This weekend I embarked on making a recipe that mimicked a really tasty meal I had the week before. Chicken Bellagio is topped with arugula and in order to get a couple of handfuls for my recipe, I had to purchase quite a bit of the greens. It was tasty but what should I do with the leftover greens?
Strolling through the grocery store on my way home I spied the Anjou pears and finally I have an idea. I had made a salad of spinach and pears so I grabbed the pear and went home to make dinner. My son asked, that I not add the onion into the salad (later he admitted that the onions added a balance to the flavors and they were missed) so in went the greens and thinly sliced pears.
Usually, Saturday is the day we take care of our own hunger by cooking or ordering what we want to eat but this one was a little different. Earlier in the week I had to travel and simply did not have the will to cook dinner upon my return so the local pizza chain supplied dinner.
While I was out of town, I went to dinner with my co-worker at Cheesecake Factory and I ordered Chicken Bellagio. I was so taken with the dish I decided it would have to be made at home because the nearest Cheesecake Factory is over an hour long drive from my dinner table and that was unacceptable.
I searched on Pinterest and there were quite a few recipes for the dish but I settled on this pin.
I ran down to the local grocery store, grabbed my ingredients and got cooking. The recipe was straightforward and easy to follow. In about an hour we sat down to dinner. My family and I agreed that the next time I make it, I’ll double the amount of pesto and sauce. Other than that I was pretty pleased.
When I was a child my mother worked as an Extension Technician in our rural community. Extension Technicians provided Services by teachingmembers of the community how to infusenutrition into our diets, as well as spearheading outreach to the youth through 4-H. When you are the child of a singleworking mother you tend to learnthings from her career that you may not realize. I would attend 4-H meetings before I wasoldenough to evenattendschool. Summers would bringworkshops that would teachhealthyrecipes and arts and crafts. Lately, my coworker, who loves a bargain and hateswaste brought me a jar of peanut butter because he had over-bought for his family. Cool! I though maybe I could use it to make tasty treats that I would notmake from my sons peanut butter stash.
In many kitchens, I’m surepeanut butter cookies would be the way to go but after a deluge of them in Elementary School, I haven’t touched one. But there was one treat that I didnotgettoomuch of, Honey Milk balls. The original recipecalls for cornflakes as the outsidecoating but quite, frankly I had to think of another cereal because I had no need for an entirebox since no one in our householdeats them for breakfast. I used chocolate Rice Chex instead (because I do eat them outside of the recipe.) So I’ve beensnacking on childhood nostalgia since. Here‘s the recipe.
Main ingredient: Peanut Butter
Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 cup cereal flakes
Directions
Mix equal amounts of peanut butter and honey. Add the dry milk a little a little at a time. Mix well after each addition.
Form into small balls about 3/4 inch across with your hands. Roll the ball in the crushed cereal flakes. Chill until firm.
Servings : 25 small balls
Description : Honey Milk Balls can be served with milk or fruit juice for a delicious snack.
I live in a rather female intensive family. So, of course, Mother’s Day is a multi-generational event. Most of those who “man” the kitchen are out of action on Mother’s Day which usually means we have to eat out if we don’t want mothers cooking and still want to eat. That’s the way it’s been until this year. My young-adult cousin, her “New Boo”, her dad and my son took the reigns to put together the sweetest Sunday Brunch I’ve ever had.
We were banned from the kitchen (which hurt my feelings none) and were served drinks/snacks by our “waiter”. We relaxed and chatted as aromas from the kitchen began to invade the room. We were presented with printed menus so that no one received something they didn’t like. They really out-did themselves. Everything was done so sweetly and was so tasty, we had no choice but to feel special.
Ok. That may be a bit of an overstatement. In fact it was carnitas for my Sunday Dinner family. After church on Sunday we must eat. We had been going out a lot but having dinner out every week is something of a “budget buster” especially if you have more than one mouth to feed at the table (some with expensive taste-buds). As I mentioned in an earlier post, cooking for special occasions is not my strong suit, but this was just dinner; not Easter or Christmas. So when it was my turn to contribute, I went with something that my son and I really like. I found a recipe for pork carnitas on Pinterest and had fixed it at home a few times and it had gone over rather well so I figured it was a safe bet.
One problem: not everyone in my tribe loves Mexican food and some of them have an extensive list of things they just don’t eat. Oh, well. I put on my big-girl pants, accepted that I will never please everyone and cooked what I like. The pork roast cooks slowly for hours in my dutch oven, (a Christmas gift from my mom – love her) so when it’s time to shred it, it literally falls apart at the slightest pressure. When I mentioned what I was going to make to my cousin and I told her I usually eat it with a corn salsa, she suggested that I try to make it. Her suggestion was excellent. I found a recipe, on Pinterest of course, and followed it except dialing down the jalapeño. Tasty.
I would love to report that they all loved it, but that’s not quite how it went down. Some liked it and others tolerated it. My son liked it so much I had only enough left for lunch the next day. So my lesson in all of this: Just because you do something and do it well does not guarantee that others will like what you did…and that’s OK.
