Eating Dinner With My Family

I had some lovely baby eggplant from my Front Porch Pickings basket, and while I would have loved some baba ganoush, I knew I would be the only one happy about that. I dug this out of my to try file; it was from Emeril and I got it off the food network site. It was a little work, mostly because of the chopping, but I think it was totally worth it!  I don't care for sausage, the boys don't care for eggplant, but we all devoured it. Even the baby girl ate well and that is impressive. It is totally rich, so all you can eat is about 2 shells, and I did tweak the recipe a bit based on how much eggplant I had, but it makes way more than 1/2 a box of pasta worth of shells.  If I had used the full amount of sausage and eggplant, I would have used an entire box of shell easy, but I would have needed a larger pan, or made it in two batches.  I really like this, and think I would be good without the sausage and more eggplant, or mushrooms in place of the sausage, or with veggie sausage.

On the way back from dropping my boy and his friend at my MIL, we went through my pins on Pinterest, and my husband picked several recipes; this was one of them.  I did make some changes to the original recipe. Mostly because the jus left in the crockpot, while a good start, wasn't very flavorful. First i strained out the onions to use in the sandwich. After I removed the fat from the jus with a separator, I pot it in a pot and boiled it to reduce. I also added about a teaspoon of 'Better than Bouillon' mushroom base. Then when I took it off the heat, I added a splash more whiskey so it would still taste 'boozy' Boozy Slow-Cooker French Dips   2 Lb beef roast 3 Tbl dijon mustard salt and pepper to taste 1 beer of your choice  (we had Yuengling) 1 large yellow onion sliced 2 Tbl whiskey (I used Maker’s Mark) 2 Clove garlic smashed 1 Cup beef stock 2 french baguettes sliced in half and cut into sandwich-size 1 tsp better than bouillon mushroom base Pro

Well this was very good, but as it required some online shopping for special ingredients and me begging sushi restaurants for the salmon roe I couldn't find in the grocery store, I'm betting most of you aren't going to want to try it because of that.  The smoked salmon and roe do make it a very fishy dish too, however, it was really great if you like that kind of thing. It is an Eric Ripert dish, and it looks more like artwork than food!  I used lime zest since I couldn't find fresh Yuzu, but I ordered the juice. I also couldn't find fresh chervil, so I used 3 parts parsley and 1 part tarragon.  We were split on whether this was a 4.5 or a 5. I decided that because of the issue acquiring ingredients, I'm going with the lower score. Salmon with Pea-Wasabi Puree and Yuzu   1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas, thawed 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon wasabi paste Fine sea salt Freshly ground white pepper 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons 1 t

I saw an eggplant burger on 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' and thought it sounded like a great idea. They gave you an idea if what was in it, but not the recipe. I decided for meatless Monday, I would take a stab at it. The result?  Tasty and fixable, but the "patty" was more like a paste and didn't stay together.  Even the boy, who is not a fan if eggplant, thought it tasty. His recommendation, which I think is brilliant, was to add some smokiness.  I think next time, I would mix in a drop or two if liquid smoke, but this time he added some smoked salt. I would also add garlic next time. What I'm not sure of is how to get it to retain its shape: more bread crumbs in the patty, breading the patty, more cheese in the patty (maybe even a cheese coating?) or possibly deep frying:)?  So while this tasted good, it is still a "fixable" recipe. Eggplant Veggie Burger 2 good size eggplants diced about 6 cups 2 scallion slice 1 tablespoon of olive oil

My daughter, looking over my shoulder as I try to decided tonight's dinner, sees green pea soup, and declares that's what she wants.  Ok then.   I really enjoyed it, and if you omit the optional creme fraiche, and cooked the leeks in oil, it would be vegan.   One thing to note, my beloved immersion blender failed me!  It didn't make the smooth purée I wanted and it flung a good portion all over the place.  Next time I will use the blender and make another dish to insure less soup flinging and a better consistency.  Also, I didn't read the recipe correctly at first and had dumped in the salt and 2 cups of low sodium broth before I realized that the store bought stuff needed to he diluted and as a result it was on the salty side. All in all a solid 4!  Maybe even a bit higher...  I'm not feeling great today and that might cloud my perception but I'm sticking with the 4, for now:) Green Pea Soup   1 Tbl unsalted butter 1 medium leek root trimmed, halved leng

Well, I have found myself going to the grocery almost every day!  And, while I seem to spend more with that plan of attack, I waste less. Tonight's dinner is a perfect case in point. I had bought plain, full fat yogurt for the lassi I plan on making, but it only came in a huge portion. I used it for last night's shawarma, tonight's gyro and still have enough to make my lassi once the mango is perfectly ripe.   We liked tonight's dinner, but we all agreed it was only a 3.5.  To be fair, we all did think most people we know would rate it higher, but that was our impression.  It was pretty easy to make.  The only issue we had was that the chicken exuded a lot of liquid when cooking and it took longer to brown than we expected.  We also added shredded lettuce to the dish.  I found this on pinterest, and I'm not sure if the site it is from is a blogger or not, so I am erring on the side of caution and treating it like it is from a blogger and providing the link, rather t

Don't let the length of the recipe daunt you!  It was less of a process than it appears, and even if it was difficult, it was pretty much worth it.  If I were to make any criticism of it at all was that the reduced braising liquid was still pretty runny and the sandwich was a huge dripping mess.  Correction a huge, dripping, tasty mess.  My husband wanted something crunchy in the sandwich, but that didn't stop him from having 2 ;).  We all agreed it was a solid 4 stars.  The only possibly difficult ingredient to procure is the pomegranate molasses.  If you can't find it locally, you can get it on line but I made my own.   I had made it for a Lebanese fried fish  ages ago, and finished it off tonight in this Shawarma.  The tahini sauce was wonderful and I am looking forward to having it on my sandwich at lunch tomorrow. Braised Lamb Shawarma For the lamb 4 bone-in lamb shoulder chops (about 10 -oz. each) 1 Tbs. vegetable oil more as needed Kosher salt and freshly

I love salmon and pickles, but this one was just 3 stars.  I think the butter had possibility; I think it needed more pickles and some more mustard or some sort of flavoring.  I kept wanting to put more on my fish because I didn't taste anything but salmon and butter.  The bites that had a lot of pickle in it were better.  Still, I can think of at least a dozen truly tasty incarnations of the wild salmon I bought, all better use of my dollars spent on the fish.  Keep in mind it gets 3 stars only because salmon is inherently tasty and the combination of it with the pickle was somewhat novel. Grilled Salmon with Dill Pickle Butter 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/4 cup finely diced dill pickles 1 teaspoon minced tarragon 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard Salt and freshly ground pepper Four 6-ounce salmon fillets, with skin Extra-virgin olive oil, for rubbing Light a grill. In a small bowl, blend the butter with the diced pickles, tarragon and mustard and

Tonight's sauce was really yummy!  It was much better than any store bought teriyaki, and while it took a bit of time, almost zero work. (and that was for the sauce and it can be made ahead)  I have chicken issues too and I loved it!  My husband said it was hard to give it a fair rating.  He believed that, since last night's dinner was so good, we would be unfairly rating this lower than it deserved.  I wasn't really worried, it was still a 4.5!  I had some peppers, carrots and I bought some mushrooms to have a quick stir fry of veggies instead of a salad.  We also added scallions, which I think were great on it.  Classic Chicken Teriyaki 1 Cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth 1/3 Cup low-sodium soy sauce 1/3 Cup sugar 2 Tbl mirin 2 Tbl sake Four 6-ounce skinless boneless chicken breasts, lightly pounded Salt Freshly ground pepper 2 Tbl canola oil 2 large Italian frying peppers cut into 1/2-inch strips (I couldn't find so I used cubanelles) Steamed shor

For meatless Monday, I wanted to try this recipe from Field To Feast: Celebrating Florida Farmers . Chefs and Artisans.  I had kale from my Front Porch Pickings basket and, while I adore kale, my son just sees another green he isn't overly fond of.  That being said, he knew that this dish had kale in it and still ate 2 HUGE plates of it!  That isn't just surprising, it is un-freakin real!  Even the 3 year old, who hates all things green so much she breaks her green goldfish crackers rather than be made to eat them, ate a bit of it before switching to plain pasta.  That almost qualifies as a miracle in this house. It could even easily be made vegan; just leave out the parm.  I can't believe I am going to say this since I LOVE cheese, but I think it tasted good even before the addition of the cheese and wouldn't suffer much, if at all, taste wise with out the cheese.  It was a very thick paste before the addition of the pasta water, and I used the full cup. While thi

For Father's Day, I wanted to make something I knew my husband would love, a repeat recipe! LOL So, that meant I had to try my hand at baking again.  His favorites are peanut butter and chocolate, so when I saw this on Happy Valley Chow's link party , I knew I had to make it.  It is from the site Baking a Moment .  Now a baker, I am not.  I make a mean sauce, and can cook meals, but breads, cakes, anything that requires a batter or a dough, I am like a fish out of water.  Now I think it came out pretty good, but it didn't look half as good (or most likely taste as wonderful) as the original poster's pie.  That is all on me, but even with my floundering, the end result was good.  The PB pastry cream, outta sight!  The Granache was perfect too, but my genoise was a little dry and I mangled it on the cutting but again, those pesky batters are my nemesis.  Perhaps if I was a huge fan of sweet, I would try to master it, but I will take a salty dish over a sweet one every tim

I couldn't find where I got this recipe from, so I can't provide a link, and I'm kind of glad because it was pretty bad!!  I knew it was going to have problems. (Tenderloin in a crockpot is not the best way to cook that piece of meat!). However, I was blinded by the word Sriracha!  I added a lot more brown sugar in the reduction stage, but it was still really spicy. I think it could be better with some fresh ginger, and the sauce tweaked. I also would use a cheaper cut if meat that would add some fat and flavor to the sauce.  I want to say one star, but I will round up and give it 2. Soy-Sriracha Pork Loin 1 Tbl chopped garlic 1/2 Tbl brown sugar 1/4 Cup soy sauce 1/3 Cup sriracha 1/2 Cup chicken or vegetable stock 1/2 Tsp honey 2 Tbl chopped green onions 1 Lb  1 lb of pork loin (I cut a two -pounder in half) rub pork loin with garlic and brown sugar. (I mixed these together first) add soy sauce, honey, green onion, and sriracha to a sauce pan.  mix togethe

I need to clean up the food I have accumulated.  I buy frozen, scallops in this instance, on sale and forget about them.  I need to make a serious attack on the freezer!  So, I pulled this Bay Scallop Pan Roast out of the to try file.  I also had a Spaghetti Squash from Front Porch Pickings I should use as I am getting another one Friday!   My darling husband offered to cook, and I totally took him up on it as I was tired from a long hot day of ropes course and ziplines at Zoomair!   I had put the squash in earlier, so dinner came together pretty quickly too.  I like that about this squash recipe; it is nice that the roasting can be done way in advance if necessary since the strands get warmed up in the sauteed shallots.  The scallops were pretty awesome too!  I was thinking 4 mushrooms were going to be too few, but they gave it flavor without overpowering the scallops.  A solid 4 all way around. Bay Scallop Pan Roast   3 Tbl unsalted butter 1/2 Cup fresh bread crumbs preferab

I was feeling kind of lazy, and I had 4 hamburger buns I needed to use, so I decided on burgers.  (only to notice a tiny spot of mold right before cooking and requiring me to make a trip to the store last minute :/)  Feeling extra lazy, I decided to try this Publix Apron Meal .  Now I think the Apron meals aren't bad, but I am rarely wowed by them, so I don't often cook them.  However they are really fast, easy and if you get the recipe they are demonstrating, all your ingredients are in one place when shopping.  This recipe was super fast and easy, even for a burger.  The only change I made was I cooked the cheese and salami on the burgers, on the grill a minute or two rather than just let them sit and melt.  I also used my homemade ranch and added a lot of freshly ground black pepper.  Over all it gets a 3.5  We all said we really liked it, and usually I think that would have merited a higher rating, but we have had some dang good burgers :) Salami Provolone Burger    

I was making a slew of different pizzas for the family tonight.  And while most of them were made before, I did have one new one, this Alsatian Pizza.  I liked it much more than I thought I would.  I didn't make it exactly like the original recipe.  If you are interested in seeing that, follow the link, but I made it the way I typed it out here.  Alsatian Pizza   1 Lb pizza dough 1 Tbl plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 Cup fromage blanc or fresh ricotta 1 Tbl all-purpose flour 1/2 Cup crème fraîche or sour cream Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/4 Lb thickly sliced smoky bacon cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1. Put a pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 2. Roll out dough in to a large thin circle 3. In a food processor, pulse the fromage blanc until smooth. Add the flour, crme frache and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and process until smooth.~ 4. In a medium skillet, cook t

The Chicken After Shredding As you may have guessed, I have been on a bit of a break when it comes to the blog.  School just ended, we have been out and about and family has been in town so I have been either eating out or repeating:).   This one is kind of a repeat of the enchilada chicken, but it was a total improv with ingredients I had on hand.  I offer it up as an easy way to clean up ingredients and have a tasty meal that requires very little work.  I know it seems to go against sound cooking by skipping the sauté but it really works!  This one made a lot more sauce than the original recipe and you could use the remaining sauce as a base for tomorrow's meal of soup. Machaca Chicken (Padoma)   2 Chicken Breast 2 Green Pepper, Chopped 1 Small Red Chili Pepper, Chopped 1 Large Onion, Chopped 26 Ounce Chopped Tomatoes Water 3 Cloves Garlic, Peeled Ground Black Pepper Dried Oregano Dried Cumin Dried Cilantro salt I didn't measure the dry herbs, but I thi

I found this recipe in the to try file and it looked good, and was quick and easy. Perfect for meatless Monday. Now that mushrooms aren't a veto ingredient for my son, I was totally psyched to have this.  I searched for the source of this recipe, and i found it on the olive garden website. This wasn't where I got it from, but it read identical. While this wasn't an omg dish, I totally dug the heavy mushroom content.  I said 3.5. The boy, who still doesn't like mushrooms, said 2.5. My husband started out at rating it a 3, but when I saw him scraping his plate to get the last if the sauce, he agreed it was a 3.5.  I'm fully aware that my love and lack of mushrooms skewed me in favor of this dish. I made sure to stir the mushroom/walnut mixture. I was afraid it would burn the nuts. I think next time, I would start the mushrooms for a bit before I add the walnuts.  And the dish felt like it needed salt, until the end where it seemed all the parm was lurking, so I guess

I asked the boy what he would like for dinner, even repeats, he said Shrimp Scampi!  I said, I have no desire to peel all those shrimp!  He suggested burgers next; I didn't have many 'to try' burgers I was really interested in. Perhaps it was dinner last night at Holligans, a local place famous for its wings, or perhaps it was a vague memory of a Bobby Flay buffalo burger, or perhaps I just had a craving, but I decided on Buffalo chicken burgers. I read several recipes (ok read dozens of recipes), and after consulting with the hubby, we decided on this method. We kind of made it up as we went along, and each step had some debate. (The main one I'm thinking of was I wanted some minced celery in the patty. Yes, I lost that argument ;). We liked the end result, and it was remarkably similar to a wing, but it wasn't a wow meal. The boy said 4, I said 3, hubby said 3.5, so 3.5 it averages out to. The muenster cheese, which we added because we thought we needed some sort

About a million years ago, I made this espresso coffeecake from cooking light.  It was from an article of theirs called 'One Bowl Cakes', and we loved it.  Fast forward to the present, and I find myself wanting a piece of it, but the recipe was lost in one of our many moves.  A quick search of Cooking Light found this recipe under their 'myrecipes' tab.  Is it identical?  I don't think so.  It used more than one bowl for one thing, but as to the actual ingredients, I have no clue.  It isn't like your typical crumbly coffee cake in texture. It is more spongy, but still pretty tasty. Coffee Coffeecake   1/3 Cup granulated sugar 4 1/2 Tsp instant espresso or 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules 1 1/2 Tsp ground cinnamon 1 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour 1/2 Cup granulated sugar 1 Tsp baking powder 1/2 Tsp baking soda 1/8 Tsp salt 1 Cup plain low-fat yogurt 2 1/2 Tbl stick margarine or butter melted 1 Tsp vanilla extract 1 large egg Cooking spray 2 Tbl