Peachy Keen

This past weekend we decided that it was high time to bring the ice cream maker out again.
This time, we went for a summer favorite that we'd never tried:  peach ice cream.  And whose recipe was the obvious first choice?  That's right, Alton Brown....who just hit a million Facebook "likes" last week and celebrated with some live videos!

Alton Brown's Burned Peach Ice Cream

This was fantastic, though we did have to melt it and re-churn so it wouldn't be rock-solid.  No pictures, it didn't last long enough.  I would definitely do this again.

Flavors of Summer

We're trying all sorts of salads this summer....this week's is a corn and tomato salad.  Fresh corn, tomatoes from my garden, fresh basil,  a little onion, olive oil and vinegar and salt/pepper to taste.  Taste?  Delicious!  I think I'll be doubling a batch to go to a picnic later this month.

Additionally, I never "got" people that eat tomatoes like an apple.  Now I know the joy of it....only a fresh-off-the-vine tomato will do!!

Summer Lunchin'

This week's recipes are all things that I've wanted to make for awhile.  Everything's on Pinterest! 

We started with this salad:  chicken and watermelon.  It was quite good, and surprisingly, all flavors that play together nicely.  I was a bit apprehensive about blue cheese crumbles and watermelon but was pleasantly surprised.  It also calls for chicken breast, balsamic vinegar, fresh spinach and sliced almonds.  Note:  the balsamic boiling on the stove smells terrible, but the reduced vinegar at the end of the boiling really works here.  Just don't  soak it all over the salad, a tablespoon is plenty. 

It also clocks in at 342 calories and I have enough ingredients to make it for lunch again tomorrow.  Bonus!

From (My) Plant to (My) Table

Ta-Da!  Pesto, made from MY home-grown basil!

It wasn't bad for my second try.  I'll tell you....using a food processor makes all the difference.  Anyone who tells you that you can make it in a blender is crazy.  This is actually the first time I ever used the food processor myself.  And man, did it show....I couldn't get it running and Brian had to show me that I had it assembled backwards!

This called for half a cup of pine nuts, three cups of packed basil, a couple cloves of garlic, half a cup of grated fresh parmesan cheese and half a cop of olive oil, along with salt and pepper to taste.  Three cups of packed basil is a lot more than I thought, it wiped out more than half of my deck box:

The recipe also said "The more the merrier" when it came to garlic, so I used four cloves.  Two of them were huge though, so I'd say that it was closer to six.  So I'd politely disagree, that's a lot of garlic.  Didn't stop us from eating it though, we're no strangers to garlic and love the taste.  It's a good thing that we both had it, though.  :)  It might be different if you roasted the garlic the night before you assemble the pesto, but I'm not sure what that would do to the oil and other ingredient ratio or if it would work.



Now I'm off to find out if you can freeze pesto....because if you can I know what I'm putting in the freezer for this fall and winter.

Herb Harvest!!!

This is the first year that I've been successful at growing herbs in deck boxes.  And having herbs that you can just snip and add to your cooking is awesome!

First the cilantro....we have so much of it.  I love it, especially in guacamole or tacos.    There was a sweet cilantro salad dressing the other day too.  Homemade salad dressing tastes SO much better and is apparently better for you, too.

Brian made a quick homemade spaghetti sauce the other night and used fresh parsley and basil. It was delicious.

Next up:  cilantro in homemade salsa and perhaps a basil pesto.  I'm loving this!  Now, if my tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini come up, it will be a perfect growing summer.

One and Only

I've never been a fan of ground turkey.

There, I said it.  It's just not as tasty as ground beef.  Sure, it's better for your health but turkey meatloaf is icky, and don't even get me started on turkey meatballs.  Turkey meatballs with tomato sauce are just plain said.

However, with that being said, I was pleasantly surprised last week with I found this recipe on Pinterest for Thai Turkey Burgers with Broccoli Slaw.  With the right veggies and herbs, these were fantastic.  Garlic, ginger, cilantro....all good stuff.  It made 6 or 7 patties and I had the rest of them as the week went on, over a little rice or quinoa with a smear of hoisin  sauce on top.  I'd certainly make them again.  The slaw, well, it was so-so.  I appreciated the flavors but after the first serving it got a bit mushy in the fridge so I threw it out.

So there you go, Ground turkey, for turning me into a believer.

The Struggle is Over?

Thanks to this post, six little words have changed our lives at home.  

I was pretty skeptical when I read it.  Putting food in front of a kid, and telling them they don't have to eat it sounds crazy.  But the struggling over getting the boys to eat was just getting to be too much to handle for both Brian and I.  Especially Sean.....the kid that would only eat chicken nuggets and pasta.  (NO SAUCE Mom, only butter and cheese.)  We were game to try.  So one Wednesday night while I was out, Brian sat them down at dinner and told them that we had new rules:  We would put food on the plate, whatever we were having for the night.  And they didn't have to eat it.  Sean literally went up to Brian and hugged him and said "thanks, Dad."  Just like that--taking the pressure off already made a difference.

We still write a menu every week.  We pair new things with familiar things, like a casserole with a side of fruit, or a slice of bread and butter with meat that they're unfamilar with.  At first they didn't eat much, but they're starting to try the new-ish foods.  Will's discovered that he actually likes buttered corn, and Sean has found cheese that he will eat besides American cheese.  Both kids eat roast chicken instead of dino nuggets.  One of Sean's new favorite things to say is "I tried it and I didn't like it, but it wasn't bad." One night Will was playing with some makeshift chopsticks and actually tried a sweet potato fry.   Neither kid asks every night what's for dinner as soon as I pick them up and then cries over the menu.  Plus we let them help decide what's on the menu one night a week.

The biggest hurdle was to step back and just let things BE.  For Brian and I to make our plates, sit back and say "You don't have to eat it" and remember that they won't starve.  Once we got there, it got a lot less stressful than constantly saying "You have to try it." or "You like steak/rice/insert your own choice here, now eat it!"  

I don't know if it's a permanent solution, but dinnertime is a lot happier in our house!