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. :-)

Tonight's dish was stellar!  I found it on another of my favorite sites nillawan.com .  I is loaded with yummy sounding things and just plain cool stuff.  She calls it a guide to whimsical living.  Love that.  I can't say enough great things about this dish!  My son inhaled 2 large portions.  I wanted a second one but....  you know the first one was pretty big! Everyone at the table raved about it.  In short, make this!  And you know the drill, with my fellow bloggers, I give a link to their site.  Oh I did make one small change.  I didn't cook the salmon.  I just threw it in with the hot pasta and sauce and stirred. Smoked Salmon Pasta penne pasta smoked salmon pine nuts spring onions garlic capers cream Splash white wine Knob butter Salt and cracked black pepper Recipe and directions here

Well it has just come to my attention that we have made 42 different burgers.  42, the meaning of life the universe and everything!  That can't be a coincidence since a burger has to be one of the most perfect and yummy meals ever!  (perhaps the meaning of life and our existence it to appreciate the awesomeness of the burger! lol) I decided to compile a top ten list of the burgers we have made.  This isn't easy.  I am tempted to put as number one on the list the most recent of the outstanding burgers, but that could just be a temporal anomaly;).  I am polling the family too because I am finding this to be quite a daunting task!  Also, do I make sure to include one of each kind of burger??  (veggie, turkey, beef etc...)  That might make it easier.  Best of each type and fill in the rest of the ten of the second place ones.  After much discussion we compiled a list of the top 10 (ok 11 but more on that later)  Now for the bigges...

These were good burgers.  I am starting with that because now I am going to nit pick the issues I had and want to get it upfront that they were good;).  The English muffins were great for bread, but they got soggy fast with the drippings from the burgers. (I even used 85% lean)  I also would have liked a bit less meat per burger.  The lamb/beef combination, however, was really nice, and the caper remoulade was really tasty. The boy loved the burgers; we all did.  It is just that we have had some outstanding burgers and this one was just really good. Beef-And-Lamb Burgers With Cheddar And Caper Remoulade   4 cornichons coarsely chopped 3 Tbl parsley leaves coarsely chopped 2 Tsp drained capers 1 garlic clove 1/2 Cup mayonnaise 1 Tbl whole-grain mustard 3/4 Lb ground beef preferably 80 percent lean 1/2 Lb ground lamb Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 English muffins split 4 thin slices of aged cheddar Tomato slices and thinly ...

So, I saw somewhere that it was Eggs Benedict Day (or maybe week). Being one of my favorite dishes, I had to celebrate by making some!  I mean hello?  It is loaded with egg yolk!   Problem.  I have made them for the blog before and I have been slacking about posting every day, so it really should be different some how.  What I decided to to was clean up a bit.  (some of it is actually pre clean up!  Yea impressive I know:)  I had some spinach laying around so I wilted it with some garlic and anchovy paste.  (like in the Italian Sausage Burgers with garlicky mayo)  That cleaned up some produce, and I had a bit more smoked salmon than I need for the up coming smoked salmon pasta, so we each had one smoked salmon Benedict and one spinach.  Both were really tasty but ham or the veggie one from Peach Valley Cafe still reign supreme in my mind! I am including the recipe for the spinach, eggs and the hollandaise.  If you n...

For meatless Monday, I am making something I saw on Pinterest, and since my Husband won't be home for dinner, something extra 'healthy' that he most likely wouldn't like.  He doesn't need to eat light; he is one of those annoying people who can eat anything, never exercise and stay thin.  (Ugh I know!)  Now I put healthy in quotes because while the original recipe was from health.com and fairly light, I did add some fat and salt. (blush)  I did this partly because I didn't thoroughly read the recipe and partly because I knew it would need it.  How did I diverge from the recipe? I did the following: 3 tbsp oil in pesto 1/3 cup pasta water saved and used More salt Cooked eggs like I normally do in butter Now while that does add some fat and calories, it is just a bit and the end dish was actually really good!  It was super easy to make and even the kids liked it.  My son added sriacha to his so I did too and it just got tastier.  By the ...

I thought I would try again to make the ginger dressing I love from Benihanas.  I liked the Asian Ginger-Carrot dressing I made last month, but it needed a day to mellow and it was not just like my favorite ginger dressing.  I found this on Pinterest too.  (yes I spent way too much time finding even more recipes for my to try file:)  We all liked this one too, but it was not Benihanas.  I think that I prefer this one to the other.  Famous Japanese Restaurant-Style Salad Dressing 1/2 cup minced onion 1/2 cup peanut oil 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar 2 tablespoons water 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root 2 tablespoons minced celery 2 tablespoons ketchup 4 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons white sugar 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper  In a blender, combine the minced onion, peanut oil, rice vinegar, water, ginger, celery, ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, garlic...

The war on food clutter was forgotten about until the fridge fired the first shot in our renewed conflict.  I am refusing to cook anything that isn't mostly using up stuff I have!  Not all have been great, but this one was!  I think you could use creamed spinach too, but the spinach from the eggs was amazing and as we only had 3 eating the recipe, we had some left.  I was worried when I took the pizza out that I had ruined it as the cream had returned to liquid, but it was great! White Spinach Pizza 1 lb pizza dough 1/2 cup of spinach and sauce from mollet eggs florentine 1/4 cup ricotta 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 1/2 shallot thinly sliced Salt, pepper & garlic 3 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly 4 oz Mozzarella, shredded  Put the pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. When the stone has been in the 500 degree oven about 15 minutes, start rolling out you dough to roughly a 18" circle (or to the size of your stone) Put the ric...

My husband picked out this recipe from my chicken board on pinterest.  Why?  Well when he first went off to college, he took his mom's Betty Crocker cookbook and this was the first meal he meal he made out of it.  He thought it was wonderful then and wanted to try it now.  The original pin went to a Martha Stewart recipe .  And while I have had a few of hers I liked, there have been some stinkers too.  You can imagine my concern when I saw some reviews that likened her recipe to hospital food!  One reviewer said Giada's was better.  A quick look at her recipe showed me that I had all I needed and it did indeed look like a superior recipe.  Now the Martha recipe called for rotisserie chicken, which I bought, so I shredded that instead of cooking the chicken like recommended in this recipe. I also halved the recipe and cooked it in an 8"x8" pan.  It was way more than the four of us could eat and we ate hearti...

Anytime I think I think I'm pretty good in the kitchen, I try to peel a boiled egg!  I have no idea how anyone can get those perfect, smooth eggs.  Mine look like surface of the moon or somewhere they test bombs!  It was meatless Monday, so in order to keep the boys from rebelling completely, I decide to make an egg dish. (they get some protein that way)  They looked beautiful, and except for the complete pain in the butt part (peeling the eggs) it wasn't too hard to make.  It was well received by my husband(he really liked it actually) , but the boy didn't care for it much.  (too much green IMO)  I thought it was good too despite the fact that I was ready to kill someone after "peeling" the eggs)  It is Jacques Pepin recipe I found on pinterest.   Only thing I might suggest is when he says to shake the pan to crack the eggs, I think he means gently move the eggs until they crack.  I had two casualties after the "shake"  That w...

Another Pinterest recipe tonight. My husband choose it. The kids adored it! I thought the flavors were there but the sauce didn't become the glaze I expected. There was a lot of liquid in the pan, so much so I dumped it in to a pan before it had a chance to boil the shrimp, and boiled the heck out of it to try and make it more of the glaze I expected. It was still pretty liquid but was yummy. Honey Lime Shrimp large shrimp olive oil honey lime, juice and zest garlic, smashed salt black pepper red pepper flakes Recipe and Instructions here

The boy still has cauliflower as one of his veto ingredients, even after the cauliflower soup he loved.  I decide we should make a cauliflower puree to go with steak and see if he likes it.  He ate FOUR helpings!!!  He loved it.  And, despite being almost half potatoes, it really tasted mostly of cauliflower. We all loved it.  The incredible thing to me, was no butter and very little cream , yet it tasted like the most creamy mashed potatoes.  A wonderful side dish.  I was thinking if there was any left over, which of course there was very little, I would like to try making knishes out of the puree.   I couldn't find the source of the recipe, sorry. Cauliflower Puree   1 small cauliflower (1 1/2 pounds) cut into 1-inch florets 1 Lb large Yukon Gold potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2 -inch dice 3 Tbl heavy cream Salt and freshly ground pepper 4 Cloves of Garlic, Roasted* 1. In a large saucepan, cover the ca...

I made this because I thought my husband would really dig it, but I gotta say I really liked it too!   If I were going to criticize anything, I would be that the bread I got was a bit too bulky.  I love a baguette but maybe if I had scooped it I would have liked it a bit better. (Or at least it wouldn't be so filling and we could have eaten more;)  Not really complaining.  It was wonderful but planning ahead for the next time I make it.   My husband pointed out that when we make something with ground pork, we seem to really like it. (However if you don't eat pork, some ground turkey could work. Make sure it isn't only turkey breast).  It was spicy, but not too spicy.  We splashed some hot sauce on them and they were just the right amount if heat. Spicy Pork Po'boys 1 1/2 Lb ground pork 1 1/2 Tsp paprika 1 1/4 Tsp dried thyme 3/4 Tsp cayenne pepper 3/4 Tsp garlic powder Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/2 Cup mayonnai...

I thought I would take another post to talk about the importance of sharing dinner time with your family.  It has always been important, but in our electronic age even more so. It is so easy to immerse yourself in the fast paced constant data stream that is conveniently located in our palm.  I am as guilty of this as the most technology savvy teen.  I love the wealth of information we have at our fingertips, the games from crosswords to inane fruit slashing, and the fact that I have reconnected (albeit superficially) with old friends from high school.  I am not advocating becoming a Luddite, but I am advocating setting some time each day to turn it off, ignore your texts and updates and talk to your family.  I know it can be hard to do but it needs to be done.  I think this picture is a perfect example of why! So let's work on preventing generations of idiots!  I know it won't be easy at first.  The art of conversation is like a muscle; if yo...