Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family. May your food be delicious and your celebrations safe and happy!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Reply
Category Archives: Food
It’s Fall Y’all
Fall has hit me full force. I pulled out my good Swedish Lutheran roots and cooked up a full midwestern chili dinner. And no chili dinner can’t be complete without cinnamon rolls!
I slipped some of my husband’s smoked brisket from the freezer into the chili for a bit of a smoky twist. It turned out delicious and carbtastic.
I have no idea why my family of four (two of which are small children) needed a full pot of chili and an entire pan of cinnamon rolls. But hey, it got us all in the fall mood and we have leftovers for the whole week.
Happy eating!!
Fancy Steak Night
My culinary adventures are continuing with Home Chef this week. This week included Steak Au Poive.
I over roasted the mushrooms and didn’t quite get the onions caramelized. But the sirloin was cooked to perfect medium rare and the sauce was on POINT.
This one had very few leftovers and got a huge thumbs up from the hubby and one child. The second child was tired and crabby so I’m not counting that vote. I really like that these recipes tell me how long I can procrastinate with them in the fridge. Super helpful for a working mom!
Happy Cooking!!
Pickling Jalapeño
We have had some decently cold snaps here paired with 80 degree days. Kansas can’t seem to make up it’s mind and even our daylight hours have been affected by west coast fire smoke. I gave up the ghost and pulled out my garden. I was left with a glut of jalapenos and decided to try refrigerator pickled jalapenos.
I picked a decently rated recipe off of the internet that I had l the ingredients for and into the pot they went! This recipe was sugar, salt, garlic, vinegar, jalapenos, and onion.
Other than my family complaining about the warm vinegar smell, it was pretty easy peasy! I ended up with one quart jar of refrigerated jalapeno and onion pickles. My plan is to let them sit for a couple of weeks and then add to the top of nachos or pickles.
I’ll let you guys know how they turn out! Happy fall everyone!!
Soaking In The Last Of Summer
I snapped this photo a week or so ago. I was soaking in the last heat wave before temperatures started falling towards more Midwestern Fall appropriate range. We had a week of 95 degree plus temperatures and I was melting outside with the kids as they swang and swam merrily along.
I decided to do a little self care after the kids went to bed I headed back to the kiddie pool with wine, a good true crime podcast and SOLITUDE. I spent 45 minutes floating and watching the sunset. No one was screaming “MOMMY!!” or climbing all over me. I may have scared the neighbors with my true crime obsession but I came out the other side much more relaxed.
Happy Self Care!!
Green Chef Last Hurrah
This last week was our last hurrah with Green Chef. We liked their environmentally friendly business models and it was super easy to make all the recipes. But they just didn’t knock our socks off on a regular basis flavor wise. And for what they ended up costing it just turned out to not bet a good fit for our family. The kids basically hated all of the dishes except for the burgers.
We gave it one last hurrah with the Japanese Fritters with veggies and rice. Basically rice with edamame and ginger, seasoned broccoli and cabbage fritters with siracha aoili.
I will have to say, this was a definite hit. It was savory and spicy but still fresh tasting. Both the hubby and I said we would most definitely do this again. For a meatless dinner it was very filling. And it looked very good plated up.
Next up in our food adventures is Home Chef. The recipes appear to be more kid friendly and more affordable. Our first week includes Spicy Crispy Boom Boom Shrimp….my mouth is watering!!
Winding Down The Garden
Our garden has dwindled down to just one jalapeno plant and one bell pepper plant. We are pretty satisfactorily neglecting both but they seem to be putting out a bumper crop. I filled this bowl in one picking.
We decided to make jalapeno poppers with this go around to see how hot they are. I am just going to slice them open and put in some seasoned cream cheese and wrap the whole situation in bacon. The hubby and I plan to bake half and air fry half to see what happens. We are in a ‘wing it’ kind of mood.
Happy Cooking!!
Culinary Adventures
This week in Green Chef adventures was the Italian Sausage Puttanesca and spicy roasted broccoli. It plated up very well and looked great. But the results were mixed in my opinion.
The flavor was good and recipe was super easy. I loved the broccoli but I could have taken or left the pasta sauce. The hubby and I decided we don’t like olives and if we make this again we would keep the capers and leave off the olives. And then I don’t really care for sausage in the first place so its not my favorite. But the hubby really enjoyed the sausage.
It was a nice a change of pace and stretched my comfort zone. Which is exactly what I was looking for to shake up our mealtimes. I think we are going to do one more delivery from this company and then maybe try a different service.
Happy Cooking!!
Cheesecake Experiment
Quarantine life is really starting to have an effect on me. I got a wild hair at 7 pm on a weeknight that I wanted to see if I could actually make cheesecake in my instant pot like I keep seeing on social media. I just so happened to have all the ingredients, so in the midst of bedtime preparation for the littles I pulled a recipe off the internet and got to work. It mixed up well and was super easy to get in the cooker.
What I didn’t expect was how “poofy” the cake was when I pulled it out of the cooker. I thought for sure I ruined it. The filling had over spilled and made a cheesy volcano. But I set it out to cool and walked away.
When I came back an hour later I noticed it had receded into something more resembling an actual cheesecake. We let it rest overnight in the fridge and then the family promptly DEVOURED the entire thing. The flavor was very good. I think I need to work on my filling texture and how much to fill the pan. We all voted that this was something we would do again.
PB didn’t much care for the filling and just liked the crust. But Jellybean had a ball experimenting with different toppings. He settled on caramel sauce as the best option. I can’t blame him!
What would you put on top of cheesecake?
FO Friday: New Meal Experiences
As I usually am, I’m late to the quarantine meal deliver service party. I just got a wild hair to spice up our dinner time meals and on a whim I signed up for Green Chef when someone passed me their coupon code. I do a pretty good job mixing up the recipes I cook on a regular basis but I find myself wanting to try new things more now than ever.
Our first meal was rosemary roasted chicken with a kale, potato and fig “salad”. It was tasty but even more fun to stretch my culinary brain a bit. My husband and I both agreed the salad was a hit and would definitely make again. Maybe just not with figs.
I even did my best to plate the food in an appealing manner. I think it ended up pretty darn cute. The salad was even better the next day after the potatoes had absorbed the vinaigrette flavor. I think we may stick this out for a couple of months to see if we can put some new flavors and techniques into our routine.
Happy Friday!!
My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures 