Tag: recipe

Our Take on Minnesota Bars

17 Comments

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 →

The Traveling Pan

7 Comments

Magnolia Tree

This past week our stateside cooking adventure took us to Mississippi. While we were researching recipes it became very clear that two dishes are synonymous with the Magnolia State – catfish and Mississippi Mud Pie. It also happens that I need a dessert to take downstate to a family get together this weekend.

My family has a traveling 9″x13″ pan that always carries my favorite dessert when it makes its way up to this part of the state – my Grandma’s Blackberry Cobbler. Then when we head south, my mom whips up a chocolate dessert to take back in the pan. It just so happened that this time, the pan was at my house, giving us the perfect opportunity to try the Mississippi Mud Cake (similar to the pie, but suitable to this size baking dish).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not big on baking cakes and especially cakes that involve icing; but there are two things I love about this recipe: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s supposed to look like mud. I figured that the kids and I could tackle this one. We chose Paula Deen’s recipe because she too is synonymous with the south. Continue reading →

California Dreaming on a Winter’s Day

4 Comments

Earlier this week Dad left for a conference in sunny California. It’s the first time in quite sometime that we’ve been apart – and the kiddos sure are missing him. And while I’m enjoying hogging an entire bed, I  miss him too. So tonight we decided to break with protocol a bit and cook-up a weeknight meal straight out of California. The recipe idea was given to us by a good friend Beth – a great cook and former New Englander, turned Californian (even though she’s now mostly in FL). Beth threw out a few meal options and the kids liked the idea of Breakfast Burritos. Thanks Beth! So here’s to you Dad.  We hope you’re enjoying CA and can’t wait to see you!  Continue reading →

A Brazilian Valentine

5 Comments

After a crazy (but totally fun) weekend, we’re ready to have our cooking around the world night – and on Valentine’s Day. It’s the perfect way to end the day. Miss A has decided to take us to Brazil after picking a color-coded country on her globe. This came as a huge shock to us all as we were sure she was going to pick a pink colored country. Brazil is green! That said, we couldn’t be more excited to begin our Brazilian adventure. This week we needed some quick options since it’s a weeknight and we’ve got homework and routines to run through. So our menu for this evening is Brazilian Chicken with Coconut Milk from allrecipes.com (I’m not sure if this is an authentic Brazilian chicken or not, but it’s what we found that works for this evening) and Pao de Queijofrom a great cooking blog Bewitching Kitchen.  Continue reading →

Special Thursday Night Edition–Holland Style

8 Comments

Today we continued our tour of Holland with Appelmoesand Slavinken.  20 inches of snow gave Mr. N a snow day, and me too, and so we decided to cook a day early.  Mom picked the recipes and they were awfully good winter fare.

Appelmoes is, I suppose, the Dutch word for applesauce, and this was good and very easy to make.  I peeled the apples and Mr. N willingly diced them.  Last week he was petrified of the knife, but today he started grabbing for it and talking like he was an old pro who sliced and diced things all the time.  Quite a lot of progress in a week, I was proud of him.  Nervous though, and nervous his little sister’s gonna want to start chopping things too.  While Mom finished dicing, Mr. N juiced the lemon, then drank the excess straight!  Miss A wasn’t so keen on that.  A little bit of spice, a little bit of microwaving, and a little bit of mashing and we had Appelmoes.  Continue reading →

Kicking it up with Key Limes

1 Comment

Last night was our second Mexican adventure. Since it’s Mr. N’s pick we let him guide the recipe choice. He was happy with our chicken from last week, so opted for another chicken recipe. This week we picked from the “hard” section of the recipes (gasp!) – Key Lime Chicken. Fortunately it wasn’t really that hard. The biggest challenges were the grocery shopping and the planning. Key limes, chipotle peppers, tomatillos aren’t readily available at our grocery store. So this week Ms. A and I hit a more worldly grocery store and found most of our ingredients and some grape flavored bubble gum which to my knowledge is only found at this particular store. As for Ms. A, she was particularly taken with the key limes – “they are tiny like me!” Grape bubble gum and tiny key limes – we were off to a good start. Continue reading →