Eating Dinner With My Family

I wanted an easy dinner and thought a fancified grilled cheese sounded like just the thing. When I saw a website called grilled cheese academy.com I figured I would try one of those.  I opted to try the Cheshire.  It was pretty good but really hard to eat! The Cheshire 4 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 clove garlic, minced 8 slices French-style country bread 4 slices Wisconsin Edam cheese 1 head Bibb lettuce 2 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced 2 ripe Hass avocados, sliced 8 slices bacon 4 eggs 4 slices Wisconsin Cheddar cheese 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature Mix mayonnaise with garlic. Spread 1 tablespoon of the mixture on each of 4 slices of bread. Top each with 1 slice Edam, a few leaves of lettuce, a slice or two of the tomato, and 1/4 of the avocado slices. Set aside. Fry bacon in cast-iron or nonstick skillet until crisp; remove to plate lined with paper towels and drain and pat dry. Remove all but 1-2 tablespoons bacon fat from skillet. Crack eggs into s...

I know I have been neglecting the blog.  Partly, I've lost momentum on new recipes, partly, it's because I have had a proper job for the last 8 months, and partly because I just don't want the extra fuss at dinner time.  If I do make a new recipe, I'll post it here, but I'm not shooting for more than one a week.  I also want to re do the look and organization of the blog. We will see how much I actually get done ;).  In the mean time we had this pizza tonight.  I think I liked it best, but everyone enjoyed it. Bacon-and-Egg Pizza   6 ounces thick-sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/3-inch lardons 4 large eggs 1 tablespoon heavy cream Kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter All-purpose flour, for dusting 1 pound pizza dough 1/3 cup crème fraîche 3 ounces Brie, thinly sliced (with rind, if desired) 2 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded Snipped chives, for garnish 1. Set a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 50...

My husband loved this!  I am  not the biggest baked potato fan, but still really liked it too.  It wasn't too much work, but it took some time since the potatoes take a long time to bake.   Poutine-Style Twice-Baked Potatoes 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth 1 tablespoon veal demiglace (optional) 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped sage 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped thyme 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon heavy cream Kosher salt Freshly ground pepper 6 baked potatoes (about 1/2 pound each) 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled 1 cup milk, warmed 1/2 cup sour cream 3 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (1 cup) 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard Pinch of cayenne pepper 1/3 cup chopped chives Kosher salt Freshly ground pepper Vegetable oil, for frying 6 ounces thick-sliced bacon, cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick 1 cup shredded m...

I got a craving for beer cheese soup.  I know I have had it in the past, but can't for the life of my remember where.  (or much about the soup itself for that matter)  So to the internet (insert your own batman music here).  I found this recipe and thought I would give it a go.  I have put off the post for so long, my recollection of the dish is vague.  Perhaps that is the best way to judge a dish, does it stay with you?  Well I do remember liking it, and I believe the rest of the family did too. Beer Cheese Soup 3 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped 1 sweet onion, finely diced 1/2 red pepper, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons flour 2 cups of your favorite beer (I find that lighter wheat beers work best) 1 cup half and half 4 ounces sharp white cheddar, freshly grated 4 ounces extra sharp yellow cheddar, freshly grated 4 ounces colby jack, freshly grated fresh herbs (I like ci...

Another Pinterest recipe. This recipe is very good and pretty simple to make. I strongly suggest you choose your wine carefully and pick a pretty good one. The flavor of the wine strongly represented in the final dish.  The chicken was tender and juicy. I am still calling in fixable because I want to play with it. It is missing something that is just keeping it short of stellar. My husband thinks it should be green and somewhat herby. Scallions was his final vote for what to add. I think adding some scallions at the end  would be very nice.  Mushroom Asiago Chicken 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (about 2 large) 2 cups mushrooms, cut in half 1 clove garlic, minced 3 sprigs fresh thyme 1 1/2 cups dry white wine 1/2 cup seasoned flour 2 tbs butter 2 tbs olive oil 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/4-1/2 cup shredded asiago cheese 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste) 1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste) seasoned flour: 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp salt ...

Christmas evening, it was just the four of us.  We had my husband's side of the family last night, and my side of the family tomorrow, so dinner will just be leftovers, but since we still had my inlaws  this morning, we made this yummy ham and cheese strata for breakfast.  It could even be made the evening before, but then it would take longer as it will go in the oven much colder.  It isn't that much work, and it bakes in 20 minutes!  (well mine took a bit longer than that.)   Ham & Cheese Strata   8 large eggs 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 4 cups Italian bread cubes (1 inch) 6 ounces Virginia ham, cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 1/2 cups) 6 ounces Gouda cheese, cut into 3/4-inch dice (1 1/2 cups) 1/2 cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes, drained 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon snipped chives 1 cup coarsely grated Cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces) 1. Preheat the oven to 450°. In a large bowl...

This pizza is one of my family's favorites.   Pizza is always easy, and fast, and popular with the kiddies. The pesto is nice and my son likes it on just regular cheese pizza too.  I use a potato masher to smush up the tomatoes a bit, that way there aren't the possibility of  little tomato explosions waiting to happen on your pizza.   It looks like I am giving another gift to the family, a lot of repeats :).  Maybe in the new year, we will have more that one a week.  Oh one more thing, I make this as one large pizza not a bunch of  small ones. Pizza with Charred Tomatoes and Pesto 3/4 lb cherry tomatoes 1/4 c  panko (Japanese bread crumbs) 2    garlic cloves,thinly sliced 1    shallot,thinly sliced 5    basil leaves,torn 2 T  extra-virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground pepper 1 lb Pizza Dough 3/4 c  coarsely grated aged Gouda (3 ounces) 6 T...

My daughter asked for Mac n Cheese tonight. Please don't hate me but it's not a favorite of mine.  I thought this one might be just different enough that I may really like it. And I did.  (A bit). Everyone else really liked it. Now bigger confession time, I'm writing this post weeks after the fact. It's the season to be extra busy and therefore it's the season for extra slacking opportunities. Sorry. I'm always torn between anecdotal posts and a short and sweet rundown on the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the making of the recipe. We'll fate (and laziness) has decreed the latter until I get caught up;).  Creamy 4 Cheese Brie and Buttery Ritz Cracker Mac and Cheese 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided 1 clove garlic, minced or grated 1 1/2 cups crushed Ritz crackers 1 pound elbow pasta 1/4 cup flour 3 cups warm milk 1 1/4 cups sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded 1 cup fontina cheese, shredded 1 1/4 cups havarti chees...

For meatless Monday, I thought I would try this dish.  It sounded like my kind of dish.  The result, was alright, but not a stellar dish.  That is to say, my family didn't dislike it, but they weren't wowed and they expect to be wowed.  It was super easy, so that is a plus, but it isn't a company dish ;) Penne With Spinach Sauce 1 Lb whole wheat or multi grain penne 3 garlic cloves 2 ounces goat cheese 1 ounce reduced fat cream cheese 3/4 Tsp salt 1/2 Tsp freshly ground black pepper 6 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves 2 Tbl freshly grated Parmesan Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the penne and cook until it is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Mince the garlic in a food processor. Add the goat cheese, cream cheese, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and half of the spinach leaves. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set the cheese and spinach mixture aside. Meanwhile, ...

I wanted to clean up a bit and I had been wanting papusas, and since papusas are one of those dishes that are perfect for leftovers, it was perfect timing.  Yes you need a "specality" ingredient.  I put that in quotes because it is available at my local supermarket, but I still consider it a specality ingredient since it is not a staple in most homes.  It keeps and isn't expensive so you shouldn't worry about adding it to your pantry.  (besides it makes more than just papusas;)  I based the papusa off a food and wine recipe, but everything else was just lying around the kitchen waiting to go bad ;).  Pantry Papusas 2 Cup masa harina (see Note) 1 3/4 Cup very warm tap water Kosher salt vegetable oil for frying 1 c finely shredded jack and a bit of cheddar. 5 cloves of roasted garlic minced  In a medium bowl, using your hands, mix the masa harina with the water and 1/2 teaspoon salt until a soft dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wr...

This throwback meal is arguably one of my husbands favorites.  Whenever he thinks of it, gets this kind of dreamy look in his eyes and says something along the lines of "oooh that is a good one!"  We all like it, but it holds a special place in his heart.  It is also one of the easiest meals ever.  It takes less than 10 minutes start to finish.  (If you can cook all sandwiches at once otherwise you will need about 5 minutes more)  I cooked two sandwiches at a time and I spent about 15 minutes.  The pickles are not optional for us but I left that in the instructions in case it was a deal breaker for some of you.  You need to try this sandwich!  Serve it with a salad and you have a great meal!  Cut it in to small wedges and you have an excellent appetizer.  It is fast enough for any meal, with any time constraints, but delicious enough to be a wonderful dinner. Inside-Out Grilled Ham-And-Cheese Sandwiches 4 Tbl unsalte...

After enjoying the kimchi quesadillas, I thought kimchi Mac & cheese would be fantastic. I did really like it too, but I made a few adjustments that I think really improved the recipe over the one printed below. First of all, I needed a bit more milk to turn the roux in to a sauce creamy enough for the pasta. I also added a bit more cheese but only because I had grated a little over the cup called for. But by far the most important change I made was I minced up some kimchi (raw) and garnished the pasta with about 1/2-1 tbsp. if not for that, I think the kimchi flavor would have been mostly lost. The raw garnish took it from a meh, to good!  I do think there are still some tweaks I would make next time I make this. It is bland without the garnish, good with, and could be great.  I am not sure just what other tweaks I would make, but I still think of this as fixable since I needed to make some adjustments in the original recipe. Kimchi Mac N’ Cheese   1 1/4 Cup k...

cheese sticks on the bottom, ground beef on top I have been seeing these wonton wrapped mozzarella sticks all over pinterest, and I was curious but not very hopeful.  Yes, I guess, they made a mozzarella stick of sorts, and the kids did like them alright, but my husband and I thought really bad.  Really, don't bother.  They didn't even hold together that well.  I had my husband go into the freezer for some other type of filling when I was making these, and that was a great call.  I have decided to take a break from shopping for new recipes.  We have lots of busy weeks ahead, and I can't put one more thing in to the pantry or fridge.  I will be playing chopped in my larders.  I may or may not post the recipes.  I don't foresee a lot of tasty dinners, but at least it will be like spring cleaning.  Wonton Wrapped Mozzarella Sticks 8 string cheese 24 wonton wrappers 1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp of water oil for deep-frying salt and...

I wasn't sure how this would turn out.  It seems a super easy shortcut to fondue. (And I guess technically it is more of a raclalette??) It also boded ill when the instructions said Italian fontina was better and they only had Swedish, but dang if this wasn't a giant bowl of artery clogging goodness!  I had forgotten just how much fun fondue is.  I am determined to have it more often.  (I'm thinking Fondue First Friday??)  There was one injury when the little girl (who shouldn't really have had her own fondue fork, but...) kind of stabbed herself in the palm, but to be fair we were in the middle of telling her that fondue forks and crackers are a bad idea and she will get hurt.  I still don't think she believes it despite the crying, tantrum and several band aids required to soothe her.  I didn't measure the oil, but I don't think I had that much more than what was called for, but here was a ton of, albeit tasty, oil in the skillet.  Not complaini...

For meatless Monday, I thought I would try these Broccoli Cheese Bites from Pinterest.  I know I have been doing a lot from Pinterest, but I have thousands of pins, I need to get through some of them, and when planning dinner, it is so much easier to use my phone rather than my computer.  (SMH I am so lazy!)  I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I thought that if I chopped them larger, and made the patties larger, the broccoli would still be crunchy, and in my family, mushy veggies are not cool! They were so much better than I expected.  Oh I left out the salt and pepper because I was thinking that there would be plenty of flavor from the cheese and seasoned bread crumbs, and I think they were great as is.  I did dip them in Sriracha Cream sauce , (blush) but they were good plain too.  (maybe a bit of seasoning if not dipping;)  I think these would be a great way to use up a lot of different kinds of veggies, individually or in a big hodgepod...

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...

Another recipe from pinterest and fellow blogger.  We hadn't had any seafood this week and I happened to have some potatoes left over so it was perfect.  I'm not a baker, but the biscuits were super easy, and I liked them even though they do violate my no processed foods as they are make from Bisquick. My son adored the soup and ate 2 huge bowls. My husband liked it too. I thought it was quite good despite the fact that I'm not the hugest fan of chowders. It really is that I'm not a fan of chunky soups, so I did alter the recipe a bit because of that and used the immersion blender and gave the soup a quick pulse or two before I added the shrimp.   Everything came together pretty quick and my only complaint was there was tons of leftovers.  The boy was happy but, I don't think shrimp reheat well.    New England Shrimp Chowder onions Olive oil fish or chicken stock potatoes salt pepper fresh shrimp milk cheddar cheese minced pars...

Looking through my meatless recipes for tonight's Meatless Monday dinner, I decided to try this pasta dish I have been looking at and putting off because it is just so simple, I was afraid we wouldn't enjoy it as much as some if the more complicated dishes. I was right and wrong. We all liked it a lot, but we didn't adore it. I did make one change. The original recipe called for only one cup of arugula, I doubled that and used 2 cups.  Personally I think I would like even more, but two cups were a pretty good amount.  It was strong on the black pepper flavor which was nice, as everything else in the dish (well except the arugula) was in the plain side. Oh the plus side, fast and easy. Down side not an omg dish. I liked it better than some dishes I have rated a 3.5 but that's still what I'm going with. Linguine With Butter, Pecorino, Arugula And Black Pepper Salt 1 Lb linguine 1/4 Cup (1/2 stick) butter room temperature 1 1/4 Cup very finely grated Pecorino ...

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 lovely baby eggplant from my Front Porch Pickings basket, and while I would have loved some baba ganoush, I knew I would be the only one happy about that. I dug this out of my to try file; it was from Emeril and I got it off the food network site. It was a little work, mostly because of the chopping, but I think it was totally worth it!  I don't care for sausage, the boys don't care for eggplant, but we all devoured it. Even the baby girl ate well and that is impressive. It is totally rich, so all you can eat is about 2 shells, and I did tweak the recipe a bit based on how much eggplant I had, but it makes way more than 1/2 a box of pasta worth of shells.  If I had used the full amount of sausage and eggplant, I would have used an entire box of shell easy, but I would have needed a larger pan, or made it in two batches.  I really like this, and think I would be good without the sausage and more eggplant, or mushrooms in place of the sausage, or with veggie saus...