Week 35: Off Again

Recipes to Go: 507 194

Weeks to Go: 52 16

Recipes Made This Week

Seafood Angel Hair

Snap Peas 'n' Mushrooms

Nutty Cheese Tortellini

Snow Pea Stir-Fry

Root Vegetable Soup with Sausage

Sunshine Gelatin Mold

After a week by myself, it was my turn to pack up and leave again. Only, I got to take The Captain with me. Which, while it was nice while we were with family in Utah (for a wedding), was not so great on the flights over. I've flown alone with The Captain many times now, and the actual airplanes were totally easy, but keeping hold of him and the bags in the many airports was not. I think it would have been hard for anyone, but being pregnant certainly didn't help any.

But before that whole adventure, I did get to make some food for the family. We had the Seafood Angel Hair, which was delicious. I will have to start keeping and using seafood. It's not usually something I think of for a go-to meal, but shrimp cooks really fast and is very tasty. Well, I have yet to convince The Captain of that, but he'll come around. He already loves fish.

To go with that, we had the Snap Peas 'n' Mushrooms. I bought frozen snap peas because they're so expensive around here, especially out of season. I love peas, and mushrooms, so it was pretty much inevitable that I'd love this.

Along with my snap peas, I also got some frozen tortellini. And the Nutty Cheese Torellini was nothing I would have thought up, but it was great. A fast, one-dish meal and the leftovers were great.

Speaking of leftovers, the Snow Pea Stir Fry earned me a lunch-time, next day email of thanks from The Husband. And it was another really easy one. Basically soy sauce in a skillet with snow peas. Who knew?

One of the things I (and my mom) was looking forward to on my trip to Utah was having time and a baby sitter to cook through a lot of recipes. I was hoping to catch up on some lost time. We started with a trip to the store and a root vegetable soup.

Can't say that I used all the same veggies that the recipe called for, but they were all roots, so it counts. And it was delicious. It was nice to have a little sausage in the soup, though next time, I'd add more. Even though we put in a pound and the recipe called for a 1/4. It seemed like there was barely any sausage in there at all.

Saturday, in addition to the soup, we also put together the Sunshine Gelatin Mold for the family dinner on Sunday.

I don't have any jello molds at my house, and we haven't really been big jello eaters, but my family certainly is, so I made all but one jello recipe while I was there. This one was mixed with ice cream, so it was good, as you may imagine.

Week 34: Home Alone Again

Recipes to Go: 507 200

Weeks to Go: 52 17

Recipes Made This Week

Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Hungarian Stew

Corn 'n' Black Bean Salsa

Reuben Braids

So, after driving almost 12 hours straight and only a few hours sleep, The Husband was off again on a business trip the day we got back from Brazil.

This left me, not only alone, but horribly spoiled after not cooking for two weeks, and entirely unmotivated. Hence the pathetic four recipes.

Despite the fact that The Husband loves it, I made the Skillet Stroganoff without him. And it was wonderful. And I ate it over rice since I didn't have any egg noodles. And of course, I made it without horseradish because that's one of the few things The Husband legitimately doesn't like, so we don't have that in the house, either. I feel like I made it up to him by making the reuben later in the week, and letting him have all the leftovers, too.

Though winter was over for the most part, it was still chilly enough to make the Hungarian Stew. It was hearty, as one would expect from the Hungarians, and the best part, it only made 6 servings, which in our house means a meal and a half. Plus The Captain loved the sauce.

I made the salsa for game night. It tasted very fresh and delicious. And it came together very easily. It would appear that all those years I was intimidated and impressed by homemade salsa were years I probably could have been making my own. Luckily I still think the phrase "homemade" holds some prestige, so there's still a possibility that I could impress people with my throw-together meals.

I made the Reuben Braids specifically for The Husband's return home. He loves reubens and I was so happy to see him again that I probably would have baked a cake. But I didn't, just a yummy and easy sandwich. This recipe was more sandwich-like than the other Reuben bake. It required you to cut the dough and braid it around, which ends up looking impressive and is not only easy, but fun. Braiding dough is also something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Sorry, for the lack of pictures. I was sadly unmotivated to take pictures, either.

Week 33: Missing Summer

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 19

Our last week in Brazil featured some of the best food. We made it to the beach and had a tour guide for a few days who was not only a friend, but knew about local cuisine. We had to try the official dish of Espirito Santo, and we were not at all disappointed. This is just the appetizer. Crab cakes, essentially.

And the main attraction--Moqueca Capixaba

Normally I don't recommend tomato sauce with fish, but this was amazing. Clearly, as a state dish, they know what they're doing.

And to finish off the trip, well almost, we needed a street hot dog. Which had corn, of course (everything has corn), shredded carrots, peas, cheese, potato skins, eggs, olives, tempura mayo. To be honest, it almost made me hurl, but that was not because of any of the above, but rather, the actual hot dog, which was boiled instead of grilled or just heated through. It was disgusting, but the rest of the toppings were awesome.

Week 32: Summer in Brazil

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 20

So I took two weeks off of cooking to go to Brazil. I'm still trying to finish on time, but I may have to give myself the extra two weeks anyway. We'll see how good I feel this summer.

Speaking of summer, it was glorious to escape the harsh winter that seemed to go on forever for some 90 degree sunshine. However, food was still a very important part of this trip. It was a good thing I needed to eat all the time because The Husband basically planned the entire trip around what and where we should eat.

This was our first planned stop, an expensive Rodezio that we both agreed in the end was a big waste of money. It was not authentic, just like he complains about with rodezios in the states, and it was ridiculously expensive. Here was my dessert.

I did learn however, that $4 a bottle for water actually does make a difference. That was the best water I had all trip.

Our entire trip was based around food. The Husband has been planning this for years, so at the first opportunity, he picked up Goiabada and Queijo Mineiro, which you can't get in the states,

and washing it down with Mate Couro, which he wasn't allowed to drink last time he was here.

One of his apartments when he lived here was right above this burger joint. He was happy to see it was still here, and still serving ridiculously large burgers. This one is stuffed with steak, cheese, egg, ham, pineapple, corn, and potato skins. On a double bun like the Big Mac, of course. I'm still not sure how I got my mouth around it.

We went to a huge Farmer's Market while we were here. The piles of spices were amazing. I wish I could have brought some home. But we did buy two jars of beans soaked in either oil or alcohol. Probably alcohol. They were beautiful.

One of the stops on our list was a pizza rodezio. It's a great idea, I think, and they only do it during certain hours of the night. I ate way too much pizza, but I did try to save some room for the dessert pizzas that come around. A girl can only take so much cheese, though.

Week 31: Ready to Leave

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 21

Recipes Made This Week

Leek Soup with Brie Toasts

African Beef Curry

Pot de Creme

Tropical Lime Chicken

Walnut-Filled Coffee Cakes

Ranger Cookies

Honey-Glazed Snack Mix

Coming off the high of last week's recipe binge, I started the week with some leek soup. I came across a little financial trouble with this one. It called for tarragon, which as it turns out is ridiculously expensive. Since I wasn't sure how often I'd be using it, I couldn't justify the expense, especially after already buying the leeks ($$$) and the brie ($$$). Apparently this is an expensive soup. Luckily, it tastes that way.

(Also luckily, there's a decent blend of spices that can get you close to tarragon. Thanks Internet.) The Husband doesn't like brie normally, but this toast was fabulous. I think the next time I see some on sale, I'll grab some day old Italian bread and make this again. Because it has such a wonderful buttery taste when it's toasted. And it goes so well with leeks.

I fed the missionaries on Tuesday. The problem was, I was going to be out of the house most of the afternoon and they had requested to come earlier than usual. Well, this would have been a problem had it not been for this lovely recipe. We are huge fans of curry at our house. I have made it several times and it's one of my favorite go-to meals, but I didn't know what would be different about African style curry.

As it turns out, not much, mostly the toppings. So it was delicious, and I got to leave it on the stove, have rice cooking in the rice cooker and open my door to people waiting on the porch and be greeted by a delicious smell. I only have to set the table and we could eat. It was fabulous. And it tasted fabulous too.

For dessert, I tried the Pot de Creme. Unfortunately, I made it at noon, rather than the night before, so when we ate it hadn't quite set up yet. That didn't stop it from being delicious. Nothing like drinking thick chocolate yumminess out of wine glasses . . .

Since we were going to Brazil for two weeks, and leaving on Friday, I was trying to get through all the food in the house. So Wednesday was leftover night.

Thursday I made the Chicken with tropical salsa. The salsa would have been much better if I could have let it settle all together longer, but alas, time is usually not on my side when it comes to dinner.

That day I also made the coffee cakes to take to class with me in the morning. They were huge. I guess I let the yeast get away from me. Consequently, they tasted yeasty to me, but no one else said anything, so I might have just been crazy hormone taste buds.

Friday, despite our mid-day departure time, I managed to make the Ranger cookies. I halved the recipe and it only made a little over a dozen, perfect for a car ride. And they were very tasty. More interesting flavors than regular oatmeal cookies. The Captain enjoyed them, as did the rest of us.

Also for the car ride, I made the Honey-Glazed Snack Mix. I didn't add nuts, for The Captain's sake. Unfortunately, these just tasted burnt to me, but everyone else, including my niece loved them. So I guess again it was just me.