garden bisque

This is an adaptation of the Statler Garden Bisque, which was my favorite soup served on campus until I discovered Temple of Zeus.  I adjust the veggies slightly and add my favorite secret ingredient from Delallo.  Very healthy and amazingly delicious! Goes well with spanakopita.

tamales

Tamales are a fun portable snack.  I often freeze a bunch and then take a few for lunch.  They also make for a good team activity - I think I had June making tamales with me once, even though she claims not to like Mexican food.  Start by soaking corn husks in warm water.  Then mix the filling.  I like cheese with corn, green chilies, and pinto beans or maybe roasted pine nuts.  I usually add chopped garlic as well, but Kyle thinks garlic isn't very authentic. Of course, you may wish to add meat as well.  The masa herina gets mixed with veggie broth and maybe some garlic powder and then comes the fun part - assembly.  Basically, you want the husks to hold the dough with the filling inside.  You can figure it out.  Steam for 40 minutes and enjoy! (A bamboo steamer comes in pretty handy here.)

spanakopita

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet.  You must make spanakopita.  They are delicious!  It takes only a few simple ingredients, about 20 minutes to assemble, and 25 minutes to bake. 
Here's how it's done: Pre-heat oven to 375.
You will need: a box of phyllo dough, a bag of frozen spinach thawed (or about 8-10 oz fresh, cooked), 8 oz. feta, a stick of butter, S&P, EVOO
I recently learned that some of the feta sold in the US is made from cow's milk, not goat, as it should be.  Goat's milk and cheese are easier for most humans to digest and taste much better imho. So, get some good goat feta and some whole wheat phyllo if you can find it.
Melt the butter. Cut the phyllo into strips 2.5 or 3 inches wide. Mix spinach, feta, S&P, and just a bit of EVOO in a bowl.  For each triangle, stack about 4-5 strips of phyllo, brush with butter, spoon some spinach feta mixture on one end, and roll like a paper football. Brush the entire triangle with butter and lay on a cookie sheet. The phyllo directions say to butter each sheet, but I think it tastes just as good if you spare yourself the heart attack for now and only brush one sheet before rolling.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden. Enjoy! 
One batch makes about 18 and they will disappear pretty quickly.  They can be rolled up and frozen to be cooked later.  This is one of my favorite pot luck dishes.

end of the season clearance

We went to the Farmer's Market last weekend for one last burrito of the season and the Rutabaga Curling World Championship. We left with a reminder that Ithaca is worlds away from almost anywhere else and a huge bag of root veggies.  Looking forward to dinner tonight!

spicy spinach spirals

Kyle can not get enough of these spicy spinach spirals!  They are simple, spicy, and relatively healthy. Our friends seem to enjoy them as well and we'll be serving up this perfect picnic/party food on the boat this summer!  I'd share the recipe, but I just submitted it to a recipe contest, so let's wait and see what the judges think.

veggie pot pie

I've been wanting to make pot pie for a long time and Emma inspired me to get a move on it.  I made this one evening after work and didn't have time to make bread dough, so I made pie crust, but I do plan to try it with bread dough sometime.

I love recipes that use a ton of random veggies (the asparagus was my favorite in this one) like fritatta, soup, and simple veggie bakes.

It was absolutely delicious!  Unless you have a craving for dead animal; as Kyle said, "it's as delicious as a pot pie without meat can be."  We gave the second one to Dirk and Bronwyn, so hopefully they agree.

Oh, and here's Kyle enjoying his meatless pot pie.

cherry coffee cake

yum!  doesn't this make you wish you had cherry coffee cake this morning?

Actually, I was tired from quilting all night and accidentally put all of the crumble under the cherries.  Still delicious though!

texas sheet cake

Mom got me craving texas sheet cake so I made it last night and brought it in for a colleague's birthday and she is out sick!  It's in the fridge outstairs and hopefully it stays there until tomorrow and she returns to work.  People were wandering in as I tried to get it into the fridge and now we have about half a dozen women craving chocolate cake. It's going to be a long day!

Chicken Pot Pie

I made some chicken pot pie a few weeks ago. I kinda winged it with whatever veggies we had and stuff from the pantry. It was so delicious. I was going to make homemade bread but it was getting late so I used some frozen dough that we have had for a bit. It is delicious bread though!!! It was mainly carrots, corn, green beans, chicken, celery and then some cream of chicken and mushroom. I made these in loaf pans and made 3. We still have one in the freezer that is split up for Tim to take for lunches. Pot Pies are great for dinner! You can make so many different types of meals in a pot pie. Just add all your favorite ingredients!

Tonight I made corn fritters.....

Tim will be so excited when he gets home tonight. As long as I don't eat them all before he gets here! I haven't made these in like a year because Tim would ask for them like every week and we didn't wanna get sick of them so they faded away. These are delicious and I just eat them plain most of the time but Tim likes them with a sweet chili sauce. He found his favorite one at Trader Joe's. I make them different than mom used to make them. The ingredients are...corn, water, eggs, flour, soy sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic and coriander. Sometimes I use different spices in place of the garlic, coriander and chili powder but the end result is basically the same. DELICIOUS! I had corn fritters with a tiny bit of leftover mashed potatoes and then some hot sausage pierogies from Pierogies Plus! It was an awesome dinner for me tonight!!!

Bagels Bagels Bagels

I have made bagels a few times since we moved in and they are deeeeelicious! I even made some extras and put them in the freezer. The first day I made these I had one at each meal. They were so good right out the oven with melted butter or toasted with butter. I highly recommend everyone making their own bagels!!! First I boiled them and then I baked them. It doesn't take long at all either! The longest part is letting the dough rise.

Mcdonald's

When your in Florida with Tim's family you don't have much of a choice but to have fast food for at least one meal a day and the other meals are at a restaurant or something else not cooked in your own kitchen. This is something that did impress me though. There is a huuuuuuge McDonald's down there and we went. They have a huge menu with so many selections and they even had ice cream, real ice cream! You could get omelettes or sandwiches or pasta or the regular nasty items. I got this turkey club and I must say it was pretty delicious. This was over thsi past summer when we went to visit and we were in downtown Disney late and of course his stepmom had to go to McDonald's. But at least I got to see this nicer McDonald's!

Tortillas then.... Tortilla Chips

So I made homemade tortillas. So easy and soooo delicious. We didn't even have tacos but we ate them with other stuff. I can't remember all the different things we put in them but I know one night we had a leftover night and mixed it all together in a taco and it was sooo good! After I made the tacos I then used them to make tortilla chips. The thing I still need to figure out is how to get the chips and tortillas to stay thinner. I rolled them out with my marble rolling pin as thin as paper and then when they cooked, they poofed up! The tortillas don't matter so much but I wish the chips were thinner. I just added some salt to the chips and they were delicious though! Tim and I could eat chips and salsa everyday. Since the chips weren't thin they didn't get completely hard either because the outside would cook fast and the inside still soft.

Choc Chip Cookies Friday Night!

This will be one of many posts I am about to put up. I guess I could do it all in one but I always take pictures and don't want to mix them all up! Andrew and Dre slept over friday night and I have been craving cookie dough. So I made them cookies!!! I used the recipe Debbie gave me from a little cookbook she got with the kitchenaid mixer because I love how the dough tastes. I didn't use a kitchenaid mixer though and I used chips from Aldi's instead of Nestle's. They were still delicious. Bobby took some home and ate them pretty quick and I cooked up the last of the dough tonight after eating it all weekend. I didn't eat alot of it....I'm not sick. Here's my cookies.... More food to follow since I haven't had my computer up for a few weeks.

pure cacao

I just enjoyed some 99% cacao that I purchased at the chocolate store in the strip.  Yum!  I tried it with dates, but it's actually quite enjoyable solo.  In case you are wondering, the 1% that is not cocoa includes cane sugar, spices, cocoa butter, and Bourbon vanilla bean. Try some for yourself.