Saturday, 12/25/2010

Merry Christmas

We began this day with my parents in Spokane.  We opened presents with Katie.  When her presents were opened, she began to help us with ours too. She is a very lucky girl.  Santa brought her a baby doll, and her grandparents got her a Tickle Me Elmo and a tent with connecting tunnel.  She was in 7th heaven with all of the new things and paper to play with.  At 10am, my brother Matt, his wife Jenna, their daughter Braelyn, and my grandparents Norm and Kate joined us for brunch.  My parents made a delicious baked apple french toast casserole and paired it with breakfast sausage.  We are blessed to have Jenna with us for this holiday.  She is in the Air Force and was sent to New Jersey at the beginning of December for training before her deployment to Afghanistan next year.  Thankfully, she was given leave for a week and her grandfather gave her a plane ticket to come home.  We pray for her safe travels and return in August.  

At 1pm, we loaded into the car with my parents and went to the airport, heading to Portland.  Again, no full-body scans at the airport:)  By the time we got to the airport, got our luggage checked, and went through security, it was time to board the plane.  How's that for great timing?!  Spencer, Ben's brother, was waiting for us in the Portland airport.  Their mom, Jennifer, was home working on dinner.  She made a delicious Christmas meal for us.  She made a sausage stuffing and stuffed it into a turkey breast, which cooked in her crock pot.  She had delicious sage dinner rolls, a fruit salad, a green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes to go with the turkey and stuffing.  It took longer for the turkey to get to the right temperature than she expected, but it was quite tasty and moist when we finally got to eat. 

While we waited, we opened more presents.  Katie continued to be in awe and excitement with each present that was opened.  That is, until she opened new crayons and a Disney princess coloring book.  After that, it was hard to encourage her to move onto her other presents.  She received a camera from her Uncle Spencer and a shopping cart from Grandma Jennifer.  With no nap and irregular schedules for the past several days, she was exhausted by the end of the day.  

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".

Monday, 5/3/2010

Time for something different tonight. No sausages, no chili:) I made Parmesan-Crusted Halibut & Brown Butter Beans. You will notice that both recipes came from Cuisine at Home. Ben and I have received subscriptions to this magazine a couple times and love it. The dishes are practical with great tips. And, the flavor is usually really good...not bland at all. I've made the Halibut before. It is super simple to put together and the taste is FANTASTIC! Definitely a dish you could serve to company. I didn't have a lemon on hand tonight, so I made it without the lemon zest. It was still delicious, so don't fret if you don't have that ingredient.

The Brown Butter Beans recipe was new for me. I didn't weigh the beans when I purchased them, so it is very likely that I had fewer beans than the recipe called for. Regardless, it was a super tasty way to fix them up. I really like that the beans boiled in the same pan that the sauce was made in. It is far better to clean one pan than two:)


PARMESAN-CRUSTED HALIBUT (from Cuisine at Home magazine)

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
Minced zest of 1/2 a lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
4 tsp. purchased pesto, divided
2 halibut fillets, 1-inch think (4 oz. each)

Preheat oven to 450°; coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray.
Combine panko, Parmesan, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
Spread 2 tsp. pesto on 1 side of each halibut fillet and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Press panko mixture onto pesto side of fillets, spritz crumbs with nonstick spray, then refrigerate until ready to roast.
Cook fish until crumbs are golden and flesh flakes easily with a fork, 10-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets.

BROWN BUTTER BEANS (from Cuisine at Home Weeknight Menus)

Makes 4 cups
Total time: 15 minutes

4 cups haricot vert or thin green beans, trimmed
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 t. garlic, minced
1 T. fresh lemon juice
Cooked beans
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook beans in a large saute pan of boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Drain and set aside; wipe out pan. (We thought they could have cooked a bit longer.)
Melt butter in the pan over medium heat until light brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 30 seconds.
Deglaze with lemon juice; remove from heat.
Add beans, toss well, and season with salt and pepper.