Pancakes for dinner, how fun is that? It's such an easy thing to whip up and can be so comforting, it can make you relax like it's Saturday morning. My Sweet Husband is the absolute best at making pancakes, he's perfected the recipe, cooking temp. & time and they are so fluffy! He has managed to make them fluffy but not dense. We're a bisquick family but with the onslaught of exploring other sections of our cookbook I think we'll try to make some from scratch soon enough. We're pretty simple with our pancakes, usually pairing them with a side of candied bacon, but this time we sliced up some strawberries, whipped up some cream and sprinkled powdered sugar.
Let me tell you, absolutely delicious! I don't think I could have pancakes any other way now. The tart strawberries and the sweet cream...amazing! Good job husband, you can make me pancakes anytime, at any mealtime.
I'm still working on getting my Alfredo sauce perfect...I've tried other people's recipes, cookbook recipes, online recipes and so far nothing comes close to Frank's Alfredo sauce. This meal was good but it was way too much butter, even for me. Eventually I'll figure out the right combination of milk/cream, butter and cheese. Honestly, I don't work on it that often because it has to be one of the worst things for you, right up there with bacon, butter, heavy cream and anything fried. Even with the abundance of butter, the lack of cream in this recipe made it slightly lighter than usual [or anything you'd fine in a jar at your local grocery store, please don't buy this]. I have to admit, I don't think I timed the mixing of ingredients and melting, etc. Oops.
For a little veggie effect, I sauteed thinly sliced zucchini until brown on either side. Eh. These didn't blow my socks off, next time I'll try something else. For a decadent sounding meal, this was sub-par. When my arteries recover from this attempt I'll try again, look for it!
We often have what we call "Kitchen Sink Salads." It's usually on a day we don't want to use the stove or oven...I don't know why we think it makes less work, chopping veggies and gathering toppings is just as much work sometimes! A recent Sunday past we enjoyed this salad outside on our patio set, first time of the season to dine outside. It was so refreshing!
Another nice thing about making salads for your main meal, you can cater the salad to exactly what you want/like. I started with Organic Butter Lettuce and cleaned out our veggie drawer for the rest of the toppings. I really like my salad ingredients all chopped up or diced so this tends to take longer but the salad becomes a lot more manageable. Some of our favorite salad toppers are: sliced avocado, grated carrots, zucchini, diced celery, sharp cheddar cheese, sliced roma tomatoes, peanuts, dried cherries, cottage cheese and a light lemon dressing. Get playful with your salads and don't be afraid to add cottage cheese, tuna salad or even last night's left-over pasta. It'll add a little something extra and for me, it's all about the texture to keep the boring, run-of-the-mill salad interesting!
This was an interesting dinner! Usually, I make these dumplings with ground pork or chicken but considering our Veggie Monster ways thru Lent, we went with a crustacean. We purchased two lobster tails [fully cooked] from Seaport Fish at Fiddlehead Marketplace. We nearly fainted because it was $34.99/lb...good thing we only needed a small amount of meat for the dumplings. I get my dumpling wrappers from Lo's Seafood & Oriental Market in the freezer section of the store. I really love the vegetable [green] wrappers but they only have those at another Korean market somewhere in MA, if you can get your hands on these, go for it, they are delish! A good friend of mine taught me how to make these and her specific ingredients but the vegetables, spices and other ingredients are listed in the package of dumplings wrappers. Basically I use a mixture of shredded zucchini, red bell pepper, carrot, diced green and white onion.
You'll need one egg, sesame oil, soy sauce and cayenne pepper or chili pepper for some heat. Take the dumpling wrappers and place a small amount in the middle and use your finger and some water to bind the edges together. Fold all the edges together securely so the filling doesn't seep out when you drop them into the water. There are a couple of ways to fold the dough, find something that works for you, play around with a few designs but I start by folding the dough in half and folding the corners in, towards the filling [see dumplings below on the left].
Bring a pot, half filled with water to a boil, drop the dumplings in and when they start to rise to the top, pour a cup of cool water into the pot and wait for the dumplings to start to boil and rise again, repeat as needed. If your meat is raw, you'll want to repeat this 3-4 times. It's important to stay attentive to the dumplings, if you cook them too long the dough with start to get soggy and pull apart. You know the filling is cooked when the dumpling dough "puckers" and the filling feels firm.
Spoon dumplings out with a slotted spoon and place on a plate. Toss with soy sauce, sesame seeds and hot sauce [if desired]. We love to try new ethnic foods! You can also fry these dumplings in a saucepan but go for the healthier version my cooking friends, I won't even tell you how to do it!
Hello all! Oh my, last post was on April 12th. Some traveling and Holy Week proved to be quite busy, more than I expected. We were still cooking and enjoying several delicious recipes - including several new ones - and enjoying company with family and friends. Since the 12th, I know someone who got engaged, I know someone else who is having twins and found out they are having a boy AND a girl, and someone who decided to go back to school to pursue his/her dream. It's been a busy world outside of the kitchen but we managed to have an scrumptious Easter dinner yesterday and Saturday, that's where we're going to start for now, brace yourselves:
SATURDAY: We enjoyed some time with family and feasted like kings and queens, dyed eggs and relaxed! Get this, it was snowing outside, sticking to the ground and all. Last year, we enjoyed our egg dying outside, a walk in the sun and grilled the lamb outdoors...
Okay, so when I'm not taking photos and cooking I have this real problem with watching YouTube videos of funny animals and adorable puppies. The thing is I never go searching for them, if you send me one I sample all the other ones waiting in the wings with similar titles, themes, dachshunds. I saw the first video on Ellen and the second video I found because one of the blogs I read featured IsoinSloMo in the Snow and therefore I found Iso taking a bath. Enjoy!
Yummmy! I was so impressed with myself, it tasted amazing! We love to order Pad Thai from Khaophums and split it, but we'll never have to order take out again! I do prefer the chicken version, so we'll be sure to make it that was post lent. Either way, the shrimpies were good too! The flavor just exploded and we prefer thick rice stick noodles as opposed to the more spaghetti version of rice noodles [pictured in the online version].
All of the ingredients were either in my pantry or easily found in the International food aisle in our local Hannaford. In regards to the actual recipe, I did #2 first and #1 second...it was easier to mix all the ingredients for the sauce and then deal with watching the noodles. We followed the package directions for the "Pasta" use of the noodles because it so closely resembled the instructions for Miss Betty - that and we were using a slightly different noodle for the recipe. Good tip, use a Saute Pan for this recipe, you need the room for all the ingredients and it'll cook everything evenly without overcrowding the pan. Another change: we're not fans of shallots in this house so we used half of a regular yellow onion. FYI: It can take up to [3] limes to make enough lime juice for this recipe. Wiggling a fork in the pulp, over a strainer, will help get the maximum amount of juice from the tiny, green fruit. I also only used one package of bean sprouts [these can be tricky to find in a grocery store, try near the organic produce and/or vegan/vegetarian section] because the package itself it more than enough and honestly 3 cups are a bit over the top. For the cilantro, I only garnished the final serving because of the strong flavor present in the rest of the dish, you don't need much. Oh and, only 1 tbsp of oil in the sauce and in the pan, you don't need 2 tbsp's in the pan to cook the onion, garlic and egg. Fat overkill!
If you're curious about the "rules" or "guidelines" for eating fish/crustaceans during Lent, visit here. We are staying away from all meat and meat products [and I don't see feasting on any amphibians in my near or far future plans]. We are eating fish and crustaceans occasionally, hence our Tuna Melt's the other night :) It's always good to have some canned tuna on hand for "recipes gone bad evenings."
This meal was delicious, we've marked it on our book and made it a family favorite! Enjoy!
FYI #2: For leftovers the next day, warm up your saute pan and place the Pad Thai in the pain and sprinkle with water. Quickly toss in the pan to heat and bring the noodles back to life. Don't leave the meal in the pan for too long, just long enough to get it warm enough to enjoy. I wouldn't recommend using the microwave, if you must, remember to use some water and remove the shrimp. Usually, you can toss the shrimp with the warm pasta to heat it up enough to enjoy. Shrimp + Microwave don't mix well.
