Living Insanity's Loving Food

Spicy Chicken

2012-01-26T19:45:00.002-05:00

So I've had chicken at a few places in the past week.

Buffalo Wild Wings has two limited flavors right now. I tried the Thai curry and it wasn't spicy and really only tasted like curry. To me it tasted more like Indian than Thai. It lacked sauce. It was seasoned chicken but not saucy like buffalo chicken. It was supposed to be on the spicy end of the spectrum and it wasn't spicy at all. I was disappointed.

Boston Market has added sauces to the rotisserie chicken. I bought a quarter white meat chicken combo with the mango habenero sauce. The sauce comes on the side in a plastic container so you can control the amount. It was spicy and sweet and perfect! I love this sauce. I hope other people try it out and they keep it on the menu. Love!

New favorites

2012-01-10T19:45:00.002-05:00

Like everyone I'm trying to eat a little healthier this year.
I have cut soda out of my diet. I've gone a week without it and I don't think I need it in my life. I will see if I can go a month without it and I'll blog if I make it.

I tried several new things recently that I have liked
I had Michelinas frozen macaroni and beef today for lunch plus I had a third of a leftover triple decker club from last night. I think if I only had this frozen meal I would have been hungry later on but I had something to go with it.

I've also been eating Pacific Rose apples. I LOVE them! I usually only eat sour Granny Smith apples but I really like these big juicy apples called Pacific Rose. They are so juicy I need to eat them with a few napkins.

For dinner tonight I tried a few new Trader Joes products. I baked the frozen falafel in my toaster oven, put it on some pita with lettuce and Trader Joes cilantro and chive yogurt (Greek Style) dip. Yum to both Trader Joes products! I know I have made falafel and yogurt sauce from scratch but my husband wasn't feeling Greek this week so I made these frozen guys for myself on a night he works late.

New Years Eve

2012-01-01T13:34:00.003-05:00

My husband was mostly recovered from his 24 hour stomach flu by New Years Eve so we went to a friends condo for a low key New Years Eve party. Yes we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve until the ball dropped.

I took two items to their house, Cava's crazy feta with flatbread crackers and I made some cookies. I wanted to just buy something cute that had 2012 on it at the store but I couldn't find anything. The stores were really crazy on New Years Eve anyway.

Hershey's Mint Truffle Blossom Cookies
I used this recipe but with Hershey's Mint Truffle kisses and I rolled my cookies in granulated sugar only. I also only got about 3 dozen cookies out of the dough but I usually make large cookies :)

Pork Ragu

2012-01-01T13:29:00.003-05:00

December 29th my entire family went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. On December 30th my husband was next to have the stomach flu. He was stuck at home all day and sounded horrible I didn't leave the house either. I did spend 4 hours cooking Mike Isaballa's pork ragu recipe. I made a HUGE HUGE mistake in buying gnocchi from a specialty food store where I buy lots of meat and have never disliked anything until now. The gnocchi were terrible. The ragu is fabulous though! I did not find buratta cheese and instead I dropped on a bit of riccota cheese.

December 28th Dinner

2012-01-01T13:15:00.003-05:00

The day after Christmas two more family members were struck with the stomach flu. My dad and my cousin who was staying at my parents house. We all made it to a dinner theater on the 27h to watch a performance of White Christmas though.

On December 28th my husband and I hosted a family dinner at our house. My brother called that morning to say he had caught the stomach flu (his kids had it first) and he couldn't make it. My uncle couldn't make it either because he was working. My dad came to dinner but was still trying to recover so he ate very little.

Our dinner menu
spinach artichoke dip
brie topped with macadamia nuts, brown sugar and brandy,
Standing rib roast
Roasted broccoli, carrot, and cauliflower
Mac and cheese
Tomato soup
Cheesecake with strawberry sauce

Tuesday night after the dinner theater show we started the meat. It needed to be scored, and rubbed with a mustard and peppercorn mixture.

This is Martha Stewart's rub and we tripled the amount because we had a 20 pound roast!
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Then I smashed black peppercorns to rub on top of the mustard mixture because the Pioneer Woman did a similar method on a beef tenderloin and it looked good!

Brie Appetizer. A Paula Deen recipe I have used several times because it's so good. I always serve it with crackers and red and green apples.

Christmas Day

2012-01-01T12:58:00.006-05:00

My husband and I take breakfast over to my parents house on Christmas morning. We took mini bacon cheddar quiche and a braided apple pastry. This time I put the apple braid on a silpat and it came off so much better than putting it on wax or parchment paper! All of the family members made it for Christmas day. The stomach flu was lasting about 24 hours.

Our Christmas dinner is almost exactly like our Thanksgiving dinner

There were mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and cranberry jello salad, corn casserole, rolls, asparagus, broccoli casserole, and gravy. Recipes for sweet potatoes, broccoli, and corn can be found here. Recipe for the crescent rolls can be found here.

Garden still going

2012-01-01T12:55:00.004-05:00

These pictures are a little old. We have HUGE broccoli in the garden right now. I'm sure we'll be eating it very soon. Here are some photos of our broccoli, purple cabbage, and spinach which is growing in a large rubbermaid tub with drainage holes.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-01T12:49:00.005-05:00

Well we had a week of holiday fun filled with stomach flu passed from one person to another. My brother's house was hit first with a few of the kids having a stomach flu. They were supposed to host Christmas Eve. We moved the dinner location to my parents house instead. My sister-in-law and two of the kids stayed home.

We threw together some keilbasa in bbq sauce (the same recipe I use for bbq meatballs) in the crockpot for an appetizer.

We made scalloped potatoes (not the same recipe I usually use, but my mother's recipe). I think I prefer Emeril's method!

Founding Farmers Potomac

2011-11-27T20:58:00.004-05:00

Founding Farmers in Potomac

My husband and I tried the Founding Farmers in Potomac for dinner. My husband has been to the DC location which is a 100% green restaurant. It's a really big deal to win the award for being so green. The restaurant also deals with ingredients that are farm fresh.

We order the chips, crips, and dips because he already knew he liked it. Fancy potato ships with three different dippers including one that was like pimento cheese.

I had a special soda. They make all their own and they all sounded great. The waiter claimed to love hibiscus. Mine has raspberry syrup and lime juice in seltzer.

My hubby ordered the chicken and waffles for dinner which also came with mac n cheese and some steamed vegetables. I tried a piece of the waffle with the syrup. I don't even like syrup and I could tell this homemade syrup was good! The waffle was not as good as the savory waffles of Mosiac Cafe though.

I ordered gnocchi with beef ragu. I really shouldn't have. Even though the dish was good nothing could have topped the gnocchi with pork ragu that Chef Mike Isabella makes at Graffiato. I just wanted his dish again and took a chance that Founding Farmers would have a dish that was just as fabulous. It is a good dish and if you didn't have Mike's to compare to you would probably love it!

We did not order dessert even though the huge slab of red velvet cake was singing to me :)

This Potomac location also had odd parking. We ended up spending $4 on parking because stay for just over 1 hour. The spots in front of the restaurant are metered and the parking garage has horrible prices. Now we know why people were parked far away in the streets. Free parking there! Live and learn. I must come back to this restaurant. I will have a specialty soda of a different flavor next time and I will order myself some fried chicken. The question will be southern style or northern?

Thanksgiving Leftovers

2011-11-27T13:40:00.002-05:00

What did everyone do with their turkey leftovers?

We roasted a turkey breast Friday night.
We carved the meat off the bone and made turkey stock with the bones and some vegetables overnight.
Saturday I made turkey pot pie and my husband made turkey noodle soup.

Thanksgiving responsibilities

2011-11-13T08:57:00.002-05:00

We have our orders for Thanksgiving. My husband and I will be making several side dishes. The best news is I am allowed to leave work on Wednesday before Thanksgiving at 1:45 this year without using any leave time.

Creamed corn casserole, triple batch
Broccoli rice casserole which is a new recipe this year without cream of mushroom soup and without cheez whiz
Brown sugar glazed carrots
Cranberry habanero sauce

Thanksgiving is creeping closer and I can't wait for the food and the nice long weekend :)

Mike Isabella

2011-11-06T15:28:00.003-05:00

This weekend was the DC Metro Cooking Show! We have been going to this show for several years now seeing different chefs each year. This year my husband and I went to a food and wine pairing with Mike Isabella from Top Chef and owner of local restaurant Graffiato and Laurie Forster the Wine Coach.

Mike looking over the menu

Mike and Laurie

We had three tastings and with each tasting we had two glasses of wine to pair it with.

6 glasses of wine! There wasnt a dump jug either :)

This first tasting was a scallop with sunchoke puree and pickled apple.

After this point I forgot about taking photos of the food and I just inhaled the food and wine. I will say that my husband and I are dying to make Mike's final dish of pork ragu and gnocchi. The recipe can be found on Laurie's website thewinecoach.com

Here is my hubby with Mike

Bottling homemade hot sauce

2011-11-06T15:22:00.004-05:00

We grew many varieties of peppers this year and my husband made several batches of hot sauce. Here is the process in his words

I've been making hot sauce with my garden peppers this year and it isn't nearly as difficult as it might seem. Here is my process:

1. I collect my peppers in batches and keep them in the fridge until I have enough to make sauce (I don't care if the earlier picks start to get a little pruny, as long as they don't start to rot.
2. Clean all of them by seeding and keeping the seeds.
3. Toss all peppers into a sauce pan and sautee without anything added until they begin to blacken and soften.
4. Pour in white vinegar and season with salt. (At minimum, it should be 1 part vinegar to 2 parts pepper meat.)
5. Puree the mixture with a submersible blender. (You can use a normal blender, but keep a firm hand on the lid because the steam will blow it off.)
6. Continue to simmer, while adding anything else you want. I've added garlic, lemon juice, lime juice, black pepper, green tomatoes, etc. to get the flavor I am going for on a particular batch. Follow your mouth, tasting and letting the peppers speak to you.
7. Put a lid on it and let it simmer for 30 or 45 minutes to finish breaking down.
8. Pour the hot liquid into cleaned mason jars, filling halfway up the neck, then lidding. The hot liquid will sanitize the glass and create a vacuum when it cools. If the air pocket is too big, ad a bit of vinegar to top it off. You can shake it after it cools, to mix.
9. Place the mason jar into a cool/dark location or the fridge and age for 3 months.
10. After 3 months, open the jar (you may have to run under hot water to release the vacuum) and strain the liquid through a fine metal mesh.
11. Discard the pulp left behind (the seeds and skin parts will have already released their heat during aging, so they don't add to the flavor).
12. If your sauce is too thick for your taste, add more vinegar. You can't have too much vinegar.
13. Simmer the liquid again to get it hot, then add about 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum powder (optional) and stir until integrated. This prevents the sauce from separating in the bottle, but you can just as easily "shake well".
14. Funnel sauce into your hot sauce bottles and enjoy!

I bought my bottle kit from http://peppermania.com/hot_sauce_bottles.html and it comes with the drippers, lids, shrink wrap, xanthan gum, and even some gifted seeds.

For my first three batches, I just winged it with whatever peppers I had, then experimented until I had flavors I liked. You might want to take notes on what you put in your sauce (like I should have), in case you want to recreate it again. Otherwise, just remember peppers, vinegar, and salt as your base...the latter two of which are natural preservatives.

Note: Keep in mind when you sautee the peppers, your kitchen/house will fill with evaporated peppers and you will cry and cough. I don't use gloves, goggles, or a paper mask, but you may want to if you don't enjoy the punishment like I do. Open a window and keep the stove fan going.

Happy Halloween !

2011-11-06T15:20:00.003-05:00

Martha Stewart sugar cookies with royal icing.

Apple Pie

2011-11-06T14:46:00.003-05:00

I got to use my tiny apple cookie cutter to decorate this apple pie.

Halloween Goodie Bags

2011-10-29T19:45:00.006-04:00

We have very few trick or treaters who visit our house. It is unfortunate because my husband loves Halloween and decorates the yard. This year we decided to do Halloween goodie bags verses the giant bowl of candy because we usually end up eating most of the bowl of candy ourselves. We did a few candies and some non candy items for the baggies. I like them :)

Apple Braid

2011-10-16T10:22:00.003-04:00

For the apple braid I used this recipe. I had a hard time with the dough sticking to the paper but I will be making this recipe again. It was just so easy and it tasted great.

Cream Puffs

2011-10-16T10:10:00.004-04:00

My husband's work assigns breakfast duty and he was in charge of breakfast a few weeks ago. I made a few things for him, cream puffs and an apple braid. He made some pork schnitzel, potatoes with onions and cheese, and bratwurst.

This cream puff recipe comes from my mother. I have no idea where she originally got it from.

Small Cream Puffs
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs

Heat oven to 4--%. Heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Beat in eggs, all at one time; continue beating until smooth. Drop dough by the rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 25-30 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Vanilla Cream Pudding
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Blend sugar, cornstarch, and salt in two quart saucepan. Combine milk and egg yolks; gradually stir into sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute more. Remove from heat; stir in butter, vanilla, and almond extract. Cool slightly and chill in fridge.

Chocolate Icing
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons hot water

Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat, stir in sugar and water. Beat until smooth.

Assembly
Cut off tops of pastry. Pull out soft dough. Carefully fill puffs with vanilla cream pudding. Replace tops and frost with chocolate icing.

Bush Beans

2011-10-01T21:11:00.003-04:00

During the summer I would harvest these guys and just have a small handful at a time. It was not enough to make a real side dish out of them. They seem to really be enjoying this cooler fall weather. I clipped enough beans today to toss them in the beef stew I was making.

Beef Stew

2011-10-01T21:05:00.002-04:00

My coworker had a baby a week and a half ago. My gift was to make food for her. I made her a smoked turkey and mashed potatoes before the baby was born but on Monday I made this beef stew with some Grands biscuits and my apple cake.

I followed the Paula Deen recipe and needed to add in a bit more water part way through cooking. I remade this recipe today for my husband and I and I added fingerling potatoes and some of the green bush beans from our garden. I added all the vegetables at the beginning of the cooking process, not after an hour and a half.

French Onion Soup

2011-10-01T21:01:00.002-04:00

Plus some pork, friend green tomatoes (from our garden), potatoes with chili (from our garden) infused oil and rosemary (from our garden). I bought the french onion soup bowls from the thrift store. They are just like my moms :)

The summer garden has been winding down but we have some fall items planted!

Using up yellow squash

2011-08-19T14:42:00.002-04:00

I have 3 yellow squash currently sitting in my fridge. The vegetable garden is still going strong. Last week I used up a yellow squash by adding it to
Cajun Chicken Alfredo instead of the mushrooms I usually add.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

2011-08-08T20:18:00.005-04:00

I made Pioneer Woman's meatloaf recipe for dinner tonight. The recipe is found here.
I highly suggest you adjust the temperature and time to cook you meatloaf. Mine was far from cooked through when I took it out of the oven. I'm throwing mine in at 375 degrees for an hour the next time I make it. My husband also wants the addition of diced onion to the meatloaf. I served the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and cucumber salad. I still have so many cucumbers growing in our garden!

Cucumber Salad
This salad is something our Austrian friend has made for us several times and now we make it as a side dish in the summer too.
1/5 large cucumbers, thinly sliced
Fresh chopped dill
About half a small container of sour cream
A few dashes white vinegar to make the sour cream saucy
Salt and pepper to taste

Tomato Soup

2011-08-03T12:27:00.005-04:00

Recipe from food52.com

Ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into quarters. We had about 8 tomatoes from ourgarden plus two heirloom from the farmers market.
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic cloves
1 sprig of rosemary which was also from our garden.
3 springs of thyme
(cream was part of the original recipe but I tasted the soup without it and liked the way it tasted. I saved myself some calories!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Line a deep baking pan with foil. Something shallow like a jelly roll pan wont hold all the juices from the tomatoes as they roast.
Place the tomatoes cut side down on the foil and drizzle with olive oil.
Cook the tomatoes and cloves of garlic for an hour.
Let cool and then peel the skins off the tomatoes. We found that using your hands worked faster than trying tongs and a spoon.
Put the tomato pulp and juices into a large saucepan.
Peel the skin off the garlic and place the soft garlic in with the tomatoes.
Heat the tomato pulp and garlic until almost boiling.
Use an immersion blender to smooth the tomato soup into your preferred consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
(This is where you can add some cream)
In a small sauce pan add olive oil and pick rosemary and thyme from their stems. Heat but keep the temperature low.
Place the hot tomato and garlic puree into soup bowls and drizzle with the herbed olive oil.

Falafel and Tzatziki Sauce

2011-07-28T17:01:00.003-04:00

I made falafel pitas with tzatziki sauce (using up some of my garden's cucumbers!)

I used Anne Burrell's falafel recipe They tasted awesome and I've made them twice now for dinner.

I used 1 can of chickpeas that I drained instead of soaking dry beans

One thing to note, everyone in the comments said to NOT flour these patties until you are ready to pan fry them. I chilled my chickpea patties without flouring them. When I was ready to pan fry them they needed some reshaping and then we floured them.

Ingredients for a falafel pita sandwich

Pita with pockets cut in half
Cooked falafel patties
Lettuce
Onions
Tomatoes
Tzatziki sauce

I used Emeril's recipe for tzatziki sauce as a guide. It was really good and I will be making it again. I think I'll be making this whole dinner again very soon.

1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, minced
Fresh chopped dill
Fresh ground pepper
Dash of hot sauce (this was my kicked up addition, I didn't add Emeril's Essence ingredients)
I also threw in a few leaves of the fresh thyme since it was used when boiling the chicken peas in the above falafel recipe.

Creamy Taco Mac

2011-07-27T12:14:00.003-04:00

This recipe has been circling several blogs. I finally caved and tried it out. It was fast to make but I felt like it needed more seasonings and the sauce was too liquidy.

About 1 pound ground beef
Half a pound of dry pasta shells
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
14 ounce canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 an 8 ounce block of light cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Shredded Mexican cheese
Dash of hot sauce

Bring salt water to boil for the pasta. While the pasta is cooking start browning the ground beef. When the beef is almost cooked through add the onions and garlic. Stir in drained diced tomatoes and taco seasoning. Drain the cooked pasta reserving 1/2 cup of the water. Add the water, pasta, cream cheese and sour cream to the beef mixture. Simmer everything together for several minutes to remove some of the liquid. After taco mac is added to your dinner bowl you can top with the Mexican cheese blend and a dash of hot sauce.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

2011-07-26T12:09:00.001-04:00

This was my first time making swiss meringue buttercream and I think I can never go back to my usual frosting recipe again. It was so good!

I used this recipe from Chef Mommy. My only change was I did 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract to try to get more lemon flavor into the cupcakes.

Pickles

2011-07-25T11:57:00.002-04:00

As you can see in our harvest photo we have many cucumbers and this is after I've given neighbors some of our extra cucumber, squash, and zucchini away! I made three jars of pickles with some of our cucumbers. We are growing pickling and slicing cucumbers.

I used this refrigerator pickle recipe and also added some sliced onion to my jars.

Three clean jars with lids
pickling-type cucumbers, sliced into spears
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bunch fresh dill
1 Tbs. pickling spice (I bought mine at Williams Sonoma)
1 quart water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
4 Tbs. kosher salt (I used pink sea salt)
Half of an onion, thinly sliced

Add the water, vinegar, and salt to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Let the mixture come to room temperature.

Layer in the jars the dill, a garlic clove in each jar, some of the pickling spice in each jar, the cucumber spears, and top with the onion slices. Pour the room temperature brine into the jars. Refrigerate pickles for at least 2 days before opening and eating. We waiting exactly two days and we were very happy with how the pickles tasted.

German Chocolate Cake

2011-07-24T11:51:00.003-04:00

For my husband's 30th birthday I baked him a German Chocolate cake. I used the recipe on the back of the Baker's German Chocolate bar. The recipe can also be found here on the Kraft website. The cake was so soft and fluffy and the frosting had lots of coconut flavor and was really rich.

Eggplants and Cucumbers

2011-07-09T23:52:00.002-04:00

Our eggplant and cucumbers are now ready for harvest. We also had a baby honeydew melon. We have two types of eggplant in our garden.

This long skinny purple one has produced three eggplant so far

We have slicing cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. I just bought some pickling spices at Williams Sonoma that I can't wait to try.

This skinny cucumber is a slicing cucumber

This FAT cucumber is a pickling cucumber

Curly Kale, yellow squash, and peppers are still going strong too in the garden.

Watermelon Cookies

2011-07-09T23:42:00.002-04:00

I made these cute cookies for 4th of July this year :)
I was inspired by these!
I used Martha Stewart's Sugar Cookie Recipe
and Royal Icing (a bag of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons meringue powder, and 7 tablespoons water) in plain, pink, and green
To make the watermelon shape I used a circle cutter and then ran a knife across the center to cut the circle in half
I probably spent about 6 hours on these cookies from making the dough, chilling the dough, rolling, cutting, baking the cookies, and then decorating them (that took about 2 hours). I made the cookies 6 days in advance and kept them in ziplock bags in the freezer. I took them out of the freezer on July 4th and decorated them. They tasted yummy

Reubens

2011-07-09T00:13:00.003-04:00

I love our panini press. I bought it at Target for Christmas a few years ago. I just love how the bread comes out crunchy and the cheese is soooo melty.

For reubens we use rye bread, corned beef, sourkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing. When using the panini press the bread gets a good dose of butter too

Using up Pizza Dough

2011-07-09T00:11:00.002-04:00

I made pigs in a blanket using leftover pizza dough. It tasted the same as using crescent dough and I happened to have both pizza dough and hot dogs in the fridge :)

Lemony Pasta

2011-07-09T00:02:00.003-04:00

I made my own version of the Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Fusili with Arugula.

I made just a few changes. I substituted asparagus for broccoli and skipped the tomatoes. I also made some chicken breast to go with it. We didn't dive into the leftovers so my husband ended up adding sausage and lots more cheese and rebaking the whole thing. I just wasn't crazy for this recipe. I'd rather have Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Mike Isabella

2011-06-24T13:08:00.002-04:00

We have tickets to see Mike Isabella (former Top Chef X2) at the DC Metro Cooking Show November 5th :) Hubby and I are super excited.

harvesting

2011-06-21T23:08:00.003-04:00

We are able to harvest some of our veggies now :) we've harvested yellow squash and a hot wax pepper and a cubanelle pepper.

Yellow Squash from last week, it's bigger and with a lot more squash right now

These are eggplant flowers. We have one turning into a baby eggplant right now. It's about 1 inch long so far. The flower stem seems too weak to hold an eggplant. We'll see if it grows to edible size.

Some peppers which are supposed to turn red and be very hot! Like a thai chili

We have about 10 green baby tomatoes and we still have some tomato flowers so we'll have even more tomatoes growing soon. Here is how our tomato plant looked last week. This is the one we planted on Mother's Day

My husband's work gave him several tomato plants. We drilled holes in the bottom of rubbermaid containers and made it into a tomato planter

My honeydew vine is out of control. It's taken over an entire veggie box. Lesson learned for next year. Give melons lots of space all to themselves!

Texas Sheet Cake

2011-06-12T13:10:00.005-04:00

Cake Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks of unsalted butter
6 tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa powder
1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Sift flour and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and water. Bring to a rapid boil. Pour the mixture over the flour and sugar. Mix well.

Combine buttermilk and baking soda in measuring cup. Lightly beat the eggs and add in buttermilk/soda mixture. Mix well.

Add salt, cinnamon, and vanilla to mixing bowl. Mix well.

Last add everything in the sugar/flour/chocolate bowl to the mixer. Mix well.

Pour into a greased 16 X 11 X 1 inch jelly roll pan. Bake 20 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Frosting Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter
5 tablespoons Hershey's cocoa powder
6 tablespoons cooked black coffee
1 pound box of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Combine butter, cocoa, and coffee in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour over the powdered sugar in mixing bowl. Add vanilla and beat until smooth. Add nuts and stir together. Spread on warm cake. (Make this frosting while the cake is baking and put on cake a few minutes out of the oven). Frosting will be liquid at first but will then set and form a crust.

Raised Vegetable Garden Box 2

2011-05-29T22:33:00.003-04:00

Check out how big everything we planted on Mother's Day has gotten in the first raised veggie box! The flowers on some of the peppers have started turning into little peppers. They are really cute! I have one lone strawberry that is turning red so far. Hopefully more will follow.

The nursery had some new plants out so we are trying some beans, watermelon, cucumber, zucchini, honeydew and spinach in the newest raised veggie box. The plants seem so small in comparison.

Potato Salad

2011-05-29T22:25:00.003-04:00

and grilled hot dogs for dinner tonight!
I made this potato salad based on Tyler Florence's recipe. I skipped the onions, capers, lemon juice, and eggs. I hate eggs.

2 baking potatoes, cut into large pieces and boiled until fork easily slides in. Let cool and then cut into smaller bites
2 stalks of celery, diced
Dill pickles, we had the long thin cut for sandwiches and I diced about 4 of the slices
Pickle juicehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Mayo
Yellow mustard
Salt
Pepper
Fresh dill, ripped from the stems
Chives, I cut a few from the garden but didn't like how they were browning in the potato salad
Paprika, a sprinkle to finish off the potato salad

New Vegetable Garden Box

2011-05-15T12:10:00.004-04:00

Here are some of my plants from last weekend. The cilantro and dill have really filled out and the strawberries have flowered. My husband built a raised vegetable box and we filled it with tomato plants, pepper plants (hot and sweet ones), and some eggplant.

Cilantro

Dill

Strawberry in bloom

The vegetable box built

The vegetable box put in place in the backyard and lined (this is so the treated wood chemicals do not affect the plants)

The filled box. We planted three rows of kale seeds and this weekend they sprouted! That was really quick growth

Check out my garden

2011-04-18T22:58:00.003-04:00

See those tiny little sprouts? I lovingly collected the dill seeds and cilantro seeds when my herbs bolted (went to seed) last summer. Then the seeds were planted a few weeks ago and here they are growing!

The rosemary plant is new. I did not dig up my rosemary plant for the winter and bring it inside and therefore needed to buy a new plant. I will dig it up this fall and bring this guy inside!

See my chives? I didn't have to plant them this year! Those chives came back from last year without any extra care from me. Chives are awesome! New this year I bought sage because I ate incredible fries with fried sage in Boston in December and I also bought Cinnamon Basil. Last year we had three basil plants, Michael, Thai, and Greek. The Thai and Greek were the biggest producers of the three. I'm sure I'll end up buying a Thai or Greek plant soon.

See that green plant peeking out of the strawberry pot? It's a strawberry plant. I planted about 24 strawberry plants this spring. Some of them look really good and others might not make it. This is my first time growing strawberries. I already have had a bunny try to pull an entire strawberry plant out of the pot.

The rest of my yard is for flowers. Enjoy

Azaleas

The last of the daffodils. The traditional all yellow were the first to bloom and these bloomed later. The first one has a pink center and the second has an orange center.

After the incredible storm we had on Sunday many of my tulip heads broke off their stems.

I have a few other things blooming in my yard. Spring is making me very happy!

Chicken Tikka Masala

2011-04-18T22:48:00.003-04:00

I have posted this recipe before here but I haven't posted photos before :)
I made a little Indian feast for dinner tonight. Chicken Tikka Masala, Basmati rice, samosas, garlic naan, and mint chutney.

Recipe from "Complete Indian Cooking"

Chicken Tikka Masala

1 package of chicken breasts, my package had about 3 breasts which I drizzles with olive oil, salted and pepper and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Dice into bite size pieces.

4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onion, thinly sliced. I used just 1 onion
1 inch piece of ginger root, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 tablespoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
A few handfuls of frozen peas

Make the sauce by heating the in a large skillet or saucepan; add the onion, ginger, and garlic and cook over gentle heat, stirring frequently, until softened but not colored.

Add the spices and fry, stirring for 1-2 minutes until fragrant, then add the cream, tomato paste, water, sugar, and salt. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring, then lower the heat, and simmer gently, stirring, for 10-15 minutes. We cooked the sauce for about 10 minutes and for the last 5 minutes we included the precooked meat and the frozen peas.

We served this over some basmati rice, had Trader Joes Garlic Naan on the side. I also bought a package of 4 samosas that came with packets of mint chutney.

Ham and Cheese Quiche

2011-04-16T23:38:00.005-04:00

Ham and Cheese Quiche

1 frozen pie crust
1 egg
1/2 cup cream or milk
salt
herbs, I like to use rosemary (fresh or dried) but I cut some fresh chives for this one
Diced ham
Shredded cheese, Swiss goes well with ham

In a bowl beat together the egg, cream or milk, and seasonings.
Pour into the prepared pie crust.
Evenly sprinkle ham onto the egg mixture.
Top with a layer of shredded cheese.

Bake in a 375 degree over for about 40 minutes. Check to see if the quiche is set in the middle. If it is still liquidy put back into the oven for another 10 minutes and check it again.

Foursquare Day BBQ

2011-04-16T23:10:00.005-04:00

My husband uses Foursquare on his work iPhone. I think everyone at his office uses it too. His workplace hosted a Foursquare Day BBQ today so my husband and I made food for the party. About 40 people RVPed for the party. Brats, burgers, chips, and drinks were provided by other people.

Cantaloupe Salsa appetizer

My husband made this salsa. He used red onion, cilantro, juice a lime (1 lime per cataloupe), cantaloupe, and jalapeno. I don't usually eat cantaloupe as just sliced fruit but I really did like it as a salsa.

The salads

Asian Coleslaw

I made this recipe
Ramen Noddle Coleslaw and my only addition is I like to toast the almonds before adding them to the slaw

Wagon Wheel Pasta

I use this recipe Wagon Wheel Taco Pasta Salad and I also add Good Seasonings Italian Dressing. I buy the packet of seasoning in the salad dressing aisle and follow the directions on the package. I like my pasta salad to be a little wetter than the original recipe.

Bread
My husband made jalapeno cheddar cornbread muffins again. The same recipe and results as posted here Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins

Desert
I made M&M Sugar Cookie Bars because I saw this post in my Google Reader this week and it made me HUNGRY for this desert!
I doubled the recipe for my larger sized pan. After 10 minutes I would pull the bars out and add the m&ms. I think I waited a little too long (15 minutes) and the bars were cooked enough that the m&ms didn't set into the bars very well. No complaints about them at the party. They were wiped out. I managed to cut out 30 bars from the 1 pan.

Blackberry frosting

2011-03-18T22:46:00.003-04:00

Two coworkers on my team had birthdays this week so I made a cake, another teammate bought cards, another teammate bought balloons, etc. This time I made a french vanilla cake (same as Karen's birthday cake in Dec) and I made a new frosting.
I wanted strawberry frosting but the strawberries didn't look great at Harris Teeter on Tuesday. I went for the blackberries and just subbed them into Cooking Agents' strawberry frosting recipe. I found my frosting to be too wet to hold up to piping. I tried a few different swirls and tips on wax paper but the shape wasn't holding. I did have a lot of frosting leftover. I must make some cupcakes to use it up!

No. 68 Project

2011-03-15T22:53:00.006-04:00

My husband and I went to our No. 68 Project dinner on Sunday night! The chef was Justin Bittner and the mixologist was Justin Noel. We don't have photos of every single food and drink course, but we took quite a few photos.

The night's theme An unexpected relationship will become permanent.

There was a rosemary infused drink at the beginning of the evening that was paired with a tuna tartar appetizer. I don't eat seafood so I'm not sure of the taste. Everyone around me grabbed up several of the tuna and seemed happy to accept more.

I loved the first drink. I actually ended up drinking two :) good start!

We moved upstairs to the seated portion of the evening.

The first upstairs course was a chicken liver mousse with black truffles, on buttered brioche, with a little fresh salad on the side. I'm not a huge fan of liver mousse but I did eat a little bit on both of my pieces of brioche. The big plus of the dish was it came with two fancy salts on the side. Salty liver mousse was better

Next course was a prawn with asparagus and hollandaise sauce.
I ate the asparagus and hollandaise part of the meal and gave my prawn away to my husband

The drink paired with this course had coconut flavoring and I believe it also had a liquor that was bacon fat washed. I sipped this a bit but didn't finish the drink. It was rich.

The next course was a lobster and scallop dish. There were peas, green beans, bacon, onion and a cream sauce infused with lobster also on the plate. I tried the veg and bacon and tried to avoid the cream sauce.

The drink with this course had pineapple juice in it. I really enjoyed this cocktail and finished it off. I finished it off so quickly we had to take a photo of the girl next to me's drink (Kristan)

Wooohooo next course was pork tenderloin, with gravy, and a potato/celery root gratin. Did I mention my husband recently bought celery root to make french fries? When we ate with Carla Hall one of her recipes included celery root so we stopped at the grocery store and bought one. Hey we are trendy! I of course could eat this course and did. I also stole some of my husbands :)

The drink had ginger beer. I couldn't do much more than a sip or two of it. See how it's brown like a root beer? It also had sage. We were given the recipes for the drinks but I don't have the menu in front of me. There were actually like 6 ingredients in each drink. Some seemed labor intensive.

Cheese course! Gorgonzola cheese, with wildflower honey, and strawberries. I don't even like honey but this was good.

The drink was fiery and awesome. I drank all of mine and Kristan offered me hers. I didn't finish the second one though. I was getting full. This drink had strawberry and serrano chili infused vodka among other things. I liked that it was pink. I'm a sucker for pink drinks.

Here is the drink side by side with the last one. The food and drink timing was off by the end of the evening. We'd get the food, start diving in, and then we'd remind ourselves the drinks were coming and to save some food for the drink pairing.

Hello chocolate dessert! Vanilla cream on the plate, a sprinkling a pistachios. YUM. We had a giant spoon for eating this and it seemed really out of proportion.

The last drink was across the table. I didn't really try to drink this one. It had something called creole bitters in it. It was also very creamy and the garnish on the toothpick is the bacon. Remember the drink with the fat washed bacon? Here is the bacon part. You have to cook the bacon to make the fat to infuse the liquor.

and 4 hours later dinner was over and we all had to roll out of there. Too bad we all had to work the next day. I would have had seconds on all my favorite drinks

Here is Justin

and all of his bottles

Pop Up Restaurant

2011-03-12T18:02:00.004-05:00

My husband and I have tickets to a pop up restaurant experience
for tomorrow night.

The chef, Justin Bittner
I love his quote for his last meal :) that's the type of food I want to eat.

Pastitsio

2011-03-06T11:39:00.005-05:00

This recipe comes from Elly Says Opa!

Pastitsio is a Greek version of lasagna and it is delicious.

1 lb. bucatini pasta (I used ziti)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup grated myzithra cheese (I used a soft goat cheese)
1 batch Greek meatsauce (recipe follows)
1 batch bechamel sauce (recipe follows)
1/4 cup kefalotyri cheese (I used a hard goat cheese)

Start by making the meatsauce. It needs to simmer for an hour

Greek Meatsauce
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs. ground beef (I used 2 pounds ground lamb)
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
5 or 6 whole cloves (make sure you count how many you use so you can fish them out later)
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley, or about 1.5T dried
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat your olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender. Add the beef cooking until browned. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two before adding the water, cinnamon stick, cloves, parsley, bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered, for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Towards the end of the hour begin boiling the water for the pasta.

Cook the pasta until al dente in a large pot of lightly salted water. Drain, and then mix well with the beaten egg, butter, and the soft goat cheese.

While my pasta water was boiling I started the bechamel sauce

Bechamel
6 Tbsp. butter
2/3 cup flour
1 qt. milk (at room temp)
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (I didn't find whole nutmeg so I used ground nutmeg)
3/4 cup hard goat cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the flour and make a roux, cooking for a few minutes until golden brown. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly with a whisk to combine well and avoid lumps. Bring the mixture up to just barely a boil. Continue cooking (and stirring) until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Add the nutmeg and season to taste with salt and pepper. Take the saucepan off the heat, continue stirring, and add in the cheese, eggs, and egg yolk.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Lightly grease your baking dish, and pour half the pasta mixture into the pan. Layer the entire meatsauce mixture over that, followed by the remaining pasta. Finally, pour the bechamel sauce over the noodles, and spread the mixture evenly.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until golden brown on top and bubbly. Let it sit for about 15 minutes or so before slicing into it.

Feijoada

2011-02-27T22:01:00.002-05:00

This morning we went to the specialty market to pick up the ingredients for Cooking Light's version of feijoada

It was really good. It's a black bean and meat stew. Our version had beef short ribs, bacon, and pork butt (the same thing I use for pulled pork)

We served ours over white rice and had Alton Brown's fried plantains on the side.

Weekly menu ideas

2011-02-27T17:55:00.003-05:00

Tonight we are having crockpot feijoada from Cooking Light. It's been cooking with 6 hours now and smells so good.

I've been wanting lasagna but now I'm thinking pastitsio instead with a salad

I also want to make Carla Hall's cauliflower soup. It was really good. We went to a cooking demo with Carla the day after Valentine's Day. I think I should make chicken to go with it

We will be eating some leftovers this week!

Scrabble Sugar Cookie

2011-02-26T15:18:00.002-05:00

For my husbands Valentine's treat I made a sugar cookie Scrabble board. Even though I carefully counted out how many lines I needed to draw, I still made a mistake. He liked it anyway and took it to his work where it was completely gone by the end of the day. I used royal icing for the decorating.

Italian Drip Beef Sandwich

2011-02-26T15:06:00.003-05:00

This is a Pioneer Woman recipe. I thought it was perfect! I can't wait to make it for people other than just my husband. The recipe had two versions and I made the Italian seasoned version. The only change I made was to eliminate adding the salt her recipe called for. It turned out salty and spicy enough

1 whole Beef Chuck Roast, 2.5 To 4 Pounds
1 can Beef Consomme Or Beef Broth
3 tablespoons Good Seasonings Italian
¼ cup Water
½ of a 16 ounce jar Pepperoncini Peppers, with some of the juice
Buttered, Toasted Deli Rolls
Provolone cheese

Combine first 5 ingredients ingredients in the crockpot and stir together.

Bake on low for 6 hours, or until meat is fork-tender and falling apart.

Shred meat completely and remove any fat.

Slice the cooked peppers into bite sized pieces.

Spoon the liquid from the crockpot into individual bowls for dipping.

Serve on buttered, toasted rolls. Top with cheese and melt under the broiler if desired.

Radiation almost over

2011-02-25T11:18:00.001-05:00

My radiation period is almost over and I'll be off my low iodine diet very soon. I can't wait to eat whatever I want again! I can't wait to eat dairy again :)

Lamb Chops

2011-02-14T18:07:00.004-05:00

Hello, it's been a while. Happy Valentines Day!
I am back on the low iodine diet so many of the same foods as before. I start my radiation next Monday the 21st.

One of my meals during the low iodine diet included these lamb chops, roasted fingerling potatoes (even though none are very finger like) and green beans. The lamb chops were cooked on the stove top only. I was tempted to sear and throw them in the oven because they took a long time cooking. It was worth it in the end they tasted amazing!

I used lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, low iodine salt, pepper to marinate my chops in the fridge.

Lamb Chops

Low Iodine Candy

2011-01-23T19:48:00.002-05:00

I went to Trader Joes for the first time since starting this low iodine diet. I looked through the assortment of candy/chocolate covered fruits and nuts. I found these dark chocolate mint creams to be perfect! No salt and it didn't say milk in the ingredients.

This blogger has photos and reviews

Relleno

2011-01-22T17:01:00.002-05:00

My husband bought two large chilies to stuff with manchego cheese, then he floured the outside, then dipped them into an egg/flour mixture, and fried in hot oil. I can't try one because of the cheese

Empanadas for lunch today

2011-01-22T16:58:00.005-05:00

I made the empanadas that I made back in June for the Spanish themed party again today.
Check out this post if you'd like to try one

Homemade Tortillas

2011-01-22T16:52:00.002-05:00

On this low iodine diet I am finding I can still have Mexican food, just without the cheese and sour cream.

I used this Ezra Pound Cake Homemade Tortillas recipe to make my own tortillas!

I filled them with some salsa chicken I made in the crockpot, just three chicken breasts, some frozen corn, and a jar of salsa, the taco seasoning (same recipe I've already posted), and some water.

Low iodine lunch

2011-01-22T16:48:00.002-05:00

Crazy Richard's peanut butter had no sodium at all
French bread again
Jelly
Unsalted Kettle Chips, I shake some into a bowl and sprinkle some of my own non iodized salt on them

Spaghetti with meat sauce

2011-01-22T16:40:00.003-05:00

Non dairy pasta, I found this brand at Whole Foods
2 cans of no salt added canned roasted tomatoes
Splash of red wine vinegar
Italian seasonings
Bay Leaf
Pepper
Salt
Minced garlic and onion
Olive oil

In a saucepan add a drizzle of olive oil and sautee garlic and onion. Add canned tomatoes and seasoning. With an immersion blender puree sauce, bring to a boil, lower the temperature to a simmer, cover with a lid, and left simmer for about 20 minutes.

Boil pasta in salted water (non iodize salt). The pasta took me about 30 minutes to boil until soft.

Low iodine taco

2011-01-22T16:29:00.003-05:00

Taco seasoning
Ground Beef
Red Onion, diced
Garlic, minced
Lettuce, shredded
Avocado
Lime juice
Tomato, diced
1 Jalapeno, diced
No salt salsa
Unsalted tortilla chips, I used Guiltless Gourmet

Taco Seasoning
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon non iodized salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon corn starch

Guacamole
3 avocados
juice of 1 lime
1/4 of a diced red onion
diced jalapeno

Mix together taco seasoning ingredients and add to 1 pound ground meat, minced garlic, and 3/4 of diced onion. Brown meat, garlic,b and onions until cooked through.

Put no salt added tortilla chips in the bottom of a bowl, meat mixture, salsa, lettuce and guacamole

Low iodine breakfast

2011-01-22T16:25:00.003-05:00

French bread, unsalted butter, no red dye 23 red raspberry preserves, and orange juice

Natural granola with no salt

Low Iodine Diet

2011-01-13T21:04:00.005-05:00

I have to be on this low iodine diet for a while. At least until the end of February.
You will be seeing some new recipes coming as my husband and I try to cook things to fit this diet.

More info can be found here
Thyroid Cancer Survivor Association
I don't have thyroid cancer. I do have to have the same treatment as a thyroid cancer patient would have. Don't worry! I'll be fine in a few months.

Some of the guidelines include
-No seafood. no problem since I don't eat any
-No soy products. no soy sauce, no tofu, no soy beans. sadness :(
-No processed foods. The frozen meals I like to eat at lunch at work are now OUT. AHHHHHHHHHH and so are things like canned soup. Good bye tomato soup in a can
-No dairy. Whatever is used to clean the cow milking equipment has iodine. how will I like without milk, cheese, and yogurt. it really puts a damper on my breakfast options.
-Only fresh bread. I just threw a loaf of sliced wheat bread in the freezer for when the diet is over.
-Sea salt is out. I'll be eating those yummy flavored sea salts we have another time.
-Sushi with seaweed is out, not that i'd eat it without soy sauce anyway.

Good things about the diet
I can have unlimited fresh meats, vegetables, fruits

My husband and I just went shopping at a few stores, Harris Teeter and Mom (Mom's Organic Market)

So far I have
-Sodium free granola for breakfast
-No salt added deli turkey
-Fresh pumpernickel bread from the bakery sliced into sandwich slices
-Salt free salsa. I think I may make salsa chicken just without any canned foods
-Salt free potato chips and tortilla chips. snacks!
-Salt free mustard to top that deli turkey
-Sprouts to top deli turkey too
-Apples
-Carrots.
-Lettuce
-Boneless pork chops for dinner
-Broccoli for dinner
-Fingerling potatoes for dinner
-Salt without iodine

I couldn't find any salt free salad dressing. My husband is wanting me to just do oil and vinegar. I could use some lemon juice too.

We have already started thinking of how I can have Mexican food on this diet. If we make our own taco seasoning with the low iodine salt, I can eat ground beef on top of the salt free tortilla chips, and I can have vegetables on top just no cheese or sour cream. We also have that salt free salsa.

Taking lunch to work

2011-01-11T17:37:00.004-05:00

Once again I've decided to eat out much less during my lunch break at work. I'm trying to go out just one time during the work week. Last week was my first week back and I only went out once, on Friday, and I had Panera Bread.

I lost three pounds of my holiday/trip to Boston weight in 1 week

I wanted to share some of the things I've been eating/drinking

I've been making a lot of hot tea. Wegman's brand orange spice is my favorite
Fruit for breakfast. I like bananas
I also eat Dannon Light and Fit blackberry or raspberry flavored yogurt
I have the individual applesauce cups
Turkey, wheat bread, muenster cheese, lettuce, mayo
Carrots with Sabra supremely spicy hummus
Frozen microwave meals

I am really picky about my frozen microwave meals. I tend to like ones without meat the most. Smart Ones has a new meal out called Pasta with Ricotta and spinach. It was so good I went out and bought a second one for this week :)

I also really like Lean Cuisine's vegetable eggroll meal. It comes with 1 eggroll and some rice.

I have recommended this one before but I really like this chili verde chicken burrito. It tends to be more expensive than the other frozen meals so I only get it once in a while.

When I want something chocolate I have been drinking some nestle hot chocolate for my chocolate fix. I also have cocoa almonds but I dont like them very much. I think they have a strange texture. A chocolate covered almond from Trader Joes would be better. I loved it when Trader Joes sold chocolate covered soynuts. YUM

Boston and surrounding areas

2011-01-02T21:05:00.003-05:00

After Christmas my husband and I went to Boston for a few days. We ate some great food and had a wonderful time in Boston even though they had just had a blizzard a few days before we arrived.

Our first night in Boston we ate at The Beehive! It was a Wednesday night and they were booked solid with reservations but they said we could eat at the bar. We checked out the bar, it was huge, we sat down :)

We ordered risotto balls, sage french fries, and two short rib and cheddar sandwiches.
FABULOUS. the risotto balls did not have spicy cheese like the one's at Taylors in Bethesda but the different flavoring was still really good.

The sage fries were amazing. I loved how the fries are cut. Horizontal and thin. I could only eat half of my short rib and cheese sandwich and we took some fries back to the hotel too. I loved the cheese on the sandwich. It was a very fancy grilled cheese.

Thursday we did the Boston Freedom Trail. We ate lunch in North End which was full of Italian Restaurants. We settled on eating at Cantina Italiana. Yummy but the service was just a tad slow. We were on the go and needed to make it to Charlestown still.
I ordered a rigatoni dish with a tomato meat sauce and goat cheese but the waitress suggested I changed my noodles to Bombolotti because this pasta is actually homemade. It was wonderful. My husband ordered chicken parmesan and instead of rigatoni he also subbed the Bombolotti.

For dinner we met up with friends at Border Cafe in Harvard Square. We were told we'd have a 40 minute wait. It was a very busy place. I had a shredded beef burro (just like a burrito) and it came with black beans and rice on the side. It was really great and garlicy which is not usual for any Mexican food I've ever eaten before. We started with chili con queso with chips so I could only eat half of my burro before deciding I may burst. I'd like to go back someday. I hear they have some awesome margaritas.

Friday we took a trip out of town to the town of Salem. We ate dinner at the Witch's Brew Cafe after our tour of the House of 7 Gables. The food was excellent. The waitress said they make their own hummus daily so we tries the hummus as an appetizer. It was very good. I wasn't expecting hummus to be on the menu in Salem. I ordered the steak tips with a side of BBQ sauce. The steak was so melt in the mouth perfect. My husband ordered a hamburger and exclaimed it was leaking with juice. Our friends ordered the french onion soup and both seemed to enjoy it. The salad a friend ordered didn't look very exciting and they did not have ranch dressing. Instead they gave her a sweet vinaigrette.

Saturday we also left Boston. We went to Concord first and ate at Main Street Cafe and Bakery. My husband order a traditional reuben and I ordered a turkey reuben. I also tried the broccoli cheese soup but it was not my favorite. It did come with a nice sweet and moist piece of cornbread though. Our friends ordered a thai chicken flatbread which seemed a bit small and unimpressive.

We visited Lexington which is very close to Concord and then we drove to Potsmouth New Hampshire where we ate at the Portsmouth Brewery. All of us ordered different things. My husband had mussels with curry, coconut milk, lemongrass and a touch of spicy chili sauce. I ordered the chicken tenders with homemade buffalo sauce on the side. I was afraid homemade buffalo sauce might be super spicy but it was fine. I could have handled the tenders rolled in the sauce. My friend's husband ordered the bratwurst burger and my friend ordered a burger. Everyone but me ordered beers and seemed to enjoy them because I think everyone had two rounds.

After dinner we visited a Portsmouth ice cream parlor called Annabelle's. I liked my friends Pumpkin Pie ice cream the best. Her husband had a maple walnut ice cream that smelled just like walnuts and it was a little too light on the maple flavor. I had Reeces peanut butter cup ice cream but honestly Ben and Jerrys peanut butter cup ice cream just can't be beat.

New Rachael Ray pan and scalloped potatoes

2011-01-02T20:59:00.003-05:00

I have wanted a Rachael Ray lasagna pan with the carrying case for a while. Over a year at least. I finally got one for Christmas this year from cooking.com via foodnetwork.com. I have an orange pan and orange case. I got to make my scalloped potatoes recipe for Christmas Eve and transport it to my sister-in-law's house.

Happy Birthday Karen

2011-01-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

One of my teammates has a birthday right before Christmas and we try to make our teammate birthdays special. Last year we had snowpocalypse and we missed having the work celebration. No snow this year so I made a cake and we all got to enjoy it!

This is a vanilla cake. The two layers were split in two resulting in 4 layers of cake. In between the layers is a seedless red raspberry jam and my frosting.
For the jam I heated it in a saucepan making it spreadable. My frosting recipe was 1 package cream cheese and 1 stick of butter, vanilla extract, and add powdered sugar until I like how it tastes. I thin the frosting with milk usually but this time I just used a little water.

The snowflakes were made with some white candy melt. A design was drawn on paper, wax paper was placed over the design, candy melt was scooped into a pastry bag, and then the design was traced in the candy melt. Pop in the freezer until it has hardened and you can easily peel the snowflakes off the wax paper.

Matchbox review

2010-12-19T10:19:00.003-05:00

We went for dinner to the newly opened Rockville Matchbox and had a 6 minute wait even though they were very busy and told us it would be 30 minutes. DH and I split 6 mini burgers and a small fire and spice pizza. No meat on the pizza and I wish it had a little more on it. There was a smoky flavor and some roasted peppers but I needed a topping I could sink teeth into.

I think we should have tried the pizza with meatballs. The staff said it was a spicy one too because the meatballs are spicy. The guys next to us got it and I was a little jealous.

We decided Mia's pizza in Bethesda was very similar and we have some favorites there. I guess we'd go to Matchbox to avoid paying for parking in Bethesda. I do love my Mia's alsace pizza more-, gruyere cheese, parmesan, caramelized onion & thyme and instead of pancetta I get arugula.

I loved my little burgers with gorgonzola and onion straws at Matchbox. It looked like everyone ordered the mini burgers. Heaps of onion straws on every table.

You can get the burgers as a set of 3, 6, or 9. I don't know if we could have only three for splitting because we each polished off two of them quickly.

My only negative for Matchbox was the dessert round. I got something with a frozen rock hard cookie (I'm not sure if the cookie was frozen or the ganache that coated the cookie). There was coffee gelato sandwiched between two cookies. My husband had to chisel away at it. I'm surprised we didn't break the plate it came on. The flavors were great but like Top Chef dessert, they'd be eliminated on that dessert. Did you notice that a few people did rock hard ganaches this year?

Our Own Holiday Dinner photos

2010-12-11T20:34:00.004-05:00

We had our own dinner part back in November. I finally have some photos from the party. Looks like we missed a few dishes though

This is the brie appetizer I have made before. It's a Paula Deen recipe I always make mine with macadamia nuts and red and green apples instead of apples and pears.

These are Devils on a Horseback. First time we had them was at Mario Batali's Spotted Pig in NYC.

Cheesy brussel sprout casserole was eaten but not photographed :)
Recipe was from here

The star of the dinner. Beef tenderloin with shallots, red wine glaze, and fingerling potatoes with some special citrus sea salt sprinkled on them

The tenderloin recipe is located here

Lunch! Grilled cheese and tomato soup

2010-12-11T20:28:00.001-05:00

I love grilled cheese and tomato soup together!

Checkerboard Cookies

2010-12-11T20:19:00.002-05:00

The annual cookie swap is coming up. Last year there were about 40 girls and it sounds like this year will be the same. So I made over 100 red and chite checkerboard cookies to swap :) I think they taste and look great!

This recipe comes from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

The recipe is found here

4 cups (19.2 ounces) unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, preferably room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
20 tablespoons (2½ sticks) butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (7 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
Liquid food coloring (I used red)

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Break the eggs into a small measuring cup, whisk them lightly, and mix in the vanilla.

Place the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle. Beat the butter on medium-low speed until it’s smooth, then add the salt and both sugars. Continue beating on medium-low until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

With the mixer running, gradually add the egg mixture. Once the eggs have been added, scrape the sides of the bowl, continue mixing on medium speed for about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until evenly combined.

Creating the checkerboard pattern- Divide dough into two equally sized parts. Mix red food coloring into one half and leave the other half plain. Roll each portion into a 9-by-3-inch rectangle. Freeze the rectangles for about 10 minutes, until they’re firm enough to cut and stack. Cut each rectangle into eight 9-by-3/8-inch strips. On a sheet of wax paper, lay four strips next to each other, alternating colors. Press the strips together gently to remove any gaps. Lay another four strips on top of the first layer, alternating colors between layers. Repeat for three layers. Trim the edges if desired. Wrap in wax paper and freeze for at least four hours.

When ready to bake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350ºF. Slice the frozen logs into cookies about 1/8-inch thick. Lay the cookies on the prepared pan, about ½-inch apart. Bake for 7 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for about 2 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks. Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container.

Our Own Holiday Dinner

2010-11-20T08:49:00.003-05:00

We spend the holidays with my family and we don't get to cook very much. We are hosting a dinner party tonight so we can cook for our friends. The menu is shaping up and we just need to hit the grocery store soon

Paula Deen's brie with brown sugar, macadamia nuts, and brandy. Served with apples and crackers

Balsamic vinaigrette salad with goat cheese and pecans

Rosemary roasted fingerling potatoes

Brussel sprout casserole. lots of creamy cheese sauce

Beef tenderloin with a red wine glaze and shallots

Pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust

Metro Cooking Show 2010

2010-11-14T19:37:00.003-05:00

Yesterday many hours were spent browsing at the DC Metro Cooking Show.
We saw Paula Deen this year! She was really personable and funny. Many fun stories were told

So things I like from the show were:

The restaurant Cava (Greek Tapas) is now selling items in local Whole Foods, Roots etc. I tried the "crazy feta" and it was very very spicy. I had to follow up with some tzatziki to cool off. I must buy some of that Crazy Feta for the holidays

I already knew I loved Havana Banana bread but it's much cheaper to buy at the show than to buy from the website and have it shipped so I bought the chocolate chunk banana bread this year. Our favorite is the white choc, coconut, macadamia nut one, but they didn't have any at the show this year. I popped my banana bread in the freezer for possibly Christmas time breakfast.

Paula Deen's cousin Johnnie has a restaurant and bakery, Gabriel's. I bought some pumpkin bread from the booth and it is a great dessert! They had plenty of good looking desserts

McDonalds strawberry banana smoothies were given out too and they were pretty good! I was surprised.

My husband bought some Cooney's Mountain Mustard. He plans on giving it as a Christmas gift.

He also bought some sweet potato and liver pate that he really enjoyed from Weeping Radish. It's a restaurant, farm, smoke house, and brewery in NC. We'd have to drive 2+ hours to visit. Nice up them to come up to DC for the show!

I was focused on sampling some ice cream. I passed up on the liver pate. Can you blame me?

Molded Herbed Butter

2010-10-24T19:20:00.003-04:00

Softened butter
Fresh chopped herbs
Shaped silicone baking pan

Whip ingredients together
Stuff into the pan
Cover with wax paper
Freeze overnight
Pop the butter out of the mold

Asian Pork Pitas

2010-10-24T19:17:00.003-04:00

My version of this recipe from Nestle New Zealand
Asian Pork Pita Pockets

Sliced cooked pork tenderloin
Shredded carrot
Peels and sliced cucumbers
Bean sprouts
Lettuce
Asian Sesame ginger salad dressing
Pitas with pockets

Stuffed Zuchinni Boat

2010-10-24T19:07:00.003-04:00

Recipe thanks to
Primal Matriarch Blog

Two large zuchinni- cut in half and the middles scraped out so it resembles a boat
1 lb Ground Beef, browned
1/2 an onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes, we got one with jalapeno mixed in
Seasonings- salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Start by washing, slicing, and scraping out your zuchinni
Next brown the ground beef with seasonings and the diced onions
Add in the diced tomatoes and dash of Worcestershire sauce
Stir everything together
Spoon mixture into the zuchinni boats
Top with shredded cheese

Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is melted

Oct 17th Weekly Dinner Planning

2010-10-17T17:52:00.003-04:00

Sun night- leftover flank steak fajitas

Mon night- I have leftover pork tenderloin that I could make into something similar to these pita pockets. I think I'll add cabbage to the salad mix
Asian Pork Pita Pocket

Tues- Broccoli Cheese Soup (I think this needs a little something to go with it)

Wed- Snakebite Pasta with some bread sticks or garlic bread.

Thurs- Pizza, either frozen or homemade. I have class on Thursdays after work and I have leftover pepperoni

Fri-

Cheesecake Factory

2010-09-29T20:17:00.003-04:00

Vietnamese tacos. Try them! Meat was tender (I didnt even know it was pork, it seems brown to me like beef!) and they were spicy.

Menus description: Steamed Asian Buns with Roasted Pork, Marinated Cucumbers, Carrots and Onion with Chiles, Cilantro and Sesame Seeds

yum yum yum

I recommend checking out this blogger's recipe from Steamy Kitchen. It seems similar except it's not on a bun.
Korean Style Tacos

Taylor Gourmet comes to Bethesda

2010-09-04T19:55:00.003-04:00

Taylor Gourmet/

We tried Taylor Gourmet for lunch today. Happy Labor Day everyone!!
Ordered a 12 inch 9th Street Italian, the Risotto Balls, had red hot chips, and tried two of the fabulous fountain drink choices. They don't serve Coke or Sprite here! We had cream soda and black cherry soda instead :) The drinks are artificial color free, and use cane sugar, no corn syrup.

The Risotto balls were amazing! After Ed's win on Top Chef for his risotto balls I imagine that the food blog world will soon have many posts on making them :) Taylor's were spicy!

The sub was good, the meat and cheese were better quality than you'll get at Subway.

I'm not sure if it's worth getting the rolls from Philly. I thought the roll was hard to chew through.

I really wanted a roast beef sandwich and was told they were out. It's only Saturday on a holiday weekend! How can they be out of beef???

Next time I want to try an Island Avenue

Chocolate Ganache and Pecan pie

2010-08-30T17:10:00.002-04:00

When I reviewed Againn I think I mentioned a chocolate pecan tart for dessert. I invited friends over for dinner and tried to make my own chocolate pecan tart. It was very chocolately.

1 pie shell, I used a graham cracker shell
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 1/4 cup cream
chopped pecans

First I toasted the shell in a 350 degree oven
Place pecans in the bottom of the shell
Then I boiled the cream and poured it over pieces of the bittersweet chocolate
I stirred the mixture together and poured it over the pecan pieces
Chill in the fridge until the ganache is set.

Bison Burger

2010-08-30T17:08:00.002-04:00

We have a Saturday market in my little city. There is a guy who sells buffalo and we bought buffalo burgers last week. We topped the burgers with leftover bacon and bleu cheese from a classic wedge salad we had made for a dinner party

Pesto Pasta Salad

2010-08-30T17:05:00.002-04:00

I bought three basil plants this year. I have a Thai, Greek, and one called Michael, seriously. The Greek is the biggest plant of the three. We've made a lot of pesto this year and made this pesto pasta salad several times.

Pesto sauce
Tomatoes
Cubed cheese
Spiral pasta
A few fresh basil leaves

German Potato Salad

2010-08-30T17:03:00.002-04:00

Complete with bacon grease :P I cooked a whole package of bacon and added what looked like a good amount.

Ingredients

* 4 potatoes
* 4 slices bacon
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1/3 cup water
* 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
* 1/2 cup chopped green onions
* salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes; cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and chop.
2. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside. Reserve bacon fat.
3. Add the flour, sugar, water and vinegar to skillet and cook in reserved bacon fat over medium heat until dressing is thick.
4. Add bacon, potatoes and green onions to skillet and stir until coated. Cook until heated and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.

German Potato Salad

Againn Restaurant Review

2010-08-18T11:47:00.003-04:00

Againn/

This place just opened up in Houston's old place on Rockville Pike. Its like an Irish Bistro Pub. We tried it out last night. The food was really good but the menu is short so I don't know how often we'll go back. We also spent about $50 because we had two meals, an appetizer, a dessert, and two iced teas

The meat is farm raised. It makes me really want to go back to try the burger :) or maybe a steak

Aman had fish and chips and the chips were amazing (I stole a few)! He said the fish was just like he had in Dublin. They bring you a bunch of dipping options; vinegar, ketchup, mayo, mustard.

I ordered the corned beef sandwich and the meet was so soft and tender. The roll it was on was really soft and good. I felt like the horseradish sauce didn't have any bite though

We had the spinach artichoke dip for an appetizer and it was amazing. I think it had aged white cheddar and mushrooms. It was a different taste but delish.

We ended with a chocolate pecan tart that wasn't crazy chocolatey but had a nice salty flavor from the nuts.

Top Chef

2010-08-05T10:15:00.004-04:00

My husband and I used groupon to buy a cooking class with Carla from Top Chef :)
I can't wait! We saw Carla last year at the metro cooking show. She did a great demo.

Blondies

2010-07-28T09:04:00.002-04:00

My mom has this recipe. The blondies had toffee pieces, white chocolate chips, and nuts. I thought they were good but my mom wasn't into them. I took photos in case she loved them and wanted to save the recipe on my blog.

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-28T09:00:00.004-04:00

I made red, white, and blue cupcakes for 4th of July this year. It seems just about everyone else in the food blogging world did too :)

I used a white cake mix and added lemon extract to my batter. Separate the batter into three equal parts and use gel coloring to make red and blue. Layer the colors in cupcake foils and bake according to box directions.

The frosting is 1 stick softened butter and 1 package softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and water to the consistency you desire, and vanilla extract.

Buttermilk Waffles

2010-07-02T19:47:00.003-04:00

Recipe from Gold Medal Weekend Breakfast and Brunch

Makes 10 4-inch waffle square

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups gold medal all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter melted
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Heat waffle iron; grease if needed. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater or wire whisk until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients

2. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto center of hot waffle iron. Close lid

3. Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Carefully remove waffle. Repeat with remaining batter.

Blueberry Muffins

2010-06-21T16:44:00.003-04:00

Paula Deen's Blue Berry Muffin Recipe

Followed the recipe exactly. Decided to spring white sugar on the tops of the muffins :) I got 19 muffins out of the recipe

Half and Half Cookies

2010-06-20T18:36:00.003-04:00

Remember these cookies from our Spanish themed party a few weeks ago?

Several people asked me to get the recipe so here it is :)

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolk, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 12oz package semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add egg yolks, water, and vanilla. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well. Pat out onto a greased 11X16 jelly roll pan, and sprinkle with chocolate morsels.

Meringue Topping

1 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites

Beat egg whites (at room temperature) until foamy; gradually add brown sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue evenly over chocolate morsels. Bake at 350 about 25 minutes or until done.

Cut into squares

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins

2010-06-20T18:05:00.006-04:00

The party we went to today had BBQ pork, brisket, coleslaw, rice and beans, potato salad, fruit salad etc. To go with the BBQ type food my husband decided to make jalapeno cheddar cornbread muffins. These were made in mini muffin tins.

Jalapeno-Cheddar Cornbread Mini-Muffins
makes ~84 mini-muffins (7 dozen)

Ingredients

* 2 (8 ounce) boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 (8 or 8.5 ounce) can cream-style corn
* 8 ounces sour cream
* 6 large jalapenos, diced
* 8oz sharp cheddar, shredded coarsely

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Beat eggs. Gently blend in milk, sour cream and corn, then the cornbread mix.
3. Gently fold in the cheese and jalapenos.
4. Bake in greased mini-muffin tins for 11 minutes, or until edges are browned. Allow to cool on pan for a couple minutes before turning them onto a cooling rack. Re-grease/spray pans between batches.

If you'd like to skip the mini-muffin pan and use a regular sheet cake pan, you'll need to more than double the bake time and check it with a toothpick before taking it out (though some moisture will pull on the toothpick due to the cheese and creamed corn, so don't be fooled).

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

2010-06-20T17:45:00.003-04:00

We went berry picking yesterday and black raspberries are in season.
I made a chocolate kahlua cheesecake with a black raspberry ribbon for a party we went to today. This cheesecake has a lot of steps.

Preheat oven 350 degrees

Raspberry Sauce Ingredients
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Raspberry Sauce Directions
Puree berries in a blender of food processor. Press through a sieve into a measuring cup; discard berries into another cup. Add water to seed and press through sieve again. Add water to berries in measuring cup if necessary to measure 1 cup of berry juice. In a sauce pan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in raspberry juice; bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Let sauce cool

Crust Ingredients
2 cups Oreo cookies, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

Crust Directions
Combine crust ingredients to make crust; press into bottom and up sides of a greased 9 inch spring form pan. Chill 1 hour or until firm.

Cheesecake Filling
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup Kahlua
2 tablespoons butter
3 packages (8 ounce) cream cheese softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites
3/4 cup whipping cream

Cheesecake Filling Directions
In small saucepan, over medium heat, melt chocolate with Kahlua and butter; stir until smooth. Set aside.
In bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla. Add egg whites; beat on low.
Stir in cream.
Gradually blend in chocolate mixture.
Pour half of the cheesecake filling into the prepared crust.
Spoon all of the raspberry sauce on top spreading it out with a spoon to cover the chocolate cheesecake filling.
Then pour the rest of the cheesecake filling into the pan covering the raspberry sauce.
Bake 40-50 minutes or until filling is barely set in center.
Remove from oven and let stand at room temperature 1 hour.
Then refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Bridal Shower Sugar Cookies

2010-06-20T17:41:00.003-04:00

I went to a bridal shower a few weekends ago. It was hosted by my mom so she made sugar cookies and I decorated them just like we did for my friend's baby shower.

I decorated these in a hurry. I did them after work and before my brother's deck party. I almost died when I saw that she had made heart cookies with a heart cut out of the middle because then I needed to outline each cookie twice.

Onion Rings and Smothered Pork Chops

2010-06-17T20:48:00.004-04:00

We have a hit and a miss here for dinner tonight.

I wanted a breaded smothered in gravy pork chop.
I tried this recipe
It was not successful. The cooking time was also WAY under for the chops I bought. I ended up sticking it in the oven to finish cooking
Adding buttermilk to the thickened gravy just made it watery again. I don't understand the reasoning behind that step. I wasn't impressed with the end result with the gravy.

For onion rings I followed this recipes ingredient list and technique.
I seasoned the flour with the same seasonings except I only have black pepper instead of white at home.
My husband did the dipping method, flour mix, then buttermilk, then back in the flour.
He heated vegetable oil in our electric wok and fried away.
I ground some sea salt on top while they were hot
They were great! Very flaky.

Annual Summer Party-Spanish theme

2010-06-07T23:41:00.016-04:00

We had so much food yesterday for our annual summer house party that I do not have photos for all of it.

I will start with my personal contribution. I doubled the recipe and got about 60 empanadas. I also used store bought pie crusts. I loved the result and honestly it took me several hours just to make the filling, cut the circles in the dough, fill them and bake them.

Beef and Potato Empanadas

Filling:
2 medium potatoes, boiled for 5 minutes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chile powder
3/4 teaspoon round cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Grate the potatoes and set aside. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the ground beef and brown, breaking up as it cooks. Add potatoes, onion, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until ingredients are soft. Cool.

Served with Chimichurri Sauce

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
1 clove garlic
2 minced shallots
1 teaspoon minced basil, thyme or oregano, or mixture
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend. Let set for at least 2 hours before serving.

The grated potato and onions and seasoning

Ground meat

The ingredients stirred together and heated until the onions and potatoes softened

After filling and baking

The sauce ingredients. I picked basil from my own yard! I have three types of basil growing this year

Onto the dishes my husband made with my assistance

Patatas Bravas (I diced all those potatoes and pureed the rasted red peppers with the onion)

Spanish Chicken with Potatoes (I washed the potatoes, dumped seasoning into a bowl, and cut lemons)

Mixed greens with pear, manchego cheese, and a homemade lemon vinaigrette
(I washed the greens and ripped them into pieces)

We had lots of Sangria but I only have a photo of the fruit. I took the brandy soaked fruit out of the bowl and put it into our pitchers. That is the end of my food contributions to this party!

Shrimp were grilled by my husband

Chorizo sausage were grilled. My dad actually manned the grill for these guys for us. Next to the sausage is the only Spanish cheese I found at Harris Teeter. It had a rosemary crust and was really good. Also in the tray but not photographed were a blue cheese, another soft cheese, and serrano ham.

I happen to be related to chefs of these next selections but I had no hand in the making of these yummy items :)

Yellow Rice made by my mom

Texas Sheet Cake made by my mom

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies made by my mom

My aunt made Half and Half Cookies. I am going to get the recipe! Yum

My sister-in-law made these brownies

Lastly, my oldest friend Jill made this potato tortilla and garlic mayo. It tasted AMAZING

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

2010-06-07T23:35:00.004-04:00

It was my co-worker and friend's birthday over Memorial weekend. She told me she really wanted a chocolate chip cake. I told her I had never made one before and asked her to describe it. She said it could be made in a loaf pan or bunt pan and it didn't usually have frosting.

I looked up chocolate chip pound cakes.

Here is the recipe I used.
I did make the glaze but I would change the glaze recipe the next time around. If you want to top this cake I think I'd just melt chocolate chips with butter. I wouldn't fool around with the milk and powdered sugar.

Greek Pitas

2010-06-07T23:30:00.003-04:00

I roasted a boneless leg of lamb weeks ago. Then I made some rice to go with it, bought some pitas (that didnt have a pocket) and my husband made tzatziki sauce.

The lamb was fantastic. I highly recommend the Harris Teeter pre seasoned boneless leg of lamb. It was so good I couldn't stop cutting pieces off and just eating them.

The rice was a Rice o Roni type packet.

The odd pitas that I cut in half with a serrated knife.

Bro Shower

2010-05-22T11:17:00.005-04:00

Several weeks ago I was at a bridal shower. My husband had a bro shower for all the guys at our house. They ate man food. Here are a few photos my husband took of his man shower food. He made some southwest egg rolls and ribs.

My husband makes his own BBQ sauce. It has homemade applesauce in it. In the fall we go apple picking and the apples we don't use get turned into applesauce which is then frozen flat in ziplock bags.

We had 6 racks of ribs and we have a jar of BBQ sauce still sitting in the fridge that we didn't use up

I made crockpot pulled pork and the leftovers went into the filling for the southwest egg rolls.

This the first time he tried using flour tortillas as his wrapper instead of egg roll wrappers. He says he prefers the egg roll wrappers, but I thought the rolls were really good!

Beach Tart

2010-05-16T21:55:00.004-04:00

We finally got away this weekend and went to the beach!
My mom has had a few root canals lately and needs to have more work done.
She has to eat soft foods
We made pasta for dinner and I made a super easy tart

Mini Custard Fruit Tarts

I ended up using one store bought graham cracker crust which I toasted in the oven a bit
After my filling chilled in the fridge I topped my custard tart with bananas and toasted almonds.

yum! If the beach grocery store had fresh berries it was going to be banana strawberry.

Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

2010-04-24T22:17:00.003-04:00

Hot Italian sausage links, cut into bite sized pieces and sauteed
Jarred roasted red peppers, draied
Canned marinated artichokes, drained
Ziti, boiled
Favorite jarred pasta sauce
Italian cheese blend, shredded

Hot Italian sausage being cooked with some roasted red pepper

Everything but the cheese stirred together and dumped into a glass baking dish, then topped with the cheese.
Bake until bubbly and cheese is melted
Serve with some garlic bread