Eating Dinner With My Family

I wanted an easy dinner and thought a fancified grilled cheese sounded like just the thing. When I saw a website called grilled cheese academy.com I figured I would try one of those.  I opted to try the Cheshire.  It was pretty good but really hard to eat! The Cheshire 4 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 clove garlic, minced 8 slices French-style country bread 4 slices Wisconsin Edam cheese 1 head Bibb lettuce 2 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced 2 ripe Hass avocados, sliced 8 slices bacon 4 eggs 4 slices Wisconsin Cheddar cheese 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature Mix mayonnaise with garlic. Spread 1 tablespoon of the mixture on each of 4 slices of bread. Top each with 1 slice Edam, a few leaves of lettuce, a slice or two of the tomato, and 1/4 of the avocado slices. Set aside. Fry bacon in cast-iron or nonstick skillet until crisp; remove to plate lined with paper towels and drain and pat dry. Remove all but 1-2 tablespoons bacon fat from skillet. Crack eggs into s...

I asked my husband to pick dinner often, he is completely daunted by the attempt to choose something we haven't made.  Only recently did he discover, that I was ok with him just picking a protein or even a genre (if you will) of meal.  I would be happy if he said: Salad, Thai, Fish, anything that can help me narrow down the myriad of choices I have lurking in my to try file or pintrest boards!  Well he took the new information and said,  uh... salad, to which I responded by filtering the to try recipe to the salads and asked him to look and see if anything sounded good.  Of course he choose the chicken taco salad.  Taco salad....  the only "salad" that has more calories than a happy meal!  And, chicken :/.... Again:/...  but I asked for it so I am going with his choice.  Then I pull up the recipe.  It is TWO friggin pages long!!!  Ok, breathe, we have 90% of the ingredients, and I opted for the rotisserie chicken instead of coo...

Another recipe from my free Bobby Flay iBook, Bobby Flay's Bold Flavors.  As a cobb salad fan, I loved this burger.  My boys, not lovers of blue cheese or avocado, liked it (which is a win unto it's self) but didn't love it.  The dressing for the lettuce is worth keeping alone, much less the magical blue, avocado and bacon blend:).   My daughter, who never eats much, or eats many carbs, ate almost an entire burger.  We did change hers up a bit.  She is three and we figured the pungency of blue cheese wouldn't work for her, and she won't eat anything green, so she had a plain turkey burger with some plain ole American Cheese.  However, let me reiterate, she ate almost an ENTIRE burger! Something to be said for the inherent yumminess of a turkey burger that I find many turn their nose up at.  Now I love a beef burger, but turkey is no slough in the burger department, as long as you use ground turkey , not ground turkey breast .  I know th...

I had this one in the to try file because I adore arugula, pasta and avocado.  The men in the family are not the avocado lovers, and I was worried that they wouldn't like this dish.  Also, upon initial perusal, it seems like a lot of different flavors to handle.  However, just like when I make something just for them, they need to occasionally eat a recipe that was just for me.  And since I had some perfectly ripe avocados from my Front Porch Pickings basket, tonight was my night.  The recipe was a snap to make.  The only shortcut I took was that I used the green tube pre grated Parmesan that I keep on hand for the girl, rather than grate my own.  Even with squeezing the lime juice my self, making the sauce took less time than it took to heat the water and boil the pasta.  If you don't know how easy it is to get out some avocado slices, just click here  for a helpful video.  It was an amazing pesto; even more amazing since it uses avoc...

I had most of the ingredient for this on hand and they needed to be used.  While I picked if for convenience, it turned out to be quite a good recipe.  My husband loved it, including the guacamole!  He is not a fan of avocados or guac.  My son loved it, but declined on the guacamole.  He tasted it but didn't like it.  I too enjoyed this one.  I would have liked a bit more goat cheese but other than that I can't complain.  My husband came up with the brilliant idea to spread the goat cheese over the tortilla rather than get messy trying to crumble.  I like that the cheese was in every bite and less mess to boot.  Quesadillas are fast and easy to make and this one was not your typical cheese or chicken one. The beans can be made ahead too.  The recipe said you could assemble them early too.  I would worry what that would do the tortilla.  Sounds like a recipe for soggy to me, and quite frankly the spreading of cheese and bea...

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:)