Thai Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Tofu

Since we're in the final months of saving (and employment), we've been trying to eat at home more frequently, which unfortunately means Friday night, too. In a past life, Friday would be our date night or just a night I didn't have to cook. But considering we dropped $40+ on date night to a sandwich place a few weeks back, that can't happen too often. 

It's still the weekend though and as much as I'd like to just throw some leftovers in the microwave and be done with it, I still want to celebrate a bit with a nice dinner. I just don't want to spend all evening preparing it. Enter the skillet meals....

Perfect Flaky Croissants

It's official. I have baking street cred. On the 4th of July this year while everyone else was getting BBQ side dishes prepared (I did mine the night before), I was on a 10-hour mission toward a major baking feat...homemade croissants.

Strawberry Rhubarb Fools

The Hood Rivers are here! The Hood Rivers are here! I speak, of course, of the Hood River strawberries, available to us Oregonians for a short period at the beginning of each summer.

Parsley & Walnut Pesto

Pasta with egg and bacon on top...not for the weak of heart (or those on cholesterol medication)

Pancetta and Asparagus Fritatta

I was in charge of the majority of Easter brunch this year since I was off the hook for making much of our Easter dinner the night before. As was the request last year as well, I made my grandma's ricotta cheese pancakes. Someday I might feel generous and give you all that recipe. And remember to take pictures...that day has not come. I did, however, manage to remember to take a couple of shots of our frittata. I started off thinking to make this lovely quiche, care of the talented Sacha over at Eating In or Out. But I thought better of it after the pancake request and the fact that we already had a lot of carb and fat deliciousness happening with the pancakes. 

Ganache-Filled Cupcakes

Last week was not only St. Patrick's Day, but also one of my best friend's birthdays. Since my husband and I officially became a couple more-or-less on St. Patty's Day (7 years ago!), we didn't always get to celebrate with her. The festivities would also almost always fall on the night before the Shamrock Run, an annual run in downtown Portland that I had done for 7 years. This year, I decided to skip the race since it was the day after St. Patty's Day and I wanted to be there for the party. My friends have an ideal house for a party and there was plenty of Jameson to go around. I wanted to make something fun and delicious to go along with the party's obvious theme. I found this recipe for a so-called "Irish Carbomb" cupcake recipe on Pinterest (follow me!) and thought they would be perfect for the party. I ended up going back to the original Smitten Kitchen recipe and ended up following that one as I couldn't tell what the "adaptation" from the original recipe was and I trust the Smitten Kitchen recipes a little more, having some experience with her recipes.

Updates

It's been well over a month since I updated the blog. I have been cooking and I've thought about blogging, but for the few readers I have who don't know what's been happening in my life, I'll provide a quick update.

Homemade Bagels

Next on my list of baking goals was the bagel. I'm a big fan of bagels and after our bagel experience in NYC, I couldn't satisfy my bagel craving with pretty much anything in Portland. Kettleman Bagels are pretty good, but I just heard they were bought by Noah's, so there goes that option.

Weekend Breakfast: Eggs Benedict

Yes, this is really what I made for breakfast on Sunday

And no, I didn't just order eggs benedict to go from Sanborn's down the street and pass it off as my own.

Superbowl Snacks

Pretzels cooling on the rack...it took all the strength we had to not bite right into them

Here it is days past the Superbowl and I am just getting to this post. I think we're still depressed.

Paella and Tapas

Over the weekend we went up to Seattle to visit my family and see my uncles, who both normally live in Southern California and I rarely get to see. Since it was a special occasion, my mom made a paella, and I made three different tapas.

Thai-style Chicken with Basil

I don't know about you, but I get bored easily with chicken breasts. My beloved could eat them pretty much most days, but within a few meals, I'm over even the cheesiest of chicken. I have noticed that lately the only Asian-style dish I throw into our weekly meals has been stir fry. While it's a great standby and a good way to use tofu when it goes on sale, that gets old, too. So when chicken breasts went on sale last week, I had to come up with something a little more entertaining. Enter the Thai-style chicken with basil.

Easy Roast Beef

It was a busy Sunday in our little house while I prepped all that I could for our Turkey Day potluck at Chris and Stacey's. I managed to fit in a warm Sunday dinner for us and testing out a recipe (not pictured) for Cook's Illustrated (yes, I'm that cool...ok, it's open to anyone, but I still feel cool). I used a bottom round

Best French Onion Soup

Fall is finally here in Portland. The leaves have changed, but we've had less rain than usual, so we have been enjoying the colors for much longer than usual (no complaints). The rain is starting up again and with that, the need for more comfort food. I made this French onion soup years ago when Cook's Illustrated first published it in January of 2008. We were so blown away, I knew I'd make it again. Why I waited this long? I'm not sure. But fortunately for me, gruyere and baguettes went on sale, so it seemed natural to finally make it again.

Light(ish) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The other night I was bored. Shawn had gone off to write (his usual post-dinner routine), and although I had just made a delicious chili dinner, I still had some kitchen time left in me. When I get this baking kick on a random night, I normally don't have all the ingredients I need to make anything. I'm either missing chocolate chips, or oatmeal, or whatever...but this time I checked and had just enough to make oatmeal cookies from the Best Light Recipe cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. So I thought. 

Mediterranean Feast

This post is going to be short and sweet. We are 4 days from leaving for New York (both the city and upstate), and my time is a little limited. I wanted to share some pictures and recipes from my most recent experiment. My favorite guinea pig Michael and his partner came over for a long-awaited Sunday dinner. They are nice enough to be watching our kitties while we're away, so I wanted to make something worth their while.

The Saga of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes

I'm never working with blue frosting again. At least not with a piping bag. Below is a picture of the prototype of my sister's 40th birthday Cookie Monster cupcakes. She saw them on Facebook months ago and asked if I could make them. "Sure!" I said with so much naive enthusiasm. After consulting with some fellow bakers on Twitter, I decided to go with a buttercream frosting. I had never made buttercream, but how hard could it be?

Quick Update

The weather is finally starting to change to fall here in the Pacific NW and with it comes more nights of things like beef stew (below, made for Sunday dinner) and baking.

Our Favorite Things

No, it's not raindrops on roses (although whiskers on kittens are pretty darn cute). However, this weekend I treated our household to our favorite dinners. Mine being sour cream enchiladas, Shawn's being chicken parmesan.

Cultured Butter

My new work schedule has made me very productive in the evenings. I started culturing the cream for my butter project on Sunday afternoon, and actually had enough time to make it on a Monday evening--even after hitting the grocery store, going for a run, making dinner, and prepping Tuesday night's dinner. I'm amazed at how much I'm able to get done these days.