I swear I must have been a prepper in a past life. My husband too for that matter. Lately he’s all about doing/fixing/building/repurposing things for ourselves when he can and has decided to take up blacksmithing as a hobby. I am highly supportive of creative physical hobbies that also happen …
After many small moments of chaos last weekend, like the brakes not working properly on our moving truck (kind of a big deal), and then having the electricity taken out by a careless driver running into one of the poles and knocking down the transformer, we finally got moved in. Normally, …
One week to go until we close on our new house and the process is finally going smoothly so we’re now expecting to close on time. Wheeee!! I may actually get to plant a garden this year and that makes me VERY happy. Vacations also make me happy. This weekend promises to be full of awesome as we’re heading to Wisconsin Dells with my husband’s family in what is becoming an annual tradition.
Know what else equals happiness? Dipping things in sauces and fun new veggie recipes! Have you every roasted a radish? No?! Me neither. I hadn’t ever thought to roast one but for this recipe using roasted carrots and radish, I thought why not?? They add a beautiful color and are perfectly snackable. Roasted just long enough to be tender crisp, they become slightly sweeter (as do most roasted veggies) and they lose that somewhat bitter bite to them. I was craving something dippable (always a winner with kids too) so I’ve created a fun harissa dipping sauce made with quark cheese (or you can use plain yogurt). Harissa is a Tunisian spice blend of chili’s, paprika, garlic, cumin, coriander and sometimes lemon. You can purchase it as a dry rub or as a paste. I used the dry spice blend that I found at my local market as that was easier to find in the bulk spice section. I’m guessing many of you may have never heard of quark cheese either. It’s a spoonable German cheese made similarly to yogurt and you can use it in place of yogurt in many recipes. I had actually never tried it and the company Elli Quark sent me some free samples to try so figured I’d give it a shot! The plain unsweetened variety has has more protein content and less sugar than Greek yogurt. The taste was phenomenal as well. I’d liken its flavor to a cream cheese or cottage cheese type of taste but with the consistency and usability of plain yogurt. You can find quark cheese in the yogurt section of many specialty grocers and if you can’t but still wish to try it, check out Elli Quark’s website and they can ship it to you in a really neat cooler style package. I’m actually still in awe of its cooler style packaging. Weird, I know.
Look how pretty these look!!! So much fun to dip…. perfect for a pre-dinner appetizer or sweet roasted carrot and radish side dish.
Two weeks to go until we are supposed to close on our new house and the appraisal isn’t scheduled until next week which means we may not close on time and we need to close by the end of May. If we can’t, we then …
Mayday, mayday! Stress overload during this first week of May and it’s not about to get better so apologies in advance for any one-and-lonely posts in the weeks to come. In a whirlwind of house touring last week, we did find the perfect house to move into, …
Nothing beats a flavorful grilled steak or chicken. Especially when it’s had a nice long marinade in an Indian spiced yogurt mixture overnight to let the flavors soak in and soften the meat to pure tender perfection. Don’t let this tandoori chicken intimidate you. It looks challenging and has many ingredients but it’s secretly really easy to make and will impress any dinner guests you have over to sample your handiwork.
To really bring out the fragrant spices in this dish, I use whole cardamom and cloves rather than ground and then smash them with a mortar and pestle.
You can use pre-ground spices as well just make sure they’re fresh for the best flavor. All of the marinade ingredients then come together quick as a flash. The key to getting all that deep delicious spice infused into the tandoori chicken is to lightly score the cuts of chicken prior to soaking in the marinade. Then let the chicken rest in its yogurt bath for 24 hours. The yogurt cultures will gently break down the meat just enough to give it the PERFECT tenderness and keep it juicy.
When you’re ready to prepare your meal, either place the chicken pieces directly on the grill or you can bake them by placing them on a baking sheet with a wire rack to elevate them like this:
If you grill them, do so over medium low heat turning every 10 minutes for about 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If you bake them, bake for 20 minutes and turn on the broiler for an additional 5 minutes to get a similar char to grilling. Both ways you cook it will result in a tasty tandoori chicken. Need a coordinating side dish? No problem! This one-pot vegetable curried rice has ya covered!
Last weekend we were over at my mother-in-law’s house to celebrate the March birthdays. I did manage to make my daughter’s cake and she chose to have a Minecraft theme so it was decorated with little Minecraft figurines. I’m glad she kept her idea simple this year …
You have no idea how excited I am right now. It’s been a whole week of above 50 degree temps in my Minnesota backyard and that means it’s GRILLING time!!! Bonus: grilling means that my kitchen doesn’t get messy which then means, I don’t have to clean …
Amid all the chaos and being ill, we did indeed get our house listed last week. Oy. Now comes the not so easy task of keeping it clean. If only I could just have the kids live outside until the house sells. I jest, of course, but how nice would it be to not have to continually wipe down every mirror and window every day. What is it about a clean shiny surface that makes kids want to smear their fingers all over it (or lick it) within two minutes of wiping it clean?? Anyway, let’s talk about something that will get you into the clean plate club… this sesame citrus bok choy for example.
Sesame citrus bok choy is a lovely little side dish to accompany pretty much everything. It has a light fragrant sauce that is Asian inspired but can easily befriend your favorite burger as its sidekick for dinner. With a touch of rice vinegar, orange and a sweet mirin (rice wine), the sauce has just the right amount of tang to satisfy anyone looking for a slightly sweet and sour vibe. Top it with some toasted sesame seeds for a bit of extra crunch! Chopsticks optional.
I’m going to make this quick for a coupla reasons. One, we’re putting our house on the market this week so there’s work to be done and two, I’ve managed to catch a stomach bug so the work that is supposed to be getting done, isn’t. This …
