Molten Lava Cakes {Culinary Bucket List #2 February}

February 18, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

The infamous molten chocolate lava cake, foodie trend and a recipe that is now on every restaurants menu. Supposedly these miniature cakes were invented when Michelin star and James Beard award winner chef Jean Georges accidentally undercooked a batch of mini chocolate cakes back in the 80’s. We thank you chef Georges.

Making these was a no brainer. Shane loves them + Valentine’s day = dessert. Although we stuffed ourselves with king crab legs, there is always room for chocolate right? Actually that is not true. As good as these were I couldn’t eat much of mine, between the baby and crustacean legs I didn’t have room left. Don’t worry, we got a gym sesh in that morning.

Luckily the recipe makes four of these babies. I kept the batter in the fridge for the next day. Winning!

I never realized how easy the recipe for these were and I had all the ingredients at home, you probably do too. The only mistake I made, was using flour to dust the ramekins with instead of cocoa powder. Sorry Martha Stewart.

I used this recipe from Food and Wine and didn’t change a thing.

Grilled Fish Tacos {Culinary Bucket List February}

February 17, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

I know my way around a fish taco, chances are if they are on the menu I will order them. Unless it’s made with tuna, that is not the right fish for a taco people. So why haven’t I made them before? I don’t know, maybe because Shane isn’t a fan and it always seemed like a lot of work for myself. That was closed minded. These were easy and so good.

The other night we wanted to have fish for dinner. We all know we shouldn’t be eating farm raised fish, so finding a good fresh piece of wild caught fish for a price that doesn’t resemble a price tag at Tiffany’s isn’t the easiest, cha-ching. We came across some wild sole at Costco which worked out perfect. I could make sole piccata one night and have leftovers for the tacos. Damn I’m brilliant.

I marinated the fish in a little of this and a little of that. Olive oil, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, diced jalapeño, salt and pepper. While that was hanging out I made the white sauce. This is where I took a small short cut. I had some some habanero salsa left over so I mixed that with sour cream, lime juice and salt to taste. That’s it.
I threw the fish on the grill and warmed the tortillas. Once the fish was done I smeared some white sauce on a tortilla, topped with fish, then with cabbage, drizzled with lime and Tapatio of course. Then I shoveled it in my face. Delicious.

*Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay Cooking Light.

No-Bake Bars

January 29, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

So I saw this recipe on Pinterest and since I had all the ingredients on hand I thought it would be a fun cooking lesson to do with K. I thought wrong, I did all the work while she ate chocolate chips and walnuts. slacker.

This really is a super simple treat to make and would be perfect to make with kids…or without. Did I mention they are delicious, cause they are. The recipe made more than I expected and these are rich so I froze half of the batch to devour at a later date. What can I say, I’m a planner.

You should gather these ingredients and get to it.

Chicken Piccata

January 27, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 7 Comments

This was the best damn Chicken Piccata I have ever had. Maybe it is because I was thinking about it all week but Shane contests it was good. He asked why I was going to so much work for dinner, clearly he doesn’t understand cravings…It. Was. Necessary.

Honestly it isn’t that much work, just make sure everything is ready to go when you get started. Since I am on the wagon for awhile, it would have been handy to have little those bottles of Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc laying around for this dish. Luckily Shane took one for the team and made it worth opening a good bottle. Maybe that is why it was so good…the wine. mmmm wine.

This recipe is from Cooking Light. Don’t change a thang.

Culinary Bucket List {January}

January 21, 2014January 21, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

Our Chinese New Year dinner party was a perfect excuse for me to kick off my culinary bucket list. I have only made a few Chinese dishes in my life and I won’t lie, it was hard to find a couple recipes that weren’t longer then the Cheesecake Factory menu.

Friends don’t let friends eat at chain restaurants.

I decided on Chow Fun noodles and Yang Yang crispy beef. They both turned out great and I can foresee making the noodles again and but as good beef was, it was fried and I don’t do fried foods. Don’t get me wrong they are D-E-licious to eat but I don’t dig having grease splattered along my counter top. Then you have to figure out what to do with a pot of used oil, gross.

I made sure to have all my ingredients prepped and ready to go.

Mise en place

I left them meatless and it was just fine. I found all the ingredients at Ranch 99 market, although it took me awhile wandering around the store. I boiled the fresh noodles for about 2 minutes and then drained them before adding them to the wok. Next time I would use a tad less ginger and add some sambal {spicy chili paste}.

The beef was pretty easy to cook, cutting the meat took all the time.

The only thing I can suggest is if you go to all the work to make these dishes, serve them right away. Taking Chinese food to a dinner party isn’t the best way to go about it.

Getting enough to eat at our dinner parties is never a problem. I didn’t get all the dishes but here is a glimpse of what we devoured.

Broccoli with Sausage

January 18, 2014January 18, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

What? A recipe? Did I surprise you? It’s been months since I have posted anything food related on here. This must mean the morning sickness is easing up, right?

This dish or I should say this recipe has been on a steady rotation for dinner since I ripped it out of my magazine last Spring. Broccoli rabe or rapini has slowly disappeared from Sprouts so in place I use broccoli, just as good I swear.

It’s Paleo friendly, easy to make and good for any meal of the day. Try topped with an egg for breakfast.

The only thing I do different than the original recipe is use less oil . If you are using pork sausage it doesn’t need too much extra grease, you know what I am saying?. You might find you need more oil if using chicken sausage but I doubt it.

*For Paleo substitute olive oil for coconut oil.

1 pound broccoli rabe, rapini or broccoli

2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

4 ounces hot Italian sausage—casings removed, meat crumbled

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Pinch of crushed red pepper

Salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

In a pot of salted boiling water, cook the broccoli until nearly tender, 4 minutes. Drain and let cool. Squeeze and pat dry, then chop.

Heat skillet to medium high and add the sausage and cook over moderately high heat, breaking it up into small pieces, until browned. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, the garlic and red pepper to the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Add the broccoli {rabe} and cook, stirring, until tender, 3 minutes. Season with salt. Add the lemon juice and toss. Serve with pecorino or parmesan.

Weekend Things

January 13, 2014 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

I have my first appointment with the perinatologist scheduled, I got a load of blood drawn Friday, a flu shot on the calendar for Kaili and I picked up my Harmony prenatal test, once our insurance updates I can go get it taken care of.

We spent the weekend watching football of course but looking through my photos it also revolved around food.

I actually bought strawberries at Costco to make fruit roll ups but this ended up happening. Sorry, not sorry.

Does she look 2 here? I’d say more like 2 1/2 right?

We woke up Saturday morning and made banana bread. She quit on me early.

Fresh squeezed orange juice, it tasted as good as I hoped.

Hummus is one of K’s favorite things to eat so instead of buying stock in it I decided to make some. I used this recipe, recipe approved.

Sunday morning we hit Miramar resevoir for a glimpse of the ducks and a short walk.

I managed to stay off all social media last night so that I can enjoy the Golden Globes all alone this morning. A few of our shows started back up and I can say I really missed Shameless and I think True Detective is going to be some good T.V. You should watch it.

A Little Of This, A Little Of That

December 31, 2013December 31, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

I have been making these salads since Shane’s birthday. Two a night, one in his size and one in her size. Mixed greens with arugula of course, strawberries or apples, goat cheese or gorgonzola and candied walnuts. It really doesn’t matter what you put in it because it’s always good but I have to share the dressing with you. I usually just whisk together a good balsamic and olive oil and call it done but I decided to add in a little jalapeño jelly and it blew my mind, it was that good, sweet, a tad spicy just delicious. Why have I never thought of doing this before? Jalapeño jelly, pepper jelly or even a berry jelly. Just try it.

On the pregnancy front, no news is good news? Things have been seemingly uneventful which is good I think. So uneventful that dare I say the morning sickness might be going away? Don’t jinx it.

Kaili was happy to go back to school and Shane and I spent the morning watching episode after episode of Breaking Bad, let’s hear if for holiday marathons.. The weather has been ridiculously nice. I assume winter will hit us sometime soon so K and I took advantage of the warm sunshine.

Gah, she is CUTE.

Hope you all have a rockin’ New Years eve. We might go a little crazy and watch a movie and I will be snug as a bug in bed before 10:00 so say hello to 2014 for me.

See you next year.

October Dinner Theme {Halloween} In Pictures

October 29, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

This months dinner theme was to make a dish that has to do with Halloween, I am actually surprised in all these years we haven’t done this yet. I made Jason Vorhees’ ribs, pumpkin patch hummus and ginger pumpkin cheesecake bars.
Somehow I screwed up the cheesecake bar crust, I must have measured wrong and I over cooked it. The outcome, flavor wise was good but hard and chewy. The cheesecake part was delish.

Pumpkin + black bean chili

Shrunken head roast surprise

Mummy bacon

Cheesy fingers

Severed fingers

Jason’s ribs

Creepy egg eyeballs

Guacamole pumpkin surprise

Spider cupcakes

Ginger pumpkin cheesecake bars

Kitty liter cake

The girls had fun playing together aka destroying the house.

Kaili wasn’t too fond of Chris’ costume.

Cutest couple goes to these two.

Friends don’t let friends give their baby toy guns.

Another successful dinner party. Culinary wise, this wasn’t our best but we sure had fun.

Catching Up

October 11, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday after dropping K off at school and catching up with my Tuesday night shows I found myself rummaging through the refrigerator. We just recieved our Farm fresh to you delivery and since I somehow screwed up our delivery dates this weeks box was the same as last. Soooo I found myself with a lot of extra shit I needed to do something with before we leave for AZ next week.

I don’t love squash and now that Fall is here they are in abundance. I decided I would pawn the two Delicata squash I had on to Kaili. I cut them in half, scooped out their guts, drizzled with Olive oil and roasted them for an hour at 350. While they were cooking I found two lonely chicken breasts in the freezer, along with the handful of lemons hanging around I decided I would make chicken piccata for lunch, you know, surprise Shane with a gourmet lunch once he got home. Isn’t that what good wives are supposed to do? Ha, well once a year aint bad right?

When the squash was cool enough to handle I scraped the meat out and pureed it with a tad of butter and cinnamon. Kaili seemed to enjoy it, a little too sweet for my taste.

Then I went on and made a plan for dinner and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. All said and done I made 5 dishes, I think that will hold me off until Thanksgiving.

Yesterday my dad and I took Kaili to the Olympic training center to have lunch with David aka “uncle Wags”. Here are some shots of our visit.