How on earth...

Have I not posted this recipe yet?!?

I made this - back on October 13th and I still haven't blogged it? Dear heavens I'm so behind!

I adore peanut sauce, and I am very picky and have never found a recipe I adore yet. I try them, but none strike me just as what I'm looking for.

So when one of my favorite blogs evah (yeah I'm in New England, get used to it!) posted this recipe I knew I needed to make this STAT - my weekend depended on it!

Once again, the recipe did not disappoint - it was EXACTLY what I was looking for in a peanut sauce for noodles, pork, chicken, or with a spoon and a good trashy novel! ahhh I digress.

You seriously need to make these - FAN FRIGGING-TASTIC!! My changes are next to the text.

Peanut Butter Noodles

Ingredients:

2 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (sliced or shredded, optional) - I just used some diced pork I had in the freezer

8 ounces pasta (such a spaghetti, linguini, or vermicelli) - I made a whole pound so I would have leftovers, yeah you'll want to do the same.

¼ cup peanuts - double

¼ cup green onions (chopped) - omitted

Sauce- I doubled the whole kitten-caboodle!

½ cup chicken broth

1 ½ tablespoons ginger root (minced)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons peanut butter

1 ½ tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons hot Chile paste (optional) I omitted this but added some dried red pepper flakes instead. worked fine!

3 garlic cloves (minced)

Step 1: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions. Drain.

Step 2: While noodles are cooking in a medium saucepan combine chicken broth, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, and Chile paste. Cook over medium heat while stirring until the peanut butter melts and mixture is smooth and well blended.

Step 3: Add noodles into a large serving bowl, add chicken, pour the sauce over the noodles and toss to coat. Garnish with peanuts and green onions

I also added in some water chestnuts and sugar snap peas to get some veggies in - just used a frozen pack.

How Can This Be Bad?!

Bacon

Cream

Mushrooms

How can that be a bad combo right?

It's not - don't worry - I'm not misleading you.

This is by far one of the easiest and tastiest soups I've made this season so far - recipe courtesy of my friend Pam.

Do make this! You won't regret it - your thighs might, but your taste buds will not. But in actuality you can lighten this up quite easily - which is what I did. I also don't like big pieces of mushrooms in my mushroom soup, so I took the immersion blender to the pot before serving it up to chop up the mushrooms roughly.

Creamy Bacon Mushroom Soup

10 strips diced bacon - I only used 4 or 5 strips - just enough to top our bowls with
1 Pound(s) sliced fresh mushrooms
1 chopped onion
3 Clove(s) minced garlic
1 Quart(s) whipping cream - I used light cream
14 1/2 Ounce(s) can chicken broth - used fat free
5 Ounce(s) package shredded Swiss cheese
3 Tablespoon(s) cornstarch - I don't use cornstarch, I use potato spuds to thicken soups up. I still combined it with the seasonings though and then added it all at once.1/2 Teaspoon(s) salt
1/2 Teaspoon(s) black pepper
3 Tablespoon(s) water

In a soup kettle or large saucepan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 2 T drippings. In the drippings, saute mushrooms, onion & garlic. Stir in cream & broth. Gradually stir in cheese until melted.

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, salt, pepper & water until smooth. Stir into soup. Bring to a boil; cook & stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Garnish with bacon.

Doesn't this look sinful??

How Could I Forget?!?!

One of the best meals we had on our vacation was in Miami before we even boarded the ship.

We went to a Cuban restaurant while in Miami because we figured we should eat some good Cuban food while there - if even just for a night.

We started our meal with these most tender and delicate pieces of fried pork. The pork was served with a lime, garlic butter which was out of this world delicious.

For dinner the hubs enjoyed a delicious steak with beans and rice and fried plantains.

However I'm going to say mine took the award for the best meal of the night. I need to find a replicated recipe STAT. I tried Mofongo. It was tender and savory mashed plantains served in this awesome tall voodoo wood cup circa. Brady Bunch Hawaii Adventure era. On top of the Mofongo were the most flavorful huge shrimp cooked in the lime garlic butter with these wonderful capers.

DELICIOUS! I need to find a recipe for Mofongo STAT!

Easy, Light Salad

I had a recipe kicking around on my computer from a couple of years ago and it was interesting to me but not quite flavorful enough. So I tweaked it here and there and we ended up with a yummy dinner!

Ginger Pork & Pear Spinach Salad

1 lb. sliced or diced lean pork

1 - 2 pears diced

1 bag baby spinach leaves cleaned

feta or blue cheese for topping salad

fresh ginger and garlic - about a T of ginger and a clove or 2 of garlic

Dressing

1/4 cup olive oil

2 T honey

2 T cider or white wine vinegar (you can do this to taste too)

salt and pepper to taste

2-3 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. lemon juice.

you can do all of this to taste too. Blend it and toss with the salad.

For the salad.

Saute the pork in some olive oil until almost done. Then toss with the ginger and garlic and a touch of salt to season.

Toss the pork, spinach, pear and cheese together and top with the dressing or the dressing of your choice.

Enjoy!

A New Twist on Curry

Well thanks to our good friends here who are from India, the hubs and I have really developed a taste for Indian food.

I found this recipe on myrecipes.com and was truly intrigued. I had two small sugar pumpkins around that needed to be used so this fit the bill.

Absolutely incredible, I can't say enough about it! I did omit the jalapeño and the limes (the limes because I forgot and it was 9 when we sat down to eat). I served with rice and also some naan.

Totally easy meal to make too! I did use the whole bag of red lentils - I always do when I make Indian food - I just use most or all of the bag so I have enough for leftovers.

Do make this - you could use butternut squash as well.

Sorry no pictures- again, it was late and we were famished.

Pumpkin and Red Lentil Curry

We're Back!!!

Well sorry for the delay on the blog - the hubs and I were away on vacation.

A Caribbean Cruise to be exact.

We only really got to eat out on one of the islands one time, but we had some excellent foods while we were there.

One of our first ports of call was Samana in the Dominican Republic.

We stopped at this beach resort hotel (since our excursion was cancelled) and had the most incredible appetizers for lunch that day.

The hubs had this fantastic fried chicken - the spices were incredible, mild yet flavorful and not greasy at all.

I had these potato croquettes that had a seafood stew on top of them. It had a little kick to it but wasn't so spicy you couldn't eat it. It had the most wonderful balance of delicate seafood and crispy croquette and a sweet tomato sauce.

I didn't really take pictures of anything else we ate. But we ate well that's for sure!

We were on Norwegian Cruise Lines, so you could eat whenever you wanted, wherever you wanted. We ate in the formal dining room a few nights and had some wonderful meals. Our first tight I had the most robust and delicious tagliatelle with braised short ribs. Oh my god I need to re-create this recipe.

We had some delicious vanilla bean souffle, indulged at the chocolate buffet (but nothing was really all that exciting or memorable). We enjoyed a great Hibachi dinner in the Lotus Garden Restaurant - and we also splurged twice on Sushi. I had these wonderful rolls I've never seen before. One had the whole roll that was tempura fried and another was unagi (my favorite) with cucumber and avocado in a roll. DELISH!

The one nice thing is we really didn't eat ourselves silly on the cruise. Although the hubs did rename breakfast to Bacon Meal since he enjoyed that every morning. And I too truly enjoyed a pecan sticky roll every morning too. Ahh sweet indulgence!

But now we're back and back to cooking again - so I'll have some more posts for you!