Category: Recipe Roundup

Travel Food
Life Posts · Recipe Roundup

Travel Food

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I am a newer social media convert and still think it’s still silly to take pictures of restaurant food, but the desserts I’ve had have been so delicious and adorable, that I tried to get over it. 🙂

On our Disneyland day, we were lucky enough to attend the California Adventure Food and Wine Festival and it was so much fun.

We fell on the food like starving beasts though, so I didn’t get pictures. We also had some friends of my sister-in-law with us too and I didn’t want to be weird. I should probably work on that…

We tried to have something from every booth, but missed a couple. My inlaws had wine, but I was too thirsty for that.

Here’s a list:

– Korean BBQ beef short rib tacos from LA Style, which were delicious! I think they had pickled cabbage on top.  The meat was so tender!

– White Cheddar Lager Soup in a Sourdough Boule from California Craft Brews. I didn’t eat this, but apparently it was good. The Husband didn’t enjoy it, too much beer flavor.

–  Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese, Sustainable Salmon Peruvian Poke with Cucumbers and Salsa, Lime Margarita with Jalapeño Garnish from Peppers Cali-Ente.

The drink was not the greatest and not worth the price. 🙁 The poke was delicious, according to the inlaws, and the mac and cheese was lovely and creamy. It had bacon!

– Sparkling Wine Tropical float from California Uncorked. This was interesting, but also kind of weird. My sister in law thought it was too sugary. My MIL got the wine flight too.

– Strawberry Pineapple Float with Strawberry Popping Pearls from Strawberry Patch. This was very refreshing drink. It didn’t taste heavy at all. I was surprised that I liked the pearls, but they had a little extra strawberry juice in them. My SIL and the Husband also liked it too.

– Crispy Orange Chicken & Rice with a Garlic Cracker and the world’s biggest Meyer Lemon Macaron from Citrus Grove. Seriously, this cookie was about 4-5 inches across and had raspberry jam in the middle as an extra surprise!

– Grilled and Chilled Artichoke Hearts with Romesco, and Fried Artichoke Carbonara from I ❤️Artichokes.  These were both good. The carbonara gave me heartburn. I think it might be time to admit that bacon and I are not friends… I had it tonight again and it gave me some trouble.

– Salt and Beer Vinegar Parmesan Chicken Wings from Cluck-a-doodle-moo. I didn’t eat these, but was told they were very good.

– Shrimp Boil Tacos with Andouille and Caramel Corn Crispy Treat from Off the Cob. The crispy treat was not satisfying. It was a little too bland for me. I didn’t think and ate the tacos, so the andouille may have contributed to the heartburn. They were good though.

– Creamy Mac and Cheese with Garlic Bread Crumble and a Black Garlic Soy Braised Pork Belly Banh Mi. I liked the jalapeño popper mac and cheese better. This one wasn’t as creamy. I looked on sadly while other people got to devour the banh mi. It smelled amazing and was delicious according to everyone else.

I also got these cute macarons from Kayla’s Cakes. 

I picked six flavors to try. The unicorn was vanilla, the grey starry one was salted caramel.

I also got an oreo cheesecake one, raspberry, peach Bellini, and of course, Belgian chocolate. So far they have all been delicious. I’ve been eating them for breakfast. 🙂 We also had ice cream, but I don’t have that picture yet. 🙂

Today it was raining and gross while we explored San Francisco, so we stopped for an ice cream break at Ghirardelli Square.

I had the small one in front- Muir Woods Black Cherry sundae, the Husband and MIL had the Ocean Salted Caramel sundaes, and my FIL had a Salted Caramel Shake.

My goal is to eat ice cream as often as possible. We have a gelato place picked out tomorrow already. 🙂

Our dogsitter told us Fancy is being very good and is a fantastic snuggler, so although we are missing her, she is well taken care of. We also have a dog place picked out and will probably being home treats. 🙂

Tomorrow is a big day, so I should probably head to bed. Have a great weekend!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I intended to write this earlier, but it’s raining, gross and cold, and then this happened.

How could I be expected to resist the sleeping puppy lure? Now she’s ready to play again and the Husband and I are sleepy and ready for longer naps. 🙂

We had luckily already taken her to the dog mall before it started raining, where she was petted by several strangers, including several teens. She also saw her favorite employee at the dog bakery and got a sample treat.

I had an exciting ravioli tutorial to share before I did the review. My friend gave me this ravioli maker which made my ravioli skills much nicer.

It is the coolest thing! 

First, you put the pasta sheet down over the metal part and the gently put down the white part into it to make a depression. Then you fill the middles and put down the other sheet.

Roll over the ravioli and it seals and cuts it!

Then you have beautiful pasta, just waiting to be used for delicious dinners.

We’ve had them in a mushroom cream sauce twice.

We also used the last of the carne asada in mac and cheese.

It was pretty good, but could have been a little creamier.

So on to the review…

Sewing Review

I just finished this little purse yesterday to take when I didn’t want my big bag.

I did something silly though. I sewed two zippers, though I didn’t need the “extra” pocket piece, and now have two zippers for just the one pocket, instead of two pockets…. I wasn’t using a pattern, so got a little confused on what went where. I’m debating taking it apart to fix it, but it might not get done before the trip.

My other completed projects this month were the wedding quilt in the featured picture, the world computer bag, and the infinity dress.

I also bought new patterns. The one on the bottom right is a knit dress. I’m working on it tonight, I think, if Fancy will let me stop petting her long enough. 🙂

I have one of the other wedding quilts in progress and one pinned, so made some progress on that. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the sewing I did this month. I finished a bunch of projects and it felt nice to check some big things off my list.

Goals for April

* Make a dress

* Make leggings

* Finish a quilt

 

Food Review

We used 17 recipes, 8 of which were new recipes. Hits were the cheese fondue, chicken and gnocchi soup, Irish Whiskey ice cream, rigatoni with sausage, chocolate oreo ice cream, and the chicken ravioli.

I don’t think we had too many misses. None horrible enough for me to remember at least. I suppose that good…

 

Food Goals

* Teach the Husband how to sear pork

* Put together freezer meals

* Meal plan

Overall, a pretty good month. I would like to do more with recipes, but my evening schedule is real weird right now. Well, I’m just gone a lot, so not really weird, just late.

Fancy-pants is staring sadly at me from the hallway. She feels her ratio of play to naps has been sorely neglected today. I’d better go fix that. I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Scandinavian Support Groups
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Scandinavian Support Groups

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This was how my weekend went. On Friday I had a conference which took all day, followed by a Trader Joe’s trip (No, Dad, I didn’t see the chili lime spice.) Then frantic cleaning, because I have been sick all week and the last thing I wanted to do was tidy the house.

Saturday, I had my monthly staff meeting, followed by more frantic cleaning to get ready for the fondue party. The Husband and I had the following conversation as I was staring at my list of fondue dippers, 2 hours before the ladies were due to arrive.

Me: “I have strawberries, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, and croissants for the chocolate. Do you think I need a pound cake? I could make a pound cake.”

The Husband: Laughs hysterically before saying “I don’t think you need a pound cake.” 🙂

This then led to a discussion of whether or not a support group for Scandinavian people attempting to rein in the concern for having enough food at gatherings would be productive or not. We decided it would probably just devolve into the members just trying to outdo each other in baking skills. 😄

I called my Mom to check on the group idea and got my Dad, as my Mom had just gone off to her church lady meeting, carrying no less than four items for the potluck. I think I’m probably doomed…. Later she called me back to suggest I was remiss in my hosting duties for having no pickle tray and no pound cake. I love my family… 

The fondue party was fun and I completely forgot to take pictures. We watched a couple of chick flicks and ate just about all of the fondue. We had cheese and chocolate fondue. I’ll give you the recipes for both.

Chocolate Fondue– by Linnea Sieh

Ingredients: cream, semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate, chocolate/orange/kalhua liquor. (I used Godiva chocolate liquor.)

Heat your fondue pot, add 3/4 cup cream and let it bubble. Add about a cup of the semi sweet chocolate and a cup of the bittersweet chocolate. Let it melt and stir it in. Add more cream or chocolate until it is dippable consistency.

Wisconsin Trio Fondue – from Dip Into Something Different from The Melting Pot. (I based mine on this, I didn’t really follow it.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded Butterkase

1 1/2 cups Fontina

3 T flour

3/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 tsp chopped shallots

1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup Blue cheese

2 T chopped scallions

Directions:

Toss the Butterkase and Fontina cheeses with the flour. Using a double boiler (or bowl and pan) bring water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and pour in wine and sherry. Stir in shallots using a fork. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring consistently. Add half of cheese blend and cook until cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add remaining cheese slowly, stirring in a circular motion after each addition until cheese is melted. Fold in pepper and Blue cheese. Pou into a fondue pot and keep warm. Garnish with scallions.

Modifications: Subbed a chedder/Gruyere blend for the butterkase. Subbed more Fontina for Blue cheese. Used onions instead of shallots. Omitted scallions by accident.

It turned out very good. I apologize for the lack of pictures. We were too busy eating it.

We ate less fancy foods during the week. The Husband and I were still a sick at the beginning of the week, so we had a couple of soups and a crockpot beef meal. I received my Pampered Chef order, so two of the recipes involved things from the box.

We had Scotch Broth, from my recipe.

It was delicious, as usual.

I had bought a Carnitas spice rub blend from Pampered Chef, so I threw that on a flank steak along with some peppers, onions, and about a half cup chicken broth in the crockpot and let it cook for 10 hours. We had it in tortillas.

It was delicious! We might have the rest of the meat as nachos.

I’m trying to be better about repurposing leftovers instead of wasting them, so I used some of the jerk chicken to make this soup, Chicken ‘N Gnocchi Soup from 29 Minutes to Dinner- The Pampered Chef. 

I left out the sage, as I thought it might not play well with the seasonings, but it was definitely tasty. I couldn’t stop sneaking crispy gnocchi out of the skillet though while the soup was cooking.

The Husband really liked it and kept telling me that we could definitely have it again.  You’ll be seeing this cookbook a bit more too. It has delicious sounding recipes like Oven-Fried Chicken with Waffle Sticks, Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks, Savory Shrimp Rolls, Middle Eastern Beef Pops, and Japanese Steakhouse Pork Chops. 

I’m going to write my monthly review post early, as we will be on vacation during the normal time. I need to get some more sewing done too. I have a bag that I want to finish for the trip and a dress to make for the wedding that we are attending. Hopefully you’ll see some updates on Tuesday’s sewing post!

Recipes and Adventures!
Crafty · Life Posts · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Recipes and Adventures!

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I only made two new recipes last week and then we went on an adventure! I did help make a new ice cream recipe on our adventure, but our friends did the cooking, which was so nice.

I have one picture of the three recipes I made before we left. I redeemed myself from the chicken potpie that we don’t speak about, using leftovers from a roasted chicken.

The chicken recipe was from The Family Recipe Keeper. We had roasted potatoes from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I threw some carrots in with the chicken.

Here’s the potpie and Fancy, being so jealous.

We also had Meatball Marsala, from one of the Food Network magazines. I’ve misplaced it, but when I find it, I’ll post the edition number. It was good. I made fancy mashed red potatoes to go with it. It wasn’t a very pretty looking dish though.

Fancy was very concerned that we were leaving her behind and started laying on our bags or sticking like glue to one or the other of us. She also didn’t let me finish the quilt I needed for this weekend.

I ended up attempting to car quilt, which just made me a little car sick and then finally finished it while everyone else was napping.

I believe it’s a split 9 patch from Bonnie Hunter, but set on point instead of regular. The pattern has something funny with it, but still looks okay. Baby S loved it and spent at least a half an hour rolling around in it. This is what happened when I first attempted pictures.

Fancy loved her time with the tiny human and was so concerned about him that she spent the whole weekend following him around and whining when he cried.

She was very gentle with him, although she did try to chew on almost all of his toys. She shared hers, for the most part, but did very nicely take the ball back from him when he grabbed it. She was a spoiled dog and got a tennis ball of her very own, but chewed some holes in it instead of playing nice.

K made some lovely baby and dog friendly treats and S didn’t like them cold, so he shared them all with Fancy. She quickly learned that his highchair  meant delicious dropped things from up above.

The Husband and I ate very well too. There was beef stew waiting fir us when we arrived. We had homemade butternut squash ravioli and beef and parm ravioli for lunch.

The squash were cooked in butter and sage and the beef had a homemade golden marinara sauce over it. Mmmmm…. K gave me  ravioli maker to play with, so I might be making some pasta on Friday.

We had the traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with roasted veggies and carrots. Traditional soda bread too. It was all delicious!

We made Irish Whiskey Salted Caramel ice cream for dessert. One of the coolest things about K and A is that they have chickens and ducks! We got to use extremely fresh eggs for the ice cream. Guess which egg yolk is a duck egg yolk…

The ice cream was a little soft and a lot boozy! It was delicious though. Had it been harder, we probably would have made ice cream sandwiches with the giant homemade cookies that were made for the Husband. 🙂

I think we used a Pioneer Woman recipe for the Caramel sauce.

We had a great time and it was fun to meet the baby. He definitely helped wear Fancy out. She slept for most of yesterday.

Now she’s out basking in the sun. If we would let, her, she would probably stay there all day. 🙂 Hope your day is as sunny as her day!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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We’re dogless for the night. It’s weird without having dog trying to eat our food and giving us sad sighs when we won’t share the chocolate ice cream. She is having a trial run with our friend who will be watching her on future vacations. Apparently, she is doing very well and has stopped trying to make the cat play with her.

Yes, I did make a second batch of the chocolate version of my favorite ice cream. And even better, I remembered to put the custard base in the fridge! Whoa. The Husband was very impressed.

I chopped up some Oreos for something different. Apparently, I hold the “Best Wife” title for the idea. It was good. Slightly eggy, but so smooth and creamy! I’m definitely going to make more in other flavors. The Husband has requested strawberry next.

We had a delicious pasta dish tonight, Rigatoni with Sausage and Fennel by Ina Garten from Food Network Magazine, Jan/Feb 2018. 

The tomato paste made it turn Kraft dinner orange. It was a little weird, but delicious. We’ll make it again. The fennel was quite mild.

I made Steak Soup from Plain Chicken for Wednesday. http://www.plainchicken.com/2015/11/slow-cooker-steak-soup.html?m=1

It was my long day, so the Husband normally gets a slow cooker meal, pork, or leftovers. He said it was good. I forgot to have him take pictures though and didn’t eat any yet myself. I added carrots.

I also left Asian spiced chicken thighs and drumsticks for dinner one night and that was tasty! I used boneless, skinless packs from Costco. Still no pictures though. 🙁

We had kind of an international week this week, food wise. Asian chicken, Italian pasta, and these beef meatpies that were  recipe from the first preschool I worked at. We had an international week there and got to try all sorts of foods and had a cookbook of sorts at the end.

I used the french bread dough, instead of pizza dough. They have ground beef, curry powder, and onions in them. The recipe is pretty simple, so I’ll share it. You can use whatever type of bread dough you’d like.

Meat Pies

Filling:

1 lb ground beef

2 large onions (I only used one medium, 2 would have been way too much)

1 T curry powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Pizza dough, or bread dough

Directions: 

Cook beef for 10-12 minutes. Add onions to beef, add salt/pepper and curry powder. Cook for an additional 15 minutes, or until onions and beef are done. Set aside to cool completely (I totally ignored this step.) Divide dough into 1 1/2 – 2 inch balls. Roll dough balls into 3-4 inch circles. Fill center of circles with one full tablespoon beef mixture. Fold into half circles. Seal edges with water or egg wash. Bake until golden brown. (I baked them at 400 for about 20-25 minutes, I think.)

Apparently they freeze well, but we scarfed them all too fast to check on that. The Husband was nervous about the currry. He thinks he doesn’t like it, but his favorite dish has lots of curry powder, so I generally ignore that.

Two batches of this french bread dough were made this week. The second was made when we were talking about ordering pizza and I realized that we had all the things we would be ordering on pizza. Plus, my first person of the day cancelled. I had some extra time at home.

So I made ham, mushroom, and onion pizza. It had a big fluffy crust and was delicious. There’s something very satisfying about making bread. This dough sat in the fridge while I was at work and turned out perfectly. It’s the featured picture today because it made me happy. 🙂

I think we’re getting back to the swing of things fairly well. We are going to be visiting some friends next week, so our meals will be smaller, but I’m hoping to make some good ones. One of the other ladies in my supervision group is getting her full license, so will only have one more group. I’m going to make her cookies! We also have enough ingredients to make one more batch of ice cream too.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a nice glass of wine to finish, on our dog free night. There’s also a quilt waiting for me to pin it, but that will probably get done in the morning.

The glass says “Infoxicated.” Have a good night!

 

 

Belated Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Belated Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

My weekend kind of slipped away from me! I had all of Friday with nothing much to do except suddenly I had a lot to do in the house! It looked like this for most of Thursday and some of Friday.

Then, around 11:30 AM, it started simply dropping off the trees and roofs. It was crazy. I stayed in side as much as I could. It was gross and wet all day.

Fancy spent most of the last few days like this:

The Husband was gone and she was so sad. She’s perked up now and won’t leave him alone. 🙂

Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather hear about the recipes for the week, rather than weather conditions, so here they are.

I made a Moroccan Lentil Soup from This Gal Cooks. https://www.thisgalcooks.com/slow-cooker-moroccan-lentil-soup/

I had it with some leftover rice. It was pretty good. The lentils were slightly crunchy still even after cooking overnight. But the flavors were good. I’m going to freeze a bunch of it.

I also made bean and cheese enchiladas for myself. The Husband doesn’t like beans, so they are all for me!

These were from Retro Fiesta by Geraldine Duncann. They were delicious. I added red bell pepper and a can of green chilis. Mmm… I think I might have them for lunch too.

My day yesterday was full with a conference from work and then a movie party with some friends. My contribution was dessert, so I used a Voracious (Cara Nicoletti) recipe- Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream. I used a different frosting though. While the cupcakes were amazing, the frosting got too hard and was a bit grainy for me.

I have no pictures, as the frosting won’t spread without ripping up the cupcakes. The frosting is from Sally’s Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2017/02/24/salted-caramel-frosting/

It was not silky or smooth as promised. I’m not sure if I put too much powdered sugar in it or what, but I won’t be making it again. Everyone else liked the taste at least.

I bought powdered buttermilk last week. A lot of my recipes call for buttermilk, but I can’t use an entire thing of it, normally. This morning, I was feeling like  pancakes for breakfast, so I made the recipe on the container. I added chocolate chips. They were tasty.

So that was what I’ve made lately. I had soup and grilled cheese as well and burned my finger while making it. The Husband had pork and we went out for dinner on Friday. I had completely zoned out that I was supposed to cook something and we didn’t have a lot of the things to make for my normal quick dinner ideas.

I will be doing my monthly review tomorrow. I was shocked when I realized I would need to do it so soon. It feels like I just did a review last week! Stay tuned for that!

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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We’ve been eating leftovers, since Chinese New Year. We had so many! I made steamed buns on the day when every appointment, except my very last one, all cancelled for various reasons. I did make a few new things though.

Tonight we had a mushroom cream sauce over mini ziti, with baked calamari. The calamari were from Costco, I only baked them.

The Husband says that I just “wave my arms about” and food appears. Tonight was one of those recipes. It turned out good.

Here’s what I did:

Creamy Mushroom Pasta, recipe by me! 

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

5-6 garlic chives- optional

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chicken broth- approximately. I forgot to measure.

1 lb mushrooms, sliced- I used button mushrooms.

2 T flour

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cooked pasta- I used half a box of mini ziti.

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put the butter and olive oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Add the onion, garlic chives, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until veggies are soft. Sprinkle the flour over veggies and stir until coated. Add in the chicken broth, cook until the it thickens. Add the cream and cook until thickened and bubbly. Add garlic powder and salt and pepper. Add the Parm and stir. Put the cooked pasta in the sauce and mix until coated. Serve and enjoy!

I made a new breakfast recipe- Chai Pear Scones by Baked By an Introvert. https://www.bakedbyanintrovert.com/chai-pear-scones/

They have delicious bits of fresh pear in them. I would maybe up the spices a bit, but they were good. I did use the glaze, which I typically won’t do, but it was delicious. I brought them to my Supervision groups for the last two days, but sadly came home with a lot more than I can eat. I’m going to try freezing them, even with the glaze.

I had a craving for turkey burgers, so I found a fun Asian inspired recipe. It was originally a beef recipe from Carlsbad Cravings. https://carlsbadcravings.com/asian-burger-recipe/

I didn’t have a recipe when I went to the store, so ended up not using the slaw part. We also didn’t bother with the ketchup. Neither of us like it. I did make a little sweet chili mayo and it added a nice bit to the burger. It looked a little plain, so I sautéed mushrooms and green onions in olive oil. They turned out to be a pretty decent burger. I would make them again.

This week, the Husband is going out of town for a couple days, so I’m trying to decide what recipes I want to make just for me. Any good vegetarian ideas? Send them my way if you have them. I may also have some Lebanese food. Mmm… For now though, I’ve got some figure skating to watch and am trying to decide which thing to sew next. Have a great weekend!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Mmm…crepes. They weren’t as good as my friend, Steph’s, but they were still delicious. She spent a year in Switzerland and learned how to make perfect ones there. I’m still learning. 🙂

My usual goal of 2-3 new recipes was definitely met this week. I surprised myself a little with how many I made.

I also made a second batch of the Pinch My Salt cinnamon ice cream, but this time, left it just vanilla. It was still so creamy and delicious. My plans for today include making another batch, but adding cocoa powder to make it chocolate.

So for new recipes, I used 3 online ones this week and one from a cookbook. Two were from Pinterest, one from a sewing blog, oddly enough. I’ll start with the one I have no pictures of. It wasn’t the prettiest of dishes anyway, so it’s probably okay.

It was Creamy Slow Cooker Portobello Chicken from Cutefetti.com. https://cutefetti.com/2015/04/portobella-mushroom-chicken-slow-cooker-recipe.html 

It needed more mushrooms, but I hadn’t had time to get more, so only had half. I also got nervous and added some water to the slow cooker and didn’t really need too. It was alright, not the best thing I had ever eaten, but not something I will probably make again either. The Husband agreed.

The next recipe was a hit. It was Spicy Beef Tortellini Soup, from The Slow Cooker Gourmet. https://slowcookergourmet.net/slow-cooker-spicy-beef-tortellini-soup/

The Husband thought it had a kick, but I didn’t really find it. There’s a chance I’m turning into a chili head without realizing it. It was a nice meal on a cold day. The stew meat was mostly frozen when I added it in, but it got so tender by the end that it just fell apart. I used my frozen tomatoes too. The Husband doesn’t like the skins on the tomatoes, so next time I use them, I’ll have to pull those first. He did like the soup though. I’ll keep this one in the soup rotation.

We also tried Salt and Pepper Chicken from Sew Petite Gal. http://sewpetitegal.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-08-17T12:38:00-07:00&max-results=2&start=32&by-date=false

While it felt a little weird to make a cooking recipe from a sewing site, it was a good recipe. The chicken was coated in cornstarch before being fried, so it was a new technique for me. It was also double fried.

We had it over rice and I added a bunch of veggies to it. It needs a sauce, I think. I’m pretty sure it’s meant more as a snack, rather than a meal, but it was easy enough to make a bigger amount and add veggies. It tasted good and wasn’t greasy, like I feared it might be. I’ll keep this and start experimenting with it. The Husband liked it and is requesting more fried foods.

The recipe we used from a cookbook was from Good Housekeeping, section: The Story of Meats. We had bacon wrapped burgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions.

We the Husband cut the onions and mushrooms and did an excellent job. You can just see Fancy’s feet in the corner, she was very jealous and grumbled and whined throughout the entire meal. We ignored her, but did laugh a little first.

We had a couple of leftover meals this week, so this was pretty much all we ate. It’s nice to have leftovers. I had intended on making longevity noodles yesterday to celebrate, but was sick with nasty migraine, so we ended up having the beef soup again instead. We have a shopping trip to the Chinese market today to get party foods, so we’ll probably have the noodles tonight.

I never got Fancy’s new collar made, as I kept forgetting to get the last part I needed. If I’m honest, my organizing work in my fabric this week has made me realize I can’t be trusted at fabric stores when upset, or when in a shopping mood, so I never went back to get it. I might have something that will work downstairs though, so I’ll look. She may just get a pretty bow to wear with her party harness. Either way, she will be thrilled to see everyone.

Stay tuned for party pictures on Monday and quotes tomorrow!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

It has been a snowy couple of days! We were supposed to get around 9 inches and we did get about that much yesterday. I got to stay home and snuggle Fancy and bake. The Husband had to go into work, but got to leave early to come home and said it wasn’t too bad.

I waited to write this review because we used the Instant Pot again last night, this time for Pot Roast and Veggies from the recipe book that came with the pot. It was actually a bit bland and would have been way worse if I hadn’t added seasonings before I pressure cooked it. The recipe didn’t even call for salt and pepper on the meat! I added oregano, a bay leaf, salt, pepper, and garlic and it was still bland.

I still like oven roasted pot roast more. My mother-in-laws pot roast is  the best. My Mom makes a good roast, but my M-I-L’s falls apart if you look at it funny.

I did some baking on my snow day. Fancy needed biscuits, so got pumpkin, banana, cinnamon ones from Endlessly Inspired. http://endlesslyinspired.com/2016/09/01/pumpkin-banana-dog-treats/

I added the cinnamon because she likes it.

She enjoyed these very much. 🙂

(Please excuse the blue fluff all over. She’s shredding her rope and any time she moves it we get a million fluffs everywhere.)

Having homemade treats didn’t stop her from licking my carrots later in the day and shamelessly begging for my pasta lunch. It’s a good thing she’s cute!

After I made the treats, I had a banana and half a can of pumpkin left over, so I made Pumpkin Banana Bread from Oh Sweet Basil. https://ohsweetbasil.com/pumpkin-banana-bread-recipe/

It is delicious! I gobbled a bunch of it already yesterday. It has three kinds of chocolate chips in it, mainly because we’ve used up our semi-sweets without realizing it. I had a quarter bag of mini semi-sweet, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate left, so I threw them all in with wild abandon.

I made a lentil dish for lunches this week. Lebanese Lentil Salad with Cumin, Mint, and, Garlic from Kayln’s Kitchen. The link looks unfinished, but it will take you to the right recipe.

https://kalynskitchen.com/recipe-for-lebanese-lentil-salad-with/

I used dried herbs and it came out fine. It smelled a little weird from the combo of herbs, but tasted good. I had it with rice.

The latest Food Network magazine had an overnight oats page, so I tried the Spiced Mango recipe and it was alright. I don’t know if I’m completely sold on them. I might try heating it up next time.  No pictures because I was running out the door with them.

I made a tortilla chicken soup for Superbowl Sunday, even though we actually recorded the game and then fast forwarded through the game to watch the commercials. We’re weird like that. We watched “Pitbulls and Parolees” instead. 🙂

It was delicious as well. Just a little bit of spice on the back end. I tried to measure so I could share the recipe too. The Husband cut the chicken for me, while I messed around with the rest of it and he did a great job. Here’s the recipe!

Linny’s Superbowl Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cubed and cooked chicken breasts (seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, Penzy’s “Forward” spice, and chili powder. Cayenne pepper is optional. Alternatively, use leftover chicken.)

1-2 jalepenos, one seeded, one with seeds

2-4 medium to large tomatoes, quartered

1 medium onion, quartered

1 bell pepper, any color, roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled

32 oz. chicken broth

4-8 oz tomato sauce. (I had half a can leftover, but would have used a full can if I hadn’t had a half already opened.)

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp Chili powder

1/2 tsp Garlic powder

Method:

Put the roughly chopped veggies on a foil lined sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Broil veggies until char appears and then flip to broil the second side.

While veggies are cooking, cook cubed chicken in batches, either in soup pot or in a skillet.

Chop the veggies or blend them with an immersion blender until they are in small pieces and add veggies to the soup pot. Pour in the broth, add the spices, and tomato sauce. Bring to  boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with tortilla chips.

Chicken Tortilla Soup is one I make frequently when I need a quick dinner idea. There are a ton of recipes out there, so you can customize it as you see fit. It also freezes really well.

We’re doing some meal planning today, I think. We have plans to stay in and be cozy after running the couple of errands we have to do. For now though, I think I’m going to grab a slice of that pumpkin bread and have an Elevensies snack!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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The weather here cannot make up its mind about what to do. All our snow melted in a day after getting several inches and now it’s freezing again. We’re supposed to get 4-6 inches by tomorrow. Fancy has spent most of the last couple of days curled up on the bed, or by the heating vent. She’s currently keeping my feet warm with occasional breaks to bark at the neighbors.

We had a good amount of variety in our meals this week. For dinner tonight, it will be “clean out the fridge.” I think all we have left is the chicken divan though, so that will be easy to finish off.

We had a pre-seasoned boneless lamb leg on Sunday, with mashed potatoes and fancy carrots from a Food Network magazine.

I consulted a couple of different recipes for the lamb, mainly just for tempature. It turned out really good. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/herb-roasted-lamb-recipe-1943577.html?soc=itksocialsharedefault%7Cios%7Ct Herb-Roasted Lamb By Ina Garten

I think this is the one I finally settled on. The link is being weird and linking back to the app instead of the webpage, so if it gives you trouble, search the Food Network site.

The lamb was delicious! We will definitely be doing this again. The Husband was super happy with it. I liked it. It masked the lamb gameyness and had a bit of a kick to it.

The carrots were from Food Network April 2015, Herbed Green Beans and Carrots. I only used carrots and I used a cranberry-pear white balsamic vinegar. I did reduce the sugar a little in the recipe. I julienned the carrots, feeling very fancy while cutting them.

We also had chicken divan. I accidentally mixed the cheese in and forgot the bread crumbs, so it was a little bit different. I also didn’t measure and under seasoned it. It still tasted alright though.

I made another muffin recipe. Blood Orange Pomegranate Muffins from Food Network, Jan/Feb 2018. 

They browned up a bit more than I was expecting. They have two full sticks of butter in them… The pomegranate arils were supposed to go on top, but I accidentally mixed them in. I didn’t make the glaze. I typically don’t like it. These were good. Slightly over baked, I think. They also made a full 24, when the recipe only said it would make 18. I’m not sure what size muffins they thought I was making…

I had chocolate chip banana waffles for breakfast one night. It had been a rough day, so they were a nice treat. https://hilahcooking.com/chocolate-chip-waffles/

I had them with butter and lingonberry jam. Mmm… I would make these again. The Husband was out for the night, so I didn’t have to share. I would make these again. I reduced the sugar a little and would do so again. The chocolate chips and jam made these sweet enough.

Last night I used the lamb to make a lamb stew, loosely based off a recipe in A Taste of Lebanon by Mary Salloum.

It was spicy from the lamb seasoning and warming from the cinnamon. We had cheese biscuits with it. We ate most of it last night. I would make this again if we have leftover lamb.

In other news, I started an Instagram account for the blog, with the same name- Notso50shousewife. If you have an account, feel free to follow along.

Stay tuned on Monday for my monthly review! I’m starting pretty strong on sewing projects this year.