Category: Main Dish

Now This is Some Southern Comfort

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Today was a good day. Above all else, I was quite relieved to get the call from the doctor that the tick removed from Mr. N’s scalp last night was not an engorged deer tick, but a dog tick and these little buggers don’t carry Lyme disease. Thank goodness. And I have to say Mr. N handled the whole ordeal with a bravery that just amazed me. He does not get this from me. I would have freaked out (or passed out) if a bug was attached to my head and don’t even get me started on shots. Eek!

And this was just the beginning, the day kept on getting better. My camera was fixed, the skies were blue, the bouncy house came out of storage and we had a darn good dinner. Tonight was state night again and Mr. N wanted to sample some good ol’ Southern food from Georgia. It didn’t take us long to pick our recipes for this adventure. The dish that stood out above all else – Shrimp and Grits.

Until today none of us have had shrimp and grits, so we were really looking forward to tonight’s meal – and it didn’t disappoint. We adapted this recipe from A Spicy Perspective who posted a version of shrimp and grits that got this whole thing rolling a few days ago. Continue reading →

And to wrap it up…

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Last but not least, here’s the final recipe from last week’s Egyptian meal – the Ancient Marinated Chicken. We intended to grill the chicken on dad’s new grill, but within five minutes of putting the grill together on what was a sunny afternoon, it started to pour. So the grill must wait for another day – which no doubt will be soon as dad is quite anxious to get it going. Maybe we’ll have to venture to Australia next on this cooking adventure. Shrimp on the barbie anyone?!

Now that I’m salivating over the possibilities of Down Under grilled goodies, back to Egypt. We began by cutting the chicken breast into one-inch pieces.

We then added an onion, garlic and cilantro into the food processor and created a puree. Mr. N helped me to combine the puree with the olive oil, cumin, coriander and cayenne pepper. Continue reading →

Feelin’ Hot Hot Hot

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It’s state night again! Tonight we’re featuring a traditional Minnesota Hotdish at the request of Mr. N’s prize winners, Molly and Erin. Hotdishes, or casseroles, come in many shapes and sizes, but Minnesota hotdishes traditionally combine a meat, starch, veggies and cream of mushroom soup. This past January, Minnesota Senator Al Franken invited the other Minnesota Congressional delegates to a hotdish cook-off. While Senator Klobuchar’s hotdish won the cook-off, we chose to adapt Rep. Betty McCollum’s Pork, Cranberry & Wild Rice Hotdish since it incorporates wild rice which is home-grown in the land of 10,000 lakes.

We started making our Pork, Apple & Wild Rice hotdish by preparing 2 dry cups of wild rice by following the package directions; although we always add coriander to the rice as well. Then we began chopping some shallots, mushrooms, pork and fresh sage.

Continue reading →

A Healthy and Tasty Enchilada

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After our big British feast this past weekend, and its piles of leftovers, we’ve been preparing meals a bit on the lighter side. We also decided to break from our usual state night dinner in honor of Cinco de Mayo and cook another new recipe from Mexico. Mr. N was very excited about this because Mexico was his first choice at the start of this adventure. He’s a big fan. So for our fiesta we tried a recipe from Parents Magazine from March 2010. It’s a low-cal take on a traditional Mexican favorite – the enchilada. These Gooey Enchiladasreportedly lost 131 calories, 14 grams of fat and 400 mg of sodium from a standard Enchilada recipe.

Dad started by heating the oil in a large skillet to cook the onions and garlic. After about 7 minutes he added the fire-roasted tomatoes, coriander, cumin, oregano and pepper; and in a separate skillet he was browning the ground chicken and black beans. In the meantime, Miss A and I chopped up the cilantro which was added to the sauce. She was on a chopping kick this week. Continue reading →

A Royal Feast

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This weekend we are diverting from our regular rotation for selecting international cuisine. I mean how could we pass up an opportunity to tour the culinary delights of Britain what with the Royal wedding and all! So, Dad agreed to push his pick off for next weekend in order for us to try a traditional British feast.

I was fortunate enough to visit Great Britain after I graduated college and even more fortunate to have arrived the day of the Queen’s Birthday Parade (which incidentally is not celebrated on her actual birthday)! Talk about a tourist delight – to see the Royal family parading by and I had a front row view! It’s something I will never forget…unlike the food, which I really can’t recall. I’m fairly certain for the two days we spent in London, I mostly ate fish and chips washed down with local lager. That’s why for tonight’s meal I consulted Charles, who is a Briton living in France and creator of the Five Euro Food blog, and Alison who comes from Northern Ireland and is the creator of Happy Domesticity about what to expect from a traditional British meal. Both Charles and Alison said the meal had to be a traditional Sunday lunch – Roast Beef with Roasted Potatoes. Two answers, exactly the same…we knew we had our meal plan.

We began the Roast Beef with Port Merlot Pan Sauce early this afternoon by cutting away the cartilage and excess fat from the top sirloin roast. Continue reading →

Don’t Miss Mr. N’s Raffle Prize (or this sandwich!)

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Who doesn’t love a good raffle drawing?! Mr. N loves winning raffle prizes. He recently won a paddle ball and you would have thought he won the lottery. It therefore came as no surprise to us when Mr. N insisted on doing a raffle on our blog after discovering that other bloggers also have various kinds of giveaways.

So tonight we present Mr. N’s Raffle Prize drawing. The process is simple: Leave a comment to this post with a suggestion for an up-coming Stateside cooking adventure. (For example you could say, “Illinois and Chicago Style Pizza.”) Each commenter will be entered in our random drawing and Mr. N will draw the name on Saturday, April 30th at 5 p.m. CST. You can also earn bonus entries by sharing our site with others via Facebook, Twitter, or via your own blog by leaving a comment letting us know you shared the post.

As for the prize, well it’s not a paddle ball or millions of dollars, but since Mr. N has become a big fan of slicing and chopping we found these festive pairing knives with cutting board and a colorful, three-compartment serving dish. Both are perfect for serving some fresh fruit or chips and homemade salsa on a warm summer day! Continue reading →