Valentine Treats

This is how we celebrate Valentine's Day....no gifts.  No outings.  Just cards, a little candy for the boys, and food.  Awesome food.  Because, why go to a restaurant, wait in line for an hour WITH RESERVATIONS and come home completely ticked off that the food was so-so?  Making our own is so much more fun.  This year, Brian made a day of it.  The day was bitterly cold and no one wanted to leave the house.  The comfort foods made the house feel pleasant and we didn't mind being stuck inside.

Breakfast:  Homemade waffles with caramel coulis.  Homemade caramel, even.  AWESOME.

Lunch:  Squash soup and cheese toasts.  The soup was from Epicurious I think, and featured both butternut and acorn squash.  The toasts were just baguette with a little asiago on top, but it complimented the soup nicely.

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Dinner was a stuffed pork loin wrapped in bacon.  I don't have any photos because it was a bit frustrating for Brian to cook.  There's reason to believe that our oven is on it's last legs, as it takes FOREVER for things to bake/roast.  It was delicious, despite the issues.


Dessert:  Chocolate Almond Mousse with fresh whipped cream.  It was supposed to be hazelnut, but you need to change gameplans when the hazelnuts are rancid.  This was good, a little heavy for any other night of the year.

So that was our day of delightfulness.  Until next year....

Valentine's Day

Hubby and I aren't big on celebrating Valentine's Day.  It's a simple affair, really.  We exchange cards between ourselves and the kids, and we always get them a little box of chocolates.  Haven't gone out to dinner in years, between the crowds and reservations and (often subpar food) we just gave it up.

Besides, when your significant other can cook like THIS, why would you want to go out?  Especially if this masterpiece is followed up by Marscapone and Fudge brownies??

 Steak with a mushroom wine sauce, baked potato, crab legs and asparagus.  

More March Meals

The last few weeks have been insane.  Getting a house ready to sell is way more work than I ever thought.

It's going well, though.   I've packed up a lot of things for storage, and we've painted, cleaned, fixed, installed, and lots of other action words and items.  Pretty soon though, I'll be packing up the cookbooks.  That's ok though, there's still the Internet.  :)

I haven't had time to write individual meal posts, so how about a summary.

One night last week we had Pork Lettuce Wraps, courtesy of this month's "Cooking Light."  Usually I make these with chicken, so this was a nice change.  The ground pork is mixed with garlic and ginger and sauteed, and the vegetables (peppers, cucumber, etc...I didn't have any carrot so I put some onion in there instead) were supposed to be raw.  I don't really like raw veggies on a wrap, so I opted to sautee lightly.  It called for a serrano pepper, but only half of a serrano pepper.  Right, anyway....I chopped up a whole one because they're small and I am just NOT going to put half a serrano pepper away in the crisper to rot slowly.  I ignored my desire to put sriracha sauce in the mix and I'm glad I did because OH BABY!  Those were spicier than expected.  Delicious though.  Brian wasn't crazy about them because of the intense flavors.  (Fresh garlic, ginger paste, serrano)  I served the leftovers over rice the next day and was thrilled with them.

We were replacing the carpet in the family room over to Pergo laminate flooring on St. Patrick's Day weekend.  I had anticipated that this would take both Saturday and Sunday, so there really wasn't a point to making a corned beef and cabbage dinner.  Which is really too bad, because I love corned beef and cabbage!  So I planned an Irish Beef Stew instead.  And thanks to the awesome skills of hubby, my brother and my dad, the floor was done in a day!  I am SO THANKFUL that we have family members that not only have the skills to do this kind of work, that they don't mind helping!  The stew was really good, with some Irish soda bread on the side.  (not made by either of us, but bought at Price Chopper.)

Lastly, and I feel this really deserves its own blog entry....steak over arugula with a parmesan butter.  This recipe was out of Epicurious (goodness what a great cookbook!) and it only called for 12 oz of ribeye steak.  I was skeptical, I really was.  But sliced up, and served with a balsamic brown sugar and shallot glaze and the aforementioned pamesan butter?  This was good enough to be restaurant food.  And I wasn't at all unhappy with the amount of steak.  So, so very good.  And a very easy recipe to boot, the only difficult part was making sure you didn't overcook the steak.

That's it for now, folks!

Valentines Day Dinner

Mmmm....nothing says "I Love You" like sushi, soup and crab rangoon at home!  No, I mean it...we haven't been out to dinner for Valentine's Day since......2003?  The last experience was so crowded and horrible we made the joint decision to skip it and do something special at home.  So this year is tuna and salmon maki rolls, crab rangoon and Tom Yum Seafood Soup from our favorite takeout place.  We'd never had the latter, and well, we never will again.  At first, one can't decide if they like it or not.  It tasted kind of like a hot and spicy margarita.  Limes and tomatoes should never go in soup together, that was the final judgement.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Thinking Outside of the Can

Pie time!! We'll be bringing two pies to Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom and Dad's house, a pumpkin pie and a coconut custard pie.  I've been making pumpkin pie for years, and I've always relied on a can of Libby's pumpkin puree.  However, I really despise that said can of pumpkin puree shoots up to $5 per can at Thanksgiving time.  (Highway robbery, outrage!)  So when Brian watched an episode of (what else?) Good Eats and AB processed his own sugar pumpkins for puree, we figured why not?  Plus I've heard pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin is out of this world flavor-wise.

BTW, you can't just pick up any pumpkin and make puree for pie and expect it to taste good.  Sugar pumpkins are smaller and more round, and yield a superior puree.  I expected sugar pumpkins to be more difficult to find but there they were, sitting at the front of our new grocery store.  I was also pleasantly surprised by their price tag of 2 for $3.00.  Yes, it's going to take a little bit of elbow grease, more than it takes to wield a can opener.

The first step is cutting off the tops and scooping out the flesh and seeds.  (We're reserving the seeds for toasting. I've never had toasted pumpkin seeds but Brian assures me that they're delicious.)  Next, each pumpkin gets cut in half and baked in a 400-degree oven for 35 minutes.  After they cool for an hour, it's time to scoop out all the flesh, and use a food processor to turn it into puree.

Yield:  enough pumpkin for approximately four pies.  Or, for one Thanksgiving pie, some for the freezer, some for the baby (who loved it with a little cinnamon) and for these:

Pumpkin Pie Creme Brulee!

As expected, out of this world.  I don't think we'll ever used canned pumpkin again!

Latest and Greatest

Sometimes a blog post needs to be about more than one food.  Though these two are worthwhile for their own post, it would be rather short!

Know how some foods just go together like a perfect marriage?  Like, chocolate and peanut butter for example.  Or chocolate and marshmallow.  Or chocolate and banana.  Mmmm....oops I got distracted for a minute.  Two things that were just meant for each other:  spinach and feta.  For Mother's Day Brian said that he would make anything I wanted, so I chose Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts.  On Mother's Day we were at my parent's house for dinner so we grilled and had the chicken breasts the next night.  These things rocked!  Not only were the chicken breasts stuffed with just the right amount of spinach, feta and garlic, they were coated in bread crumbs, browned on the stovetop and then baked.  Heaven....I think that the Greeks were onto something when they put those two together.

At least one night a week, we have an "easy night."  Usually this is something like Spaghetti and Meatballs, which I'm kind of sick of having.  Same thing with tacos.  So this week for something different, I put turkey club sandwiches on the menu.  Turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo and three pieces of bread.  Oh!  And three pieces of the thickest, prettiest bacon I have seen outside of  a Cracker Barrel.  Different, and delicious!

Say It with Sweets

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines aren't a huge deal in our house.  We exchange cards, get something small for the Big Kid, and that's about it.  I had the idea of making some sweets to enjoy with my Sweets this year. 

I had every intention of making the fabulous Alton Brown cinnamon rolls that my friend Shannon made up a couple of weeks ago and blogged about.  But yesterday was just bedlam so I didn't have the time to prep them, and let them sit in the fridge overnight to be baked today.  The best of intentions....Instead, Brian came home with two cans of refrigerated cinnamon bun dough!  Sweet, hot, delicious....what more can you ask for?  It's still an act of love, even if they're not homemade!

 

Tonight's dinner will be simple:  broiled salmon, brown rice and baked asparagus.  It's dessert that will be fabulous, as I've picked out a Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake from my new Cake Doctor cookbook!  It's chocolate cake with a brown sugar topping, that you top with ice cream and serve warm in bowls.  I'll start baking it soon, and it'll be the treat of the day!  Can't wait to sink my spoon into that chocolatey goodness.  Mmmmm.....:)

Ending the Year with Cake

What better way to end the blogging year than with cake??

  We're going to a small New Year's gathering with a handful of friends, Chinese food and fun.  We're FINALLY getting to try one of my new Cake Doctor recipes.  This one is called "Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Chocolate Toffee Frosting."

Ever notice just how good a cake baking makes your house smell?  That's one of the best smells in the world right there.  And the Cake Doctor, Ann Bryn, is right:  it's ok to make cake from a mix, but the frosting is best made from scratch.  This cake has a chocolate ganache frosting, with toffee candy bits.  I always thought that ganache was this big fancy-pants thing.....really it's heavy whipping cream and chocolate chips.  Simplicity is a beautiful thing!  Know what makes you feel instantly like a kid again?  Licking the beaters after making the frosting.  Brian offered one of the beaters to Will and he asked for something else to eat.  Gee...first the kid doesn't like ice cream, and now won't lick mix off a beater??  Whose kid is he?  :)

I wish all of you a Happy, Healthy 2010, filled with new recipes and new experiences!

Dinner Plans

We've finally done it, sat down and made the menu for Christmas Dinner.  We're sort of toning it down this year by making things that we really liked for past Christmas dinners.  No real new recipes for Christmas dinner this year.  Dinner will be Alton Brown's Beef Tenderloin, Mashed Potatoes, Wild Rice Pilaf, Gala Stuffed Apples, Roasted Carrots and Sauteed Green Beans.  The best thing is that three or four of these things can be made the day before, and reheated.  And Brian and I are both off tomorrow so that's totally doable.  :)    I can already TASTE everything! 

Speaking of Alton Brown, I was at knitting the other night and somehow a conversation started about our good friend A.B.  (Brian wishes he was a good friend, anyway!)  Turns out one of my knitty friends is also a devoted AB and "Good Eats" fan.  And she's made his brined Thanksgiving Turkey!  Brian's always wanted to try this....but so far we haven't.  We chatted about his 10th anniversary celebration show and both agree that what A.B. describes his show as is as perfect a description as they come:  "my show is like a mix of Julia Child, Mr. Wizard and Monty Python."  Yes!!!

Christmas Dinner....

Christmas Dinner....what a treat!

Holiday Tortellini Soup
Roast Beef
Seafood "Cake Bake"
Stuffed Golden Apples
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Shallots
Butternut Squash
Roasted Carrots with Rosemary and Garlic
Hot Rolls and Butter.


My mom made the soup, it was out of Taste of Home this month. It was tomato, spinach and cheese tortellini, topped with fresh grated Parmesan. The roast beef was a bit underdone, but delicious just the same. Seafood "Cake Bake" is the silly name that Brian came up with when he put two recipes together, one for Seafood Gratin and the other for Crabcakes. Despite the name, it was absolutely delicous. And the veggies this year....roasted carrots with fresh rosemary and garlic! I roasted them the day before and Brian warmed them up in the oven. They were soooo good! And the green beans were just boiled for 4-5 minutes and then sauteed with a little olive oil and chopped shallot. Mmmmm....who knew simplicity could taste so good! The best part was that there were plenty of leftovers to send home with people and still have dinner tonight!!

Dessert was provided by our guests. Mom brought lots of Christmas cookies and a peach kuchen. Brian and Kim brought brownies that my brother had made, as well as more cookies. My aunt and cousin brought a Trader Joe's Chocolate Cheesecake sampler and a chocolate Yule Log. I haven't had any of those yet, but you can't go wrong with chocolate cheesecake!!!

This dinner is definitely worthy of "The Notebook." I keep a notebook of recipes that we've tried and really, really liked. (And yes, I write down the source so there's no plagiarizing.)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's late Thanksgiving night, the turkey has been eaten and the leftovers have been put away. It's been another great year full of blessings in our house!

Tomorrow starts the Christmas bedlam! No, I won't be hitting any of the Black Friday sales. It's time to start thinking about Christmas Dinner!!!! It's the one holiday that We host at our house, and I like to pull out all the stops. Plus, I'm going to my first-ever Cookie Swap and Craft Night on Monday night. I suppose I should figure out what I'm going to bake!!