Birthday Fun

These meals were made and enjoyed in Olympia on Bethany and Wesley's birthdays (dinner and dessert on Bethany's, and breakfast on Wesley's).

First up: Dinner

The salad recipe is from the September 2012 Bon Appetit magazine for Grape and Watercress Salad with Caraway and Granola.  We replaced the pine nuts in the granola with pecans.

With the yogurt and buttermilk dressing, it's almost like having yogurt with granola and fruit, but in salad form!

Featuring Cornerstone Farm mozzarella was Eggplant, Mozzarella, and Saffron Rice Bake, also from the September 2012 BA magazine

We also made Sausage-and-Basil-Stuffed Tomatoes from the July/August 2012 Food Network Magazine.  The only thing we weren't crazy about in these was the walnuts--they could do without them, but otherwise they were delicious!

Up next: Dessert

Behind that melting ice cream is a Black Bottom Cupcake from www.bakerella.com, made with cream cheese from Cornerstone

The birthday boy wanted to help get some photos

Looks like he got some good shots!

And finally: Breakfast

On the menu was Peach-Almond Upside-Down Cake from the July/August 2012 FN Magazine.  Here it is right-side up

And upside-down

We made almond whipped (raw) cream to have with it, and had some granola from the salad from dinner with it too

Here's the newly 3 year-old ready for his birthday breakfast!

Better Late Than Never...

This post is very late; these meals were actually made in the middle of July!  We cooked in Olympia, and were joined by Ian and his dad Harry, who had just flown in that day for a visit.

The main course of our dinner was Turkey-Pancetta Roulade Sandwiches from the July/August 2012 Food Network Magazine.  We used chicken in place of turkey, and added chopped prosciutto to the cooked part of the filling instead of sliced pancetta.

The meat was really flavorful with the filling, and really made the sandwiches delicious!

For a vegetable dish, we put something together using things we had from the garden and the Cornerstone Dairy.  We blanched broccoli and hearty greens from the garden, made a white sauce with cream cheese in it, tossed the veggies in the sauce, put it in a baking dish, and topped it with queso blanco and then baked it.

The salad we made was also from the July/August 2012 Food Network Magazine: Honeydew and Arugula Salad.  The sweetness of the honeydew was a great compliment to the peppery arugula.

 

The dessert was Coffee "S'Mores" Pie from the July 2012 Bon Appetit magazine.  Our coffee ganache never set completely (it might have been because the raw cream we used wasn't 'heavy' enough?), so we had to sort of scoop it onto our plates, but it still tasted great!

We started our breakfast for the next morning that night - we made Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes from Tasty Kitchen, which need to be started the night before.  We didn't add blueberries, but put fruit on top instead, along with raw whipped cream (of course!).  These came out much better than some other sourdough pancakes that we had made before; they were fluffy and had great flavor.

Fajitas & Chocolate

Bethany visited Olympia for a slumber party with Jeanette and Wesley while Ian was away, and we made dinner, dessert, and breakfast.  Our dinner menu started with Flank Steak and Rajas Fajitas from the May 2012 Food Network Magazine.  We cooked everything on the stovetop and in the broiler instead of using a grill.

After charring the peppers, we put them in a bowl and covered them so that the skins would come off easily

With the red bell peppers, we made Grilled Peppers from the same magazine to go in our salad, with Garlic, Oregano, and Lemon Vinaigrette from the April 2012 Bon Appetit

Everything was added to a skillet with garlic and oregano to be heated

Then it was served with homemade guacamole, tortillas, and local raw gouda cheese

For dessert we made Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies from the March 2012 Food Network Magazine, and our version of Vanilla Ice Cream with Honey from the May 2012 Food Network Magazine.  We have figured out a pretty good recipe for raw ice cream, so we made that but used honey as the sweetener.  The cookies were huge, but that kept them soft inside, which made them good!

After dinner and dessert (and watching Alice in Wonderland!), Jeanette got started on breakfast since there were quite a few steps to it.  We made the Chocolate Babka from the March 2012 Food Network Magazine, which is a yeast dough that is rolled out, topped with an almond frangipane with orange zest and cinnamon, and chopped chocolate, and then rolled up, twisted, folded in half, twisted again, and placed in a loaf pan.  As if that wasn't enough, the bread is topped with a powdered sugar streusel, and finally baked!

Happy Blog Anniversary!

We started this blog around St. Patrick's Day of 2011, and now here we are a year later! We didn't stick completely to a themed meal for the holiday, but a couple of the items kind of go along with the theme.

Our main dish for dinner was a variation of Mahi Mahi with Asparagus and Almond Sauce from the April 2012 Food Network Magazine. Instead of mahi mahi we used halibut, and we were doing other side dishes so we didn't make the asparagus. The almond sauce was made in the blender, and the parsley stirred in at the end

After the fish was broiled face down for a few minutes, we brushed it with the sauce and continued broiling it until it was almost cooked through

Our salad was from the same magazine: Warm Butter Lettuce Salad with Hazelnuts. The warm part comes from the dressing, which included reduced white wine, shallots and butter

For the herbs, we used chives, parsley, and thyme from the garden at Cornerstone

The last two components of dinner have the most to do with St. Patrick's Day. Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Raisins from the March 2012 Bon Appetit seemed to fit the theme because they are in the cabbage family. Our only alteration to these was to make them with prosciutto instead of bacon

And finally, the item that definitely goes with St. Patrick's Day: Soda-Bread Biscuits from the March 2012 FN Magazine. Ours looked more like scones because we cut the dough into wedges rather than rounds

On the menu for dessert was Boston Cream Pie from the March 2012 Food Network Magazine

First we made the vanilla pudding, and put in it the refrigerator to set

Then we made the cake and set it aside to cool

Next we sliced the cake in half and filled it with the pudding

Then the whole thing is topped with a dark chocolate glaze

Overall, everyone loved it! The one thing we all thought is that it would be even better if it had more pudding!

These pictures of Wesley enjoying his piece are a little blurry, but they were too cute to pass up!

For breakfast the next morning we made Walnut Cake from the March 2012 Bon Appetit. The recipe suggests serving it cold, but we ate it fresh out of the oven with whipped cream, and loved it that way! It was really buttery, and just slightly sweet

Happy blog anniversary to us!