Asian Inspired: Teriyaki Meatball Bowls

So.
This is from the same weekend as the cake - my quest to make things while waiting for my paycheque and quickly running out of ingredients.  Yep, get ready to see what kinds of substitutions I can make!
I love to read the blog Budget Bytes.  I think I found her originally through Pinterest and a pin for black bean quesadillas that I have yet to make.  I used her refried beans in the crockpot recipe when I make them and discovered how easy it is to make beans in the crockpot.  I spend lots of time reading, but I don't always get around to cooking.
I did, however, read her Top 20 for 2012 with interest, and saw the quesadillas that I need to get around to making.  This recipe was also in the list, and looked intriguing and simple.  Everything in them is a pantry staple.  It also gave me a reason to use my food grinder.
I grew up in a house with a Spong food grinder.  I remember helping my mother make quiche by grinding leftover ham to use in the filling.  I never really saw the point of having one.  I didn't make quiche.  What would I want to grind?  While the name brand is fun to say, you don't need to own one to do so.  Then my uncle went into a retirement home, my parents cleaned out his apartment, and my mother presented me with his food grinder that appeared to never have been used.  It then sat on my shelf for 2 years.
Seeing as I wasn't buying anything this weekend, I suddenly needed a way to produce ground chicken.  I found one.
I present to you now Budget Bytes' Teriyaki Meatball Bowls:

Pintertest Kitchen: Cinnamon Roll Cake

So.
I have a confession to make:  I'm not particularly good with money.
Sure, one of the duties of my job is to oversee the spending for a building and make sure that I don't go in the hole, but the way that I do that is by telling my staff that there's no money.  Okay, that's not totally true.  We still have a photocopy budget, and we do some special things.  But at home, well...let's just say that Dave Ramsey wouldn't be thrilled.
J and I have taken steps to get ourselves on the right track; and I'm much better than I used to be.  But by the same token sometimes the money just runs out.  Like this past weekend.  Through a glitch in payroll, my pay isn't coming through until Monday.  This left J and I with about $25 to our name that wasn't spoken for.
Unlike many, the biggest change in our plans was that we wouldn't be going out for a meal this weekend and the cat tree we'd planned to buy got waylaid until next week.  As a result, I was left to figure out what we were eating with no trip to the grocery store.
Our church has been doing a series about letting go of our stuff and how we allocate our resources.  One thing that has rung very true with me recently is that we as North Americans feel poor:  like there's no money, we can't afford things and what a misnomer this truly is.  We are encouraged to live simply and share our resources, demonstrating God's love for those around us.  Heavy stuff, but an important reminder.  This weekend really made me think about this - we can't afford to go out to eat.  So what?  We go out for the entertainment of it.  I started combing my cupboards for what to make while we stay home.  The next few days will be posts from that weekend.  We ate really well while having no money.  I need to remember that.
It's a little embarrassing what lurks in my cupboards.  We spent the weekend eating recipes that I wanted to try from Pinterest that I just hadn't gotten around to.  I pinned two very similar cakes that I combined into this one with a couple of substitutions based on things I'd run out of.  Here are the pins:
I present to you now a hybrid of Cookin' Up North and Six Sisters Cinnamon Roll Cakes:

New Year's Brunch: Baked Egg Boats

So.
Yesterday was New Year's Day, a day on the mountain where J and I wear pajamas all day, eat yummy things, pack the Christmas decorations, and watch college football until our eyes fall out.  Did I mention that there's too much to eat?
This year, I planned to serve brunch, a baked cheese dip mid-afternoon, and black bean and steak wraps for dinner.  The wraps were the healthy part of the day with trimmed sliced steak, homemade unfried refried beans in whole wheat tortillas.  The brunch part of the day, not so much.  I planned to serve fruit with these boats, but I didn't wash it so we didn't eat it.
The boats, however, disappeared quickly with cups of coffee from my new Keurig, a Christmas present from J.  I liked the idea of quiche in bread.  I made another quiche filling that was delicious.  I also learned that I am a poor judge of when eggs are cooked in the oven.  Sigh.  We start, however with this

How can you go wrong when there's bacon?  I present to you now spoon fork bacon's Baked Egg Boats:

2013: A Year of Possibility

So.
I've been toying with a cookbook challenge for this year.  While I have cookbooks, I don't have *that* many.  That is, I don't have 12 that aren't community fundraiser cookbooks and the like.  I also don't think my autographed copy of Death by Chocolate should form the basis of one month.  Although there are lots of ice creams in the book.  Hmmmm....
I spent time flipping through some of the others that I have.  I own Eat This Book by Tyler Florence.  I made it half way through before I decided that I could eat the book, thinking the paper the most appetizing thing I'd considered.  I should sell my copy.
As well chronicled, I own Looneyspoons and The Looneyspoons Collection.  I'll cook out of these no matter what the challenge is.  The recipes are great, and simple.  There are lots of things I still want to make from both.  I'm sure to talk more about what I make this year from these two.
I would also like to spend more time in Choice Menus.  I've made a couple of things, the egg pockets by far the best of what I made.  One of the goals for both J and myself this year is to eat more healthfully.  I'm once again toying with giving up pop which is really liquid candy.  I have found that one change in the past has made my clothes looser.
My last 2 books will not help in that regard.  I own Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and La Vraie Cuisine Francaise.  J might hate me after a month of French cooking. 
What I do have is more magazines than I know what to do with.  I'm thinking of a magazine challenge:  Pick a year of Everyday Food, use the month's edition and cook from it.  I'm thinking 6 recipes in the course of the month.  That's just over 1 a week - leaving lots of room for other things.  I like it.  I've decided to go back to the first full year of Everyday Food that I have - 2005.
I have pulled out the January/February edition, realizing that I need to make 12 recipes out of this one magazine.  Yikes.
So to recap, here's what's in store for this year:

• More Looneyspoons and Looneyspoons Collection because they're yummy
• 6 recipes per month out of 2005's Everyday Food from the corresponding month's issue
• Continuing Pintertest Kitchen Challenges, because they're just fun; and I'm not giving up looking at Pinterest Food boards
• Continued cooking adventures

Let the fun begin!

Retrospective: 2012 in Review

So.
Seeing as it's New Year's Eve, it's time to take a look back and reminisce about the year that was.  During the past year, J and I have moved, we acquired a cat, and I started a new job.
We also made the resolution to have people in for often for dinner and to eat at home more often.  There have been months when we've done better than others, but for the most part we're eating at home more often.  We've tried lots of new things too.
According to the stats, I've made 47 things that are "New for 2012".  That's almost a recipe per week.  I participated in 15 Pinterest activities, and I shared 16 recipes with you that are classics around here.  By far, my favourite source outside of Pinterest was my new copy of the Looneyspoons Collection that I got for my birthday in October.  I managed to make 9 recipes in approximately 2 and a half months.  Think of what would have happened if I'd had access for the entire year!
After the jump, I invite you to make a quick trip down memory lane to the best and worst of the year that was.  I present to you now Oreos and Cool Whip's Memories of 2012:

Souper Sunday: Pasta Fagioli

So.
I actually made soup on Sunday.  It's been a bit of a challenge to actually make this happen recently, and while I enjoy soup I don't always get to things as I'd like to.  Perhaps it's the procrastinator in me, or maybe I'll just blame it on the boogie.
I did need a smaller recipe for soup that J and I could possibly eat in a couple of meals just before Christmas.  I wanted a Sunday night/Christmas Eve lunch that would go together quickly and make a hearty meal.  I turned to Taste of Home.
I have a Taste of Home magazine of heartwarming soups that was to be displayed until April 28, 2008.  I've admired many of the pictures, but don't really make all that much out of it.  I bought it back in my "buy the magazine and admire the pictures" phase of cooking before I realized that I was being threatened by piles of magazines that I was saving for the day when I would make things from them.  This magazine survived that purge, but I still don't make much.
Enter a need for a new soup that didn't serve 10.  While flipping, I found this recipe for pasta fagioli soup that sounded good and said it served 5.  I'm thinking we'll get at least 6 bowls out of it.  But it's yummy.
I present to you now TOH's Heartwarming Soup, Pasta Fagioli:

Fish for Friday: Salmon and Feta Burgers

So.
In the summer, I promised J that I would cook fish once a week.  I'm still not a fan of fish, but I've started broiling a whole lot of salmon this winter.  Fresh salmon is something that I'm finding not hard to take.  Especially when it's very fresh and not particularly fishy. 
In flipping through my copy of the Looneyspoons Collection, I came across this recipe.  Surprisingly, I wanted to make it.  J wasn't complaining.  He loves fish. 
I present to you now the Looneyspoons Collection Dilly Whoppers:

Pinned: Garlic Parmesan Roasted Brussel Sprouts

So.
I feel like vegetables much like J feels about fruit.  I like a few specific things, and I'm not adventurous.  Most weeks, I buy broccoli in the winter.  In the spring, we eat a lot of roasted asparagus.  If I had my way, we'd eat mostly frozen corn and green beans with a few frozen green peas for variety.
J likes all vegetables - he'll eat any I put on his plate other than squash and sweet potatoes.  So this week when we went to the grocery store, brussel sprouts were on sale.  For whatever reason, I have been pinning brussel sprout recipes.  I decided to see whether or not I liked them.
I present to you now Joy in the Jumble's Garlic Parmesan Roasted Brussel Sprouts:

Souper Sunday: Creamy Corn and Chicken Chowder

So.
I've fallen off the soup wagon this year.  For a long time, I made soup every Sunday in winter and then took it for lunch during the week.  For whatever reason, I just haven't done that much this fall.  While we could blame this on football season and being away a lot, I don't know.  Perhaps soup has fallen out of favour.  I hope not.  With recipes like this, soup will make a comeback.
I spent some time eying this recipe, wondering what the BBQ sauce would taste like.  I'm not sure why I wondered.  It's all good.  Like everything I've made from Looneyspoons, this was a winner.  J told me that I'm welcome to make this again whenever I want.  the problem is, there are so many recipes to make.  Sigh.
I present to you now the Looneyspoons Collection Smoky Roasted Chicken and Corn Chowder:

Christmas Dinner: Strawberry Pretzel Salad

So.
While J and I were hoping that my father's family would decide not to have Christmas this year and that my mom would come to the mountain, that didn't happen.  Every year, my father and his 3 next oldest siblings and their families get together for Christmas dinner.  As the siblings age, they keep threatening that they won't do it anymore - it's too much work, they're getting too old, etc, etc.  There's usually 20 of us or so.  Whoever is available comes.  When I asked what I should bring, I was told a Jello salad.
My mother makes a wide variety of Jello salads.  Some are sweet, which I don't mind too much, and others are disconcertingly savory.  Most come from the recipe book the Joys of Jello.  Sometime I'll have to tell the horrifying story of the lemon jello with beet juice and horseradish.  Yep...you read right.  I've made it.
But seeing as I didn't have the book, and I have no favourite jello recipes, I turned to the mighty Facebook asking what kind of salad I should make.  My friend Trudi suggested the Strawberry Pretzel Salad, and the next day a friend from Texas had emailed me her recipe.
I present to you now the salad that I'm taking to Christmas today, Strawberry Pretzel: