Tag: recipes

A Royal Feast

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This weekend we are diverting from our regular rotation for selecting international cuisine. I mean how could we pass up an opportunity to tour the culinary delights of Britain what with the Royal wedding and all! So, Dad agreed to push his pick off for next weekend in order for us to try a traditional British feast.

I was fortunate enough to visit Great Britain after I graduated college and even more fortunate to have arrived the day of the Queen’s Birthday Parade (which incidentally is not celebrated on her actual birthday)! Talk about a tourist delight – to see the Royal family parading by and I had a front row view! It’s something I will never forget…unlike the food, which I really can’t recall. I’m fairly certain for the two days we spent in London, I mostly ate fish and chips washed down with local lager. That’s why for tonight’s meal I consulted Charles, who is a Briton living in France and creator of the Five Euro Food blog, and Alison who comes from Northern Ireland and is the creator of Happy Domesticity about what to expect from a traditional British meal. Both Charles and Alison said the meal had to be a traditional Sunday lunch – Roast Beef with Roasted Potatoes. Two answers, exactly the same…we knew we had our meal plan.

We began the Roast Beef with Port Merlot Pan Sauce early this afternoon by cutting away the cartilage and excess fat from the top sirloin roast. Continue reading →

The Quest for the Best Banana Bread

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ChefMom hiking with her little sister and dad circa 1984-ish

While Mr. N eagerly awaits his prize drawing this afternoon, we thought we’d share our latest adventure. One of my earliest memories of cooking is with my dad. We used to make Big Bird’s Banana Bread from one of my old Sesame Street books. After Mr. N was born this memory kept resurfacing and I knew I had to find the same series of books (my old set was ruined in a flood years ago). I was fortunate enough to find them on eBay and acquired the whole set once again. I knew this was a recipe I wanted to share with Mr. N as he got older.

I made the recipe a few years ago and it didn’t quite live up to the hype in my mind. The memory is far sweeter than this particular version of the tasty snack. Then while we were living in Minnesota my friend Doree brought over her banana bread. Now this stuff tasted much more like my memory of banana bread! In fact, this was and so far still is the best banana bread I’ve ever had in my life. So since banana bread holds a special place in my heart we’re going to test out some new recipes as well as some old recipes until we find our favorite. Don’t worry dad, I’ll make sure to bring you a piece of each of them! Continue reading →

Don’t Miss Mr. N’s Raffle Prize (or this sandwich!)

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Who doesn’t love a good raffle drawing?! Mr. N loves winning raffle prizes. He recently won a paddle ball and you would have thought he won the lottery. It therefore came as no surprise to us when Mr. N insisted on doing a raffle on our blog after discovering that other bloggers also have various kinds of giveaways.

So tonight we present Mr. N’s Raffle Prize drawing. The process is simple: Leave a comment to this post with a suggestion for an up-coming Stateside cooking adventure. (For example you could say, “Illinois and Chicago Style Pizza.”) Each commenter will be entered in our random drawing and Mr. N will draw the name on Saturday, April 30th at 5 p.m. CST. You can also earn bonus entries by sharing our site with others via Facebook, Twitter, or via your own blog by leaving a comment letting us know you shared the post.

As for the prize, well it’s not a paddle ball or millions of dollars, but since Mr. N has become a big fan of slicing and chopping we found these festive pairing knives with cutting board and a colorful, three-compartment serving dish. Both are perfect for serving some fresh fruit or chips and homemade salsa on a warm summer day! Continue reading →

Leaving Las Vegas

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State night is back! This week we wanted to see what the Silver State had in store for us. Las Vegas as we all know is known for its endless buffets and high-end steak houses, but we thought we’d venture a bit beyond Vegas. In researching the local produce we came upon many references to the pinyon pine nut. The pinyon pine nut has a rich history in Nevada where it sustained the native people of the Great Basin for thousands of years. In fact, we read that it was the primary source of protein for the Shoshone, Paiutes and Washoe nations.

We’re no strangers to pine nuts, but we’ve never had a U.S. grown pine nut. Sadly we won’t tonight either as they’re not available around here, but based on the reviews, you can bet we’ll be trying them the next time we head to the Southwest. As for tonight we’re going to make do with our pine nuts imported from China and whip up a Paiutes inspired Pine Nut Crusted Cod and a Spinach, Portabello and Pine Nut Salad.

The salad requires a simple preparation. Requiring only these ingredients:

Continue reading →

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

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Tonight we enjoyed a bonus meal from Miss A’s cooking destination, Russia. Typically we only spend two weeks on each country, but with the holiday and weekend travels we needed something that we could make up quickly. Actually this meal, the traditional Russian Pelmeni, is anything but a quick recipe. It’s a lengthy process that took all hands on deck. What made it work for us this weekend is that we actually prepared the Siberian dumplings last weekend, froze them and were able to quickly cook them up tonight.

The Russian pelmeni is a meat dumpling similar to potstickers or pierogies. According to RusCuisine.com, the dumplings, popular all over Russia, are believed to have originated in Siberia as many could be made at once and frozen for the long winters. The first step to making the pelmeni is to create the dough from flour, salt, sugar, egg and water. It’s a very tough dough to knead at first, but eventually becomes soft and resilient. Once we were satisfied with the consistency of the dough we chilled it in plastic wrap for 40 minutes before rolling it out on a floured surface. Continue reading →

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

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This past Sunday we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen busy with several different recipes. I wasn’t planning to make dinner rolls, but after I saw the “Bunny Backsides” on Frieda Loves Bread, I knew we had to give them a shot. The kids were definitely game, and having quite the giggles about getting to make (and then eat) “bunny butts.” Now I’m admittedly not a great bread maker. I typically let my bread machine do the work for me, but for these cute little spring treats, I thought I would again try my mom’s dinner roll recipe (to-date I have yet to pull this recipe off correctly).

We began by scalding the milk and then stirring in sugar, salt and shortening. We then set this aside to cool to lukewarm. In the meantime, we sprinkled the yeast into hot water to dissolve and then slightly beat two eggs with a fork. Next we combined the milk, the yeast and the eggs into a large mixing bowl and began to stir in the flour a few cups at a time.  

Continue reading →