Tag Archives: recipes

Mardi Gras!

Wow! Did you guys realize that February 9th was Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), Pancake day, chocolate day, pizza pie day and national bagel day?! How does a girl decide what event to observe?!

How about you? Did you do anything special on the 9th? Oh, wait… and we cannot forget sweet Cupid knocking on the door to this weekend too, huh? Whew!

While I’ve never officially experienced Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I like to think of myself as slightly indoctrinated into the festival and of course the feast! Yes, my dear friend Mary, born and raised in New Orleans, and her family would celebrate and make a big shebang and invite us on over to partake. When I say shebang…. I’m talking full-scale! The glitz, glitter, beads, masks, Mardi Gras decor, and of course good ol’ N’awlins food!

AH! Each year I looked forward to it! I could practically taste the King cake as the month of February approached each year. You know, looking back and reminiscing, I’m pretty sure she always made sure that I got the baby in my piece of cake too. Mmmmm such sweet memories to savor for a lifetime.

Unfortunately my friend Mary and her family moved onto another country and I feel like it’s my duty to uphold the our little tradition, even if we cannot enjoy it together. Sooooo… deciding what we’d celebrate on February 9th wasn’t a big deal after all. Bring on that good ol’ N’awlins colorful feast!

All of the recipes I used were passed onto me by Mary herself.

^Creamy Cajun Deviled Eggs

^Black-Eyed Peas Salsa served with multi-grain tortilla chips

^Shrimp Creole served with steamed rice

You could practically hear the New Orleans jazz and brass bands in the background couldn’t you? Haha! I feel like we represented well and made her proud this year flying solo? Perhaps next year I’ll snag her King Cake recipe and give it a go and snag some beads for an even more festive feel.

Here are some inspirational Mardi Gras recipes to tickle your fancy. Enjoy!

What’s cooking?

We find ourselves together back here again at the end of the week. Can I get a Fri-YAY!?

While I know we observed MLK day and we had a shorten week compared to most, it just seemed to sort of drag on and on…what do you think? Perhaps it was the REALLY cold temperatures we’ve been experiencing as of late? Whatever the case, let’s get throw in another Fri-YAY! 😉

So what’s been cooking in your kitchen? Do share, we’d love to hear! In the meantime we will share just what’s been going on in ours…

Mr. B made a recipe from his grandparents cookbook dating back to 1949! Beef porcupines. Don’t worry there were no porcupines harmed in the making of the recipe haha! These little guys get their name from the way the rice pops out of the beef when they are done cooking.
Oh Lordy were they absolutely delicious! I know Mr. B made his grandpa proud that night!

^Google them!

Pizza night! Combination pizzas made with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust, 16-Ounce. Have you ever used any of the Bob’s Red Mill mixes? We’ve dabbled in quite a few and always end up pretty pleased.

We topped the pizza with mozzarella, tons of roasted veggies eggplant, yellow peppers, red peppers, red onions, mushrooms, homemade meatballs, cheese filled jalapeños and cracked an egg in the center because we’re crazy like that! Oh and a side of roasted jalapeños filled with melted cheese.

We even ventured into the land of homemade vegetable hummus too! (Hey it’s all about getting those veggies in, right?) Yeah…Green pea hummus to be exact. Pretty outstanding and will make many future appearances in this house. You can thank us for sharing later.

We whipped up vegetarian BBQ. It’s sort of old school family BBQ recipe we have from Ms. B’s grandmother, but with a modern twist of using veggie crumbles.

And of course we mentioned Iowa Girl Eats blog meal on our last post, grilled chicken with a barley-corn salad. Think of the taste of a BIG bread-less BLT (YUM!).

Alright folks, we will meet you back in our kitchen again soon!

The Silver Spoon

Barns and Nobles and Amazon describes The Silver Spoon as the most influential and bestselling Italian cookbook of the last 50 years. They also say that this is the bible of authentic Italian home cooking, featuring over 2,000 recipes, that is uniquely stylish and user-friendly, making it accessible and a pleasure to read. We Bee’s couldn’t agree more!

When I first got my hands on The Silver Spoon in a favorite local cafe, I knew I had to have it. I remember sitting there across from Mr. B one evening carefully pouring over each beautifully illustrated page, imagining the amazing smells coming from our kitchen. Mmmm… After about 5 pages of Oh’s and Ah’s Mr. B was sold too. Hook line and sinker, we were caught! HA HA HA!

I know you are dying to know what we’ve made so far, right? Of course!

(ABOVE) Gardner’s Bag- Roasted fresh bell pepper stuffed with all sorts of delicious things such as, eggplant, garlic, basil leaves, mozzarella and capers. Mr. B was a bit frustrated with the bell peppers not keeping their form once they came out of the oven, but they tasted heavenly nonetheless.

(ABOVE) Pork roulades with apricots- We made this for our dinner guest Kelsey one night. We were all really pleased with the flavors of the apricots mixed with the pork.

(ABOVE) Roasted beef with carrots- Believe me when I say this dish was magical! It sounds all plain Jane and Sunday dinner-ish, but it’s so much more. Think beef wrapped in pancetta with sliced carmelized carrots all seasoned with a brandy, thyme, nutmeg and garlic glaze. Ooooh the stuff kitchen dreams are made of!

Have you heard of the Silver Spoon Recipe book? Perhaps you have even tried a few recipes too? What are your favorites? We’d love to know!

Some Weekdays call for Wasabi

Wasabi is plentiful here in Korea. You can purchase bags of wasabi powder or paste at just about any supermarket. What am I saying? Gosh, wasn’t that just the understatement of the year? What I am getting at is that really anything with a nice spicy kick is plentiful here! Mr. B and I feel that wasabi is one of those ingredients you either love or don’t. For us, we are addicted to the fiery, nose-clearing unexpected heat that takes over the palate. Yes, we are oddballs.. but oh it’s so good!

We recently picked up a new cookbook by Max and Eli Sussman, “The Best Cookbook Ever”. Cocky title right? We were instantly drawn to the exciting recipes like carrot wasabi soup. If you ever have tasted carrot ginger soup this recipe is very similar only edgier with you guessed it, wasabi.

The soup is rather simple and it has you start off by coating your plump carrots in olive oil and roasting in the over. I feel that this one simple factor truly brings out the flavors of the carrots more in the soup. After roasting you then toss the carrots into a blender or food processor with water and the remaining ingredients, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil, and wasabi. The only two adaptations we made to the recipe was we used baby sweet peas instead of sugar snap peas, as well as we would cut the rice vinegar amount in half. Overall Mr. B and I throughly enjoyed the soup and will serve it cold or hot in the future with some dinner guest. Truth be told, I’ve had so much of the soup this week I believe I am starting to get an orangish tint.

Continuing on with our wasabi weekdays kick, we also made salmon sandwiches with wasabi and pickled ginger for dinner one night. What an interesting delicious twist of ingredients on this sandwich! It was light and just a perfect paring for the warmer Spring temperatures we have been enjoying.

Salmon Sandwiches with Wasabi and Pickled Ginger
Slightly adapted from

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup olive oil mayonnaise
1 Teaspoon wasabi paste
2 Cups (14.75-ounce can) canned Alaskan wild salmon, drained
8 Slices of Ezekiel bread, toasted
4 Thin slices red onion
4 Thin rings yellow bell pepper
4 Teaspoons sliced pickled ginger
1 Cup arugula

Directions:

Combine the mayonnaise and wasabi paste and stir until smooth. Taste. Add in more wasabi, if desired, to tickle your fancy. Gently fold in the salmon.

Place 4 slices of the bread on a work surface and top each with the salmon mixture, 1 onion slice separated into rings, 1 pepper ring, 1 teaspoon ginger, and 1/4 cup arugula. Top with the remaining 4 slices of bread. Enjoy!

So what are your thoughts are on wasabi?
Do you think you could handle the carrot wasabi soup? (Honestly, it wasn’t that spicy)
What’s cooking in your kitchen this weekend?

Grandfather’s Granddaughter

A great man once told me, “Take a handful of mixed jelly beans with some peanuts and pop them into your mouth for a sweet and salty combination.”

🙂

I am undoubtedly my grandfather’s granddaughter.

We both enjoy the finer things in life…

You know what I am talking about..

S W E E T S!

There is no denying where this sweet tooth of mine comes from.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 can of coconut milk

1/2 cup puréed pure pumpkin

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Oops, I forgot this in the photo)

1/2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

Combine all of your ingredients and mix well with a whisk. Whisk, whisk, whisk. Pour everything into your ice cream maker and hit start. Pop into the freezer a bit longer.

Done, easy as that! If you desire sprinkle with a few chopped up pecans and cinnamon. Mmm!

Oh no.. that is not the only pumpkin treat baking in the Bee’s kitchen this afternoon.

No, Halloween didn’t come early.. that isn’t some scary Witch waiting by the oven.. It’s all nat-ur-allll me!

Pumpkin Sticky Buns

I may or may not have practically drank the cream cheese frosting.

Thankfully this isn’t live TV. ha ha! So you all will never really know.

Goodness, before you know it… “just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling”..

Sorry, I couldn’t contain myself. But really.. it’s right around the corner. I couldn’t be more delighted! We Bees have so many blessings to celebrate this year.

My heart skips right out of my chest when I think about how much I love to give gifts, send out greeting cards, see the lights, decorated trees, capture memories on my camera.

Oh, and of course SEEING our family and dear friends too!

Anyone want to share pumpkiny recipes? Brews, stews, bakes, etc. I am all eyes and ears.