monday may 24th

yeah for birthdays! our youngest daughter turned 1 today and while hubby and i worked, and the girls were at preschool, it was still a celebratory day.

tonight hubby made some pan fried steak cutlets with a pan sauce of onion, apple juice, honey and other spices. it was really good and for some reason tasted german to me; i think it was the onion and apple flavor combination. he served roasted (farmers market) potatoes with it. so yummy!

for dessert, (which i should point out is not a frequent visitor at our home) the girls had cupcakes left over from the party yesterday. and i made a peach and blackberry pie, which wasn't ready in time for the girls to eat some, but hubby and i sure enjoyed it! the peaches were from the farmers market, and the blackberries we picked yesterday morning on a family walk.

sunday may 23rd

today we had a party for our daughter, who turns 1 on the 24th. it was an amazing time. we had a luau, so a lot of our ideas were hawaiian themed, and unfortunately wouldn't have been the best for a 1-year-olds party. (roasting some sort of animal carcass was high on the list but the thought of the children with a pig or goat and the possibility that they might not think it is a cool as my kids do, pretty much ruled out that idea)

i served fruit cups with umbrellas in them - the fruit cups were really easy. i cut up 1 pineapple, 2 mangoes, and 1 papaya into small bit sized pieces (think easy for a one-year-old to eat). i let it cool down in the fridge and then served it into small plastic cups. everyone at the party loved it. and i had the leftovers being eyed by the parents to be added into the blender with some rum or vodka... but that's another story.

we went super kid friendly and just ordered pizza for the main event. cheese and "hawaiian" which at least for me is canadian bacon and pineapple. for dessert, i had the grocery store bake and frost 3 dozen cupcakes with white frosting, and then did the decoration myself. it was not as time consuming as i thought it would be and they turned out really cute. and as you can imagine, i didn't have to twist any arms to eat them.

saturday may 22nd

oh so excited. went to the farmers market today and stocked up on amazing things. we ordered a big package of a variety of cuts of beef from our favorite beef supplier. we also scored lots of veggies, including some beautiful purple potatoes (ours are almost ready to harvest!!) and tomatoes. (again, ours are ALMOST there, can't wait for the tomato bounty to begin!) we also had some beautiful zucchini. hubby made a meat stuffed zucchini, where you hollow out the zucchini and fill it with a sauteed mixture of some of the zucchini, ground beef, oregano, salt and pepper, and other greek inspired flavors, including pine nuts. the place it in a baker of some sort and cover and bake in the oven until roasted and the zucchini are soft. it is so good. we had a lot of left over ground beef filling, so we made a pizza out of it by using some jarred organic pasta sauce on the dough, and then the filling, and then topping with parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.

again, big hit!

friday may 21st

my goodness. it took me a while to think back on what we had for dinner. hubby made our favorite giada recipie, chicken parmesan. hubby is very good at making this. we use organic chicken, of course, and had roasted vegetables along with it. the roasted vegetables were celery, carrots and potato, along with salt, pepper and herbs. it was delicious, as always, and a big hit for everyone!

thursday may 20th

once again, lazy repeat day. or as some would call it, left over day. we ate the remainder of the takeout from last night.

wednesday may 19th

mostly because neither hubby or myself have bothered to make a decent trip to the grocery store or the farmers market, we have absolutely nothing in the house that can be compiled into a semi interesting or healthy or filling meal. so of course we ordered "chinese takeout" (which it really isn't chinese food, but more general asian inspired food) from our favorite place. we got moo shu pork, orange chicken, and pork fried rice.

tuesday may 18th

we are so original around our house that we recreated the exact thing we had yesterday. again, it was a big hit. though the almost 4 year old said "we are having this AGAIN?" listen here girly, its not that we eat quinoa EVERY NIGHT...

monday may 17th

tonight i made pasta salad with two cans of tuna packed in water (drained), half of a yellow bell pepper diced, 1 small shallot sliced thinly to produce rings, olive oil, cherry tomatoes from the garden, salt and pepper. i boiled about 1/2 a box of pasta in heavily salted water with 2 garlic cloves minced. drained when it was al dente and tossed with the tuna, olive oil, etc mixture. i let it rest while hubby made his half of the dinner. he made a saute of diced potato, also from the garden, cooked quinoa, worchertershire sauce, butter and fresh herbs from the herb garden. the two dishes were great. big hit all around.

sunday may 16th

we were traveling all day today so dinner was snacking and then a big glass of milk before bed. exciting, i know.

saturday may 15th

tonight we went out for dinner to a really nice tapas style restaurant. we all shared multiple things on the menu, and everything we had was amazing. we had a cheese plate, bacon wrapped dates, a beet salad, fish, lamb, hanger steak, fingerling potatoes, peas, farro and black rice, and 2 desserts. it was the best meal we had the whole trip!

friday may 14th

our anniversary!

tonight we went out for italian again. to capo. it was good, the waiter was pleasant, however the management was horrible. on that alone, i would not suggest this restaurant. i had a light shining in my eyes (it was a display light, just angled poorly, and their first night having it on, you'd think that they would appreciate the feedback) and the waiter was kind enough to turn it off. however management then came by and turned it back on, without even asking me first. i have never been rude at a restaurant, but i was short to the manager after that. had this light not been right behind hubby's head, i wouldn't have had a problem, however i could not look at him without being blinded.

i had a foie gras appetizer and hubby had soft shell crab. he had a fish dish and i had lobster risotto. my lobster was overcooked, however the dish in general was pretty good. the tiramisu was great.

thursday may 13th

california!

we went out to eat at an italian restaurant. it was great. i had a pasta fagoli soup and a sauteed vegetable and pasta entree. hubby had a salad i believe and a pasta with a creamy tomato sauce. we both enjoyed it a lot!

wednesday may 12th

tonight we just ordered pizza. we always get the dave's fave and pepperoni rolls. we are leaving in the morning for vacation to california, and neither of us felt like cooking, and then cleaning when we still had to pack. can't wait for the vacation!

tuesday may 11th

tonight hubby cooked, and he is great at improvising. he used more of the frozen cheese ravioli and made a sauce for it that was orange bell pepper, garlic, onion, kalamata olives, and jarred spaghetti sauce. cooked the ravioli in salted water and then tossed with the sauce. it was awesome.

monday may 10th

tonight we had ravioli sauteed in a brown butter and sage sauce, and blanched green beans. i used a mixture of frozen cheese ravioli and some mushroom ravioli, and boiled them the required time to cook them (really, just until they float) in heavily salted water. as that was cooking i melted a 1/2 stick of butter and dropped about 10 fresh sage leaves into it to impart flavor and crispy fry the leaves. then when the ravioli was done, i took them out of the water and transferred them to the frying pan, with some of the cooking water that was clinging to them. also boiled some salted water and dropped about 3/4 of a bad of frozen green beans into it and brought it just back to a boil (i like my veggies crunchy). transferred those to a serving dish and put about 1 tbs of butter on top and mixed it in to melt it. added salt and pepper. dinner was delicious!

everyone loved it.

sunday may 9th

today we went in to visit my in-laws for mothers day. i really just wanted one thing for dinner, which were crab legs, so hubby stopped and got me some. we ate those as an appetizer, (we bought 2 lbs. and then hubbys grandfather has about 50 lbs. in his freezer so he donated 2 more lbs.) i ate them with some melted butter that i seasoned with garlic powder, salt and pepper. (fyi, unless otherwise noted i always use unsalted butter. always)

hubbys step-father makes a honey-butter chicken that is really good. i don't have an exact recipe, but the chicken (bite sized pieces of breast meat) is soaked in an egg and milk mixture and then dredged in seasoned flour. then it is fried in batches. after the frying, it drains and you serve it with a sauce that is just melted butter mixed with honey. it is really simple and really good. they served it with garlic smashed potatoes, salad and steamed vegetables. it was wonderful.

after we came home and got the kids down, i ran to the grocery store to get milk and came back with smores stuff, strawberries and ice cream. when i got back home hubby and i ate smores that i made by roasting the marshmallow over the gas stove.

mom = liked it

almost 4 year old = liked it, though had filled up on crab

almost 1 year old = loved it

saturday may 8th

well, tonight we went to a crawfish boil birthday party. my friend has a crawfish boil ever year for her party and this was the first year that hubby and i got to go without the kid(s). it was very relaxing. i don't actually eat crawfish, but i eat the corn and potatoes and all that. basically i just don't eat crawfish because i am lazy. too lazy to do all that work, get super messy and horribly spicy fingers (i wear contacts...). and they always have the best fried fish you can imagine. so i pretty much ate the majority of that. i don't know everything that they make the fish with, but they do use this. (at least i am pretty sure that is the kind they use. it was DE-LISH!)

hubby eats the heck out of some crawfish, so he enjoyed that and some beer. we were home pretty early, but it was a wonderful night.

friday may 7th

tonight we went out for a date night. we went to first friday, which we had never been to here in town, and it was actually about as busy as i expected. growing up in a different type of community, i am used to a lot of outdoor activities like art show and farmers markets and concerts. however the town we live in now is beginning to get there. so we did our part by participating.

we had a sitter watch our daughters at home and we went and enjoyed dinner at square one. we had the bruchetta appetizer and the buffalo mozzarella appetizer, and then hubby had the lasagna and i had the steak au poivre. both were good, but we probably should have split an appetizer. neither of us finished our entrees and had to bring them home. at least i have lunch today.

thursday may 6th

thursday i was home with a sick kiddo so i got a chance to cook in the afternoon. that being said it was actually a simple recipe. i made roasted tomato soup, and served it with what i am calling an avocado smash salad. basically i took 2 avocados and smashed them with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dried oregano and garlic powder and then tossed that thick faux-guacamole with baby greens. it sounds gross, looked terrible, but tasted great. assuming you like guacamole.

mom = liked it
almost 4 year old = liked it
almost 1 year old = loved it

welcome

well here it is, my super crazy life. i can't say that the whole point of this is to simplify someone else's dinner rush, as that is the only point. here i will tell you all about dinner at our house and what we ate, how we made it, if it was good, if the kids liked it, and anything else of note.

the best i can hope for is that some day, someone out there might crack a smile and think "wow, and i thought my dinner rush was bad/good/funny/sad/happy/lonely"

welcome.