by TT Jr. on May 14th, 2012 | Recipes, Spreads & Sauces
I love bagels. I just love them, specifically toasted. And with cream cheese. They are so delicious when they are still hot and the cream cheese starts to melt on them. My favorite flavor is salt bagels, and they are delicious with plain cream cheese, but sometimes that gets a little boring. So, I decided to make a vegetable cream cheese to see how it tasted with my mom's yummy salt bagels. It tasted like heaven on a hot bagel. The sweet crunchy carrots with the tangy, slightly spicy chives against the salty, hot, soft, crunchy bagel is incredible.
A
by TT on April 26th, 2012 | Recipes, Spreads & Sauces
In an attempt to broaden my 14 year old's seafood palate, I decided to cook tuna last week. Unfortunately, the fish counter that I visited had none available, so I went with her current favorite fish, salmon, and jumbo shrimp. Shrimp is a type of seafood that she doesn't like, but the rest of us do. I figured if I got her to try it again, it may start to be a seafood item that she likes. She adores coconut, so I thought some
coconut shrimp might do the trick.
Apparently, the lure of a coconut coating isn't enough
by TT on October 30th, 2009 | Desserts, Recipes
Sometimes a Sunday just begs for lots of home cooking and meals that aren't served at their typical weekday times. This past Sunday was one of those days.
We started our laid back Sunday with a late breakfast of homemade waffles for the kids and egg white wraps for the adults. Not needing lunch, we decided to make an early dinner of slow roasted, coffee and brown sugar rubbed pork served with veggies. A baked dessert seemed to be the best way to end our day.
With our refrigerator fruit bin still full of apples from a previous picking adventure, they seemed
by TT on October 29th, 2009 | Healthy Cooking, Recipes, Side Dishes
A couple weekends ago, we had a simple version of Thanksgiving dinner. We didn't make stuffing or gravy, but we did roast a whole turkey. We also made homemade cranberry sauce, mulled cider, and two veggie dishes. With all four kids here for dinner, it was my hope that one of the two would appeal to each of them.
The two veggies I made were brussel sprouts and butternut squash. Typically, all of the kids like brussel sprouts, and half of the kids like squash. At our house, everyone receives a "no thank you" serving of every dish, but you can
by TT on October 27th, 2009 | Appetizers, Healthy Cooking, Recipes, Side Dishes
Working on dinner ideas for last week, I knew there were a few nights that my husband would be away on business. Although he is one of the most open-minded eaters I know, he doesn't eat legumes. So, when he is away, a side dish of green beans or a Mexican entree with refried beans is often part of the menu.
I had heard someone talking about black bean cakes recently and thought that would be an excellent recipe to try while my husband was away. Even though I knew that my 13 and 11 year old dinner companions would eat
by TT on October 20th, 2009 | Healthy Cooking, Recipes, Side Dishes
As I mentioned recently, this time of year I stop by local orchards on a weekly basis. When I went to an orchard a couple weeks ago, I decided to check out their winter squash offerings. With cool weather making itself permanent, I have been craving squash. However, I tend to stick with the same squash time and again: butternut or acorn. So, when I arrived at the orchard, my goal was clear- any squash but those two!
This large orchard did not disappoint me. They had quite an assortment of squash available. I immediately knew I would pass on the
by TT on October 16th, 2009 | Desserts, Recipes
While apples are available all year at the grocery store, there is nothing like freshly picked apples in the fall. Living where we do, it is a 10-minute drive to a handful of orchards. Conveniently, our 11 year old daughter takes gymnastics lessons at a studio near these orchards. With everyone in our house enjoying apples, I typically get a new bag of apples weekly.
For the first month of apple season, we enjoyed Ginger Gold apples, but as with any type of produce, their season ended. When I went to the orchard last week, I needed to choose a new
