I can’t stop with the tacos. Anything I can put in a tortilla can and will be put in a tortilla. And, yes, I realize today is Monday, but tomorrow will be Tuesday and you (unlike me) might be planning ahead.
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I can’t stand mayonnaise. I’m just not a condiment person. Or a cream sauce person. When it comes to potato salad or coleslaw, it goes to reason that I will pick a vinaigrette over a mayo or buttermilk based dressing any day of the week. My husband fortunately knows about my (strong) anti-mayonnaise sentiments so he was wise to pick Ina Garten’s French potato salad to go with our barbeque last Sunday.
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It’s May, and I have not purchased a single box of waffles since I began this waffle quest. I’d say that is a pretty successful New Year’s Resolution. Perhaps my most successful resolution ever. Wish I could say the same for exercise.
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It may come as a shock to you that I am, in fact, still alive. It may be an even greater shock that I am still using my kitchen for its intended function. I promise to tell you why I’ve gone off the reservation at some point, but for now, I think we should stick to the donuts.
I had a lovely plan this morning to surprise my littles with homemade Mini Strawberry Donuts. Who wouldn’t love to wake up to that? Excellent plan until I realized that the recipe called for “dried strawberry bits”, which after further investigation, I concluded must mean freeze-dried strawberries. You guessed it. I was fresh out of freeze-dried strawberries this morning. Moving on, I decided to try Baked Buttermilk Donuts with Fresh Strawberry Glaze. Fresh out of fresh strawberries too. I also really couldn’t get past the fact that this recipe called for yeast.
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I spent a good portion of my formative years in Eugene, Oregon, or as I like to call it, Granolaville. It’s cool, though, because I have some good memories of eating tiger stripe ice cream at Prince Puckler’s (even the President ate here but he definitely could have made better choices in the flavor department), pizza and Mrs. Pacman at Mazzi’s, and of course, cookies at the Cookie Monster Company. So when I saw this post by I Am Baker on Instagram a week or so ago, I was smitten. (P.S. You really should follow Amanda. Good looking photos and a sense of humor. Kind of a girl crush going over here.)
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I have got to stop eating. But until then, I’m going to eat these salted brownies.
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Warning: The photos of this meal do not represent in any way how tasty this meal actually was. Sometimes, you just have to trust the chef who is still very much behind on her food styling and photography skills.
This week’s menu called for some serious grilling. It is summer and it is time to cook outside. Oh, but did I mention that it is snowing as I write this? In the middle of June? What the heck am I doing living here?
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I may have mentioned before that we make banana muffins all the time around here. As in so often that I no longer have to look up the recipe. And neither does our Girl-Friday, Lacie. I keep banana muffins in the freezer for snack or breakfast on the go or lunchbox treats. The recipe that I have used forever is from an old Williams Sonoma cookbook for kids that my mom gave my older kids ten years ago. Fortunately, the recipe is available online here.
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I mentioned earlier this week that I am taking a kids' nutrition class online. I’ve made quite a few new recipes this week with the kids and can say that we have been mostly successful. The kids are eating more vegetables for sure. Perhaps the carb filled vacation that we just had was overload for them too. Anyway, one of the things that I tried to make this week was homemade strawberry roll-ups. I sorted through a bunch of recipes (some of which you can see here), each with slightly different sugar content, each with slightly different technique, but all involving puréeing the fruit then baking it at 170° for several hours. This seemed pretty easy.
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If you are following along at all, you will know by now that we just spent two weeks traveling with five of our kids. I’m a stay-at-home mom, so I spend a bit of time with my kids as it is, but not like this. No individual sports, no lessons, no school, no movies with friends, no work, no volunteering. All family time of some sort. Not all family together all the time, but family time in twos or threes or sevens all the same.
Let me just say first that my kids are pretty darn cool. I can roll my eyes and make jokes about them, but they truly are fantastic kids. And the vacation was an experience that I won’t forget. It was amazing to spend time with each of the kids in a way that my husband and I never get to do. But enough with the pleasantries. My kids eat junk. All the time.
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There is something about the crust of Roman or Neapolitan pizza that is absolutely amazing. It is at once crispy and chewy, with just the right amount of salt. We’ve been trying to perfect that pizza for the last three years. We are getting closer, but still have yet to master it.
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I have been making the same chicken pot pies from The New Basics for years. I’m talking forever. Since I graduated from college and started cooking for myself forever. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried a few other recipes, but I’ve never had the success with other recipes that I have with The New Basics recipe. The only downside to that recipe is all the steps. Lots of steps. Boil the chicken stock with rosemary. Cook each ingredient separately. Find pearl onions (which I never use, by the way).
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