Well, it’s about that time of year when families far and near will be gathering around the table to enjoy each other’s company over a delicious meal. This year will be a little bittersweet for me as I know that I will be missing at least two of my kiddos plus their spouses for dinner… sniff, sniff. I do know that they are growing up and their lives are taking them other places so I am so very proud of them but I’m really gonna miss them… in fact, I already miss them and they aren’t even gone yet!

We will be having our dinner this year and we will have plenty of family favorites to enjoy. I was really HOPING and PRAYING that we would be having it in our new home but that doesn’t seem like it will happen this year… sigh. I am so THANKFUL

Here’s something that you may not have known about me… I grew up in the mushroom capital of the world! Yep, I did. For a long time, I only associated mushrooms with a REALLY BAD SMELL because we lived right next door to a mushroom company and boy does it stink when they clean out the mushroom houses.

Luckily I have grown to love them and I know that they are really good for us as they are full of VITAMIN D! I did chuckle when I read about ‘sunning’ my mushrooms in my Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook. This recipe as it is would not be THM approved but I may try to make some adjustments to it in the future.

This is a recipe that I’ve had for a LONG time and I love these things! I could probably eat all of them in one sitting if no…

This easy meal allows your slow cooker to do all the work. It is sweet and tender with a little heat. The shredded chicken breast is a bit dry when cooked, so in order to compensate for that, I reduce the cooking juices at the end to create a sauce for the dish that adds a lovely flavor to the stir fry and noodles.  If you have extra chicken, it works beautifully in a salad.  This healthy,  colorful meal is a great way to make a family happy!

Serves 4-6

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons chili garlic paste, more for extra heat
• 5 minced garlic cloves
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch

Stir fry and noodles:

• 8 oz favorite Asian Noodles
• 2…

This recipe is a perfect way to produce a delicious meal and have your slow cooker do all the work. I have an all clad slow cooker which allows you to sear on the stove and transfer to the slow cooker using the same pot. Start your ragu in the morning and return hours later to a sauce of tender and delicious sauce. I like to use papparadelle for this sauce as it absorbs the ragu so well. Low and slow will give you excellent results and a great sauce that your whole family will enjoy:

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:

• 4tablespoonsolive oil (divided, some for beef, some for pasta )
• 3-4 poundsround roast(or any slow cooking beef with fat trimmed
• 1largeonion, finely chopped
• 5clovesgarlic, finely copped or minced
• 214 ounce canned diced tomatoes
• 1/2-3/4cupfull bodiedred wine

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…

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…

I love making pizzettes. They are so taste and you can do so many different varieties, the combinations are endless (strawberries and basil drizzled in balsamic glaze, caramelized onions and brie – you name it). I love pairing this version of bruschetta with a melbec like Kaiken. Very smooth, light and easy drinking. You can also find the original recipe on my first blog post It’s all about the food!

Here is what you will need:

• Naan breads
• Mini bocconcini cut,
• Olive oil,
• Tomatoes cored and chopped
• Garlic minced
• Fresh basil chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Balsamic glaze.

How to make the bruschetta pizzette:

• Preheat the oven to 425. In a bowl combine bocconcini, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Place Naan bread on a pizza pan or baking sheet. Spread bruschetta mixture over the Naan bread. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Take out of…

There is nothing like the smell of homemade bread wafting through my house as it bakes early on a Saturday morning. Making bread from scratch use to scare me until my parents bought me a bread machine. Don’t worry, this post is NOT about baking bread in a bread machine but it is unfortunately how I started to learn how to make bread.
There is something gratifying and therapeutic about making homemade bread. I don’t think I’ve bought a loaf of store bought bread for about 3 years – it is just that good!
The big differences that you will find with homemade bread vs. store bought bread are taste and shelf life. The taste of homemade bread is out of this world and is probably one of the most comforting tastes you can have when a warm slice has been cut and smeared with butter…just heavenly! The other difference…

My husband is from Newfoundland, so cod is a fish that we eat quite often. When we go “home” cod is always something that we look forward to having because it is so fresh. This recipe is a very simple dish that has been a staple in many Newfoundland kitchens, it has a mild flavour and is a flakey white fish, so I find that most kids will eat it. I usually top the cod with coleslaw and sliced avocado but it also tastes good with hollandaise sauce. I also use my homemade bread recipe to make buns but you can easily use brioche buns which, tastes so good with it. Haddock comes from the same family as cod, so you can easily substitute with it in this recipe.

Here is what you will need:

• 1 1/2 – 2 pounds of salted cod
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 onion chopped

When it comes to sort of fast food, I like to eat at The Habit Burger Grill.  But I do not want to spend precious WW points eating a burger on a bun. That would be more than half of my total daily points! At The Habit you can get their burgers and sandwiches as a lettuce wrap. So I order the tuna filet sandwich as a lettuce wrap.

Tuna lettuce wrap

I am not satisfied with a piece of tuna in a bunch of lettuce, though. I bring along a toasted pita half, cut a pita-sized portion of the tuna and stuff it, some lettuce, and a slice of tomato into my pita. Now I have a nice hand-held sandwich to eat. WW points=4 for the tuna and its dressing (no teriyaki sauce, please) and WW points=2 for the pita, so a total of 6 WW points.

Tuna filet…

Are you a ham or turkey kind of person for the holidays?

I’m a turkey kind of gal. Actually, I could care less what the entree is; my favorite part of holiday meals are the sides. Give me a plate full of stuffing and mashed potatoes any day over sliced turkey or ham.

My family usually cooks a turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for Christmas. One year, my mom really, really wanted something called a “country ham”. She had it specially ordered from Virginia or Georgia and hung it up in our pantry for the month leading up to Christmas.

When it was time to bite down on the treasured ham—you couldn’t get through one bite. It was so, so salty. It was the saltiest thing I had ever tasted in my life. We had to throw that country ham away and have been doing turkey for both holidays…

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Cod not to be confused with salt cod is something I eat often. Most seafood I’m really not that into but ill make a exception for cod. I prefer meatier fish like cod, mahi, or tuna. The challenge is keeping me interested so I’m always trying to think of different ways to get it in my diet.

I pass up my paella pan on the daily. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t use it more often since its perfectly good pan and I make paella only maybe twice a year. So I promised my pan I utilize it more. So here’s me keeping my promise to it. I can’t be the only one that thinks this pan is incredibly under utilized right? I love it because its the epitome of one pot , pan to table meals. You don’t need a serving platter or extra dishes. Everything looks pretty impressive…

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So it’s that time of year, the squirrels are stealing patio furniture stuffing, to carry up the trees and it driving me absolutely crazy. I thought that ended there, but I noticed my basil plants look a little… manhandled and distressed. So that’s where I drew the line. So, although I’m trying and working on it. I have absolutely no green thumb. But I must pat myself on the back because its getting a little better. So this unprompted attack on my basil was a big blow and now personal. So I collected a good portion of the plant. I just want it outside as much as it can be before I have to bring everyone in before the real cold sets in.

With that being said I’ve been having to think of ways to utilize all this basil. Meatballs came to mind and I love meatballs, but I live…

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I’m getting a cold so maybe I just have honey bourbon on the brain. I went to the store the other day and I saw this franks red hot dry mix. I figured it looked interesting enough. I saw it a couple times before and it definitely stood out in the spice aisle. This time I went for it.

With the cold weather out I’m already getting ready for a lot of smoking. I’m even getting a lot request from people to not forget about them when I do. It’s not till after these storms and showers that I’ll resupply the wood and keep a pile just for smoking. The only thing with a wood pile comes snakes. The thought alone stresses me out. Since the last couple storms haven’t passed and its a beautiful day out. I decided let set up the grill. This was probably my best fire…