Fab Foodie Mama

I love holiday weeks.  There is always a festive feeling buzzing around.  Work always seems to be a little bit slower also; usually a great time to catch up on things I had been putting off.  Unwittingly, I ordered my first box from Green Chef this week - Thanksgiving week.  I probably should have ordered it for next since this week will be all about cooking and eating with family, but that is ok.  I made this amazing fried rice and shrimp today.  I loved everything about this dish:  the colors, the crunch of the bok choy and edamame, the saltiness of the tamari sauce, and the rice and fried shrimp were great.  I am sure I could also make this with chicken or beef as I will definitely be making this again.  To spice this up, you could add some chili sauce as well.  YUM! Happy Thanksgiving Fellow Foodies! Crispy Shrimp and Fried Rice (serves 2) Ingredients: 10 oz Shrimp 1/2 C Basamati Rice 1/4 C Chopped Carrots 1/4 C Eda...

I think I mentioned in prior posts that I am a member for the Daughters of Italy?  Anyway, it is a service club that was founded in 1919 for Italian immigrant women in the Copper Country as a support organization.  Now, we do fundraising for local Catholic charities and meet once a month to visit and plan events.  Our monthly meeting is tonight and since I am an officer (secretary) I need to bring a dish.  Given I have a busy day at work, I needed to use what I had on hand so I made my traditional tuna noodle salad (not necessary to post about noodles, tuna, mayo, salt and celery) and a new dish I just made up and have posted here, a Tabbouleh made with quinoa, rice and chickpeas. It turned out so good.  I am a big fan of toasted chickpeas for a snack, served warm in a couscous bowl or in this case, cooled and mixed into a crunchy salad.  When I roasted and toasted the chickpeas, I used more oil in this version than when I made the couscous bowl and I al...

My friend Julie and her son Max are here for a few weeks from England and tonight I made dinner for them.  I made Chicken Piccata and Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto.  This risotto recipe came to me in a recent Hello Fresh box and it was so good that I repeated it 2 more times already.  The butternut squash and pepitas are perfect for a fall day. It also goes great with the chicken piccata.  One thing to note:  both of these dishes are a bit on the labor intensive side, right before serving, so there was a lot of juggling going on prior to plating.  But it was all great.  We had a fun night with good food and friends! Chicken Piccata with Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto (for 4) - from Hello Fresh Ingredients: 2 Yellow onions 1/2 Oz Fresh Sage 4 Cloves Garlic 24 Oz Butternut Squash, cubed 6 C Chicken or Vegetable Stock 1 1/2 C Arborio Rice 1 C Parmesan Cheese 2 Oz Pepitas 1 t Olive Oil 2 T B...

I have a love/hate relationship with risotto.  I think I have had equally both terrible versions and delicious versions of this dish.  But the inconsistency it the scary part.  I hesitate to order risotto at restaurants.  All anyone says is how hard it is to make.  All that stirring, stirring, stirring.  Blah, blah, blah... All of this discontent around the super stirred rice, all the fear of the gluey, gloppy starch or the burnt bottoms, has let me to NEVER try to make risotto. Until one day this month.  I tried it.  I met my fear head on and entered into the vast unknown. And the result was a smashingly yummy, creamy, light, smooth, earthy pot of risotto that I will remember all the days of my life.  Well, I doubt that, but it was pretty damn good if I say so myself.  I made this with scallops, but it can pair with any protein or be savored on its own. Hope you like it.  Don’t be scared. :-0 No Fear Mushroom Risott...

When I was a teenager and into my twenties, there was a great restaurant in Calumet called the Red Garter.  It was an awesome place.  There were little alcove dining areas, a fun, fancy ambiance, a great bar crowd and the most delicious ribs my younger self had ever tasted.  But I wasn't the only one who thought so; people would consistently rave about them.  So tender and flavorful.  Not 'fall off the bone', however, they definitely had some substance.  I remember going there with my friend Lisa and her mom and dad a few times after watching a boy's basketball game or hockey game on Friday nights.   Then when Ron and I were dating and during the first few years of our marriage we went there often.  Tragically, the restaurant burned down in 1990 due to a fire in the kitchen.  The owners did not rebuild or reopen the restaurant, and sadly, the Copper Country never did replicate those ribs quite the same way anywhere else. Ron's brother Don...

I have been enjoying a lot of rice, quinoa and couscous bowls lately.  They are so versatile and flavorful, and pretty much anything goes!  Today I'd like to share a delicious and healthy bower bowl, with couscous, protien powered chickpeas, zucchini and heirloom tomatoes.  The flavors combine so well; this is one of my favorite go to meals recently.  TIP:  toasting couscous before cooking makes it so delicious! Mediterranean Chickpea and Couscous Bowl (for 2) Ingredients: 1 medium zucchini 1 medium Heirloom tomato or 4 oz Heirloom grape tomatoes 1 t Thyme  1 medium onion 2 cloves garlic 1 lemon 1 can chickpeas 1 t paprika 3/4 C Israeli Couscous 2 t vegetable bouillon 1/2 C feta cheese Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Set one rack in upper position and one in middle. Cut zucchini into 1/2 inch cubes.  Chop tomato into chunks (or halve the grape tomatoes).  Finely chop a part of the onion the onion, making 2...

I have been keeping this blog since 2011 as a venue to store as well as to share some of my favorite recipes along with my personal notes and anecdotes along the way.  This is my one hundredth posting.  I went around and around in my thought process about what profound thing to write about.  I ended up going with just another recipe, albeit a fabulously simple and delicious dessert. In perusing my old posts recently, what I have gleaned, in addition to all the type-os I need to fix, is that I have matured in my cooking and in my eating habits.  We all have our old stand - bys, either recipes our mothers or grandmothers made or taught us to make, or the simple meals we make when we have children at home, especially fussy eaters.  There is that wonderful nostalgia that comes with creating those dishes.  But in the past couple of years, I really feel have come into my own as a cook. Regularly trying new recipes, using more herbs and varied spices, as well as...