Menu Monday

Last week, we enjoyed a delicious assortment of dinners from around the globe -- including our first shot at calzones, with a leg up from the Publix deli's pre-made pizza dough. Although they got a little puffier than we thought they would (and busted at the seams) -- the picture speaks for itself -- they were very tasty, stuffed with mozzarella, ricotta, mushrooms, and spinach. But we got the brown, crispy shell down to perfection!

We're on a shortened meal schedule this week -- but we (mostly Whitney) thought up some tasty ideas to bridge the gap between weekend and Thursday!

• Italian Style Chili Mac with Salad & Bread
• Chicken Club Wraps with Baked Potatoes (or chips depending on how lazy we feel) -- recipe by Whitney.com, so no recipe link here!
• Tomato Soup with Roast Beef, Cheddar & Horseradish Panini
• Cajun Chicken Pasta

Happy eating!

Your seldom correspondent,

Andrew

Visitors & Brunch on the Banks

Brooks and Caitlyn came to stay with us this weekend for Music Midtown! We went to Local Three on Friday night for Brooksie's birthday dinner, and it was deeelicious. (I forgot my camera, but all you need to know is that we had maple bacon caramel corn as an appetizer...)

Saturday they went to Atlantic Station and had a free food truck lunch (courtesy of The Chew) while we stayed home and watched the Dawgs. Music Midtown was last night, so they enjoyed the show(s) while we were old people and ordered Zifty delivery, watched Bridesmaids and went to bed early!

Coldplay
(Stolen from Brooks)

To finish up the weekend, we enjoyed brunch at Canoe this morning!

Canoe is right on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and they have a really pretty garden. Andrew and I went for Valentine's Day dinner this year, but we didn't get to enjoy the surroundings so much in the dark.

Speaking of banks... We happened to dine right next to Elizabeth Banks! Two points to Caitlyn for spotting her. ;)

She looked exactly the same (and very stylish) in person, but I was mostly distracted by her cute little baby! We immediately looked her up on Wikipedia and found out his name is Felix. But, otherwise we played it cool.

After a delicious brunch, we just enjoyed walking around a little bit and looking at the gardens.

Do you see what I see?

"Backyard Honey"

Glad you could visit, B&C!

Happy Birthday, Brooksie!

(And happy birthday to Andrew's dad, too!)

Menu Monday

Honey Garlic Chicken with Sesame Green Beans
This was SUPER easy in the CrockPot, and we both loved it, too! I don't know that I've ever used chicken thighs before, but they cooked down/fell apart without getting too dry. During the last 30 minutes, I stirred in a cornstarch slurry and cranked it to high to thicken up the sauce. (I also left out the dried basil.) Will definitely make this again!

It's always tough for us to get motivated to plan a menu and get to the grocery store after we've had a weekend away. But we're already getting one night off this week for a fun dinner with friends, so here we go!

• Caprese Sandwiches with Roasted Red Potatoes
• Asian Pork with Snow Peas, Red Peppers & Noodles (I do this with a quick pork tenderloin instead of the CrockPot.)
• Spinach & Mushroom Calzones with Salad
• Chicken with Creamy Cheddar Rice and Broccoli (An experimental variation on this)

Retreat!

This weekend, we went to Barnsley Gardens in Adairsville for a retreat with Andrew's law firm! They are definitely a fun bunch, but I'll keep the pictures here limited to the scenery to protect the guilty innocent. ;)

We were among the first few to arrive Friday evening, so we spent some time walking around the area just checking things out. It's a little village of cute cabins with restaurants on each end and various activities around the grounds.

Our Cabin

Everyone started to arrive a little bit later, and we had a great dinner at The Rice House before a "get-together" at the hospitality suite cabin.

The Rice House

Saturday was a b-e-a-utiful day! We were treated to an activity of our choice. I chose the spa, and Andrew chose golf. I had a great, relaxing morning before having some lunch and waiting on the guys to get back from golfing.

When asked for comment on golf, Andrew said, "Well, my team didn'tt win, but it also didn't lose .... I did save my team on a Par 3 when all seemed lost." Well, alright then.

Saturday afternoon was for sitting outside (or napping inside, ahem).

They definitely saved the best for Saturday night. We got to have dinner at "The Ruins"!

We missed out on the museum tour earlier in the day, but apparently there's a good story behind the place (and a blood stain on the floor in the adjoining house!).

I'm not really a giant...you know, perspective.

It was so pretty, and the weather was perfect! We had drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the main part of the old house.

Do you see the orbs??

Then, we moved to the back lawn for dinner. There had already been two weddings there Saturday with another planned for this morning. It was really pretty as the sun went down. (The bathrooms were in the basement of the old house. I'm pretty sure they were haunted.)

We caught a golf cart ride back to the hospitality cabin and enjoyed some more time just hanging out with everyone. I won't comment on specifics! (But we do know how to do The Wop now...)

This morning we had a breakfast buffet before heading back to the city. Thanks for a fun weekend, lawyers!

Double Dipping

I recently came across BooMama's DipTacular '11. Don't you just love a good dip? I ended up trying one from there and another from Pinterest for our dipping pleasure during last weekend's less than pleasurable Georgia game.

Serving up dips for a game is also an excellent excuse to pull out my favorite lil Georgia dish.

The dips were both super easy and yummy. (These recipes have that "ingredients are delicious alone and even better together" thing going for them.)

The one I plucked from the DipTacular links was Warm & Creamy Bacon Dip (!). I saw it once in a Daisy sour cream ad, so an independent confirmation that it was as tasty as it looked was enough for me to try it!

The second, via Pinterest, was a "caramel" dip for fruit. Embarrassingly easy.

See below for both. Enjoy!

 

Warm & Creamy Bacon Dip

Adapted from Daisy
via here

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups sour cream
4-5 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.
2. Pour into 1.5 quart baking dish and cover.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

We had it with cubed French bread, which was perfect! I think it would also be good with crackers. (Daisy recommends serving with veggies, but...that would just be insulting to the dip!) I wasn't totally sure what texture to expect, but it was similar to queso/fondue when hot and got a little thicker as it cooled. I also stirred it up after I took it out.

~

"Caramel" Fruit Dip

via here

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Toffee Bits (optional)

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla until smooth.

2. If using toffee bits, stir in as many as you like.

3. That's it.

I served this dip with green apples (yum!), but I think it would be great with any fruit. Or on toast. Or brownies. Or your spoon... My dear husband doesn't like toffee--I know--so we had it without. It was still good!

Wordless Wednesday

Menu Monday

"Pecorino" Chicken
with Sauteed Chard & Rice Pilaf
This is from a few weeks ago. I used Parmesan instead of Pecorino, and it was delicious! Baking time was a lot longer than the recipe said, but it had a great crunch and made an average chicken breast a little more interesting.

Trying a few new things (plus a couple of old favorites) this week...and continuing to look forward to the season of soups, stews and other one-pot wonders!

• CrockPot Honey Garlic Chicken over Rice with Sauteed Green Beans
• End-of-Summer Pork Milanese with Baked Potatoes
• Parmesan Meatloaf with Roasted Grape Tomatoes, Salad and Bread
• I think I'm going to add some spaghetti sauce to the top of this. If the styled picture looks a little dry, then in real life...
• Rigatoni with Sausage & Roasted Broccoli 
• Breakfast for Dinner!

9-11-11

We had an all-American weekend - took a long walk through a pretty neighborhood, enjoyed some college football with a good friend and some good food, went to the movies and spent time together.

We honor the memory and celebrate everything we have to be thankful for today.

End o' Summer Treat

Even though I am happily ushering in the fall season, I decided we could make an exception to permit a certain summer favorite in our house recently: Strawberry Peach Ice Cream!

We love our Cuisinart frozen yogurt/ice cream maker (a great wedding gift gadget - Hey, Ms. Debra!). It makes it so darn easy to whip up delicious homemade ice cream. I also learned from my friend Betsy that it makes the best frozen margaritas! But that's another post for another day. :)

Anyway, we got the basic strawberry ice cream recipe from the Cuisinart recipe booklet and figured adding peaches could only make it better.

Purty Berries

It's easy and delicious. (But if you're looking for low cal...look elsewhere!) Something about the sweet-tart flavor makes it so good.

PW-style "Cast of Characters"

Strawberry Peach Ice Cream
Adapted from Cuisinart
Makes about 5 cups (ten ½-cup servings)

1½ cups (total prepared) fresh strawberries and peaches
3/4 cup whole milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt
1½ cups heavy cream
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Hull strawberries and peel/slice peaches. Put fruit into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. (I use a mini chopper.) Pulse fruit until rough/finely chopped (depending on preference). Reserve in bowl.

Fruit Mulch - YUM!

2. In a medium bowl, combine milk, sugar and salt. Whisk to combine (until sugar is dissolved). Stir in heavy cream and vanilla.
 
3. Add in fruit with all juices. Stir to combine.

4. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.

5. Turn on ice cream maker. Pour chilled mixture into the frozen freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Hunka Hunka Churnin' Love

We like it better after it goes into some Tupperware and back in the freezer for a few more hours. Yum!

Amy posted some of their favorite ice cream recipes recently, too. And, really, I don't even think there's one season for ice cream...more like a flavor for every season. So, I think we'll be trying some of those soon, too!

Andrew already has big plans for testing a holiday mint variety. I think it might involve Oreos...

SUPER Menu Monday (Freezer Meals!)

Pioneer Woman's CPK-Inspired Taco Pizza
Changes: I did not make the dough; the Publix deli does a fine job o' that, thankya. And we added avocado right before serving! (Also, don't let her 2 hour prep time scare you. It only takes that long if you make your own dough. Otherwise this was fast and furious! And verrrry tasty.)

This is a "super" edition of Menu Monday, because I'm taking advantage of the holiday to make double batches* of four meals that have previously passed the Official Freezer Test. As in...the taste and texture have to stay the same.

*Since we are only a party of two, I usually cut most recipes in half. So a "double" batch for us is really just the full-size recipes linked here.

So after today, we'll have one set of dinners in the fridge, ready for the week, and another set of dinners in the freezer for another time.

If you have a sous chef (or perhaps just some wine) and some music, it can be a fun day of cooking that really pays off when you get at least 8 nights of not having to cook! So, I thought I'd share in case anyone else wants to give it a go. :)

I'll get two going on the stove and two in CrockPots. To better organize, I like to set everything out, grouped by recipe. Then you can prep all the veggies and seasoning blends at the beginning. Since several of these have long simmer times, it's not too crazy to have them all going at the same time.

• White Bean Chicken Chili 
• Stove. 
• No fennel. 
• Use kale instead of chard. Add during re-heating.
  
  
• Baked Spaghetti Sauce 
• CrockPot.  (If using, brown the beef first and use about half as much water as the recipe calls for.)
• Super easy and yum.
• I leave the sauce separate and boil noodles/assemble when we're ready to use it.
  
  
• Pulled Pork 
• Example of method here. 
• Discard fat, shred, add BBQ sauce and simmer.
  
  
• Chicken & Black Bean Enchilada Filling
• Saute chunks of chicken (or bake & shred), onions and garlic. Add diced tomatoes + tex-mex-y seasoning + 2 cans o' black beans. Simmer. Not really much of a recipe...
• I hear you can pre-roll and freeze enchiladas, but I just freeze the filling. (In case it strikes me to use it for some other purpose, I guess.)

I use a combination of gallon freezer bags (lay flat to disperse contents for easy freezer storage) and plastic containers (lay plastic wrap across the top of the food and press down to reduce the amount of air touching the surface...if that makes sense).

Then, I make a list for the front of the freezer so that I remember what exactly is in there. When I use one of the meals, I cross it off.

Since I admitted to trying to clean a shadow out of our carpet yesterday, I figure Andrew won't mind if I share a funny on his part from the grocery store. While I look at the list, I usually ask him to pull from the shelves. When I asked him to get the cannellini beans for the chili, he said:

"....a can of WEENIE BEANS?" lol

Happy Labor Day!

Well...

...the ole Bulldogs didn't exactly win yesterday.

But we still had fun. :)

Andrew, Katie & Amer

Josh & Mama P

Our ever-expanding table along with the rest of Midtown Atlanta at Taco Mac
(And yes. That is a Florida fan. At our table. I know...I know.)

We're no fair-weather fans (since it's always great to be a Georgia Bulldog), but it sure would be nice if we could step it up a little and get some early momentum! Just sayin'. Get your silver britches back on, boys.

On a completely different note, do you know how much elbow grease it takes to get a shadow out of your carpet? Yes, I scrubbed and scrubbed before going so far as to take a picture with the flash to see that...oh wait...there is nothing there. (We did try to move things around to identify this alleged shadow, but no luck. Oh well. The carpet is clean!)

Hope you've had a good weekend so far. The best part is - it's not over yet! We have been enjoying the cool and rainy weather this afternoon, and "we" are planning to do both some fall arts and crafts and marathon freezer cooking tomorrow. More on those to come!

GAMEDAY

What's that comin' down the track?



It's a mean machine in red and black!

Ain't nothin' finer in the land

than a drunk, obnoxious Georgia fan!



Go Dawgs!
(go dawgs)
Go Dawgs!
(go dawgs)

Goooooooooooooo DAWGS!
Sic 'em!
WOOF
WOOF
WOOF