Okay, now I’m dating myself and getting another song stuck in my head. So now that we’ve had a few layovers for Royal wedding celebrations and fiestas, we’re back on track for our next international cooking destination and dad is taking us to Egypt! Tonight we had a great Egyptian dinner that began with a homemade Wheat Pocket Pita.
Both Miss A and Mr. N were big helpers today. Miss A and I began in the morning by dissolving the yeast and sugar in warm water.
When Erin and Molly requested we make a Minnesota bar recipe, I have to admit I had no idea what that meant. The only Minnesota bars that I knew about are those I frequented in college – but that’s a whole other story. So after a little research we discovered that in addition to the Minnesota hotdish, Minnesota bars are the second most popular potluck dish in the state. The dessert bars are any kind of dessert that fits into a large baking dish, is easily made and requires little to no cookie dough. For example Rice Krispie treats, lemon bars and peanut butter bars are all considered Minnesota bars – brownies however are not (although I don’t really understand why).
What I really wanted to make tonight was another batch of these lemon bars, posted over at Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. These things are unbelievably good, but I know if we made another batch I would eat the entire pan. Seriously. So tonight we went for something a little less dangerous. Can you guess what dessert bar we made? 
(And it’s not Rice Krispie treats.) Continue reading
It’s state night again! Tonight we’re featuring a traditional Minnesota Hotdish at the request of Mr. N’s prize winners, Molly and Erin. Hotdishes, or casseroles, come in many shapes and sizes, but Minnesota hotdishes traditionally combine a meat, starch, veggies and cream of mushroom soup. This past January, Minnesota Senator Al Franken invited the other Minnesota Congressional delegates to a hotdish cook-off. While Senator Klobuchar’s hotdish won the cook-off, we chose to adapt Rep. Betty McCollum’s Pork, Cranberry & Wild Rice Hotdish since it incorporates wild rice which is home-grown in the land of 10,000 lakes.
We started making our Pork, Apple & Wild Rice hotdish by preparing 2 dry cups of wild rice by following the package directions; although we always add coriander to the rice as well. Then we began chopping some shallots, mushrooms, pork and fresh sage. 
I had every intention of posting this delicious banana bread recipe yesterday, but the day just got away from me. It was a wonderful Mother’s Day spent with my little ones and was topped off with a special dinner that dad whipped up for me. It was the perfect day. It was also a great day to try a new banana bread recipe for our challenge. This time I picked the recipe that I’ve been dying to try – Bananas Foster Bread from Cooking Light magazine. I’m a huge fan of bananas foster. It was my favorite dish at a local New Orleans themed restaurant that sadly went out of business, so I was hoping that his recipe would fill the void.
We started by cooking the butter, brown sugar, bananas and cognac in a skillet over medium heat until bubbly. 
After our big British feast this past weekend, and its piles of leftovers, we’ve been preparing meals a bit on the lighter side. We also decided to break from our usual state night dinner in honor of Cinco de Mayo and cook another new recipe from Mexico. Mr. N was very excited about this because Mexico was his first choice at the start of this adventure. He’s a big fan. So for our fiesta we tried a recipe from Parents Magazine from March 2010. It’s a low-cal take on a traditional Mexican favorite – the enchilada. These Gooey Enchiladasreportedly lost 131 calories, 14 grams of fat and 400 mg of sodium from a standard Enchilada recipe.
Dad started by heating the oil in a large skillet to cook the onions and garlic. After about 7 minutes he added the fire-roasted tomatoes, coriander, cumin, oregano and pepper; and in a separate skillet he was browning the ground chicken and black beans. In the meantime, Miss A and I chopped up the cilantro which was added to the sauce. She was on a chopping kick this week. Continue reading
Feliz Cinco de Mayo! We wanted to share one other dish that we whipped up for the teacher’s today. This one was again from The “I Don’t Know How to Cook” Book – Mexican by Linda Rodriguez, Green Beans with Pine Nuts.
We started by washing and cooking the fresh green beans. Continue reading
Eat, Play, Love 