Month: July 2011

The Recipe that Sparked an Obsession

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Several of you have asked how Miss A’s balsamic obsession began. Well, it started when I found a recipe for Strawberry Bruschetta on Annie’s Eats. I’m always on the lookout for quick, easy and healthy recipes to make for myself for lunch. I have a terrible time with this meal. I’m usually just cooking for myself, I don’t have a lot of time and I don’t want to over eat. I figured I could easily adapt Annie’s recipe to go on my little pita crackers (my current lunch obsession) for a quick lunch.

What I didn’t count on was how much Miss A would enjoy this dish as well. I mean it has goat cheese, basil and balsamic – not the type of ingredients that most little ones find palatable. Oh was I wrong on that one! She devoured her first one and kept right on going. So here’s the easy to make Strawberry Bruschetta Appetizer I adapted from Annie’s recipe, and Miss A’s favorite lunch. Continue reading →

Miss A’s Dream Come True

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It’s time for the birthday girl’s dessert and you’ll never guess what we found. Remember that Miss A requested (well, okay rather demanded) cookies for her birthday? Well when I pressed her on what kind of cookies she wanted she said, “balsamic cookies.” Mr. N thought she was out of her mind and was horrified at the thought, but Miss A kept insisting on balsamic cookies. So I did a search, and do you know what I found? Not just balsamic cookies, but Chocolate Balsamic Cookies! I thought Miss A was going to fall off her chair she was so excited – chocolate and balsamic and a cookie!

She most definitely was on hand to help (and sample) this recipe! First we sifted together the flour, salt and baking soda.

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Three Going on Twenty Three

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Birth Day 2008

We’ve got another reason to celebrate in our house – Miss A’s third birthday! Our little baby girl is growing up and way too fast for our liking. Some days it certainly seems like she’s three going on twenty three. Take her birthday meal request for instance. Here’s how the conversation went: “What do you want for your birthday dinner?” Miss A responded without hesitation, “Cookies.”

“Yes, honey, but what do you want to eat before the cookies.”

“Cookies.” (Gotta love her determination.)

“You have to eat dinner before the cookies – your special birthday dinner. You can pick any dinner you want.”

“Um. Something hard. A hard recipe. And balsamic.”

“Balsamic? You want me to make something that’s hard to make and use balsamic?”

“Yep.”

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Fast and the Furious

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Last night was a hectic one. I ended up having to work a little extra late, we had a meal to put on the table and we had to be ready for our annual family pictures – all within an hour. The results – a fast meal and a furiously, frantic mom rushing around trying to cook, snap photos, keep the kids clean and finally get us all dressed and ready to go. Fortunately everything looked pretty darn good by the end of the night. Even Miss A’s hair was cooperating. 😉

Since we were still cooking from California, we found another healthy recipe that was seemingly right up Miss A’s alley – Turkey Avocado Pita Pizza. The ingredients are simple and fresh. We started with some Compari tomatoes since they are on the sweeter side and extra juicy.

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Salsa – Almost as Much Fun to Say as Sriracha

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Miss A rollin’ in her signature laid back style – 2009

There’s a story behind this – every time we go to the grocery store and get to the Asian food aisle, Miss A starts yelling “Sri-chacha” – and I mean yelling. We can’t help but laugh every time, even while trying to shoosh her just a bit. Then she continues for the next few aisles whispering “Sri-chacha.”

While we didn’t use Sriracha tonight, it was Miss A’s pick for our stateside adventure. We asked her what state she wanted to cook from and without hesitation she said very matter of factly, “California.” Dad and I both turned and looked at each other in shock. You see she usually picks places we’ve recently talked about or visited, or even one she flips to in the atlas, but today was straight out of her own little mind. So even though we already visited California once before, we figured we’d give it another go because Miss A said so.

Every time we visit California we eat lots of fresh Mexican food – especially fresh salsa. And since we’re really full from eating desserts the past few weeks and weekends, we’re going to feature a healthy California side dish this week in its place – Pineapple Jicama Salsa. (Don’t worry…we’ll have another dessert soon. 😉 )

This recipe is courtesy of our good friend, Linda, who shared this wonderful dish with us last week after I devoured quite a bit at their house. We started by dicing some tomatoes, jicama and pineapple. Continue reading →

Breakfast Skillet Bermuda Style

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When we read about this recipe on Food.com, we knew it was one we had to feature on our Bermuda adventure. I mean how could we not with this “ringing” endorsement, “This dish is one of many in Bermuda that is loved by the locals, but avoided like the plague by the majority of foreigners….”

I have to admit that I had bought the ingredients for this dish weeks ago, but kept conveniently finding other options for those items. Try as I might, I couldn’t keep putting it off. So here it goes, an adapted version of the traditional Bermuda Salt Cod Fish Breakfast. We started by creating a foil pouch for some frozen hash brown potatoes, olive oil and salt.

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