Tag: family

Going Nuts

47 Comments

Sometimes I wonder if I’m going nuts anyway. It’s been one of those weeks. Work is beyond stressful at the moment, which I’m not used to at this time of year (nor do I really like it). We’ve got holiday parties to attend, the kids’ classroom parties to get ready for, Mike’s wrapping up his semester of teaching (finals to grade!), we have birthdays to celebrate and we’re planning to host Christmas at our house. And speaking of Christmas we haven’t even started shopping yet. Yikes!

So what’s a crazed, stressed out girl to do? Make a dessert – an Uzbek dessert! Miss A and I came across a recipe called Shakarli Bodom (sugar-coated almonds) and instantly knew it was for us. It’s got nuts and it’s loaded with sugar. Continue reading →

Pillow Talk

64 Comments

No. No. No. We’re not talking about that kind of pillow talk. This is a family blog after all. We’re talking about our next recipe from Uzbekistan, Kovoqli Varaki Somsa – or Pumpkin Samsa.

We came across several samsa recipes on Uzbek National Cuisine and quickly settled on the pumpkin version. Just because Thanksgiving is over, doesn’t mean we’re over the pumpkin yet. As for the samsa, well it’s similar to the manapua we made for our Hawaiian adventure and also to the old college favorite, Hot Pockets (only much, much tastier).

For today’s recipe Mr. N and I were cooking partners. Miss A was off at her friend’s birthday party – her very first party (Now if that didn’t give me scary flashes of what’s to come…). If you know anything about Miss A, you know she was excited and feeling very important, so she wasn’t sad about missing our cooking adventure today. And I have to say, it was quite fun to be in the kitchen with my favorite boy (works out having a boy and girl – they can both be my favorites!) who expertly whisked the eggs and added them to our flour to create a dough batter.  Continue reading →

Platter of Pilaf

64 Comments

Now that we’ve wrapped up our Portuguese cuisine, we’re moving on to Miss A’s international pick for the next few weeks. She again got out her trusty little beach ball globe and selected the green-colored country of Uzbekistan. Both she and Mr. N have loved running around the house saying yelling “Uzbekistan!” It doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Ecuador,” but they still love saying it.

We really didn’t have any idea what to expect from Uzbek cuisine. In fact, before Miss A picked it on her globe, I wouldn’t have even known where it was. So we got out our world atlas and the kids and I did a little reading. Uzbekistan is a relatively new country having broken away from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it’s considered part of Central Asia. We also came across the website Uzbek National Cuisine from which we developed our first Uzbek recipe, Behili Palov, or Pilaf with Quinces. Continue reading →

Taking the Quest for the Best Banana Bread to New Elevations

42 Comments

The countdown is on folks! Only a few more recipes before we’re opening up the freezer, thawing the banana bread slices and having ourselves a banana bread feast all the while we determine which is our favorite recipe. Perhaps it will be this one? Only time will tell.

This next recipe wasn’t originally going to be in the mix, but we ran across it while surfing around one day, and it was enough different than all the others that we had to give it a try. We found it over at a blog called Inside the Kaganoff Kitchen and it’s called Mountain Sky Banana Bread. So what was so special about this bread that it was calling our name? Cream cheese. Yum! Continue reading →

Red Hot

42 Comments

By Mike

Miss A carpools home from preschool with our neighbor, and in a development that should come as no surprise to regular blog readers, she’s been known to express her opinion about the music selection during the car ride. Her standard request demand is for the Red Hot Chili Peppers:


She apparently picked this up from Kristy unbeknownst to me. Regardless, we’re off to New Mexico, a state that knows something about chile peppers, for our stateside adventure this week.

In fact, chiles are the subject of The Official New Mexico State Question: Red or Green? The correct answer if you can’t decide is, appropriately enough for the season, “Christmas.”

Our pick for a New Mexico meal featured red chiles most prominently, though the ones we chose were mild. We went with Costillas de Sudoeste–Southwest Spareribs in a red chile sauce. Fear not, though–we made some green chile sauce to go alongside as well. Continue reading →

Bread Bowl in a Soup

57 Comments

Tonight we’re wrapping up our little stint with Portuguese cuisine, but unlike our usual routine, we’re not going to end on dessert. I mean after all, what could really top our Pastéis de Nata?

Well, that and this house has been somewhat of an infirmary since the start of November. So we’re looking for something healthy, warming and down right comforting…soup. Soups also happen to be a main part of Portuguese meals, so tonight we chose a Portuguese bread soup called Açordas de Mariscos.

Miss A got a little relief from her fever for a few moments thanks to Advil, so she wanted to help break the bread into bite size pieces for us. 

Continue reading →