Ya know, a special bottle of wine needs a special occasion? I decided a forecast of rain qualified as special. Made an Instant Pot batch of beef stew and opened up my Castle Creek Merlot (a gift) and used a little to de-glaze after sautéing the beef. The nice thing about de-glazing with wine is […]
Always the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday.
This year was Armenian stitching and was fun! Very woven as you go, so it was a bit of a puzzle to make it work. Food was great, catered from an Armenian restaurant - apparently “Western Armenian” - very Mediterranean - stuffed grape leaves, marinated chicken and […]
Laura made an awesome snack plate for the game.
#1 LSU 42 #3 Clemson 25
New adventure….. Avoided the holiday storm by leaving early and staying in Bakersfield… Found Temblor Brewery… Tried 15 beers (3 Flights)
Pork Banh Mi Sandwich & Santa Carota Farms grass fed, carrot-finished beef Burger
https://temblorbrewing.com/
Single Scoop 2 topping Rocky Road Sundae!?
Bigger than my head!?
We were the lucky recipients of home grown fresh figs from a friend. In addition to enjoying them fresh, we also tried out a fig jam recipe. It was really easy and quick, and the jam is very tasty. It goes great with cheese and crackers. Here’s the recipe:
https://www.melaniecooks.com/fig-jam
Thanks Phuong for sharing!
We celebrated Linguine day by trying a new recipe and watching football 🏈. Pasta holidays are tasty!
Garlic Parmesan Linguine:
https://www.yellowblissroad.com/one-pan-garlic-parmesan-pasta/
Laura
The El Segundo Hometown Fair and Bake-Off happened to fall on Star Wars Day this year - May the Fourth Be With You!
After the bake-off, we got together to share baked goods and watch the Kentucky Derby. Picture above, from the top right:
Justin’s Gundo Paradise Muffins (2nd place), Helen’s Lemon Crispy Cookies, Laura’s Hazelnut […]
Today is National Pigs in a Blanket Day!
Egg Decorating
Funeral Potatoes
Easter Ham
Keg Hunt (Saturday Before)
In honor of the 2019 Master’s Tournament, Laura made Southern Pimento Cheese Sandwiches for her ESSS meeting.
Our home is officially vampire-free!
The latest test recipe we tried was for Chicken with 32 Cloves of Garlic. It started with a garlic confit, and finished up with simmering browned chicken cutlets in a flavorful sauce that included wine and even more garlic. The recipe is under wraps until it appears on the […]
For St Patrick’s Day, instead of the traditional corned beef and cabbage we tried out a Recipe Tester recipe - Sicilian Fish Stew. It called for swordfish as well as a whole bunch of flavorful and surprising ingredients including: onions, capers, and raisins (!). There were pine nuts and mint in the topping. […]
Celebrating the First Annual World Pulse Day! Black bean soup with lots (and lots) of veggies - so easy in the Instant Pot.
What are Pulses?
Another new recipe for the Instant Pot - chili. This was a perfect meal to enjoy while watching the Clemson/Alabama National Championship game. Especially quick since it uses canned beans. We used ground (rather than chunk of) beef because that’s what we had on hand.
https://thestayathomechef.com/instant-pot-chili/
Lunch today is ‘Clean out the Fridge Soup’. Started by making broth (soup IP setting) with the last bit of meat and a rib from a post-New Year rib roast, along with leftover goodies from holiday cooking: onion, parsley, rosemary, thyme, plus some bay leaves and peppercorns. Strained that and added it back to IP, […]
Friends turned us on to a rib roast sale - we picked up a 2-bone 4.7lb roast for about $15 (originally $50). Roasted at 450 for 15 min, then 325 for almost an hour until center registered 120. Since the oven was on, also cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes too. Very tasty, and […]
Laura’s work group celebrated Election Day with a Chili & Corn Bread contest.
There were lots of entries, lots of variety, and all of them tasted great! She decided to enter a Chile Verde “Very Verde Chili Verde” as well as a batch of Jalapeño Cornbread Poppers “We’re Hot Stuff Cornbread”.
She was edged out on the […]
We tried out a Recipe Tester recipe from Cook’s Country \ America’s Test Kitchen - Spice Crusted Pork Chops. They came out very tasty and moist. We’re looking forward to seeing this recipe on an upcoming show or in their magazine.
If it’s May, it’s Bake Off season!
Laura’s entries this year were a Blueberry Cake and a batch of Croissants.
The Croissants were a new technique, and were definitely a challenge requiring 2 days of working with the dough as well as copious amounts of butter. They came out looking and tasting like croissants though, and […]