Eating Dinner With My Family

I am making my Easter dinner tonight since my mom will be here but is leaving Easter morning to drive home. As I am looking in my fridge that is bursting at its seams, I discover I haven't used my kale from Front Porch Pickings ! I love kale, how did I miss it?! I was worried it might not be usable since I got it in my basket a week ago Friday and greens aren't known for their long shelf life. But they were perfect. My mom even said what beautiful kale. Just one more benefit to getting local produce. Since it had only recently left the ground, the produce lasts longer. But I digress! I decided to make it a simple meal of ham, colcannon and salad. I used a bit more kale than was called for in the recipe and liked it so much, I will in the future too. We had had a late lunch and my mom pointed out that the colcannon was a starch & a veg so we even skipped the salad. It was a simple but very tasty meal. I am totally in love with the kale & potato combination of flav...

Round 2 of being extra nice to the hubby, making him a dessert.  Not being a dessert lover, I don't make them often nor do I practice the craft of making them.  I see this one as kind of cheating as it is so not from scratch, but he loves peanut butter and chocolate.  I accepted the cheating in order to give him something he likes and make it easy on me.  It was pretty good.  I skipped having dessert but I tasted it.  It is very rich and I think the boys felt a little ill after they finished.  Another recipe I found on pinterest.  Not as good as the chicken;).  Oh and just FYI, I try to keep my blog PG or cleaner, but the link to the other blog is more pg-13. Perfect Couple Pie   chocolate graham cracker crust peanut butter cream cheese Cool Whip Hot Fudge Topping Sugar Recipe and instructions here

My husband has had a rough few days at work so I decided to make something I thought he would love.  I thought this recipe looked and sounded awesome (and according to the site over a million views so...) but I am always a little nervous of pintrest pins most likely since the first one I tried was a failure. (no you can not make a light stick out of mountain dew!)  I was nervous personally since I generally don't care for sweet & savory.  Heck sweets in general.  I have enjoyed deserts from time to time but 90% of the time I would rather have an appetizer over dessert. I did alter it a bit.  I cut out 1/3 of the ground ginger.  I thought it was too much but I think it would I've been ok if I used it all.  I also only had 3/4 cups of honey left, so I used it but still kept the 1/4 cup soy.  I also added a few more cloves of garlic since I was using the press to mince them and it doesn't get the whole clove in the dish.  The result?  W...

I worked as a server in college at a Bob Evans.  Even though I think they are just a mini step above fast food, I still do like their sausage gravy.  My son LOVES it.  I decided to try an make a sausage gravy for him today.  Now, while I am from just about as south as you can get in the US, southern Florida is most definitely not 'the south.'  I didn't look up a recipe, I just kind of did what I thought should go in to a gravy, so if I made any cardinal sausage gravy sins, I apologize.  The end result was very tasty. I loved the flavor the wine & herb chicken broth gave the gravy. I am making this for my mom when she gets here with the other half of the sausage. Sausage Gravy 1 tbsp oil 1/2 Lb sausage 1//2 Cup broth (I used Wine & herb chicken broth and I think its what made the gravy) 1.5 Tbl butter (unsalted) If needed 3 Tbl flour 1/2 Cup heavy cream 1 cups of milk. (more if necessary to get the right consistency) Sa...

I thought this soup was wonderful!  But the amazing thing, my son who hates cauliflower, who used up one of his two veto ingredients on cauliflower, loved it too.  He rated it a 4!  Lets just let that sink in; the boy who gags when he puts cauliflower in his mouth, loved cauliflower soup.  Wow!  It was easy and fast to make, with most of the time spent largely inactive cooking time.  While it uses chicken stock, it could easily be made vegetarian with veggie broth.  With the chicken broth, does it count as meatless for meatless Monday?  I did have a bit of a problem with the Parmesan crisp.  It didn't break off the sheet of aluminium in large peices, it crumbled off.  Next time I won't spread it so thinly.     Silky Cauliflower Soup With Parmesan Crisps 1 head cauliflower 2 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 1 small onion chopped 2 Clove garlic minced 1 Qt low-sodium chicken stock 1/2 Cup finely grated Parmesan Salt and...

Tonight I revisit the dish I thought was so close to perfection but fell slightly short Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream .  I think I must have had a bee in my bonnet that night and was harsher than I needed to be in my summation of the dish as is, but I really do like the changes I made.  I do think the fresh ginger makes a difference.  (at least to me, perhaps not to everyone)  Most importantly is to watch the cooking time.  The original recipe, I believe called for Atlantic Salmon, but I always buy wild salmon and all the Atlantic Salmon in my supermarket is farmed.  When I made it tonight, I used Coho and the fillets were pretty thick.  I updated the original post with the change I made in cooking time.  (bake at for 10 and broil for 2-3) To have a new recipe for tonight, I made Asian Ginger Carrot dressing.  While everyone liked it, I think the onion I used was way to strong for the dressing.  A mild, sweet onion, just might ma...

This recipe is out of Top Chef: The Cookbook .  I have made it before, long, long ago and really loved it.  It was still tasty this time too.  My biggest problem that happened, then and now, was the pasta just didn't get done enough.  Before, I used angle hair pasta as I couldn't find fideos, but this time, I spotted some in the store and thought I would try it again with the proper pasta and it will get done enough.  Wrong.  It was edible, and yummy at that, but seemed ill prepared.  I don't think this is how it came out when made by the chef.  And while I expect that they will make a dish much better than I could, I am perplexed as to how to work around this issue I keep having with out adding a lot more liquid and increasing the cooking time.  So while I wholeheartedly recommend you make this dish, I just want to give you a heads up on what to expect.  If you find the solution, please clue me in:)! Fideos with Clams & Saffron ...