Category: Stateside Cuisine

What’s Not to Love About Colorado

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Tonight we round out last night’s winning Colorado dinner with Balsamic Glazed Fingerlings, again adapted from Agriculture Colorado. I still can’t get over how successful dinner was – and even more surprising, how much the kids enjoyed it! Miss A asked for more steak on two different occasions today and was very distressed that we didn’t have any leftovers. Mr. N finished off the fingerlings tonight and has already asked that we make the potatoes again soon. He also wants to pass the recipe on to his Grandma to make on one of the night’s he goes to her house for dinner. Looks like this meal will become one of our family recipes!

We don’t say this often, but this is one recipe you’ve got to try. We’re sure you’ll love it – if not, send us the leftovers! 🙂 You start with dark balsamic vinegar, white oregano infused balsamic vinegar and honey. Bring it to a simmer on the stove and reduce the mixture until it’s syrupy, about 40 minutes. Continue reading →

Ladies and Gentlemen: We Have a Winner

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This week we’re dishing up a few recipes from the Rocky Mountain State courtesy of Miss A. Colorado is a special place for me, not only due to its unbelievable beauty, but also because it was where I vacationed several times with my mom, dad and sister (sometimes even aunts, uncles and cousins) when I was growing up. As a mom, I have had the opportunity to share many of these places, memories and experiences with my own little guys in Colorado; and it’s been amazing to see familiar sights as new through their eyes. So when Miss A picked Colorado tonight I knew it was going to be fun, but little did I know it would be an absolute winner.

For our meal we found a plethora of fabulous options at Agriculture-Colorado. The site is host to recipes from numerous chefs throughout the state that cook with locally grown produce and meats. Tonight we settled on Peach Teriyaki Buffalo Steak and Balsamic Glazed Fingerlings. Now we’re not new to buffalo – last summer dad and I tried buffalo brisket in South Dakota – but I have to admit I was leery of the steaks. I mean the brisket was lathered in BBQ sauce, so really it just tasted like BBQ. This, however, was going to be unadulterated Buffalo. We started with the marinade – ripe peaches, teriyaki sauce and honey. Continue reading →

Shoo Fly Shoo

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Our work began early this Memorial Day. Both dad and grandpa (my dad) were outside by 7:30 working on the swing set, the Cedar Summit Panorama from Costco.

They braved the 90 degree temps and humidity, and worked tirelessly through lunch. By early afternoon the rest of the barn raising crew came by to help finish things up (and break things in!).

Continue reading →

It’s a Barn Raising – of Sorts

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Both Mr. N and Miss A have summer birthdays. So this year, since we’re in the new house, we decided to get them a swing set for their birthdays. We purchased a beautiful set at a very reasonable price, the catch – we have to build it ourselves. This is no easy feat as you can imagine. There are literally dozens of pieces of wood and hundreds of screws, and nothing is labeled.

This job was beyond dad and I, so much like the barn raisings of long ago, we invited some extra hands to help us put this thing together.

So since we’re raising the swing set and our state this week was Pennsylvania, we decided to whip up a few Amish dishes to get in the spirit of things. We started early yesterday morning with an Amish Stuffed French Toast.

The first step was to cube a loaf of bread.

We placed the bread in a baking dish and then cut up a block of cream cheese and placed it in the bread.

The recipe then called for the use of a pie filling. Instead, we took fresh blackberries that we had frozen from my Grandpa’s garden last summer and combined them with a bit of sugar.

Next we poured them over the first layer of bread.

Then we added the remaining bread over the top. Finally in a bowl we mixed together eggs, milk, vanilla and maple syrup. We poured this over the top layer of bread, followed by a bit of melted butter and cinnamon. The French toast was then refrigerated overnight and baked for 50 minutes at 350F in the morning.

We served the dish with syrup and powdered sugar. However as good as this looked and smelled, it didn’t quite live up to our expectations.

Miss A rated it the lowest with 1 spoon. She barely ate any. Dad and I both gave the French toast 2 spoons. It was okay, but we think would have been better with white bread instead of wheat. And Mr. N seemed to enjoy it the most and gave it 3 spoons. He ate it for breakfast, dinner and again the next morning for breakfast.

As for the barn raising…

after a 12 hour day and having to wait out some rain showers (water and power tools don’t mix), it’s coming along. Here’s hoping tomorrow will be the final day for the “barn raising.”

Print this recipe: Amish Stuffed French Toast

It’s Always Sunny with Philly Cheesesteak

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The Philly Phanatic

This meal was all ChefDad, so he’ll share this one in his own words. 🙂

Today we head to Pennsylvania for Philly Cheesesteaks, and if Ribbie and Roobarb merit a spot on this blog, surely we can find room for a true legend among mascots–the Philly Phanatic. I’ve had a taste for a Philly Cheesesteak for the last couple of weeks, though I confess to limited experience with them. We did order cheesesteaks at the old Veteran’s Stadium back in 2003, though I suspect mom was too busy taking pictures of Kyle Farnsworth to pay much attention to her meal.

The internet’s not much help for cheesesteak recipes–it seems there is no universal formula beyond thinly sliced beef, cheese and bread. Nevertheless I felt confident as I began this undertaking, as mom said to Mr. N, “He’s been to Philadelphia once and he thinks he knows how to make cheesesteaks.” Yes I did. We settled on a set of toppings–onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. Continue reading →

Sweet Georgia and Humble Pie

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The humble pie is for me because, well, he did it again. We had our greatest number of hits for ChefDad’s post last night. (Although I am suspicious that he was driving up the hits from his computer. 😉 ) I just hope all of this success doesn’t go to his head, but who am I kidding – it wasn’t his modesty that first attracted me some 14 years ago. In all seriousness, even I enjoyed yesterday’s post and I think dad’s earned the keys to the blog controls every now and again. But for now back to the Peach State – and back to dessert!

While we didn’t make a pie tonight – it was close. Georgia being our state for this week, we knew we had to make something with peaches. How could we not?! So today, for my dad, and for Miss A who was not fond of the shrimp and grits, we made a Georgia Peach Cobbler. We adapted this particular recipe from the one found over at Vintage Victuals, mostly because it sounded delicious and easy. Really – very easy. Continue reading →