Wednesday, 6/30/2010

The last time I was at Costco, I purchased chicken tenderloins instead of chicken breasts. The breasts they sell usually come with the tenderloins attached. And, we find those are the most tender and tasty parts. When I noticed that tenders were sold separately and at $0.10 less than the breasts, it seemed like a no-brainer. I was right!

Tonight I marinated a package of the tenders for only 15 minutes and then Ben put them on the grill for 10 minutes. They were flavored throughout and were still moist and tender. I marinated them in Grill Mates Tomato, Garlic, and Basil marinade. Katie was eating her chicken faster than we could cut it up for her. Yes! She wouldn't touch the banana I cut up for her and really enjoyed drinking water out of a straw. Ben and I finished off our left-over couscous and had spinach with balsamic vinaigrette. It was a good, simple dinner.

Tuesday, 6/29/2010

Ben and I had beef burritos again for dinner tonight. Katie got sick earlier in the day, so she had to stick to a pretty bland menu. She only got plain pieces of our tortillas, a quarter of a pear, graham crackers, and water. With two sickies in the house, me and Katie, it was a pretty uneventful evening.

Monday, 6/28/2010

Tonight's meal was simple--beef burritos. Standard use of taco seasoning with lean ground beef, shredded cheddar cheese, and low carb wheat burrito tortillas. Ben's burrito had some hot sauce in it. I left it off of mine due to my sore throat.

Katie was the wild card in tonight's meal. About a 1/2 hour before we ate, she was whining for food. I told her we were going to wait so that we could eat together with Daddy. When we finally sat down, she barely touched her food. Then she started to pull off her bib. We won't let her continue without a bib on. Either the bib stays on or she is done with the meal. But, she wouldn't tell us that she was all done. Each time we went to try to clean her up, she would reach back towards the food. What's a momma to do?!? Well, this momma decided to clean her up and get her down from her high chair.

Not long after that, we went upstairs so that she could take a bath. We were just about to put her down for the night when she started signing for food. Milk. Cheese. Bread. Peanut butter. Thinking that she was still hungry, we went back downstairs. She went right to the fridge and started pointing to the jar of jam. At this point, we think that she means jam when she signs for bread. Anyway, we made her a small pb&j sandwich. Seated back in her high chair, she proceeded to pull the two pieces of bread apart to lick off the pb&j. She only took a few small bits out of the bread. The kicker was when she rubbed her jam covered hand through her clean hair. ARGH! That was the end of her second dinner. Her hands and hair were cleaned up, despite her loud objections, and we took her upstairs to bed. It's been about a 1/2 hour and I haven't heard a peep from her. I guess she was just plain tired.

Sunday, 6/27/2010

I was really down and out today. Not sure if I have a cold or the flu, but I was in no position to make dinner. I spent most of the day sleeping on the couch. For dinner, Ben looked up recipes for chicken drumsticks. He wanted to do something with herbs. He didn't find one he liked, so he made up his own. It was really good! I don't know how much he used of each ingredient, but I know what he used.

HERBED CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

Ingredients:

melted butter

olive oil

garlic powder

freshly cracked black pepper

kosher salt

dried oregano

Directions:

Mix ingredients and brush onto chicken drumsticks.

Grill on indirect-medium heat for 45 minutes, turning once.

We made up a box of Near East Parmesan Couscous to go with it. It was pretty tasty. I think next time I will add in the minced garlic and green peas recommended on the box.

Saturday, 6/26/2010

Today I wasn't feeling too hot. With a sore throat brewing, Ben suggested that having spicy bbq chicken may not be the best thing to have for dinner. We pawed through the cupboard, fridge, and freezer and ended up having halibut with fruit. Not exciting, but definitely easy on the throat.

I am pleased to say that Katie enjoyed eating cantaloupe with Ben during the meal. I've tried to get her to eat some for almost a year, and she has always turned it away after one taste. Tonight, Ben was eating some and Katie opened her mouth wide while pointing to it. To my surprise, she kept asking for more:) What a good eater!

Friday, 6/25/2010

It was "Meet Your Neighbors Night" at the Ackers home tonight. We've lived in our house for over four years. Three years ago, Mike and Cary moved in a couple houses away on the other side of the street. A year and a half ago, Bonnie and Ian moved in next to Mike and Cary. We've always been friendly with each other, but our conversations have always been brief and outside in front of our houses. We learned earlier this year that Bonnie and Ian are expecting a baby, Oliver, next month. It seemed like a good time to get to know each other better. So, tonight we invited them to come over for dinner.

Our friend Lyn offered to share the recipe for the delicious orange chicken we had at her house a couple weeks ago. I accepted excitedly! Not only did she share the recipe, she gave me most of the ingredients. I only had to pick up cinnamon sticks and chicken breasts. The rest of the ingredients I already had or she gave me. Thanks Lyn! (Recipe at the bottom of the post followed by my comments.)

To go with the chicken, our neighbors brought over several pasta salads they purchased at local grocery stores. They were all quite yummy. We finished the meal with vanilla ice cream with Special Dark Hershey's chocolate syrup. Oh yes, and we had quite a bit of delicious wine. We started with a Malbec, followed it with a Red Table Wine, and then had a Pinot Nior. At the end of the night, we feel like we have some really good neighbors:)

POLLO PIBIL
From "Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook" by Katharine Kagel

It is best to let the chicken marinate for 24 hours.
Serves 6.

Ingredients:
4 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 Mexican cinnamon stick, about 3 inches
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1/2 cup achiote paste (see note below)
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 cups fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespooons stemmed fresh marjoram leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried marjoram leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
6 chicken breast halves

Directions:

To prepare the chicken, combine the cumin, cinnamon, and cloves in a small, dry saute pan over medium heat. Roast, shaking the pan frequently, until the aromas are released, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Place the spices in a spice mill or coffee grinder and grind until pulverized. Alternatively, pulverize in a mortar using a pestle.

Combine spices with all of the remaining ingredients, except the chicken, in a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process just long enough to incorporate.

Put the chicken breasts in a shallow glass dish. Pour the spice mixture evenly over the top to cover completely. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 24 hours or up to 36 hours, turning frequently.

Grill and enjoy!

Ok, if you read the directions above, you know this is a homemade marinade. Usually, I marinade with store-bought packets of seasoning that I only have to add water, oil, and vinegar to. The prep time for this one took me by surprise.

I was not prepared to have to roast and pulverize spices. We have a coffee grinder, but grinding spices in it was outlawed by Ben in our house several years ago after a fennel seed experiment. He could taste fennel in his coffee for weeks. So, I tried to pulverize the spices in our food processor. It worked a little. After letting it "process" for several minutes, I decided that not much more was going to happen there. I tried to crush the big pieces of cinnamon and cloves with a spoon in a bowl. That didn't do anything. So, I sifted out the pulverized spices and tossed out the remaining large pieces. I knew that might affect the balance of the marinade, but didn't have much of a choice. It was already 10pm and I still had work to do.

For the achiote paste, I used two packets of Sazon Goya's Con Culantro y Achiote. The recipe says to use a paste, and the packets say to add water, but I did neither. I just used two packets of this seasoning per Lyn's instructions and it was great. There is already a lot of liquid in the marinade; there is no need for more.

I had to squeeze 7 limes in order to get a 1/2 cup of juice. Lyn gave me 4 and I used 3 that I had at home. All were pretty tough and would not release their juices. That was another time suck. Thankfully, the rest of the ingredients were easy to measure out without additional preparation. I did manage to not read the last bit of the instructions that said to turn the chicken breasts frequently in the marinade. Just saw that now. Oops! I can now say, from experience, that the chicken will still taste wonderful, even if you only use a portion of the spices and forget to turn the breasts over in the marinade.

Now that I know what it takes to make this marinade, I am going to invest in a spice grinder. This recipe is DEFINITELY worth making again.

Thursday, 6/24/2010

I decided to try another Simply Asia stir-fry sauce packet. This time I chose Spicy Kung Pao. I used 1 pound of thinly sliced chicken breast, 3 cups of cubed red and orange bell peppers, and about a 1/2 cup of cocktail peanuts . The flavor was ok, but really not that spicy. We definitely prefer the spicy peanut chicken we make from scratch. Ben thought it should have had bamboo shoots in it. Even though we won't be purchasing this one again, I must say, Katie really liked it.

Wednesday, 6/23/2010

Tonight was another night that didn't happen quite like we expected it to. It all started at 1:30. That's when I took the car in for replacement tires. I thought it would be about an hour, but I learned it was an hour for the tire replacement, then another hour for the alignment, and then the clean up, payment, etc. And then, the tires, which were promised to be in stock, were not. The tires were supposedly 1/2 hour away. I agreed to take a loaner car when I was told my car would not be available until 5pm. Ok, fine. The car dealership is in Renton, so I decided to kill some time at Southcenter mall. Katie and I shopped, snacked, and played at the mall.

At 4:45pm I called the dealership for an update. The care was NOT done and wouldn't be done until 6pm. I was asked if I would be ok picking up my car tomorrow morning instead. What was I going to do? I explained very nicely how we had been promised the tires were in stock when the appointment was made. I politely shared my expectation that I would not be paying for any gas the loaner car consumed during my drive back and forth to the dealership. How nice that the gas will be comped.

Since I hadn't been at home all afternoon, I didn't have anything ready for dinner. No problem. We decided to go out for dinner. I left Southcenter Mall at 4:49 and headed downtown to pick up Ben from work. We had plans to attend a concert at our church with Katie at 7pm and thought we would have plenty of time to eat dinner and swing by the house to get Katie into her pajamas. Nope, not enough time.

There was an immigration protest happening downtown that neither Ben nor I knew about. It was happening directly in between the exit I decided to take off of I-5 and Ben's office. An hour later, I finally had Ben in the car and we were headed back to West Seattle. Goodness! There was definitely not enough time to go home and go out to eat. Without any good dinner options ready at home, we chose "out to eat." Thankfully, our first choice for dinner was not busy at all.

We were seated immediately at Eats Market Cafe. Although I didn't catch all the details for sure, Katie's kids meal of pb&j sticks and apple slices was free tonight. Good deal! Ben and I both thoroughly enjoyed their bbq pull pork sandwiches. I must tell you, if you have kids, this is a great place to eat. The staff is very accomodating and aware of the needs of kids and parents. As soon as Katie was in the highchair, the server was giving her a spoon to play with. And, her food came out as soon as it was ready, rather than waiting until our plates were ready too. We were asked if we needed a small cup of water or extra napkins for Katie. I just really appreciate having no stress about having a toddler eating there. AND, there is a changing table in the bathroom! That makes me a very happy momma. KUDOS to Eats Market Cafe!

Tuesday, 6/22/2010

I've been hearing radio advertisements for a new, seasonal salad being offered at Panera Bread this summer. I attempted to make it at home tonight with pretty good success!

STRAWBERRY, CHICKEN, SPINACH SALAD

Ingredients:

1 can chicken broth

1 lb. cooked, thinly sliced chicken breast

baby spinach

strawberries

candied walnuts

poppyseed dressing

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Poach the chicken in chicken broth on medium heat until cooked through. Remove chicken from the broth, cool, and slice into thin strips.
In a bowl, combine baby spinach, cut strawberries, candied walnuts, cooled slices of chicken, and toss with poppyseed dressing.

Parmesan cheese crisps:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make 3" circles of grated parmesan, piled a little. Cook for 5 minutes. Let cool and serve with salad.

I didn't measure out exactly how much spinach, strawberries, or walnuts I used. Mix it however you want to:) I didn't toss the chicken in with the salad dressing tonight, but would do that the next time. It was a nice, light summer salad. Definitely worth making again. Katie ate some plain chicken and strawberries for her dinner.

Monday, 6/21/2010

Months ago, Jennifer, my mother-in-law, mentioned that she had purchased and was enjoying Oroweat's Sandwich Thins bread. I've seen the packages in the store, but hadn't bought them for our family yet. Today, at Costco, there was a big display of them. The price looked pretty good, so I decided to try them out. Ben grilled burgers for us and toasted a couple of these buns. They were great burgers! We were both really pleased with the Sandwich Thins. Good thing, because I purchased a bag at Costco. We won't run out for a while;) I made a mango, banana, and mandarin orange salad to go with it.

The burger went over really well with Katie. I gave her a nice big, mommy-sized bite to work on at the beginning of the meal. Halfway through my burger, I decided I better take a photo of it for the blog. As I tweaked the settings, Katie kept begging for more. By the time I got the photo I wanted, I only had a little bit of the burger left. Looks like a slider. I'm glad she liked it! Oh yes, and, she likes ketchup too:)

Sunday, 6/20/2010

Today did not turn out as we expected it to. For his birthday, I gave Ben tickets to go see the U2 concert this evening. Unfortunately, Bono had to have emergency back surgery about a month ago and the concert was delayed. So, that was the first crack in our plans.

Our back up plan to the concert was to go out for brunch at Swinery Meats. We've been reading about the Swinery's Inner Sanctum, a courtyard in which they serve deliciously prepared brunch and lunch items, on the West Seattle Blog and Facebook for weeks now. Father's Day seemed like it would be the perfect day to visit the Inner Sanctum. But no, it rained all day. We weren't thrilled with eating outside in a courtyard in the rain. Plus, Katie fell asleep in the car between church and the Swinery. Second crack!

We decided to head home so that Katie could finish napping. Ben exercised, I did finances, and Katie did not sleep in her crib. She chatted away for an hour or more. Finally, we took off for Renton to have linner (lunch/dinner) at The Rock- Wood Fired Pizza. It was super tasty. Katie enjoyed blueberries, cheese, and animal crackers while Ben and I shared Inferno Chicken Strips--boneless chicken strips, seasoned, deep fried, and tossed in hot sauce. YUM! Then we each had personalized pizzas. Ben had the "My Generation" pizza--cream sauce, peppercorn ranch dressing, tender pieces of chicken, thick bacon slices, swiss and mozzarella cheeses sprinkled with fresh parsley. I chose the "Slow Ride"--chicken, hot sausage, dry-aged pepperoni, roasted peppers and crushed garlic in a cajun cream sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese. Thankfully, no more cracks:)

I made ghirardelli dark chocolate brownies for dessert. Ben nuked them a bit, right before serving, and topped them with dark chocolate mint and vanilla ice cream.

The day didn't end up playing out the way we planned it to, but it still ended up being a good Father's Day.

Saturday, 6/19/2010

Tonight I went out with a bunch of fun gals for Laura's bachelorette party. The party started in the blue room at The Capitol Club. It was a fun space for our group. I was the DD, so I only had two drinks throughout the evening. I started with a Lavendar Cocktail--Lavender Dry Soda and Bombay Sapphire served with a Lavender Sugar Rim. I appreciated the lavender flavor, but it was a pretty weak drink. For my second drink, I had a Blood Orange Margarita. It did have salt on the rim, but, strangely, the whole drink was more salty than sweet or sour.

We were there during happy hour, so I had a couple appetizers for dinner. I ordered pork skewers with fries. Unfortunately, they didn't use a very good cut of pork. It was not tender and required lots of chewing. The fries, however, were excellent. They were sprinkled with chili powder and were perfectly crispy. My second plate was ridiciously good and too rich to finish. It was peppercorn bacon, tempura battered and fried, with a chocolate chipotle dipping sauce. OMG...it was soo good and yet soo bad. It was literally too rich for me to eat more than one piece. I did taste some artichoke cheese dip and hummus that someone else ordered. Those were both delicious.

Ben tells me that Katie insisted on having a peanut butter and jam sandwich for dinner. You might be wondering "how does she insist?" Well, when you open up the refrigerator, she goes right to the jam jar in the door and then starts vigorously making the signs for peanut butter and bread. Ben had frozen grapes, almonds, and cheddar cheese. It was one of his staple meals as a bachelor.

Friday, 6/18/2010

We had dinner at P.F. Chang's in Lynnwood tonight with Ben's brother, Spencer. It took FOREVER to be seated. When we got there, we were told it would be a 20-30 minute wait. It was more than an hour!!! Thank God it was nice enough to wait outside. Katie was extremely loud and impatient. She was all over the place and very hard to contain and control.

Anyway, as soon as we were finally seated, we ordered a children's chicken fried rice for Katie, along with our drinks. We were pretty sure she was hungry, since it was so much later than our normal dinner time. Nope, she wasn't hungry. She ate maybe two pieces of chicken and one bite of rice. She did, however, drink a ton of milk.

Ben, Spencer, and I started with an order of crispy green beans. I'm not sure what the dipping sauce is, but it is spicy hot and good! Then we shared orders of sesame chicken, spicy chicken, and beef a la sichuan. Nothing was left over but some shredded veggies and broccoli, and Katie's fried rice.

Thursday, 6/17/2010

Katie and I had a lovely afternoon shopping and visiting with our friend Shellie. We had a little Starbucks treat around 4pm; so, we didn't need a very big dinner. Katie and I finished off the rest of the Impossible Taco Pie. We were on our own for dinner, since Ben stayed downtown after work for an ASNE meeting.

She now knows how to say "bath" and "bathtub". As you can imagine, she is asking for lots of baths:) Thankfully, the bath seems to calm her down, and she is ready for bed right afterwards. I had her in bed before 6:30 tonight!

Wednesday, 6/16/2010

Katie is now officially 18 months old! We had a fun day together. She woke up early, so I took her out for breakfast. We tried Endolyne Joe's, but it was not open yet. We ended up sharing a breakfast sandwich and mini chocolate donut at Starbucks instead. It was a nice way to start the day:)

After lunch, we colored with crayons and danced to Casper Babypants- More Please. For dinner we had left over Impossible Taco Pie with delicious young, white corn on the cob. Katie couldn't wait for dinner; so, she happily munched on cheese and blueberries until dinner was ready. I was pleased that she still ate all of the pie that I prepped for her. It was fun watching her figure out how to bite into the corn cob!

Tuesday, 6/15/2010

PEPs was at Jackson's home tonight. Jen and Andy made grilled up delicious jalapeno cheese burgers with grilled buns. I heard Jen say the recipe came from a Weber cookbook. They also had a few small, unseasoned cheeseburgers for the kids. There was a big bowl of potato salad, which Katie liked, and corn on the cob. For dessert, we had warm brownies with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

Highlights from the evening included Ari and Katie giving each other fist bumps. Katie, Ari, and Ronan did some dunking at the basketball hoop. All of the kids taking turns on the wooden rocking horse. Boy, can they rock!

Monday, 6/14/2010

I had to strap Katie into her high chair so that I could make dinner. She seems to be cutting a tooth, which has made her very whiny, clingy, and kind of frantic today. Thankfully, she was mostly content being up higher so that she could see what I was doing from a distance.

I made Bisquick's Impossible Taco Pie tonight. We have a busy week ahead of us and it is a good meal to reheat as left overs. Here is the recipe we use. I'll share my notes at the end of this post.

IMPOSSIBLE TACO PIE

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 ( 1 1/4 oz.) envelope taco seasoning mix
1 can ( 4 oz.) chopped green chiles, drained
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup Bisquick
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese

Preparation:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease glass pie plate, 10 x 1 1/2 inches.
Cook and stir ground beef and onion in skillet until beef is brown;drain. Stir in seasoning mix, dry. Spread in pie plate; top with chillies. Beat milk, eggs and Bisquick baking mix until smooth. Pour into pie plate. Bake 25 minutes. Top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake 8-10 minutes. Longer or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream, tomatoes and shredded lettuce if desired. 6-8 servings.

I opt out on the onions for this dish. I don't think they are needed, and it cuts down on my prep time. I skip the tomatoes and instead top the pie with hot sauce for a little more kick. When we make beef burritos, we always use 1.5 packets of taco seasoning for one pound of ground beef. I use the same amount for this taco pie. And, I think 1 cup of shredded cheese isn't enough. Try 2 cups:) By the way, this is a great dish to take to a potluck. Hint: save a couple of those plastic pieces they use in delivery pizza boxes that keep the cheese from sticking to the box. You can use them in this dish to keep the melted cheese from sticking to the tin foil.

Sunday, 6/13/2010

The recipe we followed tonight is simply called "Ground Beef and Green Beans". One of Ben's mom's friends, Bev, gave us a copy of the recipe. It is similar to one dish we ordered at Mandarin Cove in Portland, OR, a couple weeks ago.

Tonight is the first time we have made this dish without setting off our smoke detector. Something about cooking oil in the skillet on high has always made our alarm go off. It has really freaked Katie out in the past; so, this time, Ben took the battery out of the detector before we started to cook. Cooking the meal was much less stressful this time around. I wrote "take out smoke detector battery" on the recipe:)

GROUND BEEF AND GREEN BEANS
from a cookbook called "Recipes I Have Known and Loved"

Sauce:
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/3 cup cooled broth
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce (we always used regular soy sauce)
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Main ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
1 pound green beans, trimmed and sliced diagonally into 2-inch lengths
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic (2 large cloves)
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (the original recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon...not enough!)
1/2 pound lean ground beef

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients. Make sure the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Set the mixture aside.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil for 30 seconds over high heat, and add the green beans. Stir-fry the green beans for about 4 minutes-the beans should be tender-crisp and lightly charred in spots. Remove the green beans with a slotted spoon, and set them aside.
3. Add the ginger and garlic to the pan, cook them for 30 seconds, and then add the pepper flakes and beef, crumbling the meat with a spatula. Stir-fry the mixture just until the beef loses its pinkness. Drain off all the excess fat from the pan.
4. Stir the reserved sauce once more, and add it to the meat. Cook the mixture, stirring it, for a few minutes until the sauce thickens. Fold in the reserved green beans, heat the mixture for 1 minute, and serve.

I was a little short on green beans, since I used them for the General Tsao's chicken earlier in the week. So, we ended up using a full pound of ground beef. I thought that the reduction in beans would offset the increase in ground beef. Turns out, I needed to have made 50% more sauce for these proportions. It was still tasty, but could have been a little bit better.

Saturday, 6/12/2010

Wow, tonight's meal was FANTASTIC- easily the best meal I've had a long time. In May 2008, we went to an auction at our church to benefit a mission trip to Mexico. Along with our friends Laura and Bron, we purchased a dinner for 12 people at our pastor's home. He and his wife Lyn, well known to be a great cook and entertainer, offered an un(wine)d party where they promised to serve mojitos and arepas. An arepa is a bread made of corn, popular in both Colombia and Venezuela. We were not disappointed. So, here's what we had tonight:

Beverages: Mojitos- fresh squeezed lime juice, simple syrup, tonic, rum, and mint. Wine and sangria were available with dinner.

Appetizer: toasted baguette slices, spread with cream cheese, and topped with a cherry, onion, jicama mixture. Lacking a better description, it was like a sweet bruschetta.

Dinner: grilled chicken breast that had been marinated in a heavenly orange-flavored marinade. A salad made of sliced naval oranges, jicama, and thinly sliced red onion. And, then, the arepas topped with: white rice flavored with onions and finely diced peppers, black beans, and an amazing salsa. I'm not sure what all went into the salsa, but it definitely had avocados, tomatoes, and onions in it. I helped to slice the avocados and tomatoes:) The flavor combination was soo good. I just can't say enough about how good it tasted!

Dessert: chocolate brownies with Full Tilt ice cream. Lyn and David offered us either coconut or salted caramel flavors. Ben had coconut, and I had the salted caramel. Both paired perfectly with the brownies.

Well, it goes without saying that we were quite stuffed when we left their house. But, it was totally worth it. We had a great meal with some of our favorite people. Thank you Lyn and David for hosting such a memorable evening!

EDITS FROM LYN:
Lyn, our wonderful cook, looked at my blog and sent some updates to the ingredients I listed for the meal she prepared. Here they are:

1. The mojitos were made with club soda, not tonic. And, they included triple-sec and lemon juice.
2. The cheese spread on the bruschetta was a blend of goat cheese and ricotta. Mint and cayenne were mixed into the cherry topping.
3. Dijon mustard is the special ingredient in the salsa. Good thing I didn't know that ahead of time. Mustard usually turns me off. But, I will embrace that I liked it in this dish!

Friday, 6/11/2010

Katie was walking around the house shouting "Da-da" around 4pm. I decided to call Ben at work so that she could hear his voice. After she was done "talking" with Ben, he and I opted to go out for dinner rather than eat at home. Katie and I picked up Ben from work and headed to Maggie Bluff's. We had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. During that time, Katie grabbed my iPod out of my purse and was playing with it. All of a sudden, she bolted towards the marina. Who knew she could move that fast?!? Ben and I both started after her, but he got to her first. They walked along the path together; it was very cute:)

We ordered fish and chips for Katie, since she has been eating fish so well in recent weeks. We sacrificed our own health by eating her chips for her;) Ben and I each got a salad and then opted to share a couple appetizers. Ben was brave and ordered the Broadway Pea Salad- sweet peas, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas and bacon tossed with creamy pepper dressing. He didn't like it at all. The dressing was not what he expected and it had lots of onions in it which were not included in the salad description. So, I shared my caesar with him. It was an ok salad.

The appetizers we shared were the Buffalo Chicken Wings and the Basket o' Ribs. The wings were really good in my opinion. They were deep fried, but not breaded. They had some heat, but not enough that my nose ran. It was nice to actually be able to taste the chicken and not have my tastebuds messed up by how hot the spice was. Ben would have preferred them to be breaded, but agreed that the flavor was good. The ribs were ok. I really like the Kalbi flavoring. Unfortunately, I don't think I chose pieces that had the best quality meat on them. I've purchased much better from the Fred Meyer butcher case. They were still good, but I would have been happier if the meat had been more tender.

It was a lovely evening at the marina. By the time we got home, it was time to put Katie to bed. Ah, what a great Friday night!

Thursday, 6/10/2010

I got a little adventurous this week at the grocery store and decided to try something new. Ok, I know it isn't as adventurous as making it from scratch, but I did manage to make a decent General Tsao chicken dish. I followed the following instructions on the sauce packet:

Ingredients:
Prep Time: 10 minutes (I don't chop and cut very quickly, so I would say it took me 20 minutes to cut up the chicken and veggies.)
Cook Time: 10 minutes (Allow for 15 minutes, just in case your food doesn't cook quickly like mine.)

1 pouch Simply Asia® Stir-Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups assorted fresh vegetables (I used one diced red bell pepper, one diced orange bell pepper, and then made up the difference with trimmed, fresh green beans.)
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

Directions:
HEAT oil in large skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Add vegetables; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. (I ended up cooking them for 8 minutes.)

ADD chicken; cook and stir 3 minutes or until cooked through. (Again, it took a couple minutes more for the chicken to cook through.)

STIR in Sauce until well mixed and heated through.

I served it with left over wild rice. We gave Katie a fork during dinner to help entertain her. She would willingly let me put chicken, rice, and peppers into her mouth as long as she had a hold of that fork. She is always game for trying a green bean, but she rarely does more than chomp on it once or twice and then give it back to me.

Wednesday, 6/9/2010

Tonight, I was in the mood for Ben's left over steak. I was a bit worried that reheating it would make it tough, but it ended up being really tender! In addition to the steak, I fixed a box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice, Original Seasoning, and corn. Katie didn't each much of the steak, but she did gobble down the rice and corn. I don't think I have fixed that variety of rice before. It was really good.

Tuesday, 6/8/2010

Ben flew to Huntsville, Alabama, this morning for a business meeting tomorrow. So, Katie and I were on our own for dinner tonight. I wasn't in the mood to have Ben's left over steak tonight, so I cooked up a few pieces of beer battered halibut from Costco. I made a lovely fruit salad to go with it. I used strawberries, blue berries, mandarin oranges, banana, blackberries, and grapes. Katie has been eating fish and fruit really well lately; so, our dinner was quite pleasant:)

Monday, 6/7/2010

Today, I bought my first t-bone steak...ever. I thought Ben would enjoy a good steak for dinner, and the t-bone looked pretty good. Unfortunately, Ben had to work a bit late. So, I ended up sharing a pear and hot dogs with Katie, and saved the steak for Ben. He grilled it up when he got home, seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil. He had a small spinach salad to go with it. I added goat cheese crumbles, mandarin oranges, and a splash of balsamic vinaigrette to the spinach. I was right- he did enjoy a good steak dinner. And, he saved a piece of steak for me to have another night:)

Sunday, 6/6/2010

What a great day today was! It began with Music Sunday, the conclusion of the choir season at our church. The church musicians lead the service by performing their favorite songs from the previous year. The service went really long, but our pastor said it was one of the most moving services he had ever been a part of. I'll take that as a BIG compliment:)

We put Katie down for her nap after lunch. I took advantage of her late nap schedule to get some much needed weeding done in the yard. I love the look of freshly weeded dirt! Our lavender, transplanted a couple years ago from my parent's yard, looks wonderful. Can't wait to see it in full bloom!

This evening we had two birthday parties to go to. Ruthie, our wedding coordinator, was celebrating her 80th birthday. And, our friend Greg was celebrating the big 50 with his twin brother. Our plan was to go out to dinner in between the parties. Unfortunately, the restaurant we wanted to go to closed at 4pm on Sunday. We put Katie into her stroller and went around the shopping center to a teriyaki restaurant. Closed! I guess people in West Seattle don't go to Westwood Village to have dinner on Sundays. After a quick stop at Barnes and Noble, we got in the car, headed for Endolyne Joe's. Argh...soo busy! Tons of people waiting to be seated already and no hostess in sight. What to do, what to do.

Although we were worried it would be crowded or closed too, we lucked out and found Abbondanza pizzeria on California, at Morgan Junction open and with tables available. Thank goodness! We were getting very hungry and frustrated. We shared a chicken caesar salad and an order of their sausage ravioli. OMG...sooo glad we had that. The ravioli was in a rich alfredo sauce and the filling had a very fine texture. I don't think either one of us would have offered to share more than a bite of the ravioli if we hadn't pre-arranged to split the plate:) Katie ate some of the chicken from the salad and munched on bread dipped in minestrone soup.

Next stop, Greg's 50th birthday party. What a fun party! I want to do the same thing for my 50th (hint, hint Ben). He rented out a local hall and hired a super talented musician to be at the piano. Greg and his brother started everything off with some jokes and a blues song about getting old. It was kind of an open mic night. I sang a solo and then as part of a couple groups. Everyone had a great time!

Saturday, 6/5/2010

Ben grilled hamburgers for us tonight. He started with lean ground beef and mixed in A-1 steak sauce, kosher salt, Lawry's seasoning salt, black pepper, and an egg to hold it together. He said that burgers usually stick to the grill, but tonight they were sliding all over the place. We topped them with bacon and Tillamook Garlic White Cheddar. We got to taste this cheese while at the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our vacation. We have enjoyed it in omelets and scrambles this week too. Other than being a bit too salty, the burgers were really good!

We had a fruit salad on the side. Katie and I shared a dill pickle, much to Ben's disgust:)

Friday, 6/4/2010

I pulled a couple chicken breasts out of the freezer today, unsure of what I was going to make for dinner with them. As dinner time approached, I decided to go with good old chicken burritos. I diced the raw chicken into pretty small cubes, maybe 1/2 inch. I cooked the chicken in oil until done and added taco seasoning and water. When the sauce had thickened a bit, I add it to tortillas already topped with shredded cheddar cheese. Drizzled with a little hot sauce and nuked in the microwave to melt the cheese, the chicken burritos were delicious.

In the past, Katie has willingly eaten the taco seasoned chicken. Not tonight. I don't think she ate more than 3 pieces. And, she definitely prefers cubed cheese over shredded. Much like her friend Oliver:)

Thursday, 6/3/2010

When I planned our dinner menu for the week, I expected to have left over salmon for dinner tonight. Without a better option, we stuck to the plan. I needed to find a way to make the salmon better than it was last night. I placed pats of butter on top of the salmon before I reheated it in the microwave. Turns out the melted butter helped with the moisture issue I had last night. It didn't help with the orange flavor, but it was better overall. Ben liked it. We had a caesar salad on the side.

Wednesday, 6/2/2010

A while I ago I purchased quite a few Grill Mates marinade mixes. I decided to try the Baja Citrus flavor tonight. Although several different protiens would go with each marinade, it seems like the best choice is listed first under the ingredients on the packaging. Salmon was listed first; so, I marinated salmon.

I struggled with how long to cook the salmon. I like salmon to be moist, but done. It's a hard balance to find. It seems like I went from raw to overcooked in a minute. The salmon was just too dry in the end. And, unfortunately, I was disappointed with the flavor. I can't be sure why, but I think it is because there is too much orange flavor in this marinade. I think salmon goes well with lemon, but orange doesn't work as well in my opinion.

Ben went to a Mariner's game; so it was just me and Katie for dinner. I didn't want to go through the hassle of grilling asparagus without a second person to watch Katie. Instead, I fixed mixed berries for a side dish. Katie is still not sure about blackberries, but she loves blueberries and strawberries.

Tuesday, 6/1/2010

We hosted our PEPS gathering this week. It was a little crazy trying to pull it together after just getting back from our vacation, but we did it:) I got a package of chicken drumsticks from Costco and rubbed them with our standard bbq rub. Ben worked the grill and got them perfectly cooked and coated with bbq sauce. They were spicy and a hit with the group! I opened up a package of mixed greens and put out a couple salad dressings for people to choose from. We had our first corn on the cob of the season. It will get better for sure, but it was still very tasty. And for dessert, we had angelfood cake with berries and whipped cream. I filled a clear salad bowl with 3 layers of berries- blueberries, sliced strawberries, and blackberries.

For the kids, I had Ben grill a couple plain chicken breasts, and I steamed some broccoli. Katie ate so much broccoli at the Chinese restaurant the other day that I was sure she would eat a bunch of it. Nope, she only played with it. Yes, it was all over the carpet. UGH!

Boy, those kids were soo cute! We hadn't been with the group for a month, so it was fun to see how much each of them has changed. I think they are almost to a point where they will play with each other. We put Katie and Ronan in our arm chair together for fun. Ronan has been known to feed Katie food during our gatherings:) Here's a photo of them together. They were grooving and clapping to Casper Babypants.

Monday, 5/31/2010

Oh boy, the post-vacation weigh-in was NOT good this morning. Back on the low carb band wagon for us, except that we have this left over pizza in the fridge. Since I had not gotten to the grocery store yet, we decided to just finish off the pizza over lunch and dinner. We added left over Caribbean Pork Bowl pork and sausage to dinner in order to have enough to share with Katie.

Sunday, 5/30/2010

The last leg of our vacation was super smooth. I highly recommend driving between Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA, on the Sunday of a three day weekend. There was NO traffic! After unloading the rental van, removing the top carrier, returning the van to the airport, and taking a cab home, neither of us was interested in cooking. Garlic Jim's Pizza to the rescue. We took advantage of a coupon for a $5 large pepperoni pizza. The funny thing is that we ended up paying $10 plus delivery fee for it since they have a $10 minimum for delivery orders.

Ah, it is good to be home:)

Saturday, 5/29/2010

Another delicious breakfast at the Arch Cape Inn today. First course- strawberry, kiwi, apricot fruit salad in a yogurt, poppyseed dressing. Second course- wild mushroom quiche and apple chicken sausage patties. Again, we were both brave and tried the quiche. It was actually pretty good. It was in puff pastry, which definitely improved it:) The sausage was wonderfully tasty. They served fresh cranberry scones for the third course.

The steady drizzle of the morning caused us to head back to Jennifer's house in Clackamas, OR, instead of spending more time in Cannon Beach. The drive back was very quick compared to most of the other driving we did on the trip. We had lunch at a local grocery store deli and then spent the afternoon relaxing at her home.

Our plan was to have dinner at Montage in Portland, OR. We have attempted to go there several times before and have not made it for one reason or another. We actually drove there tonight, parked, and went in the front door only to find out that they had just filled all the tables and that they didn't have high chairs or booster seats. Foiled again! Someday we WILL eat there:) Luckily, we knew of an excellent Chinese restaurant relatively close by- Mandarin Cove. We were seated immediately and had a fantastic meal with wonderful service! We shared General Tso's Chicken, dry sauteed string beans with chicken, and beef with orange flavor. With full bellies, we finished our day by watching "The Hangover".

Friday, 5/28/2010

!!!HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

We had a lovely breakfast at the Arch Cape Inn. The first course was yogurt topped with a mango puree, homemade granola, and a fresh raspberry. The yogurt was a little blah by itself, but was delicious with the puree and granola. The second course was a veggie scramble, a slice of bacon, and rosemary roasted potatoes. Although we didn't finish it, we were both brave and tried the veggie scramble. The third course was fresh banana nut bread with apricot slices. What a good way to start our anniversary day!

Jennifer and Katie took Spencer to a bus stop this morning and he took off for Indiana, via Portland, OR. He is going to a friend's wedding tomorrow. So, the rest of the vacation is with just the four of us. Jennifer and Katie picked us up at 10am and we went to Cannon Beach to do some shopping.

For lunch we ducked out of the rain in Cannon Beach, OR at the Morris Fireside Restaurant. We were seated quite quickly, but it took a while to place our orders. They seemed to be a bit short handed. Eventually, the food came and it was pretty good. Jennifer had really good halibut fish and chips. Ben had a black bean soup which was full of great flavor. I ordered macaroni and cheese. The flavor was ok, but the texture wasn't. There were crunchy onions in it. I don't like onions to crunch in my food. Katie ate off of our plates.

We had hoped to continue shopping and play on the beach in Cannon Beach during the afternoon, but the rain forced us to head to Seaside, OR where Jennifer and Katie were staying. After an afternoon of window shopping, we decided to go to Taste of Tuscany for dinner. Online it looked like an Olive Garden kind of place. It was kind of like that in person. The atmosphere was much more calm and the clientele was mainly from an older generation. The food was good- not great, but good. I had nut-crusted halibut in a cream sauce. The halibut was delicious, but the sauce was too sweet. In retrospect, I should have added some salt. Ben had chicken parmesan with pasta in a red sauce. Again, the protein was great, but the sauce was too sweet. Jennifer's lasagna was really good. All in all, it was a pleasant meal.

We really wanted to have dinner at Newmans at 988. We ate there on our honeymoon and the food was FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, they didn't have highchairs or booster seats. That just doesn't work for Katie. Shoot...next time maybe:) If you plan on going there, be sure to call ahead and make a reservation. Looks like it is a very popular place these days.

Thursday, 5/27/2010

Ben and I got up before the crack of dawn today and went on a little photo shoot! We quietly got ready and managed to sneak out of the room with our camera gear without waking up Katie. Jennifer and Spencer were kind enough to listen for Katie while we were gone. Thankfully, we got back just as she would have been waking up, so they had an easy job.

Anyway, we went out to Face Rock and took photos at dawn. The sky did not provide the beautiful sunrise we hoped for, but we still had a great time. It will be a while before our photos are processed, but we did get some really good photos and video. We only saw one person on the beach before us, a clammer. There were a couple other photographers out when we were wrapping up. It was very calm and peaceful out there- just the two of us:)

Enough about photography, on to the food. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road, destination Arch Cape, OR. We stopped at the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, OR for lunch. Ben's family ate there years ago and wanted to revisit it. I was not a fan. They only have one, all you can eat, menu option per meal. Either you eat what they are serving, or you don't. For our lunch they served white bread, green salad, calico beans, green beans, swiss steaks (basically hamburger steaks in tomato sauce), and pinapple upside down cake. The bread was actually quite good. The salad was ok. Ben LOVED the calico beans. I don't eat baked beans, so I have no opinion about them. The green beans were heavily flavored with onions. I didn't eat more than one of them. The swiss steak was ok, but I NEVER would have ordered it in a restaurant. Ben's mom was the only person in our group who had the dessert. I just wasn't in the mood. The worst part was that it started POURING rain while we were having lunch. Katie had a dirty diaper and there was no changing table in the restaurant for her. So, we had to stand out in the downpour, changing her diaper in the van. The water was running down my legs and into my shoes. It was awful. Good thing we were stopping for ice cream later. That made up for it.

We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory late in the afternoon and had double scoops of ice cream. Yummy as always:) We were pretty full when it came time to have dinner, so we skipped it. Our 5th anniversary is tomorrow, so Spencer and Jennifer are taking Katie tonight and tomorrow night so that we can stay at the Arch Cape Inn & Retreat by ourselves. It is the B&B we stayed at on our honeymoon! We did get a little hungry as the night went on, so I had an apple, some peanut butter, a little chocolate, and wine. Ben snacked on "race mix". When he was growning up, his family would take a mixture of m&ms, cashews, and peanuts with them to car races. It was fun to have that on the trip with us.

Wednesday, 5/26/2010

Our destination today was Bandon, OR. We made it to Brookings, OR, and needed to stop for dinner. We followed the GPS to a couple potential dinner spots, but weren't pleased with what they looked like. Finally, we followed it to Wild River Brewing and Pizza Co. It was a very busy place. We adults shared a pepperoni and sausage pizza and ordered a chicken breast basket for Katie. The pizza was ok- not the best, not the worst. The fun part of the pizza was that they sliced it into small diamond shapes. Definitely different than the standard slices.

The basket contained two, bone-in fried chicken breasts and thinly sliced potatoes, which were breaded and fried. Ben said the chicken was some of the best fried chicken he had ever tasted. Katie ate a little chicken and a little pizza, topped off with goldfish crackers. I didn't care for the potatoes at all. They were kind of soggy once the outer breading was gone.

Two hours later, we finally made it to our hotel- another excellent location for us, the Best Western Inn at Face Rock. We had two adjoining rooms that were plenty spacious. Inside the mini-fridge there was a sandwich baggie containing a plastic spoon and a note that read "Need Ice Cream? See the front desk." How did they know we needed ice cream? So, I went to the front desk and came back with small cups of chocolate ice cream for us. How nice:)

Tuesday, 5/25/2010

We stayed in Ft. Bragg, CA tonight. When we first got into town, we needed to stop at the grocery store for Katie's milk and ice. The first store we saw was like a PCC or Whole Foods. The store had a small section of clothing in it, including t-shirts for a local brewing company. When we checked into our hotel, we asked if the brewing company was a good place to eat. Turned out it was!

We had dinner at the North Coast Brewing Co. Ben and Spencer each had a plate of BBQ pulled pork with cornbread. Jennifer and I shared a cheeseburger with fries. That was one fabulous burger. The bun was toasted and the burger was super juicy without being undercooked. Ben said his pork was good, but that the bite he had of my burger made him want to switch what he ordered. Katie gnawed on tough crusted bread and while I fed her some of Ben's pork and cornbread. She also stole a few fries from her grandma's plate:)

If you ever plan on driving down the coast and find yourself needing a place to stay in Ft. Bragg, CA, I highly recommend the Shoreline Cottages. We stayed in cottages 8 and 9. Each had a small kitchenette, furnished with dishes, paper towels, dish soap and a sponge, a microwave, coffee maker, and fridge. They had TVs with DVD players, comfy beds, fast response heaters, and nice toiletries. The rooms were clean and the property manager was very knowledgeable about the area.

Monday, 5/24/2010

This morning we drove to San Francisco. Again, we had a pretty big lunch, so for dinner we decided to go for drinks and dessert:) We went to an Italian restaurant, just a few blocks away from our hotel, called Cioppino's. Once there, we just couldn't not have bread too. Ben and I ordered garlic sourdough bread, and Spencer ordered bruschetta. I must say, that bruschetta was amazing. I'm usually not one for raw tomatos, but I LOVED the garlic, oil, and herbs mixed in with them for this appetizer. Ben, Spencer and I had margaritas with the bread, and I think Jennifer had a glass of wine.

Spencer and I shared a chocolate lava cake with ice cream. Jennifer had tiramisu, and Ben had triple chocolate mousse. They were all delicious. We definitely had a great non-dinner at Cioppino's.
Here's a fun picture of the drink diversity at our table:

I should point out that we got real food for Katie, but she didn't eat much of it. We ordered her a separate kids meal for about 1/2 of our meals. She rarely ate enough to make it worth the extra expense.

Sunday, 5/23/2010

We spent today at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. What an AWESOME place to be! I can't begin to name the amazing things/creatures we saw. Ok, how about just a few:

Penguins (Katie now has a stuffed penguin named Penny.)
Hammerhead sharks
Sea horses and dragons (And sticking with the LOST theme, Katie also has a stuffed seahorse named Sawyer.)
Otters
Jellies

I even touched a bat ray! After a pretty big lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and a late afternoon ice cream snack at the Nestle Cafe, we didn't need much for dinner. At about 7:30, while getting ready to watch the series finale of LOST, I had an apple with peanut butter and wine for dinner. The end of LOST was not as satisfying as my simple dinner.

I must say that my ice cream sandwich snack (yes, it was huge) was delicious! It was made of two peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, fresh out of the oven,with dark chocolate ice cream. OMG...so good.

Saturday, 5/22/2010

Tonight Ben and I had dinner at a wedding! Our friends Lauren and Tim tied the knot in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, and we were thrilled to join them for the wedding and reception.

CONGRATS TO MR. & MRS. FLOOD!!!!

After the outdoor ceremony, there was a cocktail and appetizer hour. The crab cakes were YUMMY! They were sitting on little round pieces of bread, SOAKED in butter. Ben joked that the crab cakes were sitting on bread soaked butter;) The chicken skewers were tasty too. For dinner we each selected the chicken and salmon option. Our friend Mckenzie was kind enough to give Ben a bite of her steak. He said the sauce on it was good. I wish I could remember more about the dinner, but honestly, I had too much to drink.

I do remember that Lauren and Tim had a couple different cake flavor options. We sampled them both...white and chocolate...and they were delicious.