Friday Food: Pushing That Comfort Zone

After a long week, and the monotony of the easy go to meals that I can almost prepare with my eyes closed, I thought it would be nice to end the week with something different. With that thought in mind, I decided on scallops something I haven't cooked in a while. I'll have to admit, it always stresses me out to cook them because there is such a small window of time between cooked just right and overcooked. If you miss it, you end up with rubber which is always disappointing. Messing up a meal is one of those things that leaves me feeling pretty bummed out. Today I was feeling adventurous and decided to take the risk. I made coriander crusted seared scallops and a Thai spiced new york strip steak served with a salad. I kept a watchful eye on those scallops and the steak for that matter because we sure do love a medium rare steak. It was all perfect, making for a very satisfying Friday night dinner.


So if you're in that cooking rut, try something new. Be adventurous and push your comfort zone a bit. You just might surprise yourself with how much fun you have doing it and the sense of contentment that comes with seeing your family enjoy a new meal you prepared is always a big plus too.

Friday Food: Fish Delish

It's been quite some time since we've eaten fish. I'd been having a hankering for some too. So, I bought a nice big halibut fillet for tonight's dinner. Max and I prepared dinner together, something we enjoy doing but don't get a chance to do very often. We cracked open a tasty bottle of sake, toasted to good times and got to work. Max made a scrumptious side of soba noodles with a "Max Concoction Sauce", can't really tell you exactly what went into it....it was a combo of soy sauce, mirin, sesame seed oil and lemon.

I made this Roasted Halibut with Walnut Crust that was absolutely heavenly. I found the recipe over at epicurious.com one of my favorite online recipe sights. If you're ever at a loss for what to cook, this is a great sight to check out. You can type in your main ingredient and a great deal of recipes will magically appear for your picking. Most of the recipes are rated by users along with reviews of the recipe and more often than not, there will be a photo of the dish as well (something I always enjoy, I like to see what it's suppose to look like). This recipe definitely deserved the 4 fork rating, it was simple, quick and delish! If you're having a hankering for fish as I was, this is a good one...enjoy!

Friday Food - Enjoy your Veggies and Your Red Wine

Just a fun note to remind you to enjoy your veggies, whether you just want to enjoy their beauty or in your tummy too! Look at these great containers, an assortment of flowers and swiss chard growing in half wine barrels! How fun is that!? You can find these near Pier 39 in San Francisco. I just thought this was a great way to grow some veggies at home while enjoying their beauty too!



Max and I do enjoy our red wine and often have a glass with dinner. Max stocked our wine rack this time around and picked up this bottle just for fun.

Friday Food- A Quick One

When you don't have very much time but want a hot meal and you don't want a lot of dirty dishes to clean up afterward, how about trying a casserole. Here's a quick and yummy one - Chicken Tamale Casserole

Ingredients
1 cup of preshredded Mexican blend cheese
1/3 cup low fat milk
1 egg
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp ground rep pepper such as New Mexico chile
1 can cream-style corn (14 3/4 oz)
1 small box of corn muffin mix ( I use the Jiffy 8.5 oz size)
1 can chopped green chiles, drained (4oz)
1 can red enchilada sauce (10 oz)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
sour cream
cilantro
cooking spray

Prep:
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. in a large bowl mix just until moist, 1/4 cup of the cheese with the next 7 ingredients (up to chiles). Pour into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray.


3. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, Then pierce entire surface with fork.

4. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken, sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes . Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes.
Ready to serve with a dollop of sour cream and some cilantro sprinkled on top.

It's also possible to make this without chicken. You can substitute the chicken with black beans and that would be delicious too. You can serve this with a side salad and whaaaa lhaaa a yum fulfilling meal with leftovers for tomorrows lunch. My boys won't eat this so I usually make them chicken quesadillas while the adults enjoys this yummy dish.

Skipping Friday Food

Well, I skipped Friday Food for good reasons....Max and I had a date night, a long overdue date night. We went out for dinner without the kids. It was wonderful but also felt odd not to have the kids with us. I've gotten to a point where I'm so conditioned to having multiple interruptions during my meals and often not able to get to my food until it's actually cold that it was such a treat to just sit back and enjoy a nice leisurely dinner.

We made sure to enjoy it from beginning to end, yummy cocktails and appetizer, cucumber gimlets and Mexican wild shrimp ceviche, an overall delishhhh dinner ( a few disappointments but still delish) of several small plates, tapas style, that included mouth watering scallops in a Brazilian curry sauce, and ended with dessert, a rum and Kahlua soaked tiramisu topped with Mexican chocolate shavings. Where you ask? Where did we have such a delectable dinner... we enjoyed this dinner at Bocanova.

It's such a treat to go out for a nice dinner. So, if you have kids, don't wait as long as we did for a date night. Treat yourself out for a nice meal, it's such a nice way to decompress, reconnect with your partner, and be refreshed to start the family juggle of tasks all over again until your next date night.

Friday Food: Yummy Chops

With 3 young boys who are able to turn a room upside down in the blink of an eye, I'm always looking for quick and easy meals to prepare. Something simple enough that allows me to step away and referee the madness without compromising the meal, and is yet yummy enough for both adult and child discerning taste buds to enjoy. With all that criteria it actually sounds impossible to find, doesn't it? Not impossible.

This week thanks to one of my favorite food magazines, Everyday Food, we had these yummy sage pork chops that made the cut, served with a quick and easy Parmesan rice and some lemony green beans (quickly blanched green beans that were tossed with a bit of butter and lemon juice). This meal took me about half hour to prepare but, even more thrilling than the speedy meal prep was that everyone ate it!

Friday Food: Lip Smacking N' Finger Licking Good Ribs

We all have that item that's been sitting in the freezer for awhile, right? You know the one that haunts you every time you open the freezer, the one you wonder when you're ever going to cook...or you may even start to wonder "how long has that been in there?" Mine was this rack of ribs. I'm not sure why I had them...I mean there was a time I got into making ribs (yes I go through these food phases) but that seemed so long ago. I had moved on from that rib phase, so I'm not sure why I still had these in there and really no longer had any desire to cook them. I lost track of how long this haunting had been going on for so I finally decided to put an end to it.

I baked them. I would have grilled them but the weather just hasn't been nice enough. Boy, am I glad I decided to put an end to those ribs, because it just reminded me how much I love them. I marinated these ribs in a yummy concoction I threw together myself.

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 garlic cloves minced
and 3 tsp of chili powder

I baked them at a low temp, 350 degrees for an 1 hour 1/2 while covered with foil. Then baked them for another 1/2 hour without foil.



MMMmmmm these were finger licking, lip smacking good. Even ask Liam, he'll say "Yummy!" They were sweet with a bit of a bite. I know the photos just don't do them justice, take my word for it, deliciousssss.

Friday Food: A Chicken Favorite

There's a few go to recipes I have that are my favorites to make when I just can't pull it together to try something new. One of them is this Chicken Vesuvio, that I think is a nice wholesome family meal. I usually serve this with a nice loaf of artisan bread and an easy side. This time I made green beans sauteed with garlic. This dish is yummy and fairly easy. My kids will eat the chicken and potato, still working on getting them to eat the peas...one day hopefully.

Chicken Vesuvio

1 4 1/2-pound chicken, quartered, backbone removed
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large russet potatoes (about 14 ounces each), peeled, each cut into 6 pieces)

6 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 teaspoon (or more) dried crushed red pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock or canned chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine

1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
   
2. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder and set aside.
3. Heat oil in large ovenproof pot over high heat. Add potatoes and saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer potatoes to bowl.
   
   
4. Add chicken to same pot and saute until golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
   Add garlic cloves and dried crushed red pepper and saute 2 minutes.
   
5. Return potatoes, stock and wine to pot. Return to medium-high heat and bring to boil.
   
   
6. Cover pot tightly; transfer to oven and bake until chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
   
7. Add peas to pot; cover and bake 5 minutes longer.
   
8. Transfer chicken,potatoes to platter and pour sauce over.
   
9. Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired, and serve.

Enjoy!

Friday Food

A special night for me, another night of daddy's cooking...that means a night off for me. Yay! Not that I don't enjoy cooking, because I do. It's just cooking on top of running a household with 3 boys is sometimes exhausting so it's always nice to have a break. The other fun thing about Max cooking is that we have totally different culinary styles so it's always fun to see what he's going to dish out. Funny the way that is, we could have the same exact ingredients but make entirely different dishes. We have this long running competition (totally harmless yet amusing) regarding who's the better cook.


So tonight Max made this delectable dinner that we all enjoyed. Fun cheese toasts really for the kids amusement. Delicious rib eye steaks that were slightly overcooked for my taste, as I love mine medium rare and these were medium (insert wink here). We just love to razz each other about our food prep ;) He topped the steaks with fresh basil which made for a delicious combination and served these with baked sweet potato.

The next time you grill up a steak, consider topping it with some fresh basil. It's absolutely yummy!

Friday Food: Sprinkles Make All The Difference

I hosted a "pamper night out" tonight for some moms from my twin club. 16 twin moms (actually I think there was 1 triplet mom) met at a nail spa to be pampered with pedicures while sipping champagne, nibbling on light appetizers and yummy dessert including these cute little 2 bite cupcakes. I wish I could say I made these but I didn't. I've bought these several times for different events not only because they're delicious but because they're sooo cute. Really I think it's the sprinkles that make them so appealing. If you remove those sprinkles, then they're just a plain ol' cupcake. Ever since I came across these, now when I make my own cupcakes, I make sure to add sprinkles, it makes a huge difference in their presentation. Those sprinkles just make a cupcake extra special, don't you think so?