Category: Uncategorized

Give Me Some Sugar

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That’s what my Grandma always said when she wanted a kiss from one of us grandkids, “Give me some sugar.” Well, in this case, we’re going to be giving you some real sugar – and serious amounts of it. So who’s ready for some dessert from North Carolina?!

While Mike was at his conference in Charlotte, I treated myself to a relaxing day all for me. I went running, shopping, enjoyed a fantastic lunch al fresco and then had a mani/pedi. It was during my mani/pedi that I got a wealth of information about things to do and see in Charlotte. My salon rep was a fantastic conversationalist and an absolute joy to spend the afternoon with. She, in fact, reminded me of my Grandma.

The one thing that she strongly recommended was a visit to the Moravian settlement near Winston-Salem. She talked about the Moravian sugar cake and how absolutely delicious it was and practically a necessity for the holidays. You can imagine my blog wheels were instantly turning. Mike and I tried to configure our route home through the Winston-Salem area, but we didn’t quite make it that direction. And while we did manage to find some Moravian sugar cookies, no cakes… Continue reading →

Let the Good Times Roll

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It’s been a while since we featured a random recipe, so before we launch off to a new country and the next state in our rotation, we thought we’d share this gem of a salad. You see, we’ve been on something of a roll with goodness lately (Yep, I have a song for this one too.). In fact, the kids haven’t even complained about what’s on their plates in nearly two weeks.

While we will take some credit for a few of the recipes winning them over, several of you deserve the credit too. In the last two weeks we’ve enjoyed recipes from Raymund at Ang Sarap, Courtney at Misadventures in Cooking, Charles at Five Euro Food, Sawsan at Chef in Disguise, John at From the Bartolini Kitchens, and Mary at Inside a British Mum’s Kitchen.

I kid you not, the kids have eaten all of these meals, enjoyed them and asked for more. We even heard phrases like, “Can we eat this every night?” and “Mom, you’re the best cook in the world.” I’m really astounded at this latest turn of events, especially considering none of these have been dessert recipes. Now I have no doubt this streak will come to an end, but until then, we wanted to share this Southwest Farro Salad with you all.  Continue reading →

Buuz Cruuz

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By Mike

I’ve been on one cruise in my life, to the Bahamas for my mom’s 50th birthday celebration, and it was indeed a booze cruise. My grandma announced at some point that “this is my second daiquiri, and I am looped!” And by “some point” I mean in the hour or so between the time we boarded and the time the ship left port.

Sadly, I’ll never take a cruise to Mongolia, as it’s landlocked in Central Asia, so our virtual cruise around the world will have to suffice. With that, we bring you Buuz, a Mongolian meat-filled dumpling typically comprised of ground mutton and very little seasoning. For our Buuz we went with ground beef and a touch of seasonings.  Continue reading →

To Everything There is a Season

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“A time to be born, a time to die. A time to plant, a time to reap. A time to kill, a time to heal. A time to laugh, a time to weep.”

Before we wrap up our cooking tour of Mongolia we thought we’d share our latest gardening adventure – a first here at Eat, Play, Love. Now, I have to be up-front, I am not a gardener. I do not have a green thumb and I typically kill (albeit unintentionally) the heartiest of plants. So this year I figured I’d get the kids in on the action. Miss A after all has been a big help in teaching me not to kill yeast and to actually get a bread to rise. I’m hoping some of her natural ability rubs off on me here as well.

Miss A and I began our project by planting some seeds for sage, rosemary and lavender.  Continue reading →

Cinderella Story

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By Mike

It’s March Madness time, and that means basketb–er, French Toast.  As regular readers are aware, this year we’re trying French Toast recipes that we’ll seed into a final four-style showdown to determine the best of the best next March.  One great thing about March Madness on the basketball court is the history of rags-to-riches stories of lesser-known teams rising up and taking down the giants of the game.  Sadly, as bluebloods Kansas and Kentucky get set to square off tomorrow for the 2012 NCAA basketball title, there will be no Cinderella on the court this year.

But fear not, French Toast fans, as Eat, Play, Love brings you the first Cinderella story in the battle for French Toast Supremacy. Continue reading →

If I Was a Betting Woman

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Fortunately I’m not, because this is one bet I would have lost. I should know by now not to assume what the kids will or will not eat. It’s not like they haven’t surprised me before, but this time I thought I would surely have been right.

Aerial of Greenland from my best friend Sue’s flight to Europe.

You see this was one meal that kept popping up on our search for Greenlandic recipes, and it’s one I was not terribly thrilled about making. In fact, I think we were all kind of dreading this one. Now you would think that would be enough to find a different recipe, but we were determined to give it a shot. After all you never know, and that’s what this whole experience is about for us – learning new things.

Aerial of Greenland, shot by Sue.

So we finally set to making the recipe for Halibut Cream Casserole. (I think it was the word casserole that had me dreading this meal. While I’ve had plenty of good casseroles over the years, I still associate the word with the many bad ones I’ve eaten.) The kids were also complaining about the meal before we even started as they’re not big fans of stews, but on we went. We started with the halibut, which we were fortunate enough to find this time – and on the first try too!  Continue reading →