Monday, 2/28/2011

We reheated left over Barcelona Chicken from yesterday.  Although she didn't want any yesterday, Katie did a pretty good job eating her chicken tonight.  While she insisted on trying to eat directly off of the bone, it took some of Ben's help to get her the meat she wanted.  Our side salad was made of butter lettuce, glazed walnuts, craisins, and poppy seed dressing. 

Sunday, 2/27/2011

Our friend Lyle joined us for dinner and the Oscars tonight.  We served grilled chicken drumsticks, green beans, and chili/lime popcorn during the show.  For the chicken, we tried out a new marinade recipe from the book "Weber's Real Grilling" by Jamie Perviance.  Here's the recipe.

BARCELONA CHICKEN

Prep time: 15 minutes
Marinating time: 4-6 hours, or as long as 12 hours
Grilling time: 30-40 minutes

Marinade Ingredients:
5 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
3 large garlic cloves
2 serrano chile peppers, roughly chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 whole chicken, 4-5 pounds, cut into 6 pieces

Directions:

1. To make the marinade: In a food processor or blender, combine the marinade ingredients and process to a smooth paste, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a large, resealable bag and pour in the marinade.  Press the air out of the bag and seal it tightly.  Turn the bag several times to distribute the marinade, place the bag in a bowl, and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours, or as long as 12 hours, turning the bag occasionally.
3. Remove the chicken pieces from the bag and discard the marinade.  Grill, skin side down, over Indirect Medium heat until fully cooked.  The breast and wing pieces will take about 30 minutes.  The leg-thigh pieces will take about 40 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes of grilling time, move the chicken over Direct Medium heat until well browned all over, turning once.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings

Notes: 

1. I didn't get a whole chicken.  Instead, I used 3-4 pounds of drumsticks.    

2. The flavor was really good, but the chicken would have been better if we had let it sit in the marinade longer and then stayed on the grill longer.  The recipe says to marinate the chicken for 4-6 hours or up to 12 hours.  We only gave ourselves 3.5 hours.  The recipe also said to grill for 40 minutes, but the chicken really needed 50 minutes to help the meat fall off the bones.  

Saturday, 2/26/2011

I purchased a pound of ground beef on Monday this week to make hamburgers for our dinner tonight.  Well, the beef didn't last in the fridge as I expected it to.  I ended up making an extra trip to the grocery store this afternoon to get more.  It was worth it.  Our burgers were delicious.  As usual, Ben mixed in some A-1 Steak Sauce, Lowry's seasoning salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a little cayenne pepper.  Oh, and he added an egg to help it all stick together since it was pretty lean beef.  Although the patties didn't hold their shape well and sunk below the grates of the grill, the parts that came off of the grill were good;)  We topped our burgers with sharp cheddar cheese and bacon and put them on top of Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins.  Katie and I added dill pickles and ketchup, while Ben stuck with mustard. 

Friday, 2/25/2011

We had halibut and a fruit salad of oranges and bananas for dinner tonight.  I had plans to go play pinochle at church as soon as dinner was over.  Since snacks were promised, I only ate a little at home. I should have brought my own snacks.  The pretzels, gum drops, candy canes, and a mix of animal crackers, raisins, malt balls, and m&m-like candies were fine, but not what I had hoped for. 

Pinochle is a card game typically played by four people.  We started the evening with 6 people, two of whom had never played before.  So, we learned how to play double-deck, five handed pinochle.  The two newbies teamed up to play together.  It took me two hands to figure out how to bid accurately with a double deck, but in the end....I won!  Not too shabby.  What I enjoyed most about the evening was how it reminded me of playing the game with my grandparents:) 

Thursday, 2/24/2011

We enjoyed more Smoky Chicken Tortilla Soup, minus the tortillas, for dinner tonight.  I spooned some of the soup broth over the top of rice for Katie's dinner.  She also ate some cheddar cheese.  

Katie loves to eat fruit, but it wreaks havoc on her poor little bottom.  Since she's had too much fruit in the last couple of days, she had to stick to a plain, boring meal of rice and cheese for dinner.  In other news, here's a photo of her outside in our front yard this morning next to the snowman we made.  What fun!  

Wednesday, 2/23/2011

All day long we have been expecting snow.  And, all day long, each time I checked the weather forecast, the snow was expected to arrive two hours later than the last time I checked.  Even without snow, it is cold.  So, we enjoyed hearty bowls of Smoky Chicken Tortilla Soup, minus the tortillas for dinner.  Don't get me wrong, I love the tortillas in this soup.  The problem is that you can't buy a small bag of tortilla chips.  You are required to buy a bag big enough to feed a family for a week, and I end up eating all the extras.  In an effort to curb my unnecessary chip crunching, we did without the chips in our soup.  The soup was fine without them. 

Tuesday, 2/22/2011

Tonight Ben and I finished the BBQ country style ribs he prepared yesterday.  I put them into a foil-lined baking pan, covered them with foil, and baked for half an hour in the toaster over set to 375 degrees.  They were as delicious tonight as they were last night.  Definitely a recipe worth repeating over and over again.  YUM!!!

Katie wasn't at all interested in the pork.  She ate some cubed chicken and half of a banana instead.  The good thing about her not liking the pork was that there was more for us:)  I definitely didn't want to share. 

Monday, 2/21/2011 Guest Blogger

Ben prepared a delicious meal for us last night, the 19th, and has offered to blog about it.  Thanks Ben! 

In light of the fact that I was able to fully enjoy a three-day holiday weekend and Sarah was, shall we say, not so lucky, I was bestowed the responsibility of producing a fine family meal for dinner on Monday.  Adding to the challenge, Sarah requested I prepare a couple of pounds of country-style pork ribs she purchased several weeks ago and stored in the freezer.

I’ve never prepared country-style ribs before.  In fact, I can only think of two times previously I’ve every prepared ribs of any kind.  So, I needed to find a recipe.  I learned that country-style ribs, which aren’t really ribs at all, are marbleized such that slow cooking is the ideal preparation to render tender results.  I settled on starting with a recipe for BBQ Country Style Ribs I found on www.allrecipes.com.  But, that wasn’t enough for me.  I had to go and read the comments and learn more from others’ experience.  The original recipe calls for cooking the ribs for two hours uncovered with lemon slices on top.  It seemed the folks that were happiest with the recipe raised the temperature, sealed them in foil, and added a little water.  If I remember my Alton Brown training correctly, I believe this changes the process from baking to braising.  I liked that, so I ran with it.
 
BBQ COUNTRY STYLE RIBS

Ingredients:
4 Country-style pork ribs
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 lemons, thinly sliced
Barbeque sauce
 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Line a shallow baking pan with aluminum foil up and around the edge of the pan to keep water contained. Place the ribs in the pan.
3. Spread minced garlic over the ribs.  I used the minced garlic you can buy in a jar at the grocery store. 
4. Cover the ribs with the lemon slices.
5. Pour about 1/16 of an inch of water in the pan.

6. Cover with aluminum foil and seal tightly to hold in the steam as the ribs braise.
7. Bake for two hours.
8. Remove from the oven and remove the foil cover, carefully, to avoid getting burned by the trapped steam.  

9. Remove the lemon slices and poor off the liquid.
10. Coat the ribs, liberally, on all sides with your preferred barbeque sauce.

11. Reseal the ribs in foil.
12. Bake at 275 degrees F for forty minutes.

After the second bake, I put the ribs back in the oven with the broiler on in an attempt to carmelize the barbeque sauce to give it a little crispiness and better presentation.  It didn’t work.  Instead, it made them look dry.  So, I flipped them over before I served.  I’d recommend skipping the broiling.
 

I served the ribs with a wedge salad with chopped bacon and blue cheese dressing for me and chipotle ranch dressing for Sarah.

The ribs were absolutely delicious.  It takes a while to cook them, but the actual time put into preparation is no more than 15 minutes.  Plus, country-style ribs are super cheap.  With the low prep-time, low cost, and excellent results, I’ll definitely be serving these again.  I think they’ll scale up well to large groups.  So, the next time we host a potluck, I think we have our meal.

Sunday, 2/20/2011

This evening our family went to Alki to take photos of the city as the sun set.  It was a beautifully clear and COLD night.  Katie was strapped onto my back and took turns using her camera and drinking milk.  Knowing that we would be home for dinner a little late, we had snacks before we left the house.  

For dinner, I reheated a couple servings of "Ackers secret recipe spaghetti sauce" that I had in the freezer and cooked some spaghetti.  We were all a bit chilled after our photo outing, and it hit the spot.  Here's a shot of us with Downtown Seattle in the background.  Thank you self-timer:)

Saturday, 2/19/2011

Crock Pots, our church potluck group, met at our house tonight.  We had eight adults, two babysitters, and five kids.  The kids spent time in our room watching Mary Poppins or downstairs playing with toys.  I think they all gathered with us when it was time to serve dessert.  I made a green salad and a pot of Chili Mac and Cheddar Soup, from Sunset magazine, for our contribution to the meal.  I've increased the amounts of ground beef, chili powder, and cumin from the original recipe.  Also, the salt and hot sauce were new additions to the recipe.  It was all gone by the end of the night to glowing reviews:)  Here's the recipe.

CHILI MAC 'N' CHEDDAR SOUP

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 lb lean ground beef
4 tablespoons hot Mexican chili powder
6 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 can (14 1/2-ounce) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (10 3/4-ounce) condensed cheddar-cheese soup
1 1/2 cup uncooked elbow pasta
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Hot sauce to taste

Diced tomato, for garnish
Tortilla chips, for garnish
Minced jalapeño chile, for garnish

Directions:
1.  Heat oil in a 5-quart soup pot over medium-high heat; add onion and sauté 4 minutes, until translucent. Crumble beef into pot and cook, stirring for 4 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
2.  Add milk and broth, then stir in condensed soup until dissolved; bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in pasta; continue to cook, covered, 5 minutes. Stir in cheese until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes or until pasta is fully cooked.
3.  Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with diced tomato, tortilla chips, and minced chile.

The rest of the group brought a potato casserole, corn bread, and a fruit salad for dinner.  And, for dessert, we had ice cream and oreo sundaes.  Good friends, good conversation, plenty of laughter, and great food.  Who could ask for a better Saturday night? :)  

Friday, 2/18/2011

Katie had left over couscous, sugar snap peas, and chicken for dinner tonight.  Ben and I had a chicken salad.  I took a Strawberry Fields Fresh Express salad and added chopped chicken that I braised in chicken stock earlier.  I seasoned the chicken with a sage and lemon seasoning salt.  The salad kit came with spinach leaves, dried sweet strawberries, toasted sliced almonds and strawberry vinaigrette dressing.  Although a salad for a main dish is never completely satisfying to us, this one was pretty good.  

Thursday, 2/17/2011

For dinner, we made burritos with the left over taco meat from Tuesday.  Low-carb tortillas, filled with seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, and hot sauce.  They are always quite tasty. 

Wednesday, 2/16/2011

We had beer battered halibut from Costco with a fruit salad for dinner.  Yes, this is a pretty common meal for us.  It is hard to goof it up.  The fruit salad was made with a banana, strawberries, and a pear. 

And, just to follow up on the frosting I made for our Valentine's Day cake, microwaving it for 30 seconds did indeed melt the fats enough to drizzle it on the cake like a glaze.  Thanks for the advice dad!

Tuesday, 2/15/2010

We hosted our PEPS group tonight for a "Make Your Own Tacos" meal.  We had the choice of soft or hard taco shells.  I made four pounds of taco seasoned ground beef.  All but one-half pound of the beef was eaten tonight.  We served Mexican rice, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and hot sauce with the taco meat.  Naomi brought chips and salsa that her mom made:)  For dessert, Sara & Aaron brought brownies, cookies, ice cream, and strawberries.  What a spread!  I definitely ate too much.

Monday, 2/14/2011

This afternoon, Ben and I had the pleasure of shooting his brother's engagement photos.  Whoo hoo for Kate and Spencer's upcoming nuptials!!!  Ben was the official shooter, and I was the light stand;)  We strapped Katie on my back in the ergo baby carrier and took off for a couple hours of shooting at Pike Place Market.  It didn't take long for Katie to become tired of being on my back.  After listening to her shout "down" and "walk" in my ear, I reluctantly gave her my iPod so that she could watch "Toy Story".  That was the best decision I made all day.  She didn't drop it and was mostly content with it.  

After the shoot was over, we picked up asparagus and steak at the market and headed back to our house.  I still had some work to do, so Ben was in charge of dinner.  He got the steak and asparagus on the grill and Spencer made up a batch of roasted garlic and herb couscous.  Other than a pretty big meltdown from Katie right as the food was ready to eat, we really enjoyed our meal.  We finished it off with chocolate cake.  

I used a Duncan Hines Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake mix, baked in a bundt pan, and made my own chocolate frosting.  The cake was delicious.  YUM!  The frosting was very tasty, but the texture wasn't what I was going for.  It was very dense.  I used butter, whipping cream, melted unsweetened chocolate, vanilla extract, a couple dashes of salt, and powdered sugar.  My dad recommended heating it all in the microwave for a few seconds to get everything to melt a bit.  That way, it could be spread on and would set as it cooled.  I'll have to try on the left overs;) 

Sunday, 2/13/2011

We grilled chicken tenderloins for our dinner tonight and served them with a side of sugar snap peas.  The chicken was prepared with the same dry rub and barbecue sauce I used Thursday last week.  Katie wasn't interested in the chicken, but she ate quite a few pea pods. 

Saturday, 2/12/2011

If a good day can be measured by how many people in the house got to take a nap, then today was a fantastic day.  We all took naps:)  

Last night we ordered pepperoni pizza for Shellie and Katie to have while we were on our date.  We finished it off for our dinner tonight.

Friday, 2/11/2011

Ben and I are very fortunate to have friends and family who will watch Katie for us while we go on dates.  Tonight, our friend Shellie took care of Katie while we went out for dinner and a concert at The Triple Door.  We got tickets to sit at a table right in front of the stage.  Other than having to turn to look to the center of the stage, our seats were great.  We saw Susan Werner and David Wilcox.  It was a unique concert experience.  David started with six songs and then Susan came out and they traded off after each song or two.  David stated that they were going to try to have a conversation with their songs.  And, it worked pretty well.  For instance, she sang a humorous song about being bad and doing all the things bad for ourselves and the environment.  He followed up with a song about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year.  Then she sang "Mercy Me", another song with an environmental conscience.  Anyway, it was a great show.  

The Triple Door serves food from Wild Ginger, the Tom Douglas restaurant upstairs.  We started off with chicken pot stickers.  For our main dishes, we shared Pad Thai with chicken and Seven  Flavor Beef.  Both were quite good.  With our meals we enjoyed wine and a few cocktails.  For dessert we shared a ginger chocolate gelato.  Oh, the food was very good. 

Thursday, 2/11/2011

My friend Bron came over for dinner tonight.  I was able to get all of the food prepped before she arrived, and was thankful that Katie was willing to play with her while I worked the grill.  It was definitely faster to grill without Katie's "help".  We had barbecued chicken tenderloins and asparagus.  I tossed the asparagus in olive oil, salt and pepper, and grilled on Direct Medium heat for 8 minutes.  The chicken was dry rubbed and then grilled for 6 minutes, also on Direct Medium, turning once, and brushing quickly with barbecue sauce while still on the grill.  I used some of the Kolander Grubb's barbecue sauce we had on our pork sandwiches earlier this week.  

Katie couldn't wait for the chicken and asparagus.  She had peanut butter, pear, and yogurt for her dinner. 

Wednesday, 2/9/2011

Katie and I had a little bit of everything for dinner tonight.  She had some left over stir-fried steak, gold fish crackers, pears, and peanut butter.  I had the left over pizza, some pear, and a few bites of steak.  The steak continues to be delicious, but the snow peas didn't hold up as well. 

Tuesday, 2/8/2011

Katie and I were on our own for dinner tonight.  Ben is away on a business trip and won't be back until late Thursday.  I opted for the quick and easy dinner tonight--battered halibut from Costco with dipping sauce.  After the oven is pre-heated, it only takes 22 minutes to cook.  We Skyped with my parents while we waited for the fish to finish cooking.  What a great way to pass the time!  Thankfully, Katie was hungry by the time we ate and quickly finished her fish:) 

Monday, 2/7/2011

I was very indecisive at the grocery store this morning. I basically bought stuff for breakfast, lunch, and only veggies for dinners this week.  I figured I had enough protein in the freezer, that I could improvise.  And, improvise is exactly what I did for dinner tonight.  When Ben called to say he was on his way home, I still didn't have a clue what I was fixing for dinner.  I asked him what kind of food he was in the mood for.  When he said "spicy," I had to come up with something quick.

We had some zesty pizza sauce, hot Italian sausage, and shredded mozzarella in the fridge, but no pizza dough.  I went online to the Bisquick website hoping to find a quick pizza dough recipe.  I was surprised to only find recipes that required yeast and far more time than I had available.  What I did find was a recipe for Reuben Fold-Overs, which looked like calzones or empanadas.  I took a chance and it worked pretty well.

For the dough, I took two cups of Bisquick and added 1/2 cup of boiling water.  I mixed until the dough formed, split the dough into four balls, pressed them out into 5 inch rounds, and placed them on a cookie sheet.  I topped each round with the sauce, cheese and sausage and baked for about 15 minutes.  They tasted pretty good, but were really just flat biscuits with pizza toppings:)  The pizza sauce really saved it.  Yes, it is that good;)  All in all, it was a successful improvisation. 

Sunday, 2/6/2011

We had BBQ pork sandwiches for dinner tonight.  I reheated some pork roast, and then Ben added delicious habanero BBQ sauce I bought last fall at the Woodinville Farmers Market.  The sauce is a local brand: Kolander Grubb's.  The pork and sauce were placed on toasted Sandwich Thin buns. 

I gave Katie some couscous, pork, and a few slices of pear.  She ate the pears no problem, but only played with the pork and couscous.  Oh well. 

Saturday, 2/5/2011

We spent today at Stevens Pass.  Ben, his brother Spencer, and our friends, Karen and Michel, skied most of the day.  Katie and I hung out in the snow-- walking around, throwing snowballs, and watching all the people come and go.  Spencer spent some time with us in the later afternoon since he had a headache and his feet were hurting.  We finished up around 4:30 and drove to Karen and Michel's house to change our clothes.  We tried to eat dinner at the Red Hook Brewery, but ended up at Red Robin when the wait at the brewery was 1.5 hours. 

I had the grilled chicken pesto pasta, which was really tasty.  Ben had three steak sliders.  Katie did a fair job eating her ketchup only burger with fries.  Red Robin is always pretty darn good.

Friday, 2/4/2011

Katie and I picked Ben up from work today and headed to Cactus, our favorite restaurant on Alki beach.  I can't seem to stay away from their nachos with roasted corn, jalapenos, pico de gallo, charred tomato salsa, buttermilk crema, chicken, and chorizo.  Yum!!!  Ben had a pork dish off of the menus of specials for the evening.  The pork was extremely tender and was in a delicious sauce.  He didn't care of the carrot topping.  We got Katie a chicken quesadilla.  She ate some of it, but was more interested in coloring.  

The best part of the meal, not really, was when Katie leaned over in her booster seat to give me a piece of tortilla chip.  She fell over onto me, dragging her paper placemat and the bowl of salsa resting on it, into her lap.  I was blowing my nose at the time and couldn't do anything to stop her.  It makes me want to use high chairs until she can't fit anymore.  The benches in restaurant booths are just not stable enough for booster seats, at least not for our squirmy toddler. 

Thursday, 2/3/2011

Our good friend Kalena came over for dinner tonight.  She then stayed to watch Katie for us while we went to a play at our church.  Thanks Kalena!  For dinner I served a pork roast, roasted broccoli with garlic, and couscous.  It was a pretty good meal.  I used the same recipe for the pork that we use when we make BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.  I just stopped at the point we usually start pulling and adding BBQ sauce. The pork was actually a bit dry, which was surprising.  Usually the pork is super juicy.  It could have been cooked in the crock pot too long or simply wasn't as fatty of a cut.  Either way, it was better when we poured the pork drippings over the top:)

As for the broccoli...I had two helpings!   Katie licked a piece of broccoli and said "no like it."  I tried to get her to have some pork, but she only wanted couscous.  And, she ate it with gusto.  At least she got most of it in her mouth.  Couscous is one of the messiest foods to give a toddler. 

Wednesday, 2/2/2011

We tried a new recipe tonight that we all loved!  I got it from the Cook's Country magazine years ago and finally gave it a shot.  The recipe would feed four just fine if you serve it over rice.  We did without the rice tonight and ended up with just three servings.  Here's the recipe:

STIR-FRIED BEEF WITH SNOW PEAS AND CASHEWS

Note: Put the raw flank steak in the freezer for 15 minutes to make slicing easier.  Working with the grain, cut the steak into three long strips, then cut each strip across the grain into 1/8-inch-thick slices.  Serve with steamed rice. 

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds flank steak, cut into thin slices (see note above)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 pound snow peas, stem ends trimmed
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup unsalted roasted cashews, chopped

Directions: 
1.  Combine steak and soy sauce in medium bowl, cover, and refrigerate while preparing other ingredients.  Whisk hoisin sauce, water, and pepper flakes together in small bowl.
2.  Heat 2 teaspoons oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking.  Add half of steak, break up clumps with wooden spoon, and cook, without stirring, for 1 minute.  Toss steak until browned around the edges, about 30 seconds.  Transfer to clean bowl.  Heat 2 teaspoons oil in skillet until just smoking and repeat with remaining beef.
3.  To now-empty skillet, add remaining 2 teaspoons oil and heat until just smoking.  Add snow peas and cook, stirring once or twice, for 2 minutes.  Clear center of pan and add garlic and ginger.  Cook, mashing garlic mixture with back of spatula, until fragrant, about 45 seconds.  Stir garlic mixture into snow peas, then toss in steak.  Whisk hoisin sauce mixture to recombine, pour into pan, and cook until thickened, about 1 minute.  Stir in cashews and transfer to platter.  Serve.

Tuesday, 2/1/2011

We went over to Barb, Tad, and Ronan's house tonight for our PEPS potluck.  Barb made a vegetarian risotto with asparagus and mushrooms.  It was quite tasty.  We brought a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.  For dessert, we had a coconut cream pie.  I didn't have any myself, but Ben enjoyed his sliver and Katie scarfed her piece:)  I think this is the first meal I have had in a long time that didn't include a meat of some kind. 

It was a really fun evening.  The kids are starting to really talk with the adults and each other.  Katie remembered that the last time we were at this house there was a pillow fight with the kids.  So, what did she do this time?  She started another one:) 

Monday, 1/31/2011

We finished off the buffalo chicken fries for our dinner tonight.  I put together a small fruit salad of raspberries and bananas to go with the chicken.  I cooked up some chicken nuggets for Katie, since she wouldn't eat the chicken we were having.