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...

Another week in the summer that I haven't been able to blog, so I share with you my favorite of all the juices we have made so far, this "Original V-8 Recipe".  I know it can't be exactly like V8 for several reasons, not the least of which is that V8 has watercress in it or that it doesn't taste the same, but still really great!  I often up the amount of spinach; it still tastes good but looks very green. The picture is made the way the recipe says to.  I also like to add a splash of soy sauce for salt and a squirt of sriracha for some heat.  The glass pictured is less than half of what the recipe makes.  I either split it with my husband or drink it when I am hungry and have a lot of room.  You can refrigerate it for later, but the color looked unpleasant to me after some time in the fridge. Original V-8 Recipe   Carrots - 2 large (7-1/4" to 8-/1/2" long) Celery - 3 stalk large (11"-12" long) Cucumber - 1/2 cucumber (8-1/4") Pa...

A plethora of lefotvers and my desire to play with the juicer prevented me from acutally cooking dinner tonight, so instead I share the juice we made today.  It was good, better than the veggie alternative to red bull I made previously!  I think I will try the "V8" recipe on the site I'm getting these recipes from next.  Based on the ingredients, I think I will like it even better. Better Than A Salad Cucumber - 1 cucumber (8-1/4") Lemon - 1 fruit (2-1/8" dia) Onion (spring/scallion) - 1 medium (4 1/8" long) Parsley - 1 handful Pepper (sweet red) - 1/2 medium (approx 2-3/4" long, 2-1/2 -dia.) Tomatoes - 3 small whole (2-2/5" dia) Process all ingredients in a juicer, shake or stir and serve.

I have been wanting a juicer; at the very least I wanted to make healthier juices for the kids, but I was also hoping to add a good bit of fruit and veggies to my diet. I know people become absolute fanatics about juicing, but I can't see that happening to us:). So this is my first "juice" I made. It was touted as good for beginning juicers. It was a bit odd and a bit to strong in the celery (I left out 1 stalk too!), but on the whole, not too bad.  The funniest thing was a little bit after drinking it, I looked over at my husband and said, I feel weird.  He said he did too.  The best description we could come up with was we felt like we were slipped some kind of drug. (Or slammed one too many red bulls:)  I asked him if this was what healthy felt like, and we both got a good laugh out of it.  I will update you as our experience progresses. Mean Green 2 granny smith apples 3 stalks of celery 1 cucumber 1 thumb of ginger 6 leaves of ...

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...

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...

I was very excited for this recipe despite two prejudices I have.  1) I think crockpots are, well, a crock.  I think they are a one trick pony but since my old girl still works, I haven't tossed her.  2) Yes, short ribs are amazing, but their fatty, connective tissue laden selves give me the willies, but despite my issues, I was looking forward to the dish.  Why?  Korean, taco, sriracha, homemade pickle, hello?  I don't know what the recipe for ambrosia is, but I bet it reads similar.  I halved the meat amount you see below, as we are only 4, but I kept the rest of the amounts the same.  I now have a container of beef fat (separated from the liquid) and the cooking liquid in the freezer to take up space until I think of a use for it or I go to war with my kitchen again.  These tacos lived up to their promise.  I did to the "optional'  liquid reduction the author did.  I think it is necessary! (oh and I halved the amount fo...

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...

Update:   I had the eggplant, hummus, pickle and tomato/cucumber salad on a pita the next day for lunch and I loved it.  Maybe it was that it was all cold, or the sit over night melded the flavors of the salad,, but I thought it was a million times better the next day. I had such high hopes for this dish.  So may of my favorite things are in it, and it wasn't bad, but the consensus around the table was that it was a 3.  I even went out and bought these Mediterranean pickles I had at a local Mediterranean restaurant to try and make it how it should be.  My issues, since it is my blog and I was the one poised to love it, were that it was a bit soggy, and therefore sloppy, and I thought the potato was useless.  I wouldn't bother with it next time.  I didn't make my own pita and I got the only "sturdiness" available, so that may be part of the issue.  There was flavor, but it didn't deliver like I had hoped.  That aside, we are spoiled ...

I had bought some baby potatoes that were bogo, and I had some cucumbers from my Front Porch Pickings basket.  This seemed like a tasty recipe that would fit the bill nicely.  It also is a perfect summer recipe in that so much of it is on the grill.  The only aspect of the recipe that was any real work was making a paste of the garlic and mincing the anchovy fine enough to dissolve into the vinaigrette.  I loved this dish; a recipe of the week for sure.  The boys loved it too.  The daughter decided to eat early and did not partake in the dinner but I think she would have loved it too.  I sit here too full of fabulous food to want to rave about it:).  I followed the recipe exactly; for the herbs for the salad I used 3/4 chives and 1/4 parsley. YUM!   Oh and I did double the time I boiled the potatoes because they were really raw after 5 minutes.  I loved that this dish was full of color.  (always good for you as long is it isn'...

In anticipation of our next neighborhood progressive dinner, in which the theme with be burgers, I decided to try another burger recipe.  It was really good.  It wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be considering how many peppers are in it, but I did make sure to remove all seeds and ribs which contain most of the capsaicin. I didn't make 6, I made 4 burgers.  I have a recipe program called accuchef that I really like that will recaculate the recipe for you, but I wanted to share it in it's original form.  (I like my accuchef but it costs, pepperplate  is a free on line recipe management program that I have but I use accuchef the most) I also had some corn that I needed to use. (yes the epic struggle between a cook and her fridge is still in full swing.  I needed to use up some yogurt, hence the burger I chose to try)  I remember seeing Aaron Sanchez on The Best I Ever Ate talking about a grilled corn with cheese and lime.  I found this recipe ...