Eating Dinner With My Family

Close your eyes and imagine all the delicious awesomeness of a burger.  Ok, now imagine all the deliciousness of a breakfast of a runny yolk and bacon.  Make those two awesome meals have a baby!  Now you have an idea of what this burger tastes like!  It was really good.  I think that the pickled onions are brilliant.  The best testament I can give this burger is that my boy didn't ask for any mayonnaise for it.  You may not know it by looking at his long, lean pre-teen self, but that kid had one hell of a mayo love monkey on his back.  I told him he had to try one bite without the mayo, but, after that, he could add it after he tried it as is.  He never asked!  I can't even begin to process that fact:).  I was forced into one deviation, I couldn't find smoked cheddar, so I got smoked Gruyere.  Oh it was just wonderful. I don't think the picture does justice to it's awesomeness;).  Fairly easy to make.  Most ...

Well this was a Paula Deen recipe, and Paula while I love ya, I had to adjust the fat and salt.  You can see her original recipe by clicking on the title of the recipe, but here you see my measurements.  Basically I cut the oil and bouillon cubes in half.  Just thinking about 4 bouillon cubes and a can of condensed soup should be  tons of salt.  I can always add more but it is a huge pain to try and remove too much salt!  I also didn't make her salt, pepper and garlic blend; I just eyeballed each individual ingredient when seasoning the meat.  Oh and when I finished browning the meat, (in a non- nonstick pan:) I poured out the oil and deglazed the pan with a couple of splashes of a low sodium broth I had in the fridge.  (chicken this time)  I decided to make a pot roast because the chuck roasts were on sale at Publix and my husband like pot roast.  I usually find it too fatty a cut of meat.  Well fast forward 8 hours.  The mea...

My first thought upon completing this dish was it really isn't pretty is it!  My fist bite was pronounced ok.  I decided that I really needed to add more than a dash of garlic and salt.  I also made one other change.  There was tons of the bacon fat left in the pan.  Maybe the bacon was extra fatty or thicker than the original recipe called for so I omitted the butter.  The noodles were done at the same time they were to go into the cabbage, so I didn't need to worry about them sticking to each other.  Maybe they meant salted butter and that would account for the need for a bit more salt.  (I did a dash of salt and a dash of granulated garlic.  I try to never by my seasonings mixed.  It costs less and you can easily do it yourself)  Well after the additional seasoning, (oh a splash of hot sauce as well)  I have to say I started to really like the dish.  The bites with a bit of  every component were really great! Two o...

I had some sliced jalapenos, a couple of half used onions, cartons of broth, cilantro and some sour cream I needed to use, so I did a take on the family favorite, Enchilada Chicken . While I think it came out great, I was so missing the chimichuri sauce.  The fresh cilantro and lettuce just didn't cut it.  So next time I must make the chimichuri!  While it took some time to cook, the prep was easy and quick. Creamy Chicken Tacos Canola Oil 3 chicken breasts 1 green pepper roughly chopped 1 large onion, roughly chopped 2 small jalapenos sliced 3 ribs of celery, roughly chopped 3 garlic cloves, crushed 2 Tablespoons of Vegetable oil 3/4 cup cilantro, chopped Chicken broth to cover (i used about 2.5 cups) 1 can diced tomatoes 1/2 cup salsa 1 can pinto beans, drained 1/2- 3/4 cups sour cream tortillas scallions, lettuce and cilantro for serving Hot sauce, for serving Put a little canola oil in the bottom of a high sided pot and heat over mediu...

I had plenty of leftover cooked lentils and Israeli Couscous after the vegan burger fiasco.  I also found like 3 containers of lemons.  The war with the fridge was on, again.  Lemons made me think of seafood; I choose shrimp as we hadn't had them in a while.  I knew I wanted to try to make a side of the lentils and couscous, but they needed something.  That something was 2 six ounce bags of spinach.  The result was really good.  I loved it, my husband really liked it, the boy hates cooked spinach so he was not in love with it.  I cooked the spinach like it is in the Italian Sausage Burgers with Garlicky Spinach .  It is really good by itself.  I let my husband saute the shrimp.  I wanted to put them on skewers and grill them, but he offered to saute them up so I let him.  I know they were sauteed in butter with some garlic, salt and red pepper flakes. Lentils, Couscous and Wilted Spinach 2 cups Israeli Couscous, cooked 1 c...

I love, love, love arugula, so it is no surprise that I loved this dish.  My family, ate everything on their plate, but didn't rave like I did.  The only criticism I had was the tomatoes.  Tomatoes are another favorite of mine, but they seemed odd in the dish.  Maybe because they weren't part of every bite?  I would for sure cut them smaller next time.  The original recipe (which as always is linked from the recipe title) has homemade pasta.  My pasta machine has lost a couple parts and is not an option.  I know I need to replace it but since I hate dough making...  Oh and this dish is lightning fast!  I bought whole wheat spaghetti, oops:)  but despite the fact that the wider would have held the pesto better the spaghetti worked fine. Whole-Wheat Fettuccine With Arugula Pesto 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 T  pine nuts 2    packed cups baby arugula (2 ounces) 1/4 c  freshly grated Parmigiano-R...

This was a huge pain to make.  Pre make the lentils and couscous. The patties were difficult to shape and cook. Lots of work for what I see as very little return.  I didn't care for how sweet the patty was; the raisin flavor dominated.  I will give it this, I'm sure it was healthy.  I will also give it that it was a new and unusual flavor.  I didn't hate it, but I don't plan on keeping the recipe.  I haven't had a lot of vegan food, but I have to believe that there are better vegan burgers out there. Veggie Burgers With Pomegranate Ketchup 1/2 c  Raisins 1/4 c  roasted almonds,chopped 1/2 lb white mushrooms 1 c  steamed shelled edamame 2 1/2 c  cooked green or brown lentils 2 c  cooked Israeli couscous 2 1/2 t  curry powder 1 T  fresh lemon juice 2 t  ground dried porcini Kosher salt 1 1/2 T  canola oil 3    burger buns,split and toasted 1/2 c  ketchup mixed with 1 tablespo...