Growing up in Panama City, we used to eat at a restaurant called The Cheese Barn and they served one of my favorite dishes, their French Onion Soup.  I had a bit of nostalgia a few weekends ago, so I started hunting for a recipe to satisfy my craving.  If you have time one weekend, I recommend you try out Betty Crocker’s Golden Onion Soup.  It takes a little over 3 hours but the majority of that time is spent cooking the onions in the oven so you won’t be in the kitchen all day.

I made a few subtle changes to the dish merely because I didn’t have all the ingredients I needed.  Instead of making the Parmesan Croutons, I cubed up some Asiago Cheese Bread from Panera Bread.  You could also use Parmesan croutons, like those you put on a salad.  I only had one can of condensed beef broth so I improvised; using water and beef bullion cubes.  Once the soup was complete, I poured portions for Adam and me into two ovenproof bowls.  I added the cubed bread and sprinkled 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on top.  I then broiled the bowls of soups in the oven for about 2 minutes until the cheese was melted and golden brown. Be sure to put the bowls on a sheet pan as it is easier to get them in and out of the oven and the pan will catch anything you spill.

I work for a publishing company and one of our sister companies is located in the suburbs of Chicago, IL.  About once a year we visit our distant friends to discuss business face-to-face. The last few times we visited, our team took us to Bob Chinn’s Crab House to enjoy some delicious seafood as well as an extraordinary dining experience. The atmosphere is energetic, loud, and sizzling with a huge dining room and vivacious staff. The room smells of fresh steamed crab claws, perfectly buttered fish and mouth-watering steaks. The menu is a simple, legal-sized sheet of paper with 8 point font as tight as it can be on the front and back. (Click Here to view a sample dinner menu).

Our table ordered a variety of appetizers including the Crab Cake Nuggets, Oysters on the Half Shell, Portobello Mushrooms, Calamari and King Crab Fingers.  We passed the dishes around the table, eating family style.  My favorite was the little Crab Cake Nuggets because they had a crispy exterior with a moist mixture inside that melted in your mouth.

During our first visit, I had the 8 oz Strip Steak & Antarctic Bay Scallops for dinner.  The portion was perfect.  The steak had a perfect sear and cooked to perfection at medium-rare.  The scallops were small but flavorful; buttery and delicate.  I had the pleasure of taste-testing a few of the other guests’ meals and fell in love with the Sea Bass Steamed Asian Style, so much so that I ordered it when I returned a year later.  This moist, mild fish is steamed in a soy sauce base with sesame oil and fresh ginger.  It is topped with scallions and cilantro and served with white rice.  The appearance is of a bright white fish with a translucent sweet smelling sauce, vibrant green accents perched on a small puff of steamy white rice.  I am so glad I tried the dish again, it was so worth it.

Some other recommendations from my dining partners were the 10 oz. Prime Rib, the Macadamia Sautéed Sea Bass and the Alaskan Bairdi Snow Crab Legs.  If you have the chance to stop by Bob Chinn’s Crab House, I highly recommend it.  I even brought home two of their signature tiki cups and a t-shirt for my hubby that says “I have the best legs in town”.

One of my co-workers gave me a recipe last week for French Tarragon Burgers.  The recipe is from Taste of Home which has fantastic recipes in their magazines and online.  I tried it out Wednesday night and loved it. I only made four burgers but I made the full amount of mayonnaise mixture so I still had a bunch left after dinner.  I didn’t want it to go to waste so I used it on some sandwiches that gave it some flavorful zing.  Definitely give it a try if you want to change up your typical burger tonight.

The new Cooking channel has started and I am feeling completely nostalgic watching Two Fat Ladies, Sara’s Secrets and Jamie at Home. Last week I saw an episode on Jamie at Home called Carbonara alla Courgette that looks easy and delicious. I made the dinner for the family and it was so flavorful with the cream sauce, full of fresh zucchini and squash and don’t forget the bacon. Who doesn’t love bacon?

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/beautiful-courgette-carbonara

I made my first dish from the July / August issue of Food Network Magazine, Chorizo-Potato Tacos. Adam and I loved the dish. The dish reminds me of a meat and potato hash but with Mexican flavors. I also love that the dish includes yellow squash but cooked in a way I haven’t tried, diced and cooked until crispy. I did eliminate the jalapeño pepper from the dish but I didn’t tweak anything else. The only thing I didn’t account for was the amount of oil that the chorizo exudes. Don’t worry, you will love it so much, you won’t care that your hands get messy.

Look in the latest issue of Food Network Magazine in the weeknight cooking section on page 90 or visit http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chorizo-potato-tacos-recipe/index.html

Last night I made a great dish that the kid in you will love called Pepperoni Pizza Chicken. This recipe comes from Pillsbury‘s July 2009 issue entitled Best Ever Chicken that instructs readers to stuff a skinless, boneless chicken breast with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. After cooking the stuffed chicken on either side to a golden brown, you then cook elbow pasta adding your favorite pasta sauce.

Photo from Pillsbury.com

As is my nature, I altered the recipe by adding sundried tomatoes to the interior of the chicken with the pepperoni and cheese. I chose Bertoli tomato and basil sauce from a jar. I finished the dish with freshly grated Parmesan and straight from the garden basil. Wow! For simple ingredients and 35 minutes I thought the dish was super yummy. I could see my little one asking for this dish again and again (once she is able to talk, of course). You should definitely go to pillsbury.com and check it out. CwB says YUMMY!

One thing I pride myself in is that I cook a variety of ethnic foods in our home and I typically don’t make recipes the same way every time. Sure I have those special recipes that I make every few months for my family because they are family favorites but I still try to make slightly different each time.  I would rather change things up and make new and different meals to treat my family to foods of the world. For me, cooking is my down time. It is an opportunity for me to be creative but also to think about my day and organize my thoughts. The great thing is that the end of my “me time” I can give my family something special to eat.

Photo from FoodNetwork.com

This past week, the Food Network magazine’s May 2010 issue had a fast and easy recipe for Chicken Tandoori that I thought would really make my hubby happy. He has an affinity for Indian and Mediterranean cuisine so I wanted to make it for him. I had already purchased a large pack of chicken thighs for a slow cooker dish I wanted to make so I was able to use some for this dish. I liked that this flavorful dish could be made with spices and condiments that I already had in-house. I just need 20 minutes to marinate and 20 minutes to cook. You can’t beat that.

I wanted to marry the chicken and rice dish with some nice roasted vegetables that had a flavor profile that matched my main ingredient. I chose carrots, sweet white onions, zucchini, yellow squash tossed with olive oil and seasoned with cumin, coriander, paprika, salt and pepper. I also grated fresh garlic, ginger and lemon zest over the vegetables and tossed them lightly. I roasted them in the oven at 400 degrees while my chicken was marinating. I then followed the Chicken Tandoori to broil the chicken as directed. I placed the vegetables back in the oven at the last minute to make sure they were warm for serving. They turned our just al dente with a savory, richness to accompany the remainder of the dish.

The meal was simple to make and the ingredient list small.  The benefit of having a vast spice cabinet helps liven up simple dishes when you don’t want the same ol’ same ol’.  I suppose I will have to defer to my husband and child regarding their continued willingness to try new recipes each and every day.  But for now, I think we have a new addition to the family favorites.

On Monday, I chose to make the Meaty Quesadillas and Perfect Guacamole from the May 2010 issue of Food Network magazine.  I made the 30-minute Meaty Quesadillas recipe with lean ground beef and only used a few alternative ingredients.  I didn’t have ancho chili powder so I just used the generic chili powder.  I also used the Mexican blend shredded cheese instead of muenster or Monterey jack cheese.  Zoey LOVED the taco meat mixture and shoveled it in as fast as possible. If the recipe can entice my picky 21 month old to eat, I’m sold! 

I wanted an all around Mexican meal so I also made the Perfect Guacamole recipe from the same issue of FNM.  I am a fan of spicy but my tummy is not so I left out the Serrano chiles.  I used roma tomatoes and fresh cilantro to finish out the recipe.  It turned out creamy and light with a little kick at the end.  I made store-bought cheese dip and refried beans from a can as sides.  I also made some of my own Mexican rice.  I brought 2 cups of water to a boil.  I added 1 cup of white rice, 3 tablespoons of my favorite salsa, a 1/2 teaspoon chili powder and a pinch of salt.  Cover and cook on low for 20 minutes and you have a tasty side dish for you favorite Mexican meal.

Both of these recipes were simple to make and wonderfully delicious.  The guacamole recipe has three additional recipes, Spicy Papaya Guacamole, Southwest Corn Guacamole and Creamy Tomatillo Guacamole.  I am looking forward to trying these later. 

I received the May 2010 Food Network magazine last week and decided to use recipes from its contents to feed our family for the week.  I chose Meaty Quesadillas, Chicken Tandoori, Skillet White Fish With Feta, Green Onion and Basil Salad, Curried Salmon Cakes, Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese and Trail Mix with Honey-Oatmeal Clusters.  I also made Italian Sausage Lasagna from my Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook and Strawberry-Banana Milkshakes from a recipe I heard on Nick Jr.

The Food Network magazines have such great articles and recipes, but my favorite feature is the Recipe Index at the front of each issue.  As soon as I get the magazine, I grab a notepad and write down the five or six recipes I am going to make for the week.  I write down the recipe name, the book it comes from and the page it is on.  Doing this helps when I have more than one book I am working out of for that week.  I then go through and read the recipes to see how long they will take so I know when I will need to make them according to our schedule.  I also check to make sure I have the majority of ingredients.  I make my grocery list and try to use substitutes when possible.  I try to pick recipes that have some similar ingredients such as the arugula and feta that I bought for this week’s recipes.  I also dig through my pantry to find the items that have been in there for a while.  I look through the magazine to see if they have any recipes that include these ingredients. 

Most of this weeks meals I made to the recipe, but I did change some of the recipes slightly.  I changed the Curried Salmon Cakes to crab cakes which turned out wonderfully.  I used the Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese as a template for my own recipe that I think I’ll call the Chipotle, Ham & Arugula Grilled Cheese.  I would say that the family favorite this week ended up being the trail mix.  I filled a airtight plastic container with homemade trail mix and left it on the table. Everyone has been munching on it all week and I even took a few small containers to my coworkers.  Look for later posts about each of the recipes I chose and what changes, if any, I made to make it my own. Cheers!

The past few weeks my husband and I have been battling busy schedules, bad weather, common colds, an teething 18-month old not to mention pure laziness.  In the past I have made large meals such as lasagnas, pot pies, stir fry and other easy freeze meals so that we have them on hand for busy nights.  Unfortunately, we have munched through all of those meals and so I ventured through the freezer isle to try out some premade meals for our family.  I wanted to have some lunches and dinners that were healthy enough that we could take to the office or heat up for dinner when we are in a pinch.  This week was testament to that because we had Freezer Food almost every day this week.

Over the past two months we have tried a few different frozen pizzas.  DiGiorno’s was pretty tasty and so was California Pizza Kitchen but I must say that I didn’t mind the Wal-mart  version very much. I was surprised how well it was made and it was a couple of dollars cheaper than the other two brands.  And by the way, the Totinos pizza that I adored as a child, tastes pretty nasty as an adult. 

We have been trying out a bunch of frozen meals to take to the office for lunch.  We tried a bunch of the Hot Pockets products such as the HOT POCKETS SIDESHOTS – Mini Cheeseburgers 4 Pack, HOT POCKETS® Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizzeria – Pepperoni Pizza, HOT POCKETS® brand Bruschetta Chicken Panini, HOT POCKETS® brand Deli-Style Ham & Swiss Panini plus a bunch of the other hot pockets.  My personal favorite was the Chicken Panini.  The exterior was flaky and the interior was flavorful.  Not too bad.  We also tried the Boston Market® Beef Pot Roast which was pretty good and a more food than the typical meals.

For our “Little Bit” we bought a few of the Michelina’s products, in particular the Chicken Nuggets and Potato Fries which are shaped like smiley faces.  Her favorite freezer treats are Gorton’s fish sticks and Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage biscuits.  Of course, none of these items are particularly healthy, they do there duty when necessary.