2013 Recipe Recaps

It’s been an experimental year in the kitchen.  I am very happy to have seen this 30/30 item through to completion.  I can honestly say that I have a bit more confidence in the kitchen and that I am inspired to continue to try new things.

2013 Recipe Highlight Reel:

Personal Favorites

Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa

This meal was very easy to prepare and very tasty.   It’s a summery, light meal that will hit the spot when you are craving tacos with a little flair.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This is my new favorite pie!  I hadn’t had it before, but I’ll have it every chance I get now!

Highly Rated by Hubs

It is safe to say that Hubs benefited significantly from all of the past kitchen experiments.  Below are some of his favorites in no particular order.  
 

Cornbread and Beef Skillet Pie

 Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Fried Green Tomatoes

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Scalloped Potatoes

Worst Clean Up

Egg Bites

Although simple to prepare, and easy to eat these little guys were a pain to clean up after.  I soaked my mini muffin tin for a few days, tried a few different scrub pads, and still have dried egg all over my mini muffin tin.

Most Left Overs

Vegetable Soup with Barley

Crock pot meals are so easy to put together.  This one, however, seemed to never end.  I’m pretty sure we ate this for a solid 3 days before we moved the remainder to the freezer where it still resides waiting for the right moment to reheat.

Best Crowd Pleaser

Potato Salad

Although I have yet to blog about it (oops!), I hosted my entire family for a meal to celebrate several family milestones.  Hubs and I grilled up shish kabobs and I prepared my first ever potato salad.  It’s a summer crowd staple.

Most Rewarding

Fried Green Tomatoes & Green Tomato Pizza

There’s something so authentic to eating the food you grow for yourself.  Our little raised veggie bed garden had quite the tomato yield.  We’re already planning to expand our veggie garden next season for more yummy harvest!

Took the Longest

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

One night after work I decided I would make this for dinner.  Several hours later we sat down to eat dinner.  Plan ahead for this one.  It’s probably more of a weekend meal.  It takes time to bake potatoes!

Biggest Failure

Kaposztas Kocka / Hungarian Noodles with Cabbage

I’m ¼ Hungarian and I have only ever had Hungarian food a handful of times.  I enjoy a particular noodle dish that I thought I would try to recreate.  Unfortunately, this was just all wrong all over.  I think you need to have homemade noodles to start with and a Hungarian native to guide you through the rest.  The recipe sounded so easy.  I think I’ll stick to ordering this out.

The complete list of recipes tried:

1. Chicken Tortilla Soup
2. Cornbread and Beef Skillet Pie
3. Ratatouille
4. Quiche
5. Pasta with Shrimp and Eggplant
6. Salmon with pesto
7. Tortilla & Black Bean Pie
8. Stuffed Zucchini Boats
9. Strawberry Banana Smoothies
10. Egg Bites
11. Crispy Quinoa Burgers
12. Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad
13. Tomato and Feta Toasts
14. Spicy Shrimp Sliders
15. Potato Salad
16. Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa
17. Fried Green Tomatoes
18. Green Tomato Pizza
19. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
20. Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
21. Scalloped Potatoes & Ham
22. Vegetable Soup with Barley
23. Kaposztas Kocka / Hungarian Noodles with Cabbage
24. Roasted Shrimp with Spaghetti Squash
25. Summer Squash Casserole
26. Shrimp with Potatoes & Feta
27. Shepherd’s Pie

Cheers to 2014 and continuing to try new things!

December Recipes 1 & 2

I did it! I tried two new recipes already since my last post - woot woot!  I had a glass of wine with my dinner this evening to celebrate.  Both recipes are from my edition of "The Woman's Day Everyday Cookbook"


Recipe 1:  Shrimp with Potatoes & Feta

We had some potatoes kicking around and up to no good.  I was able to use them up before they went bad and turn them into something tasty with this very easy recipe.

Recipe 2:  Shepherd's Pie

The shepherd's pie recipe was on the page next to the shrimp with potatoes & feta recipe.  I call that destiny.  That and the fact that we had almost all of the ingredients already made it a very easy experiment.

Honestly, I have always avoided shepherd's pie since it just looks like a mash up of different things.  Although I am still not a raving fan of this dish, it was pretty easy to compile and covered many essential food groups in one nice swoop.

My December recipes mark the completion of my 30/30 List Item to "Learn to cook 2 new recipes each month for one year."  An upcoming post will be a compilation of my efforts in the kitchen with some reviews from my loving Hubs.


Cheers to trying new things!

November Recipes 1 & 2

It's mid-December so I figured I better update you that I did in fact try 2 new recipes last month.

1.  Roasted Shrimp with Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash was on display at the entrance of our grocery store so I figured - why not?  It was seasonal, easy, and healthy.

The shrimp recipe was kind of meh tasting overall.  I think I will serve spaghetti squash with marinara sauce and/or meatballs should I decide to make this in the future.

2.  Summer Squash Casserole

Recipe 2 hailed from a dish that Hubs first tried at work.  He brought the recipe home and asked if we could make it for Thanksgiving as a side dish.  I made it for both Thanksgiving dinners that we attended.  It was pretty yummy.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos to remember this one.

Here are the cliff notes for my memory:  summer squash, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, carrots, and sour cream.

Since this recipe calls for summer squash, I think it would probably taste a little better when summer squash is in season as opposed to the summer squash that I was able to find in the grocery store in mid-November.

 So, uh, hi December 15th...Guess I better get crackin' on the December recipes!

October Recipes 1 & 2

Hello November!!  Chillier air and shorter days are here!

Recipe 1:  Vegetable Soup with Barley

I was inspired to dig out the crock pot for this one.  This meal fed us for at least 3 meals and then some.  And by "and-then-some" I mean there are at least 4 more servings currently residing in our freezer for later use.  Hooray for leftovers!

Recipe 2:  Kaposztas Kocka aka Hungarian Noodles with Cabbage

Digging deep into family culture here.  I'm 1/4 Hungarian and wishing I knew more about the culture, food, language, etc.  There is a Hungarian restaurant that I have been to where they serve delicious noodles as a side dish to your meal.  I found this recipe in a cookbook at my moms house.  I probably didn't do the recipe any justice because I ended up chopping the cabbage instead of shredding it.

It tasted about as good as it looked....kind of "eh" tasting

Going to have to go out to eat to fix that craving!

August Recipes 1 & 2 and EXTRA!

We have had a bountiful harvest from our little raised veggie garden this year.  Our tomato plants have done wonderfully.  We’ve harvested 26 tomatoes from our 2 tomato plants so far.  There are many more green tomatoes in the works. 

I focused on tomato based recipes to use up some of the delicious harvest.  YUM!

Recipe 1:  Fried Green Tomatoes

This recipe required a special trip to the grocery store to purchase cornmeal.  I didn’t use nearly as much oil as the recipes called for and the result was still delicious.

Making these made me want to watch the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.  If you haven’t seen this one you should check it out.  It's a great story about friendship.  A classic in my book.

Also noteworthy, I served this meal with iced sweet tea.  So southern of me!

Recipe 2:  Green Tomato Pizza

Throw some green tomatoes on your pizza crust, sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Add caramelized onions and top with mozzarella cheese.  So good!

Green tomatoes taste different then red tomatoes.  They have a little more bite.  I like eating them green.  Who knew?

EXTRA:  Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

August was our month for hosting a dinner meal with our friends.  We have had some frozen rhubarb from Hubs sister’s garden and I was curious to try strawberry rhubarb pie.  I had never had it before.  This pie was a HUGE hit.  And by huge I mean everyone had two slices the night that I served it.  It was completely gone within 2 days of baking it. 

I think I discovered my favorite kind of pie! Next time I may try making a fancier top pie crust.  I’d like to try weaving or cutting out shapes to make it look a little more special.

Cheers to September and another month of kitchen experiments!

July Recipes 1 & 2

July was a delightfully busy month here.  We hosted so many visitors in our home and have had such a great time!  In the last 4 weeks we've hosted our youngest visitor (our nephew!), my entire family for a meal and a weekend of fun (30/30/ update to come!), childhood friends traveling through the state, and our local friends for a house party.

Between all the excitement here I did find time for two new recipes. 

1:  Potato Salad

My first potato salad EVER!  Made to serve a group of 10 I might add!  Yes - I put this together while my family was visiting for the lunch that we hosted.  It was a success!  This will surely become a summertime staple in our house.

2.  Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa

July 31st arrived so quickly but I was able to squeak this new recipe in that very night.  I found the recipe in our Cooking Light magazine.  This meal was so summery and delish!  I added in a Corona with lime to complete the meal.

Happy August!!!

June Recipes 1 & 2

Holy cow - June has come and gone in a flash!  Fast and rainy is what I'll say about June here.


Fortunately, the weather is starting to break.  There's lots of sun in the forecast.  In fact, we spent a few too many hours poolside today.  I've got a pretty bad sunburn to show for it.  But boy was it great!



June recipes were kept very simple courtesy of our July 2013 Cooking Light  magazine.  

Recipe 1:  Tomato and Feta Toasts

This recipe was incredibly easy.  Crumbling feta, mixing in basil, other spices, broiling bread.  Ouila!  Hubs was surprised by the cold tomatoes in this meal.  He expected them to be warm and toasty.  He did enjoy this one and says it's acceptably repeatable.  I'll call that a win. I bet it's good with mozzarella too.  Might make it more caprese next time.

Recipe 2:  Spicy Shrimp Sliders

This recipe was also pretty easy.  It's required me to purchase and cook with sesame oil for the first time ever.  The sesame oil, ginger, and lemon made for great flavor.  Hubs agreed that it was delish and we'll be repeating this one for sure.

Ok July - I'm officially ready for you!

May Recipes 1 & 2 & Extra

May was all about quinoa for my recipe experiments.  Quinoa is incredibly easy to make and can be decked out numerous ways to get different flavors.

Both recipes were found on pinterest.

Recipe 1:  Crispy Quinoa Burgers

This recipe was a bit of a fail. The "burgers" that I made out of the quinoa didn't stay together very well in the pan.  They fell apart.  After attempting to keep a few pattys in shape I gave up and resorted to cooking everything together on the stove top like a stir fry.

The result was good, but not what I was hoping for.

Recipe 2:  Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad

This recipe was a bigger hit with Hubs.  This may be because he feels the urge to add buffalo sauce to many of his meals.  He doesn't like blue cheese so I kept the blue cheese out and only added it to my portions.  It was pretty tasty!

Extra:  Homemade Cheese Itz

Props to Hubs for this one.

I LOVE cheese itz.  I may be addicted to them.  I saw a recipe for homemade cheese itz on pinterest but passed by it because it looked like so much work.

Little did I know Hubs saw a recipe for homemade cheese itz online and thought he'd give it a whirl.  It took him a few hours in the kitchen, but boy were they tasty!

April Recipes 1 & 2 & Extra

The motto around here is that April showers bring May houses!!!  I've been a bit quiet in the blogsphere as our closing date gets closer. (10.More.Days!)

Despite being busy, I have not skipped out on my recipes this month!  Both of my April recipes were inspired by Pinterest.  I must admit, I've become a bit of a Pinterest addict.  I'm loving all of the ideas I get from it.  And it is just too easy to scroll through on my Kindle.

April Recipe 1:  Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

I was finally able to use up all of those black eyed peas I bought!

 April Recipe 2:  Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I modified several recipes I saw online on how to do this.  It ended up tasting like lasagna.  It was pretty good. It is Hubs proclaimed favorite of the recipe experimentation thus far.

I sat through a nutrition presentation at my running group 2 weeks ago and learned about healthier lunch options.  The main message was that we eat too many grains in our diets and not enough fruits and vegetables.

One of the presenters has been on a strict Paleo diet for 2 years and she spoke of how it helped her lose weight, get rid of acne, and get rid of eczema.  The other presenter talked about packing "bento" style lunches with little bits of different kinds of foods to keep things interesting.

I left the presentation with a handout of recipes of new things to try.  The nutrition presentation inspired the following bonus recipes.


Bonus 1:  Strawberry Banana Smoothies

This was a special treat for Sunday breakfast.  YUM!

Bonus 2:  Egg Bites

Egg bites are essentially little quiches that you can prepare in a mini muffin pan and then refrigerate.  We packed 4-5 bites each day for an alternative to the lunch time sandwich routine.