Tag Archives: asparagus

Family, Food

UNO

Leave a comment

Happy Thursday!

{UNO} more day ’til the weekend…thank goodness.

If you are at a loss of what to make for dinner tonight, tomorrow night or over the weekend, may I suggest this?

: Farfalle with asparagus, caramelized onions, mushrooms and goat cheese :

{Recipe from Food & Wine}

From Pinterest, but I added asparagus, used smaller mushrooms and used farfalle as my pasta cut of choice.

Was super yum and our dinner last Saturday night before the infamous mud run!

Jay requested pasta and I was happy to click through my Pinterest boards and find something to help us get our carb on.

If you love all things goat cheese, you must make this.

Enjoy!

Food

Cooking With Whine

Leave a comment

We had 16 eggs that needed to be used. I decided to take 10 of them and do a baked frittata for dinner this evening.

{I was afraid Jay was going to say,”Babe, it’s not Friday…why is there no meat in this meal?”}

No, he wouldn’t {dare} say that, but folks, that’s what was being served up this evening and if you didn’t like it, you know where the nearest Chipotle or Chick-fil-A is.

I also cut up a cantaloupe to go with…..

While I was prepping the frittata, all I heard was whining, whining, whining!

Ugh!

“Holden, don’t do that!”

“Moooom, El-yit threw my monster truck in the trash!”

“Holden hit me!”

“Can we go outside?”

“I wanna go outside…it’s not night time yet!”

“Where’s my lip gloss?”

Ugh!

Why do they always lose it {extra big time} RIGHT when it’s time to get {the vegetarian} dinner started?

Back to the frittata…

Asparagus, Blue Cheese & Caramelized Onion Frittata

You’ll need:

10 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk {that’s all we had, but I’m sure you could use lowfat, skim or even heavy cream!}

1/4 to 1/2 onion, sliced thin

bunch asparagus, cut into 1.5 inch pieces

1/2 cup blue cheese

Salt & Pepper

Start by caramelizing your onions. In a small pan, warm a little butter and olive oil on med-high heat. Add the onions along with just a sprinkle of brown sugar. Stir, stir and stir some more for about 5-7 minutes until they are dark brown, but not burnt. Keep stirring! Let them cool off to the side while you get the rest ready.

Even though the asparagus was pencil thin {which I normally don’t buy} I blanched it anyway to make sure it would be tender enough. Just bring some water to a boil and drop the cut asparagus into the water for about a minute. Then put it in a ice bath {just some ice and water in a bowl} to cool and stop the cooking so that it stays bright and doesn’t overcook.

Whisk the eggs and the milk with some salt & pepper. Add in the caramelized onions, the blue cheese and the asparagus. Pour into a buttered dish {I used an 8X11} and bake at 350* for about 35 minutes.

{I took ours out after about 30, added the whole stalks of asparagus on top and put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes}

*****

Despite the whining, this meal was delish…even Jay loved it!

And so Spring!

And I FINALLY picked the perfect cantaloupe. Generally I am not very good at picking melons.

Linking up to {What I Whipped Up Wednesday} over at Sugar and Dots. Come over and see what else is being whipped up!

*****

Have a beautiful Thursday! Looks like it’s going to be gorgeous!

Family, Food

Community Cheesecake

1 Comment

When I first spotted this scrumptious cheesecake, I knew it had to go on {the list}. Um, it has Keebler Fudge Striped cookies. As. The. Crust. Enough said…

Would’ve probably made it sooner, but I didn’t have a spring form pan.

But, I do NOW….and I DID make this cheesecake for our Valentine’s Day dessert.

This was my first cheesecake, so I was a little nervous.

{before the whipped cream goodness}

{and after!}

I knew I could not have this cheesecake staring at me all week {AKA eating it for breakfast with my coffee!!} so I cut it in quarters and shared with our neighbor friends. However, when I cut into it the center collapsed….maybe I didn’t chill it long enough?

Despite the oozing mess, I did receive all sorts of positive feedback. Check out this sweet comment:

“I just wanted to thank you once again for the DELICIOUS cheesecake!  When I came home from work this afternoon, my mom (who was watching the boys) said, “Where did you get that to-die-for cheesecake that’s in your fridge?  I helped myself to some, and I don’t think I’ve ever tried anything so divine in my whole life.”  No joke, she literally talked about the cheesecake for 20 minutes!  My mom is a dessert fanatic, yet over the last three decades of my life, I don’t ever remember her praising any dessert quite like your cheesecake 🙂  So, thank you again!!  We all REALLY enjoyed it.  Still can’t believe it was your first attempt!  You must consider opening up your own catering/party business!”

Awww, thanks Alina and THANK YOU Meg @ Whatever for sharing and THANK YOU Pam for your endless hours in the kitchen perfecting this extraordinary dessert!

I’m going to call it the {traveling cheesecake} because whenever I make it, three quarters of it will find another home. It is very rich, but smooooooth and creamy.

*****

One of Jay’s favorite meals is Chicken Marsala. We use Ty Flo’s recipe and every time we make it, I wonder “Why don’t we make this more often?”

Tyler Florence’s Chicken Marsala

I served with roasted asparagus with parmesan:

{just take a bunch of asparagus, cut about 2 inches off the ends, cut in thirds on an angle, drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper & parmesan, toss, place on a baking sheet lined with foil for about 20 minutes @400*}

Easy peasy, right?

*****

That was our Valentine’s dinner…complete with crooked table cloth adorned with spilled smoothie spots and colored Crayola markers! We skipped the {Wilson Creek} Almond Champagne and will enjoy that this weekend.

And, as I mentioned, Miss Elliott lost her first tooth Valentine’s evening.

It’s so true that when you have children you start to see things differently and enjoy them so much more. V-day has never been one of my favorite holidays, but this year I really enjoyed watching them address their little valentines to their friends and see their joy when showing off all their cards. Next year my goal is to come up with a homemade valentine ~ there are loads of darling ideas out there!

And next year, even though I loved our dinner at home, {you and I} are GOING OUT to dinner, babe!

Love you.

*****

Happy Wednesday!

*****

Food, Frugal Finds

Everything’s Better With Ketchup

2 Comments

Tonight it was “low carb” night in the Aspiras household.

Salmon cakes on greens and parmesan roasted asparagus.

Super easy and kinda fancy for a Wednesday evening.

I picked up some gorgeous asparagus on sale for 97¢/pound which is über cheap…

I just chopped off the bottoms (about 2 inches), cut into thirds on the diagonal, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Toss them around, pour onto a baking sheet and roast @ 400 for about 20 minutes.

Salmon Cakes with Lemon Dill Sour Cream

2 – 5oz. cans boneless, skinless salmon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs (or cracker crumbs)

2 Tbsp. red onion, minced

2 Tbsp. frozen sweet white corn, thawed

1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning

Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and form into small patties ~ the above recipe made 7 cakes.

Drizzle a grill pan or skillet with olive oil and cook on medium for about 5 minutes each side.

I had a little bit of leftover sour cream so I added a squeeze of lemon and a few shakes of dill weed. I just placed the patties on some spring mix and …

Super easy AND Elliott loved it! I’m thrilled that she is branching out and trying new things. She ate 1.5 patties and several pieces of asparagus right before she stated, “Asparagus is better when you dip it in ketchup!”

So, I will let YOU decide if you want to break out the Heinz on this one…but I think it’s perfectly delish without it!

Enjoy!

{Oh my….I just had an evil carb thought ~ these would be heavenly on a little bun with the lemon dill sour cream and a few greens as sliders…hmmm, going to have to try that when I’m down a few pounds!}