One of the best yet...

Tonight's dinner had to be one of my ultimate favorites, skillet corn fritters with grilled tomato toppers, the first of two vegetarian meals this week, and yes this week is also corn heavy but I'm not regretting it in the slightest.  I will fully confess last night's dessert to me was better today than yesterday and I have no idea why, maybe I just wasn't as full or something, anyway I enjoyed it more.  The main course was a concoction made from more creamed corn.  I love corn and I love fresh corn off the cob, there is nothing like it it grills great and so sweet, it's loved by us all.  I am loving my iron skillet also it's opened up a few more recipe ideas and allows me to do a few more different things on the grill I wouldn't have done before.  A great buy to be honest and one you can do so much with it as the last week or so I've used it on several occasions.

Random early morning ponderings...

This post so isn't about food, it's just random thoughts I'm having this morning.  Yesterday we had our first roof estimate, chap was very nice, think I was talking into a lifetime roof, and in all honesty that tends to make sense when you are spending a lot of money on doing it why not get it done right?  After all neither of us really has any plans of ever wanting to move again.  No really I don't want to move again...too much like hard work thank you very much!  That and we are loving this house and neighborhood at the moment.  Now of course it's hard to say how it will end up being in 30 years but right now I love it.  And lets face it you put a lifetime roof it will add value in the long run to the house for anyone if we do end up selling it.  It's weird to be putting money into our on home but there ya go.  Oh and there is the tax rebate as well we will probably end up getting next year, which would be nice.  There are new rules and regulations out on roofs so we have to be a bit more energy efficient, honestly not a bad thing as long time it will benefit us with lower heat and cooling costs.

So today is still going to be warm, not up near the 100's of the last two days but still into the 90's.  At least I should be able to let the horde out into the garden for a bit this morning which will help, although their sleeping patterns haven't been too bad.  I did have to get up for Abi for a bit last night but I was able to let her stay in the crib, just had to put in a binky and stay with her about 5 minutes until she feel back into a good sleep, I've found if I don't do that I invariably have to get up again as she will just toss and turn toss and turn and eventually scream and cry ending up in not a lot of sleep for us.  I would rather just do the 5 10 minutes it takes to get her settled again, heck I made the mistake of not doing that a couple of nights ago and we ended up with her in bed with us for 2 hours tossing and turning.  Yeah I should let her cry but I just can't get over the fact that it will eventually wake Isabel and then it's a nightmare to have to get both back to sleep.  As it is if you get her crying early enough she doesn't wake too much of the household and my husband can get back to sleep.

I have a craving for red velvet cupcakes.  It has been a slow growing craving but I want to try to make some myself, I've found a recipe from another person's blog which just sounds fun and I am dying to try them out.  I also found out from the same blog which they are red...it's a chemical reaction from the coco powder and the buttermilk.  I'm going to try to make 2 batches I think one with red dye and one with none at all just for the fun of it and I may mix up the toppings and do some with cream cheese and others with more of a frosting.  Either way I want to have some fun with it.

I also cannot believe I made a cake successfully on the grill!  I kind of wish I had some white flour as opposed to whole wheat as it made it possibly a little drier and more grainy with the cornmeal, I will experiment more with this recipe me thinks and I honestly think it could have used a little more liquid although as it's a cake hard to judge. 

Whew bit too hot thanks!

The temperature has turned up a few notches the last couple of days so glad that we are still cooking out on the grill.  So the question some of you may be asking is what have I been cooking.  Well lets see Saturday night we repeated the honey wasabi shrimp because they were just so good last time, in actual fact my husband did a good job cooking those for us.  Sunday I made pizzas, yep you heard me right pizzas.  They were ok I messed up the dough a little so they weren't as flat as I would have liked and in a couple of places some weren't cooked all the way through because of the dough.  However they tasted great, I cooked off some bacon in my lovely iron skillet, removed the bacon then cooked an onion in the fat from the bacon, we then topped off the pizzas with cheese and some tomatoes with a little thyme for seasoning.  All in all great pizzas great taste next time I need to do better with the dough.

Then onto last night...fortunately I had bragged to Debbie earlier in the day about the shrimp we had on Saturday, so she bought a bag for us to make some for them to go along with the New York steaks my hubby had planned.  Then to top it all off we did a glazed cornbread cake.  Johnathon actually said this one was of the best meals we had done, which is a compliment indeed.  Might I add that making a cake on the grill was deemed very successful, not something I would have dreamed up in a million years but damn it was good.

Why is it fresh corn tastes so damn good on the grill...

Last night was had a feast having again the tea soaked chicken, (alright that's a definite new favorite, so quick easy and tasty), with grilled corn.  I have found that wrapping corn in foil after removing the husks, adding a little butter / margarine and a squeeze of lime or lemon juice they come out perfect every time.  I do move them around the grill a little and turn them but the butter helps to steam them along with the juice, if you want the grill marks after about 10 minutes you can remove the foil and grill them over the flame, it also helps that the girls love corn as well so it's one of our go to sides in the summer, as the chicken has been marinading since the morning it's a case of putting them all on the grill at once and about 15 minutes later your dinner is ready.  I also had a side of spinach for the adults with a nice dressing.

The coming week I have some interesting new recipes to try although I'm also throwing in some old favorites as well.  Tonight we are having the wasabi shrimp again after all it's fish night tonight :)  I'm actually doing three vegetarian meals over the next week, and that is because they just sound so yummy, and I'm adverse to eating vegetables, and those night's it's always interesting to see if the girls will eat it as well.  I'm also going to do my tandoori chicken, it's my version it's quick it's easy and about as authentic as I'm going to make it but that doesn't really matter does it?

The weather this year is definitely weird.  We are so much cooler this year than we normally are, not that there is anything wrong with that but it's weird.  However, by cooking outside and letting the girls run around outside as well we are keeping most of our bills down including the electric bill.  I'm certainly not making the house hot by having the oven on which helps, we aren't watching the tv so it's all good.

Warm weather...

I really don't do so well in the warm weather, I feel drained a lot and I really can sleep like a log, heck I didn't even notice my husband get up this morning or remember the alarm going off.  On the bright side the girls are sleeping well again and we aren't really having to get up too much for them at the moment, I say too much as it seems I have to get up once a night with a new binky for Abigail, however, just by giving her one and standing there for a couple of minutes she seems content to go back to sleep without too much fuss, which I will honestly take.

Anyway Monday we went out for dinner, not bad I had issues with all the additional charges they wanted to put on, doesn't really want to make me go back in a hurry to be honest, but I love their gyros and there really isn't anywhere else like that around here.

That then leads me onto last night, which was a lovely dinner of caprese style chicken with salad, eaten of course in the backyard.  The chicken was just rolled around mozzarella cheese, sliced tomato and basil.  All very light and refreshing, the left over cheese and basil went into a cheese and tomato plate with olive oil.  Tonight I will be doing some portabello mushroom burgers, not very hard either but hopefully tasty, oh and the obligatory salad to go on the side of that dish too :)

After a few days of not getting the paddling pool out I broke it out for the girls today.  It's nice to bring the pool out like every few days or so as it's then again something new to play with for them, plus I get a chance to dry out between dips:)

Weekend, father's day and no power

The weekend was pretty low key, we had grilled red snapper sandwiches, with a relish made from gardenia (pickled vegetables) for Saturday night's dinner.  Due to a very snotty child I opted to do the shopping solo leaving my husband to baby sit and do some of the chores, just as well we got everything done Saturday...Sunday we lost power from 9 am to 7 pm thanks to someone who decided to park their car up a power pole, fortunately I am back on my grill kick and had planned a dinner that was to be done on the grill anyway.  I was also barely able to get in my breakfast and a cup of tea before the blackout.  I have to say the grill rules, we had peruvian style steak, that basically comprised of skirt steak with potatoes, tomatoes and onions all just grilled with a little olive oil and then served with lime and cilantro, tasty, easy and delicious.  Unfortunately James had to work on Father's Day and it also meant with no power I was unable to call my dad either, so much for that day hehe.  Ah well there is always next year and lets face it it really doesn't mean much to the twins at the moment anyway.

Spanish chicken with tomato bread

What a lovely relaxing evening.  I think I'm in am amazing mood because of events earlier in the day which has me more stress free than normal.  The girls are in a great mood as well.  Dinner tonight was a grill out.  I have to confess tonight was probably one of the easiest quickest meals ever, grilled spanish chicken and tomato bread!  Debbie I will be sending this one your way.  Easy to do on the bbq and very quick to prepare, and clean up was a breeze.  My husband was over the moon with the whole experience and requested this one again.

Sending lots of love and best wishes to a friend of mine back in the UK right now...her 17 day old son is in hospital with a high temp, so far they have yet to figure out what is wrong but something seems to be a bit off with his gut somewhere, but everything up to this point has come back negative.  I wish them well as parenthood has not been easy for them to achieve.

Not about food...

So today I was invited by my next door neighbor to go with her and her two children to meet some more friends of hers and go to the park, I have to say I jumped at the opportunity and I'm so glad we went.  What a fabulous little park, a great climber for the little ones, and Diane's kids are fantastic with my two to the point where I was able to relax and take my eyes off of them for awhile and let the older kids watch over the younger ones and not run around :)

I was also introduced to two other mum's from the area, now all of the kids are quite a bit older than mine, the youngest being 4 but even still I found I had a lot in common with these women.  For starters age as they are all around the same age as I, I think the oldest of the group was 44 but it meant I was comfortable and we had a lot in common.  In fact one of her friends hails from Yorkshire, England...and we were both amazed at how both of us used to do field at school and a lot of sports.  I do believe I will be meeting up with all of these people again, in fact Claire has a pool and it may well be we taking them there so we can learn to swim!

The other funny facts, both Diane's husband and Roy across the street and I all share the same birthday...this was so good for me today, it felt good to meet new people and get out of the house, and I do believe we are on a good start to making new friends in the neighborhood.  I feel so blessed with this house all over again.  Ah life is good at times life is good.  Thank you to all the amazing people currently sharing life with us and for making it so special right now.

Left overs and a good burger

There was so much food left over from Monday night's extravaganza that I decided to use up the left overs Tuesday night.  I have to admit it was just as yummy the next night as it was the first and I still have more lamb left and I'm certainly not complaining!

Unfortunately when doing the girls breakfast this morning I ripped the tops of a couple of bananas, that meant they had to be used up today, oh what a shame, so dessert consisted of bananas foster, and yes I did flame them:)  I as a little lax as we had burgers with grilled cauliflower and I was going to add a guacamole, the last item there ending up on the table after we had finished eating the burgers oops.  Ah well it was still good.  My own recipe and I don't know the quantities :)  Oh if anyone wants links to the recipes I used on Monday night let me know, I have to admit the tagine chicken was really good along with it's corresponding couscous recipe.  The lamb doesn't really have a recipe as such but I have a link for that and the harrisa as well.  Lets just say the harrisa was good enough for my husband to say I'll make that again if you give me the recipe.

Tomorrow night I get to christen the iron skillet and I'm looking forward to it :)  I admit I have strayed from RR the last couple few days so I'm returning to her tomorrow night.

Epic Dinner...mechouia, coucha, tagine, farka...Tunisia!

Ah I have been looking forward to and planning this for it seems weeks, but it's finally the day, Tunisia!  The menu is a three course meal...(yes I really am that crazy).  We are going to start with brik a l'ouef, harrisa, olive oil and roasted garlic with bread and a mechouia salad, there will be some olives as well on the table to nibble on, this is known as meze, small dishes and is popular in the Mediteranian, I'm also throwing in a non traditional Tunisian dish made with ham, cheese and puff pastry.  We are then following this up with koucha, chicken tagine, and couscous, finally to finish the meal we are going to have farka.  So what exactly are these dishes?

Brik a l'oeuf is a deep fried package of pastry (a cross between phylo and egg roll wrappers), as you cannot get the pastry for these in the US I'm substituting egg roll wrappers, inside the pastry is tuna wrapped around an egg, these are then deep fried in oil (oh so not healthy but a traditional starter).  Harissa is a condiment made from hot peppers, garlic, olive oil and caraway seed, at least that's my version :)  And the final starter is mechouia salad, this is a roasted pepper and eggplant dish, and yes it contains spicier peppers along with bell peppers. 

Koucha/coucha, I've seen is spelled with both a k and a c is mainly lamb roasted in a low oven in a clay earthenware pot.  The lamb has been rubbed with paprika, cayenne, thyme and rosemary.  The clay pot is sealed and the lamb cooks in it's own juices.  I'm so looking forward to this dish it's not even funny.  Tagine is fairly basic chicken cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic and a few other spices.  To go with the tagine and koucha I'm making up some couscous that will have some spices and the addition of tangerines, and to help cool things down I'll add a dollop of yogurt as well, (alright I forgot the yogurt).

The finale will be farka which is a dish made from couscous, dates and nuts served with warm milk and sugar.  I guess it's like a version of rice pudding.  I actually made the first dish on Saturday, Sunday I had a day off then started cooking around 6 am...yep you read that right 6 am!  That's not to say I've been working my butt off because I've had a lot of time in between courses and dishes to sit and chill and give the girls a nap.

Dinner overall was successful!  Most items were well received and the surprising hit was the harrisa.

Sometimes I amaze myself

There are times I am totally amazed by the meals I make, tonight's dinner was one of those wow moments.  For those that have been following me they know that this has been a week of wow's and now we are starting a new week with our first WOW!  Tonight's offering, parmesan crusted swordfish skewers, loved by us all, and the girls even ate some of the zucchini!  That they were eating the veggies amazed me for sure.  I love grilling!  The clean up is a breeze and we eat outside minimizing the clean up as well.  I will be breaking my cook out run on Monday but so far grilling is a hit and we do better with consumption as well.  Rachael Ray's magazine issue for June/July is all about the outdoors and I can tell you at the rate we are going we may end up doing every recipe in the issue.

Today I also invested in a cast iron pan, the reason for this will be apparent in the coming weeks, Matt you are going to appreciate this new addition to the family.  In addition my clay pot arrived in one piece, that means I'm all set for Monday's extravaganza.  I've started preping a little for the meal already to cut down on the amount of work I will do on the actual day, and if everything turns out as great as the little dish I've made so far we are in good shape.  The truth of the matter is Monday can't come soon enough I'm so itching to cook the menu I have planned, and the little taster I've had so far I'm looking forward to it even more.

More outdoor grilling

So the temperature is rising again, which means I'm looking to reduce the heat factor at home.  Probably going to pick up a 2nd gas tank...that way we have a spare when one runs out and we don't have to go running for gas in a hurry.  I'm certainly contemplating the idea of creating a stone table or something outside near the grill to give me more counter space when I'm grilling, wonder how much something like that would cost us to build.

Last weeks dinners were a huge hit with everyone including the little mites so lets see if I can impress again.  Today's presentation included grilled chicken legs (1 breast) coated with some fennel seed and a mix herb, the creamed corn from Wednesday was finally used up!  That was worth the effort making the one night and I was able to add more corn to the relish from Thursday to make more than enough for all of us.  Monday night will be the exception to the grill rule as I will taking us to Tunisia, I have to say I am terribly excited and I do hope I don't disappoint myself.  I will post up a copy of the menu after the event, I don't want to ruin the fun for some people (I know I'm evil).  My secret weapon of choice should also be delivered tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities after Monday.  All shall be revealed later I promise.

Good week so far...

This week every meal so far has been a hit, I had some vegetable skewers made up for James and the girls when I went out for dinner on Tuesday night, they were a hit, (no recipe for these as I make it up as I go along), although the basic concept is a little oil, a little agave syrup, some kind of juice (lemon or lime), some mustard a dash of a gourmet honey lime sauce and this time I added a little pineapple juice, and a mix of vegetables (mushrooms, peppers, onions).  Now I did cheat a little this meal and did the rice on the stove top, although in my defense I could have used the grill burner, but as I don't have a hand timer yet, so much easier to do it inside.

So last night we had oh these delightful chipotle-corn turkey burgers, I have a love hate relationship with turkey burgers and ground turkey, some cases I've had hits, other cases I've found them to be a bit on the dry side.  These ones were some of the best I've made!  I was a little worried about the chipotle for the girls so I substituted bbq in their burgers, I shouldn't have worried as they were not that bad so I think next time I will save myself the extra step.  The whole flavor was just outstanding.

Now given I have corn left from last night's dinner (I did plan on this!), I'm making grilled pork chops and poblano-and-corn relish which I'm looking forward to, specially as some of the work is already done for me.  I have some extra veggies for the grill as well either way oh yum!

An instant hit..

A new recipe for today, tea-soaked chicken...about all anyone could say for this dish was wow.  Moist, tender and full of flavor, a great hit with the whole crowd from every age group at the table.    Debbie came up with a lovely cucumber and tomato salad and an asian lettuce salad which complimented the meat so perfectly.  Then we indulged for dessert with grilled strawberry cheesecake.  Dinner and dessert divine and both recipes keepers in all our books.  It's so wonderful to be able experiment and try things that just sound interesting sometimes.

Garden Grilling...

This week it's all about grilling out in the garden.  Partly to take advantage of our wonderful weather, and partly to keep the temperature down in the house by not using the stove.  Tonight's offering is going to be honey and wasabi shrimp skewers...I'm going to gill up some baby bok choy as well so it is going to be somewhat interesting to see how it all comes together.

I've finally gotten to see something of my husband today (does a little dance), although we had to post pone his nap when he got home from work to babysit Abi while I took Isabel off to the Dr.  Nothing too serious just a little pink eye (conjunctivitus), but enough so that we wanted to get something for it, and I'm praying noone else gets it although the Dr kindly added a refill on the prescription just in case Abi comes down with it, like her thinking as I would not appreciate having to go back for the other child knowing exactly what is wrong :)

It's been a weird week specially as last week we had James all the time and to go from all to nothing has been a challenge and I was feeling it.  Things should be fairly sane next week and with a bit of luck we can make some calls about a roofing contractor to come and replace the roof.  It's gonna be a big project but one that really cannot be put off.  Put off Tunisia for a week for a number of reasons, but, going to do a tea soaked chicken dish which sounds very interesting, I will start the soak Monday morning, oh yeah baby!

Tons of ideas...

I think I have my menu for Monday and it's gonna be a crazy meal, but I hope worth it, but crazy, I can say I'm looking forward to it.  I should be starting our dinner soon, tandoori chicken (it's been marinading since yesterday morning in yogurt, spices and lemon juice).  I'm going to throw some rice on the oven and make a sauce to go with it, we have pita which will substitute nicely for naan, I know it's not traditional but it will work.  The girls quite like curry so they will be happy.  My poor husband is exhausted after a rough night getting Abigail to sleep, although once she finally went down at 12:20 for real that was the end of any disturbances for the night thank goodness.

I have a confession I think Tunisia is so far my favorite destination on the wheel of randomness, I'm so excited to try some of the dishes.  The cuisine is influenced by the Mediteranian, Northern Africa and the middle east, there is a lot of variety there and something that really does excite me for some reason.  I have a feeling I will be looking for more meal ideas from there in the future depending on how well that dinner goes.  I have some standby dishes as well for the discerning appetites but I hope people give the dishes a try.

Tunisia...

Takes a deep breath.  Ok this one is proving already to be a challenge, but not from lack of availability, just doing a little research I'm already drooling...the trouble is not sure how much of what I've seen so far would be eaten by other people.  Couscous their national dish so I will have to include that, I have seen one I like, but I know it says you can use things other than lamb but oh lamb how I love thee and miss thee.  I might put one lamb dish on the table...but it will have to be a small dish, I think only Matt will join me in eating that one although the girls might also have a bit.  Hmmm, dollar store might be worth investigating too...I'm thinking I'm going to need a bunch of smaller serving dishes.  My real concern with this is biting off more than I can chew and going overboard and doing too much, then I have the complication of I have to cook all of this stuff too.  Oh but does it look good!  Oh and the temperature is going to be up as well so I don't want the oven on all day and and argh!  But grazing meals just sounds so tempting, lots of little dishes for people to try if they don't like one thing they can try another.  I really want to step out of people's comfort zones a bit but aware they have to eat this as well.  This is a challenge when you are cooking with kids in mind, although, I could keep make sure I have an alternate option just in case...

Humms and hars when we get out in the backyard I'm going to have a good look and try to plan my menu.  I think this one is going to be a cool evening and could introduce people to things they have never tried before, which is really the whole point in going around the world.

I'm trying...

It's not easy right now, I feel like a single parent...on the bright side at least at night the girls are cooperating and sleeping fairly well and I've yet to have to cope with both of them waking up (and I bet I just jinxed myself for tonight).  Spent a long evening outside and hoping I've worn them out enough, soon I'll be waking the other half for the bedtime routine and praying...

Dinner tonight, well blew chunks I really did not like the halibut which is a shame I normally love Trader Joes stuff, but it just didn't work for me or the girls.  Pity I was looking forward to trying it, the redemption was some garlic bread from costco and the salad but overall disappointing, better doing my own thing, tomorrow should be an improvement tandoori chicken.

Relishing in homemade foods again...

So having spent a week on the road and now a week back home both James and I are relishing in home cooked food.  For awhile there my stomach wasn't appreciating the abuse, oh I wasn't sick or anything just bloating and general not feeling as healthy I guess.  It's so nice to be in control again more than anything.  Today I had the last of my sandwiches to use up the broccoli sprouts from last week, the girls will get ham sandwiches or a cooked meal depending on the temperature of the day, right now they are enjoying fish nuggets from Trader Joes, (love that they eat fish!).  Oh a follow up on my cheesecake (did I mention I made another one?), that one so did not turn out half as well as my first attempt, next one will include the full fat cream cheese again and I need to figure a way out to prevent water seeping in from the banmarie, it wasn't a good thing, the cheesecake was a bit more dense and I missed the crunch on the base from the water (although the lower fat content might have had something to do with the texture), the taste was spot on tho so if at first or something like that.