Asian slaw

We had a great visit in Charleston a few weekends ago. And as you may remember, we love to cool when we visit my brother and his family.

This time we were enjoying ribs on the Green Egg and we tried a new slaw recipe that turned out super yummy! There's a good bit of chopping / knife work but totally worth it!

Asian Slaw
from Epicurious.com

• 6 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

• 5 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
• 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
• 2 large red or yellow bell peppers, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 2 medium carrots, peeled, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 8 large green onions, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 
  

Whisk first 7 ingredients in small bowl to blend. (Dressing can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before continuing.)

Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Buttermilk biscuits here we go…

Yeah, a little Sir Mix a Lot to start a Friday morning!  I wanted to share this recipe before the weekend so you can make these biscuits tomorrow morning.  Remember that left over buttermilk you have in your fridge from making waffles…  well here’s what to do with the rest of it. 

Bobby Flay’s Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits

4 cups all purpose flour	4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda	1 tsp salt
12 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pcs	1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk
1/2 cup cream	2 tbsp coarsely ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450*   Combine dry ingredients

  

   

Cut butter into pieces.

This is an important step.  Break the small pieces of butter up with your fingers but still leaving some larger chunks.  This allows for nice and flakey biscuits.  When the butter melts it leaves little air pockets as they bake.

  

Add buttermilk and work together with a fork.  When the flour on the edges pulls away you should have the correct consistancy.  You want your mixture wet enough to hold together but dry enough that it doesn’t stick to your hands and your work surface.

  

Turn your dough out onto your work surface.  Knead and fold until combined without over working the dough.  Shape dough into rounded shape with a 1/2” thickness.

Flour your biscuit cutter and cut your biscuits.  Place on cookie sheet.

   

Brush biscuit tops with cream (or we’ve used extra buttermilk as well)  Bake for 12 -15  minutes.

   

YUM!

We also made some sausage gravy for our biscuits…  Super easy.

   

1.  Scramble sausage – make sure not to use a non-stick pan (we used 1/2 lb) 
2.  Add flour (1/4 cup flour)

    

3.  Mix flour with sausage (coating sausage with flour) 
4.  Add milk (2 cups)

5.  Bring to simmer.  Gravy will thicken and it will delish!

Ladies Dinner

This past Friday I had a few ladies over for a little dinner at the house.  I have to say I really enjoyed making dinner at the house and having people here.  Before Mr Isaac made his appearance, we would have planned a dinner out a restaurant, but (as MANY people told us) life is a little different with a little one. 

I wanted the menu to be something that I could prep before hand and just pull together easily once my girls were here.  So I chose Roasted Spanish Chicken with sweet potatoes and onions and sautéed Brussels sprouts with craisins. 

Roasted Citrus Chicken & Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Nigella Lawson & Life is Great

4-6 Chicken Thighs	1 sweet onion
2 Orange	1-2 tbsp dried oregano
3 medium sized Sweet Potatoes	Salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven 350*.  Wash sweet potatoes.  Chop into even sized cubes (about 1/2” square).  Chop onion in similar size pieces.  Place on jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with raised edges).  Drizzle olive oil over veggies.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper – toss to coat.  Spread veggies out leaving room for chicken thighs.  Place chicken on pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper chicken.  Zest orange over chicken thighs.  Sprinkle oregano over chicken.

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and veggies are tender and caramelized.

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Brussels Sprouts with Craisins

1 bag Brussels sprouts	1 bag craisins
1/2 onion, chopped	1 tbsp olive oil

Soak craisins in a bowl of water (we’ve also used red wine before) to re-hydrate cranberries.  Remove outer leaves of Brussels sprouts.  Chop off bottom.  Then thinly slice / chop the Brussels sprouts.  Dice onion.  Heat sauté pan over medium high heat.  Once pan is hot add olive oil, sprouts and onions.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sauté until sprouts are tender and onions are translucent.  Drain craisins and add to pan.  Serve immediately.

For dessert I did a simple Peach Crunch Cake from Bakerella.  It’s super tasty and I know it’s a very well known recipe.  I’ve made it before with strawberries but it’s nice to have some yummy fruit cobbler in the winter.  I would use another can of peaches if I made it again.  I would like more peaches!!

Have you been to any dinner parties recently?  Maybe thrown your own??  What’s your “go-to” recipe for having company?

Buttermilk Waffles

These are some of the BEST waffles I have had.  The buttermilk gives these a little tangy flavor that balances out the sweetness.  You can add all the obvious additions to specialize your waffle.  We’ve done blueberries, chocolate chips and bananas, etc.

Classic Buttermilk Waffles
from King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

Makes 4 waffles (you can easily double the recipe if needed)

1 large egg	1 tbsp sugar
7 oz buttermilk	1 tsp baking powder
1/2 stick butter, melted & cool	1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract	1/2 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour

Mix wet ingredients in bowl. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and whisk together then add to wet mixture.  Mix until just blended.  Add any additional fruit or chips.  Pre-heat waffle iron, once heated add waffle batter to waffle iron.  When the waffle iron stops steaming, the waffle is ready.

I pre-heat the oven to 200* and put my waffles in there while the others cook, that way you can all eat together and have a hot waffle!  In this batch I added blueberries and butterscotch chip…  YUM!

  

 

I know buttermilk isn’t a super popular item to have in your fridge but I would recommend you picking up a small carton.  We use it for making biscuits, soaking chicken for fried chicken, making dips, etc.  It has a pretty long shelf life so you should be able to use it before it goes bad.

Easter Lunch

Well it’s holiday time again and what does that mean?? Food!  Oh I mean, time with loved ones shared over a meal.  This year we’re splitting up all the different parts and everyone is contributing their part.  Doesn’t that make a meal so much tastier when it’s a joint effort?  No one is carrying all the responsibility. 

So here’s what the menu is looking like:

from bhg.com

from budget savvy diva

from Ezra Pound Cake

from Taste of Home

from a Few Shortcuts

Dessert:

I’m going to make a Carrot Cake and I’m choosing between these 2 recipes:

Shortcut Carrot Cake    OR     Ginger Carrot Cake

Which one do you think looks tastier??

So needless to say I’m looking forward to Sunday!  For multiple reasons!!  Worshipping at our Sunrise Service, time with our wonderful family and some yummy treats to indulge in!!  Can’t wait!

What are you plans?  Do you go out to eat or do you get down and dirty in the kitchen?  What are your families traditions?

A few of my favorite things… and People!

Every year around this time I enjoy hosting some kind of event.  Last year I did a cookie swap, remember?  This year I wanted to try something a little different.  I had read about the idea of a “Favorite Things” (F/T) party on some blogs:  The Nester’s.  Brooke’s.  And Katie’s take.   I thought this was the perfect excuse to bring my friends together.

The general gist of the party

• Bring 3 of your favorite items (3 of the same items)

• $6 – $10 price range

• You’ll present your item and give it to three different people.  So you’ll end up going home with three different items.

So once I knew that I wanted to try this F/T party, it was time to figure out the invitation.  I checked out the normal options (evite, etc.) and couldn’t find anything that was quite right.  I came across the site Paperless Post and really liked their options.  And this was the end result:

So we had the date.  Invitations sent out.  What’s next??? The To-Do List & the menu of course!

I had been “pinning” ideas on a board specifically for the F/T party. You can check it out here.

Menu:

Prosciutto Cups	Layered Greek Dip
Asian Spring Rolls	Jalapeno & Raspberry Jam w/ Cream Cheese
Caprese Skewers	Bacon & Peach Pinwheels
Raspberries filled w/ Lemon Curd	Peanut Butter Cup Bark
White Chocolate Pretzels	Fruity Water
Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider

Everything turned out pretty tasty although there were some “challenges.”  Alton Brown’s recipe for Lemon Curd didn’t thicken up like it was supposed to.  The filling for the prosciutto cups left a little to be desired so we had to doctor it up a bit.  And there’s one whole recipe I’ve left off the list because they may have burnt over-cooked.  But all in all good stuff!

Of course we weren’t here just for the food…  we were here to share our favorite things!  And this is where the pictures fall short.  I was partying with my girls and didn’t take the opportunity to capture shots of all the favorite things.  But I can show you what I got:

Book & muffin mix     •    Mug with tea    •  Sam Adams Berry Wheat & Spicy Almonds

There were so many good ideas!  We had a total of 16 people so we learned about LOTS of Favorite Things:

Curel Extra Healing Lotion • Scarves • Vanilla Cinnamon Candle • French Press • Key Chain • Ped Egg • Gloves • Post-it Dispenser • Wine • Hand Soap • Snazzy Chocolate Bar •

So all in all – I do believe a Favorite Things Party may be my Favorite kind of Holiday party around!!  You’ve got to try it!  If you have please tell us about it!  Or if you’ve blogged about it leave a link for us to check it out!!

Menu Planning

We are trying to work on eating at home instead of eating out so much.  As you know, I love a restaurant!  But to be able to watch what we’re eating and be better about the budget, we’ve decided to focus on cooking at home. 

I find if we have a menu and are prepared were much more likely to stick with the plan.  So Sundays have become our menu planning & grocery shopping day.  It’s nice because we can go together and make it more of an outing than a chore.

See why I “pinned” this cool menu board over on Pinterest…  I think it would be perfect on the side of the bookshelf in the mudroom!

source

This week’s menu:

m:	PW’s Vegetable Lasagna
t:	Ground Turkey Tacos ~ Black Beans
w:	Breakfast for Dinner – Eggs, bacon & grits
th:	PW’s Orange Whiskey Chicken Thighs ~ Roasted Broccoli
f:	Pork Chops ~ Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Yes I know there’s a theme of Pioneer Woman’s recipes.  What can I say.  I love that woman  And speaking of the illustrious P-Dub…  did you know her cooking show is starting this Saturday on the Food Network??  Well it is!  I highly suggest you tune in – cause the girl can cook!

Here’s a little trailer for ya…

Looks like some tasty treats to me!  I can’t wait to watch and get to know PW’s even more! 

Well we will need some more recipes so I don’t copy Ree every week!  What are y’all having at your house these days?  Any great recipes we need to try?  I would love to hear your input!

Joe’s at work right now on the Lasagna and it’s smelling pretty dang tasty in here!  I’ll let you know how it turns out – I’m sure it will be DEE-licious, my man can COOK too!

Games & Dip

Last weekend we had a bunch of friends over for a game night.  We love games!  We may be just a bit competitive and I may be under stating that just a bit.  But along with the games comes food!  We all brought a munchie to share and I decided to try a recipe I saw on Christina's’ blog - C+C Marriage Factory.  I am a huge fan of hummus and of guacamole so combining those two creations into one definitely peaked my interest!  You’ve got to check out the recipe for Avocado Hummus and make it soon!!!  It will be a hit!!

The photo was taken by Christina – I neglected to shoot a picture of ours – It was gone so quick!!

I did happen to snag a few pictures of the gang playing Pit – have you heard of Pit – if you haven’t you may want to look into it!  Anyway – check these out!

Great times!! Great friends!! Great food!!