Spiced Fava Bean Soup with Rice and Tomato

I am beginning to get a complex thanks to Pinterest. Apparently every woman except me has a recipe binder, feeds a family of 4 for 100 dollars a month, and keeps their house clean with only 15 minutes of work a day. I am lucky if I can find the recipe I am following for the day,  I don't even want to talk about my grocery budget (how much milk can two boys possibly drink!), and I laugh at the idea of cleaning only 15 minutes a day. That's hilarious, I clean pretty much from the time I get up until I go to bed, no joke. Most days I feel pretty good about myself, until I step foot on the internet, then it all comes quickly crumbling down. I am so jealous of people that can keep their house clean and keep their food budget down. I do reasonably well for a family of four with our food budget. However, we don't buy anything pre-packaged and gluten free flours are crazy expensive. Plus I really need to get my two boys to stop eating all day, that would save a ton of money (obviously I'm kidding, mostly). At least my food normally looks half way decent and no one complains that it tastes bad, that counts for something right?

While most people stop making soups in the summer, I'm a little abnormal. I make soup year round, I love warm soup in warm weather. I blame my grandmother who was determined hot coffee in the summer made you cool down (don't worry I know this isn't actually true). Last week I tried a new recipe for Spiced Fava Bean Soup with Rice and Tomato from the April 2014 of Bon Appetit Magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes an hour of total time, all of which is active, and makes 6 servings. I made a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I used long grain brown rice. It was what I had in the cupboard and I didn't want to have to buy more rice. I have never actually seen dried fava bean in my area, so I used lima beans instead. I allowed the lima beans to soak overnight in order for them to be soft enough cooked in the recipe, I hate half cooked beans. Finally, for the broth I used homemade veggie broth. I love making homemade vegetable stock, you can literally throw in whatever old veggies you have in the fridge and let them simmer for a couple of hours. Much, much, cheaper than store bought.

My soup came out thicker than the magazine recipe. It was more of a stew than a soup. However, the flavor was delicious and it was a nice way to get my family to eat a vegetarian meal. Best of all there were enough leftover for two lunches for my husband for the week so it was economical. He's slowly coming around to eating more vegetarian meals, slowly.

For the recipe go to Spiced Fava Bean Soup.

Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens

Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens

I wish I had been more grateful in my twenties. At the time I thanked my friends and family, but I didn't really think it through. In my thirties I realized just what a big thing little gestures can be. Sometimes we can all forget to be thoroughly grateful when someone goes beyond the usual and does even a small gesture. If I could go back I would take a few minutes and really be grateful for the small things. Many of my favorite memories are the small things that were done for me: my roommate renting my favorite movies after having my wisdom teeth removed, my work friend helping me move at the last minute and my college friend that always have coffee and turbo truffles ready when we studied until 2 in the morning. I remember all of these things and as I get older I cherish the people that helped make the memories. Many of the people attached to the memories are no longer a part of my current life, but they are an integral part of my memories, and for that I am extremely grateful. I just wish that I had been better about being grateful when the memories happened.

With the weather being very cold I have been making a lot of soups and stews. When the temps dip their is something soothing about warm foods. Last week I tried a new recipe for Spicy Beans and Wilted Beans from the February 2014 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 4 and a half hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I used red pepper flakes instead of chiles de arbor, chickpeas for the beans and kale, spinach and arugula for the greens. Using a Parmesan rind adds great flavor and I used it in this recipe. In order for the beans to be soft and tender I allowed the beans to cook for the full 4 hours of time, adding water when needed.

Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens

These beans turned out delicious. My husband and I loved this recipe, it was great on a cold night. It was a little spicy as written for my kids so we added sour cream to their servings. The beans would be great with a loaf of homemade bread for a fall or winter dinner. A great filling meal.

For the recipe go to Spicy Beans and Wilted Greens.

Caramel Chicken

Caramel Chicken

Recently social media and I aren't getting along. This week has been especially bad, I think I need to just stay off-line. It seems that all anyone wants to do is argue. Someone will post that they like dogs and 5 different people will argue that cats are better. Everything seems to be a contest or argument.
My favorite this week has been all the arguing about whether is was a good idea for schools to close in negative zero degree days. It's great that you walked 50 miles to school in a snow storm growing-up, but honestly I don't really care. I know that sounds harsh, but reading rant after rant on one opinion or the other just makes me tired. My day is tiring enough, I don't want to debate every little thing online, it's tiring. I miss the days when people posted photos of their kids or a great recipe they found. Now everything seems to be about creating controversy in order to have a larger number of likes or page views. I miss when content was king, with social media out to make money now everything revolves around being seen and with that comes way too much drama for my tastes. Then again maybe I'm the only one that thinks it's a bad thing....

With the weather being cold I have been making soup left and right the this week. Unfortunately the light has been horrible to take photos and I just haven't been motivated. Thus, many of the great soup recipes that I have tried won't be on my blog (sorry!). I did make a great chicken recipe this week and that is what I'm sharing today. I tried a new recipe for Caramel Chicken from the October 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes of total time, 1 hour and 15 minutes of which is active. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I only used chicken thighs instead of a mix of thighs and legs. My kids are on a chicken thigh kick and it's the only chicken piece they currently will eat. Finally, I used homemade chicken broth. I use homemade broth almost exclusively, the taste is much better and I can control the amount of sodium in my recipes.

My family absolutely loved this recipe. The caramel sauce turned out fantastic. I let my sauce cook down until it was nice and thick and then poured it over the chicken. The result was as good as the best Asian restaurant in our state (according to my husband who has loved the same restaurant in Beckley forever). This is a recipe I plan on making over and over again in the future. (Sorry that the photos is so horrible, the light has not been on my side in the last couple of weeks, hopefully it will be better the rest of the week!).

For the recipe go to Caramel Chicken. 

Nutty Grain and Oat Granola

Nutty Grain and Oat Granola

It's January in West Virginia. December was warmer than usual, we had a few days that were in the upper 70's. However, now it's January and the weather is going back to normal. When I first moved here I had experienced very few winter days that got below 20 degrees. Seattle gets snow and cooler weather, but not cold weather. The first winter I was here and it hit 5 degree with wind I froze. It only got worse when my oldest started school. Standing at the bus in 5 degree weather with two kids is horrible. There is no way to stay warm in that weather, even in layers. So for at least the next 2 1/2 months my heat will be blasting and I will be in sweaters and wool socks. I don't do winter, I can do 100 degree days in the summer much easier. Plus I cringe when I see my gas bills, heating a house in cold weather can be brutal on the checkbook. Maybe it would be easier if I was a bear and just went to bed for the entire winter. I would wake up warm and refreshed with no cold weather in sight.

I have been trying to keep healthier snacks around the house for my boys. If given the option they will grab a bowl of sugary cereal before anything else. While cereal is okay occasionally, my husband's idea of an entire box a day doesn't work for my mindset. This week I tried a new recipe for Nutty Grain and Oat Bars from the January 2014 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Marshall Plane Crash Memorial Spring Hill Cemetery Huntington, WV

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 60 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 16 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First instead of amaranth I substituted sesame seeds. For the nuts I used almonds and increased the dates to 8 since mine were small. After making the bars and letting them cool they feel apart. I made sure to follow the recipe exactly and pack down the bars, but they still feel apart when cut. I decided to crumble the bars and add a small amount of honey and put them back in the oven for 15 minutes in order to make granola. After cooling I broke the pieces into granola size pieces.

Huntington, WV from Spring Hill Cemetery 

As bars this recipe didn't work out very well. When made into granola this recipe was perfect. My husband and I really liked the sweetness and taste from the dates and the granola made for a great afternoon snack. With the changes that I made to the original recipe this granola turned out well. A nice afternoon snack or breakfast served over Greek yogurt.

For the recipe go to Nutty Grain and Oat Bars.

Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

Christmas seems to bring out the nasty in people. I try to keep my wits and attitude in check myself, but I oftentimes find myself sliding into a bit of the nasties as well. I think it's a combination of stress, stress, and more stress. As women and mothers we tend to put everyone else's needs above our own. The presents have to be perfectly picked out, the Christmas dinner fabulous. We stay up late making sure that our holiday cards are addressed, signed and out on time. Don't forgot the letters to Santa, outfits for dinner, photos, tree decorating, the list goes on and on. The more television, social media and general holiday overload works its way into our lives the more crazy we drive ourselves. I think all of us needs to just sit back and take a breath. If you are the woman that snapped at me because I was in front of you at the milk case, you might need another coffee or possibly a nap. My holiday wish for all of us is that we can all sleep in until noon, let somehow else take care of the kids and bask in our own awesomeness (even if most of us forgot to leave milk and cookies for Santa). Since we all know that won't happen I hope that each and every one of us can take a moment to look at our family and realize, it's okay if the turkey is still frozen at Christmas dinner, the presents can go into a bag, and most of all it's okay to have that 4th cup of coffee. The Christmas season is only another week and a half of chaos. We all will somehow make it through, hopefully without going crazy at people in the mall parking lot (myself included-why are there never enough spots!!).

I have been short on recipe posts in the last week thanks to offline responsibilities. However, I have still been baking and cooking new dishes so my readers will have posts to enjoy in the next couple of weeks. A couple of weeks back I tried a great new recipe for Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce from the November 2013 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I substituted spaghetti for the bucatini. My kids prefer spaghetti and I wanted to minimize dinner time food battles. I used 3 anchovies since the fillets that I had were small. Finally, I allowed the sauce and pasta to cook approximately 6 minutes in order for all the liquid to absorb.

Snow in Huntington, WV

This was a very popular recipe in my house. My husband and two boys were big fans of the sauce. I ate my sauce over fried polenta, which was also delicious. The nice thing about the sauce portion of the recipe is that it could be used with another pasta, over polenta or even over rice or chicken. It has a variety of uses, making it a nice recipe to have in your recipe collection.

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce.

http://www.foodieinwv.com/2013/12/bucatini-with-butter-roasted-tomato.html

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A simple recipe for pasta with a butter roasted tomato sauce. The sauce would also be delicious over polenta or with chicken. A versatile recipe!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Total Time: 1h, 0m

Yield: Serves 4

Salt and Pepper Biscuits

Salt and Pepper Biscuits

I did not grow up on biscuits. The only biscuits my mother ever made came from a can. She was a great cook and made many delicious recipes, but she didn't really bake. My husband brings up almost every Christmas about the year she took my great brownie batter and added a bag of raspberry chips to it. They were pretty inedible. Needless to say I had no idea how to make biscuits when I moved 2500 miles away from home to the State of West Virginia. Biscuits are a big deal in this state. I quickly learned that knowing not only how to make a biscuit, but being able to whip up a batch on the fly was an essential part of being a West Virginian. Since my husband and I met and got married in graduate school I quickly realized I was in trouble. My first few biscuit attempts were disasters. I kneaded the dough, I rolled out the biscuits with a rolling pin and they resembled hockey pucks. After a few years my mother in law took pity on me and kindly asked me if I could help her with her breakfast biscuits. In reality she very nicely pointed out everything that I was doing wrong without it feeling like a baking lesson. It worked, the next time I made biscuits they were perfect, they rose beautifully, they had a great texture and my husband would eat them (which is saying a lot I promise). Now she still makes the best biscuits I have had in this state and every time my husband goes home she makes him a big batch. They are the only biscuits that he never adds any jam or butter to, they are perfect as is. So I concede to coming in second best, a place which I think is pretty great considering the competition. I make a number of biscuit recipes depending on if they are for breakfast or as a side. Today I tried a new recipe for Salt and Pepper Biscuits from the November 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Salt and Pepper Biscuits Sliced 

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 8 biscuits. I made few very changes to the original recipe. The main changes were to the execution of the recipe steps. The recipe states to use a food processor to cut in the butter. While I love food magazines, this is a step I have to debate. I have always cut my butter in by hand with my fingers and so does my mother-in-law. It keeps the butter a great texture and the flavor is always perfect. I cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour mixture with my fingers. It should resemble a lumpy batter when done. You want these butter lumps in order to have flaky, buttery biscuits. The other big change I made was to roll out my biscuits by hand. Do not roll out biscuits with a rolling pin, it makes for flat biscuits. I pat out my biscuits with my hands and then use a biscuit cutter. Avoid too much contact with the dough in general, the less you touch it the better the biscuits.

These biscuits are definitely dinner biscuits. I served them alongside a veggie smoked salmon chowder recipe and they worked well together. As a breakfast biscuit they would not work as well, so remember that these should be a lunch or dinner biscuit/bread. With a little bit of butter my whole family liked this biscuit recipe. My husband still prefers breakfast biscuits, but he may be the pickiest biscuit eater I have ever met so his opinion is a little biased. Overall, these were easy to prepare and were a nice side with soup.

For the recipe go to Salt and Pepper Biscuits. 

Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak

Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak

The males in my house eat more cereal than I would think humanly possible. While I make most things from scratch cereal is one of the few exceptions. There is only so much granola one household can eat before they go a little crazy and want a box of Lucky Charms. My husband has always been a huge cereal eater. What I wasn't prepared for was that my two sons would follow suit. They can eat an entire dinner and still have room for a bowl of cereal for dessert. Now both of my boys are rail thin. The youngest was under weight until he hit 3 years old. Apparently large amounts of cereal does not correlate into gaining weight because if it did my two boys would be the size of a house. The other food that they are obsessed with is steak. When my youngest was two he started stealing food of my plate, mostly steak and seafood. He refuses to touch the kids menu so when we go out to eat we normally split a steak. That's right my 4 year old eats steak for dinner. I figure it has to be healthier than the fried chicken and macaroni on most restaurant kid's menu (they seem to always be loaded with fat and cheese!). I make a lot of flat iron and skirt steak at home since the cuts are inexpensive and they are so delicious grilled. This week I tried a new recipe for Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak from the August 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Where the Big Sandy and Ohio River Meet (Kenova, WV)

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. For the Dijon mustard I used country Dijon. I love the texture and taste, it's great with steak. I honestly I forgot to cut the skirt steak into 4 pieces. The steak still fit at an angle onto my grill so it was fine. If you have never cooked skirt steak before there is a major step the magazine left out. You must take off the silver skin on the steak. I would love to say that it is always gone when you buy from the grocery store, but every time I have bought skirt steak from either the grocery store or big box stores it has to have the silver skin removed. Just make sure to check before you place the steak in the marinade. If you never let your meat sit before serving stop! Pork and beef really need to sit for at least 10 minutes of rest before being sliced. This allows the delicious juices to soak into the meat. If you miss this step all the great flavor will spill out the moment you cut into the meat. Resting after cooking makes all the difference I promise. Also as a side note, while this steak will look raw or underdone to many reading this post, skirt and flat iron steak stay red in the center. This steak is medium, medium rare for my husband and I and straight medium for my kids. Don't freak out if your skirt steak appears red, it will temp spot on. That's another reason why I love having a great thermometer. The thermometer I use is recommended by America's Test Kitchen (it's a little pricey at $100) and a great investment, no more overdone meat! This photo also is a little redder than in person due to lighting etc.

Virginia Point Park - Western Most Point in West Virginia (Kenova, WV)

This steak turned out very tender and had great flavor. Even my two picky boys loved the recipe and asked for seconds. This recipe would be great with mashed, roasted or baked potatoes on the side. Asparagus would be a great vegetable side, steak and roasted asparagus are great together.

For the recipe go to Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak.

Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

With a sweet and savory flavor this recipe for Coffee Marinated Skirt Steak is easy to prep and very tender. Would be great for summer entertaining.

Preparation Time: 0h, 30m

Total Time: 1h, 30m

Yield: Serves 4

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Food blogging can drive me crazy. I started blogging not knowing what my focus was going to be. If you go back to my first 5 posts, I talked about coupons, cleaning, you name it. Then my husband and I were talking about how much I loved to cook. I made the decision to start a food blog. It was a rough start to say the least. My photos for the first year and a half were pretty horrible. Then I bought a new cell phone and for 6 months the photos were a slight bit better. After those 6 months I decided I wanted to take myself a little more seriously. I bought my domain (and changed from the horrible name I started with), bought a new camera and tried to be better about engaging with other bloggers. Then the Internet started to change everything. I had to teach myself how to code rich snippets (wordpress make things so much easier with their pluggins!), fix coding errors, found out that Google never even knew my new domain existed and pretty much decided that I hate html coding. Then last week I read a post on Facebook telling a female blogger that they didn't need to know how to html code on their blog. It ruffled my feathers a little. While I would love to say that food bloggers can just sit back and wait for people to flock, it doesn't work that way. There are millions of food blogs and in order to be noticed you really have to step it up. And I still don't do everything right. I refuse to write key search words in my first two sentences. It would make my blog sound ungenuine and fabricated for hits. According to search engines though it would make me a better food blogger. I think I resign myself to being a blogger that likes food, I don't think that I have the patience to play in the big leagues. Plus I'm not a straight recipe blog, so I fall in Bermuda Triangle of food blogging. Enough food blog rants, on to the recipe. Today I tried a new recipe for Spiced Salmon Kebabs from the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Rainy Day Railroad Bridge WV

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. The salmon that I purchased was skin-on. I had to bone and skin the fillets, which added slightly to my prep time. I used my indoor grill to cook the salmon so my total cooking time was approximately doubled. It's normal for an indoor electric grill to take a lot longer. I let my kebabs sit in the fridge with the spice mixture for 45 minutes before they were grilled. This allowed the seasoning to absorb slightly and intensify the flavor.

Rainy Day Railroad Bridge Huntington, WV

My two boys loved this recipe. I wasn't sure if it would be too spicy with the red pepper flakes, but they ate their whole servings and then tried to steal food off my husband's plate. If you have three males in your house like I do, this recipe will not serve four people. I would suggest at least doubling the amount of salmon (and increasing the other ingredients proportionately). The inside was perfectly cooked, while the outside had a nice browned look and texture.

For the recipe go to Spiced Salmon Kebabs.

Spiced Salmon Kebabs

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

An easy grilled Spiced Salmon Kebabs recipes. Perfectly cooked on the inside and full of nice flavor.

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Total Time: 0h, 25m

Yield: Serves 4

Recipe for Flavorful Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala Over Rice

I love to shop local. There are so many great things about buying food that is made/grown close to where you live. I would love it if we had a big farm where I could raise and grow everything that I ever wanted, but until that day comes I grow what I can and buy the rest. I am a firm believer that buying local in not only great for supporting the local economy, but much better for the environment. This weekend I was able to find great heirloom popcorn at a shop in our area. It is run by volunteers and provides  fresh and packaged foods from local producers. My kids love going and seeing the new items that they have each week. There are some foods that I am unable to find locally, such as certain spices for ethnic dishes. For these items I either have friends send them to me or I order online. I grew up eating Indian food since my father worked with a number of nurses from south India and I love it. Last week I tried a new recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala from the April 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 5 1/2 hours of total time, an hour of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. I was unable to find chiles de arbol so I followed the recipe suggestion and used crushed red pepper. Cardamom pods are hard to find around here, so I left them out. For the marinading time I allowed the full 6 hours. My oven broiler has been broken for a while so I used my toaster broiler setting instead. The chicken did not blacken as well as it would have in the oven, but it still came out decent.

Even though the time required to prepare this recipe is long, the outcome is worth the wait. The recipe turned out delicious and the step were relatively easy. This dish was particularly popular with my husband, who loves Indian food, but is never able to order it as often as he would prefer.

For the recipe go to Chicken Tikka Masala.

Recipe for Burgers with Mozzarella and Spinach-Arugula Pesto

Burgers with Mozzarella and Spinach-Arugula Pesto and Homemade Buns

The weather was beautiful here today. It finally feels like spring with 80 degree weather and the ability to wear shorts without freezing. The smell of BBQ has been all over my neighborhood as well. I absolutely love the smell of BBQ. There are few smells better than walking outside and smelling someone smoking ribs on a big charcoal side smoker. The weather and the rise of grilling inspired me to make burgers this week. There is something about warm weather and burgers that go hand in hand. My husband bought a huge charcoal grill about 5 years ago. However, this year it needs the rust to be sanded from sitting in our basement and my motivation has been lacking. Therefore I settled for making burgers on my indoor grill this week. Today I tried a new recipe for Burgers with Mozzarella and Spinach-Arugula Pesto from Bon Appetit.

Gluten Free Burgers with Mozzarella and Spinach-Arugula Pesto

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First I did two versions, one with homemade hamburger buns and the other with gluten free buns. I had one pound of beef that I had ground with chuck a few months back. I combined the ground beef with 3/4 pound of ground lamb. Since I was short on time I did not wilt the spinach. I often make pesto with spinach and never wilt it, I just puree it in the food processor in batches. For the burgers I ended up with a total of 8 burgers. I like to keep my burgers on the small side, especially since they were blended with ground lamb which can be rich.

For this recipe I used heirloom tomatoes. I love heirloom tomatoes, they are great with burgers. Make sure to salt the pesto and the tomatoes. The salt really helps to bring out the flavor of the tomato and the pesto. Blending the lamb and beef gave the burgers great flavor and my family really enjoyed these burgers. There was also enough pesto leftover to use on turkey burgers later in the week.

For the recipe go to Burgers with Mozzarella and Spinach-Arugula Pesto.

Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage

Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage

I have had a full weekend of eating. Most weekends I try to cook and eat everything from scratch. However, this weekend was the first part of spring break for my oldest so everything was a little wacky. While I eat healthy 99 percent of the time this weekend was full of coffee and chocolate. I absolutely love dark chocolate and allow myself a treat at least once a month in order to keep my sanity. Since I was sick with strep for over two weeks my body wants everything that I normally don't eat so I have been allowing myself a little food self pampering. This week I will be back to my normal cooking and eating schedule. Last week when I was on antibiotics and slowly feeling more like myself I made a number of high protein pork dishes. My family loves pork and to me it is a great comfort food. One of the recipes I tried was for Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage from the March 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 5 hours (including marinating time) and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes. First since I can't have regular beer I used gluten free beer. I also use a soy sauce which does not have wheat. For the marinating I allowed the pork to sit in the sauce for 5 hours. I ran out of butter right before making this recipe so instead of using butter I substituted canola oil. The recipe has the cabbage cook for 20 minutes, but my husband prefers his cabbage very soft so I let it cook for another 5 minutes. I did have to add a slight bit more water in order that the cabbage did not burn.

The pork in this recipe was very tender. My two boys ate almost an entire tenderloin by themselves, which is a good sign that they loved the recipe. The only thing that I would change is to double the sauce in order that there is enough to pour over the pork on the plate. I also love cabbage and would have liked more than the recipe made so I would double the amount of cabbage. Overall a simple recipe with lots of flavor and one that I would make again.

For the recipe go to Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage.

Sweet and Savory Vinegar Braised Chicken with Pancetta and Pearl Onions

I ate way too corn chips today. The majority of the time I eat healthy, but I bought my husband chips to eat during the super bowl and it was downhill from there. It also reminded me why I normally cook everything from scratch. The chips have sat heavy in my stomach all evening. To make up for the over eating of chips I ate leftovers for the last two days. I love utilizing leftovers, it is a great way to save money and I try to change the dish slightly when I re-heat it so my family accepts it happily. Chicken and pasta recipes are my two favorite type of leftovers. They re-heat well and can be adjusted slightly to make new meals. Last week I tried a new recipe for Vinegar Braised Chicken and Onions from the February 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes an hour and 20 minutes, 40 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. Finding fresh pearl onions in my area is always a task. They are only available in 6 ounce packages, which are overpriced. Given the price I bought only 18 ounces not the 2 pounds suggest by the recipe. Additionally pancetta in my area comes pre-cubed in 4 ounce packages, so that is the manner I bought them. As I almost always do I made my own chicken stock. This allows me to control the amount of sodium and ensure that it is gluten free. Finally, to thicken up the sauce at the end I added a small amount of cornstarch. Without the cornstarch the sauce was thin and greasy. I skimmed the fat and then added approximately a tablespoon of water mixed with a tablespoon of water. This allowed the sauce to thicken nicely and was perfect served with rice. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The sauce on this chicken was delicious. It was a nice combination of sweet from the vinegars and savory from the onions. The chicken turned out tender and cooked perfectly. The sauce when served over rice worked well and would make a nice pasta sauce as well. The combination of vinegars was perfect and is something I will try again in the future with other dishes and meats.

For the recipe go to Vinegar Braised Chicken and Onions.

Delicious Rigatoni with Calabrese Style Pork Ragu

 My family loves pasta. So much so that I prepare it approximately once a week for dinner. When I was growing up my mom always made a lot of pasta since it was inexpensive to make and could feed our entire family. She was great with inventing recipes from just spaghetti and the ingredients in our cupboards. I wish that I had inherited half of her recipe invention talents. While I don't invent recipes the same way that my mother did, I do like taking recipes and making them my own. Since I eat gluten free I am always taking regular pasta recipes and re-inventing them to my needs. This week I tried a new recipe for Rigatoni with Calabrese Style Pork Ragu from the February 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 5 hours of total time, 60 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. Since I eat gluten free I used brown rice flour ziti. I have never seen rigatoni gluten free in my area, so I always use what I have access to. Since I was serving this recipe to my kids I used mild Italian sausage, instead of spicy sausage. I would have used spicy sausage if it was just for my husband and I. I rarely buy ground meat from the grocery store. For this recipe I had leftover pork shoulder which I ground up and used. When I went to make this recipe it turned out that I had forgotten to buy fresh parsley so I had to substitute dried parsley instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Even though this recipe states that it makes only 6 servings, I had a ton of leftovers. There was enough for two additional meals. I did let my sauce thicken longer than the recipe. I had to add a slight amount of water during the four hour cooking time. However, at the end of the cooking time it was still a little thinner than I liked so I turned up the heat a little and let it cook without a lid until it had fully thickened. I also did not add additional cooking water after adding the pasta since it wasn't necessary. My family really loved this recipe. I would suggest adding a larger amount of crushed red pepper if you use mild sausage and make sure to adequately salt, it will need it.

For the recipe go to Rigatoni with Spicy Calabrese Style Pork Ragu.

Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal

My meal plan got thrown-out the window this week. With a Monday holiday and very cold weather, dinners haven't gone as planned. I utilized a lot of leftovers and baked a little more than usual. My youngest somehow ate an entire batch of brownies by himself. Luckily for me I was able to eat one before the rest went into his hollow stomach. Breakfast is still a struggle with my youngest son. He would rather eat anything, except something healthy. Oatmeal is the one breakfast food that I can almost always convince him to eat, he loves it. The only problem I have is that the steel cut oats that he loves take a long time to prep when he is hungry in the morning. Therefore I have been trying a variety of overnight oat recipes. Last week I made a new recipe from Bon Appetit magazine for Overnight Hot Oat, Dried Cranberry and Quinoa Cereal.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of prep, an overnight soak and then 5 minutes in the morning and makes 4 servings. I decided to double the recipe in order to have enough for everyone in my family. For the dried fruit I used dried cranberries. For the toppings I added pumpkin seeds, a small amount of vanilla and maple syrup. I have never been able to find cardamom at my local stores so I left it out. Make sure to rinse your quinoa very well. If you have never used quinoa before rinsing is a very important step. The rinsing gets rid of the bitter taste and without the rinse the quinoa will have a distinct bitter taste, that is not appetizing. Even if the brand that you buy claims that it is pre-rinsed, still rinse the quinoa again. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My youngest son and I both liked the idea behind this recipe. However, it needs a few changes. The taste of the quinoa was very strong. My husband wasn't a fan of the quinoa taste at all, so this recipe as written would have to be for somehow that really likes quinoa. I would suggest decreasing the amount of quinoa to 1/4 cup and increasing the steel cut oats to 3/4 cup. Adding additional fruit for sweetness might also help. The recipe suggests using barley instead of quinoa, which if you can eat gluten would be a great change and I think make the dish even better.

For the recipe go to Hot Oat and Quinoa Cereal.

Pistachio, Dried Cranberry, Coconut and Agave Syrup Homemade Granola

Mornings in my house are always crazy. With two boys, one of which is in school it is always a rush to get out the door to the bus. I have become great at putting on make-up in three minutes (and having it still look great) and I am the queen of 5 minute showers. My two boys on the other hand move like molasses. It doesn't help that many mornings my oldest is finishing his homework from the night before or my youngest is unhappy and massively grumpy from having to wake-up in the first place. Normally breakfast for myself takes a backseat and I am often left with only coffee until lunch. I try to keep at least a few things on hand that are quick to grab on the run. This week I tried a new recipe for Captain Crunch - A Better Granola from Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. For the nuts I used pistachios since they are a family favorite. I have never seen coconut shaving at my local store so I substitute unsweetened coconut. Finally I used olive oil instead of coconut oil since coconut oil is much higher in saturated fat. So every once in a while a recipe doesn't turn out at all. This recipe was one of those cases. I had to completely redo the recipe after it came out of the oven. First the granola as written came out dry and with no crunch or clump at all. Therefore I added additional olive oil and a 1/2 cup of honey. Then I placed it back in the oven for 20 minutes. When it came out I let it cool and then broke it into chunks. After my modifications it was perfect. I would suggest adding honey instead of the agave and adding additional olive oil. The texture was definitely better with the modifications.

With my changes this recipe was very popular with my family. Before the changes the granola was too salty and did not hold together at all. It would be better as a yogurt topping, but if you are looking for a granola recipe you need to make changes such as I did by adding additional honey and oil. My two boys really loved the granola after the changes and ate over half of the batch.

For the recipe go to A Better Granola.

Indian Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Spinach

At the grocery store last week I needed to find chicken legs. I looked all over and then found them. In a large scary looking plastic bag. I have no problems buying large amounts of chicken, but this chicken looked like something that I would rather feed my animals than myself. Someone must be buying it, just not me. This experience got me thinking. It seems that the quality of a lot of grocery products has gone down, not up. It used to be that you could go to the store and expect to find quality products, now even if you want to buy something of higher quality it isn't even available. It is a little disconcerting especially given that there are so many problems in the state that I live in, it would be nice if there were healthy, high quality products available to everyone that wanted them. In the end I substituted all-natural chicken thighs, but it would have been nice to have at least had the option to find the product that I wanted. I digress, on to the chicken recipe that used the chicken legs that were no where to be found. Last week I tried a new recipe for Indian Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Spinach from the January 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time, an hour of which is active and makes 6 servings. As I stated in the intro I had to substitute chicken thighs for almost all the chicken legs. I had two chicken legs left from a previous recipe (that I was lucky enough to find at the store the one time they seemed to actually have them, never to be seen again).  For the remainder of the chicken I used chicken thighs. I found that I had to use more broth than the two cups suggested by the recipe. Two cups just wasn't enough to partially cover the thighs. I left off the cilantro at the end. Honestly my kids aren't fans and I forgot to add it to my serving. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The braise on this chicken turned out very well. I'm not sure that I liked the amount of spinach. I think it needs to be doubled. The sauce was also a little thinner than I prefer as well and if you like spicy foods I would suggest increasing the amount of cayenne. I would also suggest adding a small amount of flour or cornstarch in order that the chickpea sauce has a better consistency. The chicken turned out well and was the best part of the dish, tender and flavorful.

For the recipe go to Indian Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Spinach.

Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Growing-up baking was something I loved doing. My mother was a great cook, but her baking skills were hit or miss. Case in point the first time I brought my husband back to Seattle to visit my mother was hosting a Christmas Eve party. She insisted that I should add an entire bag of raspberry flavored chocolate chips to the delicious brownies I was preparing. I was skeptical and said so, but my mother won out. They were terrible. The whole night I spend hovering over the desserts explaining that I had made everything, except the decision to put raspberry chips in the brownies. I look back at this story now that my mother has passed and laugh. She was a great mom in many ways, but not a great baker. Luckily I taught myself to bake when I was very young by trying every recipe in my mom's old cookbooks until they came out right. There were many cookie misses that had to be thrown out, but eventually I learned to cook everything in all the cookbooks. In college I made cookie platters until the early morning hours for co-workers, friends and families on their birthdays. How I found time for it still amazes me. My sweet tooth has stayed with me through the years, even though many other things have changed. This weekend I was in a baking mood so I decided to make gluten free cookies. I tried a new recipe for Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the January 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 18 minutes of which is active and makes 24 cookies. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I eat gluten free I substituted gluten free flour for the all-purpose flour used in the recipe. Additionally for the chocolate I used an 8 oz bittersweet baking bar. I found that since I made these cookies gluten free they took slightly longer to cook than the recipe suggested. They also spread out thinner, which is normal for gluten free baking. Make sure to bake the cookies on parchment paper. It really does make a difference on how evenly the cookies bake and makes it much easier to release the cookies from the pan. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I really liked the combination of salty and sweet in this recipe. My husband and I were both skeptical of how the salt would taste with the chocolate, but were pleasantly surprised by how delicious the cookies turned out. Since I made my cookies gluten free they were thinner and flatter than they would be with wheat flour. Either way they would be delicious.

For the recipe go to Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Thai Chicken Curry

I hope everyone is having a great New Year's Eve. In my twenties I loved going to friend's parties and ringing in the New Year. Now that I have two kids and am in my mid-thirties (we aren't talking about what age I am turning this year :) I prefer to stay at home and enjoy the beginning of the New Year with my family. 2012 had a lot of ups and downs for my family. My health for the first 6 months was all over the place with pneumonia, low potassium levels and a high heart rate. Luckily everything seems to be better now, but I am definitely ready for 2013 to be rung in. I will be surprised if my two kids make it much past 10 pm, but they might surprise me and stay up until midnight. I think I will make it to midnight and not much farther. When I was in college I could stay up all night and still be at work the next morning at 7 am, now I need my beauty sleep. My cooking this week has been easy. I haven't been motivated to spend a lot of time in the kitchen since my oldest is home for winter break until Thursday. This weekend I tried a new recipe for Thai Chicken Curry from the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did have to make a few modifications based on ingredient availability. First I have never seen yellow curry paste at any of my local grocery stores so I substituted green curry instead. Additionally, instead of regular Yukon gold potatoes I used baby Yukon potatoes. I prefer the baby Yukon potatoes when cooking since they are smaller and cook much quicker than their larger counterparts. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients and made no further ingredient modifications. The recipe states to cook the curry on a simmer for a total of 20 minutes. I let my curry cook for closer to 30 minutes to ensure that it had thickened adequately. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I wasn't sure what my kids would think of this curry. They can be hit or miss with ethnic foods. Sometimes they love them and other times they won't even try a bite before they decide that they don't like the dish. However, I am happy to report that they loved this recipe. My oldest was especially fond of the chicken. The chicken turned out very tender and the potatoes were a nice addition. I chose not to serve the dish with fresh herbs since my kids were eating it, but it would be delicious either way.

For the recipe go to Thai Chicken Curry.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano

The weather today was unpleasant. I love snow when I'm inside warm in my house with the gas heat turned up. However, today the weather was cold, windy and there was lots of sleet. I hate sleet. It's not rain, it's not snow, it's just miserable. I think I might also be a weather wimp. In the summer I begin to hate the heat in about July and I complain the rest of the summer. In the winter I complain that it is too cold and I am always wrapped up in three blankets. I seem to never be able to find the right heat to feel just comfortable. It would help if the area that we lived actually had 4 seasons every year. There are a lot of years when we are lucky if we have two seasons. I do love winter foods. There is something very comforting and relaxing about soups, stews and winter meat dishes. One of my favorite winter dishes is roasted chicken. There are so many ways to prepare it and a little change in flavor can make a huge difference. Last week I tried a new recipe for Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano from the December issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 30 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I have never seen boneless skin-on chicken at the store so I used bone-in skin-on thighs instead. Since my chicken had bones I increased the cooking time to 25 minutes in the oven instead of the 6-8 minutes in the recipe. I also doubled the recipe in order to have 8 large breasts so I had leftovers. Be very careful when taking the skillet out of the oven. I have had the misfortune of touching the handle of the skillet after taking it out of the oven one too many times. I suggest putting a pot holder or towel over the handle after taking the skillet out of the oven to prevent burns. I chose not to drizzle the oil over the chicken at the end of the recipe. The sauce was more than adequate to keep the chicken moist. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My family really liked this recipe. If you have never browned chicken on the stove before there are a few things to keep in mind. First don't use a non-stick pan. Non-stick pans are okay for many things, but roasted chicken isn't one of them. I use stainless steel pans and love them. Second, do not try flipping the chicken until it releases naturally from the pan. If you try flipping the chicken before it is fully browned the skin will break and you will not end up with that crispy browned skin that everyone loves. For this recipe I modified the step where the thighs were kept skin side down in the skillet once in the oven. I flipped them over to cook during their oven time in order to keep the crisp beautifully browned skin.

For the recipe go to Roasted Chicken Thighs.

Almond-Cranberry Quinoa Cookies

My week of eating healthy breakfasts continues. So far I have been doing really well. I have consistently been eating breakfast every morning for the last two weeks and I have noticed that I have more energy and less crabbiness than when I was skipping eating. This week I am visiting family for the week and I am hoping to not eat too much restaurant or fair food. However, I love fair food, so you might notice a few posts on hotdogs and caramel apples on my facebook page, I love them! My two boys have been doing much better than I expected them to with the new breakfast routine and have fallen in love with healthy waffles and whole-wheat couscous. With fair food tempting them this week my main goal is to not have them eat funnel cake and pop tarts for breakfast and at least include eggs or another protein with every meal. I'm pretty sure fried bread does not count as a protein (I wish it would I love those things!). Last week my two boys and I tried a recipe for Almond-Cranberry Quinoa Breakfast Cookies from the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine, which looked like a great compromise between sweet and healthy.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 2 dozen cookies. I did make a few modifications. I have been trying to limit the amount of sugar that my two boys consume so instead of granulated or brown sugar I substituted Splenda for baking. Instead of using an electric mixer to beat the sugar and butter, I did it by hand. This sounds bad, but my mixer was dirty and I had no time (or desire) to clean it, so I did the mixing by hand. I did not flatten my cookies out before baking and they turned out less flat and crunchy looking than the photo in the magazine. I would suggest flattening out the cookies in order for them to have the best consistency when baked.

I love that these breakfast cookies are full of whole grains. I especially like that they use quinoa, which is a great grain and my two boys love it. Using Splenda for baking worked well and my two boys didn't notice that I didn't use real sugar. This recipe makes a large number of cookies and they lasted for several days. They would also work well frozen, which I often do with cookie recipes. Overall, a nice alternative for breakfast or a snack that is full of whole grains.

For the recipe go to Almond-Cranberry Quinoa Cookies.