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25
Apr
Recipe Review, 4/17/10

This week I added in one of the family’s all-time favorite meals to go along with the three picks from The Doc.

We started with Orechiette with Sweet Italian Sausage — a pasta dish made with Marscapone cheese! The Doc says it might be his favorite thing that I cook. So it gets an automatic rating of 5 stars! I’ve added the recipe in another post so you can see what it’s all about. Go ahead. Try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Rating: 5

Chicken Satay Lettuce Wraps with mixed veggies was the next item during the week. I’ve made two or three different versions of chicken lettuce wraps. This one was good, but not quite as zippy as we’ve had before. The wee beasts actually ate them…as wraps! That was a plus. Usually they dump the filling out and leave the lettuce on their plates. So even though the recipe was just so-so, I’ve giving it a slightly higher rating because of the beast’s non-beastly eating of them. Rating: 4.25

Next came the Sicilian Tuna and Potato Salad. This was another one chosen by The Doc and he’s the only one who ate it. Personally, tuna smells like cat food to me. So I wasn’t going anywhere this one. And it also had capers and black olives in it so that meant the wee beasts weren’t interested. The Doc was happy with it, both because it was flavorful and healthy. The Doc’s Rating: 4

Skirt Steak with Garlic-Ginger Noodles and an Asian slaw on the side rounded out the week. Again, I can only rate part of this because no piece of cow will ever pass through my lips. This steak seemed to be appreciated by The Doc and the wee beasts. Since The Doc prefers chicken to red meat, I don’t bother to make something like this very often, but feel it’s best to keep the wee beasts exposed to different foods so they don’t start to get picky. The steak had a nice Asian marinade on it to give it a lot of flavor, and the garlic-ginger sauce for the noodles was yummy enough to stand on its own for my vegetarian portion of dinner. Rating: 4.5

Since I don’t post the full recipe for everything we try during the week, let me know if there is one that you would like to try and I’ll send the recipe along to you.

Until next time, go check out the orechiette recipe and let me know what rating you give it.

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11
Apr
Recipe Review, 4/3/10

Here I am again, at the end of the week, with one recipe not made yet. How has this happened two weeks in a row? Quick answer: The Doc. First the stomach flu and this past week, he wanted to eat out “so that I wouldn’t have to cook.” I’m not sure if he’s tired of my cooking or really just wanted something different.

We did get through three out of four, and I can guess how well the last one will go over tonight.

First we had Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar & Garlic, wild rice, and broccoli. The description on the chicken recipe said it was “gourmet” and “a dinner that will impress anyone.” Well, it wasn’t bad. I followed what some of the other reviewers said and skipped using flour on the chicken, used more mushrooms and a little less vinegar. Finally, I used cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Now while I agree that it was fairly good, if I wanted a chicken dish to impress someone with, I’m going with the roasted chicken and garlic-sherry sauce I’ve posted previously. It’s so good it could make you cry. The chicken with balsamic just didn’t compare. Rating: 4

Shrimp Stir-Fry with brown rice was next. It was okay, but I’ve made better stir-fry dishes before. The wee beasts eat shrimp well and they were willing to try some new veggies (baby corn and water chestnuts) because they were covered in the sauce. So overall it went over well. Rating: 4

Next, we tried the Lime Chicken Picante with Salsa Verde Corn & Bean Salad. The chicken was good. I don’t think it was anything special. The salad was really simple and really good. Little A charged right in and snarfed it up. Big A had to pick things out. First the black beans because he thinks all beans are from the devil. Just touching them to move them out of the way caused some retching. It’s his thing. Then he wanted the red peppers moved to the side. Then he declared that he didn’t like mangos that are cooked. I told him they weren’t cooked, just sliced and stirred in. So he declared he doesn’t like “stirred mangos.” Uh huh. So after moving those to the side, too, he was left with corn. And a few of those weren’t okay to him because they had bits of cilantro clinging to them which rendered them inedible. In the end, I think he had about six kernels of corn. Whatever…more for the rest of us! Chicken. Rating: 4. Salsa Verde Corn & Bean Salad. Rating: 4.85

Pasta e Olio, cucumber and tomato salad. This is the one we’re having tonight so I can’t give it a fair review. But based on what I know the beasts have eaten in the past, I can hazard a good guess. It’s a really basic dish made up of pasta, garlic, parsley, red pepper flakes, butter and olive oil. If I throw on a good dose of parmesan cheese, it will almost be like giving them simple buttered noodles with cheese. They’ll eat it but they’ll do much better if I take a jar of store-bought sauce and pour a couple tablespoon’s worth of sauce on it. So since I’ll have to modify it for them to eat like champs, I’ll give it an early-bird review. Rating: 3.75

Hopefully I’ll have better luck next week getting all of the food made and eaten. Wish me luck!

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06
Apr
Recipe Review, 3/27/10

The stomach flu hit our house this week, so the eating and reviewing ended up a little off schedule. But at long last, here is the rundown of how things went:

The Chipotle Sausage Stew created by Vanessa in Wisconsin was yummy. I modified it a bit, because I had some chipotle turkey sausages on hand. And every time I’ve tried to use chipotles in food for my wee beasts, they say it’s too hot to eat. It doesn’t matter if I only add a 1/2 teaspoon of the adobo sauce to the recipe, they won’t eat it. But by using the sausage, we did get the flavor and just enough heat to notice it and not scare the beasts away from the table. Well done, Vanessa! Quick, easy, and yummy. You can’t beat that combo when feeding kids. Rating: 4

I saved the Sweet-Grilled Ham with Glazed Pineapple for Easter Sunday dinner since we were a couple of days behind due to the flu. It only took about 10 minutes to throw together and was delicious! I think it might have been the fastest the wee beasts have ever eaten food. And that wasn’t just because we were getting ready to go see the Easter Bunny and hunt eggs. They actually loved the ham, loved the pineapple, and asked for a few more bites once their plates were empty. SCORE! This will be making another appearance at our house. Rating: 5!

Oven-Fried Chicken, creamed spinach, and corn. I’m not sure why this was supposed to be the best oven-fried chicken recipe. It wasn’t close. I was afraid of the coating getting gooey on the bottom, so I cooked these on a cooling rack placed inside of a baking pan. It didn’t help. The coating on the bottom of the chicken still ended up gooey. There just isn’t enough heat and air around the underside of the chicken to make it crisp. Rating: 2.5

I had high hopes for the Tomato Florentine Pasta Bake. I love pasta and try to find new ways to make it so we don’t end up in a spaghetti and meatball rut (although I think The Doc and the wee beasts would be just fine if we did). But this recipe was a bit dry and bland. Not a keeper. Rating: 3

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