Eating Dinner With My Family

My daughter requested burgers tonight. I am, shockingly, running low on new burger recipes.  Ok not exactly low, but I only have recipes left to try are low in interest such as this "bikini friendly" burger.  I am innately suspicious of a 'light' burger.  Despite our concerns, we all liked it way more than we thought we would.  My son even rated it a 5!  Burgers are always easy and this one was no exception.  The most taxing thing was chopping the pickles and peppers.  Next time, I would half the peppers.  It might just be the pickled jalapenos we used, but this was really spicy.  It wasn't unbearable on the burgers, but we did want a bit more of the sauce, but didn't think we could take the heat. Turkey Burgers With Spicy Pickle Sauce   1/2 Cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt 1/2 Cup chopped dill pickles 2 Tbl chopped pickled hot peppers Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 1/2 Lb lean ground turkey 1 Tsp smoked swee...

The flavors of this glaze were great, if not that spicy.  We made a small dipping pool of the sriracha on our plates so we could spice it up a bit.  I think that is only because we were expecting spicy.  My husband, who was home late, reheated some in the toaster oven and thought it was really great.  So tasty, but don't expect a lot of heat.  You can always add more.  The 'glaze' wasn't glaze like as I would have thought.  It was more of a thick sauce.  I finished by broiling it for a couple of minutes to try and make it really stick.  My local store didn't have hanger steak, so I used flank and played with the cooking time a bit.  Also, I wasn't buying an expensive bottle of grapeseed oil for this and used safflower instead.  I didn't try this, but I bet you could even make the glaze ahead of time and just cook the meat at dinner time.  The recipe doesn't say this, but I always let meat warm up at least 20 minutes on the...

Let me start with it was a bit of work.  Mostly the work is getting corn off 10 cobs, and normally I would say if you want a short cut, try frozen, but the original recipe says that fresh is essential.  It was totally worth the work!  (click here for a fast way of getting all the silk off corn on the cob)  We all loved it.  I do have some recommendations if you make this.  First of all, the bacon topping was really enough for about half the soup because this makes quite a bit.  My husband shredded up some deli ham on his second bowl.  The chipotle powder only adds spice at the end of the bite, the soup doesn't taste very spicy, so I suggest you do what we did, and let everyone spice theirs up individually.  (my son turned his pink with sriracha!)  Also, have extra of the broth and half and half on hand.  It might just have been we had a fairly large potato that sucked up a lot of the liquid, or that it wasn't supposed to have much...

My family was not happy about this dish! I had some beets to use and have been wanting to try this, so they were out of luck tonight. My son hates beets but deemed this acceptable. My husband, who was cringing at the thought of tonight's dinner was pleasantly surprised! I liked them a lot. 4 stars for me, 3.5 for the boys. They were super quick, as I roasted and made the cheese mixture earlier, so when dinner time came, I needed only to toast the bread.  Roasted Beet Sandwiches With Herbed Goat Cheese 8 medium beets trimmed 1 Tbs. vegetable oil 1/4 Cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 small cloves garlic minced 1/4 Cup thinly sliced chives 1 -1/2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh tarragon Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 Oz fresh goat cheese softened 3/4 Cup (one 7.5 oz. container) crème fraîche 1 Tsp chopped pink peppercorns 6 Four-inch pieces soft-crusted ciabatta bread 3 Cup baby arugula Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375F. Arran...

I love most greens.  Chard, beet, you name it, I love them with two exceptions: Mustard and Collard.  I am not saying I don't like them, but I have never eaten them and been wowed. (well except for the Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Collard Greens , that was amazing)   I got some collard greens this week in my Front Porch Pickings basket, and decided to try this recipe out.  I had just shy of a pound of the collards, so I cut off the beet greens off my beets I also received in the basket and used them to make up the difference.  The only other change I made was I used dried ancho chiles since I couldn't find any dried chipotle. And guess what?  I loved them!  The boy didn't care much for them; I remember being very sensitive to certain flavors as a kid so I kind of understand, but the adults really dug it!  Since I knew the boys would need something besides this dish, my husband fried up some chicken.  (keeping with the ...

Well tonight's dinner was a win.  Not only was it easy to prepare, but it was really tasty!  It kind of reminded me of this cold "smoked salmon" appetizer I had recently at a restaurant I like, so next time I want to play around with it and add the ingredients that were in that dish.  (some brown sugar, dill, and maybe liquid smoke??) Everyone loved the meal.  (well not the 3 year old but she had missed a nap and didn't like anything at that point!)  I think it is really important to get a great mustard.  (and one that has visible mustard seeds in it!!)  And, as I have chives growing in my garden, and whole grain mustard and olive oil are pantry staples, all I needed to buy was the salmon.  (which was good because it isn't exactly economical;)  The only deviation I made was I only roasted it for 2 minutes before the 4 minute broil.  These fillets were a bit smaller and fairly thin.  Next time, I think I could skip the roast all toge...

So I am doing the clean out the fridge thing again.  I had some thin pork chops and a boat load of veggies so I sort of just make it up as I go along.  The marinade for the pork was good, the noodles we will never speak of again!  We all ate them, but liberal application of sriacha and soy sauce were needed.  That combo could most likely make anything taste good!  So, I am passing on the marinade recipe!  I let the pork sit in it for a couple of hours.  Ginger Miso Marinade 1 tsp sesame oil 1/4 c soy sauce 1 tbsp miso, red 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated 1 clove garlic, minced Put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk.  Pour over the meat in a ziploc bag and seal tight. :-)