Baked Fries

Skinnytaste Baked Fries
Just craving fries....but haven't had good luck with the baked version.  Oops...can't say that anymore since these were great.  We did not dip them in anything; but, other than that, I made them pretty close to the original recipe.  Shocking...I'm following the recipe:)

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Apple Paste

 Apple Paste

This really worked!!!
Membrillo...yum.  My parents brought some back for us from Spain a couple years ago.  I do see it for sale here, but it's expensive, so when I came across the recipe I decided to try making it.  I figured the worst that could happen would be that it would be more sauce-like than brick-like.  But...it really worked!

Paul was able to find manchego cheese at our Sendik's (after much asking), so we can enjoy this in a more authentic way. This will be made again...different fruits in the future...but the recipe is a keeper. Oh, and the manchego is not budget friendly, so we won't be having that again.  I'm glad that we got to try it...but now we know that it is not necessary to enjoying the apple paste.
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Rick Bayless' Torta

Torta Recipe by Rick Bayless

This was an awesome dinner!  Soy chorizo from Trader Joe's was a great substitution for the chorizo called for in the recipe and feta instead of goat cheese.....topped with some green salsa.  This is just the type of thing served at his XOCO restaurant; guess that's why we like it there so much.

It was so easy and so good! Highly recommend this for a quick dinner.  Three thumbs up from here.
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Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

Do you just hate when you buy a condiment and it sits in the fridge for a long time?  I bought the wing sauce for the hummus recipe and wanted to make something else with it so it didn't sit for too many months in the refrigerator.  So, this seemed like a good recipe for a week after the yummy hummus.

I noticed when purchasing the wing sauce that our store has an organic wing sauce as well as the one I bought.  I thought it was a strange thing to be an organic product and it really made me smile to see it sitting on the shelf.  Buffalo wings and organic.....I guess it could work.   Maybe it's a bit like drinking diet soda with a burger and fries.

As mentioned previously on this blog, the mess of wings doesn't work for me although the flavors do.  This new blog that I found off foodbuzz...tons of Buffalo recipes without the mess of wings.  Having that sauce in the refrigerator every time I open it, well, it's just asking to be used.  I like how this blogger rates the recipes; feeling a bit of blogger remorse from here.   I haven't made enough of hers to know if I'm on the same grading scale though.  I thought it best to start with her "A" recipes...and I am agreeing so far.  I guess that's a good sign:)

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe works well to use the sauce...and the rest of the cilantro...and the rest of the scallions.  Eleanor was carbing, so Paul and I could have this while she stuck with her plain noodles.  I'm feeling just the teeniest bit tired of the Buffalo chicken flavors, so we'll have to lay off that for a bit.  It's more of a heavy winter flavor for me anyway, so maybe as it gets warmer I'll tend toward lighter things. 

Other than prettifying mine as much as the original, I stuck pretty close to the recipe in the link.  We were eating these after Paul returned from an international trip and was exhausted....and Eleanor and I got home from Zumba.  It was late...and we were hungry.

Keeping a few cooked chicken breasts in the freezer has been a dinner saver for us.  It helps to be able to pull out already cooked chicken in the morning.  There's always something that I can whip up for dinner with that ingredient...and generally fairly quickly. 
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Matcha Smoothie

Matcha powder (basically ground up green tea leaves) has intrigued me for a bit.  It goes into the same category as chia seeds...interesting to try...but no urgency on my end.  Supposedly it's a super food...super energy.  Of special enjoyment to me is the one that claims matcha will get you through your everyday marathon in life.  Really, who wouldn't like that idea?  I can always use a bit more energy! Extra energy is especially needed by me about 3pm for the sprint through the rest of the day and evening.

Since I have been on this chia seed, recovery bar tangent of blogging...why not matcha? It's superfood week for me, I guess.

1/2t matcha powder (yikes...this stuff is expensive)
1 c soy milk
ice

Shake until cold in a martini shaker.  Pour. Drink.

Some recipes recommended a sweetener...but we liked it unsweetened.

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Pasta with Smoky Avocado Sauce

Pasta with Avocado Sauce
Have I mentioned that I love foodbuzz?

This was a foodbuzz find...perfect for the on sale avocados I came across at the grocery store a few days ago.  The cooking slump was just starting to hit me...but this one perked me up and gave me some renewed enthusiasm!  I have not seen another recipe for grilled avocado...nor had I thought of grilling it...although this time I omitted this step completely.  Sure glad to see this recipe posted though...just the thing to get me from winter recipes to spring recipes:)

The olive oil at 2 T or so....that was fine.  Corn added to the black beans...yum...along with a dash of cumin and a dash of coriander (dried).  I used angel hair pasta, so it didn't toss too well with the sauce; next time linguine is in order.

Eleanor and I both think we could eat this once a week.  It came together very quickly and was delicious. 
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Recovery Bars from Sarah and Liz

RECOVERY BARS

From the kitchen of Sarah M, adapted from “Fuel For Life: Healthy Lifestyle Cookbook”

The original recipe is the proud creation of my friend, Liz F, who lives in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania.

Ingredients

1 cup Quaker Oats

1 ½ cups organic rice puffs (I used brown rice puffs)

¼ cup soy flour (I used white flour—ran out of soy)

½ cup raw wheat germ

2/3 cup oat bran

4 scoops whey protein powder, vanilla (I used Hammer Nutrition; the original recipe was tested w/ chocolate EAS)
  I used chocolate Genisoy

(1/8 cup chia seeds—this is my addition to this recipe)

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

(1 Tbsp cocoa powder—another addition of mine, since the original recipe called for chocolate protein powder) I omitted since I used chocolate protein powder.

¼ tsp. sea salt—coarse crystals

6 Tbsp. Jif reduced fat creamy peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter from Outpost) I used natural peanut butter...Smuckers, I think

½ cup brown rice syrup I used agave syrup

6 Tbsp. prune plum filling I used peach/applesauce

½ cup raisins (oops—I think I forgot these in this batch) I used crasins

3 Tbsp semisweet or 60% dark chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  Combine peanut butter, syrup, and prune filling and mix until well combined.  Mix dry ingredients and peanut butter mixture until coated; add raisins.  Press mixture firmly into a 13x9 pan coated with cooking spray.*  Melt chocolate and drizzle over top of bars.  Cover and let sit until chocolate hardens.  Cut into 16 bars and wrap individually for storage.  Can be stored in pantry for 2 weeks or in refrigerator/freezer for several months.  16 servings.

Nutritional Information:  225 calories; 4.8g fat; 36g carbohydrates; 10.25g protein; 123mg sodium, 3g fiber

*Note:  Mixture should stick together.  If not, the bars will be too crumbly, like mine turned out to be!  If so, add more of any of the goopy ingredients, like the peanut butter.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I guess I know who to pick as a neighbor and a cycle buddy:)

I have mentioned the Idle Ironman workout thing I'm doing...and my next door neighbor, the Sarah of this recipe fame, is doing it also.  I invited myself on her ride on a recent warm spring day.  It was too bad this was the same day that I first got in the pool, so it was two new kinds of working out in the same day for me.  Yikes...the wind on the way back was a struggle for me.  Oh...the wind...Sarah's good fitness...and her relative youth.   Have I used all my excuses yet for how she kicked my butt?  

Ah, all was well with me when she handed me a bag of these bars to try.  These rock!  

This recipe required a trip to the coop to get scoops of the ingredients I don't have.  It's well worth the trip to get these items! I went to The Outpost, a local coop that I love but don't use as much as I once did since so many of the products are nut contaminated.   It makes it a bit more fun when I go there since it isn't in my usual rotation of errands.  This recipe is the reason Kelly gave me some chia seeds....looks like I owe her a recovery bar!

Sarah's changes are in the parentheses above.  Changes on my end (yellow above)..the Solo brand prune plum filling has the tree nut warning on it, so peach applesauce was my substitution.  Possibly in the future I'll just make some prune mash or make a filling following the linked recipe.   The flours required a trip to the coop since Bob's Red Mill products, made in the other Milwaukie (the one spelled wrong  in a different way),  have the nut warning on just about every product.....so we boycott!  Due to the nut allergy, I have been looking for a home made version of recovery bars for a bit...and then Sarah handed some to me...serendipity!

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Iskiate

chia seeds

Ch....ch....ch....ch...chia.  Remember those commercials every December for the Chia Pet?  That's what I think about every time I say "chia".  If you know what iskiate is, chances are you have read,  Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  I read the book but didn't immediately go out and buy chia seeds.  In fact, I really forgot about them until I received a recipe that called for some (more on that in the next couple weeks).  My friend, Kelly, said that she had a huge bag of chia seeds so she would bring some for me...and she did (see above).  I started thinking about the iskiate in the book, so I made some on a day I could have used a bit more energy.

Sad to report, I wasn't feeling a zap of energy after downing this...nor was Eleanor.  The texture is a bit slimy and odd...but not unpalatable.  There are a number of recipes on the internet...all mix chia seeds with water, add citrus juice (lemon or lime usually), and a sweetener.  The proportions I used are:
1 T chia seeds
10 oz water
Mix and let sit for about 10 minutes.
Add:
2 t honey
1 T lemon juice
Serve over ice

I may have to try it again...just to see if I can get some super powers.  In the meantime, I'll keep my running shoes:)



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Greek Turkey Meatballs

Gina's Turkey Meatballs
Here's the thing,  a bit of a food slump is starting to descend on me.  I know it's not the end of my cooking or blogging life, but I am feeling it happen.  I suspect that it is seasonal...not ready for fresh produce and getting tired of heartier things like soups and stews.  Also, the short course swim season has come to an end and there is a short break before it resumes; I find I'm most productive and efficient when there is a lot going on.  Having loads of free time makes me less focused, for sure. Hopefully, foodbuzz will help to get me out of this since I think I have picked off many recipes from blogs and cookbooks and am not feeling so hopeful about finding a bonanza of exciting recipes.   Soon, I hope, a fire will be under me again so I can be back to my usual self.

It got me thinking about these cycles in life and how it's unfortunate that I'm not better at just riding it out.  You know, crazy busy at work versus slow times.  I'm going to work on embracing these changes knowing that it will change.You know, those weeks when there's barely enough time to sleep in your own bed versus a weekend of being at home.

This recipe looked like one to try...another one from this blog full of some good ideas.I made them into patties rather than meatballs since the 1/4 c for each in the recipe seemed large.  These were mediocre at best....even served with sliced red bell pepper, cucumber and homemade yogurt sauce, and feta.  For sure I would make the Greek Chicken Pita Sandwiches (8/9/10 post) instead of this. 
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Jim Lahey's Pizza Dough

Jim's Dough

We're fans of the long rise bread dough.  Yep, we have had starters.  We have had starters get sour and need to be tossed (along with the glass bowl...that was a bad one).  I am now a yogurt maker:)  There's just something about the gathering of natural yeasts that intrigues me, I guess.  I grew up on sourdough pancakes nearly every weekend. 

I haven't used Jim Lahey's dough recipe preferring my partners in the midwestern world, Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.  It's nothing personal, I just feel a bit loyal to them.  Hmmm...in thinking about it,and seeing it in Bon Appetit,  I guess I can try "the other" pizza dough as well.    He sounds like an interesting guy, so I'm now thinking there is room in my life for more than one bread resource!

Kneading the dough seemed to help to incorporate the flour.  However, I do like when the work is on the front end.  I don't mind a bit of effort but prefer not to have the major effort in the couple hours before dinner (since I'm not home then).  This recipe just requires planning ahead a bit since it comes together quickly right before dinner.  An added bonus for us is that the dough makes more than a meal's worth of dough...so I'm a bit ahead on another day.  I made 3 balls of dough and left those on the counter while the remaining were refrigerated for another day.  The dough felt very nice and was easy to work with...and it was delicious.  Three pizzas the first night; the dough was refrigerated....and three pizzas the next night.  I was thinking it would be good to wait a couple nights between, but the vote was to make it the next night too.  

In previous posts I have mentioned how everyone in this house likes things their own way (I guess we all do), so individual pizzas work really well.  It's also a good way to re-use food and get leftovers into everyone without being too obvious about it. So, it's pizza night and clean out the fridge night and make everyone happy night!

Toppings:
bleu cheese
Parmesan cheese
bacon
carmelized onions
canned pizza sauce
baked potatoes, cut into chunks

Eleanor's pizza

Paul's pizza

My pizza

 

 

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Beef Stew with Butternut Squash

 Beef Stew with Butternut Squash
Another one of those library finds, The Way We Cook: Recipes from the New American Kitchen

This seemed like just the thing to make for Paul on his return from Asia....I figured he has had his fill of fish and other ocean delights and will be ready for a beef/squash/pepper meal.  It does have rice in it, so he doesn't have to stop his Asian diet cold turkey! Stew is always better the next day, right?  So, if he isn't hungry when he gets home this should work for the next day/week as well. And our Wisconsin stew season is coming to an end as we're possibly getting to spring and lighter meals take over the menu.

I turned this into a slowcooker recipe by adding only 1 quart water to the slow cooker to the browned onion and meat mixture.  I had roasted the peppers and cut the squash a couple days prior to making this to assist in it coming together quickly.  I added the squash and rice when stopping home about 3pm...eating this around 7:30pm.  So, it probably isn't good for a day when no one is home to throw those ingredients in part way through the day.   Since the squash was cut, I measured the rice and oregano  before leaving in the morning so it took just a few seconds to throw it in....'cause that's all the time I have (time to let the dog out and change into Y clothes).

Let's see.  I adapted this recipe by putting the stew in the crockpot...and decreasing the water.  I decreased the beef a small bit too.  Also, I roasted a red bell pepper with the poblanos and added that.  They were on sale, so I bought a couple red peppers and thought the red would be a pretty addition to this stew.   I used an entire butternut squash which I suspect is more than a pound and cut the chunks a bit larger since I didn't want it to be too squishy after being in the crockpot. Oh, and I used brown rice. It needed a bit of salt and pepper at serving time...but it was tasty.

Sadly enough, as spring in the midwest can be, the day I made this was better suited to grilling than to serving stew; however, it still was cool enough outside that it was tasty.  It is a bit hard to eat stew when smelling neighbor's grills!  Ah, next week will probably bring different weather. I am starting to feel a cooking/planning slump coming on, so I'm hoping I can get out of it quickly!

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Homemade Yogurt

An idea....a frugal moment.....a web search.....voila~

Greek yogurt
Thinking about yogurt and how quickly I seem to go through containers of it.  I'm partial to Chobani's Greek yogurt and often buy many containers for the work week since it seems especially tasty with the granola recipe that Elizabeth posted months ago.  I'm a bit excited that there seem to be almost daily new flavors. However, it is expensive and does produce a lot of container waste, so I started thinking about making my own despite the good works done by that company's founder.  I'm sure I will end up buying some yogurt...and making some yogurt.   I do have a memory of my parents making yogurt...in a groovy 70s sort of way, I suspect.

Elizabeth is the experienced yogurt maker, but I beat her to this blog to talk about it.  Maybe she can give me a few hints if it looks like I'm a bit off in my lactobacillus-ing. 

I guess yogurt is one of those things I buy without thinking about making it myself..until now.  I do like the milkman idea and the milk; however, we are slow milk drinkers around here due to tummy issues.  I have a standing order since I use milk in recipes but sometimes find that the order needs to be padded with some orange juice.  I'm VERY excited that we can now get half and half delivered as well.  I like supporting our local milkman, so this is one more way I can get and use the milk. Although, even without a milkman there are times that one ends up with a bit too much milk..  Being anti-waste, it's good to have a use for milk that preserves it a bit longer.

An extra half gallon of milk was placed on my milkman order...and with my Chobani already in the refrigerator....ready to go from here.  Hey, check out the article on the link above and you can see my milkman.  My sister in SoCal said that she just got a one.  Could it be?  Gasp...we are ahead of the trend here in Milwaukee!!?  There's a picture of ours, so we are pretty certain he is a real person:)

Recipes abound on the internet for yogurt; however, I tried the one linked from above.  This one seemed to require little effort...a good thing for a mid-week project.  Not too much in the way of fancy equipment.  And the step by step instructions were pretty darn nice also!

Here's the condensed version:
Pour 1/2 gallon of milk in a stockpot; remove 2 T milk and place in a bowl.  Heat the milk in the stockpot to 180 degrees...stirring almost constantly.   Pour into a glass bowl and let cool for an hour.  Mix reserved milk and 2 T. live culture yogurt together.  Add to milk and mix well.  Place in gas oven covered with lid and warm towel overnight.In the morning take a peek;  place in the refrigerator if it has thickened.  Strain to make Greek yogurt after it is cooled.  Reserve 2 T mixture for the next batch.

I have to admit there is a faint odor of baby spit-up after making this.  It's not offensive, but I could smell it.  Fortunately, it was an early spring day, and I could open the windows and share it with my neighbors!

Much like my cheesemaking adventure, I need to find a good use for the whey.  It's a bit wasteful, but I did end up tossing the whey on this round since that was enough of an adventure for this week. 

Peace.  Love.  Good Food. 

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Frog Eye Salad

I can't even describe this, really.  The conclusion we came up with at a recent family gathering is that you have to grow up with this to like it.  And even growing up with it may not help you to like it.  It's a rural North Dakota thing I guess.  Frog eye salad seems to be made of fruit cocktail, cool whip, Acini de Pepe (tiny pasta), and marshmallows.  Not my taste but I make things others don't like which really shows how individual things can be.

My sis in law gave me a North Dakota Highway Patrol Cookbook (that I left in Fargo but will retrieve it in a few weeks) that has the recipe.  There won't be a picture of this since I won't be making it...but the recipe can be found here:
Frog Eye Salad

I like cooking and recipes and have some thoughts that an interesting study would be that of cooking trends over time.  My tastes change...and looking at older cookbooks is so interesting.  Recently I acquired the First Lutheran Ladies Aid Cookbook from Fargo, ND.  My mother-in-law had it in her things even though I never saw her use a cookbook.  There is a chapter of Norwegian recipes!  For real.  And the hotdish page tries to tantalize with names like...hot dish...rice hot dish....noodle luncheon hotdish...lima bean hot dish......DeLux hot dish...hot dish supreme.  and the gelatin pages!  Cherry gelatin whip.  Orange gelatin whip.  And on.  And on.

I have been wanting to make lefse, so this will be the recipe I will use.  Hmmm...the sour milk soup and the lutefisk...probably not.  I know that there are some gems in this book, so it will be fun to page through when I have a bit more time.  I'm enjoying the ads...and the recipes submitted by Mrs. "husband's name" Lastname-son.   A great piece of history that I'm happy to have on my cookbook shelf!

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Pumpkin Pizza with Sausage and Apples and Brie

Pumpkin Pizza
This has a lot of the makings of  a good dinner.  Eleanor was pretty excited when she saw this up on the computer; although it ended up sitting in the queue of dinner items for a couple weeks before it worked to make it.  That's OK....always like having recipes lined up and waiting for the right evening to be made.

Sunday evening is a good evening for pizza at our house...time for the dough to rise and to prepare the toppings.  This recipe was a good way for me to re-enter the cooking world after a brief hiatus.  It seems each time I take a break I really do come back with some renewed energy.  There's nothing like not eating well for a few days to make homemade food taste great...and really appreciated. 

A few adaptations to the recipe listed above. Arugula...not in season...so it was served with a heap of broccoli this time.  Chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe's was already in the pantry...so that's what I used; sliced instead of crumbled. I debated about the dough....do I make it as listed in the recipe and end up with 1/2 batch left over?  or do I cut it in 1/2?  I decided to make the entire batch as listed in the recipe so I wouldn't end up with 1/2 can of pumpkin leftover.  I just made a flatbread out of the remaining dough...sprinkled with some olive oil and Parmesan it should make a good lunch for Eleanor this week.

Conclusion:  None of us loved or hated this recipe.  The three of us liked all the flavors but are thinking maybe it's a bit too much happening on a single crust.  I was worried about the sweetness of it...and it was a bit on the sweet side.   Maybe eliminating some of the ingredients would help at a future time.
Pumpkin crust + brie=good
regular crust+ brie+sausage+apples=good
Not sure...but will hold the thought and see what can be done!

Although this wasn't a huge hit, I'm loving this blog...great finds off this woman's site, so cruise around it when you get a few minutes!

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Roasted Chickpeas

Spicy Roasted Cinnamon Chick Peas

I do think I have tried roasting chickpeas in the distant past.  I'm remembering that they didn't turn out crunchy.  It seems like this idea is what I'm seeing so frequently lately to make a salty and crunchy snack just with varying spices.  You know, how you notice something and then it's everywhere!  That's how I'm feeling with this recipe...roasted chickpeas must be trendy right now.

This is a recipe that can be made with any spices but the cinnamon combined with cayenne seemed like a good start for this new snacking adventure.  These are great recipes...these ideas....the things that can be changed with a few spices for lunch/snacks.  The link above seemed a good place to start but a double batch was in order.  Making a double batch is not twice the work, especially when getting all the spices out of the larder!

This is the kind of recipe that makes me think that re-joining a warehouse club is a good idea.  Instead of doing that my thought is that I should look for an food service size can and make differently spiced versions of these...hmmm....that may be the next food item prowl....

Unlike the kale chips (that was kind of a dud as far as a chip/cracker substitute), these were good; although there is still some room for improvement in my version.  Sometimes the idea of healthy cookies or healthy crunchy snacks is a turn off for me.  It's better for me to have the real think and move on...the "good for you" junk food version doesn't often do the trick since I'm still left unsatisfied.  I'm putting these in a category of their own for now.  They weren't as crunchy as I had hoped, so drying them a bit more thoroughly next time is in order.


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White Chicken Lasagna

White Lasagna
Love this blog!
I made my changes on this recipe...and so did the preventionrd blogger.  Her changes are noted on her recipe(follow the link)
 Mine are below:
 6  lasagna noodles
1 T butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 c  chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk ( I used skim)
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups ricotta cheese ( used part skim...as did preventionrd blogger)
1 c cubed chicken breast
frozen spinach, squeezed fairly dry after thawing.

Cooking lasagna noodles....gave that up a few years ago.  I was experimenting a bit on this one with trying lasagna in the slowcooker.  For sure there is enough liquid in there to cook the noodles.  

I mean, she's a registered dietician and all, but I thought I could cut the fat a bit too.  Her recipe calls for smart balance (1/2 c).  I went with butter but used a scant tablespoon.  A friend of a friend worked at a co-op and said there were a couple never-ending debates....the right to smoke versus the right to clean air...and butter versus margarine.  Being from America's Dairyland and all, I prefer to use butter...just cut back on it a bit.  Quite a bit in this case. So, pick your fat for this recipe.

The blogger where I got this recipe omitted the chicken completely.  I had cooked 3 chicken breasts in a bit of water in the slow cooker since I had three in the package I thawed.  I really didn't need that much for the other recipe, so the remaining bit...the cup or so...was reserved for this recipe. 

Fresh spinach would have been nice...but Paul had gotten a HUGE bag of spinach at Sendik's a couple months ago so I had cooked and frozen it.  I wish I had taken a picture since it was a ginormous bag of spinach.  It did put him in an awkward husband position when he saw spinach on the list.  Hmmmm...does he buy this large bag and risk me asking what he thinks I will do with all this spinach?  or does he buy the smaller bag for the same price and risk me asking what he was thinking?  A tough call for the person who didn't author the list:)  Since we're using it in this recipe, he made the correct call!

I drastically reduced the cheese called for in the recipe and that worked for us; using the cheddar I already had helped as well since I didn't need to run to the store for another item.  I did not add cheese to the sauce but instead used it in layering the ingredients. Parmesan was omitted entirely from the recipe and instead used as a garnish at serving time. 

I made this in the slowcooker, so I decreased the chicken broth a bit as well since things tend to get soupy in the crockpot.   Also, that's all the chicken broth I had in the fridge...leftover from another recipe. I had to add it immediately after adding the flour since there wasn't so much fat in the pan to make the mixture bubble. 

Tuesday is our crazy day...leave the house at 5 am and return between 5:00pm on a good night or 8:00 pm on a crazy night.  This was going to be one of those nights when it's closer to 8pm.  So, I made this the day before and put the crockpot in the refrigerator; then plugged it in on low at 5am.

A few trials going on here with multiple variables.  Lasagna in the slowcooker.  New recipe for lasagna.

It was a bit messy scooping it out of the slowcooker, so maybe next time I'll do the foil trick mentioned in my turkey meatloaf post.  Doesn't matter just for us though...this was really good!  Even with my fat reductions:)

The picture just doesn't do it justice...but it was after 8pm when we got home and unloaded our car..which had the stuff in it for a full day.  So, next round...the foil trick to pull the entire thing out of the crockpot and slice into wedges.  That would make it much nicer looking; although the taste was great even when it had to be pulled out of the crock!

This can definitely be the base of many recipes to come!


 
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Buffalo Wing Hummus

New food blog find......Buffalo Wing Hummus led me to this one off foodbuzz.
Yum.
I thought I had garbanzo beans in the larder...just 'cause I usually do.  I went to make this and found I was out.  But, no worries, I had cannelini beans....a fine substitution.  I didn't add the salt (on purpose) and did not add the paprika (accident).  No measuring on this one either.  I sorta kinda cut it in half and made another hummus (plain) with my other can of white cannellini beans.

Some celery for dipping along with carrot sticks and a tiny sprinkle of blue cheese.    I think we have a winner!

I'm liking this blog, so you'll see me experiment with other recipes off this one in the next few weeks.

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Asparagus...ummm....Broccoli Penne

 Penne with Roasted Asparagus

I had noticed asparagus on sale the last time I was at Sendik's, but that was no longer the case when I returned to get it for this recipe.  I noticed the broccoli on sale and thought that would be a good substitution, so I grabbed that.  Hmmmm.....I returned home to look at the recipe and noted that was a variation listed.  Good thinking on my part, I guess.

Spring is coming to Wisconsin, so I will be able to try this with asparagus as well.

Hard to believe...but we're getting close to 500 posts!  I think that we have done really well in keeping up with some new ideas.  Elizabeth had her sabbatical, but she has a lot of things to post when she gets back to it.  That's what has been so nice about blogging with a friend.  The pressure is off since the other person can pick up when life has other priorities.

There wasn't a lot of direction established when we started.  And I still feel that we're meandering a bit...no big plans for each year of blogging.  No huge gala on the evening of the 500th post. We'll just stay here while we try out cyberspace.  Recently I joined foodbuzz...near as I can tell it's facebook or ravelry for cooks...so that may add a fun dimension as well.

When making this recipe it seemed like a decrease in butter would be a good idea....I used 2 T or so which was just fine for us. That gave it some nice buttery flavor and smooth texture but didn't give us the fat from 4 T of butter.  It probably helps that I have never had it with the full amount...so I didn't know what I was missing!  The recipe came together quickly and was just the thing to eat after sweaty yoga.


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