This week my littlest little went off to kindergarten embarking on a new adventure for himself and spreading his wings. Of course, that makes me a little teary-eyed because the house feels a little too quiet but I welcome the change. I’ve been home with …
I returned from immersing myself in nature camping on the bluffs of the Mississippi river this past week rejuvenated and ready to eat roots. Not tree roots or anything THAT crazy… just beet roots. Which, if you know me, is sorta along the lines of …
This weekend, I’ll be hosting a number of my mom’s side of the family for great food (quinoa tabouli!), great games (badminton!) and great conversation. It’s been a year since I’ve seen many of these amazing peeps so it’s about time we make an occasion to get together again. In the meantime, I’ve been busy attempting to clean the house and get the yard in order. However, those of you with kids know as well as I do that cleaning the house in the summer is an exasperating event for multiple reasons.
1. They don’t want to help but they have no choice (insert long drawn out whining about how it’s summer and why do they HAVE to work and learn responsibility?). I know, Mom is such a slave driver!
2. The moment the bathroom or kitchen is clean, it’s immediately disgustingly dirty with yogurt fingerprints, soap accidentally sprayed all over the floor or toothpaste on the mirror (the “but mom! it wasn’t my fault!” argument now ensues when asking them to re-clean their mess).
3. The toys finally get cleaned up and then the kids decide to drag them all out again 20 minutes later because, well, it’s just too clean without them on the floor (more whining about picking up the newly dispersed mess of toys for the 3rd time today).
4. The windows have been ceremoniously wiped clean of finger prints. This also lasts a mere 30 seconds. Thank you, children.
5. The carpet and floors are all vacuumed and washed. This lasts perhaps 31 seconds until one child forgets to take off their shoes and creates a trail of muddy flip flop feet across the floor. Awesome. I now say a short prayer and accept my fate… Dear family, please accept my semi-dirty house. A dirty house is a happy house 😉 Sincerely, one tired (and happily fulfilled) mom.
And so it goes on. Really, my girls are pretty good with their chores as they do know the expectation is that we all use the space in our house and therefore we all share in the cleanup duties each week. The other “chore” they’ve gotten very good at is helping me in the kitchen. Yesterday, the girls and I made and canned pickled onions, a balsamic caramelized onion relish and then made dill pickles for the first time. They did great! The next few days they’ll be helping me with a few food items like a caramelized banana bread made with Einkorn flour for Sunday breakfast, my favorite spicy yogurt dip, perhaps a marinated venison or steak cut into kebobs for grilling, and this fresh quinoa tabouli.
A staple among Lebanese families, tabouli (or tabouleh) is a cold salad made from bulgar wheat, parsley, tomatoes, onion, mint, lemon juice and olive oil. Bulgar wheat has a very similar size and shape to quinoa so I’ve replaced the wheat in the recipe creating a quinoa tabouli. I really enjoy the nuttiness that this ancient grain has and it gives the quinoa tabouli a light crunch as well. Quinoa is naturally gluten-free making this perfect for those of you who avoid wheat or just like to vary up your grain selection a bit. This light and delicious salad is equally amazing served alongside meat dishes or on a vegetarian spread as a part of any summery picnic fare.
We usually do a large firework display in our culdesac with friends and neighbors for Independence Day. This year might be a little less fancy as we weren’t able to get any really good fireworks from the next state over. Instead, I’m going to let …
My adorable nephew came over recently to hang out with auntie and his cousins. I sure miss the days when my kids where that young, snuggly and innocent. Now my not-so-innocent angels are traveling to different states with the grandparents and going off to overnight …
Who can resist grilled food on a stick?!? (If you just raised your hand, I don’t think we can be friends anymore… j/k!). Indonesian in its roots, this version of satay is the slightly spicier Thai version that is popular around all of Southeast Asia. Marinating meat and giving it a light char on the grill or with a broiler has the universal effect of making people want to eat it, especially if it’s finger food prepared for easy eating on a skewer. These little chicken satay skewers will be an impressive addition to your backyard barbeque. Especially when they’re served with a creamy dreamy sauce.
Traditionally, satay is served with a peanut sauce but with my son’s nut allergies, that’s no-go. This sauce tastes just like the famously known peanut sauce but is made without nuts. Making a nut free peanut sauce, I thought, would be a huge challenge but it’s surprisingly easy. Sunflower seeds and sesame seeds are an easy stand in for similar nut-like flavor but since they are seeds, they can safely be substituted for nuts for anyone with nut allergies. In this case, I used SunButter which is a peanut butter type of spread made from sunflower seeds. I’ve also successfully used tahini (a spread made with sesame seeds) as a substitute as well in this recipe. Having made it both ways, I prefer the taste of the SunButter over tahini in this application as I think it tastes the most similar to the original sauce. In fact, you may not be able to tell the difference at all!
I really love Thai cuisine to have authentic taste so in this recipe I’ve used a few items you may not be familiar with. The recipe will work fine without these ingredients but the flavor profile is more authentic and well-rounded with those included. Lemongrass is a delicious edible grass that is used in many Asian cuisines but most notably in Southeast Asia. It has a light, almost sweet, lemon flavor that pairs perfectly with curries. I usually purchase the stalks of lemongrass but you can also find lemongrass paste in some supermarkets for easier preparation. I’ve also taken to using tamarind when I make Thai foods and first discovered it when I was attempting to make the perfect pad thai. Tamarind is hard to find in whole form here and it’s a lot of work to soak and prepare to make juice for recipes. Because of this, I always purchase it as a tamarind concentrate and it keeps for a long time in the fridge. The last seemingly odd authentic ingredient I regularly use is kaffir lime leaves. I’ve never been able to find them fresh up here in Minnesota so I get them dried and just crumble them like dried herbs when I use them in recipes. These lovely leaves impart a light lemon/lime/orange type of aroma and flavor to the sauce.
Authentic Thai flavors and food on a stick! Chicken satay skewers with this unique nut free peanut sauce are super perfect served with a side of Thai Cucumber Salad.
I told myself I wouldn’t be emotional on my son’s last day of preschool. But here I sit with a small well of tears threatening to spill out of the corner of my eye. He was sent home with a binder of all of his …
Oh man, you guys are in for a treat! These may not be one-hundred percent authentic Mexican but dang are they good. You will NOT be disappointed. This recipe originally comes from my sister so I have to give her credit for the basic rub …
Gimme a huge scoop of this black bean and corn salsa and I’m instantly transported into a beach chair with my feet in the ocean fronting the Riviera Maya. So colorful, and SO extremely delicious, this black bean and corn salsa is the perfect compliment to tacos, fajitas, soups and anything else you might be cooking up for this Friday’s Cinco de Mayo festivities. This sassy salsa is tossed together in a mere ten minutes or less making it an easy appetizer. For the most part, it’s a pico de gallo but with corn and black beans added in for color and variety. With the addition of the black beans and corn, this salsa has a lot of healthy fiber and is filling enough that you could use this all by itself as a taco filling for a vegetarian taco.
In an attempt to eat more fish and make it fun for the kids, I tried my hand at forming fish cakes, which are basically a hamburger patty but made with fish. They are not as difficult as one might think. These pretty little patties are full …
