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...