a belated st. patrick's day dinner

Every year, my mother would cook up corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's day. It took me a good couple of decades before trying my hand at it and this year, I rocked it! I mean, just look at that! It's gorgeous! The past few years, I have popped the corned beef into the crock pot and it has always been delicious but I found this recipe via The Pioneer Woman.

I didn't make the glaze and I cooked the veggies in with the pot roast but everything was still ridiculously yummy! Next year, I think I will do this again but I will roast the veggies...swoon!

I also tossed the cabbage into a skillet and quickly sauteed the goodness with black pepper, lemon, and a splash of vinegar. My mamos would have been proud!

pinterest: recipe round-up

I was on the ball the last few weeks regarding groceries and dinner. I am still wandering happily through pinterest-land pinning away all sorts of pretty and have been trying to weed through and actually utilize those happy boards. Here are a bunch of recipes that happened...

korean bbq tacos

Super duper tasty, I cheated and used Trader Joe's Korean BBQ and added additional ginger and garlic. The meat cooked up so much in the crock pot, it was like butter. Will definitely make these again.

thai grilled peanut butter sandwich

 

 

This is my own original recipe and still a favorite. Had some bean sprouts left over from the tacos and didn't want them to go to waste. Served with roasted green beans. Yum!

homemade falafel and quinoa tabouleh

I love me some falafel and the weather was warm enough to get a bit summery. We had a bag of dried garbanzo beans from a local farm so I soaked 'em up and went at it. The falafel fell apart even though I followed the recipe as it was. I ended up adding an egg and some flour to get it to all stick together. It was delicious. The tabouleh was awesome. The last time I made quinoa tabouleh, the recipe called for way too much parsley. This recipe was perfect. I forgot to add the mint but it was still really tasty.

quick curried chickpeas

The curry chickpeas were crazy easy and super tasty. I used a can of organic fire roasted tomato sauce and served it up with roasted curry cauliflower and homemade cucumber sauce. Will totally make this again!

This week I will be using up what we have and attempting a no-spending kind of week. We are almost out of milk and apples o there will that. Wish me luck! What have you been cooking lately?

i like beer...

...in my bread.

 Last month I found this nifty recipe through Pinterest and immediately set out to make it. I even got carded buying the brew, how cool is that? This recipe is super-duper easy and quite tasty as a savory side or smothered with butter and jam. We have never had enough left over to try making grilled cheese with it but someday I hope to do just that.

If you try this, go for the lightest beer you can find. Miller Light works dandy and in fact is even better than a Pilsner which has too much flavor. We found that using a cold brew makes for a better texture and you can use a bit less melted butter on top. Either go for an unsalted butter bath with some coarse salt ground on top or use a small amount of salted butter and omit the salt. Happy baking.

Beer Bread on Pinterest. Found via Mint with original recipe from Honest Fare. I can't seem to get into Honest Fare to link it up...I'll add it as soon as I can get in.

what's for dinner

I haven't been nearly as good at planning a week's worth of dinners lately so you get pics from the first week of the month...

Open faced chicken sandwiches on gorgonzola garlic bread with a quinoa, roasted beet salad.

Soba noodle salad with homemade dressing and chive blossoms with Thai Peanut Butter toasts on the side. 

We were going to be in L.A. this weekend but things didn't work out but we'll be there in a few weekends (June 3...Stacey? Natalie?) Instead we're hitting up a BBQ. Mister is chopping onion and cucumbers for me right now. We're gonna turn it into a salad for the BBQ. Happy weekend!

we're on our third day of rain

Mister has taken Rodney to work, the witch-baby is fed, my morning mocha is almost cold already and I think it is grey enough for baking. I didn't sleep well last night, not a good day for the brain unless pity parties are your thing. Hey, it's something I'm really good at when I let loose. Oh, boo-hoo!*

I've got a couple of work articles to put together, a birthday garland and gift to stitch up, an interview outfit to plan and a weekend bag to pack for our quick L.A. juant this week. No reason not to do any of those things, it's just grey and not even 7am and I think there is still sleep in my eyes. How do those of you who live in far-greyer states do it? This third day of ick is bumming me out in a supreme fashion (hence the party, methinks).

I'm also super-super behind on a super secret fun thing in the works and well, if yer anything like me, once you get behind and there is a maybe-deadline the whole thing snowballs out of control and the next thing you know you are pulling an all-nighter that lasts a week or so. I really need to focus. Focusing is NOT one of my strong suits (unless is a pity-party). And since it is super secret, I cannot list all the things I still have to complete but there is sewing and writing and planning involved and no, it is NOT a book though I really wish it were. It should be, shouldn't it? At least that is what people tell me. Oh, boo-hoo!*

Well now, how's this for a ramble and a post? Like I said, it is barely 7am and it has been raining for days and my allergies are on middle-low alert (is there a color for that?) and I'm lacking in any sort of physical activity so my brain is probably not producing enough of the happy hormones which in turn makes me wonderful company. So rather than whiney-whine any more than I have already done, I leave you with yet another pinterest recipe. Gorgonzola Garlic Bread. I know, right? The recipe comes from Thibeault's Table and I used it for garlic bread AND open faced sandwiches. As a result, I've been laying off the bread this week but man, last-last week? It was a bread-for-all kind of week. Enjoy! Oh and we had it with a lemon pepper pappardelle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and green salad with a homemade garlic balsamic dressing. Quite delicious. Quite. I'm kinda over pasta but these noodles are super filling and tasty. The salad is one we have pretty much all the time. Though we are also on a cucumber and cabbage kick, must be the soon-to-be-summer mentality.

*At least I can still make fun of myself...insert crooked grin here.

what's for dinner: lentil tacos via The Chubby Vegetarian

I probably subscribe to too many blogs. There are days when the sheer number of unread posts throw me into a panic because I cannot seem to catch-up. On those days, I take a deep (a very, very deep) breath and click the Mark as Read button and pretend I have read them all.  But then there are those days when I dance from favorite to favorite in anticipation of something inspiring, happy or pin worthy.

Lately, I  have been on a recipe kick. What's even better is that I have actually been cooking from those recipes.  Two weeks ago, I even planned a menu a la Tara and stuck to it. I have pics to prove it. I do. I was going to do a single post about it all but I think I'll drag it out and feature each dinner on its own. So for now, you get this...Smoky Lentil Tacos from The Chubby Vegetarian. The only thing missing was the sour cream (I'm not a big sour cream fan) and smoked habanera and sun dried tomatoes. I doubled up on chili powder instead and used your average-run-of-the-mill sundried tomaters and I tell ya they were delicious! Click on the links for the recipe and click here to peek at my foodie pin-board. It's time for dinner!