A Girl's Gotta Eat!

Hello again! This is a short one, but I wanted to share now while I was think of it. Mike and I occasionally like to try a new cocktail or beverage.    When were out to dinner with my parents last week for their anniversary dinner (Happy 44 Years, Mom and Dad!), I noticed a Spiced Pear Martini on the menu at Olive Garden. I didn't get one for dinner, but the idea of stuck in my head. I Googled "Spiced Pear Martini" later, and I found a recipe that seemed tasty and easy to whip up.    I would say it tastes more like Christmas cookies than pear, but it's still delicious and very holiday-inspiring. The original recipe places one maraschino cherry at the bottom of the martini glass, but we omitted that as maraschinos are not something we keep on hand, nor would we finish a jar bought for this purpose.   We would make this again, though I think I might look for pear vodka (which I feel certain I've seen before) to see if the outcome would be mo...

Burek (aka Beef Pie ) I have been meaning to write about this place forever. I keep thinking I've already posted about it, then we eat there again and I realize I haven't. For those of you not in the Mt. Juliet/Nashville area..I apologize. You're missing out on an excellent eatery—Cafe Bosna. For those of you in the area who have never heard of it, or who have heard of it and never tried it...what are you waiting for?!  Mike first heard of this place about two years ago via Urbanspoon or Yelp or some such site. It didn't have a ton of ratings yet, but all the ones that were posted were positive. When we finally tried it for the first time, we were instantly in love. It's nothing special to look at, just a little cafe/diner in the bottom level of a corner strip mall. There are maybe 8 tables in the entire place. But the food...oh, the food. Don't come if you aren't hungry...the portions are meant for hungry people. It was difficult to decide what w...

Mike has a PT test at work in a couple weeks and has sworn of red meat while he prepares. (I have made no such pledge.) As such, we decided to that some the fish he caught on his trip to Alaska , figuring we could figure out how to cook it for dinner when the time came. As it happened, I saw the  recipe on the Today show's site  in the afternoon of the day we planned on having it for dinner. How convenient! I did discover that we had actually thawed cod instead of halibut, but it was a white fish from Alaska , so we both figured it would work just as well. Because we had a preportioned amount of cod ready to use which was closer to 2 pounds than one, we opted to double the recipe for the salsa verde. There was also a recipe for asparagus to have as a side dish, but we opted for corn on the cob instead since we already had some at home. This was super-easy and pretty quick to whip up…excellent for a weeknight meal. The fish was moist, cooked-through but certainly not overcook...

Nothing much to say about this recipe other than it was easy, tasty, and made an excellent weeknight meal. We came across it in our much-used copy of Recipes Worth Sharing while making Shrimp and Grits for my MIL's birthday dinner. It looked tasty, and we have salmon in the freezer from Mike's Alaska trip and most of the other ingredients on hand, so it was perfect! The most "difficult" part was cooking and flaking the salmon, but there are a few things you could do for that. 1) Buy smoked salmon. It's more expensive, but easier to flake and you'll save time cooking it. It will impart a stronger flavor, but I think it would be good in the cream cheese-based sauce. We even talked about smoking our own salmon next time and trying it. I'll post an update when we do. 2) Grill salmon for dinner one night and purposely make enough extra to make this pasta a few days later. It will be cool enough that flaking it will be a breeze, and you save a little time no...

While traveling in Europe, Mike and I discovered a delightful new "wurst" we had never tried before: Currywurst. After seeing it on several menus, we decided we had to try it. Oh my word, was it tasty or what. It was so tasty in fact, that we ordered it several more times before returning home. A few days before we came home, we were in a grocery store picking up some local wine and decided to check out the spice aisle to see if there was anything we needed to bring home. Imagine our delight when we saw Knorr's Currywurst sauce mix! Oh, the joy of now knowing we could re-create this yummy dish at home! We had only been home for a little over a week when we decided to bring Germany to the states. We found skinny fries in the frozen section (they always served currywurst "mit Pommes"), picked up some brats and scurried home. I must say...we hit the nail on the head. It's so easy to make. Order the mix from www.germandeli.com , being sure to check out all th...

In the fall of 2008, Mike and I went on a fantastic cruise to Alaska . While in Ketchikan , we decided we needed a light lunch while out on the town. We had been walking around for a while, taking in the sights and trying to catch a glimpse of the jumping salmon in the river that runs through town, and spotted a little café tucked away, with the tasty aroma of coffee wafting from its doors. Mike had a cappuccino; I had a mocha. We both ordered smoked salmon bagels, which was easily one of the tastiest things we ate on the entire trip. And let me assure you that we ate lots of tasty things. When we returned, we wanted to re-create that delicious spread, but encountered 2 dilemmas. First, we needed to find he right recipe. Second, we had to find good, affordable smoked salmon. Finding the recipe was easy (see below). Mike discovered it on food.com (previously recipezaar.com). Finding smoked salmon that wasn’t crazy expensive proved a little more difficult, so we reserved making the spr...