Sarah and Stephanie joined us on Sunday (okay, so this post is a few days late) for gossip and fried cheese. Haloumi with Spiced Leeks was actually one of the first things JM ever cooked for me, so it has a special place in my heart. That, and it’s awesome.
This week’s menu:
Haloumi with Spiced Leeks
Baguette with Olive Oil and Balsamic dipping sauce
Strawberries with Vanilla and Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
It was another Birthday Dinner this week, and Miss A requested macaroni & cheese.
Menu
Macaroni & Cheese
Cold Roasted Chicken
Sliced Tomatoes
Salad
Sangria that was left over from the party on Sunday
Berries that remained after the Sangria was finished served over ice cream for dessert
(I highly highly recommend saving the berries and retasking them for dessert when the Sangria is gone)
Picture the scene. I’m at our local craft store picking up some paper plates (gold) and plastic cutlery (pink) to go with the paper tablecloth (pink) and paper napkins (pink, and emblazoned with stars and the word ‘princess’).
Nice lady at the counter: Oh, having a party?
Me: Yes . . . . it’s a princess party.
Nice lady at the counter: Oh, my daughter loves princesses. How old is yours?
Me: 30. It’s my roommate and a friend of ours.
Nice lady at the counter: Oh. . . . . . well that’s nice too.
<repeat several times over the course of the week>
What can I say? We embraced the kitsch. It was pretty. It was pink. It was strictly Bring Your Own Tiara.
I contributed the savory portion of the festivities, everyone else brought the sweets (and if anyone wants to share the recipes . . . . )
Within reason (by which I mean, no I won’t make pancakes for dinner for more than 3 people) I will make pretty much anything requested for a birthday dinner. It was Lady R’s birthday earlier this week – and Happy Birthday Lady R – and upon inquiry her request was bangers ‘n’ mash.
Sausages
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli
Apple Sauce
Baking has definitely always been my MawMaw’s domain. Every holiday each member of the family got their own favourite dessert, and not just a slice: whole cake or pie. It was very impressive. And intimidating. How will I ever match that!?!?
Until this cake, I’d always settled for a fairly easy cakes that could be done in one layer. Or cookies. I’m good with cookies. But, for my birthday last month, I decided to bake my own cake. I was never going to learn if I didn’t try, you know?
I was just slightly ambitious, because I set out to make two cakes: one chocolate and one vanilla. Yea, that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. But despite my lack of experience in baking, I thought the strawberry shortcake turned out rather well. I found the recipe on my favourite foodie blog: Smitten Kitchen. Hers turned out, of course, much, much prettier than mine. But I was happy to have successfully baked a cake…and with only a few problems with deflating egg whites.
Dinner this week was based around one of my new favourite dishes: a couscous salad with corn and red pepper. I first made this earlier in the summer and fell in love. It’s pretty forgiving – though this last time it needed just bit more spice. I overcompensated a bit for putting in too much cayenne last time. Oh well. Read on beyond the jump for a recipe that convinced my father that couscous wasn’t always a big, gloopy mess.
This week’s dinner menu:*
Couscous Salad with Corn and Red Pepper
Roasted Tomatoes
Pan-Seared Cod (or Portabella Mushroom) with Chile-Lime Butter
When I was little the rule was you could ask for whatever you wanted for your birthday dinner within reason. Translated, this meant that while my father did not get wild boar in port sauce, I did get fried chicken every year for my birthday. I still only make fried chicken about once year. It’s not because I think it’s necessarily terrible for you, or even because it’s that hard to make. Mostly it’s just because it’s messy and I hate cleaning up afterwards.
That being said, there are days when you just crave fried chicken and this Sunday when I was making the weekly grocery shopping list was one of them.
So Dinner this week was:
Fried Chicken
Sliced tomatoes (beautiful striped heirloom tomatoes)
Melon
Cole Slaw
Corn
Read the rest of this entry ?
The West Coast version of MND started up this past weekend in “the City” (Eddie Izzard pronunciation necessary). Sunday nights are our night of choice at the moment. I thought I’d start off small; 6 people seemed just about right. Which was a great idea in theory, until we realized just before dinner that we only have five normal, dining room-type chairs. Oops.
Goofy got the big, plush desk chair. All hail, King Goofy.
I guess we’ll be investing in a few more chairs here shortly.
Anyway, on to the food!
Monday Night Dinner 