Annual Easter Egg Coloring and Pizza Party

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Somehow we ended up with more eggs than ever before.  And we didn't buy ANY egg coloring stuff - and we had a whole shopping bag full.  This was our 8th Annual Egg Coloring and Pizza party.  It seems we've been collecting things over the years...

While we have hosted the party in the past, this year we passed the baton (or egg basket) to Leah and Ross - and a fine job they did!

LOTS of food, LOTS of eggs, LOTS of fun!

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We had Uncle Rudy's Easter Pie, along with lots of pizza, salads, and cookies.

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The pizza was from some place in South Philly where they know how to make pizza.  Leah and Elizabeth made the cookies.

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We started out neat and clean...

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But it didn't take long to get the mess into high gear...

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We are professionals, after all...

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A good time was had by all, and I can't wait to ake some chipotle deviled eggs tomorrow!

It's gonna be a fun day!


Salads and Easter Desserts

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Yesterday's dinner was a quickie because desserts had to be made! A clean out the refrigerator salad with grilled beef and zucchini strips broiled with a drizzle of olive oil, grated cheese and breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.

No pictures of the desserts, yet, because they're all in various stages of production.  With limited refrigerator space, things just don't get the luxury of their own private shelf and such, so whenever something can stay in a pan or container - it does.

First thing I made was my (infamous) Strawberry Cheesecake.   It really does need to sit for a couple of days to meld the flavors.  It still needs the strawberries, but I'll be able to do that Sunday after a lot of the other stuff exits the 'fridge.

Next was a flourless chocolate cake that Victor made for me for my birthday.  OMG!  It is way good!  And REALLY easy to make.  Chocaholics, go for it!

And, finally, Mom's Lemonade Pie.  Well... my variation of it, anyway...

Dinner is all about the desserts, in my not-so-humble opinion!

I have to work all day Saturday and then we're off to the annual egg coloring and pizza party...  Fortunately, the rest of the menu is set, the shopping is complete, it's just a matter of puling it all together Sunday afternoon.

Piece of cake.


Pork Chops and Couscous

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I didn't plan well today.  Actually, I didn't plan at all.

I got home and realized I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer.   I hadn't called Victor to ask him to take something out of the freezer.  There is lots of stuff in the freezer.  It's all frozen.  Really frozen.

I pulled out a couple of pork chops and put 'em on the counter.  Clank. They were really, really frozen.

I figured I could thaw in the microwave (not really an option - I hate doing that), thaw under running water (for an hour), or just put them on the grill frozen, knowing they were going to be pretty much shoe-leather, but it's my own fault.

I chose door number three.

So imagine my shock, surprise, and utter delight when they came out pretty darn good!  Granted, they were not as tender and succulent as they would have been had they been properly thawed, but they weren't the nasty shoe-leather I was expecting, either.  I was pleased.

I grilled them with a bit of the guava sauce I made the other day and they had a nice little kick to them.  Frozen mixed vegetables and Israeli couscous and dinner was complete.

I'm going in to pull something out of the freezer right now.


Won Ton Soup - Italian Style

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After admiring the work the landscapers did today, I took a couple of chicken breasts out of the freezer.  No concrete plan had emerged, but dinner was going to be chicken-something.  I started them a'thawin' and headed to the office to see what work was awaiting me...

Victor came in a few minutes later and asked what plans I had.  Bein' that it's cold and damp outside, I was thinking something spicy and creamy served over rice.

Victor had other ideas.

Victor's Won Ton Soup Italian Style

  • 2 qts Chicken broth
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 1 bag frozen won tons
  • 1 cup celery, diced
  • 1 cup carrots, diced
  • 1/2 cup mushrooms, diced
  • 1 cup peas
  • 1 cup romaine lettuce, shredded
  • grated parmesan cheese

Saute mushrooms ina  bit of butter or oil.  Add chicken and cook about half-way.  Add celery and carrots and cook just a bit.  Add broth and remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil and cook until veggies are tender.

Top with parmesan cheese.

It was great.  And it really shows the difference in our cooking styles.  I love thin-broth soups, yet rarely make them.  I want thick and creamy when I'm making.  Victor loves thick and creamy, but usually makes thin.  It's a win-win.

I had two bowls and could have gone back for a third, but I'm saving room for more Lemonade Pie later on.....


Hamburger Helper and Lemonade Pie

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Today was wet and rainy.  Definitely not a salad day.

I pretty much went the exact opposite and made up a casserole.  Comfort food for a damp and dreary day.

I had been looking through my mom's cookbooks earlier and was getting a kick out of all the recipes calling for mushroom soup and egg noodles.  "Pasta" hadn't been invented, yet.  Spaghetti, macaroni, and egg noodles were the "pasta" of choice back in them ol' days.

The odds of me having canned mushroom soup in the house are pretty much between slim and none (but I always have egg noodles!)  so it was just a matter of working with what I had.

Hamburger Noodle Casserole

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • garlic powder, salt & pepper
  • French Fried Onions

Brown the mushrooms in the butter, add the beef and cook through.  Add the flour and cook.

Add the beef broth and cook until thick.

Stir in the sour cream and season to taste.  thin with a bit more broth, if necessary.

In the meantime, cook about 6 oz noodles according to package instructions.  Drain.

Mix into beef mixture and spoon into casserole.  Top with french fried onions and bake at 350° for about 30 minutes.

That, of course, is secondary to dessert!

My mom used to make a Lemonade Pie with frozen lemonade concentrate and Cool Whip in a graham cracker crust.  Now... the odds of me having Cool Whip in the house are slimmer than canned mushroom soup, and I wasn't about to go all over town looking for the elusive frozen lemonade concentrate without high fructose corn syrup.  And graham crackers have BOTH high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats.  If I'm going to be bad, at least the ingredients are going to be good!  I found my grahams, but the lemonade was not going to happen.  I actually though for a minute about boiling down some lemonade, but common sense and reality intervened just in time!

And then I though - Lemon Curd!

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So...  Tim's Lemonade Pie was born. The lemonade comes from Lemon Curd, and the cream is real whipping cream.

Tim's Lemonade Pie

  • 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup pistachios, ground

Mix together and press into 10" pie plate.  Bake at 350° about 10 minutes.  Cool completely.

  • 2 jars lemon curd
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup pistachios, for garnish

Spread one jar of lemon curd over completely cooled crust.

Whip cream until stiff.  Fold in second jar of lemon curd,  mixing well.  Spoon over lemon curd, smoothing top.

Sprinkle with more pistachios.

Freeze.

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Okay... so this isn't exactly what the weather was calling for, but I don't care.  It was rich, it was tart, it was creamy, it was damned good.

I'm making another one for Easter!


It's all about the potato

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Tonight's dinner is brought to you by - the humble potato.  Humble in its simplicity, but so easily transformed into a dish of venturous complexity.

I've been trying to come up with a potato dish for Sunday.  My original thought was just to oven-roast some baby reds with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary.  Quick, easy, and safe.  But in looking for something else, I came across a recipe my father's cousin, Carol, sent me years ago for Potatoes Hashed in Cream.  It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it became a starting off point tonight.

I think Carol's recipe came from a hotel in Omaha and it is definitely a nice dish, but I was looking for something with just a bit more "oomph" for Easter Dinner.  And it came together with just a couple of things in the 'fridge!  I started out  making a simple white sauce and was looking to add some cheese, when I saw the leftover ranch dressing from a couple of nights ago.  A recipe was immediately born!

Rancho Potato

  • 2 potatoes, baked or boiled whole
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3/4 or more) cup ranch dressing
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 tbsp butter

Bake or boil potatoes until just barely done.  Coarsely mash, leaving big chunks.

Make a white sauce by melting the butter with the flour and adding about a cup of milk.  Stir until smooth.

Add ranch dressing and heat through. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, if desired.

Mix with potatoes and spoon into a buttered casserole dish.  Top with breadcrumbs mixed with melted butter.

Bake at 350° 20-30 minutes or until hot, bubly, and the breadcrumbs are browned.

Here's Carol's original recipe:

Potatoes Hashed in Cream

Bake at 350° until tender but firm 4 medium potatoes.

Cool, peel, and chop. Set aside.

Melt 2 tbsp butter. Stir in 1 tbsp flour. Stir until foamy.

Add slowly, 1 cup heavy cream. Cook and stir until cream mixture bubbles.

Add potatoes, mix well, spoon into baking dish.

Dot with 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper.

Bake at 350° about 30 minutes.

Serves 4.

The rest of the dinner was a pork loin rolled in herbs d'Provence and grilled.  Baby broccoli...  Really simple.  And good.

So...  another recipe figured out for Easter.

Can't wait!


Breakfast is Served

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I haven't done a baked french toast in a while.  And I haven't done a sweet baked french toast in forever.   I usually do a savory variation of what we used to call "Tahoe Brunch" from the years I lived at Lake Tahoe.

But I was thinking sweet last night and found a recipe that gave me an idea, since I already had the rapidly-going-stale bread...

Walnut Raisin French Toast

  • 1/2 loaf walnut raisin bread, thick-sliced
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups milk
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Butter 9x13 pan.  Place bread slices in single layer in pan.

Mix eggs, cream, milk, sugar and vanilla and pour over bread.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Following morning...

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat together:

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

Pour over bread and sprinkle on about

  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Bake about 30 minutes or until set.

I think the addition of the butter/brown sugar was a bit of sweetness overkill and next time I make something like this I shall omit.  I didn't even add syrup - which is usually the reasonm for making french toast in the first place!

Nice, crispy, thick slices of bacon and piping hot coffee finished the meal.


Another Lovely Salad

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Back when Ruth and I used to create salads at work, we used a formula - a green, a dressing, a crunchy, a fruit, and a cheese.  We came up with a jillion different combinations and they were always good.  The possibilities using a formula like that are just endless.

And thus started tonight's dinner salad. Baby romaine lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, black olives, sprouted beans, goat gouda with garlic and herbs, and a grilled chicken breast, all topped with ranch dressing and homemade croutons.  All of the formula items and a few more for good measure.

I miss those test kitchen days.  We had lots of fun - and we ate really well!


Huey, Louie, Andouille

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I've had a whole pork loin sitting in the 'fridge for a few days, now, awaiting gastronomical inspiration.  My first thought was just to roast it, because I haven't roasted a pork loin in forever - or maybe longer.  But the weather was so nice today that the grill was calling to me.  The grill won.

A couple of years ago, I made a pork chop with an andouille barbecue sauce from a recipe I found in Bon Appetit a few years prior to that.  I had andouille sausage in the freezer, so it was just a matter of cutting that pork loin into big ol'  fat chops for the grill.  Easy money.  I got 8 good-sized chops out of the loin.  4 were vacuum-packed and put in the freezer, the other four were grilled - 2 for us and 2 for friends.

The recipe is really easy - and really really flavorful.  I forgot just how much I enjoyed it - and won't wait two years to make this one again!

Grilled Pork Chops with Chunky Andouille Barbecue Sauce

  • 1 1/2 cups diced andouille sausage (about 7 ounces)
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 6 1-inch-thick rib pork chops
  • Additional chili powder and ground cumin

Spray grill rack with nonstick spray and prepare barbecue (medium heat). Sauté sausage and onion in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat until onion begins to brown, about 8 minutes. Add tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, 2 teaspoons chili powder, and 1 teaspoon cumin. Bring to boil; remove from heat.

Serve over grilled chops.

For the chops, sprinkle liberally with chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and grill until juuuuuuuust barely cooked through.  No dried chops allowed!

We had a bleu cheese polenta and arugula as accompaniments.

Blue Cheese Polenta

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup polenta
  • bleu cheese (about a tablespoon - more if you want it cheesier...)
  • pinch garlic powder, salt, and pepper

Bring milk, salt, pepper, and garlic to a boil, whisk in polenta and cook about 20 minutes - more or less according to individual package instructions.

Add cheese and stir until melted.

I rarely (if ever) make polenta with water.  Milk makes a wonderful, creamy polenta that is just out of this world good.  While my preference would be for whole milk, we seldom have it in the house so skim works.  A pat of butter helps, too.  And cheese.  Any cheese.

Arugula

  • 7oz arugula
  • 1 tsp bacon fat
  • splash lingonberry vinegar
  • salt and pepper

Heat bacon grease in skillet.  Add arugula and cook until wilted.  Add a splash of lingonberry vinegar (or other fruity vinegar of your choice) and a pinch of salt and pepper.

It really was a fun dinner with a lot of really different flavors going on.  The fun part was that as different as the flavors were, they all went together really well.

This one could be a company dish really easily.


Added Convenience

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I had originally planned to grill pork chops tonight. Then I thought I would grill pork chops, slice them, and make big ol' salads.  Instead, we had frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken.

It's no secret that we don't do a lot of convenience foods.  Cooking is not something that is a chore in our house.  We both like to cook and don't mind taking a little time to put a meal on the table.  Besides, it doesn't necessarily take a lot of time - or effort - to put dinner together.

That being said, every now and again a shortcut is in order.

Tonight's shortcut was doctored up Mandarin Orange Chicken.  It was chilly and damp outside and I just didn't feel like grilling.

So I didn't.

The doctored up part of the meal was a bit of clean out the vegetable bin with mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, and bell pepper.  I sauteed it all up and added it to the cooked chicken.

The sauce in the package is never spicy enough for us, so I usually add some chili paste and maybe a bit of apricot jam if I'm adding more goodies.  Tonight, though, I added some of the guava sauce I made the other night.  It spiced things up very nicely.

Brown jasmine rice completed the dish.

The only thing that took any time was the brown rice - and I was answering emails and updating other stuff while it was cooking.  Actual active kitchen time was maybe 10 minutes.

And we have more of that caramel apple galette for dessert later on.....