All packed up and ready to eat

Here are two side dishes all ready to be transported in the pyrex to a dinner get together. They were colorful, easy to make and tasted alright. As much as I usually like sauces and such I think they have had a bit too much, especially the corn salad. I had already reduced the oil by quite a bit in that recipe so it should probably be reduced significantly. I think they are still worth a try and with a little experimentation could become summer gathering staples.

Corn Salad
Haricots Verts with Grape Tomato Salad and Creme Fraiche Dressing

Bombay Sliders with Garlic Curry Sauce

These are so delicious. The first time I made them they were difficult to flip so I made sure I packed the little patties a little firmer this time around. I've made them with turkey and with bison. The mayo is great and would be great on a sandwich or regular burger. Give it a try - a Memorial Day Twist perhaps?


Sliders recipe

Birthday Extravaganza

The spread...





This is my new favorite dessert to make. The original recipe calls for raspberries but blackberries happen to be on sale more often at my market. The custard is divine.




I have been making these over and over since I got the recipe from a Springside parent. Muffins, bread, even in a cake pan and sliced into bars. Every way is fabulous!


A Basic Chocolate Cake recipe in a bundt pan. Better for presentation.


These are the cinnamon buns that my friend Cari makes and I love. My brown sugar had been hard and instead of taking the time to get it soft I just crumbled it and the results weren't top notch. Instead of a nice gooey mess the sugar made a hard shell on top. Oh darn, I had to keep this reject at home and pick at it.

"Oh Geez!"

These were my exact, quite audible, words that emerged when this delightful treat became framed in the window of Cone Heads at Deli Delite today. Truthfully, it was a bit loud. Some people laughed. Strangers. They must have been thinking, "There's a newbie."
And it is true. I had never been there before. After rationalizing that those few tea sandwiches I ate at a colleague's retirement celebration qualified as dinner I headed straight to Cone Heads. It took me awhile to decide. All I knew was that they had ice cream. I wasn't sure if it was soft serve, dipped, a few flavors, many...there was a lot to wonder. I decided to go with a tried and true favorite of mine: Moose Tracks. Now size - there were many to choose from but I figured medium would do. Well, I hung around reading about the breakfast specials available at the restaurant portion of this establishment and did think for a second, Hmmm..it is taking a while to get a scoop of ice cream. And then it emerged. That, my friends is a medium. I will say it was definitely worth my $3.25. As surprised as I was by the tower of ice cream, I am a professional:And that, of course is long gone.

It is all Katie's fault

Katie, I am sorry to do this to you but I am going to hold you and Argentina responsible for the next five pounds I gain. I have been following my friend Katie's blog since she left us all for adventure south of the equator. Recently she tested out a dulce de leche brownie recipe and I just couldn't let things lie. I had to try it. I made my own dulce de leche...Woohoo! It is so good and as warned by every website that discusses the glorious food I kept eating it with a spoon right out of the dish. I took a shortcut and mixed my homemade dulce de leche into a box mix. Thank you Krusteaz! Well the dulce de leche is wonderful and the brownies.....I must not eat any more. The dulce de leche was so easy to make. I followed this recipe.

When it first came out of the oven it had a little thinned milk still on top.







After a whisk it was smooth and creamy.










Luckily I had just finished off a jar of another wonderful treat so I had someplace to store the leftovers.











The brownies:

The Julie/Julia/Stephanie Project

Some of you may have heard of the Julie/Julia project. It all began with a blog and one woman's goal of cooking all 536 recipes in Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I find the idea quite intriguing and I suppose other people did as Julie Powell's memoir is one of the two books that inspired the latest Meryl Streep movie - Julie & Julia. The film is scheduled for an August 7th release. Anyhow, as intrigued as I am and as related it is to my own much less ambitious goal I have one question. How in the world did this Julie woman afford it?!?!?!?! I just opened my credit card bill and good grief, this is already costing me a lot of money. And so that is why this is my dinner tonight:

It is just regular whole wheat rotini, on sale at acme 10 for 10 this week, with some jar sauce and cheese and olives that were already in my cupboard/frig. Now, I will admit that cooking since I moved into the new house has been a challenge. You would think it would be the exact opposite, but no. You see, when I moved out of the Roxborough house I gave a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff to charity. And Anna took the items she won in the "custody battles." :) So you see, it has been a costly endeavor to work my way up to a functioning kitchen. One of the first meals I tried to prepare were some sloppy joes. Nothing fancy. I believe I was speaking to Anna on the phone, happy to have a house, browning away the ground turkey. Well when I went to pop open that can of sauce, realization struck. I no longer owned a can opener. That had been Anna's. Luckily I dug out one of those punch contraptions and that was sufficient enough for that scenario. In anycase, with each recipe I review not only must I be carefully checking my pantry for spices, but I must be carefully inspecting drawers and cabinets to make sure I have all the contraptions required. Thankfully, I finally have all the needed accessories to make a quick spaghetti dinner now. And it was good.

Asian Flank Steak

While shopping at the international market I picked up a flank steak. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but it just looked so darn good. I searched around different sites and settled on an Emeril recipe: Asian Flank Steak
I skipped the cold noodles and went with a Shitake Mushroom Risotto. That was from a box. It is a weeknight after all.