Well, hello! I’m way behind on food posts lately. I’m taking a new med and it’s unfortunately dropping my appetite way down, so has made it hard to want to eat and cook. The Husband has suggested several new angles for food posts, so maybe I will try some of those soon.
My Mom sent me this book for my birthday too and it’s lovely! I’m excited to try some of the recipes in it. It’s got some fun facts about procrastination and other funny things too. I’ll have to use it as my next cookbook to review.
Speaking of my birthday, we had take out from the very fancy winery that we went to a long time ago. The Husband had a breaded chicken dish with fancy mashed potatoes and I had a chicken and veggie risotto. We also each had a bittersweet chocolate truffle. I ended up finishing the Husband’s truffle the next day, as he thought it was too dark for him. We shared an order of chicken potstickers and it came with pretzel bread. It was a delicious dinner and I didn’t have to cook for three days after!
I got two mini ice cream cakes from Coldstone too and they were ridiculously cute! I had a devil’s food cake layer topped with chocolate ice cream with peanut butter and fudge sauces, as well as Reese’s cups. The Husband had a devil’s food and Oreo cake with M&Ms and chocolate chips mixed in. They both had chocolate ganache as a topping as well. Yum!
I made a Trader Joe’s run the day before my birthday, as it’s conveniently located next to the Coldstone. I picked up these croissants and fancy coconut yogurt for my birthday breakfast. One has chocolate and the other has almond filling. They were so good! They also had Kibbe and falafel in the freezer section, but apparently I didn’t take a picture of my birthday lunch.
I did take a picture of the Balela salad, shawarma chicken, and naan I had a few days later. It was also quite delicious and I would get it again!
We haven’t just had decadent restaurant food though! Below is pasta with homemade arugula and herb pesto from the freezer. Always a delicious choice!
We had an appetizer night. I made steamed chicken dumplings, homemade fried crab rangoon, and we had store bought mini chicken egg rolls.
I used the rest of the crab to make crab stuffed mushrooms the next night. We had the leftover dumpling meat as meatballs! I stir fried bok choy and peppers in a sauce too.
We’ve had mac and cheese too. This time it was stovetop shells and cheese. Cooked carrots and fresh green beans rounded out the dinner. There may have been fruit as well.
We’ve had some interesting meals and some comfort foods lately. I’m gearing up for jam and gardening, so stay tuned for a garden plan post soon! Tomorrow is one of my planting days! I’d better go make sure my seedlings are marked before I play “Guess what I planted in this spot?” With my garden. Wish me luck!
Currently hungry for more fruit smoothie, but I’ll hold off until the morning. I used the last of my yogurt tonight. We had waffles, chicken breakfast sausage, and a fruit smoothie with oatmilk, yogurt, and berries. The Husband likes a little bit of sweetener in his smoothies, so I added a tablespoon or so of one of the simple syrups in my fridge. I had whipped cream and maple syrup on mine.
I tried a new breakfast recipe as well and discovered that my stomach gets super duper rumbly if I eat that much dairy right away, so may not make it again. It was a breakfast cheesecake cup!
I just went to link to the recipe and the website said the account had been suspended, but basically it’s a block of softened cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt. Blend them together, add sweetener and flavoring of your choice and a crust or granola on the bottom. This is it with plum cardamom jam. It was alright, but I think I might try another recipe. I would also add some more protein powder to these, if I was to make them again. They didn’t quite have the staying power I needed.
Speaking of staying power, my younger brother had been inspiring me to eat more protein with breakfast. I have made eggs a couple of time along with some muffins. I can’t always eat eggs for breakfast, occasionally they make me really sick.
We had a special weekend treat of baked banana bread donuts with chocolate glaze. They obviously needed sprinkles! I really want to make a bunch of baked goods with sprinkles and experiment with pictures of them for practice. It would be super cute, I think! Just look at how yummy these donuts look.
I used 5 Spice sugar in them for an extra twist and they were yummy. Very subtly spiced. The Brother approved, although the Husband didn’t eat them. He doesn’t like bananas.
Speaking of the Brother, we had some tasty dinners while the Husband was out of town for business. I think they were all Middle Eastern or Indian based foods and oh man… First up is beef kafta over pearl couscous and a cucumber tomato parsley salad. The salad had Za’atar spice in it. All the components were yummy!
He made falafel as well one night and they were so light and delicious. We had them with another tomato cucumber and herb salad. The recipe was apparently terrible and seemed to leave out some steps. It was from The Wizard’s Cookbook which the Husband recently bought me.
Don’t they look scrumptious? In the same cookbook, there was a recipe for “Red Dragon Inn Spicy Broth” and it was basically a curry coconut broth.
We had it with cooperatively made naan breads. Gosh, I’m going to miss having an extra cook in the house! The following picture should help explain why.
When I came home the next day, he was in the kitchen heating up naan, having cooked up some chicken, reduced the curry soup into a sauce and chopped up more romaine and parsley. I added yogurt on mine. It was so comforting and yummy! I will definitely make it again. Now that the Husband is traveling occasionally, I’m starting to plan more meals that he doesn’t like.
More Brother made meals included Blackberry BBQ beef ribs and Spanish Spiced chicken. They were both excellent.
The salad has a couple garden tomatoes and arugula in it.
I don’t have pictures of it, but the boys made themselves pork a couple of times. I had dahl and rice one night (Thanks Jeanne!) and made this ridiculously delicious chickpea curry that I would know like to eat about once a week.
The curry had chickepeas, butternut squash, carrots, green onions, and spicy, spicy fresh cayenne peppers from the garden. I had, I think, five little slices in the whole pot and had to pull two of them back out. It was making my nose run!
We’ve had some delicious favorites, pasta salad, chicken pot pie over noodles, and caprese salad with garden tomatoes and basil.
Also some delicious desserts. This is the strawberry cheesecake pie that I made for our anniversary. Side note, the Husband had stuck with me for 8(!) years! Well, married years, we were together for about five years before that too. I think he sticks around for the food mainly. 😉
I experimented with a no bake cheesecake as well. We tried chocolate and key lime flavors. We ate the key lime before I could take a picture, but it had toasted coconut on top.
I made cookies to take to work with me and shared with the CNA class that shares the other side of our building. They made me a picture Thank you with all of them holding cookies. 🙂 I was so embarrassed. I just wanted to me the cookie fairy! I made white chocolate lime coconut and chili chocolate cookies. Both were excellent! The lime cookies came from a Food Network insert and the chili chocolate cookies were here: https://localmilkblog.com/2013/03/salted-spicy-double-chocolate-chili-cookies.html
They were well received. The Brother had to sample many, but I think decided the lime cookies were his favorite.
Homemade pizza made an appearance. This time it had turkey Italian Sausage, mushrooms, and onions. I made a quick red sauce and actually managed to cook the dough for long enough this time.
I didn’t go too crazy for Shark Week this week. I only made three themed meals and two more shark themed clothing items. Well, five, if you count masks separately, I guess.
We did have Shark fin quesadillas and taco salad on Monday.
We had Shrimp Scampi on our actual anniversary.
And I had homemade arugula parsley pesto over shark themed noodles.
Oh my goodness, was the pesto good! I’m planning on making spinach and herb pesto tomorrow and freezing it all in tiny jars so I can pull it out in the winter and eat it when missing green things. I really enjoyed the pepperiness of the arugula. I can credit my friend K with helping me figure out that I like pesto. She sent us home the last time we visited with a couple of jars of different kinds of pesto and inspired me to make my own.
I think that’s all so far. I may be making an octopus cake for the end of Shark Week tomorrow, possibly a marble bundt cake. Also, I need ideas to use up the enormous thing of ricotta in my fridge. One of my planned recipes is cannoli filling ice cream. It looks really good, but I’ll have to make some other things too. I have a ricotta pancakes recipe too, so maybe I’ll try that. Wish me luck and drop me recipes if you have them!
Well, hello from day eleventy-hundred of social distancing! My birthday celebrations have been extended, as part of the Husband’s gifts for me came later in the month. He bought me some fun books, as is now Tradition. These books, he paid full price for, not book sale bag day prices. 😁 Feel free to skip down a couple paragraphs if you just want cookbook review.
One was a flamingo coloring book, which I have already started using. I forget if I have shared the picture I have colored or not, so forgive me if it’s a double.
I used watercolor pencils, so that’s why it looks wet. He also bought me a book about Pibbles! It’s called “I’m A Good Dog!” It’s an overview of pibbles and the prejudice against them. Of course I adored it. It has lovely pictures of the dogs being their best, lovey, dopey selves. I mean, look at Fancy! Can you even believe people are scared of her?
The other book was a Dim Sum cookbook! Dim Sum has a special place in our relationship. I met the Husband’s parent for the first time at a dim sum place and we introduced my family to the same place right before our wedding. I also planned a dim sum surprise birthday party for the Husband a couple years after getting married. We have it for it for various family celebrations with my inlaws at a couple of the local restaurants too.
Here’s the book. Dim Sum: The Art Of The Chinese Tea Lunch by Ellen Leong Blonder
Here’s a quick overview of Dim Sum, in case you haven’t had the experience. Which if you can ever try it, I would highly recommend it. Not all Chinese places have it and the hours can vary. We have gone anywhere from 11 AM to 11 PM at different restaurants. There’s always tea, but you can also get water or other drinks normally. It’s about the only time I’ll drink jasmine tea.
There’s no menu, instead food items come around on little carts and you point to what you want. The foods will be different, depending on where you are too. Sometimes there’s a soup or two, be sure to check what’s in it. One of the more common soups has tripe in it. Most of the orders are small little metal tins, containing 3-4 of each dish. When you request one, they’ll add it to your little check at the table. It’s best to plan for a large budget, as it’s hard to resist just getting one more thing.
Some of our most ordered dim sum items include steamed dumplings. Typically pork dumplings and shu mai, a translucent shrimp dumpling called har gao, steamed pork buns, steamed shrimp and chive dumplings (my newest favorite,) fried taro dumplings (my MIL’s favorite,) tea leaf steamed rice packets with delicious things inside, steamed Chinese broccoli, these rice noodles with soy sauce, and surprisingly a flash fried squid dish that’s crispy and spicy. (I’d fight someone for the squid, it’s that good.) If we can, we also get fried noodles. Now that may seem like a lot, but it’s very small portions of all of them. Last time we went, I also tried a sweet steamed bun with egg custard in it.
It’s a really fun experience and I’m very glad it’s now part of my family traditions! Now, on to the cookbook and recipes!
I immediately went overboard and planned a ridiculous number of dishes. 🙄 In the end, I narrowed it down to just a few things, split over two days. The first day we had pan fried bao, fried noodles, and beef meatballs.
The bao was tricky. This first set burned on one side. I should have probably used my cast iron, as it recommended a non-stick pan. I don’t own one, other than the cast irons. They looked much prettier before they were cooked!
They were filled with ground turkey, instead of pork. We enjoyed them and I would probably make them again, but this time with a different pan. The book included multiple recipes for different types of bao, both sweet and savory. I would like to try some more of the recipes, especially the coconut buns.
We didn’t like the meatballs very much. They had citrus in them and it was just a little off putting. They were interesting to make though, as they steamed instead of fried, they looked pretty raw because of the steaming, but were actually cooked through. I don’t think we’re going to making the meatballs again.
For the noodles, we just added precooked angel hair pasta to probably a little too much oil, fried them, flipped them, and added a slurry at the end of chicken stock and cornstarch. They were okay, but we haven’t mastered the techniques yet. The Husband took care of the noodles while I was working on the bao.
The second night, we had a dumpling feast with three different types of dumplings. Oh, and because I, 1) have a problem with my brain being missing, and 2) couldn’t find dumpling wrappers at either store we got groceries delivered from, made my own wrappers. 😱
The book also has multiple recipes for dumplings and homemade wrappers. It even has flavored wrappers. We also went super fancy and ground our own chicken, although, if we could have found some, we would have used that. The Husband was extremely grossed out by the squishy noise the meat grinder attachment makes. I’ve made sausage before, so,was expecting it. We will most likely keep doing that. It’s a lot cheaper than buying it pre ground, I think, and definitely easier than trying to find it at the stores right now.
We tried mushroom wontons, scallop dumplings, and curry chicken potstickers. The mushroom and scallop dumplings technically needed wheat starch wrappers so they would be translucent after being cooked, but I could not get my hands on wheat starch in time. They were still good.
We ate the mushroom wontons in a 5 spice beef broth.
The scallop dumplings were steamed and the potstickers I fried and then steamed. And they actually worked! I’ve had trouble with potstickers before.
Look how crispy they were! The curry ones were my favorite and the Husband liked the scallop ones better. The mushroom ones were okay, but I don’t know if we would have them again.
I also tried a sweet from the book. Almond Pudding- it’s pretty much milk jello with almond flavoring and sugar. Slightly strange and I attempted to inhale it and choked myself on it the first bit I took. It was super scary. It’s good with fruit though. The Husband got weirded out after trying a bite and declined to eat any more.
I especially liked that it gave pork subs for a bunch of the dumpling and bao recipes. Since I can’t eat pork, we tend to use chicken for most of the recipes, so it was nice to see that offered as an option. It included the author’s stories and memories of dim sum too, so that was nifty. The book is a nice size and has drawings, rather than photos of the foods, which lends extra charm. It also suggests teas to go with the foods.
Overall, the cookbook is delightful and will make an excellent addition to our Lunar New Year feasts. Of course, there are a lot more recipes waiting to be tried, so I’m sure you’ll see it again.
I think I’m sort of back in a cooking routine again. It’s been weird being home, but still working. I lose track of how much time I need to actually make things before having to retreat to the basement to start my telehealth sessions. I think I’ve managed to get out of my cooking rut at least. I made homemade puff pastry to top a steak and mushroom pie for Pi Day, for example!
I was impressed with myself! This is even the cheater version and it still has super flaky layers and loveliness.
We used the Instant Pot to cook the filling! I left out the bacon as we had none thawed and surprisingly, the Husband liked it without it! He said to leave it out next time too. Apparently, there should be several next times for this meal. 🙂 The steak and mushroom pie recipe is here: https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/steak-and-mushroom-pie/
We also had baked chicken thighs with a spicy rub. The Husband had a salad and rice and I had buttered, herbed brussel sprouts.
An old favorite made an appearance, spaghetti! This one was cooked on the stove. This time I used two cans of tomatoes and two cans of sauce and that seems to be the perfect stove top method for us. We like it a little more saucy.
We, of course, had lasagna, after the spaghetti. I used my favorite french bread recipe to make herbed bread. Don’t tell the Husband, but I used the Sandwich Sprinkle in the batter and it was lovely.
I made Chicken Bacon Ranch pasta with the leftover from the chicken dinner. It was a fun recipe to try. I wasn’t sure how I would like the combo of spices, but it was fun. I made my own ranch dressing spice mix. The Husband is interested to try homemade ranch with the spice mix soon too. We would probably eat this again.
Another fun recipe that I have had on my list to try for a while is Shrimp Hushpuppies from Tasty Kitchen. Since we had some extra time this week, I whipped up a batch.
They were yummy! My inlaws helped the Husband move a server cage into our house, which at one point involved taking off the doors so the Husband could stand in the middle of it to get it down the stairs. Fancy tried to rescue him when it ended up hitting his shins. It was a circus, but the turnovers helped make up for it.
To finish off on an even sweeter note, here’s the latest homemade ice cream experiment. When we cleaned the freezer, we discovered a sad looking bowl of strawberries that were obviously in need of rescue. Since they didn’t look like they would be good to eat, we made ice cream instead! It was delicious and made with no eggs!
Yum! I’ve made a few more fun things, including some new treats for Fancy, but those will be in a later post, as I don’t have the pictures yet. I hope you’re finding time to experiment with fun foods and things to do! Stay healthy!
Hello! I have a new cookbook to feature along with some recipes for this post!
I used Michael Symon’s cookbook 5 In 5 a lot in the past couple of weeks with great success!
It has a lot of different sections, including desserts! The recipes are easy to use and pretty much all have only five ingredients. There’s a section at the front of the book that details flavor profiles for different proteins. The pictures are very clear and bright and look very enticing.
The only thing I noticed that can be confusing is that sometimes things like water, or salt and pepper, are only included in the recipe itself instead of the ingredient list.
The first section we used was the “Pasta” section. We had the Spaghetti With Olive Oil, Garlic, and Red Pepper Flakes. We ate it as a side with a marinated turkey breast from the store.
It was pretty spicy! I wouldn’t make it as a full dinner, but it worked well for a side. The turkey looked oddly like salmon, but tasted okay.
We also used a kebab recipe from the “On a Stick” chapter for a fun weekend with some friends. No pictures because we were too hungry to take them. We used the Sirloin with Lemon and Oregano recipe and enjoyed it. They were surprisingly good for only being marinated for a short amount of time.
We tried a steak recipe, Beef Tri-tip with Spicy Peppers, from the “Man with a Pan” section. It called for Tri-Tip, but the only one we could find was already marinated, so we used strip steak instead.
I got super confused thinking it was a stir fry and it was definitely not. It was quite tasty though, even with the wrong cut of steak. We would make this again maybe, but would reduce the peppers. We ate it with cilantro rice.
We used another steak recipe on the grill too from the book. Grilled Skirt Steak with grilled portobellos, corn, and a raw zucchini salad recipe, also from the book.
I wouldn’t make the zucchini salad again. I don’t know if my proportions were off or what, but I didn’t like it all that much. Too much oil, I think.
My favorite recipe was a Whiskey Caramel Sauce from the “I Scream, You Scream” section. I would like to eat all the sauces from this section. They all sound mouthwatering! I had underripe peaches for the 4th and 5th, so we couldn’t try the Grilled Peaches and Honey recipe, but it’s on my list. I stole this picture from a friend.
So those are all the recipes from this cookbook. There’s a lot of fish recipes, but also some shrimp and chicken ones. I’m excited to keep trying them.
In other food news, we had fried chicken from Fried and True. It was the Loveless Cafe recipe and we used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs.
We also had Parmesan Chipotle potato wedges and a salad. Everyone enjoyed it. It has a very thin coating on it, but did end up with a good crust. We would eat it again. I might even remember to wear an apron next time!
We tried the Strawberry Cheesecake Pie with Raspberries instead and it didn’t set up as well. We will stick to the Strawberry version, but it was still tasty.
I was also homesick for my old summer camp and made Oreo pudding. Not very appetizing to look at, but delicious!
We’re looking forward to trying some new things this week too. Hope this made you hungry!
We’ve had some exciting new recipes lately and a few older favorites. With my schedule stabilizing, I have been able to do a bit more meal planning, along with adding an “on your own” day permanently into the rotation. That has been super helpful for Wednesdays or Thursdays. The Husband has been requesting more dishes too, which helps. Today we had chicken pot pie over noodles, which we haven’t had in a while. I was hungry, so forgot to take a full picture!
I loudly and snottily announced that I was going out to the garden to pick fresh herbs and the Husband laughed at me, but then told me that I should probably be Instagramming the whole experience. I was the one laughing then. Silly Husband! I was not Instagram dressed! They did look really pretty cooking down with the onions though.
The potpie was made with leftover chicken from this dinner:
Herb Butter Baked Chicken Breasts with Stovetop Stuffing and roasted carrots. I used the Sandwich Sprinkle on the carrots (seriously, I need a bigger jar of it) and fresh garden herbs for the butter.
Rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, and oregano were all included. I actually used some lemon thyme and basil in my strawberry shortcake, which we had for dessert.
This was the lemon thyme batch. It needed a little more herb in it, but it had a subtle lemony taste. The basil one came out much stronger, but basil is a stronger herb in general. I’ve been eating that one over yogurt too and it’s delicious!
So why all the strawberry things, you might ask? I dragged the Husband (yes, dragged, he doesn’t enjoy it) picking with me on Sunday after a panic moment of “what if they run out?!” We may have helped with that. We picked in between 12-13 pounds!
We tried a new farm, but didn’t like it as much, so will stick with the old one if we go together again. I might go on my own one more time, but I can also just pick some up from the farm market. I have a back quartered for eating or jam, and a batch left whole in the freezer. We have some to eat fresh in the fridge and some as shortcake. The shortcake ones will probably be made into jam, as they need to be used up quickly.
I also made this:
Is your mouth watering yet? No? Here, try this picture instead:
MMMMMMM! This recipe is soo good! I found it online at Pumpkin Inn Spice. https://www.pumpkinnspice.com/strawberry-pound-cake/. There were lots of delicious looking recipes, but this one said it was one bowl and that was good enough for me! I finally used the Bundt pan that Mom got me for Christmas.
I have a Strawberry Cheesecake Pie in the fridge that I’m super excited about too. I tasted the filling and man, oh man! I could have eaten it like a pudding! I’m looking forward to trying it tomorrow after it has set.
I’m still plotting what to do with the jam strawberries. I know I want to make Strawberry Rhubarb and I want to try an InstantPot Jam recipe too. We’ll see how ambitious I get.
We had a mental health professional game night this week and I forgot to get any pictures! We were having too much fun! I did make some things for it. We had a Caramelized Onion dip (https://pinchofyum.com/onion-dip) and pico. K brought a Chicken Bacon Ranch Dip. Of course, we had a veggie tray for the hummus, but no pickles. It wasn’t a formal party, Mom! I didn’t need the pickles! I made sure to tell everyone that I had some though, if they wanted them… 😉 I also made Chocolate Fondue for a dessert dip. We ended up just talking instead of playing the second game, which I think says a lot about the group of friends we have. 🙂
Oh, I did get a picture of the drink I made for the party the next day. I used the basil to make Basil Lemonade from Southern Living: Little Jars, Big Flavors. I have wanted to make that since I got the book, but my basil did not do well last year. You make a simple syrup infused with basil and then make up the lemonade.
It was deliciously tart and then mellowed over the course of the day. I will definitely be making more. You could taste the basil, but it wasn’t super overwhelming, which can happen with basil. It was so good!
We had cream sauce over pasta this week too. Since the Husband has convinced me that I can use up the half gallon of cream from Costco, I have been using it a lot more to be my go to meal.
Mine had asparagus added, but the Husband had the plain one mushrooms and the Sandwich Sprinkle. Gosh, I might need a spice intervention here! It’s just so useful! It has Italian herbs, salt, pepper, and garlic! Basically everything that runs in my cooking veins, I think. Eventually, I promise to use it on an actual sandwich! Knowing how things go, I’ll probably end up hating it in a sandwich. 🙂
I had this first at Trader Joes and liked it so much that I decided to make my own. Lo and behold, I had actually pinned a recipe a long time ago! I used fresh parsley and basil in this. I didn’t have mint, so left it out. I had this at my sewing day with a friend and it was yummy! I would definitely make this again.
We had slow cooker BBQ flank steak tacos this week. I had them the second time as tostados, but I think I really wanted puffy tacos instead. For the leftovers, I added green enchilada sauce in a skillet and rewarmed it basically. We liked the meat. It was nice and tender. I was at work the first night, so only have a picture of the tostados. The Husband stuck with tacos.
I didn’t use a recipe for either dish, just threw things in the slow cooker or pan and added a few spices. Surprisingly, not the Sandwich Sprinkle! 😉
I think that’s all the foods since the last food post. Stay tuned for more strawberry recipes soon. I still have a bunch to use up!
With that, I’m off to dream strawberry dreams! Have a sweet night!
Featured picture: Panko breaded shrimp with Asian sautéed veggies and berries.
Hello! We haven’t been very good about meal planning lately, so our meals have been kind of hit and miss. I tried to get pictures of most of them! My schedule at work is slowly changing for the summer and I’m going to be keeping it for the fall. I’m planning to work 10:30 – 6 on Monday and Tuesday and then 12 – 9 on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve started scheduling actual dinner breaks at work, which has been helpful.
I brought this pasta salad for one of those dinner breaks this week. I bought sea creature and dinosaur themed pasta last week. Definitely not a reaction to the Husband getting a new used car and car payment at all… Obviously we need the sharks for Shark Week. Plus, they were on sale and we did need pasta.
I thought it was dino-mite! Ha! I made up my own recipe for it, which is basically chop whatever veggies you want, along with some cheese (gouda and mozzarella in this case,) cubed ham (but you could use sliced lunch meat,) and add a bunch of Italian dressing. I currently have Ken’s Steakhouse Italian Vinegarette in the fridge, but I will generally just use whatever I have that’s oil based. It made a very good and quick dinner.
Another quick dinner was my mushroom cream sauce pasta with fresh herbs from the garden. I used all the basils (sweet, purple, and cinnamon) and parsley. It was delicious as usual.
We’ve had steak a couple of times. Once in the broiler because it decided to pour that day, luckily after we had finished yard work, and one on the grill.
For the broiler steak we used a marinade Recipe from Food Network Magazine, July/August 2017, by Bobby Flay. It was the Rib-eye Marinated in Garlic, Oregano, and Chilis. We left out the chilis as my stomach was not having a good time at all and I thought spicy would be way too much for it. It looked super pretty while it was marinating with all the fresh herbs. Of course, I used our own oregano for it. 🙂
We had mashed red potatoes with garlic as a side and some fruit.
The grilled steak is from the same issue of Food Network as the Rib-eye. They had a whole section on grilling different cuts of meat in that issue. The recipe was Guy Fieri’s Grilled Tequila Garlic Lime Flank Steak.
It was pretty good! Sometimes steak and I do not get along, but this one worked out well. It was fun to try grilling it too. We had grilled bok choy and grilled/roasted red potatoes. We did not eat these back to back, there was about a week in between. It’s hard to remember when exactly we ate things sometimes, so I tend to just group them as they fit.
The grilled potatoes recipe was adapted from a Grilled Potatoes and Olives recipe from the same issue. I left out the olives and lemon juice. They were just on the edge of being done when we took them off, so I did finish them in the microwave. We used our own fresh rosemary. 🙂 We’ll definitely be making these again. They were very tasty.
The Grilled Sesame Bok Choy recipe was from another Food Network Magazine, the June 2017 issue. The picture was for baby bok choy and I used regular, as that was what I had. We didn’t really like this very much. The flavor was good, but I think there were execution flaws that brought the dish down. I don’t know if I would try this again, even with the baby ones.
For dessert with our grilled steak, we had strawberry shortcake with store bought angel food cake and ice cream. The Husband really likes berries this way and it turned out well.
Our other grilling experiment was burgers with fancy toppings. I used a burger recipe from the same Food Network- June 2017, because it had a whole booklet with burger toppings in it. The Husband had gouda topped caramelized onions and mushrooms and I had homemade bbq sauce, gouda, lettuce, and french fried onions.
They were both delicious! The burgers weren’t overcooked either, still nice and juicy. I had grilled asparagus too.
I forget how much I like grilled foods, especially since it generally means that the Husband does most of the actual cooking part. 🙂 He does do an excellent job grilling. I’m hoping to do some more of it this summer.
So that’s been our food lately. We’ve had a couple of freezer meals too. The Husband had pork wontons last night. I’ve also been eating Caprese salad for lunch because in the summer I can’t get enough of it with the fresh basil. The herbs from the garden are growing really well and I need to find some recipes for the pineapple sage. I should try some as a tea, since that’s the main purpose I bought it for. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ve got some sewing projects to do today. I had originally planned canning, but haven’t been able to sort out my canning equipment yet, so will do it next weekend instead. It seems a little early to start, but I have some fruit in the freezer that I’m going to use up. The husband has a work thing next weekend and has to be on call all weekend, so we can’t do much anyway. It’s the perfect time to take over the kitchen!
Meal planning has been a bit weird with the play going on, so I haven’t been experimenting with new recipes lately. We were lucky enough to be gifted some duck and chicken eggs a few weeks ago and I’ve been hoarding them. I’ll start with what we’ve been using them for.
I made this batch of chocolate pb ice cream with two of the duck eggs. Pinch of Salt ice cream base (search cinnamon ice cream on the blog for the link,) with cocoa powder and melted pb. Next time, I will add more chocolate and more pb. And I will not melt the pb, as it kind of disappeared. It tasted good though.
I also made rhubarb ice cream from a different ice cream recipe.
This one had no eggs! In fact, none of the ice cream recipes seem to have eggs in them! It is still delicious and creamy! I definitely want to try some more of them.
It is a little more pink than I wanted, the gel dye was a bit more pronounced than I expected. The recipe started with making a syrup with the rhubarb pieces, sugar, and water. Then you added that the to cream mix and let it chill overnight before churning it. I actually left it about a day and a half, as I forgot it was in the fridge! I think it made it thicker though. I would make this again. Maybe with chunkier rhubarb pieces though.
I also made these Chocolate Chip Muffins with two of the duck eggs, as I wanted to try them in baking. I realized that the Chinese market that we go to has duck eggs, so I will have to get some more. Although, my friends’ eggs will always be better! :). These are from Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees. The muffins are extra rich with sour cream and the duck eggs. Mmmm…
I’ve made a few breakfast items lately. I’ve been finding myself getting bored with my usual yogurt. I tried a scone recipe from Bernard Clayton’s Small Breads. The Husband and I were not terribly happy with it. It had no sugar, so was more bready or biscuity than usual. It was also pretty bland. I added dried cherries to the batter too and those were probably the best part. Please ignore the dog tongue that I couldn’t edit out in the upper left. Someone really wanted to sample my breakfast and I didn’t notice until after I had already eaten them.
I don’t think I would make this again.
I did make these pancakes again, in fact, I have made them twice this month! They are Coconut Cream Pancakes from The Spruce Eats.
These are delicious! Plus, I don’t have to share them, as the Husband doesn’t like coconut. I added mini chocolate chips to some of them, but the didn’t really need it. I had this batch with chicken sage sausages. Both batches were made for dinner on nights the Husband had play things happening. Fancy shared my apples as they were honey crisp.
My Mom was visiting for a few days back when I was super sick and we made Matzo ball soup aka Jewish Penicillin. 🙂 It did seem to help, as I could sort of talk the next day. It was an interesting and delicious experience. I consulted some recipes, but I ended up using the recipe on the box. Sort of.
I did use a mix for the matzo balls. I thought trying to actually make the mixture might be too much for my poor, sick self. Mom helped too and it turned into a delicious soup. I did make my own broth, with Penzey’s Mural of Flavor spice mix and some extra garlic. I would make this again. Both Mom and the Husband liked it as well.
We had store rotisserie chicken one night with some sautéed swiss chard and berries. I made the chard garlicky and used Tuscan herb flavored olive oil. Mmmm. It was lovely.
I made chicken salad with the leftovers and discovered that french fried onions make a perfect amount of crunch.
I would probably make a smaller amount of this again. It was pretty quick to put together. Maybe the Husband will even try it next time.
I made chicken breasts last night with some Knorr noodles for a side. Today, I meant to make beef tacos, but left the meat out on the counter and completely forgot to put it away before going to work. So… We had chicken tacos with the left over chicken, homemade salsa, and enchilada sauce. They were messy, but good.
Now I have to find something else to make for Thursday, as enchiladas were my plan for Thursday… Oops.
I also made Fancy some treats, but haven’t had a chance to take a picture of them yet. She gets super excited about them. They have ginger, pumpkin, molasses, oats, and flour in them. I thought the ginger might be good for her stomach. A friend also sent me a biscuit book and a list of egg subs, so I’m excited to try some of those too. You know, in my copious amounts of free time. Ha! Sometimes I crack myself up.
Well, I’m headed off to bed to dream of deliciousness. Have a great night!
I keep making food and then forgetting to post it! The Bad Birthday Fairy brought me a “wicked bad cold” – according to the hipster PA I saw at urgent care. I haven’t been cooking this week much, other than the chicken sausage pasta dish yesterday. Tomorrow it will be crockpot chicken soup.
I did make fresh bao last week. They were big dinner sized buns this time. The Husband was quite impressed. I had Brussels sprouts on the side. They had olive oil and “Sandwich Sprinkle” on them.
This was Fancy’s reaction to not getting to eat the Chicken Bao.
Poor thing… So neglected!
I tried Giada’s House Soup from Food Network, which was pretty good. Not our favorite, but we would eat it again.
With the soup, we had Cheese Twists from “Small Breads.” They tasted okay and were fun to make, but there were too many and the Husband didn’t like them.
We had Antelope Meatballs Stroganoff. It was weird and we’re not sure we like antelope. We’ll probably not eat more antelope. It had a strange aftertaste.
Another miss was this Crockpot Chicken Curry, also from Food Network. The Husband has decided he likes curry spice, but not by itself. It was too much for me to eat by myself. The Husband didn’t really comment on the coconut milk in it, so I think it wasn’t a strong enough taste. I wouldn’t make this again.
We had Ricotta Cheesecake with a Warm Berry Sauce from “The Home Cook” by Alex Guarnachelli. The Husband didn’t like it at all, he thought there were too many textures. There was a not sweet cookie crust. There was candied citron in it and it freaked him right out. My work people loved it though, so it didn’t go to waste.
I think it was too soft, but the flavor was delicious. I like the firmer cheesecakes though, so I don’t know that I would make this again.
We had Nancy Fuller’s Stovetop Mac and Cheese, which had cream cheese in it to make it extra creamy. It was pretty good, not too rich. Quick recipe too. I would use this again.
I attempted to have a Girl’s Night when the Husband was going to be gone, but ended up with a nasty migraine and a ridiculous amount of mini cupcakes with no one to eat them.
They were from the Cupcakes and Cocktails cookbook that I found in a secondhand book store. It has recipes for both and I used three of the cupcake recipes.
Margarita Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream (not the meringue frosting in the book,) Pomegranate Orange Cupcakes, and Chocolate Chili Cupcakes. The Pomegranate ones originally had green tea powder, but I have thrown it out apparently, so I used orange instead.
All three of them were tasty. The chocolate ones were never frosted and the Pomegranate ones had a glaze and were sprinkled with edible glitter. I would definitely make all of them again, but especially the lime buttercream.
I have been trying out some new ideas and will have another cookbook review coming up soon. I want to try one or two more recipes to get a good overall review first. My garden sprouts are coming along well, so I’ll share my gardening plans. For now though, I’m going to go nurse my throat and hope I can actually talk tomorrow. Otherwise, I may be holding sessions via whiteboard!
