Category: Main Dish

Rocked Lobster

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Tonight we bring you our main course dishes from Sunday’s Chopped Challenge. The basket for this round came to us from Sally at Bewitching Kitchen and included lobster tails, edamame, buckwheat noodles and chipotle peppers. We were a bit intimidated because if you’ve been to Sally’s blog, you know she’s always coming up with inventive dishes that look deliciously full of flavor – without fail – and we wanted to make sure we did her proud.

We were also a bit nervous and baffled about how to combine edamame and buckwheat noodles with chipotle peppers. This one was definitely throwing us. Do we go Asian or Southwestern? Ultimately we went both directions. I went towards Asian flavors and Mike embraced the Southwest. And while our dishes may not look as restaurant-worthy as the last round, these were hands down our favorite dishes of the day. Mr. N and Miss A were also very excited about the lobster. You should have heard Miss A, “Is it ready yet? Is this the lobster? Is it dead? Can I eat the lobster?” Apparently we taught them well in Maine this summer. Continue reading →

Pillow Talk

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No. No. No. We’re not talking about that kind of pillow talk. This is a family blog after all. We’re talking about our next recipe from Uzbekistan, Kovoqli Varaki Somsa – or Pumpkin Samsa.

We came across several samsa recipes on Uzbek National Cuisine and quickly settled on the pumpkin version. Just because Thanksgiving is over, doesn’t mean we’re over the pumpkin yet. As for the samsa, well it’s similar to the manapua we made for our Hawaiian adventure and also to the old college favorite, Hot Pockets (only much, much tastier).

For today’s recipe Mr. N and I were cooking partners. Miss A was off at her friend’s birthday party – her very first party (Now if that didn’t give me scary flashes of what’s to come…). If you know anything about Miss A, you know she was excited and feeling very important, so she wasn’t sad about missing our cooking adventure today. And I have to say, it was quite fun to be in the kitchen with my favorite boy (works out having a boy and girl – they can both be my favorites!) who expertly whisked the eggs and added them to our flour to create a dough batter.  Continue reading →

Platter of Pilaf

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Now that we’ve wrapped up our Portuguese cuisine, we’re moving on to Miss A’s international pick for the next few weeks. She again got out her trusty little beach ball globe and selected the green-colored country of Uzbekistan. Both she and Mr. N have loved running around the house saying yelling “Uzbekistan!” It doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Ecuador,” but they still love saying it.

We really didn’t have any idea what to expect from Uzbek cuisine. In fact, before Miss A picked it on her globe, I wouldn’t have even known where it was. So we got out our world atlas and the kids and I did a little reading. Uzbekistan is a relatively new country having broken away from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it’s considered part of Central Asia. We also came across the website Uzbek National Cuisine from which we developed our first Uzbek recipe, Behili Palov, or Pilaf with Quinces. Continue reading →

Red Hot

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By Mike

Miss A carpools home from preschool with our neighbor, and in a development that should come as no surprise to regular blog readers, she’s been known to express her opinion about the music selection during the car ride. Her standard request demand is for the Red Hot Chili Peppers:


She apparently picked this up from Kristy unbeknownst to me. Regardless, we’re off to New Mexico, a state that knows something about chile peppers, for our stateside adventure this week.

In fact, chiles are the subject of The Official New Mexico State Question: Red or Green? The correct answer if you can’t decide is, appropriately enough for the season, “Christmas.”

Our pick for a New Mexico meal featured red chiles most prominently, though the ones we chose were mild. We went with Costillas de Sudoeste–Southwest Spareribs in a red chile sauce. Fear not, though–we made some green chile sauce to go alongside as well. Continue reading →

Bread Bowl in a Soup

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Tonight we’re wrapping up our little stint with Portuguese cuisine, but unlike our usual routine, we’re not going to end on dessert. I mean after all, what could really top our Pastéis de Nata?

Well, that and this house has been somewhat of an infirmary since the start of November. So we’re looking for something healthy, warming and down right comforting…soup. Soups also happen to be a main part of Portuguese meals, so tonight we chose a Portuguese bread soup called Açordas de Mariscos.

Miss A got a little relief from her fever for a few moments thanks to Advil, so she wanted to help break the bread into bite size pieces for us. 

Continue reading →

The Lighter Side of Minnesota

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For this week’s stateside adventure, we’re revisiting Minnesota. Well, sort of anyway. We bought this squash on a recent trip to Minnesota at a local farm, but it’s really Japanese in origin. That said, we’re calling it our state night recipe this week. 

The farmer that we purchased the squash from described it as having a nutty and sweet flavor which instantly made me think that this would be perfect in a soup. You see I’ve been somewhat obsessed with soups after making Geni’s Sweet Potato Soup and I thought this squash might be a fun way to mix things up. Not to mention, after our major feasting last week, we’re looking to eat a bit more healthy – and so we bring you Uchiki Kuri Soup. Continue reading →