Whether you need a little comfort after a night on Bourbon Street, 
or it’s just been one of those days, this recipe will do the trick. 
And it’s not just a comfort food dish. It’s also a quintessential New Orleans recipe that’s just downright delicious. 
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My goodness! It’s already been almost two months since our trip to Banff. Time seems to be flying lately – between my work, Mike’s work, PTA, the kids’ schedules, the holidays, travel and did I mention work – I’m exhausted! So we’ve been a little neglectful in our cooking and posting (certainly not our eating though!). But not to fear – we will keep on with our international and state night cooking adventures (even if just a bit more infrequently than we used to). We enjoy cooking, learning, eating and of course all of you too much to let it fall to the wayside! 
So long story short, the avalanche that has consumed our spare time is why we’re delinquent in posting our favorite Alberta recipe and visiting many of your wonderful sites. Fortunately there were no avalanches on our Banff vacation. Just good food, great views and a spectacular time. 
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Le Ronca El Mango is a Cuban expression translated to mean it snores the mango. In other words, when something is too much to handle or simply ridiculous. That’s kind of how I feel about 2012. Let’s just say I won’t be sorry to see New Year’s this year. It’s been a year that snores the mango (albeit not entirely – there is certainly more good than bad). But we have faced a few situations that were at the time a bit much to handle and a few situations that are just down right ridiculous.
That said, when facing ridiculous situations and challenges it’s often an opportunity to learn a great deal about yourself, about priorities, about your family, your friends and your place in life. One of those friends that helps me to rise above it all, so that despite the situations I can honestly say I’m happier, prouder and certainly grateful, is my best friend Sue. Her friendship is a gift. Continue reading
…they pull me back in.
Actually, I’m excited to blog this recipe for Potato Gnocchi with Creamy Tomato Vodka Sauce, one of our favorite things to make when we can find the time to do it. This time it was for Kristy’s birthday last month.
So, there’s that awful scene in The Godfather III where Andy Garcia is oozing his charm on Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter who is neither old enough, nor alluring enough, nor competent enough as an actress to pull this scene off at this point in her career arc. For the uninitiated (I refuse to link to a youtube clip), the medium the elder Don-wannabe uses to charm his prey is gnocchi. We’re supposed to be seduced by the mastery Mr. Garcia demonstrates in rolling the gnocchi across the tines of the fork while little Sofia looks on in heated amazement, but frankly I was just creeped out. Continue reading
In the last few posts we hinted that we were busy with an adventure or two. Well, we returned home today. We’re well rested, relaxed and in need of a post-vacation recovery. You know how those go…we ate too much, we packed a lot into a span of a few days and well, we traveled with two kids. It was a blast, it was memorable, it was full of laughs and smiles, and it was down-right exhausting.
Not to worry though, we’ll be back soon with that overly caloric, but fantastically delicious birthday/date night recipe we enjoyed a few weeks ago as well as some new Cuban cuisine. Until then, we thought we’d revisit a healthy and seasonal recipe from last year because quite frankly we need some healthy food this week. 😉 So enjoy, and feel free to take a guess where we were (Shhhh…if you already know!). 
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I really was planning to bring you Mr. N’s state fair recipe today. It’s been made, photographed and eaten. It’s been patiently waiting in the wings…and it’s going to have to keep waiting. You see tonight we made our first Cuban recipe and well, it just can’t wait. Or, maybe, I just couldn’t wait.
I have to confess I was rooting for Cuba all along. I’ve wanted a Cuban sandwich for years. Why I haven’t had one yet, I don’t really know. But since you all voted for Cuba, I now have no more excuses. So we’ll postpone our state fair dessert for one more post while we share what is probably our most anticipated recipe yet (by Mike and I anyway), The Cuban. Continue reading
Eat, Play, Love 