Gluten Free Risotto Mix

Lundberg's Gluten Free: Creamy Parmesan Risotto box mix

I give this a thumbs up. Let it sit a little while for it to thicken, but don't keep it in the pot for second serving cause it dries out fast.

I served this with microwave steamed broccoli. Since I keep Cabot seriously sharp white cheddar cheese in the frig, I grated some on top of the hot broccoli to give it a good bite :-)

Rainy Day Chili

using a cooking torch to melt a huge block of Cabot sharp cheddar cheese inside a toasted dinner roll isn't a good idea. It lights the entire top of the roll on fire. We watched our neighbor's grass-less hill wash down the street while eating our chili. Lots of clay!

Sunday - Dessert Day

I'm going to try to make 1 dessert a week for Sunday dinner. This past Sunday I made banana creme pie. My husband doesn't allow me to buy cool whip and makes me make the creme from scratch. He underestimated the whipping cream so the pie was a little too thick, but still tastes good.

All this rain lately was has made my thyme grow so I decided to make up my own marinade. I minced 3 garlic cloves and combined it with white wine vinegar, olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon. I got out my meat tenderizer and made pork tenderloin cutlets. I marinaded it in the refrigerator for 4 hours before grilling it. It was pretty good. Might try it again sometime.

Survived Hurricane Irene

We survived Irene in Raleigh. No real damage at our house. Only a little rain and occasional wind gusts.

I'm making a simple dinner of left over basil, pine nut, parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil pesto with some fresh tomatoes from my garden on pumpernickel bread. Thankfully our electricity never went out.

Husband's Turn to Cook

I guess my cooking all last week inspired my husband to try it this week. Yesterday he made fajitas and we ate on the deck out back. Tonight he asked me to harvest 2 cups of basil from my garden for some pesto on a homemade pizza. He put basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese in a food processor and used that as the pizza sauce.

Question: Is he cooking because he wants to compete or because he hated my new recipes last week???

Thai Shrimp Stir-fry

Fish sauce... my husband and I went to Lowes Foods with the Everyday Food grocery list. We had no idea what it was or where to find it. I looked in the seafood section, but just old bay and cocktail sauce. So my husband started googling. It is in the Asian section.

When I was cooking the thai shrimp stir-fry from pg 81 in September 2011 Everyday Food, everything looked good until I opened that fish sauce. It stinks and the whole time I was cooking it, I was nauseous. When I served the food over the rice, I made sure to use a slotted spoon to avoid excess liquid.

The dish was pretty good, but I'm going to throw out the rest of the fish sauce. I don't think I'll be purchasing that again.

Fish Sauce ingredients: anchovies, water, salt, sugar

Stovetop Chili Mac

Wednesday, pg 80 of Everyday Food, suggested stovetop chili mac. This was super easy. The only thing I would change is I didn't cut the zucchini small enough and it took longer to cook because of it.

Since it is still summer, this dish seemed out of season. I think I would love it after a long fall hike through my backyard, Umstead. Our house is just 2 miles away from Lake Sycamore where we like to go fishing off the pier. We just put the fishing poles in our fishing bags and hike on out there. Awww this makes me wish for Fall, probably my favorite season.