Fusilli Sausage Salad

Summer is officially here!  Time for salads and meat on the bbq!  We welcomed summer in with a potluck at work.  Requirement…Summer food!  I love sausage in the summer, so a salad with sausage in it seemed perfect!  I fried the sausages (casings removed) with some garlic and sundried tomatoes.  Tossed the broccoli in for a few minutes at the end.  This was all mixed in with the pasta and fresh grated Parmesan cheese and a touch of olive oil.  I tried this while it was still warm, and personally, this was my favourite!  I served it as a salad, but I think in the future I would eat it as a warm pasta dish instead.  So flavourful!

Beef Stroganoff

So I made this dish for dinner and felt like quite the chef.  It was a fun dish to make.  One pot.  Started with frying, then just kept adding the ingredients until it turned into this!  I made this with ground beef and from what I’ve learned, the real beef stroganoff is made with fancier beef strips.  I was also told that this dish was very much like hamburger helper!  And, I served it to someone for dinner!  Goodness.  I asked around if it was ever ok to serve it to someone with hamburger.  I was told that as long as I served it on the deck in the summer it was ok with hamburger.  Indoors on China…fancier beef.  Who knew something with such a fancy name could be so plain!

Brussels Sprouts

All my life I’ve heard about what I thought were called Brussel sprouts.  Apparently, they are Brussels sprouts.  Either way, they just sound gross.  So I figured the best thing for me was just to avoid them.  I did. Just this year I was invited over for dinner, and lo and behold, they served Brussels sprouts.  They were very good.  I’m not going to go so far as to say they were delicious, but they were good.  I decided I should try making them myself.  I fried them in butter and garlic.  How could I go wrong with butter:). Once again, they were good but still not delicious.  But, my momma taught me to eat my veggies!!!

Lobster Alfredo

Every couple of months we get a large box of lobster delivered to the office by one of our customers.  Fresh lobster from P.E.I.  Pretty hard to turn down.  But, let me tell you about the battles I’ve had trying to get the meat out of these crustaceans.  I’ve used hammers and wrenches and knives and forks and have had cuts on my hands, still to have meat left behind.  They’re almost impossible to get into!  The conclusion I’ve come to is that my favourite way to eat lobster is when other people cook it.  It’s just too much work!  Nevertheless, I battled it again and made Lobster Alfredo.  It was very good and well worth the battle.  I think it’s a good thing it comes every couple of months.  Gives me time to forget about the pain and take a couple home, yet again.

Cheesy Shrimp Crostini

 

Finally a shrimp dish!  I love shrimp and this dish was fun and easy to make!  I started melting the butter in the pan to cook the shrimp and then realized I was supposed to add bay spice to the butter.  Obviously I do not have that in my cupboard because I’ve never heard of bay spice.  So, two ingredients in and I was already missing something.  Thank goodness for Google.  Wikipedia told me all about the spice.  I was missing a few of the ingredients, so I made up my own bay spice with what was in my cupboard.  I fried the shrimp in the spices and the butter for a minute.  I then mixed the shrimp with some mayo, cheese and chives.  I put the mixture on top of ciabatta bread and baked it in the oven.  It was so good! 

Garlic Herb Potatoes

Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside!  Cooked these potatoes on the stove in chicken broth and olive oil.  Once the were tender I squished them with a measuring cup to split them and then finished cooking them till the outsides were crispy.  Not gonna lie, these were ok, but not my fav.

BLT Pasta Salad

 

This weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day. Every Sunday our family goes to moms house for lunch.   It is a wonderful time and we always have an amazing meal.  This Sunday she got a break.  How’s that for a Mother’s Day present!  Ha!  I think she deserves a lot more than one meal, but hey, it’s a start.  Pulled pork and BLT salad.  I’m really liking these pasta and lettuce salad mixes.  Lots of tomatoes and bacon tossed in there and cover it in ranch dressing and…yum!  We topped off the meal with a Boston cream poke cake.  Tasted just like the donut.  Mom loved it and ate most of it:). Don’t tell her I told you;)

Butternut Squash Soup

Well, this is my second attempt at this soup.  About a year ago I tried making this soup and it was a disaster.  First, I didn’t have chicken stock, so I googled how to make my own and well, let’s just say Google failed me:). Second, when my soup was all cooked I put it in the blender to mix it and that ended with me screaming really loud when the lid blew off and I had orange soup all over my kitchen!!!  Lastly, there was a little bit of soup left in the blender after the explosion, and I was excited to taste what was left.  It was so gross!!!  I’ve never tasted anything so awful.  All that to say, I was pretty nervous this time.   I started off with actual chicken stock:).  Baked the squash, cooked the onions and then let it all simmer.  This time when the soup was cooked I used an immersion blender…worked great!!  My kitchen survived!  No orange stuff everywhere, and it tasted good too!  Yay!!

American Goulash

April 22nd was Earth Day.  April 23rd was Pajama Day.  I declared this sometime in the middle of the week and if you didn’t get the memo, I apologize.  I stayed in my pjs all day.  At some point I got hungry and decided to cook.   This is what I came up with.  I had all the ingredients and since I wasn’t about to head to the grocery store in my pjs, goulash it was!  I had a big pot and added tomatoes and sauces and hamburger and onions, etc.  Amazing how it grew!  What started with a can of tomatoes ended up with a massive pot of goulash!

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

 

This salad brings back childhood memories!  Mom used to make a salad similar to this all the time when we were young and we loved it!   Browsing through Pinterest for inspiration for my next recipe I came across this one and right away it seemed familiar.  Mom told me how she used to make it and the memories came flooding back!  So excited to find this recipe!  I used fresh spinach, mushrooms, boiled eggs and bacon.  I saved some bacon grease for the dressing and fried red onions in it and added balsamic vinegar and mustard and sugar.  Poured the warm dressing over the salad.  It was as good as I remember!  Thanks mom!