A Girl's Gotta Eat!

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...

Remember yesterday’s fish leftovers? I was brainstorming as I was driving home from work today, trying to decided how to reheat the fish so it wouldn’t dry out when two words came to mind: Fish Tacos. We already had everything we needed: the fish, salsa verde, queso fresco, and some extra fresh cilantro. I stopped on the way home to grab some corn tortillas and a bag of coleslaw mix, just the dry shredded cabbage/carrot blend without dressing. (I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t seem right to me to have fish or shrimp tacos on flour torillas, which we had at home.) This is how we made ours: First, I set out the cod and salsa verde to start to come to room temperature. Then the coleslaw…I mixed up some mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt, and a sprinkle of cumin for the coleslaw dressing. Everything was done to taste, so there’s no recipe I used and really no way to go wrong. We like our coleslaw moistened with dressing, not swimming in it, so ...

It’s that time of year again: Mike’s birthday! A few weeks ago, we were looking at German recipes to try in honor of Oktoberfest while we were renting a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains . We found Oktoberfest Strudel , a delightful savory pastry dish that called our names immediately. We decided it might be a bit much to transport all that we would need to make it there, so we opted to wait and try it as Mike’s birthday dinner. We invited Mike’s family over and decided to go ahead and double the recipe, making two strudels. I will admit, I was a little hesitant about using phyllo pastry, having tried it to make empanadas with disastrous results. Still, pastry stuffed with apples, sauerkraut, bratwurst, and mustard was too tempting not to take the chance. I had much better luck with the phyllo this time. Be sure you brush it well with butter as directed, and don’t forget a damp towel over the sheets you’re not working with. Also, a few of my sheets stuck together, so I left them toge...

I meant to post this one two weeks ago, so I'll keep it short. Mike had drill, and he had been hungry for "regular spaghetti." I decided to take it up a notch and create homemade marinara and meatballs. I wanted a recipe for marinara that was reliable, but easy. We have a cookbook from Mario Batali that came in handy. The following recipe was super-easy and super-tasty. I don't know that we'll buy marinara again. I'm not a fan of big tomato chunks, so I used my immersion blender to smooth out the chunky bits. It's really up to your personal taste, though. I doubled the recipe, mostly due to the fact that I love really saucy pasta. It was fantastic having leftovers. The sauce especially turned out extremely scrumptious, and the original recipe specifies that you can freeze the sauce for up to 6 months. We didn't have any to freeze after a week, but it's duly noted. :) I didn't use a recipe for the meatballs, but I used 1 pound of lean ground...

Mike had the lead on choosing dinner last night. I find he always chooses something tasty, and many times finds recipes I may have skimmed over for some reason. This time, as soon as he was telling me his choice, I knew the exact one. I had been eyeballing it myself ever since last month's issue of Food Network Magazine came in. It was practically calling for us to eat it...Grilled Shrimp and Noodle Salad. We love eating Asian cuisine, but rarely find ourselves making it at home unless it's an Asian sauce or other condiment on some seafood (particularly salmon.) This, though, looked too scrumptious not to try. Frustratingly, we hit a snafu before even beginning. The recipe calls for (and this was a big draw for me) flat rice noodles. Easy to pick up at your neighborhood grocer, right? Wrong! Unable to find said noodles while shopping, Mike bought very authentic, very wheat-based Japanese noodles from the international aisle at Kroger. Certain I could find them, I headed out ...

This past week was a particularly hard one in the Nash house. We very suddenly and unexpectedly lost our beloved cat, King Lear. With the stress of visiting vets and grieving our loss, cooking for ourselves was pretty far down on our to-do list. Cooking, however, can be therapeutic as well as necessary, so yesterday we decided to try a new recipe for Smoky Enchilada Soup. The weather was gloomy (like our mood), and it sounded like the perfect comfort food—warm, easy, and soothing. We made everything as directed and were quite pleased. You can adjust the amount of adobo if you need it more or less spicy, but it was about perfect for me as-is. Don’t skip the queso fresco on top…it really adds a nice little touch. I found the recipe in Texas Tables , a multiple award-winner from the Junior League of North Harris and South Montgomery Counties . Smoky Enchilada Soup ¼ cup vegetable oil 1½ cups finely chopped onions 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, chopped 2 tablespoons chicken base 1 t...

Hello again! I feel like it's been forever since I posted a new recipe, but I suppose it's only been a little over a week. Tonight, Mike and I tried a “new” recipe from our March 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine, Chicken Korma. Oh...my...goodness...was this tasty or what? Let me tell you, we thought it was delicious. I've heard about layering flavors on various cooking shows we watch, and Mike and I agreed that this was a prime example.  It did take us slightly longer than the 35 minutes cook time posted in the magazine, but we think that’s partly because we multitask and partly because we cook with electric heat instead of gas. We made the recipe almost exactly as described, with two exceptions. We found ground chicken was sold only in 1-pound increments, so we used the entire pound and added a little extra coriander and cumin (the latter of which is one of our favorite spices.) The other exception is that we couldn't find pita bread without pockets, so we used Fl...