how could we not do a mad men themed dinner in honor of the 5th season kicking off?! we no longer have downton abbey to obsess over, so our sunday nights need some sort of fictional drama. do you want to know what i think every time i watch an episode…….”i need to be more like roger sterling” any way here is how our mad men night progressed…………………
cocktail hour of old fashions
shockingly dad had to look this recipe up, seems so un-art farris of him
dad created the menu of popular 60s food including chicken cordon bleu, caesar salad, and mom’s contribution of some lipton’s rice and of course we cut into that draper cake. my creation of a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.
for the last couple of months i have been pairing my books i’m reading with themed appropriate music. yes i am that much of a dork. it started in knox when i was reading harry potter at a Scottish bar, aka my own little leaky cauldron. then the hobbit was paired with the chieftains, a 17th century pirate book with mozart, a book about paris and john singer sargent to edith piaf and now a 19th century biography on the most influential woman in the middle east, gertrude bell paired with a pandora station of african/middle eastern music.
all i can say is this has made me crave curry, curry, lamb, curry, hummus, and more curry. for meatless monday i made some curried quinoa that had craisins and almonds in it and topped it with a couple of poached eggs. along with some milk and honey bread, which is actually an ancient middle eastern dish. (don’t ask where i got it because there is a long food story behind that as well) yum to the taste buds!
RECIPE: milk & honey bread
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
3 Tbspn honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
olive oil
*mash honey, feta, & salt with a fork, gradually add in flour till a dough forms. knead dough until smooth. cover and leave dough at room temp for 20 minutes. divide dough into 12 portions, roll each portion until 3 inches in diameter. lightly oil pan with olive oil, over medium heat. cook dough patties until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.
for the last couple of months i have been pairing my books i’m reading with themed appropriate music. yes i am that much of a dork. it started in knox when i was reading harry potter at a Scottish bar, aka my own little leaky cauldron. then the hobbit was paired with the chieftains, a 17th century pirate book with mozart, a book about paris and john singer sargent to edith piaf and now a 19th century biography on the most influential woman in the middle east, gertrude bell paired with a pandora station of african/middle eastern music.
all i can say is this has made me crave curry, curry, lamb, curry, hummus, and more curry. for meatless monday i made some curried quinoa that had craisins and almonds in it and topped it with a couple of poached eggs. along with some milk and honey bread, which is actually an ancient middle eastern dish. (don’t ask where i got it because there is a long food story behind that as well) yum to the taste buds!
RECIPE: milk & honey bread
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
3 Tbspn honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
olive oil
*mash honey, feta, & salt with a fork, gradually add in flour till a dough forms. knead dough until smooth. cover and leave dough at room temp for 20 minutes. divide dough into 12 portions, roll each portion until 3 inches in diameter. lightly oil pan with olive oil, over medium heat. cook dough patties until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.
…and I don’t mean THE Monkees (which is impossible and quite sad now). I do mean animatronics monkeys.
John and I recently took a trip to Disneyland (and the Wonder Con comic book show. there was also a cheerleading competition and a volleyball tournament happening at the same convention center– strange fellows to be spending time together) in California.
On our first night in the second most magical place on earth our jet lag decided that eating at Rainforest Cafe would be fun. We’ve eaten at a Rainforest Cafe and its cousin T-Rex, so we knew we were about to have a sensory-overloading-dining-jungling-experience– but what the hey, it’s vacation AND we’re at Disney, right?
John ordered the cheese and basil pizza and I ordered the spinach salad AND a Sam Adams (VACATION). We sat at a “quiet” table for two next to the before mentioned monkeys and an “Aztec” temple that produced its own rainbow and was topped with Atlas holding a neon world on his shoulders.
Two things amazed us about this meal. 1) That the “atmosphere” of the restaurant was so well-timed that it didn’t drive you completely crazy. Compared to the Dallas airport, it was actually rather peaceful. 2) John’s cheese pizza tasted remarkably like a frozen pizza. Let me clarify, a frozen party pizza. You know what taste I’m talking about. It wasn’t bad if you like the party pizza flavor (and I do) but shocking because it wasn’t 10 pizza’s for $10’s (it wasn’t even close to $10’s).
We discussed our plans for vacation: Which rides? How many times would we ride Star Tours? (10) Our excitement for the comic book show and seeing our very good friends the Janssens.
First night of vacation called for a treat (you know me, every night calls for dessert). There was only one dessert of choice for us that night at the Rainforest– The Chocolate Volcano. Was it the chants to staff yelled over the “thunderstorms” as they brought your dessert to you or the mountain of chocolate? It didn’t really matter– it’s a chocolate volcano!!
Was there a real sparkler on top? No. Could we eat 3 pieces of cake, two scoops of ice cream and two scoops of whipped cream with hot fudge icing? Sadly, no.
But we did our best for our first night of vacation. I’m sure that if we would have tried to eat this on our last night of vacation we could have eaten the whole thing–alas, it was night one. John did give our fake sparkler to a table with two little boys and only one sparkler. That’s my sweetheart for you.
this 70 degree weather has made my taste buds start to think summer is here. for meatless monday i whipped up one of my favorite summer dishes guacamole salad along with some morning star vegetarian buffalo wings and i also couldn’t pass up on some of my whole-wheat beer bread. let summer begin!!!
RECIPE: Guacamole Salad
ING:
1 pinte grape tomatoes, halved
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, minced
1/2 tsp grated lime zest
1/4 cup lime juice (2 lime)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 avocados pitted, peeled and diced
* whisk together oil, lime juice, and seasonings, mix all ingredients together, toss with dressing.
i will say dad cooked a fabulous dinner of steak, baked potatoes, broccoli and of course cole slaw but the only pick of this truly yummy meal i got was…….
now that's a steak
why because while dad was cooking up a storm, mom and i became heavily distracted by the 1960s “raunchy” comedy “lover come back.” a classic doris day pic of her refusing to give it up till she’s got a ring on her finger plot. something about doris day really irks me perhaps it was the fact she sang songs like “how much is that doggie in the window” or her i’m a tease but too whole-some to know what a tease is characters. but i will give her this, paired up with the oh so gay rock hudson, these comedies are highly cleaver and i’m sure quite scandalous for the era. even dad wanted to know the out come as we sat down to eat.
shopping in bulk starts to make cooking a little bit more creative. eyeing my giant mound of oranges from sam’s club i began wondering what else i could do with them. well first of a old fashion/whiskey sour-esque drink of sorts.
that just makes the cookin process a little bit better
and then came the concept for an olive oil based pasta sauce that included lots of freshly squeezed orange juice and some grated orange zest. pressed garlic, onions, tomatoes, green olives, and kidney beans all sauté up in olive oil, spices and lots and lots of citrus. tossed the final sauce up in some whole-wheat angel hair pasta sprinkled some feta and i must admit some greatness was had. those sweet oranges balanced out the bitter saltiness of the olives and garlic perfectly!
Hearty Eaters 