Grilled Chickpea Burgers With Creamy Lemon Tahini Sauce 1/4 Cup extra-virgin olive oil more for brushing 4 medium cloves garlic sliced 2 Tsp ground cumin 4 or 5 six-inch pitas 2  15.5-oz. cans chickpeas drained and rinsed 5 Tbs. tahini 1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice (from 1 medium lemon) 1 large egg Kos...

Meh!  I am not keeping this recipe.  Each element in it tasted ok on its own, but together, it was hard to eat and not particularly great.  I thought the asparagus came out good, and we all ate our food, but this is going down as a fail and won't be mentioned again:). The boys wanted meat, so I made a few slices of bacon and dinner, while mediocre, was quickly done. Asparagus And Fried Eggs On Garlic Toast   4    1/2-inch-thick slices sourdough bread 1 large clove garlic halved 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil more for brushing the toast 1 Lb asparagus trimmed of tough, woody stems Kosher salt 4 large eggs Freshly ground black pepper 1 Oz Pecorino Romano shaved into large shards with a vegetable peeler Lightly toast the bread. Rub one side of each slice with the garlic and brush lightly with olive oil. Put 1 slice on each of 4 plates. Put the asparagus in a 12-inch nonstick skillet with 1/2 cup water, the olive oil, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cov...

This is a recipe everyone should know.  It is a perfect recipe because: it's economical, easy, doesn't make a mess and can be tailored to any diet, taste preference or ingredients on hand. (for example: I have left out mushrooms out of the boy's packet or no meat and vegetable broth for a vegetarian friend)  I have made this before with a variety if ingredients, but this is how I made it tonight.   If you click on the title and to to the original Alton Brown recipe, you will see the way I made it the first time I cooked it.  I personally really like the addition of the cabbage and would include it always.  We had a pound of shrimp and there were 7 or 8 in each packet, so we ended up with a more than the recipe calls for, but even with the extra, the meal, for 4, was less than $10.  I have made it with just veggies and its really good that way too.  I don't use the "flavor" packets that come in the ramen for the broth, but ...