Delicious Finds

Greek Nachos
The sauce alone on these things is worth making it for. I replaced the yogurt with sour cream (added a little more than the recipe called for since I had a little extra in the tub), 1/2 the mint. SO delicious. Bella's eating it up as a dip, using just toasted pitas and baby carrots.









Grapefruit Bourbon Cocktail
I made this last weekend before dinner. It's not really the right time of year for this cocktail - but you can bet I'll be making it come spring and summer.

Pork Fat Rules!

My mother-in-law celebrated her 65th birthday on Saturday, so we had everyone over at Casa Peterson for a feast.

But what to cook?

Many folks who read this blog don't know that Mark's mom's family are Mexican-American which means that whenever we visit Mamanina (his grandma), we're usually treated to some homemade tortillas. On an even better day, we're treated to homemade tamales (yum!).

That being said, I decided to cook some Mexican food for Olivia.

What was on the menu? Well, I thought you'd never ask Here's a menu (along with links to recipes if you'd like to make this menu as well).

Olivia's 65th Feast
Carnitas (note:I used this recipe as a master, but changed up the spices. BTW, A 5lb pork shoulder was barely enough for us)
Corn and Flour Tortillas (store bought)
Red Rice (I cook my rice in my rice cooker with this - it's kind of weird I know, but the end result is tasty)
Pinquito Beans (you can always use the canned kind from the grocery store)
Pickled Red Onions (this is a foolproof recipe for pickled red onions - no cooking required)
Crema (you haven't lived if you haven't tried this yet - it's basically Mexican Sour Cream)
Tomatillo Salsa (ok, so I bought some from the store - sue me)

A good time (and margaritas and chips and guacamole) was had by all 9 of us.

What We're Eating This Week...

If you care, I posted our menu for the week on Peanut Free Mama.

What's your go-to menu each week? Fill me in!

The Best Breakfast

2 slices of ciabatta, sliced on the diagonal

lightly toasted

slathered in butter

drizzled in honey.

bliss.

yum-o?

i've never been a dog person. just a cat person.

that is, until i started working with an incredible woman who loves her dog pico THIS MUCH. this dog is her child and she treats him as such - including being just as picky as a mom is (or in this day and age should be) with her baby. put it this way, pico gets tri tip, fresh sausage, free range chicken, and jenni is a vegetarian. you've got to love your dog if you are vegetarian AND willing to handle meat. i digress. back to the treats.

bella and i wanted to do something for little (actually quite large) pico. lo and behold, in the latest rachael ray magazine, was a recipe for doggie treats. it looked kid friendly. and easy. we had to jump into action!

Oh, and before you turn the other way with your nose in the air because you're too cool to like or even try RR's recipes, the recipe was developed by someone else.


Jessica Gorman's Olive Oil and Bacon Truffles

you can find the recipe here, as well as an archive of other recipes here.

basically, these are little scones with nuggets of crispy bacon inside. the ingredients are simple: whole wheat flour, bacon, cornmeal, beef broth, olive oil, and water. mix the dry ingredients and bacon, then add the wet and knead into a smooth dough. roll into balls and place on a foil lined sheet (i used parchment - it was fine). oh, and you bake them after drizzling them with the leftover bacon fat. 35 minutes exactly in a 350 degree oven and they're done.

the ease of this recipe was superb - it came together just as the recipe stated and the cooking time was spot on. considering the scare that pet owners received of late with tainted meat, making your dog's (or cat's) food seems less high maintenance with recipes like this.

as for the pico taste test, you'll have to wait until next week for the verdict...but by the looks of these, i would eat one - who can resist all that bacony goodness? oh wait, I'm starting to sound like the queen of yum-o herself.

i'm still not a dog person necessarily, but if a little pooch should cross my path, i have just the thing to soothe the savage beast.

ok, back to human food...

Review - Everyday Pasta, Giada De Laurentiis

Cookbook: Everyday Pasta
Author: Giada De Laurentiis
Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Recipe: Linguini with Turkey Meatballs
Page#: 177

Giada De Laurentiis just released her third cookbook, Everyday Pasta. Every time I get a new cookbook, I try at least one recipe within the first day or two, just to gauge the book. I usually try something simple. Why? Because if the simple stuff doesn't work, then the rest of the book is likely to disappoint. So what did I choose? Something easy: Linguini with Turkey Meatballs. It is featured as quick and tasty, and is supposed to leave my guests hungry for more (her words, not mine).

Ahem. Now let's get down to business.

What Worked:
Giada had a brilliant idea to add chopped sun dried tomatoes to the meatballs along with diced pancetta. Brilliant! Those little nuggets were a welcome surprise in the otherwise non brilliant meatballs (see below).

What Didn't:
Putting the recipe together was fairly easy, but the ingredients DID need to be tweaked (specifically more bread-crumbs to hold the meatballs together). Also, adding two eggs to the mixture left you with pretty wet meatballs (even after the addition of more bread-crumbs - but you can only add so much to offset the overabundance of eggs).

But the biggest disappointment was that the flavors of this dish just weren't there. The meatballs were bland (even with pancetta AND sun dried tomatoes) and the sauce lacked spark or depth (or heft for that matter, even after simmering a bit longer). My testing companion commented that even when the sauce is there 'it's just not there - it's just water and tomatoes'.

Verdict:
While it wasn't terrible, I wouldn't make it again. Which isn't to say I've given up on the book. But for spaghetti and meatballs, save your time and use another recipe from another book. How about this one? And I hate to say it, but even this one is better than Giada's. And you really can't go wrong with Mario. Doesn't he have sugo coursing through his bloodstream?

I think this recipe speaks volumes for the way that TV personalities tend to crank out cookbooks one after the other. Much like new rock bands who spend years crafting that first hit record, the second and third installments just fall flat.

Bottom line: this is just one of those recipes that looks great on paper, but just doesn't come through in execution. But I will be stealing the diced pancetta for my next meatball experiment.