marshmallows

Our good friends and neighbors, also natural food junkies, were having a fondue dinner party and asked me to try making homemade marshmallows.  Cael and I had a great time making them, they were incredibly easy to make, and were a big hit, especially with the kids.  I have a feeling this recipe from Our Family Eats will become a family favorite!

strawberry rhubarb freezer jam

A neighbor gave us some of their extra rhubarb, so we headed out to buy some organic strawberries to try this result from kitchenlane.com and the result is delicious!

freezer jam

I had just received the September 2011 issue of Everyday Food and thought this recipe looked simple.  Kory told me it wasn't worth the effort and I should just buy organic jam.  Well, kudos to our neighbors for giving us about forty small peaches from their tree so that I could have an excuse to try this.  Everyone loves it, even naysayer, Kory!

vegetable lasagna

In an attempt to add more vegetarian meals to our routine, I just had to try this recipe from Cook's Illustrated.  I loved that it was full of veggies, not just spinach like so many other recipes.  The timing was perfect too, because all of the ingredients are in perfect season right now.  Kory was quite impressed (yay!) with this recipe and Elle and I both loved it.  Cael, well, not so much, but he'll get over it...  I did make two mistakes when grocery shopping-- I bought diced instead of crushed tomatoes and the pack of lasagna noodles I bought only had 8 noodles, not 12, but it still turned out really well!

boneless buffalo chicken

GF update: The recipe I use is still based on the original recipe below, but I have found that marinating isn't necessary. 

• Cut ~ 1lb. chicken breast into ~1 inch pieces s
• Dip chicken pieces in whisked egg white (whole egg is ok too) 
• Dredge chicken in a mixture of 1/3 cup Cup4Cup flour, 2/3 cup cornstarch, and about a Tablespoon of buffalo sauce (we've used Frank's-- even though it isn't certified GF, the ingredients seem to be OK)
• Fry ~4-5 minutes in 350 degree oil
• Toss in additional buffalo sauce

Kory and I love this Cook's Illustrated (I think...) recipe.  I don't know how I didn't post it earlier, but we eat it regularly.  We give the kids the chicken nuggets before we sauce them and they don't seem to notice the hot sauce in the batter at all.  We used to use the Whole Foods buffalo sauce, but seeing we have no Whole Foods anymore, Kory found a new favorite, Uncle Dougie's Chicago style chicken wing marinade.  It is HOT though, so I use 1/2 a cup of it with 1/2 cup of water and add a bit of extra sugar and butter to balance it out.  We serve these with Marzetti's Blue Cheese Dressing, but I want to start making my own someday soon.

chicken gyros

We tried this recipe that I found on www.ourfamilyeats.com for the first time tonight and, I have to say, everyone loved it.  Elle would have just eaten the sauce with a spoon, Cael ate plenty of chicken and veggies, and Kory and I were both pleasantly surprised with this very simple recipe.  Kory said he'd like to have chopped olives and feta cheese to go with it next time, which I guess would change this from nontraditional gyros into greek pita sandwiches, but I agreed that they would make delicious accompaniments. We did use whole wheat pitas to keep this recipe quite healthy.

lemon blueberry bars with coconut crust

The kids and I flew home from California yesterday and Kory is driving home today, Father's Day, so we decided to make him a special treat for when he gets home.  This recipe is from For The Love of Cooking.  The only thing we omitted was the powdered sugar sprinkled on the top and I don't think we missed it at all. 

Margarita Cake

Cael and I made this cake this morning to have at our Mother's Day dinner.  It was a fairly simple Cook's Country recipe and turned out really well.  Kory loved the margarita jello that is the glaze, but thought he'd like a graham cracker crust better than the pretzel crust.  I liked the crust but actually thought it would be better with saltier pretzels (I used the Newman's Own, which aren't overly salty). 

Morning Buns

Cael asked last week why I never do special weekend breakfasts anymore, making me feel guilty that my goal to do this only lasted about two weeks.  I figured Easter morning was the perfect time to start again.  These Cook's Country Morning Buns were absolutely perfect for our family.  Sweet enough for the boys, but savory enough for me.  The orange flavor is just so bright first thing in the morning.  I baked six and froze six for another weekend, but probably should have only baked four at a time for our family.  Even though they end up looking like cinnamon roll muffins, this recipe will definitely be made again and again. 

pizza braid

I took this recipe from another blog I follow, For the Love of Cooking and the whole family was really happy!  I, unfortunately, couldn't find any better quality prepared pizza dough, so gave into the thin crust pizza dough in the pop can by Pilsbury, partially hydrogenated oils and all.  On half, I spread chicken italian sausage and quartered Applegate Farms pepperoni; the other half had a smaller amount of this mixture with sauteed mushrooms and onions as well.  I put the toppings down first, followed by the sauce (Enrico's all natural pizza sauce) and then shredded mozzarella.  I left out the pineapple.  Obviously, this could easily be done with any of your favorite pizza toppings.  After braiding, I sprinkled the top with Italian herb blend and parmesan cheese and only baked for about 20-25 minutes. 

broccoli sunshine salad

I made this recipe from Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Elle's first birthday party.  It was definitely yummy and extremely simple, but I did make a few changes.  I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I used red wine vinegar and I'm not a raisin fan, so I used a mix of dried cherries, cranberries, and blueberries.  I also used mozzerella cheese instead of cheddar.  I used Applegate Farms Sunday bacon to keep the recipe free of artificial nitrates/nitrites.

Creamy chicken taquitos

This recipe was on one of the many food blogs I follow and looked liked something I'd love.  I was right, of course.  The recipe was incredibly simple, but next time I'd divide the mixture before adding the pepper jack so that I could add shredded cheddar for the kids and pepper jack for the grown ups.  These might be better as an appetizer/munchie snack food than a meal.

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

I did a test run of these in honor of St. Patrick's Day later this week and they were a success.  Just be sure not to add too much of the milk/sugar mixture to the ganache; stop as soon as it's a thick, glossy, mixture.  I added too much and after adding the cream and Jameson it got a little runnier than I would have liked. 

Funeral Potatoes

This Cook's Country recipe is like sour cream and cheddar potato chips in casserole form, literally.  It was really good, but really heavy, and will probably be saved for special occasions from now on.  Cael loved that I put the chips in a zip-top bag and let him stomp on them though.

Sloppy Joes

This is another one of my Grandma Kober's recipes that just reminds me so much of my childhood I can't stand it!  Unfortunately Kory's not a fan.  He grew up on Manwich (blah!!!) and this doesn't have enough flavor for him.