Now who should I get this for for Christmas...

A small part of the blurb on amazon:

" ...the self-proclaimed "King of the Kitchen Pimps" teaches readers how to become a "ghetto gourmet" with basics like scallops "rap'd" in bacon, shrimp cocktail (Cold Shrimpin'), spaghetti (Bro-Ghetti)..."

Awesome.

eating well

Last night we decided to try out the Corvette Diner which was rumored to have housemade vegetarian bean burgers and delicious fries. Both rumors were true, but that place was crazy. It is a 50s themed ginormous restaurant complete with a live DJ (spinning oldies, taking requests), poodle skirt wearing hostesses, dancing servers, a disco ball, an arcade, an ice cream counter, and more. The dancing servers made Kris and I feel so uncomfortable, especially when we remembered Eva's stories of her worst job ever. The kids loved that part. The lights refracted off the disco ball were also super exciting for the kids. Lucy kept pointing to things, wide-eyed, saying, "Uh-bu-duh. Bah-bee." I don't know what that means but she was having a ball. Sam's favorite part was the ice cream sundae and the arcade. Anyway...

Kris bought me the cuisinart ice cream maker for mother's day (I think Mom and Dad Jorgie have it?). Love it. Last week I made chocolate coconut milk ice cream that included melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder (plus a pinch of granulated coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor, a little chocolate cake baking trick I learned). Pow! That's seriously how it tasted in my mouth. It was excellent. I have no idea what the proportions were but hopefully I can recreate it someday.

Awesome pizza

On Kauai we ate at Brick Oven pizza (no connection with Brick Oven in Provo) based on a recommendation. It was awesome. This was cheese with fresh basil:

Still the best pizza

We were thrilled to find that Boston's North End Pizza on Oahu is still around. The pizza is as good as we remembered.

The pizzas are still too big for the boxes:

Yum:

quick meals

Usually when I make posts on this blog I post things that were exciting for me to make, and usually, but not always, that means it took a lot of time and/or effort. Lately I just don't have time so I am on a search for yummy meals with kid appeal that don't take a lot of effort (but aren't meals in a box).

This savory bread pudding is a favorite quick one I made recently--loved it (we got 3 of the 4 in our family to eat it, Sam wouldn't even get near it). I used rosemary instead of dill and a leek instead of a shallot b/c that's what I had. I went the mushroom route, not olive. I also used soy milk instead of regular. Other quick meals we love: Yaki soba is a big hit around here with my kids, I always throw in bok choy; burritos or tostadas with a little grated zucchini; rice cooked in coconut milk w/ nuts and veggies; paninis with roasted veggies; and pasta w/ bechamel sauce.

What are some quick meals you like?

bean burgers

Just needing to share that Aaron made us delicious bean burgers for dinner. They were super tasty. We've tried them several times, with different recipes/spice combos but this time they were the best. And stayed together really well.
The recipe is from this book ("Veggie Burgers"):

And we loaded them up with avacodo, onion, tomato, greens, cheese, etc.

The big news is that this time the kids liked them! All of them ate it. Hooray!

le petit chef

Sam is way more interested in helping in the kitchen lately. He used to only be interested if I were making cookie dough. Now he'll help me make just about anything as long as he can do some stirring, patting, mashing, and/or messing. Since the last time we made cookie dough, and had a long talk about raw eggs (our neighbor just had a really bad reaction to cookie dough) in dough and how we shouldn't eat it, he asks, "It has raw eggs in it?" every time we make any kind of dough.



This day we were making red lentil dahl which you hear him say faintly. The dahl is simple, just 1 c. red lentils (they're thinner than the green, if you've seen em'), a chopped onion, chopped tomato (the tomato does not need to be mashed, Sam just wanted to mash it, so why not?), 1.5 c. water, 1 can coconut milk, turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, a few curry leaves, 2 chopped carrots, salt to taste. Mix it all together and cook, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Add extra water if necessary. It should be fairly soupy. After it's done put mustard seed and cumin seed in oil on heat until the seeds "pop." Chop up another onion (or you can do 1/2 in the dahl and 1/2 later if you don't love onions) finely and cook it with the mustard, cumin, and oil on a low temp until the onion is golden brown. Mix it in the dahl, simmer a few more minutes, and voila! The first time I put in regular coconut milk, the second time lite coconut milk. You can imagine which tasted better (just don't look at the fat content, that was my mistake).



I've never made my own naan before but the second time I made dahl Sam and I made naan and it made the dahl even more delicious. A really good meal became a delicious meal. It's pretty easy to make. I got my recipe from here but found that I needed almost another whole cup of flour in the dough to make it kneadable. I also didn't have a pizza stone to cook them as it recommends since ours broke, but a cookie sheet worked fine.

Curries

We still are loving curries - Thai and Indian. Indian ones are our favorites to make.
Here's a couple we've been digging lately:



Actually, I can't remember what this one was called even - but we made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it's going on our favorites list! Super yummy, with chickpeas, potatoes, and sweet potatoes in it. Aaron found the recipe in this awesome pressure cooker book. He's loving his pressure cooker.

And Rajma - kidney bean curry. We've made this one a lot.

I like it with a little plain yogurt and plenty of cilantro.

Both of these photos were spur of the moment - after I'd already started eating - sorry, but I was so excited at the yumminess that I had to share!

Millions of peaches - peaches for free

(remember that song?)


We've been eating the peaches that we grew and canned. They are delicious.

The first time we opened a can it made a very nice 'pop' sound - which is what you're supposed to hear when you've properly canned something. Aaron said, "That's a good sound!"

Because we're proud of ourselves.

Another good sound? The sound of the boys immediately devouring peaches and saying 'Mmmmmmmm'.

Definitely a good sound.

potato tacos!

Mix together:
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
*1/2 to 1 cup chile sauce (el pato is good, but I used my homemade kind)
*1/2 to 1 cup cotija cheese (it's a hard, salty, crumbly Mexican cheese, I found it at Food 4 Less)
cumin, salt, garlic powder, tiny bit of oregano
*These amounts have a wide range b/c I don't know what I put and b/c you could just do it to taste, as long as the potato mixture is a good consistency to spread on a tortilla--not runny, but not too stiff.

Make guacamole:
roasted jalapeno with seeds and pith (?) removed
a few grape tomatoes
lots of fresh lime juice
salt, pepper, paprika
4 avocados

Thinly chopped cabbage (or lettuce, if you prefer)

Soften corn tortillas with tiny bit of oil and heat in a pan. Or just heat if you have a non-stick pan.

Put fillings in tortillas as desired. Delicious!

tamales and pizza!

We made tamales to celebrate the New Year. I think this is the most labor intensive food I've ever made because we made almost every part ourselves (the chile sauce, broths, fillings, masa). On New Year's Day we invited a few families over and feasted on the tamales as well as beans, rice, guacamole, crema, salsa, and dessert. We did roasted peppers and cheese, vegetable medley (?), and chicken (since we are the only non-meat eaters, and for me--I wanted to gain the experience).

Peppers, etc. boiling to make the sauce


Spreading the masa, rolling the tamales


Party people! These are some of the kids who came--the dress-up box was a hit (Sam's in the background, sucking his thumb).


We did not eat pizza with our tamales, but I made pizza for New Year's Eve and I believe we've found our favorite dough recipe yet. It is super simple, delicious, easy to make, and versatile. Check it:
6.5 c. flour
3 c. water
1.5 T yeast
1.5 T course salt (like kosher, though we might start putting a little less salt than this).

Stir together dry ingredients, mix in water with a spoon. Let sit for 2 to 5 hours (top should be flat when risen, dough will be really sticky). On floured surface shape dough into pizza crust. You won't get a perfectly circular shape b/c you can't roll it out with a rolling pin. I didn't mind that at all.

What's great about this dough is it can also be used to make dutch oven breads (the artisan, no knead kind Eva posted about a while back), boules or baguettes, or whatever other bready thing you want. It can also be kept in the fridge for a week or so and it gets sour as the days pass. So we made the full amount of dough, made 3 pizzas, then a few days later made a boule. Highly recommend it.