Hello fellow foodies, it has been a little too long since my last post so I decided I would just do a mashup of several of the new things we have tried lately. If you want any info on anything you see here, leave a comment with your requests.
Homemade pizza!! Some friends of ours had us over for homemade pizza and gave us the leftover dough so we made our own a few nights later. Nothing beats the freshness of making your own pizza, plus you get to have exactly what you want on it. Try fresh dough and fresh ingredients next time you want pizza. I highly recommend fresh basil and mozzarella. You will be glad you tried it. Oh and get the good canned tomatoes, not the cheap kind you use for day to day cooking.
This on was an asparagus overload meal. Rotini pasta with orange bell pepper, asparagus, water chestnuts and shrimp. Also included was a side of steamed asparagus. I could eat asparagus all day every day so the double dip here doesn't bother me at all. I swore by canned asparagus most of my life, then I tried steaming fresh asparagus and realized how stupid I had been. If you are using canned asparagus in life, STOP IT NOW!!
This beauty was a double whammy of habanero dishes.The first being a habanero lime chicken with a side of red bean and habanero curry rice. I was surprised at how not hot it was until the slow burn crept up on me. It was a fiery treat and surprisingly enough I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I just like seeing the orange pieces of habanero floating around in all the cooking. You can see the chicken sitting in its marinade and then the stages of the rice and then finally a couple shots of the finished meal.
This was another creative concoction using what we had left in the pantry. Whole wheat pasta, frozen corn, red and orange peppers and spicy sausage. There is nothing better than creating something out of leftover bits and pieces. Sure beats throwing stuff away. Top it with a little parmesan and you are set, leftover surprise. LOL
This meal tested a new skill set so it was fun to try something new. This was a crab stuffed manicotti which baked in a bechamel sauce. Before this meal, the only sauces I had made came in packets. It wasn't hard, just required constant monitoring and whisking. It was a very rich meal and we paired it with steamed vegetables. You can see the sauce being created, the filling for the manicotti and then the finished results.
This was our most recent dinner creation, a lentil soup. The new and exciting part was that it was created without any recipe. Up until now, we had either used a recipe directly or added a thing or two to a recipe we found online. This however, was created purely on the fly. This was probably my favorite meal to make since it didn't have any rules on it. I just sauteed some celery, carrots and onion with a little bit of leftover salt pork. Then deglazed the pot with some dry white wine. Then I added the lentils, chicken stock and lots of spices. No real measurements just sort of eyeballed it. It turned out to be amazing if I do say so myself.
Finally this was something I saw on a friends Facebook post that looked incredible so I decided to make it too. Sopapilla cheesecake with apples. So thanks Eric from OKC!! Waiting until after dinner tonight to try it because I think if I tried a bite now, I would probably eat the whole thing in one sitting.
Ok everyone, I hope you enjoyed this quick rundown of what we have been making. I am still looking for new things to try, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment and I will give it my best shot!! Thanks again for reading and I hope you found something that inspired your inner chef.
This was our most recent dinner creation, a lentil soup. The new and exciting part was that it was created without any recipe. Up until now, we had either used a recipe directly or added a thing or two to a recipe we found online. This however, was created purely on the fly. This was probably my favorite meal to make since it didn't have any rules on it. I just sauteed some celery, carrots and onion with a little bit of leftover salt pork. Then deglazed the pot with some dry white wine. Then I added the lentils, chicken stock and lots of spices. No real measurements just sort of eyeballed it. It turned out to be amazing if I do say so myself.
