…Louis, meet me at the fair, don’t tell me the lights are shining any place but there. Right now I’m thankful that this is a blog and you can’t hear me singing. You should be thankful too. Let’s just say I’m no Judy Garland. So as you guessed, tonight’s state cuisine is from Missouri – St. Louis, Missouri to be exact. The “Gateway to the West” and the home of St. Louis Toasted Ravioli. Now I don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of St. Louis is ribs, not ravioli. But according to Midwest Living magazine and my good friend and St. Louis resident, toasted ravioli is indeed the specialty of the city. 
The recipe we chose for tonight is adapted from Midwest Living, which got the recipe from Charlie Gitto’s restaurant in St. Louis. Incidentally, this is the same restaurant that Mr. N and I met my friend for dinner last week. We didn’t order the toasted ravioli, but the pasta dishes we did order were delicious! Continue reading
Tag: cooking
Round and Round We Go
It’s my turn to pick our next food adventure. I’ve narrowed it down to three places that I’m most interested in (today at least). The first is Jordan. My best friend leaves for a Jordan/Turkey adventure this weekend, so this seemed like a natural choice. (Be safe and have fun SusieQ!) The second is South Africa. Last week I watched the season finale of the Bachelor (horrible reality television I know) and I was in awe of the South African landscape. It was not at all what I expected. I would love to travel there someday, but for now our food adventure will have to suffice. And lastly, my third choice is New Zealand and mainly because we haven’t tried food from that part of the world yet. Since I’m feeling indecisive this week (and insanely busy with work) I decided to put the next food adventure destination up to vote. Let us know where you’d like to go….
Back Home Again in Indiana
We had such a great time cooking a Californian meal last week, that we thought we’d continue our tour of the states and make it our mid-week meal plan. Tonight Mr. N is taking us to Indiana. While we’ve never really called Indiana home, most of my dad’s family hails from the Hoosier state. So on tonight’s menu – The Hoosier Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. (So much for not deep-frying again anytime soon!)
We began the meal with a little hammering. It seems we don’t own a meat mallet, so we used the next best thing – a hammer wrapped with plastic wrap. While mom and dad were a little embarrassed to post the pictures of our “meat mallet”, Mr. N and Miss A sure thought it was fun to use Dad’s hammer on food! First we butterflied the pork loin chops, then we beat them until they were about a quarter-inch thick. Meanwhile we were heating the olive oil in a skillet. Once the oil was ready we dipped the pork into milk and then into the breading mixture of flour, corn meal, salt and pepper. Continue reading
We win some and lose some….
…and we sure are having fun! Tonight was our second foray with Greek cooking, and it was probably the most fun we’ve had yet. We opted for the Kotopitta me Feta (Chicken and Feta Pie) recipe using a homemade Whole Wheat Phyllo Dough. As we’re all big fans of feta and chicken, we were really looking forward to this meal.
Our adventure began early this afternoon with our phyllo. The phyllo gave us all the opportunity to do something we love – Mr. N got to make a pool of oil and water in the flour mix (he spends hours making holes and filling them with water on the beach), Miss A got to smash and flip the dough (much how she does with her play dough), Dad got to make a mess with the flour, and I just get such satisfaction out of a good a pie crust. Continue reading
Mr. N Keeping it Real – and Safe
In lieu of recent events (Mommy burning her thumb on the baking tray), Mr. N thought it would be a good idea to share his “Kitchen Safety Tips.” Unlike Miss A (who often breaks rules 11, 12 and 19), Mr. N is quite concerned about his safety and the safety of others. And he’s often quick to point out when Miss A is violating any of the rules below. Enjoy!
1. Be sure to wear good oven mitts.
2. Kids shouldn’t touch raw meat – and if they do, they need to wash their hands.
3. Be sure to wash your hands before and after cooking.
4. Wash your hands after cracking eggs.
5. Put long hair into a pony tail.
6. Kids should never touch the stove or oven.
7. Don’t touch the dish disposal.
8. Only chop with a sharp knife with a grown-up.
9. Let food cool before sampling.
10. No more than one person on one stool and be careful.
11. No standing on the kitchen table.
12. No climbing on the counters.
13. Be sure to wash the counters before and after cooking.
14. If you spill ice out of the ice maker, pick it up off the floor.
15. Don’t leave cabinets or drawers open or you can bump your head.
16. Make sure food isn’t moldy or expired.
17. Do not put your hands near the inside of the blender.
18. Don’t touch the blade part of a knife.
19. No running in the kitchen.
20. Have fun!
Answer: Electric Tinker Toys, A Two-Year Old and Penne Rigoletto, Question: What items are on your kitchen table?
What do you get when you combine a missing ingredient, a last-minute recipe change-up, a child trying to jump out of a grocery cart, noise from four different sources (not counting the children) in our little kitchen, a frazzled mom, a child standing on top of the kitchen table, a burned thumb and biscuits spilled on the bottom of the oven?
One upside down six-year old and a delicious meal. Continue reading
Eat, Play, Love 
