Shrimp Fried Rice
When I began planning the menu for our delayed Chinese New Year dinner, I had certain dishes in mind. As we had ground pork in our freezer, I wanted to try making pork dumplings. With my husband and our 13 year old being big fans of fried rice, that was on the list. And, of course, trying to keep some healthiness to the menu, I decided to make Kung Pao Broccoli.
Deciding what to include in the fried rice was like working with LEGOs. If you’re creating something new, there are no set colors or placement of blocks; it’s your…
Kung Pao Broccoli
After a week and a half away from my kitchen, I was excited to spend some quality time cooking last night. Sadly, the reason for my kitchen absence was not a vacation to a tropical island nor a business trip in a fun city; a kitchen-based injury was the basis. Needless to say, my mandolin and I are not on speaking terms. It even may take some therapy to repair our relationship.
So. . .after a week and a half of letting others prepare meals and making the simplest of dishes on my own, I was ready to embark on a…
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…
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…
Garlic & Parmesan Squash
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…
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…
Sunshine Squash with Sage & Cider
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…
Caramelized Apples
I don’t know if it is just my household, but we get into culinary trends. My husband tried braising meats late in the spring, and ever since then it has been his go-to dish. Not that I’m complaining. Braising produces such a wonderfully tender meat and makes the house smell incredible. Since his first foray into braising, we have had many wonderful dinners of beef, lamb, and pork.
My recent culinary trend has been caramelizing. I have made caramelized onions, bananas, and squash, among other ingredients. For a weekend breakfast for two, I decided to make caramelized apples to top French…
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…
Asian Slaw
Although I tend to be a planner, sometimes spontaneity can be quite nice. Late Friday afternoon, we went to the grocery store with no plan for our dinner. The only plan we had was to peruse our options at the butcher and base our meal around our meat choice.
After talking with the butcher, we decided to do a surf and turf combination of teriyaki steak tips and scallops. For a side dish, we wanted something that would compliment these items but that wouldn’t take long to prepare. Being summertime and (finally) warm, a salad sort of dish seemed perfect.
I knew…
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