Eating Dinner With My Family

At first, I was thinking this was a bit plain because of its simplicity, but the boys loved it!  I had gone light on the pepper since the three year old can be picky.  Once I added a few grinds of pepper, it really began to grow on me. I started it out as a 3 but we ended up at a 4. It doesn't reheat too well and it's pretty rich, so I would say this makes 6 servings with a salad.  I think I still think of it as a 3.75 but considering how much the boys enjoyed it, I rounded it up to a 4. Bucatini With Pancetta, Pecorino And Pepper 1 Lb bucatini perciatelli or thick spaghetti 2 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 5 ounces pancetta sliced 1/2 inch thick and cut into 1-inc 1 1/4 Cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano plus more for serving 1 Tsp freshly ground pepper Salt 1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. 2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the pancetta pieces and c...

I don't know what to say about this dish.  Ok I do, it was way too salty to start with!  I feared it would be when I saw that there was a Lipton onion soup mix and stock reduced a bit to make the sauce. Now I adore French onion soup, so I was super excited to try it and I do like salty so I tried to not dislike it, and while I didn't love it, I liked it way better than the boys did.  I am deeming it fixable, but as is. it's a 2.5-3.  To begin with I would either use water instead of stock or add a lot more cream to tame the salt monster. I used Swiss cheese instead of mozzarella as Swiss is what goes on French onion soup.  I also didn't measure the cheese, i just put a liberal amount of cheese over the top. I think it's a cool idea that needs a tweak. (Apologies to its creator!)  I would love to try this again because I think it could be outstanding.  I hate to say anything uncomplimentary, and it was still pretty yummy despite my soaring blood pr...

I have a new drink I love!  This raspberry spritzer is perfect in so many ways.  It is a great substitute for those super sweet, high calorie sodas.  It tastes great and is super refreshing.  It is also a great "daytime drink"  What do I mean by that?  Well if you opt to use the Chambord rather than raspberry syrup, it feels like a cocktail, but unless you drink a dozen of them, you aren't going to get drunk.  I love a fruity cocktail by the pool or beach, but inevitably the combo of sun and rum makes me at best sleepy after a drink, at worst a little loopy.  Not something I want to feel when at the pool or beach. (Even more now that we have kids!)  This was made for our Memorial Day festivities, and it was great in the heat. refreshing and tame;).  I want to play around with other flavors.  I am afraid that the Chambord is not replaceable.  It is a pricey ingredient, and  would like to find an economical substitute, ...

I wanted a way to get sriracha on to popcorn.  I did see a way to dehydrate the sriracha in to a powder, but this salt looked much easier. It isn't quite strong enough for my taste, but my husband thinks it is "goldilocks"  (that is just right for you non science buffs)  I made it with kosher salt and then put some in the spice grinder to make it fine enough for popcorn. It was so easy, I started playing around with other salts too.  I made a lime one with some fresh lime juice and kosher salt.  I started small with the juice, but it really needed a lot to get any lime flavor on the salt. It was very wet and I stirred it often, but the end result was really good.  Margaritas anyone? ;)  I also made some with table salt and liquid smoke.  My son loves it.  I was thinking maybe mixture of sriracha and smoke for a bloody Mary? Sriracha Salt Sriracha Salt Recipe and instructions here . Lime salt: Lime juice, salt and a drop of gree...

I saw a video on one of my food related Roku channels (this one was on allrecipes too) for this Pad Thai Popcorn and I was totally intrigued!  We really like popcorn, we have it most nights as our pre bedtime snack, and this looked amazing.  It was a bit more work than I would like to put in to a snack, and it was more sweet and not as spicy as I would have liked it, but the more I ate, the more I liked it.  It won't make an often appearance in our house, but I am keeping the recipe and want to play around with it. Pad Thai Popcorn 1 Tsp vegetable oil 1/3 Cup unpopped popcorn 1 Cup chopped dry-roasted salted peanuts 1/2 Cup packed brown sugar 1/4 Cup vegetable oil 1/4 Cup corn syrup 2 Tsp lime juice 1 1/2 Tbl fish sauce 1 Tbl sambal oelek (Thai chile paste) or -plain hot sauce 1 Tbl grated lime zest 1/4 Tsp baking soda 1/4 Cup chopped cilantro 1.Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line baking sheet with foil brushed with oil or ...

I saw this on the allrecipes Roku channel.  I thought it looked like my kind of recipe and the chef on the video said that it was one of the best things he had, had in a long time.  Now, I have always thought of allrecipes as for your average cook.  I thought of it as a collection of recipes that either instructed one on how to make a basic dish or how to make that known dish a little different.  (like with this Benedict over a bread pudding.)  Since I love crab, hollandaise and eggs, I figured this would be a slam dunk.  That was not exactly the case.  While the finished product wasn't terrible, it wasn't a "jump up and down meal," and that was from my husband, the person who liked the dish best.  I thought it ok, but was really annoyed with the way the recipe was written.  I know how to make Hollandaise and poach eggs, but "Hollandaise" and "poached eggs" as ingredients is kind of BS.  I can only assume they thought I would b...

I am organizing and cleaning out my cuppards and discovered why everything is so crowded. I have multiple containers of lots of things. It is paticurally funny as most are things for baking and I don't bake much. (Like 3 boxes if cocoa powder with maybe 1/6 of each used!)  So I decide to do the only sensible thing and bake cookies:).  I had all that I needed  for  my family's favorite cookie, coconut. These are super tasty, a little different than your typical chocolate chip cookie and if I can bake them, they can't be too taxing;). Coconut Cookies from the All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book 2 3/4 cups AP flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup of butter, softened (and unsalted) 1 cup sugar 1 large egg 2 Tbsp milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes Preheat oven to 325°F In a medium bowl combine flour baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  With an electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light a...

I was going out to get my geek on and see the new Star Trek movie.  And while I thought it was visually amazing and Benedict did a great job as Kahn, the story was totally predictable.  As, I was out, I asked my husband to pick a meal and if it was quick, I would make it when I got home about 7 or he could cook if he wanted to.  He choose this recipe and to cook, and I am so glad I didn't have to cook this!  It was a lot of steps, and according to him, in terrible order.  Touch raw chicken, touch veggies, touch more raw chicken (this was accompanied by a very cute little "dance" I called culinary jazz hands)  was the thing that annoyed him.  (he is a restaurant manager and notices these things :)  I came home to a wonderful smell, but didn't have to deal with all the annoyances he did.  We all liked the dish too, but it didn't deliver on what it promised.  For example the garlic paste, great idea, but the method of cooking didn...

While it wasn't bad as made, I would make some changes next time,  I knew the sauce wasn't going to stick, so I put about 1/4 cup aside just in case.  That was a good thing!  Next time, I will brush the sauce on several times along the cooking process.  (maybe use just a little to mix on the chunks)  There was way more sauce than needed anyways.  Not fabulous but not bad, and it was pretty quick. Sweet And Spicy Sesame Chicken Kebabs Nonstick cooking spray 1/2 Cup hoisin sauce 1/4 Cup medium sherry 2 Tbs. soy sauce 1 Tbs. oyster sauce 2 large cloves garlic minced 3/4 Tsp Chinese five-spice powder 1/8 Tsp crushed red pepper flakes 1 -1/4 lb. boneless skinless chicken (they said thighs, but I used breast) 1/4 Cup toasted sesame seeds 1/4 Cup thinly sliced scallions Position a rack about 6 inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat the foil with cooking spray. In a m...

Where to start?  I guess I will start with it was amazing!  We all loved it.  It didn't hurt that we had some stellar corn from Front Porch Pickings , but the whole combination was delicious.  My husband made a piggy of himself again, so he gives it his seal of approval.  That is saying something, since he likes his meat.  This was one of the best meatless Monday recipes we have ever had.  If you look at labels, you will see I have added two.  The first one, "Dad's Favorites", was added after my husband was looking at his bowl and declared, "that was good, too bad I won't ever have it again."  I pointed out that it has been a more than a year and I was willing to repeat every now and then.  He said he would never remember what he loved since there were so many dishes he has tried.  Now, he can click on his label and have a menu to choose from.  I also decided to label them with their average rating.  This one was 4.5 ...

First of all, Oh Myyyyy!  It was amazing/  I halved this recipe, as raspberries weren't cheap! (next time I try frozen)  I don't know where I found this recipe, but it was great consistency and yummy.  Our first use of it was on vanilla ice cream. It was awesome! Super easy too. Raspberry Chambord Jam 2 Cup raspberries (fresh or frozen) 2 Cup sugar 2 Tbl Chambord or Black Raspberry Liquer Cook raspberries until they release their juices and boil for 3 minutes. Add in sugar and boil for another 2 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly and stir in Chambord.                                  

I kind if have mixed reviews for this one. It was very tasty, but the tough tomato skins were an unpleasant texture. On the plus side, it was fast and easy except for peeling the shrimp and cutting them in half.  My son said 4 and 1/2 stars and tore through it. My 3 year old happily ate a bowlful too.  My dad liked it and, despite my issue with the skins, I liked it a lot.  I am not saying don't make it, its good, but I think I have hit that point where it hard for me to be excited about any dish that wasn't a wow.  Another good thing about this recipe, is that it illustrates why I want to cook a new recipe every day.  (besides my obsessive nature:)  I have roasted tomatoes before,  (The thing that comes to mind is a pizza topping) but not for a pasta sauce.  (although that isn't unheard of)  I have made made seafood with cream sauce, but always sauteed the seafood first.  This recipe has the shrimp cook quickly in the cream an...

Salmon is quickly becoming a favorite in this house.  I find that funny, because originally, I barely tolerated it.  I attribute my change of heart regarding salmon to two things.  First of all, we switched to wild salmon.  Not only is it better for you, but it tastes so much better.  Oh, I am running off on a tangent here, but I am big in to the responsible eating and perhaps one  of the most important things you can do is to ensure that you eat sustainable seafood.  I have a free app called seafood watch.  I think it is easy to use and lets you know not only what particular seafood is ok to eat, but what fishing practices used to catch them are preferable.  I strongly suggest you find yourself this app or one similar to help you make informed seafood choices.  Ok, tangent over!  The second reason I think I like salmon so much better now, is that I cook it way less.  The original recipe (which I changed a good bit) had the sal...

I have a problem, I adore sriracha!  I want to put it on everything.  I know I am not alone in this, but it is still something I feel a bit guilty over:).  So, when I saw there was a Sriracha cookbook, I wanted it!  I haven't gotten it yet, but his recipe was available as a preview on amazon.  When I saw this burger, I knew I would have to make it and soon.  Problem.  My husband does not share this love.  He is more of a Crystal man.  Not being a fan of Sriracha, he was less than excited to try this burger.  (oh he doesn't like blue cheese either!)  I, however, kind of forced the issue and chose to make this tonight.  I halved the recipe, but at 5 tbsp, I was worried that it would be a little too spicy for even me.  Was it?  No!  My husband, who wasn't expecting to like this much, ate more than 2 burgers!  He felt ill afterward, but said it was worth it.  I really enjoyed it too.  Not as enthusiast...

I gave my husband a list of possible dinners and he picked this one. Boy was it good!  The boy and I thought 4+ but the hubby gave it a solid 5!  We have made a Korean pancake before ( Korean Scallion Pancakes) and they were yummy, but my friend, who is Korean, suggested I add some seafood to the pancake next time I made it. I found this recipe from Food & Wine. It has kimchi too. Yay!  I made jasmine rice with this, and Korean Quick Pickled Cucumbers .  The original recipe called for squid, but we opted for scallops. (I love them;).  This was pretty quick & easy too. The hardest part was the frying, and I left that up to the fry daddy (my husband;)  They did require the sauce, which while I liked, I would have liked some more heat in them.  In the notes for the original recipe, they suggested thinly sliced chilies to the sauce, if you wanted more heat.  I think I would have liked some sriracha or Korean Pepper paste)  We did make on...

So, I have made this dish before and have a post on them.   Why am I making another post about them?  Well to highlight not only how yummy they are, but how versatile they are at cleaning up random produce!  If you follow the link above you will see the original recipe (calling for broccoli and cauliflower), and what produce I put in that batch I made. (red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash among others).  This time I made the recipe below.  I doubled it, and added a bit more veggies.  (of the 4 cups I would have needed, I used 5)  So yummy!  Now I know that deep frying your veggies does kind of defeat the purpose of them, but I got several servings of veggies for this meatless Monday recipe.  (and I am ignoring the several servings of fried food I got;)  We had been on vacation for several days, and I needed to make a dent in all the wonderful veggies I had in my fridge, but hadn't cooked yet.  I had some Kopan Masala (Tibetan Garam ...

I happened to really like this, the boys were like, meh a 3.  I'm not saying I wouldn't like to tweak it to my liking a bit, but  spicy fish and creamy grits,  yum!  I like it way better than shrimp and grits.  I also adore mushroom cream sauces.  (the boys don't care much for mushrooms)  It wasn't a pretty dish, but it was fairly easy, and I liked it a lot.    Spicy Grilled Tilapia With Creamy Grits And Mushroom Scallion Sauce Mushroom Scallion Sauce: 1 Tbl butter 2 Cup sliced baby portobello mushrooms (cremini) 1/2 Cup sliced scallions 1/4 Cup white wine 1/2 Pint heavy cream 1 Tsp garlic powder 1/2 Tsp Cayenne pepper Salt and black pepper Grits: 5 Cup milk 1 Cup quick-cooking grits 2 Tbl butter 1/2 Tsp salt 1/2 Tsp black pepper Grilled Broccoli and Carrots: 1 large bunch broccoli sliced lengthwise (with stalks and flore 1 Bunch whole carrots tops removed, sliced lengthwise 1/4 Cup olive oil 1 Tbl garlic powder Sal...

This recipe is from the wonderful book Field To Feast .   It was given to me by the lovely folks down at Front Porch Pickings .  It is a book that features local (Florida) farmers and chefs and what they like to do with some of Florida's wonderful produce.   This particular recipe comes to us from Superganic Farm of Pensacola .  The owner calls the farm superganic because of his biodynamic method of treating the soil like a living organism.  That kind of information is what I love about this book. I am not sure we got these particular kohlrabi from this farm, but I know that FPP does use some of these farms, but it makes me so happy to see farmers who are committed to being responsible stewards of the land they work.  Not to mention that local food always taste better and has more nutrients as it has minimal processing and transport time.  The environmental benefits exceed just reducing chemical use, and include lessening the use of the ...

Well today's dinner will not be made again. (Sorry fellow blogger but we just didn't dig it). That being said, it wasn't as horrible as I expected. I had this recipe 'liked' on Pinterest for purely morbidly curious reasons. I wasn't planning on this for dinner, but I realized I left several things off my grocery list and couldn't make the dinner I planned and just didn't want to go back to the store. I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. And that seemed like fate, since we don't like biscuits and if we did eat some, they would be made from scratch. I had some I got for a quick breakfast when family (who loves biscuits) was in town, and now they were junking up the fridge. Pros: super fast, super easy! Cons: not very tasty. In fairness to the original recipe, I did not use any toppings, I used more sauce and lots more cheese, but I still don't think I would have liked it made following instructions to a T.   Bubble Pizza Tube...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  We usually have a huge party in the cul de sac, but either we are getting old, or it is just a busy year for all of us.  I am saying the latter;).  I have way too much clutter in the fridge to even considering making something special, but I do want to at least give a nod to the "holiday".  I did make this red chili sauce as my new recipe, and it wasn't too bad.  I didn't like it by itself, but on the "nachos" it was great.  Now the reason I put nachos in quotations marks, is that it was kind of me dumping stuff from Tupperware in the fridge on it so I could use them up and clean out the fridge.  I thought they were better than any nacho I had with the fake cheese, but I am determined to make them again with proper ingredients.  I am a little ashamed to admit what I put on them, but I guess I have to:D.  I spread tortilla chips over a baking sheet, sprinkled the leftover baked beans I had (blush), the rest of the shred...

We love rhubarb is this house!  Our favorite recipe for it is the Rhubarb Crumb Bars , but this one was no slouch either.  I used frozen rhubarb that I thawed for 2 days in the refrigerator because the frozen was half the price.  I don't know if was why it was a bit wetter than I expected, but we still loved it. It doesn't look very pretty.  Some of us had it with ice cream some of us didn't.  The choice is yours:) Rhubarb Brown Sugar Crumble   1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter At Room Temp For the topping: 4 -1/2 oz. (1 cup) all-purpose flour 1 Cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1/2 Cup old-fashioned oats 1/2 Tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 Tsp kosher salt 4 Oz (8 Tbs.) cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces For the filling: 7 Cup 1/3-inch-thick sliced rhubarb (about 2 lb.) 1 Cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1/4 Cup cornstarch 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice 2 Tsp finely grated lemon zest (from 1 medium lemon, using a rasp-style grater) 1/4 Tsp ...

I am not a huge fan of crock pots.  Not because they don't do what they do well, but that they only do that one thing well and too many try to adapt recipes, that have no business in a crock pot, to a crock pot and come out with a big pot of meh.  I also don't care for barbecue and I loathe yellow mustard.  Needless to say, I did not like this recipe, however the boys, who don't share in my dislike of BBQ & mustard, loved it.  It is totally easy to make.  I made coleslaw, baked beans and garlic toast with it.  If you are feeling lazy, those items could be picked up at the deli section of the grocery store.  (oh and bakery for the bread)  It wasn't too terribly hard to make them yourself, so consider it.  Pulled Pork with Mustard BBQ Sauce 3-4 pound Pork Roast 1 Large Onion, thickly sliced 1/4 cup broth (I used chicken) 3 Cloves Garlic, peeled Big Daddy's Carolina Style BBQ Sauce Put a layer of onion on the bottom of the crock ...

I need to make a bit of a disclaimer here, I have issues with raw poultry that make me queasy enough to be unable to enjoy the meat once cooked.  If I don't see it raw, I can live in denial;).  I also am not a huge fan of tarragon.  So, I had issues with the dish, but still found the sauce to be very tasty,  (the one bite of chicken was too, but my issues made it hard to enjoy)  The boy loved the pasta and sauce as well, and liked the chicken.  My husband loved it!  It was easy and pretty fast to make.  The most work was the knife work.  If you are a fan of dark meat, you will love this.  It didn't photograph to well, but my husband said don't worry about that, taste is what counts. Chicken In Tarragon-Mustard Cream Sauce   3 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 1 1/2 Lb skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-in chunks Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/2 Lb white mushrooms thinly sliced 1 large shallot minced 3/4 Cup dry wh...