If you know me at all, you know that I could eat pasta every single day. I can admit that my pasta consumption during the fall and winter is bordering on overload and I’d like to say that I take a break from the pasta in the summer. Not so. Just because it is grilling season does not mean that we should cease and desist with the pasta. Let’s just lighten it up a bit.
Read MoreNow that it's June, it is time to think about backyard parties. And wearing white jeans. And replacing your regular duvet cover with linen. This last one I may have done before Memorial Day.
Memorial Day weekend is usually a bust weather-wise around here, and this year proved no exception. We went to a movie at the library on Friday, then on Saturday took the kids to the theater to see Tomorrowland during yet another round of showers. Just a little PSA: this movie might be a bit scary for some kids. Like Théa. Gus, however, absorbed every single minute of it and thought it was the best thing ever. Especially the robots. With guns. It should be obvious at this point that I made a tactical parenting error taking my five-year-olds to this movie. Also your kids might not want to go on It’s A Small World after seeing this movie. I’ll leave you to decide whether that is a good or bad thing.
Read MoreMy grandmother, Althaé, had a lot of a personality. So much personality, in fact, that I was hesitant to name Théa after her for fear that T might be too much to handle. Ma Ma, as I called her, was known to the rest of the world as Toot (pronounced like “foot”). She passed away when I was still in grade school, but there are bits and pieces that I remember.
Read MoreSorry for the radio silence on the old blog, here. This week has completely escaped me already and I’m not sure it is going to get any better. I promise I will catch up. I may never catch up with meal reviews but I’m sure I’ll catch up with something. That said, we did have Mediterranean chicken pitas on Tuesday night (only one night late), and they were good.
Read MoreBefore we dive into the week’s reviews, let’s go back for the abbreviated weekend review. Friday night, we were expecting a crowd and had only four. We ate out. Saturday night, we had a lovely bucatini all' amatriciana, which was simple and tasty despite not being able to locate any guanciale. We substituted pancetta (which was sliced thin rather than cubed) and everyone was quite satisfied. This menu change means that we did not try the moroccan chicken brochettes that were originally scheduled for Saturday night. Those will be appearing on the menu again in the near future. If you made them, please send me a little review. I’m all ears.
Read MoreI live in lamb country. We even have sheep festival in the fall with a lamb dine around. So if someone can tell me why I have not tried to make lamb burgers before, I will send you a prize. Really. Conveniently, I’ve seen several recipes for lamb burgers recently and after my first foray into this type of deliciousness, I plan to try the other recipes as well.
Read MoreI had THE BEST dinner last night. Sorry for the yelling but it was so good. And unfortunately for the rest of my family, I was the only one really eating. That’s not entirely true. The littlest people each ate a piece of fish (along with leftover pizza). It was like pulling teeth to get them to try the fish, but once we got over the initial hump, they both actually liked it.
Read MoreI like a recipe with a picture. I like to have an idea of the end goal. I am totally a planner at heart. But I chose to make roasted corn, jicama, and mango salad despite the lack of accompanying photo because I happened to have every single ingredient on hand. How often does that happen? Never.
Read MoreRemember a couple of weeks ago when I made that seemingly difficult but really quite simple balsamic reduction and then totally forgot to serve it with my meal? Right. I put it in a jar and put it in the pantry. Probably a major cooking foul, but considering that the recipe came under the header of “pantry”, I went with it. Anyway, that, and the two bunches of asparagus from our produce basket, was the only reason that I chose to make campanelle with asparagus, basil, and balsamic glaze (The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, page 179) on Monday night. The balsamic reduction made the dish.
Read MoreUgh. The Costco run. After two weeks of bare bones food in the house, it was time to suck it up and make the big shopping trip. The good news? Fresh wild salmon. Yippee! And I just so happened to have cilantro and oranges on hand so I was able to revisit the citrus grilled salmon that we made a couple of weeks ago. Still delicious.
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