Mardi Gras!

The most exciting thing about Mardi Gras for me, is knowing that spring is just around the corner. Today I noticed trees budding and we celebrated by cooking New Orleans inspired Jambalaya. Our jambalaya was a fire-roasted veggie jambalaya that we served over rice. We served it with a sweet potato biscuit -the combo was delicious and very comforting.

For desert we did the New Orleans inspired Bananas Foster over ice cream. The desert was quick, easy and delicious!
The dinner overall was very tasty and I will make these recipes again.

SB: Happy Mardi Gras!!! We turned up the zydeco music and danced and had a great time while cooking this meal!

The jambalaya was perfect! Warm, spicy, and full of tasty vegetables (namely sweet potatoes and parsnips-yum!). The biscuits were a great side dish, a little sweet, and soft and moist.

Bananas foster-how can you go wrong with bananas, rum, sugar, walnuts, and frozen yogurt?

I was very pleased with this meal!! And to make it even better, this week's Top Chef episode was set in New Orleans!

Wintery Wednesday Welcome

This week we decided on a "hodgepodge" of various things. There were recipes and concepts we each wanted to try - so we incorporated them together into a menu.
We started with an Jalapeno, Corn and Sweet Potato Bisque.
This simple soup was a nice starter at the end of a snowy and cold day.

For the main dish we had a barley risotto with roasted winter vegetables. The risotto was creamy with a hint of earthiness from the vegetables and the barley.










Dessert tonight was lemon-scented blueberry cupcakes. These cupcakes had a scrumptious airy texture with a sweet-tart flavor. A perfect way to cap off the meal.

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think - especially if you have any suggestions as to what we should make in the future!

SB- Wednesday was a cold, wet, snowy day, so this dinner was perfect! The bisque was simple to make, but had a very complex taste. I will be making this again often as a starter course.

The barley risotto was warm, filling, and delicious! The texture of the barley is very neat, and the flavors of the roasted vegetables with the parmesean cheese on top was wonderful!

The dessert cupcake was also great! The cupcakes were a little more like a muffin than a cupcake, but I am not complaining. There was just a hint of lemon flavor, but not enough to make it too tart.

I am very glad to have leftovers of this meal!!

V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E

Happy Love Day!
What else is there to celebrate in mid-winter when everyone is ready for a pick-me-up except celebrate Valentine's Day? We decided to celebrate with a semi-extravagant meal in mid-week. We prepared a 4-course meal which was still simple enough to prepare and enjoy on a Wednesday night.


We started with fig and goat cheese bruschetta. This was easy to prepare and quite worth the easy ahead of time prep we put into it.

The second course was a chilled honey carrot soup. The soup was nice and savory; a light course between the bruschetta and our main dish.


Our Main Dish was Yam Latkees served with wild brown rice and a beet salad. This was very tasty, nutritious and beautiful. The Latkees were a tasty main dish and one that will be prepared again. The accompaniments of the wild rice and beet salad made the plate appealing and tasty.

The star of the night was definitely the dessert. It may not be beautiful to look at, but if you could smell this cooking in the kitchen- you would be a forever fan. The bread pudding was laced with dark and white chocolate which made it delectable. This is a dish that is incredibly easy (deceptively so) but will never disappoint. It is a must try!
SH- this menu was well worth the extra effort. The entire night was delicious and still adventurous. We explored new ingredients and techniques and made a 4 course meal. Yet, we made it work on a week day after work. Extravagance is truly a state of mind- keep it simple and real and the world is the limit. I would recommend any aspect of this meal, but the bruschetta and bread pudding were the stars in my mind.

Comfort us.....6 more weeks of winter?!?

It is very cold in Virginia, so we decided to cook some comfort foods to help warm us up! We decided to focus on foods that were cheesy, starchy, and warm. Our menu consisted of homemade macaroni and cheese with fresh broccoli, steamed carrots with fresh dill, and Parmesan herb muffins.

SB- It was a wonderful meal, easy to cook and very enjoyable to eat!


For dessert, we celebrated Groundhog Day a couple of days late. We enjoyed chocolate cupcakes topped with a friendly (chocolate) groundhog. These cupcakes were a blast to make, a will probably be a staple of Groundhog Days to come!

Next week we will be having an elegant Valentine's Dinner, so check back to get some ideas to what to cook for your sweetheart on this special day!