We had houseguests visiting over Spring Break and decided to make these to celebrate St. Patrick's day (there were 5 kids in the house, one of whom was having a birthday that week). They were pretty quick and easy and absolutely DELIGHTED the kids. Instructions can be found here, although I discovered these afterwards, which would make the assembly much easier.
We recently discovered lovely halloumi cheese. It's a salty, firm, Greek cheese made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk. The unique thing about halloumi is that it doesn't melt when it's heated, so it can be pan-seared or grilled for a delicious flavor. We pan seared some and then sliced it up and topped a salad with it. Yum! One word of warning, though: halloumi can be quite rubbery when it's not very hot, so if you have it on a salad like this, eat the halloumi FIRST. It's quite unappetizing when it cools down.
My table, set for the dinner party that we had on Saturday. I was really proud of the way that it all turned out. The table looked beautiful; the food was great; the guests and conversation were wonderful.
I was especially proud of the flower vases. They are candleholders that I bought a while back at Target. They are shaped like giant straight-sided wine glasses (similar to this) and are meant to hold a smallish pillar candle (3 inches high by 1.5 inches in diameter or so), but the bottom of one of the candleholders isn't level, so the candle won't sit straight and wax melts EVERYWHERE when the candles are lit. I was just about to recycle the candleholders or get rid of them (they weren't expensive enough to be worth taking back to Target) when I was hit with a brainstorm - they would make great vases! I bought some light green/yellow mini hydrangeas and cut the stems really short (the leaves were perfect, because they look really similar to the tobacco leaf design of my dishes). They turned out beautifully!
Dinner was also perfect. For appetizers, I made some edamame with lapsang souchong salt and some gyoza dumplings and my special spicy-sweet dipping sauce. I served that with Basil Lime martinis.
The first course was Tre Wilcox's Pan Seared Cod with Spicy Thai Lemongrass Broth, served with Tommasi Pinot Grigio.
The second course was these Chicken Lettuce Wraps (yummy and kid-friendly, which was good, because we had 10 adults and 5 kids over that night), served with a choice of either Mulderbosch Rosé (Cab. Sauv) or Monferrato Dolcetto (most people chose the red).
I made two versions of my French macaroons for dessert. I know that they don't fit with the Asian theme of the meal, but they were yummy. I did, at least, make the Chai-Chocolate ones (and Cara Cara orange), so at least those have some marginal claim to being somewhat Asian.
I can't believe that I forgot to take a single photo, especially since many of the guests live far away and we rarely get to see them, but I will definitely be making the cod again (I need to experiment a bit more with my searing technique until I get the fish exactly right, but the broth was SPOT ON). When I get the quantities perfected, I'll post my version of Tre's recipe. His recipe was made for a professional kitchen and I think the proportions got a little off when the quantity was cut down to size (A half pound of ginger? I don't think so.).
Girl and Boy making what we call "Granny Cookies" with the kids. My grandmother spoils our family by making these treats for us periodically. They are really quick and simple to make and are really fun for the kids (another fun "back of the box" kind of thing). All you do is melt "candy coating"-type chocolate (you can use the regular or the "white chocolate" version) and dip into it the cookies, which are just peanut butter spread between 2 Ritz crackers. Girl doesn't care for peanut butter, so my grandmother makes plain chocolate-dipped Ritz for her. Here is a photo of the kids helping her make them (in her new kitchen!).
And here's the BIGGEST news of what we've been up to lately....
Here's Queenie (with Boy laughing in the background):
Here's Ace (with Queenie making an appearance to watch after the automatic flusher kicks in):
and here's Jack, who sometimes confuses the toilet with his water bowl...
For anyone just joining us, we use the Citikitty toilet training system and a Hands Free Sensor Flush automatic toilet flusher.
Girl (second from left) and Boy (second from right), with their cousins on Easter Sunday, after hunting many eggs and eating LOTS of candy.
I got to meet Tre Wilcox, from Season 3 of Bravo TV's "Top Chef"! He was in town doing a cooking class as a part of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival. It was a great class! He made a beautiful baby watercress salad topped with lobster and champagne caviar sauce, beef two ways (Braised Short Ribs with Golden Beets and Grilled New York Strip Steak with Celery Root Puree) and the masterpiece was Pan Seared Black Cod Fillet served over vegetables in a spicy-sweet Asian broth. I actually made that recipe for a dinner party this Saturday and it was a HUGE hit. I will try to type up and post a modified recipe soon, but here are some photos:
Cod with Spicy Thai Lemongrass Broth
Baby Watercress Salad with Lobster and Champagne Caviar Sauce
Beef, Two Ways
Girl and a buddy recently set up a lemonade stand one Saturday morning.
Our Lemonade Recipe:
1 and 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 quarts cold water
Stir all ingredients together and adjust sugar to taste (depending upon the sweetness of your lemons, you may need to add more). Serve over ice.
Variation:
Brew up a pitcher of iced tea, too, so that you can also sell "Arnold Palmers" (half lemonade/half iced tea).
Aren't these cute? I made them!
Just drill a small hole into the corks (don't go all the way through). Cut some lengths of cording and wrap some transparent tape around the ends to keep it from fraying. Put a bit of hot glue inside the holes of the corks and insert the cord ends. They can be any color you like, with the cord as long or short as you like. Some of you may see these under the Christmas tree, so act surprised!
Hubby's subtle protest.
This is one of those great, old-fashioned "back of the box" kind of comfort food recipes. This is just the perfect yummy, creamy thing to accompany almost any kind of roasted meat or something like BBQ chicken. There are a million different versions of this dish available online, but I like this one the best. It would be pretty yummy (and very kid-friendly) at the holiday table, too. It ain't upscale, but it's goooooooood.
Corn Pudding
1 (8.5 ounce) box corn muffin mix (I use "Jiffy")
1 egg
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
1 can (regular size, about 15 oz, I think?) whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
a sprinkle of Baby Bam seasoning (1/4 tsp?)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a lightly greased 2 quart casserole. Bake for about 45 minutes (or until pudding is solid and lightly browned).
One of the things that I made while on my blogging hiatus. The recipe can be found here:
Guy Fieri's No Can Beato This Taquito
The recipe is pretty labor intensive (lots of different preparatory and assembly steps), but they are awfully tasty. These were a bit hit with the kiddos and could easily be adapted to suit your taste, (your kids don't like red peppers? just leave 'em out!) once you learn the technique (similar to making enchiladas). Next time, I'm going to have the kids help me roll 'em up.
Guy's show is really entertaining to watch. He's like a male version of Sandra Lee (I think). His set is very thoughtfully decorated and each show includes a cocktail. Of course, his set is decorated with a pool table, full-on bar, large flat screen TV and a couple of loafing friends, but still....thought has been put in.
VERY sorry for the delayed absence (again!). Spring just always seems to be a SUPER busy time for me. For some reason, every extracurricular event, elective class, or sports activity that the children are involved in seems to require some end-of-year culminating event, performance or open house. It's a fun time of year, but yikes...musicals and field trips and recitals, oh my!
So here's what we've been up to:
We had a recent health scare with Girl. She was having persistent pain just below her left knee. When it didn't go away after a couple of weeks, we took her into the pediatrician, who said it would likely go away in a couple more weeks and to let her know if it didn't. Well, it didn't, so the pediatrician ordered an X-ray. When she called back with the results, she said that the radiologist saw something called Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SCFE). I had no idea what that was, but I knew that the pediatrician wanted us to see an orthopedic surgeon (RIGHT AWAY). When I called the orthopedist (the same office that fixed Boy's broken arm last year) and told them the diagnosis, they told me to bring Girl over right away and don't give her anything to eat, in case she ended up having surgery that afternoon. When I heard that, I almost passed out. And then I googled. That was a big mistake, because when you read things like this....
"Almost all children with the condition have surgical treatment, and most do well. Some, however, develop problems due to the disease. One foot might point outward more than the other, or one leg may be slightly longer than the other. Blood may stop flowing to the top part of the thighbone. Children’s hips may be stiff, and they may be more likely to develop arthritis at an early age."
...you tend to panic, but we got her to the orthopedist, who said that the radiologist had been overly cautious, not wanting to miss anything (SCFE can be a side effect of a medication that Girl takes, so the radiologist knew to look for it, or the pediatrician had told him to look for it, I guess). It turns out that she did NOT have SCFE, thank goodness, but just has a specific type of tendinitis (Osgood-Schlatter) in her knee that will require rest, ice, Motrin and physical therapy for a few weeks. She is already doing much better, so we are VERY relieved. Something that can be cured with Motrin and ice doesn't scare me. MUCH better than surgery. She has two roles (Napthali and Judah) in her school's upcoming production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". I'm in charge of costumes. She also recently helped me paint the laundry room:
(She has gotten contact lenses since this photo was taken.)
More news:
Boy has BRACES! He's had just these front brackets on for a couple of weeks and will get a "palatal expander" tomorrow. He'll have that for about 3 months. I've heard it's painful and has to be tightened with a little key every day, but I haven't told Boy that yet. If any of you parents have had experience with one these things and have any food suggestions (seems like EVERYTHING would get caught in there!) or pain relief tips, please let me know. After the expander, he'll have full braces for about 2 years. Poor kid. He actually likes them, though, and his buddies are now calling him "Bling Man". He also recently competed in a "Math Pentathlon" and has started playing the guitar. He can already do a VERY basic version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black". His grandfather is so proud (and so are we).
We also had a visit over Spring Break from our very best friends. They have a daughter Girl's age (12 - they've been buddies since preschool), a son Boy's age (10 - they've known each other since they were in diapers) and their youngest daughter (also one of Girl's very best friends) is 9. We took them here:
and here:
Also:
My grandparents have moved to town! We have been asking/inviting/pleading/begging them to come to Austin for a while now, and they finally found the right place and jumped on it. They are about 15 minutes from where we live now (they were previously about 4 hours away) and 5 minutes from where my parents live, so we have been helping them get settled: setting up bed frames and assembling computer desks (a new computer, too!) and getting them established with new doctors, etc. Their new home is lovely and has wonderful amenities. We are THRILLED to have them so close by and we are really enjoying our frequent visits.
So, that's a "catch-up". I have been cooking and taking photos this whole time and will be uploading new photos and posts soon.
