First and foremost, thank you all for your wonderful comments to Mr. N. He was very excited to hear them all. He had quite a fabulous birthday week and we still have more celebrations to come, so he’s not done yet! Ah, to be a kid again.
As promised tonight we’re going to bring you the special dessert for Mr. N’s birthday dinner. Here’s how it came about: “I think I want you to make me a cake this year mom.” Continue reading
That’s what my Grandma always said when she wanted a kiss from one of us grandkids, “Give me some sugar.” Well, in this case, we’re going to be giving you some real sugar – and serious amounts of it. So who’s ready for some dessert from North Carolina?! 
While Mike was at his conference in Charlotte, I treated myself to a relaxing day all for me. I went running, shopping, enjoyed a fantastic lunch al fresco and then had a mani/pedi. It was during my mani/pedi that I got a wealth of information about things to do and see in Charlotte. My salon rep was a fantastic conversationalist and an absolute joy to spend the afternoon with. She, in fact, reminded me of my Grandma.
The one thing that she strongly recommended was a visit to the Moravian settlement near Winston-Salem. She talked about the Moravian sugar cake and how absolutely delicious it was and practically a necessity for the holidays. You can imagine my blog wheels were instantly turning. Mike and I tried to configure our route home through the Winston-Salem area, but we didn’t quite make it that direction. And while we did manage to find some Moravian sugar cookies, no cakes… Continue reading
Mr. N is in the driver’s seat for the next few weeks and he’s picked for us to cook some meals from Mongolia. I need to go back and look, but I believe that Mr. N has picked an Asian country more than half of the time. He loves Asian foods and if I had to guess, I would say that aside from pizza, it’s probably his favorite type of cuisine (followed by Italian). We laugh about Mr. N’s choice every time because Mike is dying to pick Thailand, but we don’t want to pick two countries from the same continent to follow each other, and Mike always picks after Mr. N. So this time, Mike has asked Mr. N if next pick they can make a deal. We’ll see how that holds up in a month or so.
Mongolia is a land-locked country in East and Central Asia, bordering Russia and China. As such, it is influenced by the foods of these two large neighbors. We usually save the dessert recipes for last, but we’re feeling rebellious this week. Woo! Okay, maybe it’s just that this happens to be a really easy recipe and it fit into our schedule, but rebellious just sounds more fun. So what is this Mongolian dessert recipe that we bring to you today? Boortsog – deep-fried cookies! Continue reading
No, that’s not a rolling the eyes, placating “ok” which you might hear Mr. N mutter when it’s time for bed. Nope, that’s a cheer for Oklahoma! **Spoiler alert!** This is another good one from the Sooner State. To learn why Oklahoma is the Sooner State, check out this link from Sally, an OK resident over at the Bewitching Kitchen. See, don’t you feel smarter already?
So what could we possibly have found to top our Oklahoma Bourbon Steak Quesadillas with Peach Salsa? Well, the Made in Oklahoma site came through for us again, this time in the form of a bread pudding. A Citrus Raisin Bread Pudding to be exact. Continue reading
Well you had to know the next international pick was going to be a good one. Miss A is up to bat after all. Some of you may remember that last time she took us to the country of Uzbekistan which turned out to be quite delicious. So where did she take us this time? Greenland! And I have to say, she’s quite excited about it.
Now after my initial research, it became clear that this was going to be challenging. If you’ve ever searched for recipes from Greenland, they’re really few and far between. Especially when you don’t have access to Caribou (the meat – not the coffee). We did learn that Greenlandic cuisine is traditionally based on a variety of proteins including game, birds, fish and marine animals. It is also heavily influenced by Danish and Canadian cuisines. For tonight, however, we let Miss A pick our first recipe which we found on the Rachel Cotterill blog, called Kalaallit Kaagiat (or Greenlandic Cake). Continue reading
I had intended to post our first Hawaiian recipe today, but it will have to wait a bit. You see the past few weeks I have thought about how much I miss my Grandma’s kitchen. Not her actual kitchen, but the warmth, the aromas, the laughter, the sound of the dishwasher running and the little toys that sat for me on a shelf. My Grandma passed several years ago, but those memories have been incredibly vivid to me recently, so much so that when Mr. N and I went out to breakfast last Sunday morning, the smell of bacon sent us on an impromptu visit to see my Grandpa.
You see one of the strongest memories I have is how my Grandma would often make bacon and eggs for my Grandpa. It’s a smell I still associate with their kitchen. So Mr. N and I wrapped up breakfast and decided to bring “Pops” his Sunday paper. We had a nice visit talking about life, the kids, Hawaii and of course, politics. He always talked politics and whether I agreed with him or not, I always enjoyed those conversations. But above all he reveled in watching Mr. N bounce around his room. We left after an hour or so, joking that the next time we’d see him would be when we sprung him from rehab (He’s been in rehab building up his strength to return home after a recent illness.).
However, as is the way with life, things never quite seem to go as planned. Pops passed away yesterday afternoon. It was unexpected, but it was quick and painless, likely having happened as he dozed off after his lunch. In my opinion, if you’re going to go, it’s the best way to go. And what’s even better he saw all of his children and many of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren within the past few days. He was a man surrounded by love. Continue reading
Eat, Play, Love 