Suburban Bliss:: Birth Control Via The Written Word

Two Recipes You'd Probably Like To Try.

I told you how we've been entertaining more this summer. We've been entertaining and being entertained so much in this early part of the summer I said to Logan yesterday, "It's like I blew my Summer Fun Load already." 

That's a little gross.  Anyway.

On the Fourth we hosted a dinner for a few of Logan's coworkers/friends/friends I want to have. We made chicken and beef fajitas and had everyone else bring side dishes. There was an amazing potato salad, a pasta salad with asparagus and pancetta, also a bundt cake containing 3 sticks of butter. (Let's not talk about the part where Lucy ate the front end of that damn thing while it was waiting to be served. Shhh....don't tell anyone)

But one friend brought corn on the cob and he'd been in Mexicantown and had this corn, called Elote, with this amazing sauce and spice mix, he gave us this gift and I want you to have this gift too. 

Here is the recipe he gave us. 

You should know that at some point that evening I painted myself in the sauce and then begged Logan to sprinkle me in the spice mix. Logan hates mayo with the passion of a thousand Pickles so he refused. You can imagine how embarrassing that was, you know being naked, covered in a mayo/lime juice sauce and no spice mix. 

I also mentioned we made Fish Tacos for our Welcome To Summer With The Summers' party.

Did They Eat It: Sloppy Joe's

I swear I have fed my children since the last time I made a Did They Eat It post on March 16th. Wow, how did that happen.

I got a craving for Sloppy Joe's after sitting in the car at the market flipping through Simply Recipes on my phone. Here is the recipe. 

Did They Eat It: Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

It was finally over 35 degrees and sunny outside meaning everyone in Michigan donned bathing suits and took to the streets. It was so downright balmy. So for dinner I decided to make something spring-ish and light! Turkey and Dressing Slow Cooker Casserole.

Yeah, not the light spring-ish dish I was looking for but I made the menu when it appeared the sun would never reappear in this hemisphere and I needed some delicious warm comfort food to get through.

Did They Eat It: Crusty Lemon Chicken

Crusty, it's funny how a word can sound so gross in some situations ("He had crusty eyes" and so delicious in others, "Oh it had the best bubbly crust on it."

I made our Monday night meal from that cookbook I mentioned before, Seat of the Pants Suppers. It's something we'd had before but, who knows! Liking it one night does not mean you'll like it the next. I sometimes think my children are tag teaming me, "Okay Max, you liked soup last week, this week you have to hate it and I'll love it. Go Team Make Our Mother COMPLETELY FUCKING NUTS."

Did They Eat It: White Bean Chicken Chili

This is one of my favorite recipes, it's one I can count toward my Life List Goal of having a handful of recipes I can make off the top of my head. It's pretty quick to make, I know how long the process takes at this point so I don't mess up and serve dinner at 8.

Did They Eat It: Cooking Light Chili Con Carne

The last recipe I made from Cooking Light's Jan/Feb issue was Chili Con Carne and boy this recipe made me question the justness of a world where people have to roast and peel chiles. The process of roasting, peeling and chopping these chiles took so longI started to believe the peppers would never be done. Additionally I didn't read the recipe correctly (again) and planned for an hour of simmering only to realize at 6:30 another 45 minutes were required.

I'm not sure why this is such a difficult task for me, getting dinner on the table when my family is hungry, but I'm missing a gene or something. I can probably get handicapped parking for this.

Did They Eat It: Cooking Light Bean Burritos

Continuing with my personal "Make Two Dishes From Every Magazine Purchased" rule I made Chipotle (But I Didn't Have Chipotle Chili Powder So They Were Just Regular*) Bean Burritos for dinner the other night.

*name was too long for title.

This is mine, the ones my family ingested looked very vaguely like this delicious one.

Did They Eat It: French Breakfast Muffins

I make French Breakfast Muffins pretty often because like Snickerdoodles, I almost always have the ingredients on hand. Butter, an egg, milk, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Easy! Apparently my pantry is French.

You can find several variations of this recipe but I like the one I saw in Family Fun years ago the best.

First you combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl using a wire whisk. Make a well in the middle of it, like so:

Whisk the egg until it's frothy then blend in the milk and melted butter like so.

Pour the mixture into the well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

Stir to combine but don't over mix!

Use some butter to grease your muffin pan and evenly spread your mix among 12 muffin cups.

Melt another bit of butter in a bowl and mix up some cinnamon sugar in another bowl and have them ready for the next step.

Dip each muffin into the melted butter:

Here's where my camera battery went out so I had to use my phone to take the last few pictures. After the butter, dip the muffins into the cinnamon/sugar.

Look, yum!

Here they are all done and looking good enough to eat 5 of them throughout the day. Not that I did.

Okay, look it was MLK Day, the kids were home, they'd been sick for the last few days and we were all a little stir crazy. I did what I had to.

Did They Eat It?

Coated in sugar? Filled with sugar? Duh.

Complete recipe here.

Did They Eat It: Peanut Noodles

It's kind of hard to write about food after you've had a round of stomach flu. Everything just seems to go back to that, which is unfortunate because this was really good. So let's pretend I didn't make this the day after I spent the night crying at God!

I am a big fan of peanut noodles and am always trying new versions. I picked this one because it was super easy and used ingredients I had on hand. This is a Family Fun recipe you can find here.

You may notice how light the pictures are and that's not because there is sun at dinner time around here. I made this ahead of time because this is meant to be served at room temperature.

Did They Eat It: Beef Stew

I made a deal with myself after buying one too many food related magazines. I can buy them, as long as I make at least two recipes out of each one I buy. I decided to try my hand at Beef Stew, something I've never made and seemed pretty easy.

I read the recipe carefully, making sure to note the four hour cooking time so we wouldn't be eating dinner at 11 o'clock in the evening.

Did They Eat It: Porcupine Meatballs

My mother is...a terrible cook. Mainly because she doesn't really enjoy the process of cooking, so she never learned to do it well. There are few things I think back and think, "Man, my mom made the best [fill-in-the-blank]." It turns out I do like pork chops, meatloaf and scalloped potatoes (not from a box), I just didn't realize it because my mom's recipes were not as good as they could have been.

However, inexplicably I have fond memories of my mother's porcupine meatballs. So when I saw this recipe I thought I'd try it out and see if I could lure Maddie with it. She loves bar-b-que sauce and ketchup. She also likes ground beef (in certain ways) and rice? She loves rice!

This has potential. 

There are lots of ways to make Porcupine Meatballs, here's a Google search. I guarantee my mother didn't put hot sauce or worchestershire sauce in her porcupine meatballs, but I found that combination irresistible and that's why I chose this recipe to try out.

You need to gather:

A pound of ground round
Half a pount of ground chuck
3/4 cup white long grain rice
a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce
1 medium onion, cut in small dice [The onion I'm showing is way too big, especially for my family]
1 tablespoon dry parsley flakes [2 tablespoons chopped fresh]
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder/granules

Also:
A can of condensed tomato soup
Ketchup
Hot Sauce
Worchestershire sauce
[And if you didn't buy enough tomato sauce, hopefully you've got some taco sauce around to make up the difference]

Did They Eat It: Lean Lasagna

I was in the car picking Madison up from school and flipping through a food magazine deciding what to make for dinner. I got my mind set on this pasta and sausage bake deliciousness but then I remembered how I should read ALL the directions first so I know how long it takes to make.

That recipe required over an hour of bake time, inexplicably, so I scratched that plan and looked through my phone apps to see if I could find something to make. I use the Allrecipes app (only my kids never look that excited) and the Epicurious App.

I decided on a lean lasagna mostly because I wasn't feeling that hungry. Also it had spinach and after last week I required a lot of spinach/iron, I even had dreams of different spinach dishes I would like to eat.  (Lady troubles.) (oh man, that's gross.) (Sorry.)

I can't find the link to the recipe so I'll share it at the end of this post.

You'll need Ricotta, ground turkey, an onion, mozzarella, spinach, lasagna noodles, tomato sauce, oregano, nutmeg, basil, parsley and garlic powder.

Did They Eat It?

Did They Eat It: Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

The last two times I've tried to do a Did They Eat It? I've messed up the recipe, not peeling the potatoes before chopping them up for Potato Soup (beige followed) and forgetting that recipes aren't instantly ready for eating once you finish putting everything in the pot.

That chili was really delicious at 10 o'clock at night. (Hint: the kids didn't eat it.)

For this edition I wanted to do something I more than likely wouldn't mess up. I found this recipe at Tasty Kitchen the day before I wanted to make it (key!) and started it in the slow cooker around 9am...just to be certain it was ready.

Put corn in the slow cooker.

Put a can of (drained and rinsed) black beans on top.

Add a pack of taco seasoning (I make my own). I used about 3 tablespoons for this recipe, we like a lot of spice, and could have used more but that's all I had left already made.

Dump it on top.

Lay three boneless, skinless chicken breasts on top. They should even be frozen which is like a dream come true since "defrosting meat I'd like to cook with" is right up there with "remember to get hair cut every 8 weeks". Something I just can't get the hang of.

Next dump some salsa on top, Logan is a fan of this kind.

Do you see how easy this is, look at these extraneous photographs I have to show you in order to make this a post!

Put the top on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken and mix everything up, keeping warm until you're ready to serve.

And here they are with a side of rice.

Did They Eat It?

Logan: "I Love These. No really I love them. I want to have them a lot." He almost looked like a starving refugee when he said this. Which means he did like this but my God, it's not like we've been starving here. Waiting 8 hours for your dinner to be on the table NEVER KILLED ANYONE!

Max: "These are pretty good, will I be able to see corn in my poo tomorrow?" Something about tacos perplexes Max. Every time he takes a bite he sort of looks around incredulous that the shell cracked again. Like, "This Taco Clearly Has It Out For Me." And that's true, but don't tell him.

Madison: "Look. I finally got used to the idea of plain old hamburger meat inside a tortilla chip shell and now you pull this crap out at me? Thanks for nothing. Jerks." She didn't starve that night, I call that a success!

Me: I loved how easy this meal was. I would have had to try to mess it up (not that I COULDN'T!). I've been feeling a little, you know, stupid with all these cooking mishaps. This was a nice ego boost right before we tackled our Thanksgiving Feast. If I changed anything I'd add more salt and spice and maybe cut the corn back a bit. Not because of the bathroom thing Max mentioned but because it just tastes too sweet for my palate.

You can find the entire recipe here.

Did They Eat It: Sausage & Egg Baked Potatoes

I'm not sure how to start this Did They Eat It. I'm still in awe over how everything went so terribly wrong...this should have been one of the easiest dinners I've ever made. It's essentially a twice baked potato.

The recipe, from Real Simple, said it would take 10 minutes of prep and 1hr 15 minutes total to be complete. I put the potatoes in at 5:10pm. Apparently these potatoes were filled with titanium. We didn't eat until 7:45pm. By that point we ate both cats and Maddie's arms. The recipe says it should take about 45 minutes to bake the potatoes and it took about 18 hours (1.5 hours) for us. I could have made a turkey dinner with all the trimmings....plus a couple extra for the neighbors.

Oh My God.

I did pick large baking potatoes so maybe it was my fault. Sorry family plus a guest we invited over for dinner. I'm not sure I'm ever going to effortlessly pull off dinner.

Anyway, I doubled the recipe because we invited Logan's coworker/friend for dinner and also because I think this recipe is generally meant as a brunch dish.

Get yourself four potatoes and scrub them. Does anyone else get itchy skin and eyes when they scrub baking potatoes? Every time I start sneezing and my eyes and skin itch. Logan claims this is a fake allergy, but if it was wouldn't I have the same reaction when I tried to do the laundry or clean the bathroom?

,

Poke your potatoes with a fork.

Put them in the oven, my oven mind you has never given me trouble cooking things in a normal amount of time. Apparently these potatoes were filled with gold and needed to get REALLY hot to cook through.

The recipe, as I mentioned, said it would take 45 minutes for these potatoes to cook. This is where the lies begin.

Did They Eat It: Smoky Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup

Cooking has been slowly making its way back onto my radar. This could be because it's (not really but feels like) winter now and the cold makes it hard to want to leave the house. Or perhaps it was the cries of the children, "Pasta!? Again?" That triggered my guilt and need to put something good in the mouths of my children. Of course "something good" means something very different to me than it does to the children.

I had a craving for soup so I decided to browse Ree's new project Tasty Kitchen looking for a recipe for some form of Chicken Tortilla Soup. I'm guessing Ree does not work in her bed in her pajamas. I might try working at a desk, maybe then I'd be as productive as this woman. Only not.

I settled on Smoky Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup which sounded like I'd at least like it.

I bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco. $5.00! And no, I didn't feel a little silly buying razors, a chicken and a case of Sierra Nevada. I also bought a hunk of queso blanco.

If you ever want to either become a vegetarian or revel in your carnivorous status, might I suggest tearing a rotisserie chicken apart with your hands? wow.

Did They Eat It? Sweet and Sour Beef

Oh hey! I cooked a meal for my family!

It was 5:30 and the ground beef I pulled out of my freezer yesterday was still frozen solid. This made my last minute plan to make a lot of meatballs pretty much out of the question. So I pulled out my favorite last minute dinner cookbook, Seat of The Pants Suppers, and quickly found a recipe that would take me 20 minutes or less to make with things I had in the house.

(*This book is awesome, I've made a lot of the recipes before but the actual book is impossible to find.)**(For some recipes see below.)

I pulled out Sweet and Sour Beef just to see who would eat it.

You need
1 - 1.5 pounds of ground beef (not shown, see below)
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 an onion
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
3 cups cooked rice.

I spent about 40 minutes trying to slowly defrost the ground beef in the sink and that was aggravating. 

Did They Eat It: Walking Tacos

I have pretty much stopped cooking all together this summer. We've grilled a lot, ate many turkey sandwiches, or sometimes even cereal. Don't judge, hush, don't judge.

When we were up north last weekend with our friends, my friend's 7-year-old and I were chatting by the fire. She told me she loves tacos and she spoke about tacos with such affection and love, a love I've very rarely heard my children speak of food with.

I told her about this thing I'd read about when I was planning our camping trip Walking Tacos. "It's a taco," I told her spellbound face, "but it's in a snack size bag of chips with all the taco stuff in the bag."

She said, "I want to eat that!"

I'm glad I told her about Walking Tacos and not Saganaki, because her enthusiasm for the food would have made me powerless, I'd have to fry my eyebrows off just to make her culinary dreams come true.

This is less a recipe and more a great idea for feeding a crowd at a party, tailgate, skating party, camping, that type of thing. Portable food with minimal clean up. I'd planned to make this for our camping trip and the Saturday night potluck but then it poured rain and we went home and slept and cursed the rain. (Again.)

But here are some of the things you can use.

Ground beef
A pack of taco seasoning
Bags of snack size corn chips like Fritos. Some people swear by Doritos.
Shredded cheese
Shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Diced onions
Salsa
Black Beans
Sour Cream
Guacamole
Chopped Cilantro
Pickled jalapenos

I usually buy a pound of beef for the four of us, so cooking for 10, we did 2.5 pounds and probably could have had more...they were so good.

I like to crush up the chips a bit before opening the bag so you get chips and toppings on your fork at once.
You can also make your own taco seasoning....this is a decent one I've used before.

To save money, we bought enough bags of chips for everyone to have one and then an extra bag of chips for refills in our bags.

Did They Eat It? It's a world record folks!

Did They Eat It?: Grilled Chicken With Shells II

This is a repeat, because you may have noticed, I haven't been cooking very much for my family. I don't know why exactly other than I've been feeling uninspired. Possibly because I keep thinking we could eat for 6 months on $10 and a shit-ton of ramen noodles. I could tell the kids this is practice for college. Or we could eat beans out of the can, cooked over an open flame, just like the hobos!

Logan and I have been talking about having a Recession Party where everyone comes wearing a barrel. Or maybe dressed as a traveling hobo, or in a burlap sack. We'd serve beans and Spam and everyone would drink moonshine from a ceramic jug.

The problem is this is Detroit and the threat of job loss is like a black cloud over your head and YOU KNOW we'd plan that party and Logan would be laid off that day....just to add to the atmosphere.

Anyway I made this again because we really love it and I think it's pretty to look at. Also, I wondered if there would be a change in the kid's reaction to this dish.

Did They Eat It: Spaghetti Carbonara

The other day I sent out some smoke signals on Twitter. The smoke signals said, "Help! I'm a suburban housewife and I don't know what to make for dinner." Then I put a finger on my cheek and looked vaguely helpless and 100 strangers favorited my picture on Flickr.

Then I got this note, a version of spaghetti carbonara that is immensely simplified and easy to prepare. If you're a spaghetti carbonara purist, please don't read any further because I know. There's no wine or cream or any of the things that MUST be in carbonara. This is going to be our special version everyone!

Did They Eat It: Cincinnati Chili

Have you had Cincinnati Chili before?

I used to eat this chili at the house of my second family, The Mitchell's.  I've talked before about this family I grew up knowing. I've mentioned how I watched them ferociously looking for how normal families work, how normal marriages are, and least dramatically, how people cooked food that tastes good.

Things I learned about food at the Mitchell's:
Hamburgers from McDonald's are not "gourmet".
Spaghetti with clams and red sauce is amazing.
Pork Chops can be cut with a knife without straining your bicep.

Chili from Cincinnati is the best kind of chili in the world. It's made with chocolate and if you hate chocolate you're probably not human.

Did They Eat It: Simple Chicken & Noodles

This meal wasn't exactly meant to challenge my three children's tastebuds. If they didn't eat this, I would have made them wear it for sure. And not just for a couple of hours or something. No I'd make them wear it for days so they could really think about how picky they've become and is it worth it now that you're wearing a hat of chicken breasts and noodles.....

We grab lunch at Noodles quite a bit, it's right up the street from us (yay!) and across from the bookstore and since, as a family, we all enjoy eating lunch out and browsing the bookstore we do this quite a bit.

Here's the order, as I've messed it up about 429 times, I now have it tattooed on my forehead.

Maddie: buttered noodles, no parmesan, with seasoning and grilled chicken breast

Max: buttered noodles, with parmesan, seasoning and parmesan crusted chicken breast

Maddie loves the chicken so I decided to try and recreate it at home.

Snickerdoodles: The Day Before Payday Cookie

It's almost like when ABC News came to the house we were just tempting fate with our budget.

Reporter: Would you say your financial situation is better since you're renting?

Me: Of course! Ha ha ha!

......two weeks later......

God: How about now?

Ho Ho! It's not that bad and we'll make it work, the nice thing is we have a lot of flexibility with our financial landscape, plus all the late night fretting I do, so everything will be fine.

Our cash flow however has run into some snags in the last month. Mainly related to lawsuits against douchey ex-landlords who have illegally held our security deposit and those types of things. That keeps coming up doesn't it? I should just grow up already.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.

So at the end of the pay period we're sort of very careful with our money and this is my (typically) long-winded way of telling you how I decided to make Snickerdoodles today since my house has been cleared of everything except a variety of condiments, 3 eggs, some questionable hummus, and a lot of things you can mix with alcohol to make cocktails. It's what's for dinner!

I decided to try a recipe I saw at Tastespotting. Tastespotting has become my new hobby as I'm eating a really unsatisfying meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or worse, a spoonful of peanut butter. I browse and think, "Gee, I wish I was putting that in my mouth."

You can find the recipe for snickerdoodles here.

Here's why I make snickerdoodles after growing up without ever even knowing something called a snickerdoodle existed. You can make them with 7 ingredients we almost always have in our house. The only cookie more reliably made from our kitchen would be one composed of ketchup, barbeque sauce and Rose's lime juice.

Let me know if you have one!

Did They Eat It: Sweet and Sour Chicken

I grabbed this recipe from Elise Bauer's great Simply Recipes site while I was at the grocery store deciding what to make for dinner. I take a (humorous, loving) beating from my friends and family because of my (really unbecoming) dependence on my phone. But this iPhone is a life saver in so many ways. One way being that I can be as flaky as I am and still buy the correct ingredients for dinner.

Maddie likes very few things and sauces make her fly into a wild rage, WHY DO I HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING WITH SAUCE!? But this Sweet and Sour Chicken has chicken, she likes, pineapple, she likes, and the sauce is like a punched up ketchup so I decided to risk it.

Here is everything you need, except an egg and the chicken that I forgot in the fridge.

Did They Eat It: Chillied Black Bean Pasta

Hey! Look! I cooked something while using a camera. The only bright side to the Spring Forward segment of daylight savings time is the extra daylight in the kitchen so food doesn't look unappealing in my dimly lit kitchen. (You remember that kitchen I was cooking in for most of the winter? The one we "trashed". Ahem.)

Last night I decided to make Chillied Black Bean Pasta, you know how we feel about black beans in this house. This is a recipe from my old neighborhood's cookbook. Logan designed it for them and we planned on getting them made into real books but that proved too difficult to get together. We ended up making the book into a PDF you could either print or use on your computer.



I like reading cookbooks while I eat something particularly unsatisfying, like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, thinking about what else I could be eating that would actually be satisfying. So I had my book printed and put into a binder.



This is a recipe from my friend Andrea's collection. We'll be eating a lot of black beans in the next few months because, hey Mandatory Paycut at Logan's office! Woooo! I am loving this economy!

Here's what you need

Did They Eat It?: Queso with Chicken, Black Beans and Rice Velveeta Edition

Finally! The (Rather Lamely Named) RECIPE!!!!!!!!

This is most of my ingredients: Multigrain tortilla chips, diced onion, brown rice, black beans, Ro-Tel, minced garlic, cumin and chili pepper. And, you know Velveeta (2%!)

Did They Eat It?: Pumpkin Polenta with Chorizo and Black Beans

As I read this recipe, I found myself laughing a little to myself. As I've said before, I like making things my kids believe they'll die from eating. It makes me feel just a little more alive.

This one, had all the makings of a deadly recipe. Sausage! Polenta! Even onions. Onions I diced while my husband watched, remarking every 20 seconds, "That's a lot of onions, huh?" and "Jeez...how many onions are you putting in that?"

You can find the entire recipe here.

I skipped the red peppers (ever since I was pregnant with Maddie, I can't eat red peppers. Her pickiness made it's way into my blood a little. I also used sharp cheddar in place of the Manchego cheese, just because it seemed a little silly to search the cheese refrigerator at the market for a special cheese when I knew the kids were going to spend the entire meal gagging and dying on the floor.

This was a really, really easy meal to make.

Here are most of the ingredients I used...sloppily displayed with Logan and Max sharing a before dinner snack/drink.

Did They Eat It: Pasta Primavera

I made this Pasta Primavera from Elise Bauer's Simply Recipes for my book club.

I realized while deciding what to make for this group of women that I'm okay with one food restriction. I can cook vegetarian meals with my eyes closed, but if you add an additional allergy to the mix, I end up running around the kitchen spraying flour on every surface while fretting about what to make.

My book club includes a couple vegetarians (poor things) and a lactose intolerant lady (unfortunate soul), so I'm constantly finding vegetarian recipes that include cheese, or non-cheese dishes that include animal flesh. One of the conditions for membership in our book club, at least in my head, is "You have to at least eat pasta."

Pasta is one of those uniting foods that brings people together over the table. Kind of like the Olympics or sharing outlandish landlord stories. Oh wait that's only at my table!

Did They Eat It?: Shells with Grilled Chicken and Mozzerella

My family is very wary of recipe titles.

They're certain that by only telling them the name of the recipe I'm serving,  I'm leaving out all the many things they hate to eat. So I can spring it on them just before dessert. "You like that? Guess what? It's PEOPLE! Surprise!"

But this recipe is pretty much what it says, except it  makes no mention of the tomatoes (thankfully that's a welcome  surprise for my family). It has a little something for everyone,  grilled chicken, tomatoes and cheese.  It's a really easy meal,  especially if you think to grill some extra chicken at a meal a couple  days earlier. I never do this because all of my brain cells are being occupied by Project: Keep The House Standing.

There's no heavy sauce to scare Logan under the stairs in the basement. Maddie likes  three out of the five main ingredients (depending on her level of PMS) and Max likes everything in  the dish, unless he's constipated. These are excellent odds for a happy dinner table.

Did They Eat It? Chicken Corn and Black Bean Stoup Edition

My mom bought me this cookbook for Christmas. Do other people do this? I eat something really boring and unsatisfying but I read cookbooks while I do it and think of how good something really good would taste.

I don't quite get the rage Rachael Ray elicits, (seriously?) (Whoa.) I'll admit she's a little over saturated perhaps, see this 5ives list. But overall she cooks in a way I can cook, well at least close to the a way I could strive to cook. Simple, fast with not so many dishes to clean up.

I realize I haven't done very well with the Did They Eat It feature I promised months ago. But there's a good reason for that. I suck at cooking for my family! I want to be better, I truly do. But I just can't seem to create the ever elusive Meal Plan System I keep thinking will make me able to plan meals each week with little effort. Also I get bored making the same meals over and over. I start to feel like there's no point in cooking unless I'm trying something new. Trying something new each time I cook is annoying because I'm always the equivalent of a newborn in the kitchen.

Suburban Bash: The Kind Of Lazy But Still Fun New Year's Eve Party

I meant to share our New Year's Eve party with you. This was the party that broke my back so to speak. There was the Holiday Progressive which left me invigorated and then all the last minute Christmas preparations I did, then Christmas dinner with my extended family, our trip to Chicago, followed by frantic de-Christmasing and preparations for 12 adults and 17 kids under nine to ring in the New Year. I was exhausted. I wanted it to be fun for the kids but to be honest I sort of wanted to throw a bunch of confetti at them and call it the New Year.

Still, it's not often kids get to stay up until midnight (or later if no one's killing each other) and I don't get to spend the first minutes with my best friends all the time so I wanted it to be reasonably special.

I made this event potluck-ish, emailing the guests while still in Chicago asking them to bring their own drinks and an appetizer to pass. I made just a vegetable tray with two dips, these really yummy Brussel Sprout, Bacon and Cheddar skewers (huge, huge hit both times I've made them).

Did they eat it?
Max and Maddie didn't try it.
Logan did and said, "I love these. Come to think of it, I've never tried a brussel sprout in my life!"

I just don't know where Maddie gets her inhibited taste buds from.

Did They Eat It: Chicken Casserole Edition.

This is a casserole my friend Jean used to make for me to serve when I babysat for her kids or for dinner when I lived in their basement in my early 20's. ("Hi, I'm Melissa....I live in the basement.") I love it and, when Max was a baby I used to make it for he and I to share because he loved it too.

Logan does not like it, you see it contains 1/4 cup of mayonnaise. If you divide a 1/4 cup of mayo into an 8 serving dish, that means you're eating like 1/2 a tablespoon of mayonnaise and that is enough to kill a man.

Logan is out of town though, ha ha! So I decided to mix it up for the kids and I. I thought, given Max's babyhood love of this dish I'd get at least a 2 out of 3.

This is the sort of dish which would be easiest to make if you had extra chicken from another dish and 2 cups of rice leftover as well. I had neither of these things so I made the rice and used cooked diced chicken I purchase from our school's fund raising food place, Market Day.