Cajun Slaw Recipe

So, I have been out of Cole slaw dressing for over a year now. Anytime I make it, I just look up a recipe online and it gets the job done. I look on all the blogs for one and found one on this POST from Big Dude! The Cajun Cole Slaw recipe was pretty good. Definitely had a kick to it and B enjoyed it! I have to add my tomatoes:) A recipe that I have all ingredients on hand is a good one:)

Tuscan Steak and Beans

I really was trying to find a nice grilled meal from Big Dude's blog. Thanks to my CSA, we weren't grilling a lot of meat, so it has been tough. However, I saw this post and just had to try. Totally up my alley. Plus, we had been getting a ton of cherry tomatoes (none this past week so I had to buy some, but that is neither here nor there). This is not a grilled dish, but it is a one pan wonder. You cook the meat, then take it out to rest, then add the remaining ingredients. I was a little hesitant because big dude did not seem to like it much, but eh, I figure I would give it a shot.

Ok, really loved it. At least, I did. I made a few changes. 1. Probably used more oil than I should have. 2. Cooked the (red) onions for 5 minutes, then added the tomatoes for 5 minutes, THEN added spices and vinegar and beans. I really wanted the tomatoes to cook down and the onions to get nice and brown. Next time I will cut the tomatoes in half. 3. Used less basalmic vinegar, about 2T total.

I hope to make this again, but maybe with chicken to save some money. I served it with corn bread, only because I forgot to get the bread machine going in time.

Black bean pizza

I think I have said before that I am a blog stalker. I made a similar black bean pizza, but of course had to try this one by Michelle.

When I made this before I believe what really made the dish was the fresh lettuce and tomatoes on top. That was my intention this time, but I had a really bad sore throat that day and for some reason lettuce and a sore throat is just the worse combination. So, this was an ok for me. I will say that I didn't not process the ingredients, just mashed them up well with a fork. Why dirty another dish?

Fudge Babies courtesy of Housewife in the Raw blog

I wanted to take my appetite towards another direction... raw baby, raw.  I admit I have been a bit intrigued by the raw diet.  Not so much that I want to go raw, but intrigued nonetheless.  Housewife in the raw has some appealing recipes but I wanted to go with something I knew I would like... chocolate.  I mean, can you really go wrong with anything made from chocolate????  I tried a recipe for Fudge babies- or homemade Lara Bars.  These are fudgy, nutty and oh so naughty tasting!  These will definitely be something I will make again in the future.  Go here for her information and take a peek at her blog.  I'm going to do a repeat visit and try her granola recipes next!
My only complaint with this recipe was that it didn't make near enough.
I used about
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 1/3 cup pitted dates
1 teapoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
     I threw everything in to my vita mix and hit the power button.  Once everything was chopped up, I took the dough and rolled in to little balls.  I'm thinking that I will roll them into coconut next time

Margherita Pizza

I am not doing so good at this challenge. It is not because I don't want to, but I have this CSA and it is tought enough to use up what I get. At any rate, I was browsing Big Dude's blog and I saw this post about margherita pizza which Michelle had posted here. That is right, this is a two-fer!

I even used Michelle's recipe for pizza crust. Most of it had tomatoes for Mark and I, but I kept a small portion just cheese for the kids. I added some cheddar for their part:



I really liked this type of pizza! I really want to try grilled pizza, but I haven't worked up the nerve yet. Maybe next time!

Creamy Grilled Chicken Piccata

I am loving this challenge. It gives me an excuse to look at everyone's blogs:) I found this recipe on a post at Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings. My husband LOVES buttery, lemony cream sauces...especially when they involve capers. The man is a sucker for Piccata...who knew!?

At any rate, we all enjoyed this pasta dish. We did not have penne either:) My kids even loved it, but they would give me the capers. I didn't have time to grill the chicken on the grill, so I just baked it in the over. Turned out just fine for us for a quick and easy week day meal.

Dump Dip

I found this recipe for A fantastic dip for Super Bowl Sunday on The Global Kitchen. Let me begin by say that I was going to a party and just wanted to bring an easy chips and dip. This was perfect. I even had to make my own taco seasoning!

I haven't really explored any one's blogs so this challenge has been great for me!! Kristi's blog is so neat and organized! Love it. and I was soooo impressed that Pace had sent her some salsa in exchange for a recipe...NICE!! You know, Kerri and I used to live in San Antonio... "Get a Rope!" HA!

Peanutty Noodles

I could live on this dish. It was that good.

I subbed green beans (blanched) for the snap peas and used a quick homemade veggie broth instead of chicken. Other than that, I followed the recipe as is.

My kids are the bizarre kids who don't like peanut butter (and not for lack of trying on my part), so I let them eat plain noodles for dinner. The husband and I loved the dish. I even used some of the leftover sauce on shredded zucchini for a lunch the next day.

Chocolate chip cookies

I was browsing the Let's try these blog looking for a fantabulous dessert. I am just in the mood for making something very fancy. I came across this recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Now, I am not usually a fan of chocolate chip cookies. I just prefer other types, but in reading this blog I found that Vivian feels the same way and on a whim decided to give them a try that night.

What makes these different is the browned butter. Now, normally I hate these types of things. The directions are something like "cook until brown" Well, how long does this take? How brown? I really don't like grey area. So, here is the point where I decided it was brown enough:



It actually got a little browner after I took it off the heat. This took about twice as long as the directions stated.

I think the browned butter gave the batter kind of a caramel consistancy. (I have made a couple of caramel cakes this spring inspired by The Help so trust me, it looked like caramel!) I tried to get a picture of this consistancy:



I added the pecans and just used regular tollhouse chips. I would not do that again. The pecans just added too much to the batter and the tollhouse chips just make it taste like the nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookie:



The cookie dough was delicious though!

Julia Child's Roasted Chicken

I found this recipe here. I love lemon in roasted chicken. Other than me having the chicken upside down, we enjoyed this:) I forgot to take a picture when it was in the pan lookin all pretty!

Cucumber Juice

No, you read that right. I said, "cucumber juice".



I don't know what it is, but ever year, I am hell bent on making some sort of beverage out of cucumbers. This year, I just made cucumber juice as directed here. (I felt that this was a blog and could count it under this month's challenge) So, then I used this cucumber juice to make a beverage. I got a pick glass, filled it with crushed ice, add half a glass of soda water, half a glass of cucumber juice, shot of vodka, and half of lime. This may add up to more than a glass, but I am not a math major.



This was a nice little beverage, not as refreshing as I would have hoped, and it might be the vodka that make it bearable, but still a nice little beverage.



The other greenish stuff in the first picture is the pulp. It is still in the fridge cause I thought it would be tasty in a tsatziki sauce (that is how my husband said that is spelled, I am unsure). But here I am eating plain pita chips with no sauce...maybe tomorrow.

YOUR Blog challenge

Happy August! I still have many farmer market recipes to share but ran out of time. Oh well.

The challenge for August is a Food Blog challenge. We have some contributors and some commentors who have their own cooking blogs and my challenge for the other members is to find one recipe from these other blogs to cook from. You may also cook from any other food blog. Good luck and happy cooking!

Raw Housewife
Happy Healthy Foods
Let's try these
Big Dude
The Global Kitchen
Robin's recipe archive