Eating Dinner With My Family

 Now, I do like a good grilled romaine, and I don't hate bacon, so this was going to be good.  Both my son and I LOVED it.  After both our first bites we looked at each other and were like that was good!  The dressing with the blue cheese was the star, but grilled romaine held its own.  My husband came home about an hour after we ate, and I fired up the grill again to provide him with a freshly grilled salad.  After his first bite, he said "what is this stuff on the lettuce, it's awesome!'.  So I consider that a clean sweep as the two year old doesn't eat anything but fruit at this point:).  I have to say that this recipe being a triumph is sorely needed. I realize how dependent I have become on my Accuchef recipe program.  I sent off an email to their support.  I know it's Sunday, but my accuchef being down, and haven't heard from support,  is really annoying me and I am using pepperplate in the mean time, and I thin...

I had some left over corn tortillas and thought this would be a great way to use them up.  Besides, I am always looking for good appetizers or munchies for cocktail parties.  They were great, but there is one issue; they didn't cook evenly.  I took a picture of the ones I thought looked the best and left out the really brown ones.  I think those might have tasted better.  I also think they fared better the next day.  The light gold ones tasted a tad stale, while the brown (almost burnt looking) ones didn't.  I still loved them and am looking forward to playing around with the recipe.  I think they are excellent baked tortilla chips that could be a perfect canvass for all kinds of seasonings.  On a totally personal note, I am in crisis as my Accuchef program appears to have gone kaput!  I have about 400 personal recipes and almost 400 to try recipes that will be lost if I can't get it working.  The only silver lining is that most of...

I was really tired today, and wanted nothing more than to skip feeding my family and go to bed.  Instead, I wracked my tired brain and browsed my many recipes saved on pinterest to see if I could find one that would be fast, easy and tasty and didn't involve a crock pot. (it was already after 4)  I thought these looked really tasty and decided to make them.  I did alter it a bit.  First of all, and not intentionally, I left out the poppy seeds.  I didn't have them.  I was sure I did and didn't even check before I ran to the store for the rolls and ham.  I still believe that there are some in there.  I have celery seeds, sesame seeds (white and black) mustard seeds, and two (2 really?) jars of fennel seeds.  Oh and huge bags of coriander and fenugreek too.  So really, no poppy?  I just don't believe it but they were left off.  I also used 3/4 pound of meat and cheese each.  I still thought it was a bit much.  I was pr...

I happened to like this a lot.  My husband thought it was just ok and my son hated the spinach.  I had an issue with the spinach, but it is the same issue I have with all pastas with greens in them.  The spinach clumped up and you ended up getting big bites that were just spinach.,  I would like it better if there was some of everything in each bite.  It was fast and easy so that is something, but I am probably the only one who would want it again.   Spaghetti With Spinach, Tomatoes And Goat Cheese 3/4 lb spaghetti 1/4 c  extra-virgin olive oil 2    garlic cloves,thinly sliced Pinch of crushed red pepper 1 c  grape tomatoes (6 ounces) halved Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 c  baby spinach (7 ounces) 1/4 c  freshly grated pecorino cheese,plus more for serving 4    ounces fresh goat cheese crumbled (1 cup) 1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until it ...

These were really awesome!  Everyone declared them a favorite.  They resemble our favorite appetizer at a restaurant in DeLand that we love.  They were a bit of work, but not terribly so.  There are lots of little steps.  I cooked the onion and poblano mixture at the same time as the beans and that kept the time down.  Next time there are people over, this is what we are making.  They are also vegetarian!  They not only taste amazing they look pretty good too.  The poblanos had a bit of heat but not too much and the simple mashed beans were really good.  We almost made more of them when we had finished what we had.  We had some extra beans and peppers, and we all could have eaten more, but we refrained.  This is an appetizer for 4 or main for 2-3 depending on appetites. I also only used 5 poblanos and there was plenty.  Perhaps they were on the large side.  This is looking good for the recipe of the week. Masa Grid...

This recipe perfectly demonstrates why I love Front Porch Pickings (or any service that gets you local, seasonal and preferably organic produce).  I had not tried persimmons before, but thanks to FPP, I got them in my basket.  Now, not knowing how they would taste, I thought a good way to introduce the flavors would be in this muffin recipe.  I waited until the persimmons seemed on the verge of going bad.  I couldn't 'scoop' them so I peeled them.  They were soft, but I guess not quite as soft as they could get.  I tasted a bit of one and was delighted by the flavor and sweetness.  The muffins were pretty easy to make too.  I used 3 persimmons.  The end result was a really moist muffin (Betty White fans giggle with me;) that had a distinct fruity flavor.  The ginger and cinnamon were very nice too.  I used 1 stick of butter (8TBS) and 2 tbs of oil.  I also liked that I got an egg white out of the freezer.  The recipe made...

Ok, so I am like three days behind on getting my posts done and life is not complying with my requests for a break so this one is going to be short:).  I really liked the peas.  It was a very simple preparation that allowed for you to enjoy the natural flavors of the pea.  I started by cooking them half the time recommended because I don't like mushy peas.  However, after a few bites, I realized they were underdone.  Cooking them the full time was required. White Acre Peas shelled or frozen white acre peas (about 1/2 cup per serving)  kosher salt,more or less depending on taste preference grated sweet vidalia onion or other sweet onion butter Water For the recipe click here .

I thought I would make a special treat for my darling husband,  He had a positive addiction to peanut butter and chocolate.  I came across this recipe on pinterest, and knew I had to make it for him.  As with every fellow blogger's recipe, I only am going to give you a hint of what is in it and put a link to the original recipe.  It was a little difficult to make.  I didn't make them in the full size muffin tins; I thought that the mini muffins would make a more appropriate size.  I also think that it made it a right pain in the butt.  However, I am always a fan of removing the chemicals from our diet, and using natural peanut butter alone make this a better option.  Any difficulty I encountered in making the dish disappeared when I saw how pleased the boys were and how much they liked them.  One word of caution, if they aren't straight out of the freezer, they squish and become very messy.  Still tasty but a mess. Also next time I will ...

Well flank steak was pretty cheap at Publix, so I decided to make fajitas.  turns out that this was a fattier cut of flank steak. Maybe it was skirt.  And now I can't remember if they are slightly different or different names for the same thing.  It's hell getting old:).  I decided to just wing it without even looking up a recipe.  I have had fajitas once or twice in restaurants, but it's not something we order usually.  So I made this up.  It was pretty good.  I didn't like the cut of the meat (too fatty), but the flavor was good.  I loved the cheese sauce.  I think it something I am going to use often and play around with the flavor. Beef Fajitas 1.5 Lb Flank Steak Marinade: 1/2 c orange juice 1 lime juiced 1/4 c sherry Garlic powder Cheese Sauce: 1/2 c cream cheese 1/4 c milk Salt and garlic powder For Serving: Onion, thick sliced Green Pepper, thick sliced Mushrooms, thick sliced Oil Corn tor...

I made this for lunch and loved it!  I feel a bit like I am cheating using the crispy edamame again, but I am totally digging it and I felt really healthy after eating it.  (Not to mention FULL)  It was fast and simple.  I enjoyed grazing on the edamame but I liked them better in a salad.  If the avocado is really ripe, mash it up a little to make a "dressing" Tonight we are having the Italian sausage burgers.  (they were so very yummy and have possibly the best sauteed spinach ever!)  Yes burgers to use up my insane purchase of too many buns:) Avocado, Tomato & Edamame Salad 1/2 large tomato, diced 1 small avocado, diced 1/4 cup of " crispy edamame " Seasoned rice wine vinegar Salt Garlic powder Toss the tomato, avocado, edamame in a bowl.  Drizzle with the vinegar and season with salt and garlic.  Mix.  Yup that's it:)

This recipe was easy to make.  I did feel that the "gravy" was a bit thin for what I expected when I filled the puff pastry squares.  They also looked a bit wonky when I was folding them in to turnovers. I also thought 2 teaspoons was a LOT of thyme.  (1 only used 1 tsp) What we ended up with was really good.  I boiled chicken breasts in the morning and chopped it up when I made this while the boys were at soccer.  It is from $10 Dollar Dinners , so it is inexpensive but still really good. Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers 2 T  butter 1/2    onion,chopped 1    carrot,chopped 1    stalk celery,chopped Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 ea garlic,minced 2 t  dried thyme 1 T  flour,plus more for dusting 1/2 c  white wine 1 c  chicken stock 1 t  Dijon mustard 1/2 c  frozen peas 1 1/2 c  cubed or shredded cooked chicken 1    sheet frozen puff past...

I did not care much for this burger.  Surprisingly my husband did.  Why am I surprised?  Tuna and olives are pretty high on his list of dislikes.  For me it was just the opposite.  Perhaps our expectations colored our enjoyment.  I didn't hate it, but have no desire to make it again. We are going to have lots of burgers this week too.  My husband had invited some people over for the Gator game on Saturday, and while there were 8 eating burgers, in a fit of what can only be considered madness, I bought 32 buns. I know you must think I have no understanding of any basic math concepts, but truly I do.  I can't explain what was going on in my brain.  I just assumed it was taking another well deserved break.  Anyways, back to the burger. In summary:  I don't plan on making it again, but it was surprisingly good and different for my husband so I guess I can't really trash the recipe too much:). Tuna Niçoise Burgers 1 1/4 lb fre...

I thought this recipe was a very tasty, fast, easy and different meatless Monday recipe.  I did make 2 small alterations.  I had a yellow onion and used it; I also had one large jalapeno and I used that in place of a really hot chile.  I figured the kids would handle that better. It didn't end up very spicy at all.  You can always add heat with hot sauce, but can't take it away.   Oh and I doubled the recipe, but that didn't change it:).  I loved it and so did my husband.  My son ate it but didn't rave about it, and the two year old ate a couple of bites but didn't want eggs with "salad".  Anything green in her food and she gets upset.  I also didn't have roti.  I had some frozen naan from the local Indian grocery, and it was perfect.  The prep took longer than the actual cooking. If you did that the night before (or have extra time in the morning;), it would be a fast breakfast too. Spicy Indian-Style S...

I loved this recipe.  It could easily be a vegetarian one if you used vegetable stock.  I had an open beef stock and used it.  Bok choy is a bitter vegetable and my son complained about that.  I however didn't mind it's bitterness.,  I think this is not only a great side, but would be a tasty meatless main.  The crunchiness of the bok choy makes it feel more like a meal to me than just some side. We had this with the Bourbon Chicken.  It is a fast side and not your usual veggie.  I found that you really need a good dose of salt.  Without it, the dish was too bitter. Bok Choy With Garlic 1/2 c  chicken stock or low-sodium broth 2 t  cornstarch 1 T  vegetable oil 2    garlic cloves,minced 2 lb bok choy—stems cut into 1-inch lengths,leafy tops left about 4 i Salt and freshly ground pepper 1.In a bowl, whisk the stock with the cornstarch. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add the garlic and cook over high ...

Tonight's recipe was the highest rated review on food.com .  I was a little skeptical.  All the sweet ingredients in it just make me think it was going to be awful.  I was also a little concerned over the 3/4 tsp of red pepper flakes.  In the end, I think it was quite good!  My 2 yr old thought it was too spicy and my 11 year old made a big show of gulping milk, but he eats lots of spicy stuff so I kind of think he was being dramatic.  I thought the heat was perfect. If your family doesn't do much spice, use a 1/2tsp or even 1/4tsp of the red pepper flakes.  It really wasn't that spicy with 3/4tsp; it just had a little bite to it with the after taste.  As an added bonus, it was super easy to make.  I think the whole thing (including the rice and the sauteed bok choy with garlic) took 30 minutes.  I started the rice in the rice cooker after I got the chicken in the pan and I prepped and cooked the bok choy while t...

The pizza dough was on sale so I got two.  Tonight my husband played around with some leftovers in the fridge to make a very tasty calzone. I really liked it and was happy to let him have the kitchen tonight.  He likes to cook as much as I do, and while he has enjoyed this new meal every night mission, he has lamented his lack of creative cooking time.  He says also he is a little sad when we have a meal he loves because he know it's not coming back.  But that isn't true, the year is up and I will relent and allow some repeats;).  Improv Calzone 1 lb of Pizza Dough 1/4 cup marinara sauce 1/8 tsp dried oregano (up to 1/4 tsp if you like oregano) 4 oz diced ham 3 tbsp ricotta cheese 4 oz shredded cheese (we had an assortment) 2 cloves of garlic (minced or through a press preferably) 1 tbsp grated onion Preheat the oven with a pizza stone on the bottom rack to 500.  Roll out the dough in to a 16" round....

Tonight's pizza is most definitely a favorite!  The  recipe was adapted from Alton Brown's grilled pizza three ways.   Our previous attempts at grilling pizza were a tad frustrating, so I played around with the recipe a bit and baked it in the oven.  I love Alton's recipes and he said this was his favorite pizza topping in the show I was watching, but I still was thinking about the sweet dates.  I keep saying I don't like sweet and savory, but it seems that that is really not true.  Everyone in the family adored this pizza. We would be eating and talking and all of a sudden someone would say man this really good or make the yummy sound!   Date and Prosciutto Pizza 1 lb pizza dough 7 ounces fresh mozzarella,cut  into 1/4-inch thick slices 1-2  teaspoons olive oil 1/2-ounce grated Parmesan 1 ounce prosciutto ham approximately 3 slices, coarsely chopped 4 whole dates,pitted and finely chopped 1t  fresh thyme leaves...

Ok so I am cheating again on the post a day thing:)  I was making the Cajun chicken Alfredo and instead of buying blackening mix, I made it.  I knew I must have all the necessary ingredients (and I did) to make it since I have a very full spice cabinet.  Why add another jar to that jumble? This did make enough for two or three of the dish I made it for, so I took a practically empty jar of paprika and made it in that.  (Conveniently the jar held a pinch more than the 1 tablespoon needed for this)  The mixture is very spicy by itself,  but isn't very once it was in the dish.  I rarely buy pre made spice mixtures.  First of all, they usually have some odd sounding chemical in them that I don't really want or need.  Secondly, they are inevitably mostly salt.  I like controlling the amount of  salt in the food we eat.  I love salt, but as I have slowly reduced the amounts of salt (not all mind you, salt is very key to food tasting ...

I got this originally from pinterest.  I went to the blog again today and couldn't find the recipe.  It has been a long few days with little sleep, so it may be what my husband calls a PICNIC error. ( P roblem I n C hair, Not I n C omputer)  So I have the entire recipe here and not just a link.  I suggest you check the blog out.  It looked like it had a lot of cool recipes.  I didn't buy the blackening spice.  I made my own from a recipe I found on Food.com.  It said it was Paul Prudhomme's but I can't verify that. (I will be posting that recipe tomorrow because we will be out for dinner, and I am totally cheating my way to a post every night:).  This dish was very rich but very tasty.  I don't care for chicken much, but this chicken was pretty good. The sauce was very yummy.  I used a cup and a half of the mixed Italian cheeses that were already grated. (I am a little ashamed of that but such is life sometimes) ...

I had some egg yolks (three to be exact) left over from a cake I baked for my daughter and I to have a tea party.  I almost made the Agio Bouido that my son loved so much, but I was feeling a bit lazy so I figured I would try Blender Hollandaise sauce.  I have heard that it is a great short cut to the incessant whisking that normally accompanies the producing of my all time favorite sauce.  Well it was pretty good and came together really fast. Blender Hollandaise Sauce   Ingredients 3 egg yolks 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 dash hot pepper sauce 1/2 cup butter   DirectionsIn the container of a blender, combine the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce. Cover, and blend for about 5 seconds. Place the butter in a glass measuring cup. Heat butter in the microwave for about 1 minute, or until completely melted and hot. Set the blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. It...

Since I had 4 hamburger buns laying around, we are having burgers again tonight.  I did not use the entire can of chipotles.  I pureed the entire can and put two heaping spoonfuls of that puree, and it was pretty hot.  I figured we can always add heat but you can't take it away.  The end result was really good and I am not a fan of barbecue sauce.  The recipe for the sauce makes way more than you need for just 4 burgers.  Oh and I did add a bit more peanut butter because it was a little hot on it's own, but once on the burger with the cheese and all it was not too spicy.  My husband's take on it was that it was really good but not so good it was worth the effort of the sauce.  We did make our own ancho chile powder by grinding our own chiles which took some time and the sauce took 3 times as long as it took to make the rest of the burger, but I think it's worth it. Beef Burgers With Peanut-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce 1 T  vegetable oil,plus m...

Tonight's dinner will go into the fixable file even though the flavors were there.  There was way too much sauce to noodles and veggies.  I would add more pasta for the amount of sauce this recipe makes and I would triple the amount of veggies.  There should have been more.  Another possibility, would be to add only veggies and maybe some lettuce?  Some shredded, cooked chicken would work too.  Other than the fact that the pasta was drowning in the sauce, it was quite good.  I consider this dish meatless, however it is not technically vegetarian.  The fish sauce in it is made from fish.  I have seen references to vegetarian fish sauce being available in Thai markets but I have never seen it. The sauce catastrophe may be because I couldn't find buckwheat noodles, so I used the widest whole wheat pasta I could find. Asian Peanut Noodles 1    medium carrot,peeled and thinly sliced crosswise 12    ounces dried ...

My husband cooked to night, and he said he would do the blog post since the recipe required some tweaking to work.  However his is a busy guy and the post may never get done if I wait;).  The end result was delicious, but the instructions weren't helpful.  The heat they recommended was too high.  In the future, my husband said he would want to finish them in the oven.  I think a lower temp and covering the would work too, but as I wasn't allowed in the kitchen when he was working, I am flying blind here. :)  To go with it he roasted some potatoes and we had our salad.  The meatballs in the picture were cut in half because the recipe left the insides raw and the pan bottom burnt.  We had to clean the bottom (losing those lovely browned bits that should have been there) but luckily we had some beef drippings I had saved from the steak salad and some beef broth to make up for what had burnt and been thrown out. (see saving everything is sometime...

Well we enjoyed the skinny tostadas so much, I choose another recipe from Laurie's Cravings .  As expected, it was delicious.  It was also fast and healthy.  If you don't know what tamari is, it a type of soy sauce.  I do notice a flavor difference, but I know many do not.  The main reason most people use it, is because it is naturally gluten free, where traditional soy is fermented with wheat.  However, I did read that the labeling has not always been completely accurate, at least in the beginning.  If you want to read a quick summary you can check out wisegeek .  With the salmon, I made some brown rice cooked in a low sodium stock.  (beef was what I had open so that is what I used, but any could work) I also quickly stir fried a couple of carrots, red onion and green pepper with some garlic and a bit of the tamari.  I think one of the best things about Laurie's recipes is that not only are they tasty, but you feel good after eating ...

My son requested my grilled steak salad for dinner, so I decided to put the snack I made today on the blog.  I did throw some in to the salad as well so that counts right?  I enjoyed the edamame, but I do want to play around with the recipe.  I think that the parmesan was totally unnecessary.  I also think next time, I will bake them for a bit to dry them before I toss them in olive oil. (not drizzle, that so didn't work)  I think that all kinds of seasonings will work.  Everything from just some garlic, to curry or five spice should work with them.  I have no idea how the calories might compare to say popcorn, but they are really filling and pretty nutritious Crispy Edamame 12 oz Edamame,Shelled 1 T  Olive Oil 1/4 c  Parmesan,Grated Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper Directions Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the edamame into a colander and rinse under cold water to thaw. Drain. Spread the edamame bean...

Hey all you regular readers of my blog!  (Crickets....) Awkward:).  Well if there is anyone keeping track of my no repeat policy on dinners and this blog, you may see that this is the second bahn mi burger.  The first one, Vietnamese-Style Banh Mi Burgers , were good but these were much better. They had several differences which I say count as different dinners. (the biggest difference is this burger is pork and the other was beef)  I can't even begin to describe how good they are!  Even without the few changes I would make for next time, these are a family favorite.  They were devoured!  The changes I think need to be made: slightly less meat per burger, more of all the veggies and a little less mayonnaise.  Why?  The traditional bahn mi has very little meat on it, and more is less in this instance.  The extra veggies may have only been a result of the extra meat, but why not add more veggies if you can.  They added ...

For meatless Monday, I chose to make a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs: Laurie's Craving's .  Not only does everything look and (and the ones I have made) taste great, but her recipes are healthy.  Tasty, healthy cooking is something I dabble with, but I have always said just have a little and a huge salad. (well at least until I learn the secret of it)  This recipe was really tasty, not fattening, and really filling.  Even my husband, who isn't a fan of avocado, really liked his. (he also has an inherent prejudiced against healthy cooking:)  It was also an easy recipe to make and fast.  All the "ingredients" (pardon my pun lol) for a perfect weeknight family dinner.  My husband did add a small sprinkling of cheese over the beans, but it really wasn't a lot, and I didn't miss it on mine.  The only issue my son had, is he isn't a fan of corn tortillas.  I can empathize; we are conditioned in the US to think of tortillas as the f...

Well it was a disastrous dinner with friends. I tell you the Hindenburg had nothing on this evening. (well the last hour anyways) but one good thing came of it, this recipe. I had been wanting to make it for a while, but so many pounds of cheese seemed (ok not seemed but is) an obscene amount of cheese to make for 3.5 appetites. So, a cookout seemed to be the time for it. Despite the fact it said serve immediately, it traveled well and I just put it in to oven at like 250 for about 15 minutes, covered with foil, to make sure it was nice and hot and spreadable.   It was well received by all, including my husband and his thing about tomatoes. It was easy to put together. It did take a bit of time because of the roasting of the tomatoes, but that was inactive time.  It is a great warm dip.  With football coming up, you will be a hit with this vat of hot bubbling cheese.  Now, it is not healthy, but in moderation;) White Pizza Dip ...

I have no idea where this came from and I'm sorry about that because the recipe leads me to believe it was from a blog.  If I ever find out, I will link to there, however I did change it a bit.  The idea was solid, but the amounts were somewhat vague, I had to wing it a bit.  The recipe below is what I copied from somewhere, and the stuff in parentheses is what I actually did.  I really liked it.  It was smoky, tasty and a bit different.  It is certainly economical and fast. Smoky Pizza 1  Pizza Dough,Unbaked    (1 LB) 1/4 c  Ricotta,Fluffy           (3/4 cup mixed with 3-4 dashed of liquid smoke) 3/4 c  Mozzarella,Smoked  (couldn't find smoked so used regular and added smoke to the ricotta) Ham                             ...