at home with ann

Way back in the beginning of January, my little boy turned 2.  In the blink of an eye he's suddenly a whole grown up person.  He's hilarious, a ton of fun, and full of opinions.  I hear a lot of "What's this, Mommy?," "I can do it myself.  Colin does it!," and "Oh, dump truck, I love you so much, would you like to play trains with me?"  That last one might not be typical two year old behavior, but it's pretty funny to hear.  To celebrate his birthday, we had a brunch with family and friends.  This year's theme was trains, as the birthday boy loves "chookin chookin."  He is also of the opinion that it's not a party without balloons and cars, so both were included in the day.  I didn't do a good job taking pictures of the food or the dining room because I was a busy bee and enjoying the celebration, but here are a couple glimpses from the day. The menu had some repeats from last year, and a couple new items.   ...

I always thought corn chowder was kind of bland, which is why I hadn't made any yet this summer despite the abundance of corn.  But then, while flipping through the Pioneer Woman cookbook, I happened upon her recipe for Corn Chowder with Chilies .  Corn plus bacon, chipotles and chilies?  This was more up my alley.  I made it my own by subbing in the ingredients I had on hand (jalapenos instead of chilies and grilled corn instead of raw), and it was amazingly good.  It packed quite a kick, though, so much so that my brother-in-law, who ate a bowl after getting home late at night, was caught a bit off guard. He did confirm that it was delicious despite the somewhat mouth-burning quality. Between the time when I started writing this post yesterday and now we have picked up 8 more ears of corn from our CSA.  Might be making another batch this week.  Good thing I have a kitchen helper. Spicy Corn Chowder   Ingredients: 2 slices bacon, ...

We went to my in-laws on Sunday afternoon to visit, watch football, and meet their tiny 8 week old puppy.  I brought scallops wrapped in bacon for an appetizer, and then in all the excitement (playing with the tiny puppy and inhaling scallops), I completely neglected to take a photograph.  I'll share the recipe, and you'll have to imagine what they look like.  Instead, you can see pictures of the puppy.  Scallops Wrapped in Bacon makes 24 Ingredients: 3/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard 12 large sea scallops, cut in half 12 slices bacon, cut in half width-wise 2 Tablespoons brown sugar 24 toothpicks Make the marinade for the scallops by whisking together the maple syrup, soy sauce and mustard. Put halved scallops in a bowl, and refrigerate in the marinade for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put cut slices of bacon on a lined baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes.  You only want to par cook the baco...

We had another big bunch of swiss chard in our CSA veggies this week, so I wanted to do something new.  A lot of the greens recipes I've found include bacon as an accent, because when you're getting all those healthy vitamins and minerals, you want to balance it out a bit.  Plus, bacon is really just a salty condiment.   This is another quick meal, maybe 20 minutes of cooking time.  Good thing since I realized at 9:15 at night that I needed to make something for the next day.  I do that a lot.   Bacon and Swiss Chard Pasta recipe from Bon Appetit Ingredients: 1 pound linguine - I used whole wheat spaghetti 12 ounces bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices 1 very large red onion, halved, sliced (about 6 cups) - I used vidalia 2 large bunches Swiss chard, stemmed, chopped (about 12 cups) 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving 1/...

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of our move to this house.  I can't believe it!  It's certainly been quite a year.  While there are advantages (free reign to decorate how I want, plenty of space, our own yard and wonderful porch) and disadvantages (replacing the water heater, the prospect of paying a mortgage for the next 30 years, the mysterious scratching noise in the attic) to owning a home in the suburbs as opposed to renting an apartment in the city, one of the things that has significantly changed are our weekend activities.  Back in the day, we would go out to eat at one of the many fantastic restaurants a few steps from our apartment.  Now, although the suburbs do have some good dining out options, we usually find ourselves cooking at home. If you've been reading for a while, you know that homemade pizza is one of our favorite weekend dinners.  It's great to cook together - even when one of the cooks is kind of bossy like me....

I know you all know how to make salad.  I won't give you step by step pictures showing you how to cook chicken or chop tomatoes.  I will, however, tell you that this is an awesome salad, with a lot of flavor and variety.  It has a good amount of protein and healthy fat and will keep you full.  Also, you get to eat bacon. In the mix: Greens Chopped tomato Avocado Chicken - sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper Bacon Hard Boiled Egg Blue Cheese A tip for cooking hard boiled eggs.  Put the uncooked eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by about an inch.  Bring to a boil, covered.  When boiling, allow to cook for 1 minute and then turn off the heat.  Set the timer for 15 minutes and leave them alone.  After 15 minutes, immerse the eggs in a bowl of ice water until cool - just a few minutes.  Peel under running water. This was definitely not a five minute lunch, but it was so good it was worth it!