Roasted Tomato Soup

It's a bit of an understatement to say that we have tomatoes. We've been picking cherry tomatoes for weeks now and I've already dried many pounds of those and now our regular ones are coming in. On Thursday Breanne picked almost 50 lbs and I knew it was time to figure out how we were going to preserve these guys.

Last year I made a tomato soup that the kids loved and lasted for a few months, so I thought that would be a good start. I wanted to be able to can it again, so that meant no butter or cream in the recipe. You can always add cream in later when you warm it up but I wanted something that would stand on it's own.

Eggplant Caponata

It's so hard to come back from vacation. I hereby propose that we work for 4 weeks every year and vacation the rest of it! Wouldn't that be nice? I am excited for this summer though. The sun is finally shining, the grass is green and our garden is coming up. The last two years, our summers have been full of renovations and other projects but this year I am doing nothing! I'll do the garden and keep the yard nice but I have sworn off any major projects. I'm just going to enjoy the weekends and the trips we're planning over the next few months.

Smoked Salmon Chowder

You knew I was going to post another smoker recipe right? It's like when you got a new toy as a kid and couldn't stop playing with it for ages. Well, this is my new toy, and all I can think about is new ways to try smoking things. I bought the book Smoke and Spice and have learned a ton just reading through it in the last week. Looks like it's got some great recipes to try out.

Seared Scallops with Tomato-Lemongrass Sauce

It's my last weekend at home without the family. The last two weeks have seemed like months! It will certainly be nice to have them home this week.

Had some more friends over this weekend and we had a fantastic dinner together. I started off the day by visiting the Mill City Farmers Market. It's a great little market along the river in Minneapolis. I'd heard a lot about it but hadn't ever visited before. Chef Shack also sets up there and I've been dying to get some of the great breakfast items they do there. After breakfast, I picked up some great produce including mushrooms, onions, rainbow chard, and even some fresh chevre. Produce from our garden included tomatoes, basil, chives, mint and cilantro. Picked up some scallops at Costco and we had our dinner menu.

Curried Whole Grain Pilaf with Bacon, Mushroom and Cabbage

We're now in our second week of recipes for a Tasty and Healthy New Year with California Olive Ranch and Bob's Red Mill. We're moving on to side dishes this week and pairing together the Grande Whole Grains Blend and the Miller's Blend Olive Oil. Did you do a double take when you saw the title of this post and then saw healthy in the first line? Bacon and healthy... yeah, it works in my book. You see the thing is, coming from a non health nut, it's about balance. I am trying to eat better but I also like some things that aren't necessarily good for you. It's about moderation and making sure that the healthy foods usually outweigh the bad. And we all know, bacon makes eveything better, right? And come on, it's only four slices for the whole thing. You'll love it.

Olive Oil and Whole Wheat Flatbread with Veggies

Starting today, our Virtual Potluck group is working with California Olive Ranch and Bob's Red Mill to bring you healthy options as we start this new year. We'll be sharing some fun and healthy ways to combine whole grains and fresh olive oils to create some fantastic new recipes. Find out more about the potluck and see who's participating here!

Three Cheese BLT Macaroni

I was recently invited to come in to Noodles & Company to try out their Mac and Cheese dishes that they had brought back to their menu. I almost said no. I have hated Macaroni and Cheese for as long as I can remember.  Even when people try to make it fancy, there's just something about it that I don't like. But I figured the kids would probably like it so I told them we'd give it a go.

I was honestly pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It was a fun easy dinner and the kids loved it all. I have to say though, what made it memorable was the local manager, Kari. She treated us like royalty and brought us enough food and cookies to last a week. She wasn't just doing it for us either. I watched her the whole time we were there and she was visiting tables almost the whole time.

Turkey Taquitos

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday! I can't wait to tell you about my Willie Bird Turkey that I won from Williams-Sonoma but you'll have to wait just a bit longer for that post.

It's been a few days since the holiday, do you have some turkey around still? Tried to get rid of it and there's still some sitting in the fridge? I've got a fun dish for you that's just different enough that you won't even know it's leftovers. 

Emeril's One Pot Blogger Party - BLT Risotto

This Blogger party is starting to rock! If you want to follow along with some of the other bloggers participating in the review of Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook "Sizzling Skillets and other One-Pot Wonders", check them out here. The Lasagna I made on Sunday has made for some great lunches the last couple of days but alas the party must go on and the second dish I chose to make was a "BLT" Risotto.

Crunchy Avocado Salad

 

I'm afraid of avocado's. Well, I guess it's not the avocado I'm afraid of but the act of getting to the avocado. A few years ago, I was attempting to get the pit out of the avocado, which any of you who have tried know that this can be a challenge at times. Well in my effort to stab the pit out with a knife,  I missed the pit and ended up slicing open my hand. I'm sure there are others of you who know my pain, at least I hope so.  The problem is that I love avocado's, so I continue to risk bodily injury to enjoy this great food.

Potato Gnocchi with Roasted Tomatoes and Gorgonzola Cream

Late last fall I had the opportunity to see Chef Tom Douglas do a cooking demonstration in Minneapolis as part of the Macy's Culinary Council. He's a great chef and owns multiple restaurants in the Seattle area so I was excited to see him and also participate in my first chef demo. I really enjoyed his presentation and ended up buying one of his cookbooks titled "Seattle Kitchen" that features many of the recipes from his restaurants.

Housewarming Party

We just moved into our new home about a month ago and we hosted a housewarming party this last weekend. I was excited to make some new appetizers I had found and I knew that it was going to take quite a lot of time to get them all baked and put together. My plan was to work on them Friday afternoon and evening and then get it all finished up Saturday morning before the party. However, early Friday morning, a Tornado hit our neighborhood! There was no major damage to our house but it took out a few of our trees and I spent most of the day cleaning all of it up.