Tag: recipes

Quest for the Best Banana Bread 2

25 Comments

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.

Continue reading →

A Healthy and Tasty Enchilada

16 Comments

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 →

One More for the Teachers

6 Comments

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 →

Amamos a los Maestros and Mexican Food

8 Comments

We love teachers! Amamos a los maestros! This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and in honor of the fabulous individuals that guide, teach and mentor Mr. N, we cooked up a few Mexican dishes for the PTA’s teacher appreciation lunch today. We also couldn’t pass up an opportunity to explore a few more Mexican recipes in honor of Cinco de Mayo. We once again consulted the book Mr. N gave me for Christmas, The “I Don’t Know How to Cook” Book Mexican by Linda Rodriguez for ideas.

As the primary appetizer we selected the Mexican Roll-up. It’s easy to serve whole, or sliced into appetizer-sized bites. The first step was to chop the jalapeno peppers and green onions. Then we combined all the ingredients, including cream cheese, spices and veggies, into a large skillet. Continue reading →

No Feast is Complete without Dessert!

14 Comments

And last, but not least is our recipe for Easy Berry Mini-Trifle which we ate to round off our British Feast. (As if we didn’t have enough food to begin with!) After reading quite a few different trifle recipes it became clear that we could really customize this however we wanted. We left out the liquor this time and went the easy route and bought pre-made ingredients. Also, rather than making the trifle in one large glass bowl, we made several varieties in drinking glasses so that everyone could pick their own ingredients.

I would recommend using smaller, wider juice glasses if using this method. Sadly over the past 11 years of marriage all of ours seem to have broken or disappeared. So we made do with these. Continue reading →

British Feast Side Dishes Take Center Stage

17 Comments

Our Sunday meal was perhaps one of our biggest undertakings yet. In honor of the Royal wedding we prepared a traditional British Sunday Lunch as recommended by Charles and Alison. And what a treat it was – I’m still thinking about it! In addition to the Roast Beef with Port Merlot Pan Sauce, we also made Roasted Potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding.

Let’s start with the delicious little spuds. We combined Alison’s roasted potato recipe with one we found on Epicurious. Miss A was on hand to help with the potato peeling.

We then chopped the potatoes and dropped them in cold water. After draining them, we placed them between paper towels and dried them thoroughly. Next, at Charles’ suggestion to make them authentically English, we incorporated the goose fat. Continue reading →