My original recipes

Winterize Your Skin: 'Sweet Cheeks' Tips | Richmond.com

2011-01-20T11:15:00.000-05:00

Winterize Your Skin: 'Sweet Cheeks' Tips | Richmond.com

Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta

2011-01-19T19:19:00.000-05:00

I feel like I am back to where I started with the blog. No pictures, just a recipe. Sadly I have been so occupied with Sweet Cheeks, that not only has the blogging suffered, my cooking has gotten pretty basic and lax.

However, tonight Joel told me it was the best pasta he had ever had and “this is a recipe that I would tell you to remember how you made it.” And it reminded me of why I started my blog to begin with.

Luckily business has been great and growing, but because of that, I find it unlikely I will get regular at this for quite some time. However, until then…

1 acorn squash (halved and cleaned of seeds)
½ onion
½ stick butter
¼ c olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
¼ pine nuts
4-6 cloves of garlic sliced thin
1 lb pasta

I brushed olive oil on the squash, stuck them in a 425 degree oven cut side up and roasted for about 25 minutes (or until tender and a bit brown). Once squash is down, set aside to cool.

Once cool cut up squash into about 1inch cubes. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter and add onions and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent and add wine. Cook additional 2-3 minutes. In a oven safe dish combine onion and squash and put back into a 425 oven. Meanwhile, start water for pasta and salt well.

Let squash mixture cook for about 10-15 minutes or until golden and brown on top. Put pine nuts in and set timer for 5 minutes and turn oven off.

Once past is done add about ½ of the pasta water to squash mixture, drain pasta and toss mixture and past and sprinkle nuts on top.

Enjoy

Bumping Elbows

2010-11-01T09:46:00.003-04:00

Okay, I know I am officially a bad blogger these days. The reality is Sweet Cheeks has, gladly, taken major billing recently. For those of you that like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (links to follow) you know this already. However, so many of you I used to "talk" to weekly, if not daily, may not know and I wanted to share the news.

Sweet Cheeks was thrilled to be contacted by VH-1 Save the Music and asked to provide one of our products to be added to the celebrity swag bags for their Battle of the Bands. I know! We thought it was pretty cool too. So I wanted to share some pictures with you. Wish us luck!!

Here are the photos Sweet Cheeks Swag Photos

And if you are interested in keeping up with us, like and or follow here:
Twitter
Facebook

Winner!

2010-08-23T14:14:00.002-04:00

Yet again, I have the same winner, Page. I am surprised no on participated! Clearly my fellow bloggers are more flush than I am…sigh ;) So one person has netted over $100 bucks in free money. Not bad!

Clarification

2010-08-17T20:58:00.003-04:00

So I got a comment on my last post “ Are we promoting Novica? Or Makindu? http://makindu.org/? it's not clear from your post whom we're supposed to blog/tweet about.”

And I as I often say to my husband, “What? You can’t read my mind? Ughhh.”

So apologies. I would like for you to promote Makindu. You can do so by tweeting, linking to this post, linking to the national geographic article, blogging, facebooking, digging, buzzing…. I don’t care, just spread the word and make it big.

Also I realized I did not put an end date. I am letting the contest go until noon 8/23. I will announce a winner after that.

Thanks all!!

What Can You Do With What You Have?

2010-08-16T15:36:00.007-04:00

From Makindu News

So I told you I had some exciting news coming and here it is… I have yet another promotion to offer everyone. I got contacted by NOVICA to offer my readers a chance at a certificate to $75 to use on their site! In case you are not familiar with NOVICA they work with National Geographic and are one of the leading fair trade sites. For those that know me, know this was so up my alley. I was blow away by how amazing everything was. I think you will be as well. I saw a million things I wanted, but I also know this is where I will be going to finally find that gift for the person (AKA my dad) who has everything.

So how do you win a chance to win? You can help me promote a wonderful organization. I know you are thinking, “What? What organization? Please, please tell me more? “ So I guess I will.

I had the pleasure to attend a fund raiser to help raise money for Makindu Children’s program. The program’s focus is to help the children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya, which is estimated to be over 1 million children. The Center helps find the children families to live with and in turn support the child and family with meals, education, AIDS education and medical care. To support the efforts of this center every other year a group of people get together to raise money by going on “proper walk.” The participants of the walk pay their own expenses (roughly about 4 thousand dollars) to get there, and be there. They are also required to raise 10 thousand dollars that goes directly to the program. Amazingly every other year folks do it, and it seems to grow. One of the things I really like about the program is that it has been turned back over to the village and is now run by the village.

The proper walks themselves are amzing things covering 150 or more miles of uncharted terrain and have been covered by national geographic. The link will take you to the National Geographic article about the walks.

However, what blew me away wasn’t a bunch of crazy folks trekking across uncharted Africa, it was the statistics he gave that night. Frankly, while I sipped my wine and ate my catered food while sitting in a gorgeous home, it made me feel ill. I don’t have most of the statistic from that night but here is what I do know:

• In 2007 worldwide there were 2.5 million people were newly infected, 1.7 million of those were in sub-Saharan Africa.

• More than two-thirds (68%) of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

• The majority of people (61%) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

• In 2007 more than three quarters (76%) of all AIDS-related deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nkosi Johnson goole images

The thing that has stayed with me most since that night was the story of a young boy, Nkosi Johnson- age 12. He was dying of AIDS. He addressed International AIDS Conference - Durban, South Africa and simply said:

Do all you can

With all you have

In the time you have

At the place you are

How often do we do that? I know I don’t. I do know, however, I should. I do know that I am not here just to take as much as I can and then die. I know that I am meant to do something. So here I am, doing something. It is not much, but is what I can do, with what I have (my blog) with the time I have (not much) and in the place I am. No, truly it isn’t much, it is however a start.

So I am asking you to do the same. Help me get the word out about this organization. Blog about it, link to this post, twitter, facebook, stumble. Dig, buzz. Just do it, do what you can. For each thing you do (just send me a link and/or tell me about it) you will get an entry to win the $75 dollars. Make a donation https://makindu.ejoinme.org/MyPages/ProperWalk2010/tabid/199365/Default.aspx(I am supporting Joshua) and I will double your total entries (meaning you twitter, facebook, stumble and make a donation you will get a total of 6 entries).

And as for the donation, this is really a matter of every dollar helps. So what can very little money do?

 $35 provides food, elementary schooling and medical care for one child for one month.

 $50 provides school uniforms and shoes for 10 children.

 $100 provides millk for 100 children for 1 month.

 $200 provides bulk food (maize, beans, oil, etc.) for 59 families for four months.

 $350 provides a high school education (tuition, boarding, books and supplies) for one student for one year.

Amazing sometimes, how little something of so much value can cost.

Please go check out these amazing links with Novica and dont' forget to let you know what you are doing!

Fair Trade

Green Gifts

Unique Gifts

Microfinance

The Winner of Blueberry Heaven

2010-08-05T19:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is a double post. First, the winner of the contest Sadly very few of you (2 to be exact) took advantage of multiple entries. One of the folks that did, won. So keep in mind that you could have had 30 bucks to go toward this, when I tell you about the next exciting thing coming. I am not telling you yet, but you guys really want to stay tuned. It is super cool. And now for the winnner....

So the other day the fabulous Kindness Girl asked me to go blueberry picking with her. I have to say that I have not been blueberry picking since I was about 10. All I recall is thinking, “God this sucks.” So I accepted the invitation but did so with high doubts of truly lovely times to come. Kindness Girl assured me it was lovely, loveliness. Humph.

First the ride there was lovely, down tree covered roads and past water. I felt myself easing into just being. We got there and the kids were off. Typically, that would make my shoulders go to my ears and me want to turn tail and leave. Somehow, I knew that it was okay.

We selected a path and soon I found myself in a blueberry room. The bushes literally formed a tunnel. A tunnel of blueberry lusciousness.

The bushes dripped with berries. I mean really. They hung on the bush like grapes. To me, it was amazing. Then Kindness Girl said, “Too bad you should have seen them last week. I never left one bush.”

It took me about 30 minutes, all while negotiating kids, to pick about 10 lbs of blueberries. Which sounds great, but I could have been there all day. It was truly, lovely, loveliness. We had a picnic and the kids “stole” blueberries. Dreamy.

Tonight, cantaloupe and blueberry sorbet. Sigh…

Talk About Coming Back With a Bang!

2010-07-30T09:40:00.002-04:00

So I feel like my life really couldn’t get much more lucky than it has been of late. Then low and behold I was contacted by the fabulous people over at CSN about hosting a giveaway! I have seen it before on other blogs and was so happy to get the opportunity to host one myself.

So what makes this so cool? Let’s say you want a Dutch Oven, they have that. However lets say you really want an new smoker they have that too. And it is not just cookware, though what else would you want really? They have everything furniture, shoes, you name it, it is there.

So here are the details, CSN is going to giveaway $30 to one reader. How do you get it?? Easy. I want you to go to the following link and pick the Dutch Oven you covet most. Then leave me a comment telling me which one it was and what you would put in it in the comment section. It is that simple!

For additional entries:
~Become (or be) a follower (1 additional entry)
~Follow me on Twitter (2 additional entries)
~Like me on Facebook (2 additional entries)

Just leave a comment letting me know you have liked and/or followed me (it can be in the same commment about the dutch oven so I can make sure to give the additional entries!

You have until noon August 6th. I will announce the winner within 24 hours. Good luck!
*Open to US and Canadian residents only :) There may be international shipping charges in the case of Canadian addresses.

Plant Some Kindness

2010-07-01T15:22:00.001-04:00

This is not food related…well that is unless you want to center your ditch around food??? Let me back up…

I often am amazed at how I find the amazing people I have in my life. One person that continually amazes me is Patience. Patience has this way of looking a life that truly makes me wish she would have been my mom. She has a greater grasp on what is important than anyone I have ever know.

Anyway she, also, has an amazing blog called Kindness Girl. Periodically she does what she has dubbed Gorilla Goodness, and she is gearing up a new campaign, “The Great Ding Dong Ditch.” I have always wanted to do one, and finally am. I will post later the results of my “ditches.”
However, for now, no reason you couldn’t get in on the yummy goodness and plant a little kindness in your own back yard.

Just a thought.

Because, if nothing else ever does, Kindness really does change everything.

http://kindnessgirl.com/2010/06/30/guerrilla-goodness-12-the-great-ding-dong-ditch/

Nay, Nay, Caprese

2010-06-24T16:45:00.002-04:00

I am in need o f help from my fellow friends that dig on food. I was making a caprese salad. I go to whip out my balsamic and there is something freaky growing in it. I looks like a fungus? I am #1 surprised anything can grow in an acid base and #2 has this ever happened to anyone???

New Toys, Tots and Pasta

2010-06-15T12:50:00.003-04:00

Just recently in an effort to preserve my collards I tried my hand at making pasta. I thought, people make spinach pasta why not collard pasta. I must admit for the fist time making pasta, I was thrilled at the outcome. Especially since I could find no recipes so I had to make my own up.

My Dad, decided out of either kindness or because he didn’t like me borrowing his pasta maker, he bought me one of my own. So this morning me and the kids made pasta as a thank you. The kids had a ball and actually where very helpful! I made a citrus pepper pasta.

I send a pound a fresh pasta to their house and kept the leftovers. I had them for lunch.

This is again a non-recipe recipe, but here is what I did

Sautee about 2 tbs of chopped onion in about 2 tbs of olive oil.

Add 1 clove finely minced garlic.

Add 3 tbs slivered almonds.

Heat all until almonds slightly toasted.

Add…(these were leftover from the night before so I am guessing ) ¼-½ lb shrimp (mine were already cooked.

Add ¼ c. reserved pasta water (from cooking)

Toss with cooked pasta

Top with parm and a squeeze of lemon if you have it.

Joel I wish you were here for lunch!! :O

Chicken with a Kick

2010-05-18T15:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will say this was awesome and is my new favorite marinade!
I have
been terribly distracted, and hope to get back to the blog…however the other night we had our CSA chicken and I decided to marinate the old gal. This had a kick to it, but if you are not a lover of spice use less sriracha.

Marinade:

½ c. Ponzu sauce
½ c. rice wine vinegar
1/8 c (depending on like of spice I probably did between 1/8 c. -¼c) Sriracha sauce

Mix together in bag, throw chicken in and marinate for 2 hours.

Up on Etsy!

2010-05-04T21:46:00.006-04:00

I promise I will get back to food posts, however just a small update that Sweet Cheeks is up on Etsy! Come and visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/vlmccauley

Sweetly Official!

2010-04-21T21:51:00.011-04:00

I have been working on a project for about…mmm…5 months now. I am nearing the very end and it is finally time to share. Sadly, some people I love might actually find out from my blog before hearing from me! I have been keeping it quiet until now. Now that it is time to reveal everthing I am so, busy, so busy…like not cooking busy…sigh. However, I finally have wrapped up the official stuff(licenses and tigers and insurance…oh my) and am ready to roll.

I, my friends, have an LLC. Making what food you ask? Not a spec is my answer. Clearly, the logical extension to most would be to do some sort of food product and frankly, for a long time I thought I would as well. However, life is full of twists and turns and alas, food has nothing to do with my LLC.

So, what is it you ask??? I am making all natural bath and skin care products for adults and babies. Crazy…I know! The reality is, I have been doing it for years. I won’t bore you with the where’s and whys of it, but I finally decided to do it as a business.

So here are the specifics… cuz I KNOW you are on the edge of your seats….

The product line is called Sweet Cheeks. Why? Because, it is what I call my kids and when my husband is really lucky….him. I wanted to use all natural products that are good for the skin and good for the earth. All the oils used are plant based which means that your skin is able to absorb them as opposed to just sitting on top of the skin. Funny, however, when deciding to start a company, the hard part wasn’t what ingredients to use to make my products, it was how to package them in a way that was gentle to the earth. To that end, most of Sweet Cheeks products are in glass containers and I am working hard to get all of them in glass and/or with as minimal packaging as possible.

So all my RVA peeps (yeah… I whipped out peeps) PLEASE come by and say hi. I will be at the West End farmers market every Wednesday (3-7) starting the April 28th and the St. Stephens farmers market about every other Saturday starting May 1st. You can also find me on Etsy, but I won't have any product on there until after the first farmers markets.

Plus follow Sweet Cheeks on facebook and twitter for specials!!

Some Cheese, Some Meat and a Teaser

2010-04-13T07:33:00.006-04:00

It was a fantastic weekend in RVA. Saturday I headed over to the farmers market to see cheese maker extraordinaire Rona from Sullivan’s Pond Farm (http://www.sullivanspond.com). This week I got blue, a waxed goats and some eggs. Then, I headed home. Just FYI guys you can go to her website and have her set aside things for you, because she has been know to sell out. Also, she will have asparagus this week.

Several weekends ago I told you about the new beds we put in, this weekend I planted them. It is a schooch early since our frost free date is the 15th, but I threw caution to the wind. Saturday was a long day. With the exception of some okra, eggplant and tomatoes most of what was going in was direct sow, so that was a lot of holes, filled with compost. It was a lot of time in what I am sure looked like a horrible rendition of downward dog to my neighbors. I was tired and as a wonderful reward we sat on the patio and the kids dinned al fresco and we dinned on cheese (frankly my favorite sort of dinner). Both cheese were out of this world. Thanks again Rona!

The next day we had friends over for…I don’t know what you would call it. Soft tacos, meat stuffed tortillas??? I don’t know but it amounted to yummy goodness.

2 lbs sirloin
2 cloves garlic grated
1 tsp salt
¼ cup lemon
¼ oil

Put it all in a bag and marinate for 4 hours or so then cook. I grilled it. Frankly, I did the unthinkable, I put the meat on the grill and then forgot about it. Oppps. When I came running outside as if my hair was on fire I was very thankful to see it was not a black mess, but interestingly I did not have to flip the meat??? Either way, meat, lettuce, salsa, sour cream and avocado all packed into a plump tortilla.... forgetaboutit.

Oh and the company…superb as always!!

So I have been super busy of late, working on a big project. I miss seeing some of my favorite blogs but hope I will get more time for my favorite reads once I finish tieing up some loose ends. That said, I hope everyone checks out St. Stephen’s Farmers Market this summer http://saintstephensrichmond.net/templates/System/details.asp?id=47922&PID=730854. If you want more teasers...follow me on twitter...all for now….

Farm to Family….Finally!

2010-04-09T13:44:00.001-04:00

Say that ten time fast!! So I finally made to farm to family. On Fridays their bus is about a mile from my house. However, I always forget. Today I was driving home from getting compost and there they were! I have to say, I had both kids, they were busy and I felt totally overwhelmed, but it was really cool. The guy even gave Tristan a neat packet that contained seeds so he could grow his own food, sadly either we left it there or from point A to point B it got lost. I love that they do this because the surest way to get kids to eat things is to first engage them. Tristan will not eat salads from store brought lettuce, but let us go pick it, clean it and dry it together and all he can talk about is how much he wants that salad. Plus it gives them an appreciation for what it takes to grow food.

As is typical in my life, I am not a trend setter, so I figure I am the last person that has finally gone to check them out. However, if for some reason you haven’t go. You can also find them on Facebook.

Easter Egg Hunts

2010-04-06T09:23:00.004-04:00

So does anyone know why the tradition of coloring Easter Eggs came into being. And why, oh why, are giant sized bunny’s hiding said eggs?

I mean, really, is it just a reason to have egg salad?

The Real Value in a Shared Dinner

2010-03-31T11:52:00.004-04:00

He sat quietly for a moment, hands folded and head down in thought. He then looked up and said, “Michael brought him to me, I know.” He spoke, referring to a neighborhood kid he had started mentoring that was good but on the wrong path. “I needed him, I needed a reason to get out of bed. I needed someone to need me.” I believed he was right. The change was measurable. He wasn’t quite his old self, but you could see, the glimmer of hope that one day, he believed, he would truly be able to breath again.

It was the first time we had Peter over in ages. Ironic, since I talk so much about breaking bread and reaching out. Peter...Peter is different though. To see him is to rip a bandage off a festering wound. The loss of Michael is on him. It reminds me of how much I miss Michael and how different this would all be if only he were here. I know these encounters are hard for Peter too, sadly, for the very same reason. Several months ago when he was over he said, he knew he would cry the whole way home, because it didn’t feel right that Michael was not there. What can you say to that? It was true. It was like breaking a leg a mile down a deserted path and having to endure each painful step to get to help. But you keep walking forward, because what else it there to do really?

It is horrible to see someone you love in such pain. It is more horrible when you share, at least in small part, that pain. However, it has almost been a year, and he was finding some purpose again. He was still putting one foot in front of the other and he was getting somewhere. So was I, and I knew in that moment that it would never be the same. I knew I would always, in some small way, wish Michael had been there. I knew though, that we would all laugh out loud together again, and Michael would say a blessing of love over it all. So this night, we just ate our meal, and talked and healed … just a bit.

One Weekend….with Kids

2010-03-30T15:50:00.011-04:00

The past year and a half has seen huge changes in the McCauley mansion (that’s what we like to call our house…we can dream…no?) Joel started his own agency, I have something in the works to be revealed at a later date, and most recently we have made a big change in our food. We have switched over to meat and eggs that are handled humanly, fed proper diets and allowed to see the light of day. I am not going to get preachy, don’t worry. It was just a personal decision, it is not for everyone I know.

In that vein we pulled resources with our neighbors and are put in a huge garden. We always do a garden, but this garden “should” provide not only all our veggie needs for summer plus allow a to put up quite a bit for winter. We have a large yard for the city and so we are putting the garden in our yard but our neighbors provided labor to help enlarge existing beds and put in a new one. We also are putting in non-GMO seeds. Again, promise no preaching…just a decision we made.

So in preparation for our hard work ahead that Saturday morning, we went to the local farmers market.

We are lucky to have one of the biggest farmers markets within walking distance of our house. During the winter the die hard sellers move from the local park to just down the road. It is mostly non produce venders (baked goods, local honey etc) but some of the farmers are there and have some winter produce, but mostly eggs and meat. I have to say I like the winter market much better. The summer market I think has gotten far too big and crowded, just this girls opinion. We got some breakfast sausage from Faith Farms to bring home and make brunch with. I have to say it was amazing. It was patty sausage, however it tasted like link sausage…go figure. Yumm, and a total treat. I love sausage but only indulge like 2-3 times a year. Then I found the mother load. Rona, from Sullivan’s Pond Farm (http://www.sullivanspond.com). I was drawn to her stall because of the lovely daffodils. Aren’t they amazing?

I stayed at her stall because of her cheese. I ended up buying two cheeses, a blue and a goat rolled in salt and pepper. The goat had some age to it so it was more firm than a typical soft goats cheese. I really can not express to you, the love I have for both of these cheeses. They were really good there, but it was cold morning. I got them home and the next day let them sit out and get some warmth to them. They amazed me. I think I scared my poor husband. Periodically I would take a bit and yell, “man alive!” I think he thought I had finally lost my mind. I am in love. Really, if you go to the south of the james market, go check her out.

We took all our goods home had brunch and then set about the work of the weekend…putting in our new Veggie bed. Even the kids got into helping.

After about 5 hours in the yard, mommy was off to girls night and a much needed beer!!

Weekend Sans Kids---Hoooowaaa

2010-03-26T11:48:00.007-04:00

So part of what I want to do with my blog is document time we spend with people we love. Over the past week, we have had our neighbors over, been to a party, been out on a date, been over to a girlfriends house for a girls night….none of which I took one single picture of. Sigh. I realize once the fun begins, I forgot about the camera. So, this will be a serious learning curve for me.

That said, this weekend the kids went to see Granddaddy and Grandma. That meant a whole weekend to ourselves. At first we planned to squirrel ourselves away and not see a soul. Then we decided we would have one night with friends and one night to ourselves. We finally decided, both nights with friends. Reality is, we don’t get a child free night, that also permits us to sleep until God wakes us the next morning often. Why not live it up? So Friday night we saw friends we don’t get to see nearly often enough. We had planned for a cheap night out, but at last minute they decided to bring dinner to our house and cook. Really how can you turn that down???

I went to Ellwood Thompson and got some yummy cheese and olives, and then by For the Love of Chocolate for some brownies and chocolates. So really talk about making out for us, we get to hang out with friends, they cook, and even our contribution we don’t’ have to cook! Score!

They made a coconut chicken soup that was amazing. Really, I don’t think anyone said a word while slurping it down. Then we had a very simple but wonderful argugula salad. For dinner it was fettuccini with muscles. The chef, felt he had put too many herbs in the sauce??? I thought he was crazy. It was amazing.

It was a great evening with great people. Who could ask for anything more. Plus when dinner was done, we got to just roll into bed!

The next night I have no pictures of. In fact the only reason I have pictures of Friday is my wonderful husband remembered to take pictures for me. We are so lucky to have great neighbors. Saturday one of our fabulous neighbors asked us over for drinks and cheese and then we went to Cielito. It was gorgeous here so we sat outside at their house. They made their secret libation called an “E.” I can’t tell you everything involved, but I will say it involves muddled basil and St. Germain. Lovely! They also got some amazing cheese from River City Cellars and these wonderful fennel olives that they brought back from a visit to Charleston. Joel and I had done a ton of work around the house and out in the yard that day so we were that wind whipped sort of tired, it was a gorgeous night, the drinks were amazing and the food was yummy….it was really and truly perfection. After some munchies and talk we went to the restaurant, and were lucky to get the last table outside. Joel and I have never been big fans of Cielito Lindo. We have never had anything bad there, but never had anything worth writing home about. However, it was close to home, we could sit outside and our neighbors swore they had the inside track on what was good to eat there. Turns out Taco’s Del Res, rock at Cielto.

So, lets recap….

No kids.
Great company.
Awesome food.

Can you say perfection??

Clementine Obsession

2010-03-11T17:39:00.005-05:00

Really, seriously, I can not stop wanting to put these little lovelies into EVERYTHING. As promised I have some recipes. Well one recipe, one just suggestion of one. The quinoa salad was really good. If you don’t like cilantro, I think you could substitute basil and it would be great.

Quinoa Clementine Salad

2 cup uncooked quinoa (I used red, but any would do)
1 bunch of green onions cut
½ C almond slices toasted
6 clementine’s peeled and sectioned
1 c. (aprox) of loose cilantro leaves
Juice of 3 clementine’s (about ¼ cup)
2 TBS olive oil

Make Quinoa and let cool. Add other 4 ingredients and stir. Add the juice and olive oil, if possible right before serving.

So we went back to get our third bag of clementine’s at Trader Joes. I mean they are so good I can’t stand it. They are sweet with a bit of sour. Mmmm. So today, Joel came home for lunch so I came up with this. I figured he would lover it or hate it. He moaned and gave every impression of deep love. I knew, however, I really struck a cord when he came in a minute ago an told me he was still thinking about the sandwich. Score!

I had a nice multigrain crusty loaf that I got at Trader Joes, but use whatever bread you like. I made a pesto mayonnaise and spread that on both pieces of bread. Then on one side I laid two pieced of bacon, the other one Clementine (peeled and sectioned) and in the middle a ton of arugala. It was really, really good. However, I am a sucker for a salty/sweet or savory/sweet combo and this had all of it, salty, sweet, savory and bitter. Mmmmm. The one thing I would try is a bit of goat cheese. It was wonderful as it was but I always have tendency to want to add cheese (in more ways than one:)

So the real question is… do you think there is a Clementine detox??

Richmond’s Top Teacher

2010-03-10T14:49:00.007-05:00

I had planned to get in a recipe today for a quinoa, clementine’s and cilantro salad…but you will have to wait. Richmondmom.com asked me to pass some information on, since it is such a cool site and such a brilliant contest, I was thrilled to help out.

Richmondmom.com and Top Notch Richmond are asking folks to nominate their favorite teacher. The teacher who wins will receive over $2,000 in gifts. With this years budget cuts (hence cutting salaries and benefits in may areas) Richmond teachers could sure use a show of thanks.

So go to this link and vote!! http://richmondmom.com/index.php/funformoms/page/category/top_teacher_09/

Happy 5th Birthday Tristan

2010-03-09T14:49:00.010-05:00

6:45 a.m., I am laying in bed sleeping, I hear from Tristan’s room, “Mommy?! Do you know what today is?” I reply, “Yes! Happy Birthday Tristan! Come here!” Typically in the morning he comes, jumps up in bed and we snuggle for last few precious minutes before I have to face the day. I hear, “Ahhh, Mommy, you need to go downstairs and get my food and do that thing we talked about. “ Sigh. He asked for breakfast in bed like Daddy got on Fathers day. Just a note, has mommy ever got breakfast in bed? No. Is she bitter???? I will leave it to you, to decide :) I reply, “I am on it Tristan. Give me a second and I will be back with it.” He reply's, “Okay mommy. Oh and don’t forget to sing me the happy birthday song too.” Roll of my eyes, “Of course, Tristan.”

I am not going to even get into how the hell he is turning 5 or how I feel about it. There is not enough space or time to delve that deep into it. Time….it always gets the better of me in so, so many ways.

He wanted banana pancakes, so that is what he got, and a slice of bacon. We brought it to him and sang the "happy birthday song."

He wanted hot dogs for dinner, and so he got that too.

Saturday was his birthday party. It was the first year he asked for friends. Normally, he just wants the grandparents. We had the family first, and then later the kids came. Joel and I embrace the low key. We try to keep things simple. In that vein, the kids that were invited were not allowed to bring presents. Insanity... I know! I also know that some thought we were mean parents. Maybe. I just really feel that, first, he has enough. However, mostly I want him to learn to honor company for company's sake. Their gift to him was them sharing time with him. I want him to learn to ask people to share time with him for the joy in that, not for the crap he can collect from the invitation. So go ahead call me mean... I just hope he won't in therapy one day!

It is amazing to see how your children learn the social dance. To see how excited he was to show his room to friends and show them his special things was precious to me. You realize that for five, he is sharing himself. I loved to see it.

Our wonderful neighbor made his cake. It is really one of the cutest cakes I have ever seen, and if you live in Richmond, e-mail me if you want the contact information.

Not only was it a cute cake but it was crazy good (as always Mark!!), and I find it rare to get that combo. Tristan agrees.

Finally, after all the excitement of the day our neighbors stopped by for a special birthday wish for Tristan, and Jillian got some snuggle time.

We are lucky, so lucky to have great family and friends. It is days like this that really make me remember what my heart knows. We are blessed. even if time is not my friend...

Literally seems like yesterday...sigh...

Rawrypop!

2010-03-05T11:38:00.003-05:00

I just couldn’t resist getting this up. Yesterday was Tristan’s birthday and I will be getting a post up about that, however in the meantime I could resist sharing.

I came home from dropping Tristan off at preschool and saw my neighbor was home. He has been going through a rough patch so I put some tea on and decided to invite him over just to give him a pep talk and time to vent. Turns out , I just missed him and so I decided to sit down and have tea with Jilly. We play tea party all the time but I thought I would actually give her some warm milk with a splash (really like a 1/8 of a teaspoon) of tea so we could have a “real” tea party. She was thrilled. We were having such a good time I thought I would give her a lollipop I had been saving since Valentines Day (I am super stingy with the sweets). Ultimately I think it is good, because if I gave them out all the time I doubt I would get blog fodder like this… really this is the “best ever, ever.” It is a bit long, but I don’t know how to edit down the video, and apparently the video won't load here so go lick the link, it is worth it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1hqoFQY_Eg

Who the Hell Said This Would be a Success Only Journey?

2010-03-04T08:03:00.009-05:00

Cuz they lied.

I was excited to start the chronicles. This, was snapped at dinner last night. Jillian did not want to eat dinner. In her words, “iz yucky.” The rule is, you don’t have to eat but you do have to stay while the rest eat. She went… postal. Absolutley and totally, postal. So she got put in the other room until she could pull it together. I simply told her when she could calm down to please come back because we would miss her. She wailed, she screamed… I grabbed the camera. Funny taking pictures of her must have made her realize she was acting a fool and she stopped.

Then she sat at the table.

Then she ate.

Turns out the avocado wasn’t so yucky after all, turns out “iz yummy mama.”

And there you go…

Breaking Bread

2010-03-03T15:33:00.009-05:00

Ever wanted to do something more?

Something better?

Have you ever thought, who am I?

Where do I belong in this world?

I do. Every day. That is where I am. So what does that have to do with you and food? Right? Patience, my friend, patience. This is going to be a long ride…just come with me. Hopefully it will be worth it.

Those of you that follow my blog know that about a year ago a good friend of mine died. At the time I ran a contest imploring you guys to break bread or break open a bottle with a friend. The other day I looked at my husband and said, “You know it has almost been a year since Michael died.” I think about him often and when I do, I miss him. Terribly. He was wicked, and dear. He made me laugh until it hurt. Around him, I felt loved. Since then I have felt compelled. I felt, there was something I should be doing, but what? That thought has been weighing on me so heavily of late.

What? I hear you, but what?

Then, finally, slowly my thoughts started coming together. Still, just this morning I couldn’t fully get my hands around what I wanted to do. I was talking it through with the great Lucy’s mom and telling her, I wanted to change my blog, change the focus of it, but I couldn’t get my hands around exactly how.

So let me back up just a bit. I love my blog. Not , however in, “it is the best blog out there“ sort of love. I love MY blog, in the,” it is mine, I created it, it is an extension of me, my thoughts,” sort of love. I started my blog on the very first day I heard of a blog. I started it, as a sort of on-line recipe box for my family. It never, ever, in a million years dawned on me that people would really read it. As they did, though I realized there was this void, in me that needed this. I was a stay at home mom with two babies and I missed having something to say that wasn’t just about the latest trick on how to get breast milk stains out of clothes and how to make taking a rectal temperature more pleasant for everyone involved. My blog got me out into the world, the world outside of just mommy hood again. Thank god. Really.

Now, I want to take my blog from something I do, to something….more. I don’t want to just chronicle the recipe for a meal I made. I want to chronicle the meal.

I think we have forgotten how to break bread as a nation. We have forgotten to sit down and have meals as families. We have forgotten how to have meals with friends. We have forgotten how to have community meals. Or perhaps, not forgot. Perhaps, just got too busy. We made a mistake. We stepped away from the table. Look around though? Do you see the impact.? It is tangible. It impacts our children’s behavior. It changes their sense of self. It is destroying their health. It is impacting our joy. We have forgotten that a meal is a ritual. It is a ritual that honors the food we eat, how it is prepared and frankly the person that took the time to make it. It is a ritual of fueling our bodies, enriching our families and spreading love. Love. Sigh….and I am back to missing Michael. I missed too many meals with him, because we were “too busy.”

Because of this, our lives, our world is substantially less rich. We need to get back to the ritual of breaking bread. Of sharing a meal and sharing ourselves. So in that spirit, I am beginning my chronicles. I will still have recipes. However, I am going to focus on breaking bread with the ones I love. I am giving your more of myself in this. You will get a more intimate invitation into my life. Isn’t’ that what it is about? What good are we, if we don’t give our greatest gift. Our time, ourselves.

So today, Tristan’s preschool was cancelled due to a broken broiler. Luckily for him he and his lady love Lucy had a magical play date. Sadly for him (and Lucy!) she is sick :( So how was I going to salvage the day? We went to Trader Joes to restock on my daughter's blueberry obsession, and then decided to do the insane…the unthinkable…take the kids… to a restaurant…by…my…self! Cue the whodunit music. Insane (and yes I know myself is one word). Ever so stupidly I told Tristan this prior to our outing at TJ’s. TJ’s was awful. The kids fought and whined the entire time. I fussed and whined the entire time. Plthh. By the end, I really would have rather shot my left foot off than take them out to eat. However, a promise is a promise, and so I went. We went to Maldini’s, because A) it is spitting distance from my house and I just wanted to get near home, B) it was kid friendly. The pictures aren't great...it was is dark in there. I have to say it was lovely. Lovely. The kids were doll’s, they ate their salads even. I couldn’t believe it. Even Baby Jaguar (Tristan’s lovey) and My Baby (Jillian’s lovey) enjoyed the salad .

Where had the two terrors I just had at TJ’s gone? Why were they being so good?

All I can figure, is that It made them feel special. Little did they know, it made me feel special too.

Love the video, Jillian can't even be bothered to answer. Sadly I miss capturing her happy food dance and outrageous moaning of food joy... she is her fathers daughter!!
t

Buttermilk Cheese

2010-03-02T17:59:00.002-05:00

A while back Joel and I took a cheese making class at the Complete Gourmet. I have, several times since that, tried to make goat cheese using the recipe for a cows milk cheese we made in class, to no avail. One thing she specifically said in class is that ultra pasteurized milk is not good for cheese making. I finally concluded that that was the reason my cheese would not set up (it would separate but the curds were so small, I would end up with about a tablespoon remaining in the cheesecloth.) and abandoned the idea all together. Sigh.

Then I saw this post over at One Couples Kitchen http://www.onecoupleskitchen.com/ and was excited to try again. I figured maybe they had the one recipe that would work! It did not work for me and I must say I feel a little bitter they are all happy and cheesy and I am sad and without.

That said, I pressed on. I made a cheese out of Buttermilk. I thought that might give me the tang I craved. It was really good, not goat, but a good sub in a pinch. Someone suggested it would be great in stuffed shells…..maybe we will see more on that later??? Hmmmm.

For now, here is what I did. I don’t think the lemon was necessary, but probably gave some extra tang. I made this up, so for all I know the cream wasn’t necessary, but I had it and needed to use it. Note: there is proper cheese making cloth that you can get at Complete Gourmet and I am sure Sur la Table, however you can use that stuff from the grocery store, just double up.

8 c. buttermilk
1 c. heavy whipping cream
½ c. half and half
1 tbs lemon juice (I used fresh, but I have used concentrate before…your call)
1 tsp course salt
Copious amounts of pepper

Heat the first three ingredients slowly until you see the curds and whey separate (best way to describe is your milk looks like you left it in sippy cup underneath your car seat for a week in the heat, floating in what looks like lemonade?) . Add the lemon. Let sit a minute or two off of the heat and slowly pour or ladle though cheesecloth lined colander. Once a good portion of the liquid is out salt and pepper the curds and smoosh (yep that is an official cooking term) about until mixed. Bundle the cheese cloth and then hang for about an hour to let drip. The longer you let it hang the drier it will get.

Spread and enjoy…

Remember the Green Duck contest…75 buck guys!

Green Duck Saves the Day Contest

2010-02-28T15:45:00.011-05:00

So hubo and I have this ongoing battle. It is fierce and bitter, and often a few tears are shed whenever the issue comes up. I am not ashamed to say we have even considered going to counseling over the issue. However, it comes up, we battle and then the issue might not arise for another 3 months. So what is it that is driving such a wedge into our marital bliss?? Whenever we have a party the battle turns into whether to use paper plates or use every available plate in the house.

I have said it before, I am a lazy environmentalist. I wish I were a hard core environmentalist, maybe in my next life I will be, however, I am lazy one. I try to do what’s best, I swear, but every once in a while I forget to take my own bags to the grocery store, I forget to bring water for the kids while running errands and have to get bottled water, or I leave the lights on when I go out in the evening if I know Joel wont’ be home cuz I am a scaredy cat. However, I do stand by using our real plates and Joel (who, to be fair, is typically the one that does the mountain of dishes after) fights desperately for paper. I, typically at some crucial point, whip out the guilt... the parental guilt... the this is your child’s planet guilt…

Checkmate.

However, a while back I was lucky enough to meet an amazing lady, that has become a wonderful friend. She owns a company called Green Duck Compostables. She started this one day after eating leftovers from a meal she had out. She looked around at the mound of take-home containers that housed just her leftovers from one meal and thought…”uh,-oh.” and Green Duck was born.

She sells mostly to restaurants and products for events ( fairs and festivals). All her products are plant based and compostable. What is the big deal about that? Well, that means instead of your take home cups, sushi container, or to-go boxes adding to more of this…

they can be added to this…

And help grow this…

And this…

Silly thing is this, it never dawned on me, that I could go and buy her products for my own personal use, until… literally… today. Tristan’s 5th birthday is coming up, which means I know that Joel and I will have our battle yet again. However, this time, he will win, and he won’t ever have to know that I will too. It will be my little secret with you guys.

So is it as cheap as Dixie? No. However, for 25 bucks I get 50, paper plates, cups, forks, and knives. And really that 50 will get me through 2-3 gatherings. So it is really 8-12 bucks per gathering and that seems like a small price tag for ease that I don’t have to feel guilty about. Plus it adds to my compost, what more could a girl want?

So here is the contest. Lets help spread the word. Green Duck should be in our restaurants, it should be in our schools (they do compostable trays), they should be in our houses. I love this company. Sure, she is my friend. Absolutely, I love the girl, but truly I love the company. What can I say… I am a sucker for guilt free ease!

I am offering $75 cold hard cash, to whichever blogger can get the most of their followers to post a link to this post and a link to green duck http://www.shopgreenduck.com/index.htm. The two caveats are you have to get at least 10 people to link to qualify and you have to give me your totals and links to the site so I can verify. But hey, what a quick way to make $75. Just think of all the guilt free, veggie based, plates you can get:) I will end March 8th, so get to work!

And remember…. Buy Green. Make Compost. Grow Life.

p.s. the compost picture I got from google and is a Gemeent Lubbeek photo, and the landfill photo, again google, comes from Planet Green.

All I Need...

2010-02-25T11:43:00.005-05:00

…is love, love… and food. My son is having a love affair of epic proportions. In case you forgot, he is four. Well, very soon to be five. Tristan has always been social. He loves people, but he has never had one special friend. All that has changed now, now there is Lucy.

So she came over after school for a play date the other day. All morning my sweet little boy was like an insane wind up doll, totally unable to contain his joy. While, a bit taxing, it was so sweet.

Knowing Lucy would be coming for lunch I had great intentions of knocking her socks off. I planned to make a three cheese macaroni that would make her weep. However, as is so often the case in my life, it just never happened. I felt bad that all I served up was a pitiful PB&J, on store bought bread no less. I will get Tristan therapy to resolve the shame I am sure he felt. She, being the very gracious guest, made no hint of, what I am sure, was her horror. She pretended quite well to enjoy it and even cracked a smile or two while eating. I snapped this picture while they ate. Later, when I was uploading the pictures into my computer I realized something, something I haven’t’ quite been able to articulate until now. However, when I looked at those three sweet souls all giggles and joy my thoughts finally came full circle for me.

I love food. I do. However, as a “foodie” I don’t quite fit in the larger community. I read fellow bloggers blogs and they talk about “flavor profiles’ and “upper notes” and such. That is lost on this girl. I have said it before, and I will say it again, at the end of the day, for me, it is a simple “good” or “bad.” I often thought, “How can I say I love food. What is a top note? I clearly don’t, and furthermore have NO desire to analyze food in such a way.“ These thoughts make me doubt myself. Then I will read a blog and blogger will make a comment like, “ I only purchase shade grown coffee, picked on the first Tuesday after the last Spring rain. I find it is the only coffee that I find palatable anymore.” I read something like this and feel a mix of slight shame and frustration. Shame because, I think, “what I am doing? I can’t blog about food, CLEARLY I have no idea what I am doing.” The frustration, I have never been able to figure out, until now.

Here is what I figured out…I am not a food critic. I am a food lover. What I love about food, is the shared experience. I think that is what leaves me frustrated with so many blogs/ food reviews. Food has become a way to elevate ourselves, to set ourselves apart from the uneducated, the uncultured, the “have not’s” We are beginning to lose the truest value (outside of sustenance) of food in the foodie community and that is that food, is the ultimate community builder. Food is a very concrete and tactile way to explore other cultures. It is the first toe we often dip in into the other world of people, and often the first glimmers of respect and awe we begin to feel for their traditions. It brings us together in joy and, celebration. It is how we extend ourselves to others in their grief. Food is the great community builder.

I think often, we forget. We forget, as we pull out the Pouilly-Fume, aged gouda and French baguettes, that there are millions… right at this moment… that have nothing to eat. Nothing. We forget that our neighbor just lost her best friend 6 months ago and that maybe asking her over for dinner, even if it is just frozen ravioli and jar sauce (gasp, horror) would be the best meal she had in months because she would not be so lonely. We forget to be thankful. We forget to share the joy. We forget. We forget that food, restaurants, wine, it is all meant to bring us together, not pull us apart. And this sense of shared experience starts, likely at birth, but certainly by four.

So, I guess I am a food blogger after all. As is so often in my life, it took a four year old to remind me of what my 36 year old brain forgot. Thanks Lucy. You are the best future daughter-in-law I could ask for!

Kale Soup

2010-02-24T13:32:00.004-05:00

I made this yesterday for lunch. I was having competing desires for a warm meal and something leafy and bright. This was my odd compromise. It hit the spot though and hubby loved it that night. Today I pulled it out. It is a gloomy day with snow threatening us again. I am a great lover of snow, but just this weekend it was brilliant and beautiful and I started on yard work and mentally made the leap to spring. Sigh. So with the new gloom in the air I had this for lunch but added a dollop of greek yogurt. Double yum. Plus, it is low cal, fast and cheap. Trifecta!

½ onion sliced
½ bag chopped kale (or about 3 cups??)
2 cartons of beef stock (could used veggie, chicken, or broth if you prefer)
1 can chick peas
2 tbs sweet curry
1 tbs olive oil.

Heat olive oil, sauté the onions until soft. Add stock, kale and chickpeas and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add curry and any salt you want. Viola!

Pork Loin Stuffed with Clementine’s

2010-02-22T18:48:00.005-05:00

I have two topics today. The first, dinner the second wine. Actually, on second thought, maybe I will start with the second and go to the first. I find it is always best to start with some good wine!

A while back my dad was given a bottle of Rendition Petit Syrah. He had forgotten who had given him the bottle and spent ages tracking down where he could by it. It was an outstanding bottle. Lucky for all involved he finally found it and it was a Trader Joel wine. Even better is was under $10 a bottle. Hooo-rahh. The other day I went to stock up, and they were out of the Petit Syrah, they did however, have a Zinfandel, so I decided to try it. It was amazing. So go give it a try!

Now on to dinner. Also at Trader Joes where clementine’s. I was very happy because I love clementine’s. I mean, love…love. However, this year they all looked either shriveled or green (I mean really a GREEN orange…need I say more??) so I have not had any. The ones at Trader Joes looked great and were pretty cheap. So I tried them. They were that perfect tart sweetness I love. This lead me to tonight’s dish. It came out really well, with complimentary moans and professions of love from my husband. I made both tenderloins in the package, if you are making one, half the recipe.

Cut the filets in half about ¾ through and open, then gently pound (how is that for an oxymoron!!) the meat out. Salt pepper and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.

Filling

5 Clementine’s pealed, sectioned and white membrane removed.
2 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped
Zest of 1 Clementine
¼ of walnuts chopped
¼ c. goat cheese
1 TBS Dijon
1 TBS soy sauce

Mix spread down the center of filet, and bring meat around and tie to form roll. Place in baking dish.

Topping

3 TBS orange olive oil (if you don’t have use olive oil and add 1 tsp zest)
Juice of one Clementine
3 TBS soy

Mix and pour over filets. Cook for 30 minutes.

Ludicrous Lamb!

2010-02-18T14:58:00.002-05:00

The dinner party went well. I did not snap as many pictures as I intended or should have. I really only can offer the view of the table while setting up and the cheese plate. Sigh. Best of intentions, down the drain. Such is my life! Oh well. Here are the few I have.

Now onto one of the best lamb dishes I have ever made I must say. I think this would be great in a crock pot to.

Leg of lamb

4-6 small or half cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can petite diced tomatoes

Cut slits in lamb and put garlic cloves down in, salt and pepper lamb well. Put in a covered dish ( I used s turkey roasting pan with lid) pour both cans of tomato with the liquid over. Cook at 250 pretty much all flipping day. I cooked mine for about 7 hours.

It ends up coming out like pulled pork. Tender, all shreddy (I know that is not exactly a word). I then fished the diced tomatoes, and a ladle or the crushed from the bottom of the pan. I put it in my food processor and gave it a quick pulse or two with about a teaspoon of oregano. I didn’t processes it too much because I wanted it thick and chunky. Ladle over meat and eat.

No pictures of this either. It was gone too quickly!

Patrick Henry Dinner Tonight

2010-02-06T14:15:00.004-05:00

A while back, Patrick Henry had an auction to benefit the school. I donated a dinner for four. They picked tonight for the dinner. As of yesterday, they said, weather be damned, they were still coming. Brave souls!! I will make sure to have the bourbon ready to warm them. They wanted to do a slow night with multiple courses, which, for me, makes it super easy. For all the things I manage to pull off in the kitchen, timing is something that I am not great at… it stresses me out. So slow courses makes it nice for me, plus it is really such a nice way to have a meal I think.

So here is the menu, too late to change it now, but tell me what you think.

Assorted cheeses - Mountain View Local Marmac, Artequeso Manchase, Le Roule

The above will be set out in the living room, I will serve cocktails and let them settle into the evening. Then, after a bit, I will have them go to the dinning room where the following will come in courses.

Smoked Salmon Boat- Smoked salmon with lemon infused cream fraiche, topped with a sprig of dill in an endive leaf boat.

Beef Consommé Laced with Sherry- topped with shaved parmesan and cracked pepper.

Beet Salad- Beets mixed with argugula and goat cheese

Spinach, Pine Nut, and Feta Pasta - spinach wilted with garlic, and crumbled feta. Topped with lemon zest and toasted pine nuts.

Cardamom Pound Cake- Topped with maple whipped cream and caramelized apples and toasted walnuts.

Over The Top

2010-02-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

I was honored by fellow blogger and friend extraordinaire Swestie over at http://www.swestie.blogspot.com/ . I am lucky to not only know and love Sallie through the blog-o-sphere, but she is a neighbor and friend. I know! How lucky am I??

In order to receive this award, I must answer the following questions with one word answers and then pass the award on to 5 other bloggers whom I believe are also "Over the Top!" (They will then repeat.) Here goes:

Your Cell Phone? Old (5 years…really)
Your Hair? short
Your Mother? kind
Your Father? grumpy
Your Favorite Food? cheese
Your Dream Last Night? bizarre
Your Favorite Drink? wine
Your Dream/Goal? joy
What Room Are You In? living room
Your Hobby? Blogging (duh)
Your Fear? Loss
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? successful
Where Were You Last Night? Home
Something That You Aren't? perfect (sigh)
Muffins? Meh?
Wish List Item? Dunno? Nothing?
Where Did You Grow Up? Richmond
Last Thing You Did? breakfast
What Are You Wearing? jeans
Your TV? on
Your Pets? none
Friends? Awesome!
Your Life? Great!
Your Mood? Excited?
Missing Someone? Always
Vehicle? VW
Something You Aren't Wearing? Makeup
Your Favorite Store? Anthropologie
Your Favorite Color? aqua
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Too long
Last Time You Cried? Too long
Your Best Friend? hubby
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Kroger?
Facebook? rarely
Favorite Place To Eat? Bistro 27

So I am passing this on to the few people that have stuck by me during my blog hiatus. Thanks guys!

http://www.giverecipe.com/ Not only is she charming, and warm, and someone I really hope to meet face to face, her food is amazing.

http://www.nibblemethis.com/ chris has been every ready with a funny quip to my rare posts and for thant I am thankful. Plus, this man is a serious grill hound and, if you are not already, will make you long for summer.

http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ Donna, is truly the blogger I hope to be when I grow up. She is funny and warm and is always honoring her fellow bloggers. Plus her food ain’t too shabby either!!

http://thehappylittlehome.blogspot.com/ Darling and infectious. Really, a girl you will want to spend time reading and could totally see myself hanging out with.

http://coleensrecipes.blogspot.com/ , so besides the scrumptious peanut butter cake that greats you at the top of the page… when feeling glum about our cold weather, I always feel a tad better when I see flashing on her page, the temperature in Wasilla. How could such cold weather produce such a warm person?

Cheese Sublimation

2010-02-03T14:28:00.004-05:00

I am a little bit back logged as this is a sandwich I made after my last post. It was lunch time, and I was blue. Too early for cocktails, so cheese had to do. However, I had no tomato soup, and I love that creamy bit of tart with my grilled cheese. So I decided to experiment. I put sharp cheddar and creamy tart goats cheese together. The pictures are terrible, my camera somehow got on some odd setting (likely because I had been stupidly toting it about in my purse) and hubby was not around to rescue me from my camera ignorance…so I had to make due.

I have to say, I the goat cheese adds an extra sharpness that I loved. I still missed my soup though!!

Patrick Henry Charter School

2010-01-27T14:50:00.003-05:00

First, I am sorry about the off topic commentary and rants of late, but hold on for one more. Second, most of my readers do not live in Richmond, so likely this is of no interest to you unless you just love to delve into the craziness of local politics. I also have to apologize that this has ABSOULTEY positively nothing to do with food.

So why am about to post on something not of interest to most of my readers???? Because I am using the only vehicle I have to get the word out to folks in Richmond that read my blog that might have a dog in this fight. So there (kidding!!).

I would love to go into a litany about the love /hate relationship I have with the city in which I choose to call home, however, for once in my mouthy life, I will attempt to show some restraint and stick to the topic at hand, schools. Though, let me be frank, it is killing me!

Richmond, is not in a totally unique position. I believe, that in America we have a public school crisis. This crisis will rock our country in about 20 years, when we are having a hard time competing in a world economy because our kids are going to lack the critical and analytical skills needed to compete against workers educated outside the U.S. That said, Richmond seems to take special pride in cultivating terrible schools.

Then came a dedicated group of parents that wanted a change. They were tired of seeing their friends leave to go to the county once their children got school age. They loved their city and they wanted the kids of Richmond to have an innovated and cutting edge school. They have worked tirelessly, for YEARS, to bring about Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts (PHSSA). Each step of the way Richmond Public Schools has thrown up, what the average person, would see as near insurmountable obstacles. I, for one, am ashamed to say, I never thought they could do it. This band of 20 or so folks, scaled every obstacle. Their support continued to snowball and their grassroots effort took hold. Richmond wanted a change and PHSSA embodied that change. They set about doing what Richmond had been failing to do for 20 or more years. Provided an opportunity to each and every child within the city to not only an adequate education but a stellar one.

After years and years of work they are set to open their doors in July (it is a year round school). For those of you that don’t know what a charter school is let be back up a little and explain. A charter school is a public school, it is available, at no cost, to any student (in this case any student in the city of Richmond). However, the total cost of opening the doors is born by the charter school. They only get public funding once the doors are open. Once open, a Charter school still has to pay some of there own way ,unlike a public school, but that cost is covered by fundraisers and grants, not by charging admission. PHSSA has been able to secure all the funds needed to open their doors. Now, at the twelfth hour, after hundreds of thousands of dollars have been secured, Richmond Public Schools is trying to renege on funding promised and needed once the doors open. I wish I could say I was shocked I am not.

Someone asked me why, why wouldn’t Richmond Public Schools want to add to their accomplishments a Charter school? She went on to say, every area she has ever known that has had charter options has thrived. It is a good question. Richmond is an amazing city, that has thrived not because of great leadership but in despite of bad. I can’t imagine the booming city Richmond could be if it could just simply say 4 words, “We have great schools.” This really is a matter of if you build it they will come. So what could Richmond possibly stand to loose by not supporting this?

Simple, it will be a glaring monument to the fact that Richmond leaders had failed their residents. It took 20 people to do what a city either could not or would not. It will be an unquestionable documentation to the fact that Richmond Public Schools had not only failed their children but have continually done so, not for lack of resource but simply for lack of want. It is shameful and they know it.

So if you live in Richmond and want to support PHSSA please come to the school board meeting February 1st details linked here http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/schoolboardnew/index.htm

Bacardi Wants Your Money, However Leave Your Opinions at the Door

2010-01-20T11:25:00.001-05:00

Okay, I will come back, at some point to tell you about the eggplant parm, trimmed down, however (It was very good) I am taking a moment to “share.” Please indulge my little rant and do with it what you will.

Let me give you the back story… my husband received, as a gift, for Christmas a bottle of Disaronno. Disaronno is typically too sweet of a drink for me, but I thought it would make an interesting modification on a Manhattan. I was right. I am not sure what possessed me but I thought I would e-mail them and share my idea. I sent an e-mail simply requesting information on how I could send a recipe idea I had using their product. Silly, I know, but I guess I was (pardon the pun) full of the spirit.

Here is the response I got back:

01/17/10

Dear Vanessa,

We are frequently received information, ideas or inventions (“Information”) from people who are not our employees. It is our policy to return, unopened, all identifiable unsolicited Information. If, due to inadvertence or due to lack of knowledge of contents, an envelope is opened, it is our policy to forward the Information to our Legal Department who then returns it to the sender with out giving it any consideration.

Should you want to submit your information to us, please write to:

Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.
Legal Department
Attention: Advertising & Trade Practice Counsel 2100 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33137

and request a copy of our “Unsolicited Information / Idea Submission Policy” (Policy) for completion before submitting your information. Information received before compliance with our Policy with be return without consideration and we assume no risk, obligation or liability whatsoever regarding the reception, retention, confidentiality and consideration of you Information.

Best Regards,

I am leaving the customer service representatives name off, because she was just doing her job and should not be included in my disgust. So follow me on my ride of logic.

Here is basically what she said, if anyone ever wants to contact our company via mail, they are required to write and ask for permission to write to us, once and only once that permission is granted, they may then write. Furthermore, lets say I purchased their product and had a problem with it, and I wrote them to address my grievance. Lets also assume, I didn’t know I had to write and ask permission to write (ughhh…duhhh), they would just send my letter back unread and unopened. Really. Really???

It seems to me the proper response to my question was:
Dear Vanessa,

Please don’t bother, we really don’t care at all about our customers. Your satisfaction, is really and totally irrelevant to us Really. I mean seriously, we are not joking about this. If you have a problem with it, please write us and ask for permission to complain. If permission (oh, and this is such a LONG shot!) is granted, you must twirl around twice prior to licking the stamp or we will not be able to give consideration to your complaint.

Stuff it sucker,

Bacardi.

Grrrr. Look let me make it clear that if they simply responded, that they don’t accept recipes, I would have no issue. I get it, they probably get thousands of recipes from silly girls like me that think they stumbled on to some great new drink. What I have an issue with is that this is their policy for ANY UNSOLICATED mail. Really. Really? Wow. It is sad to me. Maybe I am just sick of companies that seem to have forgotten that they need customers to make money, and that possibly it would behoove them to treat their customers decently. However, I can’t blame them because, we seem to have forgotten the ultimate power we have as consumers, not to purchase their product.

So on that note, I will in no way be a consumer of Bacardi products. The list includes:

Bacardi Rum (that was a surprise huh!)
Disaronno
Martini and Rossi
Dewars
Bombay Saphire (the most overrated martini gin in this girls humble opinion)
Cazadores
Grey Goose
42 below
Havana Club Drambuie
Eristoff Vodka
B&B and Benedictine Liquores

Maybe I should send them a letter letting them know I am not a customer any longer.

Trying to Get On the Wagon

2010-01-14T18:52:00.002-05:00

Okay you know when you start getting harassed by relatives to blog again, that you have totally fallen off the wagon. Joel and I try to eat reasonably healthy (too bad a bottle of wine in one sitting isn’t considered such…sigh), but along with the thrones of other fools we decided to recommit to healthy eating after the holidays. Thus my leaned down eggplant parmesan.

Before I get yelled at that this is not healthy… I know, I get it. I am not calling this boiled chicken breast, steamed broccoli, with a side of water. It is, after all, eggplant parmesan---ish.

I didn’t bread the eggplant. I sliced and salted it and let is sweat for about 45 minutes to an hour. I then with a brush coated a non stick with oil and cooked the slices. I covered it with a lid to try and hold in most of the moister. To my surprise.. .it caramelized nicely and all said I used ¼ of oil for 1 and a half eggplants.

I then sautéed 1 lb. lean ground beef, with fennel and onion, and seasoning.

In a pot, threw more fennel and onion and sweat that out and then put a container of crushed tomatoes and 4 grated garlic cloves and abut ¼ of wine and let that cook down.

Then I layered starting with eggplant, then beef, sauce, and repeat. I ended with sauce and large amounts of parmesan and then sliced fresh mozzarella and baked at 350 for 30.

Sorry for the short handed instructions…getting back on the wagon can be hard J I will let you know later how it turned out!

Happy new year all!!

Porcini Porcine

2009-11-19T14:30:00.002-05:00

It is not a great picture, but we were hungry and I didn’t have the willpower to take too many shots. Once, I saw a brief snippet of show in which the chef, pulverized dried porcini’s to make a crusted meat. I have been intrigued ever since, but just finally got around to trying it out.

I started with about a 2.5 pound pork loin and marinated it for 4 hours. The marinade was equal parts Dijon, white vinegar, and soy sauce (I used about ¼ c. each). Before I was ready to cook the meat, I turned the oven to 425 degrees. I coated the meat slightly with some oil (I used olive, but any would be fine). While allowing the oven to come up and preparing the curst, let meat sit at room temperature.

Start with 1/3 cup dried mushrooms (I used porcini) in the food processor. Pulse it to get a course meal like consistency. You will have some larger pieces in there, don’t worry about it.

Add to the processor

3 garlic cloves (less if you like less garlic)
¼ cup bread crumbs (I used Italian)
1 TBS onion salt

Pulse to combine. Roll loin in mushroom crust and place in a baking dish. Add any leftover mushroom to the bottom of the pan and sprinkle a bit of oil over (or you can deglaze with a bit of stock once the meat is done), it will form a nice gravy/sauce.

Cook covered for 15 minutes, then remove foil and cook for an additional 15 or until done (meat should feel firm to the touch).

Let stand for about 10 minutes and serve.

They Put My Husband in Jail!!

2009-11-17T17:44:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe it, he is a sweet guy and into the slammer they are putting him. They come pick him up tomorrow unless he can raise the funds to post bail.

I know this is not typical fodder for a food blog, but it is important so I am calling on my fellow foodies for support.

So I know what you are thinking, why would I help some sleaze the police threw into jail? Typically I would agree. However, he is my sleaze and it is all to support the MDA.

See the following link https://www.joinmda.org/westendva09/joelmccauley/ to find out more. If you have time watch the video, it is pretty cute.
I do want to encourage everyone, that if you don’t support this cause try, especially this year, to find one to support. With the economy, charitable contributions are really down this year and many are struggling, so try and do what you can J

Porcini, Beef and Wine….Oh My!

2009-10-27T16:41:00.003-04:00

I made this about a two weeks ago. We had had our first cold snap and a good wine stew called to me. This is a bit of a variation on a wine stew I have made for years. It came out quite well. I also made a whole wheat loaf with balsamic and parmesan and it was great with the stew.

¾-1 lb beef (I happened to use filet, typically would not, but I got the whole tenderloin so it was less that most other cuts of beef)
¼ c seasoned flour (salt, pepper, red pepper, whatever you like)
1tbs oil
2 large potatoes cut into large chunks
3 large carrots cut into chunks
3 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
1 large onion halved then quartered
½ cup dried porcini
2 cup beef stock
1 bottle of dry red wine
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs browning sauce (if you don’t have this try ½ c. of old coffee)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dry thyme or rosemary
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

I like the vegetables nice and chunky, but if you like smaller bits, go a head and cut them up to your liking.

Cut beef into pieces (again I like mine a bit bigger) and coat with your seasoned flour. Heat oil over medium high heat and add coated beef to brown. Add all ingredients except the potatoes. Cook for at least and hour over a medium low heat.

Add potatoes and cook another 20-30 minutes or until done. Enjoy!!

It Finally Came!

2009-10-20T18:27:00.001-04:00

Okay I am a bit late in telling you guys about the saga of the wine. Part of being a featured publisher with food buzz means that I get to try cool products from time to time. So I let no moss grow under my feet when they offered up free wine. Yep you heard me, free wine. Free. Wine.

This offer was months ago and thanks to the joys of living in the fine state of Virginia and ABC laws aimed at…. Oh hold up… that is another blog all together. Lets just say getting the wine to me, because of the craziness that is Virginia ABC law, proved to be a long arduous process. Sadly when FedEx came to deliver said wine, we were out of town. Finally, through hoops and hoopla, we were finally permitted to have my husband drive to the FedEx depot to get it. Only to find out they sent it out for delivery again. Sigh… I got it.

The wine was Black Box, Sauvignon Blanc. My understanding about the company is that they are trying to reinvent the perception of the box o’ wine and target a…hmmm… lets say, more discerning clientele. Let me say, I have no problem with the concept of the box of wine. Really, it prevents air from getting to the wine, thus prolonging shelf life, yadda, yadda,. I have even had a decent box o’wine (I think my friend go it at Target). So I was pretty psyched about it all. Plus I like Sauvignon Blac, so we were in business. The day it came I put in the fridge to chill. The next day I made carbonara for dinner to go with my fancy dancy box o’ wine.

Pour….sip…. Huh??? Sad. Sad Vanessa. I love Sauvignon Blanc. If I were to have one complaint with them over the past…3 years or so is they have gotten bit homogonous. Homogony would not have been bad for this wine. It was watery. It did have nice acidy to it, but it was watery, and flat and…well sad. It retails for $20 a box and a box is 4 bottles. So not expensive. However, Trader Joes has some far better wines for the same price or less (in particular a vino verde that is 3.99 a bottle).

So my over take…

Would I get it again? No.

Was I glad it was free? You betcha.

Was it at least the effort to get it? Very questionable.

Sigh. Free Wine, since when is that not all it is cracked up to be?????

Bistro 27 Deal

2009-10-06T13:23:00.002-04:00

Hey, for all of you in Richmond...

If you are on Twitter go find Bistro 27 and follow them, you will get 50% off an entree. If you are not on twitter...might want to get on there.

Offer ends on October 15th.

http://twitter.com/Bistro27

On Vacation!

2009-10-01T19:56:00.007-04:00

Okay, we are down here in Rodanthe, NC. I can go to a place where I , literally, buy the fish off the boat. That said, there is nothing recipe inducing about super fresh fish. The best thing, I think, is not to mess with it too much. So I thought, while here, I would share some picts instead.....

Rough times getting Daddy to paint your toes....can you say wrapped around his little finger????

Loving our lovey

Ready for the beach...

One awesome sunset

And at the end of the day what it is all about...pure and simple....

Holy Shiitake Batman

2009-09-25T07:08:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, we have a place up in West Virginia. We co-own that place with my parents. My parents have made friends with a couple Brian and Ocea and besides supplying us with free range eggs, raspberries, squash and other goods, they apparently had a bumper crop of Shiitake mushrooms that they generously shared. This was a hard decision for me. What to do with them.?? I also had a terrible time deciding on a picture. I never realized quite how lovely these little guys were before. So you are getting a few. As for how to prepare it, I decided this time, simple was best and to do something I thought would let the tender flavor of the shiitake shine. It doesn’t get much simpler than the below. Typically, I would have thrown in some white wine but we didn’t have any open and I didn’t feel like any so didn’t want to open a bottle. Again, typically I would rely then on dry vermouth, however for some reason when I opened the liquor cabinet to grab it the sweet vermouth called me. I am glad it did, the light sweetness and heavier herbal- ness (is that a word??) of the sweet vermouth was outstanding.

2 tbs butter
1 small onion
1 small clove of garlic grated or one large minced
2 cup sliced shiitake
3 tbs sweet vermouth
1 cup of milk, half-n- half or mix
1 tbs of flour
Salt
Pepper

Melt butter in a skillet and add onions and garlic and cook over medium low to sweat the onions. Add shiitake and cook covered for about 3 minutes. The mushrooms should have thrown off some water. Add about a tablespoon of flour, just enough to thicken but not form a roux. Add sweet vermouth (if you don’t have this vermouth or brandy could be nice) and milk (I used half skim and half -n-half and half, and it was great, however the more milk fat you have the richer and thicker it will be), cook until thickened.

Season to taste, toss with pasta and serve.

Just Another Plug

2009-09-24T08:25:00.001-04:00

Okay, I have fallen off the blog wagon. However, October I should be back on. Tristan will be in preschool and that will free up 2 hours a day for me. Also, it will be getting cooler which means more cooking. We planted a fairly big garden this year, which meant a lot of fresh veggies… and not a lot of cooking.

That said, let me get to the point of this post. I have said it before and I will say it again….Bistro 27 is one of my favorite restaurants in Richmond. We went there last night for my mom’s birthday and yet again it did not disappoint. Last night we tried the escargot. The sauce had a touch of Pernod. Incredible. Unexpected. Unbelievable. The waiter tried to take the plate away and my father just about stabbed him with is fork and ordered…no demanded …more bread to sop the sauce up with. Fantastic. We all had the carrot soup, it a was a cold soup that had a great ginger flavor and a bit of heat. It was amazing as well. Everyone except me had the ravioli. Joel and my mom had the ravioli on the menu, my father had the special which was a seafood ravioli. They all cleaned their plates, all the while grunting…pigs. I had the Linguini with pesto and scallops. I am not quite sure how they did it but it was buttery. It was amazing. I ,however, have some waiting in the fridge for lunch for me…or maybe breakfast!!!

It was perfect. Really . Except one major, major hitch. When we arrived on the table was a announcement that they are having a wine tasting tonight (Thursday). They have brought in this vintner from Uruguay and are pairing the different wines with the most amazing courses. I believe there were 5-6 courses in all, all for $70. Nothing like starting you meal mad! Think it would be too much to go again tonight???? Sigh.

Also Richmonder’s go check them out on Twitter, they are offering an amazing deal. If you have never been it is good incentive!! I swear I don’t work there…but I would if they would feed me J

Stuffed Pattypan Squash

2009-08-28T09:18:00.004-04:00

We grew Pattypan this year (among other things). The little bush squash seriously produce. I had three plants (one was small and to date has still only surrendered 2 squash) and they produced about 3-4 large pattypan a week. We have stuffed them various ways, because they are great stuffing squash, but this was my favorite. In this recipe I did not use the inside of the squash ( I cooked it up for the kids) but you could, just reduce the other ingredients or expect extra filling.

2 pattypan’s tops cut off and insides hollowed out
¼ large onion chopped
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 small clove of garlic finely minced or grated
¼ c. Feta
Fresh basil
1 TBS olive oil.

Turn oven to 350.

Heat oil. Add onions to pan and let cook on low for 5 minutes. Add garlic and let warm for a minute. Add tomatoes and let cook for 5 minutes over medium low. Turn off the heat and add feta. Test seasoning. Add salt or pepper if needed.

I very lightly salt and peppered the squash, but you don’t have to. I really depends on how much salt you like. Me, I keep a salt lick installed to the wall of the kitchen. Fill the squash and put in the oven for about 15 minutes. The cooking time is going to vary greatly depending on the size of the pattypan and how much meat you scooped out. The squash itself should be fork tender but not mushy. Once it is close, to being done add the basil to the top and cook another 5 minutes.

Pesto Deconstructed

2009-08-18T15:00:00.001-04:00

I will say that the measurements in this are approximate. I didn’t measure. I will also say this is one of my favorite dishes of late. Plus it is fast and easy. Score!

½ lb penne
¼ c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic grated
¼ toasted pine nuts
½ c. grated parmesan
Salt and pepper
1/3 c. ribboned or torn basil

Start pasta.

Grate the garlic in a skillet (I use my handy dandy micro-plane, you want it to be a paste for maximum garlic goodness, if you don’t have a micro-plane use more garlic). Put oil in skillet and warm. Meanwhile grate parmesan and add some salt and pepper to the cheese and set aside. One garlic and oil are warm (about a minute to two on medium low) add pine nuts and stir, warm for another minute and turn off.

Once pasta is done, drain, give a little rinse with cold water (but not too much you want the pasta to stay fairly hot for the next step). Put pasta in a bowl and add the basil, oil and cheese, toss and serve. Yummy.

BMTB or a Bacon Caprese Sandwich

2009-08-10T13:39:00.002-04:00

Yard sale is done! Why I continue to torture myself doing these, I am not certain. Life willing, I will get back on track here shortly. However, I could not keep a very recent discovery of mine away from you.

I love a BLT. I mean…LOVE. Like the love of 1,000 sailors after a 6 month cruise. Love. Especially, especially when I have my own tomatoes from my own little garden. What could be better….right??

Well, by god I will tell you. Take that same lovely sandwich, ditch the lettuce, and put fresh mozzarella and some torn up fresh basil into the mix….forgetaboutit! It truly is a sailors delight.

This Simply Will Not Do

2009-07-22T08:03:00.000-04:00

Okay I feel like I am in blog black hole! My current dilemma preventing me from blogging is an ever looming yard sale. The yard sales was necessitated when finally my attic reached maximum capacity and threatened to bring the ceiling down on us!

I am still cooking (of course) but I just haven’t had time to document it at all. Woe to me! I will eventually get back on track…eventually.

So for now the results of the poll. Clearly everyone is looking for simple and fast, because the 5 ingredients recipes won hands down.

Here is my first installment. I do not have a picture, so you will just have to make due with me telling you it is fabulous. It is a couple more than 5 but bare with me, because it is too easy.

In a foil pouch place

1 lb of cut up lamb or chicken (beef does NOT work)
2 cut up tomatoes
1 sliced up onion
8 oz of feta (give or take…I personally like to give)
Juice of one lemon
1 tbs olive oil
Salt/Pepper to taste

Close pouch place in a 350 oven fro 30-35 minutes. Serve over cous cous or rice. It is one of my very favorite meals. Really.

Sandwich Heaven

2009-07-11T14:26:00.004-04:00

Okay, okay up front let me say that this is not turning into a blog about Oprah. I swear it. HOWEVER, Joel got home from work yesterday and I remembered it was Oprah hour and I flip the T.V. on to see if it is worth recording and it is about Sandwiches. Come on! Tell me you wouldn’t be intrigued. It was family time so I didn’t watch the whole thing but did watch about 5 minutes while Joel got the kids shoes on (yeah hubby!). The segment is about a lobster and Havarti grilled sandwich ( I KNOW!). That said, it got me thinking a bit about how havarti is an underrated cheese and I suspect it would make a rocking old sandwich.

So today when we were at the grocery store, I had to get some havarti. As it turns out the deli had a special on Turkey and by shear serendipity I had an avocado about ready to go to its great reward in the fridge…coincidence? I think not!

This is again not really a recipe but here is what I did….

Avocado Mayo

½ avocado
2 tbs mayo
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tbs salsa
Salt and pepper

Mash all together to form a chucky paste, and smear on bread (I just smeared on one piece of bread, but heavily).

On the other piece of bread I laid my turkey out, about 1//8 a pound. I topped the avocado mayo side of with two slices of center cut bacon. I then laid about 4 pieces of havarti on top of the bacon. I threw a little party so that the mayo side and the meat side could meet and then put them in a skillet and grilled it….the result…the best sandwich I have had in ages. Mind you, nothing healthy about it. Also, worth every bite!

Got me thinking to…do you think if you used indirect heat you could grill a sandwich????

Guest Blogging in Tribeca

2009-07-10T10:25:00.003-04:00

So what made Jillian so happy? A new dress? A little caffeine in her milk? Nope, not telling…you need to go over to Tribeca Yummy and find out!!

The Earth, Oprah, and Meat

2009-07-07T09:18:00.002-04:00

Okay I have to admit, I love Oprah. I do. I know, lovely, but what does she have to do with food. I will get there, just give me a moment. I don’t get to watch her that often…kids you know… but I had taped her Earth Day program. Sadly last week I finally got a moment to put in on.

Egad. I will admit fully I am not a crazy environmentalist (not that being an environmentalist is crazy). I would rather categorize myself as a lazy or rather haphazard environmentalist. I don’t’ use any pesticides and only natural fertilizer (worm poo, banana peel). That is more a product of laziness and cheapness than anything. The fact that I also believe it is best for mother earth is a secondary factor. Most of my environmental “choices” are like that.

So then I watch Oprah. Egad. And it brings me to why I love her so much. She has a great ability to shape behavior and she uses it to the best of her ability. I always forget those stupid reusable bags when I go to the store, ALWAYS. Makes me crazy. Since watching her Earth Day show, I have not forgotten, not once. There is now a plastic bag ban in my household. Egad.

She had Michael Pollan on the show. He talked about the carbon footprint of food. Who knew? And then he says something that astounds me. If every family in the U.S. would eat one meatless meal a week….just one, it would be the same as taking 20 million mid sized sedans off of the road. Are you kidding me?

The reality is, for my family that is no big deal we love veggies. What better time of the year to give this a whirl than when everything is fresh and wonderful! Last week, with the exception of two days was all vegetarian. We started the week with grilled eggplant, mushrooms, corn , onions, and some sliced tomatoes. The leftovers of this got chopped and turned into a pasta sauce that was righteous (and the kids loved). Then one day it was corn and sliced tomatoes. Yum.

So, what does this all mean. No, I am not going vegetarian. However, I am encouraging you all to give it a whirl one meal a week. Come on, a little eggplant parm, can’t be so bad! :)

Finally, I have not been great at keeping up with my blog of late, but I am going to try to get two posts in a week. There is a poll to the side, please vote for what content you would most like to see most and I will try and get my rear in gear!

Grilled Peaches in Vanilla Ricotta

2009-06-24T07:58:00.002-04:00

This is another recipe were there is not a lot of recipe. I have to say, this knocked my socks off. I used yellow peaches for this, I don’t think white would work. Just this gals opinion.

I made my own ricotta for this, however, the store stuff will work just as well. For about a cup of ricotta I added 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 tbs of sugar (add more or less depending on how sweet you like things.)

I halved and pitted the peaches. I mixed equal parts honey and balsamic vinegar. I dipped the peaches cut side down in the mixture and then grilled them for about 10 minutes. If you let the peaches set a minute or two they will seep this lovely syrup. Put a little ricotta on the plate, put the peach on top, a dollop more ricotta and a spoonful of syrup…slurp.

Scallop and Sweet Cabbage Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette

2009-06-22T15:22:00.002-04:00

Okay this has flat out turned into a flat out freakish obsession. I haven’t‘ been blogging much recently because I haven’t‘ been cooking much…other than salads. I fear there is danger I might turn into a rabbit. That said, it is that time of year and just like when I get the slightest hint of cool to the air, I whip out the stock pot for soup in summer I have a relentless obsession with salad, this year it is particularly bad.

Likely compounding the issue is that I have been starting to work Hubo‘s office which gets me out of the house for a change of pace and will (once he is done training me) get him more time with the kids, which is a win-win, but is SERIOUSLY cutting into blog time right now! It is also making throwing a quick salad together a necessary evil. Lucky husband is happy and Jillian (the 20 month) old loves her a salad (go figure?). Tristan…well he hasn’t been eating a ton of dinner recently, but he sure is hungry at breakfast!

There isn’t much of a recipe to this, so I will just break down what I did a bit. You can purchase a REALLY good cilantro dressing at Trader Joe’s. However, I just put a about a cup of cilantro, ¼ c. of vinegar and 1/8 c. of oil and slat and pepper and the food processor and processes until smooth.

The salad, put in what you like, peppers, onions, cucumbers. Whatever you love. I thought a little sweet cabbage sautéed would be good. Here is what I did

¼ of large head of cabbage
1 clove of garlic
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs brown sugar

I sliced up about ¼ c. of cabbage and 1 clove of garlic (I sliced the garlic into really thin pieces). Meanwhile heat oil and put garlic in and sauté for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Add cabbage and toss to coat. Sautee for about 3 minutes and add sugar. Cook until just tender but not too soft. Remove and let cool.

The scallops were easy as well. I heated about 1 tbs of sesame and 1 tsp of oil until smoking. Sear the scallops on both sides (about 2 minutes) and remove from heat.

I put the salad in the bowl and created a well and putting the cabbage in the well and the scallops on top. Dress with cilantro dressing (a ginger dressing would be awesome too). Enjoy!!

Beef and Asparagus Rolls

2009-06-15T20:30:00.001-04:00

Okay folks the lackluster name does not do the outcome justice. I was really, really pleased with this. I used a marinade that my mom has used for asparagus for years. Oddly I did not marinate the asparagus in it, just the meat. However, I am sure if you did both in the marinade it would be great. You might find, as I did, most flat iron cuts will be too thick to roll, if so take a knife and cut the piece to have thickness down the length of the meat.

2 lb flat iron steak
2 lb asparagus cleaned and partially cooked

For the Marinade

¾ c. oil
½ c wine vinegar
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp parsley
2 tsp chives
1 tsp salt
2 tsp tarragon
1-2 clove of garlic grated or minced
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients for marinade in a bag and let meat marinate for at least 8 hours.

In salted water cook the asparagus until it is mostly done.

Depending on the size of the asparagus use about 3-6 per bundle. If you need to cut the meat to ½ thickness. Using the bundle to measure the cuts, cut the meat so that there is enough to easily wrap the bundle but with little overhang. Secure with a toothpick.

We did them on the grill. It took about 15 minutes on medium heat, however you need to turn it once so check half way through. Eat and enjoy!

Just a note, if you are note a beef fan, I think this would be great with chicken or pork. I think also I soy, ginger sesame marinade would work great too.

Spaghetti Phooey and Homemade Ricotta

2009-06-09T15:17:00.005-04:00

Okay I took this picture today at lunch. My first thought was, “why, WHY??? Do people see spaghetti as such kid friendly food??” Yes they love it, but man, she had to go for a bath after and I had to scrub her little seat. Phooey I say. However, it reminded me that I still had something to share with you guys.

A while back I made stuffed Flat Iron and I stuffed it with Ricotta I had made. My friend Donna (well, I really don’t know her but I suspect if I did we would be friends) over at http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ asked if I would be sharing how to make the ricotta. It took me a while (far longer than the ricotta will take you, but I am finally getting to it. Besides the joy of doing it yourself the cool part about making ricotta for scratch is that you control the consistency. For the ricotta I stuffed the beef with I let it hang a bit longer so it was very dry. I thought that way, It would be less likely to ooze out of the meat, and I was right. You can also add a sundry of herbs before hanging or some sugar (makes a lovely dessert mixed with berries…yumm). Really the options are limitless.

Note: This recipe came from Ricki Carroll and I got it in a cheese making class I took.

1 gallon milk
1 tsp citric acid (you can get at Compleat Gourmet, and I am sure many other places)
1 tsp salt (I use a little more, but I am a salt freak)

Pour milk into pot (can not be aluminum or cast iron) add citric acid and salt.

Heat the milk to 195 (I used a meat thermometer and it worked great). Stir often.

When curds and whey separate, take off heat and let set 5 minutes. You will know they have separated when the mixture seems a bit chunky and if you take a spoon and very gently stir you can see a separation of white solid (curd) and a yellowish liquid (whey).

Line a colander with cheese clothe or butter muslin and gently ladle the curds into the cloth. I have to say, I very, very slowly poured what was in the pot into the lined colander but you have to be careful and slow so that the mixture is “caught” by the cloth.

Tie the cloth to form a bag and hang and let drain for ½ hour or more depending on how thick you want it.

It will keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks or can be frozen.

Also note, you can save the whey, and use it to soak rice in (and many other things I am sure) and it give the rice a really rich flavor.

Lovely Blog Award

2009-06-08T17:30:00.005-04:00

Muneeba at http://anediblesymphony.blogspot.com/ awarded me with the One Lovely Blog award and I have 10 people to pass it on to! It needs to be new blogs I have found I love. I am going to bypass folks I just awarded something to, however, there are sure some of them I just adore!

Here goes:

Tatersmama of Taters Mama’s Take on Things

Krystal of Recipes of a Cheapskate

Joyce of Just Joyce

Holler of Tinned Tomatoes

Kristen of Whatcha Eating

Claire of Cooking Claire

Lynette of Nets Nook

Chris at Nibble Me This

Carrie at Carrie’s Cooking

Heather at Girlichef

Whew! So please go give these blogs some love!

Kung Pao Salad A La Cinnamon and Spice

2009-06-05T15:00:00.004-04:00

First, Muneeba at http://anediblesymphony.blogspot.com/ awarded me with the One Lovely Blog award. My task it to pass this on to 10 new blogs I have found! So I will be gather my list of folks over the next few days, until then please go to An Edible Symphony and check it out!

Let me start by saying this makes a big salad. It easily serves 4 people very hearty dinner sized salads, VERY easily. You can use whatever veggies or lettuces you want, this is just what I used. Also, if you don’t eat meat I think if you used tofu for this it would be amazing.

The original Kung Pao recipe came from Reni over at Cinnamon and Spice, http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/ . I can’t tell you how much I love this recipe. I have made it about 4 times now. The other night I had everything I needed but the rice….go figure. I did have soba noodles, but that wasn’t quite doing it for me. You guys know I have been on a crazy salad kick… well I thought… why not. It was wonderful. Actually so good the first time I made it we ate it up like little piggies (I had brought ½ over to my folks for dinner…so don‘t judge!) and never got a picture. Sigh…I guess this just meant I had to make it again. Another side, is if you want to cut calories or cut hassle you can bag the soba noodles (they are surprisingly calorie dense). They don’t add a lot, but are good flavor catchers, but not necessary if you are trying to simplify.

Salad
1 zucchini ribboned
2 small carrots ribboned and chopped
1 bunch of green onion
½ bunch cilantro (remove the stems just add leaves)
½ head of broccoli blanched
2 heaping handfuls of spinach chopped
¼ package soba

Boil water and add soba noodles and cook to package directions, drain and let cool. Add all veggies to a bowl and toss.

Chicken
1.5 lb of chicken diced
3/4 cup roasted peanuts
4-6 fine slices ginger, each cut into quarters
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns(I use red pepper flakes)
1 tbs oil

Heat oil add pepper and fry the peppercorns for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken, garlic, ginger, and onion. Stir-fry these to allow the flavor to come out, then add the peanuts. Take of heat and allow to cool.

Once chicken and soba are cool add to salad.

Dressing

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons red rice vinegar
1 table spoon cooking wine

Wisk together and toss with salad. Eat…yummy.

Grilled Salad

2009-06-03T15:45:00.002-04:00

I have been on a salad kick here for a while now. The other day I had some eggplant and zucchini and corn that needed to be used and viola this salad was born. I have to say, it was luscious. The eggplant didn’t add much for me, which was surprising since that is really the veggie that kick started the whole concept for me…but it didn’t hurt wither.

2 ears of corn
2-3 zucchini sliced
1 eggplant thinly sliced
1 lb flat iron steak
Then whatever else you like in your salad we had tomato, onion, cucumber, lettuce

Season everything, I used a grinder mix of garlic, sea salt and red pepper. Grill. Slice your meat thinly, and cut the corn off the ears and assemble your salad. I used a Greek yogurt dressing that could not have gone better with it all (below). We had some grilled flat bread to sop it all up, got to love summer!

Dressing

½ c. Greek yogurt (I use Fage)
Juice of one lemon
1 clove of garlic grated
1 tsp fresh oregano chopped super fine
Salt and Pepper

Mix all and chill

Tagged and Jamming

2009-06-01T16:04:00.011-04:00

Okay two fun things happened the other day. First I was tagged by Tatersmama's Take On Things and asked to post the 6 picture in the 6th folder under my pictures on my computer. Then I was to tell about the picture and tag 6 others to do the same. Ironically my 6th folder was the original picture folder I set up for Mommy Gourmet. Even more interestingly the 6the picture is the first post I did where I took a picture. It was my fourth post but the first where I took a picture.

Sadly ,it was not great culinary feast, veggie pasta salad. Kinda ho-hum. I am going to be equally as uninspired and pass this mission on to my first 6 followers minus who tagged me! So here is who gets tagged my me, go visit their sites!

http://megscreationsinajar.blogspot.com/
http://justsweeterthansugar.blogspot.com/
http://rachelvsthekitchen.blogspot.com/
http://iloveflavourme.blogspot.com/
http://www.theparaplegicchef.com/
http://thehappylittlehome.blogspot.com/

Though not so ho-hum and certainly a much more interesting photo are the one of my jam session the other day with my friend and neighbor from Punch Photo http://blog.punchphoto.com/ . He had been on mission throughout the neighborhood pilfering mulberries.

He asked if I would be up for trying to make some mulberry jam. I am up for most challenges, so I said, “Yessirree!” He came to our place, equipment and berries in hand. I wasn’t sure how good mulberry jam would be. However, the flavor I would tell you is a mix between a grape and a raspberry. It was surprisingly luscious. And I scored a jar in the deal!

So Tristan and I had a decadent afternoon snack… Punch… man I will help you any time!

Almost Heaven…Bistro Twenty Seven…

2009-05-30T16:13:00.003-04:00

So yesterday was a great but jumbled mess. Earlier in the week we had been invited to movie night at a friends house. At the time I was really frustrated about trying to line up a babysitter for a future engagement to seemingly no avail, that I had turned down the invitation simply because I just didn’t have it in me to try and line a sitter up for another outing because it was seemingly an impossible task. Cue hot hubbie...

So, Friday afternoon Joel calls me up and says, “So you feel like a movie tonight?” Thinking he meant a rental I said, “Sure what did you have in mind?” He says, “Whatever they are playing at movie night.” Huh???? So he goes on to say that one of the sitters we called a week ago to try and line up for this engagement in June finally called back (we had since lined someone up). So Joel asks if she is free for that evening and she was. So sweet…such a man….I then had to explain that these people were not planning on us (they were also serving dinner and had other guests attending), and to call the day of to say, “Hey….lucky you… we are coming!” would be rude. Sigh. However, big kiss and bravo for the effort. So then he says, “Well, then would you like to go on a date with me?” Swoon. Really, how could a girl resist? So it was a date. He picked Bistro 27 and I was glad. We had been once before and I adored it so I put back the leftover pizza I was going to eat for lunch (mind you it was 3 in the afternoon...kids…sigh…) and made a small salad to tide me over.

Where to begin. It never ceases to amaze the restaurants that seem to get a ton of hype and play while the ones I find the be the best in town get a nod at best. This is one. So let me lay it out for you…..

Joel calls to make reservations. They guys says to him, “What time?” Joel responds, I am guessing more thinking out loud than anything like he typically does, “I don’t know…7:15, 7:30? We would like to have a drink at the bar and ease into the evening.” They guys puts us down for 7:15. This should have been perfect, the sitter was coming at 6:30 which means we could be there by quarter till 7 and have nice slow drink at the bar. However, it did not happen like that. The babysitter was a little late, our son was being clingy our daughter wouldn’t go to sleep, you know…life was happening. That said we make it to our 7:15 reservation by the skin of our teeth. When we get there and give the host our name he asks if we will be sitting at the bar. I think we look a little confused , and he says, “I thought you were the person that called and wanted to sit at the bar and have a drink and ease into the evening.” Joel said, “I did, however, we are running late. “ He tells us we have time and to go ahead. At that point I was impressed. Impressed he remembered or made note of it. Impressed. I don’t know if he is the manager or the owner, but he clearly is someone who takes great care in making his patrons happy. I don’t expect that level of care, but it certainly impressed me and was nice.

So, we sit our happy behinds at the bar. I have a martini. I love martinis (as many of you know by now) but I hate to order them (as many of you know by now) because everyone puts too much olive juice in. This has lead me to asking flat out for just a tiny bit, and still sometimes all I get is an olive juice spritzer. So now I feel like Meg Ryan from When Harry Met Sally ordering a martini and I hate that. So I ordered it and I am sure the cute little bartender thought I was a pain, but he was super sweet and could not have been more accommodating. I have to say it was the best martini….EVER. Joel turns to me while I moan and says, “Almost as good as mine.” That man does make a mean martini. Sheepishly I had to say, “Better.” I think I hurt him a little. However, his bourbon took the edge off I am sure!

We had our drinks and then were seated. From here I will short hand the evening a bit. The service was great. The host/manager/possible owner (Ken is his name by the way…when you go… and you NEED to go!) checked on us several times. The waitress was stealth, unobtrusive by on top of things. The setting is lovely. I could go on, but you get the idea. We order the Carpaccio di Manzo as an appetizer to split. Joel ordered the Spring Beet Salad and Ravioli di Manzo e Fontina. I ordered the Fillet with Black Truffles. I don’t even know where to began. Really. I have said before that I am not the girl to talk about the notes in the food, at the end of the day, for me it is a simple..good..bad. All I can say is……GOOD. Grunt inducing, lick your plate, smack your husbands hand for trying to snag something, I think I might cry…GOOD. I don’t want to belabor things by breaking down every bite I had. The fillet was huge. It had a beautiful char on the outside but was still blood red on the inside (like I like…grrr.). The truffle was rich, earthy and lovely. The Beet Salad (my husband was nicer than I and shared) was just one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. In fact at some point, I told Joel the salad was… and I am a bit embarrassed to say this… the salad was making love in my mouth. Shut up… you would have to have it… it was THAT good. His ravioli was amazing. I said I wouldn’t belabor this and I am… spot on. That is all I can say… everything was spot on.

Dessert was amazing too. Joel got a Crème Caramel and I had the Monte Rosa Italian Cheesecake. Joel’s dessert was amazing, but let me just tell you about mine for half a second. It was perfection. That is it… all I have to say.

Let me just end this spewing of happiness by talking turkey. Cost. I find Bistro 27 to be a bargain. Their entrees rang from $13-$22 dollars. It seems to me that the going rate at most descent restaurants in Richmond is more like $18-$29, however that $18-$29 doesn’t typically get you the level of service and quality I think Bistro 27 is offering. Just like my husband said when he met me, it is just the whole package.

So Richmonders (or anyone willing to travel)if you have not been…go to Bistro 27 and get some mouth love making food. Now. Your mouth will thank you…sigh..

Flat Iron Steak Meets Homemade Ricotta….Mmmm

2009-05-29T14:15:00.002-04:00

Okay so we took a cheese class at The complete Gourmet. So fun and I found myself shocked…shocked I say at how simple it is. Ricotta could NOT be easier. It is simply milk, heat and some citric acid, strain, viola. I added some chopped parsley and garlic to the ricotta. I filleted the steak, smeared the ricotta mixture, rolled, seasoned (garlic, salt pepper) , threw it in a backing dish, doused with a about ¼ for red wine and baked at 350% for 30 minutes. Yummm, yummy, yummy.

As an added bonus the cheese makes large amounts a whey and whey is great to soak brown (or any type you like) rice in and make a rice salad out of it. It gives it a great richness (I learned this trick from my handy friend Ellie). The rice had chopped onion, squash carrots and fennel top and rice wine vinager to taste. It was out of this world.

So no real recipes, but super easy and good. Expect to see more cheese in the future…now to get some goat milk…

Again, don’t forget to stop by and see the contest winner, Give Recipe http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html . Her blog is incredible!

And the Winner Is….

2009-05-29T07:10:00.001-04:00

Please go by and say congrats to Zerrin at Give Recipe http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html .
She won not only the recipe contest but the contest for the evening folks would most like to join. She has a wonderful blog full of Turkish lovelies. The food is amazing and the pictures are gorgeous!

Thanks for participating to everyone!

Cheese! The Polls End Today!

2009-05-28T15:48:00.003-04:00

Okay, first let me just remind you…the contest ends in like 11 hours (and may I say some smoked loin is at stake folks) so get voting. Go visit these posts and then please come back and vote!

http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html

http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html

http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html.

So coming up soon you will see a piece of flat iron steak that I stuffed with ricotta…that I made. Yep you heard me. Made it! Joel and I took a cheese making class and it was super. We learned out to make a farmers cheese, mozzarella and a ricotta. I was amazed at how easy it can be. Sadly I didn’t need anything to encourage me to eat MORE cheese, but alas… a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

River City Supper Club Strikes Again

2009-05-27T07:35:00.009-04:00

Saturday was another installment of the River City Supper Club and Joel and I hosted. We decided to do Tapas. We lucked out and it was a great evening to eat outdoors which always makes me happy.

Starters

Serrano ham, Rosy Goat, Olives

Dinner

Quince paste crackers with bacon and goat cheese, Paella Croquets, Ceviche, Tuna Empanadas with goat cheese and capers, Stuffed Anaheim’s, Pinchitos Morunos (small spicy Moorish kebabs), Ensaladilla Rusa (Spanish potato salad).

Dessert

Pan de Calatrava

For the most part everything came out well. The nice thing is we were able to make most things either the day before or before everyone got there then put in the oven to keep warm. This allowed us to actually enjoy our guests. Sadly, neither I nor Joel thought to cover the Kebabs and since they were the last course, they were a bit dried out by then. The flavor was still okay… but a little more jerky that succulent! Oh well, a lessoned learned.

It was another evening with lost time. We had messy kitchen as clear evidence that a good time was had by all. Oddly I love a messy kitchen at the end of a great evening… it gives me time to clean it and digest the evening. Saturday, however it was about 1 a.m. and the kids would be up in 5 hours...so you think we cleaned it up before bed??

Nahhh, this would wait until morning. There would be plenty of time to relive the evning tomorrow!

Please remember to vote! Voting ends Friday!

http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html

http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html

http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html.

http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html

http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html.

Apologies Poll's Are Up!

2009-05-26T08:57:00.002-04:00

First, the poll is up so please go to the following blogs and then come back and vote for your favorite dish and also for the evening you most would have liked to have been a part of.

http://www.giverecipe.com/summer-dream.html

http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html

http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html.

Also, I want to let everyone know I am either having problems with my site or with my computer. I keep getting a run error and the page will shut down. It has made posting really hard and visiting other blogger sites (issue is only in blogger)very hard. So that said, can you please e-mail me and let me know if you are having an issue with blogger or my site to help me pinpoint the issue!!

Contest Ends Tomorrow

2009-05-24T18:39:00.003-04:00

Just a reminder that you have to get your entry to me by midnight tomorrow. I will put up the poll for voting after that! For more information see this post http://mommygourmet.blogspot.com/2009/04/contests-and-sage-butter-agnolotti.html

Right now there is just two entry's so come on guys!!!!

Trader Joes Pizza Dough

2009-05-20T14:25:00.003-04:00

Okay I have been reading and here about this pre-prepared pizza dough for a while now and I was at Trader Joes the other day and decided to get some. I am going to try it again, but at first blush I didn’t love it. I like mine better. The big problem I had is I cooked it far longer then the recipe called for (and for as long as my toppings could hold out) but it was still doughy especially in the middle, and that was flat out soggy (if you look at the picture close enough you can see how it feel apart when I took it off the pizza stone). However, you can’t beat the ease and the flavor was fine. I think next time I will just put the sauce on, bake a bit then add toppings and continue…. We will see.

I am not giving you a recipe for this because… well it was a pizza. The sauce was a cilantro pesto (just make your regular pesto recipe but use cilantro. Also I sometimes substitute almonds for the pine nuts or walnuts but any are fine), then I added onion, shrimp and some fresh basil and of course cheese!! I think next time I would skip the basil (not bad, didn’t add anything since the cilantro took center stage) but add feta…yummy.

Remember 5 more days until you have to have your entry's to me for the contest!! Go over and see Chef E's and Kristen's post. Chef E http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html and Kristen http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html.

Peach Martini Comeback

2009-05-17T22:56:00.006-04:00

My peach martini (actually my Dad’s) got selected by the Lisa over at the Lunch Box Project. The above artwork is her take on my martini. If you don’t know what that is, go check out her cool blog at http://lunchboxproject.blogspot.comIt is such a cool and unique food blog and I am psyched my little martini made its way on it.

To add to the greatness of this, she is offering the chance for my readers to buy it at a reduced price (just $45) for the next two months. If you are interested go to her site and let her know, heck just go to her site at http://lunchboxproject.blogspot.com or you can contact her directly at (lisaorgler@huxcomm.net). Her artwork is AMAZING and I feel so lucky she let me be a part of it all.

The contest is just starting to heat up! We have our first two entry’s. The first is from Chef E http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/05/f-f-f-and-f-f.html and the next from Kristen http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/05/thai-inspired-dinner-with-good-friend.html. You have to go check them out, not only did they make the best dishes they had the best time, and lets face it that is what it was about! So go check them out and remember you have until the 25th and then the polls go up!

Chicken Pita and Cilantro Corn

2009-05-16T09:53:00.005-04:00

I have to say upfront, this corn is NOT my idea. Some time back I was watching some cooking show and the guy made this crazy good looking corn. I can not remember who the chef was (it WAS quite a while ago), but I am thinking maybe Bobby Flay. The chef did some other things, like squeezing lime on top and sprinkling with chili powder. I however keep it far more simple. Well simple comparatively, really butter and salt is simple. Was it worth the extra effort. For sure! It was good. I wouldn’t do it every time, but I WILL do it again.

The pita is nothing really to write home about. It was great, it is just not too hard to figure out. We grilled the chicken (and the corn) and put it in a Mediterranean style pita (much thinner pita than what we typically have around here). Then tomatoes and onion, some salsa. The only thing a bit different is I put the leftover cilantro “spread” in the guacamole. SO GOOD!!

So lets get to it.

Cilantro Sauce/Spread

In a food processor processes

1 cleaned bunch of cilantro
¼ c. sour cream or Greek yogurt
½ lemon squeezed
Salt and pepper

Prepare your corn. We grilled if you boil, dry well. Slather with spread, then grate parm on it. Grate some fresh pepper. Eat…yummy…

Shoot Out Friday

2009-05-15T14:04:00.019-04:00

Okay this is not my typical post. I am going to very, very loosely tie this back to food. Chef E at Chef E had a Friday Shoot Out. Many may know her from her food blog but his is yet another endeavor of that amazing women. I thought it would be fun to try. This weeks theme was Gardens and Transportation.

I thought I would tell you a bit about my house and yard. Our house was built somewhere around 1915 (records vary on it). Our house had at some point fallen into a bit of neglect, as many homes in the city had. Lucky for us our house was bought and renovated entirely by the gal before us. God love that women. That said, the one area that was neglected when we purchased it was the yard. So I got to work… and it got out of hand. We have a huge yard (by city standards, about 1/3 and acre) and I just kept going. This year I decided, however as opposed to planning annual in the bare spots in the yard, I was filling it with veggies, and herbs. So in the flower beds went tomatoes, and around the bamboo steaks for the tomatoes went green beans, and in the beds went lettuce, and swiss chard, and eggplant, and butternut squash and cantaloupe, and so on.

So this year I am making my yard work a bit harder for me. And if all my veggies come in… you might just see me off loading some at the Westover Hills farmers market. Sadly I doubt Tristan's tricycle coudl get them all to market.

This are of the yard is new. In the next several years as the tree mature, this should close off this area of the yard from neighbors, foot traffic and the other areas of the yard, creating a private room. The trees got whomped by our one and only snow. We have got around to staking a couple but more to go. Right now they look all wonky.

Same area of the yard looking towards the house.

Different flowers in these beds.

These peonies were dug up from my grandfathers yard in NJ, he passed a start to my mom, she passed it to me and I will pass it on the my babies. It amazes me sometimes, the threads we keep.

My favorite place on my front porch to sit and talk to my great neighbor. Lucky for me it is right near the Jasmine, that smells so good!

Now go and visit some other ‘Friday Shoot Out’ Possee:

Reggie @ Midlife and Menopause
Patty @ Crisfield News
Chef E

Contest and One Great Evening

2009-05-15T09:11:00.007-04:00

Okay guys it is 10 days until the deadline for the contest and it is time to announce the prize. I will be sending you a selection of my two favorites things from Bende. This includes Tarhonya Egg Noodles (this are dense little noodles similar to spaetzle, but packed with fiber surprisingly?), and smoked boneless pork loin (this is great for cooking with to add flavor as it is super smoky or for slicing super thin and serving with cheese). If anyone that enters is a vegetarian, let me know and I can come up with an alternative for you. So remember to get entry in to me in the next 10 days. For more details http://mommygourmet.blogspot.com/2009/04/contests-and-sage-butter-agnolotti.html

***UPDATE** I forgot about the secondary contest, as to the evening someone would most like to be a part of. Whoever wins that will receive a collection of recipe cards from me, containing my favorite recipes (some not on the blog).

So in keeping with the theme of the contest Joel and I decided to do little entertaining ourselves. There is a couple whom we really enjoy spending time with. Sadly, to this point, we had not had them to our house for drinks/food. I decided it was time to put and end to that and invited them on over. As is a bit typical of me, I went a bit overboard with the food. I will see something and think, “Oh that will be perfect.” or “I think they would really enjoy that.” Before I know I have enough to feed army.

So here was the spread…..

We had St. Andre and this wonderful truffle pate that I got at Trader Joes (God I love that place). Got to love the pipe coming up from the coutner. Ahh the joy of near 100 year old houses!!

These are dates stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon. I should have used a toothpick to secure the bacon (this was thicker bacon that I useally use so didn’t stay in place as well.) We also had some kielbasa from Fresh Market that I coated in honey and stone ground mustered and broiled. Just an aside the kielbasa was okay but looked and tasted like knockwurst to me?

We enjoyed a plate of Humbolt Fog (a personal favorite) and aged gruyere, with a rosemary ham (also from Trader Joes.)

We had wine and vodka gimlets and a wonderful time. After seeing them off we were shocked to see it was 12:30!! It had been such a perfect evening I thought it was more like 10:00 when we came in and could not believe my eyes to see I lost 2.5 hours. But… what a great way to loose them!!!

Radish Salad

2009-05-13T08:08:00.002-04:00

First, thank you to everyone that commiserated with me over the less than stellar birthday dinner. It however, did not ruin my birthday (after all I had a couple drinks on what ended up being an empty stomach… how bad can a girl feel after that?).

I saw some radishes at the market the other day and they just looked so pretty and that is where this was born. It is really fresh and despite the mayo really light.

5-6 large radishes
1 medium yellow squash
½ small jicama
½ green pepper
½ c Lettuce mix chopped
Fennel top
2 tbs mayo
Juice of ½ large lemon
Salt, pepper

Chop first 4 ingredients finely. ( I will note, what would have been really good in this were some spicy micro greens that friends of ours sell at the farmers market, that said, I just used a nice lettuce mix that had beet greens and such in there. ) I chopped the lettuce very “loosely” you could forgo the chopping, it really is up to you.

Here is another note. The night I made this salad we were also having fennel for dinner. I chopped some of the fennel green and put it in the salad. I put in about 2 chopped tablespoons. I don’t know that it made a difference. Next time I would try more. I also think dill or as my husband suggested fresh mint would be outstanding.

Finally toss with mayo and lemon and salt and pepper. If you feel particularly inspired grate some fresh lemon peel on it, one or two stokes should do.

64 Reasons to Skip Kitchen 64

2009-05-12T14:47:00.005-04:00

Okay, okay, so 64 reasons is a slight exaggeration. Slight. But the way I see it I have quite a few. Let me however, start at the beginning.

Saturday last minute we decided to go out to dinner for my birthday (read that as a perplexed husband looking at me saying, “Oh, so you want to DO something for your birthday?” Uhhh… yeah..something like that.) And as is our typical dilemma we wanted to eat outside but were not sure where to go. This leads me to a side note, since this is a constant issue for us, I have considered starting a blog specifically dedicated to outdoor dinning in Richmond. Other then Legends, which has terrible food (but great beer) and Havana 59, I am always at a loss for where to go. So if anyone has suggestions, let me know! I digress, so I began to search for places and after a while we settled on Kitchen 64. I had read several good reviews on Richmond Good Life and the menu looked great. I did have one fellow food blogger tell me he thought it was “over rated.” We decided overrated is okay, so long as it isn’t bad.

We arrived at 6:45 and as expected, it was packed. We waited at the bar to be seated and it was about a 20 minute wait, which I didn’t think was terrible considering how packed they were. It wasn’t quite what I wanted when I want outdoor dinning. The outdoor section is under a huge canopy, and they have removable plastic “walls.“ I realize the canopy allows them to seat outside in the rain, however, it also holds in all the noise and blocks out all the air, so I ended up feeling like I was indoors, just close to a window. So first note to myself, “This is not a place to come to when I feel like being outside. “

We ordered mussels as an appetizer. Joel ordered a Gus burger ( a burger with a fried egg on it) medium rare. I originally ordered crab cakes, but when I heard the waitress tell the table next to us that they had a special of soft shell crab (she had neglected to give us the specials) I asked if I could switch. The mussels came out and it was a huge bowl. I was excited to dig in. however, the first mussle tasted really funny. Joel said the same of his. Then I got a terrible smell. I said, “Joel these are spoiled.” My dear husband ate another. He said he thought it was okay. He did not say it with confidence. I picked up another and smelled it and just about gagged. We waited about 10 minutes to tell the waitress (though the waitress came to the tables on either side of us and we tried to flag her both times) finally the smell was so bad, Joel just took them to the bar and got them away from us. The waitress finally came over but didn’t say anything (just a note: later she did say, she checked and the mussels had come in that day, so they were sure why they were spoiled?) .

Then our entrées came. Joel’s burger, was very, very well done. Otherwise he said it was good, but he was only able to finish ¾ of it because it just started to get too dry too eat. The fries were really good. My soft shell crab. What to say?? First the sauce was terrible. It was sour, with no balance. It was bitter. It just wasn’t good. It was a white wine, caper sauce, I don’t know how you mess that up, but it was bad. However, that I could have lived with. I just fished my crab out and went to savor its succulent little self. However, my soft shell crab…. was not soft. It wasn’t soft-ish. It was not chewable. Literally.

There are just certain things I find unforgivable with a restaurant. I will forgive not loving how you prepared the food. Everything else being okay, I might come back and try another dish. I can forgive a not great server, if I think they were an exception and not a rule at a restaurant. I will forgive the noisy din that makes conversation hard, I just might not come back for a romantic date, but rather a girls night out. However, I absolutely, unequivocally draw the line at being served food that has spoiled. There are several things about the mussels that bother me. First, the chef or the server should have been able to tell they smelled off and not served them. I know seafood can spoil quickly, but I expect a restaurant to be using such fresh ingredients and handling it with such integrity that I should never have to worry about getting sick form what they feed me. I just think it is negligent, and shows a lack of quality or concern for their patronage. My thought is if you don’t care about serving safe food, you don’t care about my money. The soft shell crab I am not sure how I feel. I couldn’t tell you how to pick a good soft shell over one that is a bit too old to be considered “soft”. I just always ask my local fish monger if they are good. They have always been very honest with me. Maybe this restaurant has a bad monger. Maybe they just don’t care. After the total experience, I suspect the latter. The reality is they are packed (though for the life of me, I don’t know why???) and making money hand over fist, so what do they care.

So was there any positive? Yes, their drinks were very reasonably priced and large servings, which frankly was very well needed because it was the only caloric intake I was getting that evening. Also the waitress did not charge us for either the mussels or the soft shell crabs. So, I guess that was good????

If you live on that area of town, go to Taste buds, go to Dots, skip Kitchen 64. If you don’t live on that side of town, don’t make the trip.

Happy Mother’s Day Bagels

2009-05-09T14:00:00.006-04:00

Joel ordered some pictures for me for mothers day. I had totally forgot about this day a while back when I made my own bagels. I have to say they were really easy and so very good. I did nothing fancy, but next time I am going to break bad. The kids could not get enough of them.

I love these pictures because we are playing around and having fun. Joel had had them out in their little pool while I made the bagels. They came in naked and hungry. Both crawled up into my lap to get closer to the bagels and thief one. I had to punish them with tickles and kisses. Something I don’t feel I get to do near enough for them.

So here is wishing you yummy bagels and lots of laughs on mothers day.

Oh and if you want to make some bagels this is the recipe I used http://www.melindalee.com/recipearchive.html?action=124&item_id=423

Seven Radom Things

2009-05-07T19:51:00.002-04:00

Kristen over at Whatcha-Eatin http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/ awarded me with the Preemio Blogger Award. Sadly she didn't know what she was getting herself into. With this award I am supposed to share 7 random thing about myself you might not already know.

1) I greatly fear you will find my answers boring
2) I got my degree in social work, because I wanted to save the world (not always so sure now... kidding...sort of??)
3) I was born in Ankara, Turkey
4) I STILL don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I still believe it will be something cool??
5) I feel younger than I am… by quite a bit.
6) My birthday falls on mothers day this year.
7) I am slightly obsessed with my children’s tushies.

So, my job is to pass this on to some folks. This was so hard because every one of you that I would love to know more about (I am nosy by nature… hey wasn‘t that a 80's song?). Sigh. However I am going to keep it to just 5 of you. Egad.

Tribeca Yummy Mummy. http://tribecayummymummy-cate.blogspot.com/
Holler at Tinned Tomatoes http://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/.
Jamie and Jen over ate Jamie and Jen Dish http://jjdishitout.blogspot.com/.
Donna at My Tasty Treasures http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/
Zerrin at Give Recipe http://www.giverecipe.com/

Also, don't forget about the contest. You can send your entries whenever, but they ahve to be in by midnight on the 25th of May. See this post for details http://mommygourmet.blogspot.com/2009/04/contests-and-sage-butter-agnolotti.html

Fun with Butter

2009-05-05T11:24:00.001-04:00

I made this a while back so I don’t remember all the details, however, I do remember it all started with leftover cream. I had bought some cream to use form some dish (that is a lost detail, now) and had about half the container left. What is a girl to do? Make butter! Okay, honestly most folks would not typically come to that conclusion, but I heard it was really easy and I was curious. I used my bread machine but as I understand you can use a blender too. My bread machine has a butter setting (how useful huh!). So in with the cream, some salt, a pinch of pepper and some porcini oil and a pinch of tarragon and out came butter. It was pretty wild.

So I seared some salmon, and slapped some butter on top. It was really good. Oh, and just as a side note, the beer in the background was righteous as well.

Kung Pao

2009-04-30T21:03:00.003-04:00

I don’t know what else to say about this other than, really folks you have to try it. It was so good, I had to beg my husband to leave me just a cups worth to have for lunch the next day. He did. I ate it for breakfast. I swear I couldn’t wait for lunch!!

I stole this from Cinnamon and Spice, you really MUST go see her http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/

I had been dying to make this recipe for weeks and kept forgetting to get certain things I needed. I finally got most of it and decided to make do with what I had on hand. That said, I used about ¾ of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes instead of the chilis and Sichuan. For me, my dish was great, but could have had more heat, so do what you want. Also I used regular onion, 1 bell pepper and 2 medium carrots diced. I just wanted some more veggies. Since I had more volume I doubled the sauce. I think however you could use a banana peel and this would still be amazing (yes it really was that good, don‘t know why, just good). So give it a try.

http://cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.blogspot.com/2009/04/spicy-chicken-with-peanuts-or-kung-pao.html

Kung Pao Chicken
Spicy Chicken with peanuts
Gong bao ju ding
(adapted from Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories by Lorraine Clissold
page 109)

For the chicken
2 cups chicken breast
3/4 cup roasted peanuts
2 teaspoon beaten egg or egg white
3 teaspoon corn flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon white wine

Supporting vegetables
1 tablespoon spring/green onion(we added extra), cut in 1/2 pieces
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
4-6 fine slices ginger, each cut into quarters
3-6 dried red chilies, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns(we used black)

For the sauce mix
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoon red rice vinegar
1 teaspoon cooking wine
1-2 tablespoon of a 1-2 cornflour and water mix(we used cornstarch)
1-2 tablespoon additional water
salt to taste
1 and 1/2 tablespoon oil

Brown rice, for serving over

Cube the chicken breast in small pieces a little bigger than the peanuts. Sprinkle them with
salt and wine and mix well with egg/egg white and cornflour. Make sure they are coated but not
sloppy.

Mix together the sauce ingredients.

To cook, heat the wok to a high heat, add the oil, swirl around, and fry the chilies and peppercorns
for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken, garlic, ginger, and onion.
Stir-fry these to allow the flavor to come out, then add the peanuts.

Add the liquid ingredients (stirring first to dissolve the cornflour) and allow it to come to the boil stirring
gently. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes, to thicken, and then add additional liquid until the sauce
reaches the desired consistency. Add extra salt to taste, mix well, remove from heat, and serve over rice
if desired.

Contests and Sage Butter Agnolotti

2009-04-27T16:19:00.002-04:00

So let me start with the food. As part of being a featured publisher with Foodbuzz, periodically they send us stuff to try. This time it was a package of Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti. I wanted to keep the “sauce” simple so I could actually taste the pasta, and I am glad I did. It was wonderful but a bit delicate and I think its wonderfulness would get lost in a heavy sauce. Just this girls opinion.

2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
4 torn sage leaves
½ clove garlic grated
Parmesan
1 package of Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

Put butter an olive oil in a pan. Once your butter begins to bubble add garlic and sage leaves and take off heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Toss with Agnolotti and parmesan.

So on to the contest. Luckily, a ton of you are interested. For this I am grateful and excited.

I try not to share too much on the blog. Mostly because you are here for the food, not antidotes of my sons current inch worm obsession or my little girls cute bottom. However, this is one that is shaping the contest so bare with me.

We all have them, friends we adore but just don’t see enough. Friends that we roar with when we see each other and we just think the world of. Life happens though. It does, for better or worse… it does. Joel and I have a ton of friends we think of all the time but, sadly do not call nearly enough to come over for drinks or dinner.

This new year I vowed to have one particular couple we are friends with over more. That was my one and only New Year resolution. So not wasting any time Joel and I started planning a dinner party mid-January. Ironically said couple called the very night we were planning to call to extend our invitation. Sadly it was to let us know that one had just been diagnosed with cancer. I just found out today, they have about a week left to live. We never had the dinner party.

Life happens.

So my caveat to this contest is send me your entries, send me your pictures, however, I want you to call a friend and have them over to enjoy your delicious creations. After all isn’t that what makes food so great, the sharing of it? So get on the phone and call someone you love (or at least someone you like a little). The deadline for your entry is May 25th to give everyone time.

The recipe can be anything from a drink to an appetizer, entrée to dessert. I want at least one picture. I would love a picture of you enjoying said recipe with your friend/ person you at least like a little, but that is not necessary. What is necessary is tell us about your evening. Don’t just submit a recipe, submit a post about how the evening went. I am going to have folks vote for their favorite recipe and for the evening they would have most liked to have joined in on.

Happy Anniversary

2009-04-25T19:14:00.004-04:00

Sadly I had planned a week of bells and whistles for the week of my anniversary and alas, it did not happen. Today it has been one year. Blogging has been a life line for me into grown up land, on days I felt like I might loose my mind in kid land. So thanks for all the support.

What I was thinking about was doing is a contest. Everyone enters their favorite summertime recipe and whoever gets the most votes wins….something (really haven’t gotten that far, but have some ideas). So anyone that is interested, let me know by commenting in this post and I will be contacting you with the details.

Also, over the next week all my followers (and anyone who joins this week) will be entered to win a prize (that I will announce as soon as I get my ducks in a row and figure out what it is!!)

Thanks for making this such a great year and helping me retain my sanity.

Love,

Vanessa

A.K.A Mommy Gourmet

Just Kebabing Along

2009-04-23T15:39:00.003-04:00

There is not a lot of recipe in this, but I will do my best. I love spring. I do! However, this spring has been an odd one here. It gets warm, I get all excited with thoughts of fresh tomatoes, and lettuce, and squash, all from my very own yard. I just can’t tell you, it makes me so happy. Then, low and behold it gets cold again. Grrrr. This is not too atypical of Virginia weather, however it has been going on for about 6-8 weeks and typically by now it is warm and has been for quite a while.

Warm weather also means patio and dinning outdoors…and of course the grill (yippee!). There are so many things I look forward to on the grill and shish kebabs is definitely one. I made this with chicken because it is what I had. The reality is, you could use whatever, just veggies, fruit, really anything, so I am just going to give the marinade recipe and you figure out what to marinade!

1 large container of Greek yogurt.
2 cloves of garlic minced or grated
¼ c. lemon juice
3 tbs Penzeys Italian dressing base (if you don’t have this use 3 tbs of any dry seasoning Italian)

Mix in a bowl, put in meat and/or veggies and let sit 2-4 hours. Grill.

Just a note, I have not tried this, but I think mango, and pineapple in Greek yogurt and honey (maybe a touch of fresh mint?) then grilled would make an awesome dessert. Maybe some fresh soft goat cheese to serve with it???? Just an idea.

We had some non traditional tabouli, another summer favorite. As we can’t get good tomatoes yet, I used some red pepper. Also, I had a huge basil plant I had to use, so I used basil instead of parsley. It was good, but I missed the tomatoes!!

Luckily we got to enjoy it all on our patio with some wine, so all was not lost…and we will have tomatoes soon enough!!

Salmon with a Dijon Cream Sauce

2009-04-21T20:03:00.001-04:00

I tell you sometimes, sometimes my mind scares me. I totally forgot to take a picture of this. After Joel took some leftovers to work, thereby vanquishing any evidence of this dish, I thought, well hell, I forgot to take a picture. What is wrong with me?? Anyway, our trip to Erie is the inspiration for, this and I have to say, this was really, really good.

½ lb pasta
2tbs butter
½ small onion chopped
½ c. wine
½ tbs flour
½ c half and half
1/3 c milk
2 tbs Dijon
1 tsp dill
½ lb salmon
½ lb shrimp

Heat butter and wilt onion. Add flour and stir to form paste. Add wine and let cook until reduced by ¾ about. Add flour and stir to form paste. Add half and half and milk, Dijon and shrimp and salmon. Cook until thickened and fish/shrimp done. Add dill and stir to incorporate. Toss with pasta.

Peach Martini

2009-04-16T19:06:00.001-04:00

Okay, I am off yet again tomorrow. We have waited all week to see if the weather would cooperate and luckily it is. So with the good weather ahead we are off to our place in West Virginia. As some of you might recall this brings with it pork tenderloin biscuits (and typically and added 2 pounds on me that I have to address…ahh life is not fair). So I will leave you with a recipe for on of the beverages I will be enjoying whilst away. This is my fathers creation and I have to say quite lovely.

3 parts peach nectar
2 parts peach flavored vodka
½ part roses lime juice

Put in a cocktail shaker with some ice, shake and strain (or if you prefer serve over ice).

The Mourning of Pufferbelly and Wegmans

2009-04-14T19:43:00.002-04:00

Joel and I get into Erie the next day and I was shocked. Erie was nothing like I expected. Do not ask me why, but I was expecting Erie to be a small town. It is not. Erie seemed like an odd mix of Long Island, Philidelphia, and Hinton, West Virginia all rolled into one. It really was not what I expected. Again, we asked our hotel for a recommendation on dinner and we were told, hands down, the Pufferbelly was the place to go.

The Pufferbelly is where the original fire station for Erie was located. It is a neat building and quite beautiful. We had called ahead and they were all booked but the lady had told us we could still come and if no table was available we could sit at the bar and eat. That worked for us, so we went. We get there and belly up to the bar, the bartender/waitress came over and we asked if we could get a menu , she told us a table was about to open up. She said if we wanted to get a drink at the bar she could seat us in a second. Outstanding! We ordered our drink and before we even got it she had us seated.

I had a martini, slightly dirty and a Joel had a Makers Mark and Coke. I am usually hesitant to order a martini out anymore. Typically if I say dirty, slightly dirty, barely dirty, (Donna, I swear stop it!) I get a drink that has as much olive juice as gin and I find it undrinkable. Considering in Richmond a martini will set you back anywhere from $10 to (as I found out at Can Can…grrr) $19 it is a bit too expensive for me to experiment. However, I really just wanted a martini and decided to take the plunge. It was the best martini I have ever had that my husband did not make for me. Whoohoo! We were off to a good start.

Joel and I order the muscles in a garlic wine sauce for a starter. I order the Dijon pork chops and Joel ordered a pasta with chicken in a sauce of fresh tomato and bacon. We get the muscles and there had to be 50, it was a huge serving. They were wonderful. Joel loved his pasta, which was full of a basil (yumm, and just a side note under $9) and I got two huge pork chops that were wonderful(and the best mashed potatoes).

To make the experience all the better we had the best server. Mary Ellen. She was outstanding, warm and funny and helpful. I was not surprised to find out that her and her husband owned the restaurant. Then before we left she gave us a list of other restaurants she recommended that we should try the next day. Sadly non of her recommendations were open the next day (it was a Monday).

So what do you think 4 top shelf drinks, one appetizer of mussels, one pasta entrée and one pork entrée plus a take home dessert, a beautiful setting and an outstanding server set us back? Under $65.
I really wish we had a place like Pufferbelly here. A place that I would tell offered dressy casual dinning, outstanding food, at a very affordable price. Sigh. So if you are ever in the area, go visit

http://www.thepufferbelly.com/

So the other thing about Erie that leaves me feeling want is their grocery store, Wegmans. If you have a Wegmans near you, kiss someone, because it is the store I dream of. I get that very few people while on their first multi-day vacation in over 5 years would not think to peruse the local grocery store, but what can I say, that stuff kind of geeks me. When I walked into Wegmans I wanted to cry. It was like, I suspect many folks feel upon walking into the Louvre. I only saw about 15% of the store (it was HUGE) but this is what I noted. Their produce, was beautiful and inexpensive. Their organic prices were less then Krogers regular prices. They had a gynormous deli counter where you could bring a filet of fish and have it prepared to your specifications (are you kidding me??). They had fresh handmade sausages, even hot dogs. Their cheese… ohh , their cheese, they had an entire cold case that was just Blue cheese, an entire cold case that was just Spanish cheese… etc. etc. Their meats, their BUTCHER meat was cheap. Their pork tenderloins were $1.39 a pound, and fresh and gorgeous. Their freshly cut standing rib roast….$5.99/lb. What on earth?? People of Richmond, we are being robbed by our grocery stores. This store, in my opinion handily put Whole Paycheck to shame yet was priced less than Food Dog. WHAT ON EARTH. I feel like I uncovered a whole food conspiracy. The conspiracy to sell me inferior food for exorbitant prices.

Sadly I don’t think there is much I can do about it, except covet what Erie has… sigh. I feel a road trip coming on again.

Easter

2009-04-13T19:54:00.009-04:00

Apparently no sleep and me don’t mix. Much to my chagrin I have had some serious sleep issues. Sadly for me, no sleep for almost a week now, has made me pretty non-functional. Plthh. I am still working on the Pufferbelly and the rest of Erie post and with some luck I will have it out tomorrow. Until then… a bit O’ Easter for you.

Not much in the way of cooking for Easter. We had a huge breakfast with my sticky buns…which rocked, so we ended up skipping dinner. I know it is terrible, but honestly we gave the kids some fruit and veggies we had a couple crackers and cheese and everyone was happy. Maybe I should have a huge breakfast everyday…hmmmm..

A Quick Down and Dirty Post

2009-04-08T15:12:00.002-04:00

I swear Donna, that is not what this is about. In the vein of supporting my fellow bloggers I am asking you to go support Chef E. I know most of you reading this post love her and her blog, and if you didn’t know she entered this post http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-farro-away-but-as-close-as-peep-flys.html in a contest over at Savor the Thyme ( I love the name, I do, I do) http://savorthethyme.blogspot.com/2009/04/peep-peep-contestants-are-ready.html . So go give her some bloggie love and a vote. You KNOW she would do it for you.

Oh and what the heck, in the interst of self promotion, if you are a member of foodie blogroll and would like to vote for my entry in the joust this month Creamy Asparagus Cavatappi that would be kinda cool too http://www.leftoverqueen.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=7a56462f9060c567e638f55d8046c756&topic=1262.0

The Road to Erie

2009-04-06T21:28:00.002-04:00

Okay, okay, okay. Look I lied, I admit it. I told you I was throwing the burger recipe at you and was going to get right back to the business of blogging. Then what do I do… I took 3 days off. HOWEVER, I have a really, really good excuse. It was spectacular here this weekend. I love to garden. In fact, as opposed to a cooking blog I almost started a gardening blog. Somehow, I felt like my advice of stick it in the ground, throw some worm poop on it (yep you heard right, worm poop, really …who knew they pooped?) AND if you remember to water, and if it lives, score one for Darwin, would not make for the best blog. So I spent every second of this fine, fine weekend elbow deep in earth or on my patio with a brew in hand. I did however plant a ton of veggies that will provide, god willing, fodder for future blogs, so hopefully you aren’t to mad at my fib.

So back to my trip. It really was not anything sexy. As you know Joel started his own insurance agency. The primary company he represents is Erie. One of the things Erie does for their new agents is bring you out to their headquarters to meet your underwriters and to see their operations. So Mommy decided to tag along. Really 4 days, sans kids… you could be going to Buffalo… in winter, and this girl would be all about the trip.

We decided to take our time going up there (can’t imagine why? Did I mention, four days, no kids?) We stopped in Somerset, PA which is about 4 hours from Richmond. I have never quite been in a town like Somerset, it was truck stop town. So when we got there I was a bit depressed, thinking we would not get a decent meal (well there was a Ruby Tuesday, and I do like their salad bar ??). So we asked at the front desk and decided to take their advice. They sent us to the Pine Grill. Based on the description you would expect haute cuisine in the middle of commercial USA. We walk in and it is…mmm… well it had industrial tile throughout the whole restaurant, and paper napkins?? I bravely got a filet with boursin and brie and puff pastry, my husband got a rib eye. I asked for it medium rare, as did Joel. I won. My dish was just amazing. I mean really, the steak was cooked perfect, it was the right amount of cheese, it was seasoned well. I loved it. My veggies made me sad. They were raw. Not undercooked, raw. I think they might have forgot to put them on. It was a nice mix, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and green pepper, just raw and raw didn‘t go with the meal. Joel’s steak was okay, thin but big and more like medium well, but okay. Here is the kicker though….we had 2 steak dinners, one okay, one outstanding (oh, I forgot to tell you they grill all their meat), we both got two extra sides, we had 4 glasses of wine…and the bill, was under $50. No I am not joking. No really. Pick your mouth up. This town was looking up.

The next morning before hitting the road we stopped a at cute little dinner, The Summit Dinner. I got nothing special eggs, sausage and hash browns. Joel got, 2 eggs, pancakes and bacon. I would like to disclaim this next bit by saying we don’t eat a big breakfast at our house often. We are fruit, or some kashi, or an egg white omelet sort of family. Maybe, maybe three times year we go all out for breakfast or have a big breakfast and one of those is Christmas. This was hands down the best breakfast I have ever had. (just for those folks in Richmond, the previous title holder of that had been the Paradise Café, and they still rock). I don’t know why, the eggs tasted so fresh and rich, (sunny side up) it was odd. Other than Ireland I haven’t had eggs that stood out like this. The sausage was, out of this world (turns out, after inquiring, they have an in house butcher that makes it daily for them) and the pancakes (which I scored off my husbands plate) were the best I have ever had (Paradise is runner up on this), but that could be because they use real maple syrup which I am a sucker for. I did not love the coffee. It was weak, but it often is to me. I am a big hearty cup o’ Joe sort of gal. Again, 4 eggs, 4 slices of rye, 4 pancakes, 4 slices of bacon and surely a ¼ lb of sausage, hash browns, coffee, and honest to god, real maple syrup, set us back $10 bucks plus tip. I swear, I am starting to love this town.

Next we head to Erie and Pufferbelly… Pufferbelly you say. Pufferbellly. But more on that later. It is dinner time.

Chili Burger

2009-04-02T19:36:00.004-04:00

Okay, so apparently the little guys actually missed me and I have spent more time holding and loving today than I thought (tough huh:) ) so I am going to throw a quick recipe out today and I will try to get all the details of my trip sorted out for you tomorrow.

We had the grandparents come and stay with the kids. I wanted to leave them lots to eat so they didn’t have to worry about anything since they were doing us such a big favor. I made a big tray of baked ziti, so I bought a large thing of ground beef. Since it was more beef than I needed for the ziti, I made Joel and me some burgers the night before we left. Originally, I was thinking something along the lines of a meatloaf burger (you know, green peppers and onions, the kind of burger that Eddie Murphy had to endure as opposed to the McD kind), but then I had a shift.

You guys know, definately, by now, I love Penzeys. I also love their Chili 9000. So I got thinking, add a bit of the chili 9000, green peppers, onions, some chopped up cheddar cheese, and a bit of tomato paste…you will have a serious burger. So that is what this girl did, and damn, it was GOOD!

1 lb ground beef
1/3 green pepper (sautéed)
1/8 large onion diced (sautéed)
1 large TBS Penzeys chili 9000
3 oz of cheddar cheese (I cubed mine into small cubes, but you could shred it)
2 tbs tomato paste
Salt and Pepper

Just a note, I sautéed the green peppers and onions first. Mix all ingredients and form into patties. I only made 3 because I like a big burger, however you could easily get 4 if you are not a pig like me. Cook as desired.

Just a side note, it was a close call weather to add some egg and bread crumbs, I didn’t. I just worked out, JUST. However if the patties seem to be falling apart add about ¼ c. of bread crumbs (or bread or panko) and an egg.

Back Home Again!

2009-04-01T15:14:00.002-04:00

Okay guys, I am back home and have quite a bit to tell you about. Not about that Donna… really I swear. Hopefully I will get a proper post up tomorrow but have to give the kids an abundant amount of love today. For now, I will leave you with this picture and I will tell you more about it later.

A much happier and more relaxed,

Mommy Gourmet

Creamy Asparagus Cavatappi Pasta

2009-03-26T10:31:00.006-04:00

I have to say upfront, once again, punch photo helped me with these pictures, and by help I mean... he took them http://blog.punchphoto.com/2009/

This month on the Foodie BlogRoll joust the ingredients were Asparagus, Lemon Grass, and Almonds. It is my first "joust" and this is what I came up with. Go by and see what everyone else had to do and vote for who you like best http://www.leftoverqueen.com/forum/index.php/topic,1218.msg10058.html#msg10058t

1 lb pasta
3 tbs butter
1/4 lb prosciutto diced
1 onion minced
1 clove garlic grated
1 lemon grass stalk, cut into several pieces
2 tbs flour
1c. dry white wine
2 tbs flour
¼ milk
2 c. of cream
½ c. of grated parmesan
1 cup almond slivers toasted
1 pound chopped asparagus blanched

Heat oven to 350 and start water for pasta.
Once oven is ready put the almond slivers on a baking sheet and toast for 7 minutes. Set aside.
Chop about ¼ of the prosciutto, and put in a very hot skillet. Cook until just a bit crisp. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and wilt onions.
Add the garlic, lemon grass, last tablespoon of butter and ¾ of the prosciutto and cook another 3 minutes.
Sprinkle flour in the pan and mix until everything is coated and a paste is formed.
Slowly add the white wine (I prefer a super dry wine)
Let this cook over low heat until sauce has thickened to the consistency of a pudding.
Meanwhile, blanch the asparagus and put the pasta in to cook..
Once the wine has thickened add the milk and again let thicken to the consistency of a pudding.
Finally slowly add the cream mixing well. Cook until just slightly thickened (about 2 minutes).
Throw blanched asparagus (make sure to dry it) and parmesan in the sauce and toss .
Once pasta is done and drained, toss with sauce, top with the fried prosciutto and almonds and serve.

Serves 4

Okay yet again, I have to implore you to go to visit these blogs:

Cate at http://tribecayummymummy-cate.blogspot.com/ . She has a carrot-apple-ginger spread you don’t want to miss!

Five Star Foodie http://fivestarfoodie.blogspot.com/ she has a poblano, and cheddar cheese soufflé that looks and sounds do good I can’t stand myself right now.

Finally, Joie De Vivre at http://joiedevivreanamateurgourmetsguide.blogspot.com/ . She has to recent posts you don’t want to miss, clams in a red sauce and some sourdough that looks…. mmm,mmm good!

Herbed Escolar and Scallops

2009-03-24T18:22:00.004-04:00

It often amazes me how little I know. For instance, I would see on some of these lovely blogs I read, seared seafood, often scallops. Try as I might I couldn’t get it. I would get the oil hot, throw in the scallops. In return they would throw off water and I would essentially end up boiling the buggers. I don’t know why it never dawned on me that the oil wasn’t hot enough, but it didn’t. Not until I read something that told me, that the oil had to smoke. Smoke you say?? Isn’t that passe‘? Not at all. I tell you, one tiny bit of knowledge, one that I know all of you had… admit it… you did, has changed my life. There is no meat safe in my house at this point.

2 tbs of chopped parsley
1 tbs chopped oregano
1 tsp chopped rosemary
½ tsp chopped thyme
Salt and pepper
¼ c. vegetable oil
½ lb escolar
½ lb scallops
1 lemon wedge

Heat the oil until smoking (yeah, yeah… I know you knew that!), while heating salt scallops and fish.
Once oil is ready add the fish and scallops and cook until good and brown, turn down the heat to medium low.
When fish is almost done throw the herbs over the fish and cook covered about another 1-2 minutes just until herbs are a bit wilted.
Squeeze with lemon and serve.

Okay my lovely’s now is the time to talk about who I am going to give some blog love to this week. The folks this week will actually get two weeks. The reason is I will be out of town from Saturday until Wed, so that means no blogging for mommy here. However, I am getting out of town, with no children, for four whole days. Yep you heard me right. Do you realize it has been over 4 years (and probably more like 5) since I have had that much time alone with my husband. I am as giddy as a school girl I tell you!

Anyway here are the blogs you need to go visit:

Joie De Vivre at http://joiedevivreanamateurgourmetsguide.blogspot.com/ . Her blog is wonderful and if you go today you can see a shot of her sweet hubby helping out with the kids and cooking! I believe that is a shot of a man never before captured on film (oh come on guys… I am just kidding!!)

Cate at http://tribecayummymummy-cate.blogspot.com/ . I love her blog. I love her pictures and I love her little chefs. Plus her recipes are fabulous. It will make you want to move to NY and hang out with her and let her little chefs whip up some appetizers.

Finally go to Five Star Foodie http://fivestarfoodie.blogspot.com/ she has amazing pictures and some of the most unusual and lovely recipes. She will make you think of ingredients in different ways and I love that.

Finally I just wanted to give a big shout out to one of my blog choices for last week. Donna at http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ gave me an award. It dictates I have to pass it on, and I will be, just not today. Now how is it she is giving me an award while I am profiling her blog. I swear, she really is the best blog buddy.

I Finally Have Great Buns!

2009-03-23T13:13:00.003-04:00

I have this weird affinity for a good yeast roll. Now, I know some of you are wondering what a yeast roll is and the best way I can describe it is, like a parker house roll, but lighter and with a distinct yeast flavor. If you have ever ate at a southern diner or cafeteria and had a roll there… you have had them. I love them. Love ‘em.

However, I have never been able to make them. They mock me… really. I have tried tons of recipes to no avail. Cue the new neighbors. Can I just tell you I love them, for many reasons. They are fun, the are good spirited, they are community builders. They are good folks. However, I simply knew that I had to make them my friends when at Christmas they dropped of some homemade fig jam and a loaf of bread. Why did this endear me to them so much you wonder?? Yes, I am getting to it. Besides being kind and neighborly, that loaf of bread they brought, was none other then my sought after yeast roll, but in a loaf form. Joel and I polished the loaf off in 1 day. No, sadly, I am not joking. So I asked her for the recipe and she gave it to me!! The one thing that struck me about it was, “Man this dough would sure make a good base for a sticky bun.”

I love a good sticky bun (Donna, I can feel you mind in the gutter already) or cinnamon bun. However, they are very, very hard to find. The best I ever had was on my honeymoon in NYC at this little pastry shop off of Amsterdam (I think it was Amsterdam, that or one block up towards the park). ANYWAY, my problem is the dough typically is to dry or tough, that is why I thought this dough would be so good for it. It is soft and gooey.

I was right, so very, very, very, right. These came out so soft, and tender and oooey and gooey…and well YUMMY. Joel ate 4 yesterday, and that was him restraining himself (how he stays so slender….it kills me).

If you just want to make the bread just follow the recipe, I will let you know when I break away from it to make the cinnamon rolls. If you want to make rolls as opposed to a loaf, I would try a muffin tin??? Just a thought.

Starter
1 package of yeast (2 ½ tsp of bulk yeast)
1 c. sugar
3 tbs of instant mashed potatoes (you read that right… just come on the ride with me folks… really)
2 c. of room temperature water

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar, mix together and cover with tin foil with holes poked in it (it must have holes or you will have a mess on your hands). Let starter stand for at least 8 hours or up to 7 days.

Bread

1 c. of starter
½ c. of vegetable oil
¼ c. of Sugar
1 tbs salt
1.5 c. of water
6 c. of bread flour

Combine all in a pam sprayed bowl and mix well with bread kneader or hands (you might want to put some grease on your hands)
Cover with greased wax paper.
Let rise overnight.
Punch it down and divide into 2 loaf pans and let rise for 4 to 8 hours (this is where I break away for the buns go below)
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes
When you take them out of the oven take the loaves immediately out of the pans and place on a bakers rack to cool.

For Buns

Filling (this is if you make the full dough recipe, it will make about 20-24 buns)
1 sticks of butter
2 cups brown sugar
1.5 cups of walnuts roughly chopped
2 tbs cinnamon ( I like a lot, but you can use less if you like)

After you punch dough down, still divide and take a coated rolling pin and roll out each of the two sections of dough.
Use half the filling for each and sprinkle over the rolled out dough. Then roll the roll up to from a long log (think jelly roll).
Cut in 1.5 sections and put in buttered baking dish. Let rise 4-8 hours.
Put a pat of butter on each bun and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until it begins to brown on top.

Immediately remove from baking dish and let cool on bakers rake.

Try not to eat them all at once.

And don't forget some ladies that have some pretty nice buns of their own...

Donna http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ She just make a kielbasa soup that looks good… you know how this women loves some kielbasa and if you don’t… you need to go find out why…

Chef E http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/ Please go check out her Ethiopan dishes. Man alive!

Bunny Trails at http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/

Asian Noodles on the Cheap

2009-03-20T09:53:00.005-04:00

Over at the Alchemist Chef http://alchemistchef.blogspot.com/2009/03/call-for-submissions-recession-proof.html they are calling for some recession proof dinning. Seeing how I started family meals for less, (but never did much with it) I thought it was a great idea. Money is tight for some many of us, and the reality is you can still eat great food that is healthy on a dime. So for this post I also included the price of the items and the number of servings.

The other day the grocery store had a ton of veggies on sale and that is what inspired this. I think you could put any you like in (I thought asparagus and tomato would also be great)but this is what I did.

1 bunch of broccoli broken into small pieces ($1.65)
1 bag of matchstick carrots ($1.25)
1 zucchini (I used a peeler to ribbon mine, but you can chop it too) (.75)
1 bunch of green onion chopped (.75)
1 lb chicken (1.99 on sale, 3.99 otherwise)
1 package of soba noodles (1.75)
2 tbs sesame oil (.50?)
4 tbs soy sauce (.25?)
¼ c. of sweet chili sauce ($1)
Salt and pepper
1 clove of garlic
Pinch of red pepper
1 tbs olive oil

Serves 6
The total cost if you get the chicken on sale is $8.99 it is $10.99 otherwise

I started by seasoning the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper. I heated the oil and added the garlic to pan and cooked the chicken. Set aside and let it cool.

Meanwhile cook the soba noodles and drain.

Toss the soba with the vegetables and shred or chop the chicken and add. In a small bow add the sesame oil, soy and chili sauce and mix. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss.

Just a reminder, please stop by to see these blogs!!

Wonderings http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/ .
My Tasty Treasures http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/
Chef E at Behind the Wheel Chef http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/

Springy Fried Wontons

2009-03-19T13:07:00.007-04:00

I tell you, I love the first signs of spring. We got a really good dose back in the very beginning of March and then it got cold again. Finally, yesterday it was 70 degrees and lovely here after a long cold, wet spell. So what is a girl to do? Drinks on the patio!

Friends of our recently had a new baby (as opposed to the old kind???) and I called them up to see if they were up for venturing the block over to our house for snacks and drinks. I was particularly psyched they agreed to come because he is a really amazing photographer ( check out his blog here, there is some true food porn…if you are in to that sort of thing :) http://blog.punchphoto.com/2009/03/19/the-mommy-gourmet/ ) and I was hoping to pick his brain a bit. While I can find my way around the kitchen, I am totally lost with a camera in my hand. The more blogs I see the more I realize how woefully inadequate my pictures are!
For munchies I did some non-traditional wontons. I didn’t really write things down as I went (hey, the kids were sleeping so I was working against the clock!) but I will tell you what I did. I did two different types of wontons.
Chicken, Blue Cheese and Walnut
For this I took a pound of raw chicken breast, put it in the food processor, and added 2 shots of Pear Absolute and salt and pepper and processed. I then added about 1/3 c. of blue cheese and about the same of roasted walnuts. Then I just put a drop of the mixture into the middle of a wonton wrapper, pinched it together and fried, until golden. (Note: Do not to get the oil too hot otherwise you will have a black outside and raw inside. )
I will do these again, they were good, however next time I would also put some fresh pear in, it needed a bit more sweet for me.

St. Andre’ and Apple Butter
This was even easier, just put a small bit of the cheese in the middle of the wonton and a dab of apple butter pinch it together and then fry.
These were good, almost like dessert. I love cheese any sort of fruit concoction though. If you don’t, just do the cheese alone or the cheese and some fresh herb would also be wonderful.

It was a perfect way to end the day. The weather was wonderful, the children played and I got to enjoy some really wonderful company. God I love spring!

Just a reminder you need to get by to see Donna http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ she has this stuffed flank steak that makes me want to weep.
Go by to Wonderings http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/ really, her most recent post might just be a “Ah Ha” moment for you too.
For a good drunk (Drunken Irish Hash) go and see Chef E http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/ . While you are there do NOT miss her March 14th post. I swear I drooled on my computer over that one.
Finally for more pictures of our wonderful evening go by Punch Photo http://blog.punchphoto.com/2009/03/19/the-mommy-gourmet/

Baked Chicken with Onions and Green Peppers and One Crazy Husband

2009-03-18T20:10:00.005-04:00

So the other day my husband says to me, “Why don’t you ever make that chicken you used to with the caramelized onion and peppers and provolone?”

What the??? Damn it, Joel have you gotten into the bourbon again? I had NO idea what he was talking about. Really… not a clue. So a few days after that he decides to make dinner. It was nice, he used to cook a lot PK (pre-Kids). He is actually wonderful. He once made this filet with oranges and balsamic vinegar… sheesh… I digress , anyway, he cooked the other night. You will never guess what he made? Yep. Then while we were eating it he said, “Yeah, I remembered you didn’t make this I used to get it at the Depot Grill.”

I swear…men!! Anyway, there is not a lot of recipe to it. He sautéed 1 orange pepper ( you could use any color…go ahead get crazy) and 1 small onion, until they were nice and brown and caramelized. Meanwhile he heated some oil until smoking and put the chicken (he had seasoned the chicken with red pepper flake, garlic and salt) in and seared it, cooking about 3-5 minutes on each side. While doing all this he heated the oven to 350. Once the chicken was good and brown on the outside he put it in a pan topped it with the carmelized onions and green peppers, topped it with provolone and popped it in the oven for 10 minutes.

Man alive that was good. I mean good, it really was much better than it sounded to me, and it was nice to sit back and relax.

If you haven't (even if you have...) go by and see... really, just trust me!

Wonderings http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/ .
My Tasty Treasures http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/
Chef E at Behind the Wheel Chef http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/

One Year of Bad Blogging at Mommy Gourmet???

2009-03-17T11:37:00.002-04:00

There are so many things I manage to do okay. Take care of the house, keep the kids clean (reasonably), I am a good neighbor, usually a good wife and I am a pretty good friend. However, one thing I fall short on is being a great fellow blogger.

I love my blog. It is hard to explain, but my blog was born about the time I began to panic thinking…holy cow, I am done with having children (I think), and in a few short years mommy needs to figure out what I will be when I grow up. I thought WHAT am I really good at?? I felt, a little used up and like I would never amount to much outside of my four walls (strike the violins). Let me just regress, like every mother does when we say such a thing, I LOVE being a mom. I am privileged I got the opportunity to stay at home with y children. That said, I am apparently innately greedy and wanted to have accomplishments that were solely my own. Thus, Mommy Gourmet was born. Actually Novice Epicurean was born, but I didn’t like the name so it got switched.

I have gotten two things out of blogging (at least). First, it gave me something tangible, that was mine. Just mine. My thoughts, my inventions, my call. No having to consult and compromise. Good or bad it was all me. Plus it connected me to this whole world of super supportive people. I can’t tell you how many times I was having an awful day (translated into, baby just bit me and big brother just broke something…again) and would get a comment and it would make my day. Consequently it made me a better mom and wife.

However, the reality is I have two children 4 (3 when I started) and 18 months (a wee 6th months when I took this on), and if I get a blog posted everyday, it is amazing I was able to carve that time out. And for me, that can sometimes be the worst part about blogging. There are so many amazing blogs. I often fanaticize that when the kids are in school I will get to leisurely read and extensively comment on all these blogs I love. However, that leisure time, is just so limited right now. So when I get to one of my favorites I am typically a week or more behind and it takes me forever to get caught up (I hate feeling I missed out on anything… shut up Sondra). What this makes me is a bad blogger. The reality is blogging is a community and to get support you got to give it, but so often I don’t get to visit my favorite blogs as often as I wished (I wished daily but would settle for every couple days).

Deep breath. Exhale. So in the not to distant future I will be coming up on my one year anniversary of Mommy Gourmet. This has got me thinking I would like to do something to commemorate it. I was thinking a give away or such. I still might. However, what I really want to do, is give bit back to the bloggers that have supported me so much over the last year.

There is no order in which I will do this. My goal is to highlight 3-4 bloggers every week. I will post about you guys, throw a link to your site and update you on my blogroll (sorry I have been terrible about keeping that updated). For the week you are my bloggers of choice I will include a link to your site in each post I do.

I just want to give a little of the love and support I have gotten. This way even if I can’t visit your sites every day, I can throw some support your way.

So to kick things off……

I have to start with my very first follower. Bunny Trails at Wonderings http://bunnytrailthoughts.blogspot.com/ . Her honesty and openness is addicting. One day I hope to get to actually meet her face to face (we live in the same city), as I am POSITIVE she is as utterly charming in real life as she is on her blog. So go check her out, you will be glad you did.

Next has to be Donna at My Tasty Treasures http://mytastytreasures.blogspot.com/ go on …go there now I will wait….. SEEE!!! Isn’t she a riot, and her food…ohh la la. The reality is she is a good blogger on so many levels. Her blog is one my favorites. She is make you laugh unti milk shoots out your nose, funny. However, even more, she supports her fellow bloggers amazingly. Honestly, read her blog, you will be glad you did.

Finally, Chef E at Behind the Wheel Chef http://cookappeal.blogspot.com/ she is a must see. She is witty and open and has amazing recipes and photos. She has been a real source of inspiration to me and encouragement.

So please take time and go check these site out. You will be happy you did. And don’t worry I will be doing this every week for awhile so just wait you will see yourself soon, and thanks for the support.

Vanessa
A.K.A Mommy Gourmet

Tuna with Corn Cucumber Mint Relish

2009-03-15T17:55:00.002-04:00

As my husband noted, this recipe was very summery. Too bad, the weather had taken a cold turn and it was 40 degrees and rainy outside. Ahhh Virginia weather, I give up!

1-2 lbs tuna (4 tuna steaks)
1 cucumber chopped
½ red pepper chopped
½ c. corn
¼ onion chopped
1 tbs mint chopped
¼ c. rice wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Pinch of red pepper

Mix together and set aside for an hour. The longer the better though.

For the tuna, I seasoned it with salt and pepper and rubbed it with a bit of cut garlic. I heated about 2 tbs of olive oil and got it nice and hot. Then I laid the steak on and let it cook for about a minute on each side. At that point turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook for about 2 minutes each side (give or take on thickness and how done you like them).

Pork Tenderlion and Asparagus

2009-03-12T08:13:00.017-04:00

This pork recipe I came up with on the quick. I have to say the pork came out really well and the asparagus was wonderful!

2lb pork tenderloin
¼ cup olive oil
½ c. balsamic
½ tsp mustard
1 tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
2 sprigs rosemary
Salt and pepper
one bunch of aspargus cleaned

Preheat oven to 350.

I love a mortar and pestle, they really amp up the flavors in herbs…especially ones that have been sitting on the shelf for a bit. I start by adding the Italian seasoning, salt, rosemary (I had fresh if you have dried use about a teaspoon) and salt. Use the pestle to grind the seasonings a bit. Add the oil and vinegar and set aside.

Salt and pepper the pork and lay the pork out in a baking dish. I surrounded the pork with asparagus. Poor the oil and vinegar over.

Put the pork in the oven and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes (will depend a bit on size of pork loin). Let stand 10 minutes and serve.

Ginger Shrimp Pasta

2009-03-11T07:34:00.008-04:00

This recipe is a bit odd, but I do have to say came out really well. I will be making this pasta again. It all came about very haphazardly, I needed a quick dinner for that night, I saw the cilantro and that started it, I knew I had shrimp at home and that would be quick and I wanted something spicy. When I saw the coconut milk it all started to jell in my mind.

1/2 lb pasta
1 tbs oil
½ sweet onion
½ red pepper
2 small cans diced tomatoes
1 tbs ginger
2 tbs soy sauce
¼ c. red wine.
1 lb shrimp (cleaned, I used precooked because it is what I had, raw shrimp would be far better)
1 clove garlic
red pepper flakes to taste (I used about ¼ tsp)
salt
½ bunch chopped cilantro
½ can coconut milk

Add oil to skillet and heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes.

Meahwhile, put pasta on to boil.

Add the tomatoes, ginger, soy, red peppers and wine and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile coat the shrimp in salt and red pepper flakes.

Once pasta is done, drain and set aside.

Add shrimp and cook and additional 5-7 minutes. Add cilantro and coconut milk cook 2-3 more