A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

The other day, while visiting with friends over dinner, I noticed my dish had delicious tomatoes tossed in. When I read the menu, it said, "Roasted tomatoes." I've done roasted tomatoes before, but they never turned out like what was having that evening. When my girl cherub and I were working on dinner the other night, I thought I would try for the roasted tomatoes again. The difference between the restaurant and what I had done in the past was simple. I always tossed the tomatoes, whole, with seasoning and roasted. While I do like them this way, what it causes the tomato to do is burst open. Which is fine. Except that affects the texture of the tomato. This time, we made one simple change. We cut the tomatoes in half. Yes, it was a lot of cutting, because all I had where cute little cherub tomatoes. But with two of us cutting, we did the entire pint lickety-split! We loved the end product! Matter of fact, we wished we had done more. ...

Sometimes I amaze myself! Before Thanksgiving, the Mr. and I headed to the store to grab some necessary groceries. Sweet potatoes must have been a good price, because the Mr. stocked. us. up! He must have thought we were going to feed a small army! When we got home, I realized I already had sweet potatoes. Now -- I like sweet potatoes, but we certainly had a lot of them! I started wondering what to do with the abundance we were experiencing. Trying to think of "meatless" meals, I thought about tacos. I couldn't really sell the family on the option when I offered it. So while they were away, I started cooking. This way, they couldn't complain! It was brilliant on my part, I might add! After peeling and chopping the sweet potatoes, I set out to season and roast them to perfection. After that, the magic happened. At dinner, I told the Mr. and my girl cherub that at a trendy restaurant, these would be called, "Fall Bounty Tacos....

Honestly, the Mr. and two cherubs never tire of pasta. They love it. I, on the other hand, am not so crazy about pasta. It's not a "love-hate" relationship, I would describe more of a "take or leave" relationship. If we are at an Italian restaurant, I search for something that sounds good, and it's never a surprise if I don't order a pasta dish. But let me camp there for a minute . . . pasta is so cheap to serve, but restaurants charge a fortune for it! It drives me c.R.a.Z.y!  Seriously! That really may be the root of why I don't go nuts over spaghetti! That, and it's served as "the cheap food" when you're trying to feed a crowd. Pasta -- my family loves it! Monday night, I'm staring at everything in the fridge and thinking, "what to have for dinner?" Then I remembered the homemade pesto sauce I have stored in the freezer. And the pasta noodles I just purchased. I knew my girl che...

Love New Mexican foods. Really! Red chili. Green chili. "Christmas on the side." Posole. Stuffed sopapillas. All of it! For years, we have enjoyed roasted hatch chilies during "roasting season." Sometimes, we've been in New Mexico and have brought them back with us. Other times, we've over-paid for them and purchased the roasted chilies from a local Texas grocery store. Then there are times when we buy the chilies and roast them ourselves. It's not hard. It's a little time consuming. But the end result is satisfying and tasty! This season, the Mr. purchased five pounds of hatch chilies and we did the work ourselves. Five pounds sounds like a lot. But it isn't. Sadly. We were able to fill one quart jar of roasted chopped chilies. Now, when you buy hatch chilies, you need to know if you are getting mild or hot chilies. There is a difference. Hot . . .is, well, HOT! I honestly think we have a mix. Whic...

As a kid, I totally remember my dad eating radishes. Gross. He would wash them, maybe cut them . . .maybe not. Sometimes he would sprinkle some salt on them . . .or maybe not. But he always said they were so good. I thought, "well, maybe not!" I remember, as a kid, trying a radish. YUCK! It was hot. That's about all I remember about a radish. And that I knew enough to say I didn't like them! Well, that . . . and my dad would always put cut up radish in our salad if he was making the salad. And he normally did. Which means that I had to normally pick them out! As an adult, I have always steered clear of radishes. That was until about a year ago. The cherubs and I stopped at a taco truck. This wasn't a fancy, "all-the-rage," food truck. Let me try that again . . .it is all the rage, in that the food is ah-maz-ing! But it's not one of the popular-kind-of-food-trucks that you see these days. This is one of thos...

By the blog posts, one might think it is a dry spell of cooking around our house. That isn't really the case. However, it is the case of "new" recipes. Sometimes, those "tried and true" recipes, where you don't even have to really think about it, and no one at the table asks, "so, what is this?" are sometimes just easier when everything is feeling like it's spinning 100 miles an hour! Oh, we've been trying new things. And I have the pictures to prove post about it . . . but the "new" recipes are just a little less frequent these days! Unless it was this dinner where I put together 2 new recipes for us to try! Everything was a hit, especially these roasted potatoes. As you know, we adore roasted veggies. In my opinion, they're easier to cook and tastes simply delicious! I paired these potatoes with roasted Brussel  Sprouts and a Greek lemon chicken. It was a winner! I used Yukon gold pot...

How many times have you read that my family loves Mexican food? Honestly, I am not underestimating the power of the love! It is our go-to, quick-fix meal at home. When we go out to eat, we usually choose something with a Mexican flair. And when we say we're craving something, it usually involves chips and salsa. What I have noticed at these newer, "fusion" taco restaurants, and the like, are the simple toppings. Where we are eating, at least, there is less about smothered cheese and gooey sauces. There's more focus on "less is more." Simple flavors. Simple ingredients. Big impact of deliciousness! Which then inspires me to duplicate it at home so that we don't have to digest the high price tag, too! For a school field trip, my boy cherub had to eat at a local restaurant. Not real sure what that had to do with learning Spanish, as everything is in English. But whatever! We did it. After all, it was apart of his grade. ...

I can't even remember what I was fixing but I needed a side dish to serve with it. Oh wait!  Just typing that sentence made me remember what I was making! Ham! Which reminded me . . . I'm going to post my ham recipe! But not right now. Right now, it is about the potatoes. Since I was making a ham, I wanted to have a complete meal. You know, not the one-dish-call-it-good meal. But a meal that resembled thought, and preparation, and time, and love, and all those things! I had some potatoes in the refrigerator. I keep my potatoes there because I don't use them fast enough to keep them in a cute potato basket. Because if I kept them in a cute potato basket, my potatoes would be gross. And unusable. So I keep them cold so they won't get gross so fast. Now, before you start thinking about all the bad things that happen to cold potatoes. I know. The starch changes to sugar. They don't taste the same as if you store them ...

We really do love mango. I'm not certain what it is about this fruit that is so enticing. Maybe it's their beautiful color!  Seriously!  Look at the picture!  The yellow, green, red, and orange  . . . they're amazing! And they can sometimes be a little expensive. But not necessarily in the summer. That's when the mangos are the best! Yesterday, the girl cherub and I bought a box of mangos. Now, we like mango . . .but my boy cherub is the one who really digs mango! But he's not at home this summer. So with that in mind, I needed to come up with some things to make with our many mangos. One of the things I want to try is mango agua fresco. I think it would taste great! But until I figure out how to do that, I want to share with you the recipe for mango salsa that my girl cherub made. The Mr. and my boy cherub are gone, so we girls made fish tacos for dinner. Topped with mango salsa. She looked at different recipes and discovered t...

When my girl Cherub goes to a party and comes home wanting to cook; we may be in trouble! Honestly!  She comes home from being at a bunco party with my mom and tells me about two different appetizers she had that we just "have" to make! The next day, she gets herself into the pantry and starts looking for the necessary ingredients. Don't you know:  we have them! She sets off telling me what she thinks is in the corn and bean salsa. And we commence to making it. She tastes. We adjust. She tastes. She gives the thumbs up. When my mom arrives, and reveals that the bunco host is going to send the recipes from the game night, my girl cherub says, "We don't need it.  We've got it figured out. It's not that hard!" Well, I can say this about my girl cherub; her taster is pretty on point! That girl can detect flavors better than anybody I know! True story:  We were having one of our favorite crackers and this is our convers...