We Are Back On Track

The Smell of Success is in the air tonight! After last week's disappointing main dish - tonight we hit a home run! This was a four course meal including some old favorites and a foray into new culinary territory as well.

Our first course was a garlic, feta and dill dip served with carrot sticks and fresh toasted pita chips. It was warm and inviting on the cool, rainy March evening. This is a favorite of SB and one I always look forward to. Since she now has fresh dill growing - it seemed like the perfect appetizer for this meal.
Our second course was a basic salad. We used arugula as the base topped with dried cranberries, toasted walnuts and a homemade mustard vinaigrette. It was simple and easy, but it was also tasty and the perfect segue into our main dish.
Our main dish was where we ventured into new territory. SB had a potato gnocchi at an Italian restaurant recently and wanted to try to recreate the dish at home. So, we found a recipe and we tried it. I must say, making the dough was quick and easy, but shaping it was a little bit of work. But, the time invested turned out to be well worth it. This pasta was light, but filling and held the tomato-basil sauce perfectly. I think this is a dish we will both make regularly in the future.

Onto the fourth course - dessert. Tonight this is another of SB's favorites, Individual Upside-Down Peach Cakes. These were warm, moist and delicious- a great way to end a wonderful evening.

St. Paddy's Day Meal!

Our Irish Inspired Meal tonight had some hits and a very big miss!
Our appetizer, while not really Irish inspired, involved us trying a new ingredient -Panko. Panko is Japanese bread crumbs and I had picked some up at the grocery recently for us to try. So, SB found an appetizer recipe for Panko coated risotto cakes. These cakes were delicious; they were crispy, creamy, cheesy and just yummy. I probably could have made a dinner from these alone - and actually I probably will combine these with a green salad for dinner soon.

Next, our main course was Vegetarian Irish Stew with Oatmeal Soda Bread. These dishes came together quickly and were easy to put together. They both cooked in the same amount of time - and the kitchen smelled great. The bread was moist and delicious - this recipe is a keeper! On the other hand - the stew was not a keeper. We tasted the dish before serving and found that as it cooked down, it developed a bitter taste. We tried a few remedies to mellow the flavor, but in the end - we found it to be uneditable. I guess all recipes can't be winners - but this one really isn't worth trying in our opinion.

But, we persevered onto dessert! SB made some great Flag cookies which resembled the Irish Tri-Color Flag. These were shortbread cookies with a light icing - very tasty and a nice way to wind out the evening.


All things considered the evening was a success, but the main dish was a disappointment- oh well, you can't win them all.

The Dangerous Kitchen

Welcome Back!
After our week off, we returned with a night of fun and whimsy. We were inspired by a short lived cooking show on the Food Network called Dweezil and Lisa. The show focused on the two musicians as they toured around the nation sampling new and unique food creations. We used a couple of their recipes as a springboard - and before we knew it we were carried away by fun food ideas. Since we had recipes by a Zappa family member it seemed the next logical step to add a Frank Zappa tribute into the meal as well. Since SJ is a big Zappa fan, we invited the boys to join us for dinner and had fun with the meal.
We started with a "Zappatizer". These were Frank inspired snacks. We used a cibatta bread base, with hummus, roasted red peppers, sprouts and sunflower seeds. They were fun and pretty tasty, too!

We had a Deliciously Sweet Salad as our next course. This salad contained fruits, nuts, cheeses and a sweet-tart dressing. MMMMM :)




Our Main Course was Cupcake Lasagna. These were spinach

lasagna cupcakes topped with ricotta frosting and garnished with grape tomatoes and basil. Not only were these really fun to make and eat -but they were actually a healthy version of lasagna.



Of course we had a dessert and continuing with our fun and whimsical theme we had an Almost Flourless Cake topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit. The cake was chocolaty, gooey and delicious!

SB-- What a fun meal. I think that overall, this is the best meal that we have made. Each component of the dinner was delicious, there was no course that outshone the others.

The Zappa-tizers were the product of SB's brainstorming, and they were excellent! It was a light, tasty starter, and fun to look at as well!

The salad was one of the best that I have ever had. The combination of the blueberries, feta cheese, and goat cheese were amazing. I will be making this salad again, it is a beautiful salad to serve to company.

The cupcake lasagnas looked great, and tasted even better! They were hot, spicy, and filling. These will be great for a party, they are easy to prepare ahead of time and take about 20 minutes to bake.

The cake was fudgy and fabulous! The addition of the fresh strawberries made it taste wonderful.

I recommend all these recipes for anyone who likes to cook, they are all easy and yummy!

Spring Break!

Picture from Roanoke Times

SB and I took this Wednesday night off from our dinner and Top Chef routine. SB had some matters to attend to and I had family members in town who came to watch the Hokies take on the TarHeels. The TarHeels won- not good for us in Blacksburg, but we had two happy guests.
We will be back next week with a fun meal - so check us out then. :)

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.