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Veggies Starring as....Themselves

Cooking….Art We Can Eat

When KC’s aunties started to help her paint pumpkins this past weekend, I was staunchly in observer mode.  A paint brush does nothing to stir my soul.  But a rainbow of fresh produce?  Now we’re talking!

When I posted about Stir Frying Fall Flavors, I failed to provide photos.  Tonight, though, I was ready!  The basic premise for the meal was that I was broiling some white fish, cooking up some brown rice, and stir frying an assortment of some beautiful veggies, all to be accompanied by a very simple curry sauce.  After I started the rice, I prepped the veggies…sweet potato, purple cabbage, onion, sweet red bell pepper, and curly kale.

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Breakfast Desserts

Goddesses Gather Here!

This past weekend was our annual Green Goddess Reunion Weekend.  It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone, the weather was fabulous, and we enjoyed lots of good food and wine.

I’ve already posted the menu for the weekend, so I won’t go into all the details.  But I will share a few photos and descriptions here.

On Friday night, we made pizza, and one of the favorites was this pizza with semolina crust, carmelized onions, blue cheese, pancetta and sage.

Saturday morning’s breakfast included a new-to-us preparation of ham & eggs.  Here, the eggs are baked with cream and herbs in a vessel made by a slice of black forest ham. I love the scalability of this recipe.  It would be so easy to add or subtract, depending on the number of breakfast guests, and it could easily be made in “waves” if the guests were ready at different times.

And then there were the cakes!  I had baked these chocolate and lemon-almond-yogurt cakes ahead of time, and Cheryl and KC decorated them on Saturday morning.  There are few activities that can hold my daughter’s attention like cake and frosting!  I think they turned out beautifully!

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Uncategorized

Big Girls, Big (Dinner) Expectations!

From my perspective, the dinner menu from one night last week consisted of an “entree” salad because of the inclusion of the chicken breast and baguette accompaniment, and the rest was just whatever fresh produce I had in the house to offer some variety and increase our consumption of fruits & veggies:

Caesar salad with chickpeas and grilled chicken breasts

french baguette with goat cheese and sliced fresh figs & plums

apple slices with sweet potato dip

In my mind, it was quick and healthy, but not particularly special.  KC, however, declared this to be her new favorite dinner.  So, I have to ask, did da Vinci know he was creating a masterpiece when he painted the Mona Lisa?  I sure didn’t know that this particular dinner table canvas was going to make history!  When I questioned KC about what made this dinner so memorable, she exclaimed, “Well, it is just so big!”

Then, last night, when I made a simple dinner perfect for eating while watching football on a crisp evening — black bean chili with Colombian arepas (corn cakes) — she pouted that “this dinner is not “big.”  I tried unsuccessfully to explain that the chili contained something like 20 ingredients, and it was a big dinner in a little bowl.  No dice.

Apparently, the new dinner yardstick is one that reflects the number of distinct items and amount of variety on the table.  Perhaps she is in cahoots with the dishwasher . . .