Date Night

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Remember back around our wedding anniversary post, we mentioned our date night to a local bistro and the amazing stuffed date appetizer we enjoyed? Well, we finally recreated our own version and, spoiler alert, we’ve made it several times over the past few weeks. It’s that good.

The restaurant version featured dates stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped with bacon and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. Our version is Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates with a Balsamic Reduction. It made for a great light dinner one evening, a side dish to another meal and most recently an appetizer for a backyard dinner party with friends. It has fast become a staple – easy and delicious, and those types of meals are always going to win big here. Continue reading →

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 →

Kicking Off Birthday Week

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Today we have a special post on behalf of a very talented food blogger, Raymund, at Ang Sarap. We were so excited and honored when Raymund asked us to write a guest post. I’ve often told Raymund that Mr. N, who as you know has a serious passion for Asian food, would love to eat dinner with his family every night. 

We’ve made several of Raymund’s recipes (and drooled over many others) and each one has been a huge hit. In fact several are on Mr. N’s “favorites” list, including Raymund’s sticky garlic chicken which Mr. N requested I make for dinner every day. Continue reading →

Hands-on Fun

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As promised…our last Romanian recipe. Then we have a few special celebrations before we’re off to our new international pick. This next selection will be courtesy of Miss A which is always exciting. We just never know where she’ll take us! Mike and I usually talk about our options, so those picks aren’t really a surprise. We can bet on Mr. N going for Asia, but Miss A…she’s taken us to Brazil, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Greenland. It’s literally all over the map. 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 →