Category: Uncategorized

Good Things in Small Packages

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This is our final birthday post of the summer. We’ve been finished celebrating for a few weeks now and are just about ready to get back to our international and stateside cooking…just in time for school to start. Where did this summer go?! (Well, maybe we have some idea where this summer went.)

Miss A’s swim lessons.

Anyway, as many of you may remember, the kids get to request a special birthday meal and dessert as part of their birthday celebrations. Mr. N requested Sesame Chicken and his rather elaborate homemade birthday cake. Well, Miss A took it a little easier on me this year. She wanted pasta in a cheesy sauce and a cherry crisp. Pasta sauce and pies/crisps are totally in my wheel house. They are the two food groups that I LOVE to cook and often do without a recipe. They are totally in my comfort zone. Continue reading →

By the Numbers

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Well after kicking off birthday week with a strawberry rhubarb pie, we’re going to head back to the main course now. As you know we celebrated Mr. N’s 8th birthday last month and Miss A celebrated her 4th birthday this month. Would you believe the kids were actually due on the same day…in August? Both were born a little bit early – Mr. N a full two months early. The funny thing is that they both ended up being born on the same date – the 12th. One in June, one in July. Another fun fact, add those two numbers up and you get the date of our wedding anniversary.

Yep! That present was a hit!

So this month we celebrated both of the kids’ birthdays at one big party with our families. Mike had been dying to put the smoker to good use again and since Miss A was such a big fan of Mike’s ribs last year, we knew they had to be on this year’s birthday menu. Mike worked up his dry rub and fired up the smoker. Continue reading →

A Taste of Home

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I promise we’ll finish our Romanian cooking. We have one more recipe to share with you all, and it’s coming up soon. We’re just finding it hard to keep up this summer what with road trips, birthdays, anniversaries, camps, swimming…yada, yada, yada. June and July are always our busiest months – and some of our most fun months too. It’s always a whirlwind and full of milestones that remind us how lucky we are and how much fun we have together. You know, the stuff memories are made of…

We recently took a road trip back to Minnesota. While we didn’t live there more than a few years, it was long enough to make it home. The kids still get excited singing “London Bridges” every time we cross the state border between Wisconsin and Minnesota. Continue reading →

A Few of Our Favorite Things

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As you know, Mike and I recently celebrated our 12th anniversary. We enjoyed  a wonderful dinner out (which reminds me we need to try to create that appetizer recipe) and whipped up a special dinner at home. When we have date nights at home there are two types of cuisine that dominate the scene – sushi and Italian. The sushi is usually ordered from our favorite local restaurant, but sometimes made at home, and the Italian dishes although varied are always homemade.

Now usually when we prepare a date night meal it’s typically something that the kids aren’t too thrilled about eating, so we serve the kids one of their favorites (pizza, chicken nuggets, waffles, etc.) earlier in the evening. This time, however, we figured given their love of seafood we’d introduce them to Seafood Risotto. Continue reading →

Best Laid Plans

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We had another Romanian recipe planned for today. Only it didn’t turn out very well. In fact, it didn’t turn out at all. You know how that goes sometimes, you have everything all laid out – your plans for the day, the recipe, the ingredients and then somehow time sneaks up on you, you’re in a rush, the recipe goes completely haywire and all you have are some prep pictures and no finished result. This is when I take a deep breath and am reminded of that old saying, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”

But that’s life isn’t it…it’s gunna throw stuff at us. It’s full of uncertainty, and sometimes it’s okay to just throw your hands-up and move on. Now even though we pushed this recipe aside for today, we do plan on trying it again. You could say that it’s become a personal challenge of sorts. I will figure this one out! Until then, we thought we’d share this simple Watermelon-Ginger Salad that we whipped up to go with Mr. N’s birthday meal a few weeks ago. It’s simple, it’s fresh, is a great summer side, and most importantly it’s no fail! Continue reading →

Gettin’ Down to the Nitty Gritty

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We’re back and today we have our last recipe from North Carolina. After all, we’ve got to get rolling with some Romanian dishes here soon too. In fact, stay tuned early next week for our first taste of Romania – it’s a twofer!

Now before we cross the Atlantic, we’re going to round out this culinary tour with a classic Southern dish inspired by our favorite restaurant from North Carolina, the Tupelo Honey Cafe. The moment I saw “Fried Green Tomatoes- served over goat cheese grits with basil” on the menu, I knew I was going to be sold. Sure enough Tupelo didn’t disappoint. The dish was fantastic! So of course we had to see if we could recreate the magic at home.  Continue reading →