Eating Dinner With My Family

Everyone made their own with the toppings they liked Well I knew this gyro would never come close to my beloved gyro at Santorini in Deland, but happily it was still pretty good.  I didn't think that the recipe could be easily halved because I was cooking it like meatloaf (maybe it would be ok on the rotisserie?), so I invited friends to be Guinea pigs along with my family to try out my first stab at a gyro.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their food.  It was a lovely night and we ate outside which was fun too:).  I only made one deviation from the recipe and that was in the Tzatziki sauce.  The yogurt I bought was plain Greek yogurt at 10% milkfat and almost as thick as peanut butter so I didn't think it needed to drain like regular ole plain would need to in order to thicken up. (Which was a nice time saver too) The meat was perfect.  It looked like the gyro meat you get from a restaurant.  (Its an Alton Brown recipe so no surprise there) I bet f...

This burger is from Bobby Flay.  I have never gotten a bad recipe of his, but this one wasn't perfect.  I thought the cheese sauce, while tasty, was odd because it wasn't smooth.  The burger seemed just ok at first, but the longer we ate it, the more we liked it.  I guess it was the unexpected juxtaposition of burger and nacho flavors and textures that we had to become accustom to before we could properly enjoy it.  It was also our first meal on our new grill:).  We had been without one for a while.  We had always had charcoal, but I am happy we now have a propane one.  While I do agree that charcoal has its benefits, it is totally outweighed by the ease of use for the propane.  Oh and I figure that the meal came in at $4.00 per person Nacho Burger Salsa 3 T  red wine vinegar 1 T  vegetable oil 1    chipotle chile in adobo seeded and minced 3    plum tomatoes,finely diced 2 T  red oni...

In  response to pleas from my family to have a recipe more than once, and to try and continue having new recipes daily for the blog, I have come up with a compromise.  I repeated a main dish, Pasta With Spicy Almond Pesto ( http://ormonddinners.blogspot.com/2012/03/pasta-with-spicy-almond-pesto.html ) but I made a different salad dressing. This is one of my favorite honey mustard dressings.  I got it from my MIL years ago which she got from one of those "copy cat" recipe books.  I don't know how close it is to the resturant's actual recipe, but I do know at least 10 years ago, they were using Grey Poupon in it.  They may not now.  I made 1/4 of the following recipe and there was plenty for 2 family size salads. I didn't bother with the electric mixer but if you make all 8 servings, it might make your life easier. "Outback"  Honey Mustard Dressing 8 Servings 1 c  Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard 1 c  Honey 2 t  Vegetable oil 1 t  ...

I enjoyed this $9.00 dinner very much.  You will have to stock your pantry with soy and fish sauce, but I use them in so many recipes, it is worth the addition to your pantry.  I bought sirloin cut in to thin steaks and I cut them in to slices.  I think it might be better with buying the whole steak and then cutting slightly thicker slices. (it would also be less expensive to have the meat not pre cut for you)  I made rice for everyone, but (not included in the cost because it was just for me) I splurged on a $3 head of hydroponic butter lettuce to wrap the beef in. (I only used about 1/6 of the head so, add $0.50 to my dinner)   I LOVED it. The meat was a tad chewy, but I attribute that to the fact that it was so thin.  Still not so tough that it was unpleasant.  My son didn't care for the peanuts in the meat, but I really liked the flavor and crunch.  A keeper and possible favorite! Vietnamese-Style Beef With Garlic, Black Peppe...

Much like the souffle, gnocchi has a reputation for being easy to mess up.  This was my first gnocchi and I was a little nervous.  The dish does take a while, mostly because there is an hour of baking before you even begin to make the dough.  Also annoying,  I discovered as I was making it, it was a big sticky mess, and I was kind of hoping it would be the colossal failure I was worried it could be because it was so laborious and messy.  No such luck.  It was unbelievable!!!  The light fluffy pillows of pasta in a nutty, herby sauce.  They didn't look like much but they were yummy!  Another thing I liked about this recipe is that the recipe made enough to freeze half of the gnocchi for a future use.  After I ate some, I realized I could have made the entire recipe and we would probably would have eaten it all.  We may have felt ill after but it just might have been worth it.  If you make the entire recipe and eat...

I figure this dish cost about $14 dollars.  That is a little higher than I figure my cost is because I had several ingredients that I needed to use.  I did use slightly less than a pound of shrimp.  I think our society eats too much meat and I always go a bit light on the amount of meat called for in any recipe. I also try to go heavier on the vegetables.  For instance in this dish I doubled the spinach. This is one that my husband really liked.  The shrimp don't look too pretty because of cooking in the bacon fat, but they taste great. Lemon Barley “risotto” With Shrimp, Bacon & Spinach 6 sl bacon 1 lb large shrimp(21-25 count) peeled and deveined Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/2 c  chopped shallots or onions 1 1/3 cups quick-cooking barley 1    Tbs. fresh lemon juice 2 1/2 cups homemade or low-salt chicken broth 1/4 lb (4 cups loosely packed) baby spinach,washed and spun dry 1/3 c  freshly grated Pecorino ...

I liked this dish.  There are a few things I would have done differently.  The salmon was a bit overcooked but the green beans were perfect.  Next time, I would start the green beans 2-3 minutes earlier than the fish; say at the point where you toss the beans in the middle of the cooking, I would then add the fish.  I thought the glaze/marinade was great and loved the method of it. I didn't need a starch, but at least the boy did, so I made some rice and added the rest of of the spicy Korean dipping sauce to it.  It was pretty good. Cost of the meal $4.50 per person and I bought expensive wild salmon and french green beans.  I was a little light on the salmon, but 2 packages would have been way more than I needed.  Farmed salmon and regular green beans would have made this about half price per person. Five-Spice-Glazed Salmon With Sesame Green Beans 1/4 c  honey 4 t  reduced-sodium soy sauce 1-1/2 tsp. five-spice powder 2 ...