Eating Dinner With My Family

It seems that my belief that I struck the fridge a mortal blow the last time we met in battle was presumptuous.  It has retaliated by actively breeding its contents in the dark of night and doubling its number of suicide troops. (you know those items that are stacked on top of other items and leap at you when you open the door!) It is hoarding its leftovers in order to keep the temperature cooler in there and there just so it can start freezing items and ruining them just for spite.  I am tempted, with the same spite, to just blitzkrieg its a$$ by throwing out all the contents and starting over. But I can't, there are too many pricey condiments in there to justify such a drastic action.  The only way I am going to beat this monster is to make a meal that resembles heavily patched jeans. (IE 1 leftover pizza slice, 1 burger, some random 1/2 portions of sides and some odds and ends of cheese blocks.  yummy, NOT!) I don't know if I can do that. ...

With a moniker with all the doubles, this burger was not as amazing as one would think.  Not bad mind you, but it didn't make want to, as they say in the colorful vernacular of the south, "slap your mama!"  I have to say, while I am trying to make every recipe exactly following instructions, (for learning the process and giving me a starting place to work on the recipe for my family's tastes) I am really getting tired of a recipe for four burgers calling for a pound and a half of meat!  These burgers were monsters! I would never make larger than 1/4 pound burger for myself.  Often when I make burgers of my own creation, I make the pound in to different size burgers based on the person. (think like papa bear, mama bear and baby bear) The absolute best thing about these burgers was the Camembert!  I love Camembert, but it is just amazing on a burger.  It melts in to almost a sauce.  It was also perfect in that it mellowed the Gorgonzola.  Double-P...

I love having breakfast for dinner because eggs are such a quick and easy dinner fix.  Not only are frittatas fast, but they are adaptable to so many ingredients.  I particularly like this one with the spaghetti squash.  I love the earthy sweet flavor.  A frittata is also an easy way to get some veggies in kids that they may otherwise turn their nose up at.  I know a big bowl of the squash with some seasoned butter would make my day, the boy not so much, but this dish he doesn't complain at all. I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light.  Of course in the adaptation I made it a little less light, but not horribly so.  and because I hate waste (and only for that reason lol) I am going to make a coconut cream pie  with the 4 egg yolks I had left over after I made the frittata;). Spaghetti Squash, Onion, and Potato Frittata 1/3 cup 1% low-fat milk 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs (2 tsps dried )* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 te...

In anticipation of our next neighborhood progressive dinner, in which the theme with be burgers, I decided to try another burger recipe.  It was really good.  It wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be considering how many peppers are in it, but I did make sure to remove all seeds and ribs which contain most of the capsaicin. I didn't make 6, I made 4 burgers.  I have a recipe program called accuchef that I really like that will recaculate the recipe for you, but I wanted to share it in it's original form.  (I like my accuchef but it costs, pepperplate  is a free on line recipe management program that I have but I use accuchef the most) I also had some corn that I needed to use. (yes the epic struggle between a cook and her fridge is still in full swing.  I needed to use up some yogurt, hence the burger I chose to try)  I remember seeing Aaron Sanchez on The Best I Ever Ate talking about a grilled corn with cheese and lime.  I found this recipe ...

Well I am going to keep this short.  We went and had a wonderful evening with dear friends and made some new ones.  They cooked some hamburgers, hot dogs, wings and kielbasa and I brought some sides.  I made a coleslaw that I just kind of threw together,  my Loaded Potato Salad, and this Fresh Corn Casserole that I had never made before.  I liked it a lot and so did quite a few others. (lots of people asked for the recipe)  We were having too much fun for me to remember to take a picture but imagine corn flecked with red and green. I got this recipe from the Food Network.  If you would like to see the original you can click here.   I did make two changes.  I used unsalted butter and I diced the jalapenos smaller than the red pepper. Casserole With Red Bell Peppers And Jalapenos 8    ears corn (still in the husk) 2    red bell peppers,diced 2    fresh jalapenos,diced small 1 c...

After winning, what I would call, a key battle with my kitchen food storage devices, I decide to push while I had the advantage.  I had bought way too many salad greens, so I knew I wanted salad to be the main part of our meal, but that wouldn't satisfy the boys.  I had some carrots, scallions and egg roll wrappers to use, so I bought some napa and mushrooms to finish out the filling.  I don't recall ever making egg rolls myself; I have eaten plenty however.  I have made plenty of dumplings and crab Rangoon so I figured these would be something I could figure out.   I was more critical than my husband. (but aren't we all of our own work?)  For sure, I didn't drain the filling enough.  The inside was a bit wet and one half of the roll was not as crisp despite the busting out of the deep fryer. I thought I didn't put enough filling in each roll too.  At the end of the meal, my darling husband ate 5 1/2 so I guess his pronouncement of outstandin...

The sun was not shining, it was too wet to play, my husband wouldn't be home for dinner that day.  So I sat there staring, not knowing what to do, and I thought how I wish I had some other food*! *to work with in my fridge;) Whenever my brain is too tired, taxed or just plain wants a vacation, I seem to regress to silliest moments of childhood.  I have a refrigerator full to bursting and a pantry that is rebelling against its lack of room by periodically tossing food at me when I open the door, so I still my urge to shop for what I want to eat tonight and say I will just make sustenance and forget how tasty it is.  I'm not even that hungry, but the kids need to eat.  What is the number one thing that I need to use and I will build a dish around it.  The refrigerator, (who I think is planning it's attacks with the pantry) says well the thing that needs to be used is the 'krab'.  OK I have to confess, I have a weakness for the fake crab....

I first tried this recipe when a friend brought them over to my house for a party.  I loved them.  She said she got them out of a book of Tibetan recipes.  They are not the most photogenic of foods but they are delicious.  My thoughtful friend gave me some of the Kopan Masala, but I did find the recipe  online.  In a pinch I think you could use Garam Masala  which is available at the supermarket. I didn't have the  Indian Tomato Red Powder and I didn't go looking for it since it said optional.  I am giving the recipe as she gave it to me, but I changed it a bit.  I didn't have red onion on hand so I used the yellow ones I did.  I also cut the semicircles in half.  In fact I believe I cut all the veggies I used in to smaller pieces than the recipe seemed to call for.  Nothing was larger than a quarter. Love that this recipe can use any and all veggies that are on hand.  I used broccoli (this made up about hal...

My husband got a new grill for this 40th birthday and we have been enjoying it.  As almost a joke I got my husband one of those stands for beer can chicken.  I have never enjoyed the taste of beer and the whole idea of cooking chicken this way makes me think of it as the culinary equivalent of the mullet hair haircut.  However, I believe in trying everything so we gave it a go. He rubbed the outside of the chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder.  We stuck a can of Yuengling in it and put it over the indirect heat for a long time.  (I think it was close to 45 minutes)  I have to admit it was some of the moistest chicken I have ever had.  I did get a hint of beer but not enough to make me dislike it.  With it we had a salad and Roasted Baby Carrots with Herbed Mustard Butter .  I have to say that the carrots were my favorite.  We had a lovely bunch from my Front Porch Pickings  basket.  They were a tad large for...

I got a "green basket" from Front Porch Pickings.   They deliver produce to my area and the Tampa area,  and they specialize in local and organic produce.  I got many beautiful things in this basket and I wanted to use as much as possible in my first dish.  I decided to adapt the recipe for chilaquiles with roasted tomatillo salsa from Marcela Valladolid to the ingredients I got in my basket.  (Mainly because I got some lovely tomatillos and I love chilaquiles)  So while it is similar, I did make some substitutions to fit my ingredients, as you will see if you compare the two recipes.  It was an amazing dish.  Everyone loved it and the boy was disappointed that there wasn't enough for seconds.  (I am trying to avoid leftovers as they plague me;)  It was perfect.  I have had them in restaurants and this is just as good.  I even got rid of some leftover chicken.  I sliced it up and warmed it in a bit of the salsa and b...

Our third progressive dinner in the neighborhood happened tonight.  It was as always  full of amazing friends, family and food.  Just to reiterate, a progressive dinner is where each course takes place at another location.  In this case a different house on the cul de sac.  It is really fun to do because everyone can be the host of the party and the movement keeps the party fresh.  You sit with different people, new scenery, and conversation is sparked my many things.  There was a loose theme of favorite 'celeberty' chef, and  I believe the first dish we started out with was either a famous grandma or her grandson who made this dish:)  It was a wonderful dish.  The ingredients were chicken, mushrooms, broccoli and pasta tossed lightly in a honey mustard sauce.  So good that I ate way to much knowing that there was much to follow. And I was not alone in this;). Next we had a  Green Chile Cheeseburger  from Bobby Fl...

Well tonight's dinner was easy, and not too pricey but those were the only things it truly excelled at.  The dish it's self wasn't terrible, but it lacked some moisture.  Either some of the pasta cooking water, cream or tomato sauce would have helped save the dish.  It was dry and chunky.  I liked the flavor but it was very one dimensional.  If I were to make this again, I think I would play around with the ricotta and try to make it more of a sauce.  Not a complete fail, but not a resounding success either.  I think the main issue my boys had with it were the fact that it was not as high fat a dish as they would have likes.  And in the case of the boy, I think that he objected to the nutmeg a bit.  I think I would keep this in the fixable file.  It is more for me than the boys.  It was a super quick and filling dinner and sometimes that's just what you need. Baked Rigatoni With Spinach, Ricotta, And Fontina 1 lb rigatoni ...

So I saw a snippet of a recipe for  chicken cordon bleu sandwich.  Intrigued, I decided to create my own,  I believe the original sandwich was more like the original dish with a chicken breast fried and then the ham, cheese and dijon added to the sandwich.  I wanted to do more of a panini than a fried chicken sandwich.  Other than hamburgers, I prefer a thinner sandwich and thinly sliced meats.  You could just make it like a grilled cheese, but I like the panini pan for the appearance and crispiness it gives the sandwich.  It was a super fast, and delicious dinner.  In fact my son declared it was this third favorite dish of all time!  I was totally loving it but I don't know if I would go that far.  The measurements for the sandwich depend on the size of your bread and on your personal preferences. Start with the bread.  Give it a thin coating of dijon mustard evenly over the e...

Upon opening the refrigerator yesterday, I saw I had 4 (count them 4) open cartons of stock. They needed to be used, and I had some odds and ends I needed to use up too, so it is another clean out the fridge soup. What did I find that I needed to use? ½ bunch of Italian parsley ½ jar of pimentos 2 parsnips ½ onion ½ can of tomato paste 4 stalks of celery 4 scallions 1/3 to ½ of a carton each of vegetable, chicken (x2) and chicken with wine and herbs stock 1 frozen chicken breast (for tomorrow’s dinner) 2 rinds from parmesan cheese ½ cup of cream They didn’t need to be used but I threw in a couple of cloves of garlic as well and a bit of olive oil to sauté the veggies So I put the oil in a stock pot. Added the parsnips (peeled and diced), celery (diced), onion (diced) and scallions (sliced) with a pinch of salt and cooked over medium heat until the celery and onion became soft. I threw in the pimentos and cooked another minute. I added the tomato paste, parsley, t...

When I first started doing this blog, I wanted to have a way to share recipes with my friends and keep personal notes on the recipes we try because I planned on having an entire year of not repeating a dish.  I wanted to do this for two reasons. I wanted to expand my and my family's palette beyond the dishes that we already loved, and I also wanted to push myself culinarily by trying  to make some things that I may not necessarily tried before because they were out of my comfort zone.  Now that I'm getting close to have completed a year of new recipes (Every day trying a new recipe it isn't very practical, and to never miss a day because of eating out or a special occasion is virtually impossible)  I am looking to what I want to do with the next year of my culinary training and food experiences. Its always been a dream of mine it to eat as seasonal and local as possible and so I would like to...

Well, since it is mother's day, I get taken out to dinner.  Normally I would just skip tonight's post, but I gotta give a local business some serious props!  Originally we were to try a new place as my husband knows it is a bit of an obsession to try every place in town that could even remotely be good.  We had been to this place before so.... if it weren't for a faulty hot water heater, we would have had the time to travel to New Smyrna and would have missed out on what could be on the top ten meals I have ever eaten EVER.  (keeping future meal in mind too!)  So just a heads up to anyone ever in the Daytona beach/ Ormond beach area you must try Toscana 621 S Yonge St in Ormond. (386) 615-0350. If you are interested you can read the reviews (including mine) at http://www.yelp.com/biz/toscana-ristorante-italiano-ormond-beach

The horror! The raita;) Well I was having a friend over and she loves Indian food.  I wanted her to try a recipe I made on February 2nd ( http://ormonddinners.blogspot.com/2012/02/best-ever-chicken-balti.html ) because it was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten.  But, as I want a new recipe every day, I went looking for a side dish to try.  I had plenty of Greek yogurt to use, so I decided on the spinach raita.  That was a mistake.  No one liked it at all.  I couldn't believe how much it disappointed considering that it was chuck full of spinach and garlic.  The only deviation I made was with the dried red chilli; I used red pepper flakes.  In addition we had some samosas and chickpea fritters and rice.  Anyone out there know why the raita was such a epic fail?  Got a better recipe?  Please let me know:). Palak Ka Raita - Spinach Raita - Spinach In Yogurt 2 T  vegetable/ canola/ sunflower cooking oil 1 bn spina...

Yesterday was the boy's birthday, today is my husband's, so I decided to make him a meal of all things he loves and I don't.  I'm not the biggest fan of chicken,or BBQ. (eewww)  I was looking in my file folder of my husband's favorite recipes (which sadly haven't been made in forever) and I saw this BBQ sauce recipe I had only made once before but I remember him raving about.  Things I hate, BBQ check.  Oh no it gets worse yellow mustard. (I detest yellow mustard)  It is also got 'daddy' in the title!  Eureka!  And I have chicken in the fridge!  The only thing I needed to buy was yellow mustard. (and since the chicken was there because it was BOGO I can say that the meal cost $1.40 lol  oh and plus sides (coleslaw and cheddar/scallion biscuits) but they weren't much) I tossed the chicken in the sauce, they were then grilled while basting them with the sauce when they were turned.  Just to finish them off, they were cooked ...

Not bad for not being bakers:) Today my boy turns 11!  I can't believe it!  Despite the fact I am trying to do an entire year of new dishes, logistically it can't happen every day. (vacations, special occasions, etc...) So, for tonight's dinner I asked my darling boy what he wanted for dinner and he said fish tacos.  Now our fish tacos are not really that traditional, but they are among those dishes of ours that everyone raves about.  They are also a dish we made up ourselves.  Just in the off chance we ever get a restaurant, we don't share the taco recipe;).  However I get around the whole having a new recipe by making a dessert we have never made before.  My son's favorite cake is red velvet.  So who do I turn to for a recipe?  Well the queen of southern cooking of course.  Red velvet is a southern thing right?  We did cheat a little; we bought the cream cheese frosting.  There is a very good reason though.  It ...

My daughter has a new found love affair with shrimp.  Yes the two year old who turned her nose up at even tasting shrimp for a year now, can't get enough.  Well as I had some in the freezer and I really need to thin out my overflowing pantry/freezer/fridge, so I thought I would play around with the shrimp and the grill.  I also found one small lonely piece of cod in the freezer so I thought I would cook it up too.  I remember my friend once made a very tasty shrimp on the grill and I seem to recall that he said that they were brushed with honey mustard.  Eureka, I have left over "outback" honey mustard from the 30th.  (and I am calling this in my head shrimp on the barbie and giggling.  Could this be fate?)  I brushed half of the skewers with the honey mustard and let them sit for about 15 minutes.  I spooned the dressing that had run off the shrimp and reapplied it half way through.  The rest, I either left plain or brushed with a ...

I decided to make this one tonight because I had leftover feta from the gyros.  My family weren't the happiest since I am the only one who like artichokes and olives, but they managed.  On the plus side, the chicken was really juicy.  On the down side, the sauce was odd.  I would have liked the sauce to be less chunky.  It was like eating a artichoke salad on your chicken. I would also have liked more olives. The flavors were nice, but I think a finer texture would be better. I'm not sure how a puree would work, but minced should.  It makes for a lot more work, but I wouldn't make this again unless I did some "fixing," so I put it in the fixable file.  The whole dinner cost about $12.  Not too bad. Chicken Breasts With Artichoke-Olive Sauce 1/4 c  plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 3 T  fresh lemon juice 2 t  finely grated lemon zest 3    garlic cloves,minced 1 T  choppe...

Now I really adore Alton Brown and I totally want to try this recipe with the homemade "English muffins," but I just didn't have the time today but I was having a craving so I only put the eggs and hollandaise recipes as the main body of the post.  However, if you are like me and just crazy enough to try, I have included the "muffin" recipe at the bottom.  Now on to the meal we did eat.  As I was making the hollandaise, I was getting worried.  It was very thin and very lemony.  Oops, I had only cut up one stick of butter; ok feeling better because that would solve above problems.  Once the second and final stick of butter was incorporated, I still felt that an entire tablespoon of lemon juice would be too much so I only put in a 1/2 tablespoon.  Now while this hollandaise tasted really great with the eggs, bread and ham, it was not the kind you just want to eat by the spoonful.  (ok thinking on that it may be a GREAT thing because who needs to eat...

Well it was one of those days that finds my refrigerator too full of tasty leftovers to justify making a whole new meal.  In lieu of a new dinner recipe, I tried these Shortbread lemon bars.  The were very good, and a lot easier than I would have thought them to be.  If anything, I think I would add a tad more lemon juice as I am a fan of really sour deserts. Then again, its baking and I am no where near to proficient in it to start messing around with recipes.  My husband loved them as is. Shortbread Lemon Bars 2 c  plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 c  powdered sugar 1/2 t  fine salt 2    8 ounces cold unsalted butter,cut into small pieces, plus more  dish 1 3/4 c  granulated sugar 6    large eggs 3/4 c  freshly squeezed lemon juice from 5 medium lemons 2 t  finely grated lemon zest from 1 medium lemon 1.  Heat the oven to 350F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat a 13-b...