Today’s Menu: Buffalo Burger Pattie Melt w/ Baked Crinkle Fries

For Breakfast this morning I Poached an Egg and served it on a toasted Thomas Light English Muffin. Also had a cup of Bigelow Decaf Green Tea. Above freezing today, 34 degrees and partly cloudy out. We still have snow covering the grass but the walks and roads are all clear. Not a lot going on today i was battling a sinus headache all day. For Dinner tonight I had a Buffalo Burger Pattie Melt w/ Baked Crinkle Fries.

As always I’m using the Wild Idea Buffalo 1/3-Lb Burgers. Just love these Buffalo Burgers; meaty, juicy and just flat out delicious! Preheated up a skillet that I sprayed with Pam Cooking Spray, seasoned my Burger with McCormick Grinder Sea Salt and Black Peppercorn. I then pan fried it about 3 1/2 minutes per side, and done. After I flipped the…

i am beyond excited that i have FINALLY achieved a complete replica of my mom’s traditional banana bread !! mine uses a different flour and some other substitutes, but even she said that this one tastes exactly like hers!!

we always had banana bread or zucchini bread in the kitchen when we were younger, thx mom for baking weekly 😉

this banana bread is legit the perfect texture. it’s not grainy like baked goods can be with certain GF flours; it’s also not doughy or super dense like other paleo baked goods are when there is less flour involved, i mean it when i say it’s literally perfect.

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i considered using organic cane sugar for this bread in order to make it JUST like the recipe of my mom’s… but i decided not to when i came to the realization that the main reason i wanted to do that was…

these cookies are based on a recipe that comes with the oats i buy. the oats themselves are gluten-free, which means the absolute and only ingredient in them is the actual oats themselves. win. these cookies are free of gluten, dairy, and refined sugar.

i made some changes to the recipe that the oats suggest… i wanted to use unrefined sweetener, and i also wanted to make them dough edible before cooking [cause i always dig in to the dough]. i used coconut sugar to sweeten the dough, and used a few flax eggs so that the batter would be completely appropriate to eat ‘raw.’ still, i can’t decide if the dough is better or the baked cookies. you let me know!

the other ingredients on the list for these PB OATMEAL COOKIES include peanut butter, obviously, along with vegan butter (i used myokos’s vegan butter that is coconut oil-based)…

Last week at the office, one of the ex-accountants came over to our area to say hello to us.  Somehow or another, the conversation turned into a food conversation, and he mentioned about one of the desserts that I had made before.  After a few guesses, I found out it was the Chocolate Trifle he was talking about.  I had not made this dessert for several years, so he proceeded to ask me to make this dessert for his birthday!

I had a hard time saying no, I guess because of my Asian culture.  Most Asians will not come out and say no; I guess this has something to do with saving face?  I just need to learn how to say no.  Big N and a big O.  NO.

Anyway, in wishing that his birthday would not be in the near term (maybe six months down the road, or already…

Last month at work, we got two days worth of lunch ordered by the Department.  When I first got the email that lunch will be ordered, I got suspicious.  What do they want from us that they ordered us lunch?  Ha ha… well, that is true.  This perk at work was taken away five years ago, when things started heading south.   Then all of a sudden, they ordered us lunch two days in a row.  Wouldn’t you be suspicious too if you were in my place?  Anyway, the second day lunch was ordered from a restaurant here in downtown.  It’s called Treebeards.  Treebeards is known for its red beans and rice, and it’s delicious, to die for, buttercake.  And no, it is not the Treebeard, one of the oldest three Ents from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Although now I am curious why the restaurant has…

This year, we were informed by our cousins that the theme for our Christmas gathering would be Italian. Facing up to the challenge, I scoured the internet and I stumbled upon Rossella’s blog, which contains everything Italian, from appetizers to desserts.

While everything looked really delicious, I had to think of logistics and presentation issues. Forgoing anything that needed to be served in an individual server or immediately out of the oven, etc., I settled on several Christmas recipes that interested me. One of them was the Ricotta Cheesecake.

Upon hearing my selection, Hubby suggested that I make the ricotta cheese myself. Hence, my previous post, the Homemade Ricotta Cheese. Rosella also provided a Youtube video, which I also watched several times, especially when Nonna was making the crust.

The ingredients were not too complicated. For the crust, milk, butter, egg, sugar, baking powder, and flour. For…

When I was looking at Rossella’s blog, I also found this recipe. Since I had leftover ricotta cheese, I decided to go ahead and make these Pistachio Ricotta Cookies. They were so good – although I am biased whenever it comes to pistachios. I love all nuts, but pistachios rank pretty high up on my list.

The ingredients were not too complicated. It contained all the ingredients for regular cookies: egg, butter, sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. The two things that made them special were the ricotta cheese and the pistachios. For icing, it just used powdered sugar and milk. For toppings, well, it used chopped pistachios.

I employed my food processor to grind the nuts. Had I not had this food processor, I might have thought twice at wanting to make this recipe. If the grocery carried the pistachio meal, I probably would have bought…

Imagine a cold day and the house filled with the warm smells of spices, onions, and chicken. I love boiling roasters in my Dutch oven, my grandma used to do it like that, so I enjoy cooking it that way and feeling like she is with me in the kitchen.

This is an easy 2 meal option with 1 roasted. I plan to use the broth and half of the chicken for chicken noodle soup one night and freeze some of the broth as well.

I also have notes at the bottom for how to do this in the crockpot as well.

Let’s get started!

Ingredients

• 1 roasted chicken (typically 5-7 pounds)
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, chopped roughly
• 3 pieces of celery, chopped roughly
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp herbs de Provence(Trader Joe’s carries this spice)
• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tbsp…

This is one of my favorite cozy meals to turn to when we’ve lounged all day and it’s cold outside. Basically, it’s the perfect Sunday meal!

My grandma used to make this all the time and her beef and gravy was soooo good! I have yet to really nail it like hers, but I’m pretty happy with it! I’m also a sucker for good creamy mashed potatoes and the combination is so dang good!

Let’s get started!

Ingredients

• 1lb roast, chuck roast or stew meat
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 2clovesgarlic, minced
• salt & pepperto taste
• 1/4teaspoon parsley
• 2cups beef broth
• 1/2 stick ofbutter
• 2tablespoons flour
• 1/3cupeach of frozen peas, corn and green beans
• 2 cup Mashed Potatoes (see below for my recipe)

Directions

1. You can make your meat a few different ways…

This is one of my favorite dishes… EVER! it’s my grandmothers recipe, something she would make for me all the time and deliver it herself. As time grew and I got older my grandmother and I spent a whole lot of time together, weekly lunch dates, grocery trips, Sunday lunches spent on the couch watch QVC and I would make her spaghetti pie in her kitchen so she would have it throughout the week when I left.

I used to make enough so we could freeze some, take it out at a later time, thaw it and put it into the oven for an easy dinner night.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my grandma and when I make this dish, I remember her in her kitchen as she would make it for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Let’s get…

Easy dinner weeknight meals is always something that I try to do no matter what time of year. However, in the summertime I find myself  for weeknight meals that let us enjoy the warm evening weather as a family even more so. What better way to achieve this for those long lazy summer nights than a BBQ dinner of steak and homemade caesar salad. So quick and easy to prepare, it has become a favorite in our home.

Here is what you will need for the steaks: 

• 2 New York strip steak (or whatever cut of steak you prefer)
• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp black pepper
•  2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, crushed coriander, dried dill and read pepper flakes
• olive oil

How to prepare the steaks:

• Heat the BBQ
• Bring steaks to room temperature.
• Mix together in a bowl salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion…

I love making mussels in white wine, it is one of my favour dishes ever! I love them so much, I have posted recipes before but this one is a bit different. When the weather is nice, I like to do them on the BBQ. Very quick, simple and delicious.

Here is what you will need:

• 3 pounds of mussels
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp good olive oil
• 1 cup chopped scallions
• 1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 cup canned dice tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp good saffron threads
• 1/3 cup chopped basil
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 cup good white wine
• 1 chopped hot pepper for extra spice
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper

Here is how to make it:

• To clean the mussels, put them in a…