Wrapped & Stuffed Dates
I feel very fortunate that I have the husband that I do. Many husbands complain about shopping, spending an afternoon in stores. My husband isn’t that sort of person. In fact, if we have a weekend day without plans, we enjoy spending time shopping, whether it be looking for clothes, rummaging through consignment shops, or checking out gourmet food shops.
This past Saturday was one of those days. After a late breakfast at a local restaurant, we headed to the mall and shopped for a couple hours. We found some great buys and fun clothes for each of us. Then we…
Balsamic Roasted Veggies
For the second Tapas Night of 2010 I decided to give it a Greek theme. My original plan was to serve lamb sausage. However, when I checked the freezer I discovered that we had lamb sausage, but it was bulk sausage. A scoop of sausage just isn’t as appealing as one that is served as a link or slice. So, I decided to save the lamb sausage for a different meal.
Luckily our meat freezer was pretty full after a December trip to our favorite butcher. Within seconds of being disappointed by the lamb sausage, I found the perfect replacement: chicken…
Cheddar-Chenin Blanc Fondue
Ski season has arrived in New Hampshire and with that comes weekly ski lessons. Our older son participates in these lessons, and so to extend his time skiing, we offered to drive him and three friends every Friday. Of course, driving four teens to skiing means that a parent needs to stay there. My husband graciously has offered to be the transportation, which gives me Friday afternoon and evening alone with our eleven year old daughter, Sam.
This past Friday was our first girls’ night of the ski season. Our original plan was to do a little shopping, eat dinner at…
Day 6- Spinach Squares
Today’s recipe is savory instead of sweet. However, when these spinach squares are served, they disappear as quickly as a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
I received this recipe from my mom, who was given it by her dear friend Jean. Jean was quite the hostess who made wonderful dishes, and this recipe is no different.
The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it only requires one bowl for mixing and then bakes in a 13×9 pan. The hardest part about making this snack is waiting for the squares to cool enough to be cut for serving.
I made a…
Eggplant Salsa
With my husband being a native of the Baltimore area, he is a fan of the Ravens. However, living in New England, most of their games aren’t broadcast. So, when Baltimore was scheduled for the Monday night game a few weeks ago, I decided to make our tapas night work around this special occasion.
Although I honestly didn’t care whether Baltimore or Cleveland won (*gasp*), I decided to make a menu that was pro-Ravens. As my cooking experience with crabs is limited, I thought that serving purple foods would be my best choice for a Baltimore-themed menu. Eggplant salsa was a…
Roasted Broccoli
After a weekend of travel and eating meals out, there is something nice about returning home and cooking in your own kitchen. Thankfully, this weekend of travel was filled with excellent meals, so the excitement to return to my kitchen was more about wanting to cook than needing decent food.
However, our return home wasn’t scheduled to be a quiet night. In addition to the company of our 11 and 13 year olds, we also would be watching our two and four year old nephews. So, after an evening of playing chase the preschoolers, simple foods seemed to be our best…
Black Bean Cakes
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…
Broiled Tomatoes & Cheese
As this recipe contains only four ingredients (two, if you omit salt and pepper), I have to admit that I feel a little silly posting it. However, it rounded out our football Sunday munchies menu so perfectly, I felt obligated to share it with others.
I had found a recipe for a hot corn dip that I really wanted to try, and it became the basis of our menu planning. As there were only my husband and me eating snacks this past Sunday, we needed to make only two or three dishes. With a chip and dip dish starting our…
Blue Cheese & Peaches
I actually made this dish at the end of July when peaches were first in season in New Hampshire. However, I forgot about this simple appetizer until yesterday. That was when I went into the cheese drawer in refrigerator and discovered that I had two new blocks of blue cheese.
Everyone in our family enjoys cheese, so our cheese drawer typically is quite full. Usually I make note of what cheeses we have before I shop for groceries. I obviously did not do that on my most recent shopping trip. I thought we had eaten all of the blue cheese, so…
Tomato Basil Bruschetta
As I wrote in my last post, we recently enjoyed a Saturday dinner of Italian appetizers with friends. The inspiration for the Italian theme was the ready to be picked basil plant on our front porch. I love using fresh basil in recipes, most often in tomato-based dishes. Whether it be a caprese salad or eggplant stacks, fresh basil is essential.
As we were eating finger foods on Saturday, I decided to make a dip that could be eaten without utensils. A bruschetta dip seemed a perfect use for basil. It could be made early in the day to…
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