Bacon Pierogi Bake

This one was a winner too!  I can't take credit for the cooking though.  The hubby gets all the credt.  He said it was pretty easy to make and it had a great creamy flavor which was accented nicely by the crunchy bacon.  Believe it or not, the recipe is from Cooking Light.  I am pretty sure we had more cheese than was in the recipe, but you always need to go heavy on the cheese!    So it may not have been as "light" as intended...

Here is the recipe:  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=50400000108395

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash and Scallion Couscous

Dinner tonight was super yummy and packed with flavor!  Tagines in Moroccan cuisine are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce.  This tagine was a pretty quick cooker, but probably the meat would have benefited more from a longer simmer at a lower temp.  I swear I bought shallots, but when I started cooking I couldn't find them and ended up using a regular onion.  Like I said, the meat could have been a bit more tender (though it was not tough) and I needed to cook it about 10 more minutes than the recipe said to get the squash done.  This would also have been fabulous in a slow cooker.  The darling daughter actually ate it, though she said it was so she could get dessert....and the hubby thought it was pretty tasty too.  He liked this one better than the Sweet Potato Tagine with Pine Nut Couscous that I have made in the past.  The reason for that is that he likes MEAT and the sweet potato recipe was a vegitarian recipe.    For the couscous, I used the Near East garlic and olive oil couscous, chopped up some scallions and tossed them in once couscous was cooked.

Here is the recipe:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=50400000109584

This was a pretty straightforward meal to prepare too.  Easy and full of complex flavors.  Who could ask for more!?!

English Cottage Pie

Ohhhh tonight was English Cottage pie.  It was sensational!  Full of wonderful herby flavor.   Yummy!  Easy to make too.  I didn't have any leftover mashed potatoes, so I made some just for this recipe.  I used about 3 medium sized potatoes to get what I need.     This was a sensational meal. 

Here is the link to the recipe:  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=50400000107447

Try it! 

A word on Anchovies.

I remember as a kid, my mom used to get anchovies on her pizza and I thought it was the most disgusting pizza topping on the planet.  I recently had to use anchovies in a recipe, and I just have to say, those ugly little suckers are tasty!   They look sort of like a flattened slug, so you really have to look past the ugliness.  Anyhow, I had to chop some up for a recipe which was good itself, but I had some left over and I decied to try them on saltines.    They don't taste anything like they look.  They are salty, and there texture was unexpectedly smooth.  So today I champion for the ugly and sometimes feared anchovy and think that the next time I get pizza from a place that actually still has them on the menu, I may just have to get some anchovy pizza.    

Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Burritos with Citrus and Radish Salad.

This one was pretty good!  It was also very easy and very fast to make!  I would recommend adding salt to the salad dressing.  Here is the Recipe:

1/4 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground red pepper (I totally read this wrong and used Crushed red pepper but it worked)
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
3/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup refrigerated fresh salsa (  I actually took the whole can of beans and mixed it with most of the container of salsa).
4 8 inch flour tortillas
1/2 cup shredded Monteray Jack (colby jack works too) cheese

1. Bring first 6 ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan then stir in onions and chicken
2. Combine beans and salsa.  Spoon 1/4 cup (or as much as you feel like) of bean mixture and 1/4 of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla and top with cheese.  Roll up.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  Spray pan with cooking spray.  Add 2 burritos.  Place heavy skillet  on top and cook for 3 minutes on each side.  Repeat with remaining burritos (or save the mix for lunch tomorrow).    4 servings.

For Citrus and Radish Salad:

Combine 2 tablespoons orange juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1/8 tsp ground red pepper (I needed salt too).    Toss with 4 cups of prechopped romaine lettuce, 1/2 cup thinly slice radishes, and 2 tablespoons of cilantro and 1 sliced peeled avocado. 

This week's menu

Okay, so I recently started subscriptions to Cooking Light and The Food Network Magazine.  This week's menu came from these sources.  I haven't decided what days I am making each recipe yet, but I have the groceries and I am ready!

Here goes:
Bacon Pierogi Bake
Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash
Cantonese Chicken and Mushrooms
English Cottage Pie
Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Burritos.

My DH was away this week and when he got home today I showed him all the pictures of each dish.   I think he is pretty excited.     I will post how they go. 

The begining

Hi there,   I am a girl who loves to eat.    Therefore, I love to cook, because someone has to make all the good things I like to eat!  I am a food adventurer, willing to try anything once.    Each week, I sit down to make my menu and just thumb through my rather large recipe collection until something strikes my fancy.  I prefer quicker meals as I am a working mom, but I venture into longer prep stuff on the weekends.   Food is one of the ways to show people that I care.  One of my co-workers sort of suggested I start a food blog and so here I am.  If you stumble across my page, I hope you enjoy it and find something you would like to try to cook too!