What's for dinner?

No ideas as I'm walking through the store. Then . . Risotto. Easy enough, few ingredients. I have prosciutto and frozen peas. Done.

As I am opening the new box of arborio rice, I see a recipe for genovese risotto, which adds pesto near the end. Hmmm,sounds tasty. And Sara won't be joining us, so I don't have to worry about green stuff in her food. I dash out to the garden to grab some basil before the frost does, toast some pignoli,and a few whirs later with oil, Parmesan, salt and pepper - voila.

An earthier variation of my usual peas and ham version. Just right with a glass of sauvignon blanc.

Lou's Chocolate Chip Scones

Auntie Tracy sent me this recipe - she makes them for Lou's playdates.
I used kefir instead of the yogurt/buttermilk.  It seemed like a fair compromise, and it was in the refrigerator.  I also made a 2/3 batch, which made a lot of scones! 

Dessert Crepes

Sara decided we should try this, so we did.

Sara made sure to tell me that I needed to spread the batter with the back of a ladle, because that's how she's seen it on the Food Network. So I did.  She filled the crepes with softened Nutella, and added the decorations. 

So good (and easy and fast) that we want to eat these every day!

Valentine Ice Cream treats

We had dinner at our friends last week.  She made a lovely dessert with chocolate shells made in a baking cup from Galaxy chocolate, their favorite from the UK.  It was filled with vanilla pudding and berries. We were lucky enough to take home the leftovers!  Sara and I decided to make some chocolate cups for valentine's day dinner.  Instead, what we did was melt dark chocolate chips in a heart shaped silicone tray; freeze for 10 minutes, and press softened ice cream into the tray and top with sliced almonds.  Here is how they looked:

Best Fruit & Nut bars ever

Looking for something a little more tasty, I have been keeping my eye open for energy bar-like recipes.  I found this one in Sunset Magazine - which is just what I was looking for!  I changed it up a bit to suit my tastes and used dried apricots instead of dried apples.  Sara found them too sweet (!) so next batch will substitue some peanut butter for the honey, and use whole almonds at the start, to have chunkier bits in the end.

Fish & Frites

Tonight we had a TV dinner to watch the college basketball game. I made the fish and chips (and remoulade) from this article from Relish and it was enjoyed by all. It came together pretty quickly. The frites weren't as crispy as they could have been, so I put them under the broiler for a few minutes. The sugar/salt/tarragon mixture on the frites hit the right sweet and savory balance. Tarragon is one of my favorite herbs, and anytime I see a recipe with fresh tarragon, I make it! We will definitely try this again.

Girls weekend & Chocolate macarons

Sara and I stayed home while Dad went to the cabin. We decided to make chocolate Macarons from David Leibowitz. It was so hard to let them sit until the next day. So, we decided we would have one for our breakfast snack. Not the prettiest, but YUM!

Update:  I made another few batches to give as gifts to dinner hosts.  The finished product has a more professional look if the merengue mixture is flattened a bit and smoothed with a wet finger.  The taste is still divine!

Shrimp Risotto

Inspired by the sale on raw shrimp, I bought them. I thought we would grill them with a fish sauce-lime marinade. But,we needed comfort food, so I made shrimp risotto. I used this recipe from Epicurious for cooking the shrimp, and the cooking liquid in the rice as directed. I added some frozen peas, parm cheese and cream at the end and made the best Risotto EVER!

Snowmaggedon and Chocolate Pancakes

The weather reports said snow was coming. In great quantities. So everyone cleared the calendars and we waited. Nothing happening. Along about 7 pm we saw the first flakes. An hour later there was an inch. And so on until midnight! We went to bed dreaming of a white . . . Wednesday, but by morning, the pineapple express air had moved in and all we had was slush.

We were awakened at 5 am by the school auto-dialer letting us know we could sleep in. We had a special breakfast of chocolate pancakes for Sara*, egg sandwiches and a big pot of coffee for the grownups. 
*we couldn't resist having one either!