Eating Dinner With My Family

Well tonight I had it so easy!  My darling friend and their wonderful family invited the clan over for a cookout.  We had some delicious burgers, beans, cheesy cauliflower, veggies, chips and a ton of other things that I can only assumed were cooked for the army that didn't show up.  I felt like a total slacker only showing up with a bottle of wine, chocolate cake and Prosciutto and fontina pinwheels.  (I forgot my husband's beer, but they kindly provided theirs:)  Since I bought the cake from the always wonderful Publix bakery (I am no baker) and since I did not bottle the wine, I can only provide the recipe to the pinwheels.  I wanted to make something for tonight, so I looked on the F & W website.  I found this recipe under the make ahead appetizers.  It was pretty tasty.  I think I need to perfect my technique.  They didn't puff, and I expected them too.  (they are made from PUFF pastry after all)  I...

Tonight's recipe was one we have made once before.  I loved it last time, but this time I dumped too much pasta into the sauce, almost the whole box, when it should have been 3/4 of the box.  Not having enough sauce made it a bit bland.  I will make it again, but I will make sure I don't over do the pasta.  I made the bread crumbs from the rest of a baguette we didn't finish. ( Tip: Any bread you don't finish works great like this.  I put them in freezer until I need them.) This dish is lightning fast to make!  Spaghetti With Sun-Dried-Tomato-Almond Pesto 4 Servings     1/2 c  drained oil-packed -sun-dried tomatoes (3 ounces)     1/3 c  salted roasted almonds       1    large garlic clove,sliced     1/2 c  extra-virgin olive oil,plus more for drizzling            Salt and freshly ground  ...

Well tonight my family had this.  It is a favorite of the boys. I, however, went out with some of the girls to the Ormond Wine Co.  We had lots of great cheeses, flatbreads and wine.  We were loud and laughed too much but don't really care.  It was just too much fun!  I did prep everything for the dish in advance.  That way my husband only had to cook the rice and salmon when they were ready to eat.  It is a nice dish because it is easy, light and great for summer because it isn't really hot.  It is fairly low fat and it is fairly low calorie.  My husband did NOT take a picture so I get to give him lots of grief which is in its self its own reward;)  Salmon With Thai Rice Salad  4 Servings   1 1/2 c  long-grain rice       3 T  lime juice (from about 2 limes)       3 T  Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam)       2 T...

Well, the massive amount of meatballs leftover from last night required something to be done with them to prevent waste. (I abhor waste!) I wanted to use them but I didn't want them to be the exactly same because I also hate repeats.  I also needed something pretty quick because we had late activities for the kids and house guests coming into town in a few hours.  (that means lots of cleaning for those of you who don't live in chaos;)  I also didn't want to go the grocery if it was going to be (in the words of Alton Brown) a "pantry raid." Luckily I shop like Armageddon is coming every tomorrow, so I have lots of stuff to work with.  I decided to make quesadillas because I had cheese and tortillas that needed to be used.  Since I wanted them to be a bit different from last night, I seasoned the meatballs with cumin as I reheated them.  I then threw them in the tortillas with some leftover shredded mozzarella, and sauteed them up in some butte...

I have been on a quest for a great meatball recipe.  The two leading contenders up to this point, are one that is pretty easy yet fairly tasty, and one that is more labor intensive but not as much more tasty as it is more work.  Tonight's dinner started off bad.  It began with it taking SO much longer than anticipated.  Then the meatballs fought back with grease splatters.  I got hit on the arms, face, eye and neck.  (ouch!!)  The directions were a bit vague for me too.  What exactly is "hand crushed tomatoes?"  It must be somewhere between the way crushed tomatoes look in a can and what a tomato looks like when you hit it with a hammer.  Do I tear up the pieces or just smoosh it?  In the end, I think it wouldn't have mattered, but during the process, I would have liked more info.  I want to hate this recipe! I REALLY want to hate this recipe.  Well, EXPLETIVE, I didn't.  It did have a few things I thin...

Tonight we made a recipe I have been wanting to try for a long time. We didn't really care for it, so I don't want to name the chef because I like really like her.  I know I didn't make it perfectly because there was some liquid on the parchment and it made the bottoms soggy.  The flavor was pretty good, but it was nowhere as good as the smell promised.  Also, while I didn't find it too labor intensive, it was more work than I wanted to do for the average results.  I also used sockeye salmon and for the money, I have much better recipes.  The best part of the meal is the dessert.  It is from an older issue of Food & Wine. (2008)  It is a spoon bread, and it came from the feature "Test Kitchen".  I love this feature.  This particular one was about a seasonal fruit dessert.  The same basic recipe can be used to create variations on the same dessert. (cobbler, crisp etc...)  I LOVE it made with plums!...

Tonight’s dinner was VERY much enjoyed by the boys. I liked it too, but chicken is not my favorite thing to eat; it kind of wigs me out. (No, I don’t know why, but poultry of all kinds just gives me the willies.) It was pretty good though. We didn’t cook it on the grill, we gave it grill marks in a cast iron grill pan on the stove over high heat, and finished it in a 350 degree oven for the time recommended over indirect heat. When the chicken came up to temp, we glazed one side and put it under the broiler for about 3 minutes then took it out and flipped it and glazed the other side and broiled again for another 3 minutes. I am also not a fan of savory and sweet mixed, but the dish was not particularly sweet despite the brown sugar, maple syrup, and honey. The glaze was really outstanding. Cleaning up the cast iron pan is a bit of a pain, so a grill, I think, will be preferable. If you are not familiar with 5 spice powder, it is an unusual taste. It is a blend of fennel s...