Back in the saddle again

Let's see if I still remember how to do this...

I feel a little sheepish that I just went off the radar without so much as a 'catch you all in a few months, I'm taking a break'.  Part of the reason for that was because I didn't know I was taking a break, it just kind of happened!  As much as I have enjoyed all this food blogging, since my 'real' job requires me to park myself in front of a computer for most hours of the day, it can be a bit of a struggle to continue that practice once I get home at night.  So I took a hiatus and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor.  I love having all my recipes on here! It makes meal planning SO much easier for me and we all benefit from me being happy, right? :).

That being said, we have had some new meals that I am anxious to share.  I am veering away from the 5 meals a week format and will just push out a few new recipes here and there as we try something and decide to make it part of our regular rotation.  Sound good? Great, let's roll:

I am really trying to up the vegetable count in our house.  Ellie is a bit more picky now that she realizes she has choices in life, so we are doing a bit more with vegetables to try and entice her to eat them.  Sometimes it is as simple as letting her eat them off of one of our plates (since that is so much cooler) but occasionally we need to sass them up a bit to tempt her discerning palate.  That was the plan with Sweet Potato and Brie Flatbread, but it didn't really work out. I figured we were going to knock it out of the park: cheese, bread, and sweet potatoes...yum! Well, Flick and I thought so but Ellie wasn't so into it. Regardless, this is a great pseudo pizza and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Christopher Baker

Spring is in the air here in Boulder (until Tuesday that is) so we figured we would throw some steaks on the grill as a nod to the warm weather and longer days. We usually just rub them down with oil and some salt and pepper, but this time around we made Spice-Rubbed New York Strip with Avocado Lime Salsa.  I thought this was a great way to gussy up a nice steak - the rub added some flavor without overpowering the steak and avocado-on-anything is good for me so I called this recipe a winner.

Photo: Marcus Nilsson; Styling: Tiziana Agnello

There, I think that was a relatively successful jump back into things!  I don't have any of my own pictures to go along with these recipes since I just last night decided to post them (thanks Christa!) - so the pictures above are professional and all the credit goes to the photographer.  Oops, I mean, haven't my camera skills improved over the last few months?  Bravo professionals.  It's good to be back - I hope you all have a good week!

Flakey - and I'm not talking about a crust

Well, I completely flaked on blogging last week.  That's right, I didn't give it a thought until Sunday night.  By that point, I figured with the 100+ recipes we have accumulated over the months, one week wouldn't be missed, right?  We have a lot of family staying with us through Christmas so it is easy to lose track of to-do's when you are hanging out together in the evenings.  Not a bad thing in my opinion, this is a hobby after all...unless someone wants to pay me for it :)

We are working up towards our big Thanksgiving Day feast next week.  I have the menu planned, turkey ordered, and we will do all the shopping this weekend.  I am pretty excited for it - Thanksgiving happens to be one of my favorite holidays.  I think it has something to do with the fact that the Christmas season "officially" starts once the leftovers from Thanksgiving are packed up.  I am definitely looking forward to reporting back on our Thanksgiving festivities - mashed potatoes, apple pie, and remembering how fortunate we are to have such an incredible life.  Does it get much better than that? 

In the poultry department, one of the recipes my mom brought out with her last time they came to visit was Baked Chicken Po Boy Sandwiches.  Mmmmmm...these were yummy.  Breaded chicken on bread - sign me up.  These were really good and are definitely kid friendly...a little much for Ellie but she only has 8 teeth so that could have something to do with it.

Another recipe my mom brought out was Wedding Soup.  We used to have this recipe when I was growing up; it is really great on cold, wintery days and makes enough that you can have some leftovers to freeze and take out next time the snow starts to fly.

A lot of people live by the slow cooker.  I have a lukewarm feeling towards ours.  I get why people love them; you come home to a warm dinner with no post-work prep time.  Where I get hung up on slow cooker meals is when they don't work out.  We have very few crock pot meals that I have worked into our regular rotation.  We tried Curried Lentil Tomato Soup, and even after 8 hours of simmering in the crockpot, I came home to undercooked veggies and firm lentils.  Bleh.  I was pretty disappointed to say the least.  My mom prepped a much more delectable Baby Back Rib recipe in the crockpot for us.  Pair it with some Mac n' Cheese and some peas and you have yourself a very American comfort food dinner.

One of the nights that Flick's mom was out we had Butternut Squash and Mushroom Tarts with Gruyere cheese.  Oh man.  This sounds like it would take hours upon hours to put together, but we were able to make it in the 40 minute window after work one Friday night.  I highly recommend giving this a try - there are a lot of little steps involved but read through it a few times, formulate a plan, and get to it.

Finally, for a taste of some southern cooking (there is okra in it!) we made Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.  This was a solid, tasty meal that will definitely be a part of our regular rotation.  We are not huge okra fans but in this one-dish meal it adds a nice flavor.

I hope everyone has a scrumptious Thanksgiving with family and friends, we'll run through the festivities next week!  

Happy Halloween!

I really love this time of year.  I know I have already harped on how great the transition into fall and winter comfort food is, so don't even get me started on the Holidays.  It all kicks off by getting dressed up in a costume and collecting candy from perfect strangers.  I haven't quite figured out how we get Ellie to understand that on this one day, with Mom and Dad, it is okay to accept candy from a stranger.  Otherwise, run. 

We went down to Pearl Street this year for the Munchkin Masquerade.  It is the place see and be seen on Halloween.  There are some pretty amazing costumes (think an entire family dressed up as the Incredibles...) and all the stores hand out candy to the kiddos.  Needless to say, Ellie was completely overwhelmed but happily took it all in, held safely in Mom and Dad's arms.  She was a dinosaur this year (and really excited about it):

Slightly more ferocious than the ladybug costume she donned last Halloween:

Apparently she was so worn out from the sleeping and milk drinking at the Munchkin Masquerade that she fell asleep when we set her up for her post-Pearl Street diaper change:

Too cute.  Along with getting dressed up for Halloween, we always enjoy carving pumpkins.  Flick was traveling during primo pumpkin carving time this year, so my mom and I spent an evening carefully cutting away the perfect Halloween designs in our pumpkins.  It is a good thing that Halloween is over because the animals have been feasting on our artwork for the past few days and there is not much carving left to speak of.  They were cool while they lasted though:

The pumpkins may be done but we are still feasting on the roasted pumpkin seeds that we meticulously separated from the "goo" on the insides of the pumpkins while carving.  For tasty roasted pumpkin seeds, separate the seeds from the pulp.  Rinse thoroughly to get all the goop off and soak in a clean bowl of salted water overnight (just a few shakes should do it).  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Drain the seeds and cover a baking sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray or rub some oil on the foil to grease it.  Spread the seeds in a thin layer on the sheet and sprinkle with a little more salt.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Using a spatula, flip the seeds and bake for another 10 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly before enjoying! 

If you are tough like we are, you can eat the entire seed, hull and all (yeah, so it is a little strange but that is where all the salt is!), otherwise, peel off the hull and enjoy the little green pepita inside!

We'll start our meal chat with Enchilada Casserole.  We have featured this meal before and I brought it out again while my parents were in town.  Since my dad is lactose intolerant, we used cheddar cheese in place of monterey jack (cheddar and muenster are fine for him!) and he seemed to really enjoy it, as did my mom and I.

Since the Enchilada Casserole only uses 4 wraps, Flick and I used the rest of them earlier in the week for Grilled BBQ Chicken wraps.  These are great on the grill year round and are so easy to make.  They are pretty kid friendly too so hopefully the whole family can enjoy them together.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo is another one of those solid meals that tastes more gourmet than the short list of ingredients and rapid cook time implies.  I love meals like this, they are real confidence boosters.  This dish doesn't pack as much heat as the name and ingredients imply.

I made Flick and I some Honey Cashew Chicken with rice for a good healthy dose of vegetables one night.  I really like this recipe and love that it uses edamame - something that we don't often cook with but that has a really good flavor and increases the heartiness factor of a dish in a very healthy way. 

Our vegetarian meal was Falafel Pitas.  YUM!  I love falafel and these were so easy to make.  You could easily make a double batch, shape the patties, and freeze them for future use.  Just take them out, defrost, and continue forth with pan-frying them for a quick, healthy, tasty meal on a rushed weeknight.  You will have to use your imagination on these because we wolfed them down before getting the camera out.  I really enjoyed the sauce that went along with them and Ellie actually ate it off the top of her falafel - so that gives you some indication of how delicious it was.  Hope you all had a great Halloween, happy cooking!

Freezer friendly

One of the keys to homemade dinner success in our household is the ever present freezer meal.  When Flick is on the road I live by leftovers.  There is little time for cooking in the short time between when Ellie and I get home from daycare and when she is getting ready for bed.  That means we plan ahead and have plenty of insta-meals at the ready.  As much as my sisters and I begged for those Kids Cuisine TV dinners when we were younger, our freezer meals are all from scratch theses days.

Flick and I had planned to make some of these meals prior to Ellie's arrival so that we would have a freezer full of food to siphon off of in the weeks following her birth, however, Ellie had other plans.  When she decided to make her entrance a few weeks before my due date, Flick ended up running back home from hospital to whip up some lasagna and chili to tide us over before my folks came out.  He's the best.  These meals are all great as leftovers.  Cook them, let them cool, and freeze them in individual portions.  Take them out a day or so early and let them thaw in the fridge.  As a forewarning, there are no photos for these foods (yet) - I'll get those up ASAP...but some recipes need to be made and photographed first!

Lasagna is a freezer friendly no brainier.  It makes a large amount of food, freezes really well, and tastes quite good reheated.  I have two lasagna recipes, one is a vegetarian lasagna and one is a meat lasagna.  The vegetarian recipe is super light and would be great even in the summer.  The meat is a little more hearty but very delicious, we have some in the freezer as we speak.

Chili is another great meal that reheats well.  You can take chili from a frozen block and throw it in a saucepan on a medium to low temperature and break it up as it warms.  In thawing it on the stovetop, you get the added bonus of your home filling with the aroma of a fresh batch of warm chili.  If you are feeling ambitious, make a double portion and you have that many more meals ready to go.  We have had this recipe since our Boston days and both really love it.  Recently we made it and let it simmer in a crock pot for Fall Fest at my office.  Feel free to get a little creative with your chili and tailor it to the tastes of your family.

Forget Marie Callenders, you can freeze your own chicken pot pie that may save you from eating 6 sticks of butter in one sitting.  Just saying.  To keep the crust from being soggy when you reheat it, consider warming it in a preheated oven or toaster oven.

Meatballs.  Need I say more?  Make a batch of meatballs, freeze them, and you can have meatball subs or spaghetti and meatballs in a flash.  If you don't do beef, sub in ground turkey or chicken.  These little guys are perfect since you can take out just as many as you need that day and heat them up quick.

Don't fear the freezer - as long as you take the time to store your food properly, it will taste just as delicious as the day you made it.

Streamlining

I believe I have previously alluded to the book I am currently reading: The Joy of Less: A minimalist living guide.  The whole idea of the minimalist lifestyle is to live with less "stuff" which ultimately gives you more time and space to enjoy doing the things you love.  It is an idea that I have started to employ around our house (not to the extremes mentioned in the book; the only piece of furniture in the author's bedroom is a futon mattress on the floor...slightly excessive, er, minimalist).  At home, I am really trying to keep clutter to a minimum and get rid of the things that we don't really need.  There are so many ways to streamline our lives.

I have had this recipe for Swedish Meatballs cut out since we lived in Boston.  When I first started gathering recipes, I was putting every recipe that sounded good into a sticky back photo book.  Needless to say, I was filling up these books pretty quickly and still rotating through the same old recipes.  Flick suggested that I start actually making the recipes before putting them in the book so that I have a comprehensive collection of recipes that have already been vetted.  He's so smart...and that was much more efficient.  With this blog, I have found that I am able to further condense my recipe collection into my online recipe book.  No more piles of paper needed, we just keep everything organized in a nice, searchable format online.  Along the same lines, the whole goal of this blog is to share recipes that taste great but that don't require a lot of pomp and circumstance to pull together.  In theory, I am pulling together a list of minimalist dinner recipes - guess I was destined to start tracking in this direction!

A quick way to put together an after work chicken dish is with Chicken Chilaquiles.  This recipe uses rotisserie chicken to cut down on prep time and carries just a tiny bit of spice.  Don't fear the heat - we are not big spicy food fans in our family so if we can take it you know it has to be pretty mild.

Another recipe that we have had since Boston, but that I have actually been cooking for years, is Smothered Pork Chops with Thyme.  This is a good fall recipe served up with mashed potatoes and some veggies.  To make the pork chop baby friendly, we threw it in the food processor with some of the sauce and Ellie loved it.

 



Two recipes that we have previously featured but that have been out of the loop for awhile are Tuna Noodle Casserole (big hit with Ellie) and Monterey Jack, Corn, and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto.  That's right, we made a risotto after work and had it ready to go at 6pm for dinner with Ellie.  Nothing is impossible with a little bit of planning and the drive to get it done.

Flexibility

The recipes this week show just how much we are straddling the line between summer and autumn right now.  As hard as it is for me to make a nice chili during the summer, those summery, one-dish pastas just don't do it for me when the weather turns cooler.  Part of being able to cook easy, delicious, healthy meals, depends on your ability to adapt.  Whether you are adapting to a new schedule, the new variety of fresh produce at the turn of a season, or dietary limitations in your family - the more flexible you can be, the easier it is to cook at home.

Almost Meatless Sloppy Joe's (AMSJ) is a recipe that was posted awhile back.  AMSJ's are a delicious alternative to popping open a can of Manwich sauce and pouring it over some ground beef.  With this recipe, we manage to sneak in some vegetables and beans with the meat in order to make it a more well rounded meal.  Speaking of flexibility, instead of serving AMSJ's on rolls, for this meal we broke out some russet potatoes, pierced them with a fork, microwaved them for about 5 minutes.  We put them in the oven for 45 minutes at around 400 degrees.  Voila - AMSJ's over baked potatoes.  YUM!  We even managed to sneak in some cheese as a creamy topper because you all know how we feel about cheese.

Speaking of cheese (I don't think that is the first time I have said that), one of the meals that starts to show up a whole lot more during the winter months are Calzones.  Calzones are really not all that much different than pizza, however, there is something fun about having a cheesy packet of deliciousness all to yourself.  Calzones are really easy to tailor to the needs of your family - you can mix and match veggies and meats so that everyone ends up with something that speaks to their individual tastes.  We serve these with a side of marinara for dipping. 

Summer lemon vegetable risotto is about to be retired for the year.  This is one of my favorite summertime risottos and one of the few dishes that I am okay sweating over the stove in our hot-box kitchen for.  You really pay homage to the key summer vegetables in the form of zucchini, summer squash, snap peas, and asparagus with this meal.  If you have some finicky vegetable people in your family, hopefully they can find at least one "green thing" that they can enjoy in this dish.

Warm Pasta Salad with Shrimp is a meal that I was not so sure about when I decided to make the recipe.  Something about beans and pasta...it just didn't seem like it would work for me.  I was SO wrong.  This has become a year-round staple in our house.  The flavor runs deep and with all the beans, spinach, and lean shrimp - you are getting some great nutritional benefits from this meal.  We add more spinach than the recipe originally calls for (it cooks down significantly) and you could sub-in some whole wheat pasta for even more points in the "good for you" column.  I hope you decide to give this one a chance!

Christa introduced me to this Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe.  She made it out in Colorado and it is the best Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe that I have ever had.  Hands down.  Even if you have your own recipe at home, give this one a go - we have fully converted and not looked back since!

Family Style

Well - I got distracted by an amazing trip up to Breckenridge for the weekend (congrats Sarah and Luke!!) so I am a little behind on getting this out.  Keep your eyes peeled for another post later this week...then I should be right back on track.

I took a vacation day today and it felt great (it is Wednesday...it takes a few nights in a row to get these posts completely pulled together). I am not sure how most people spend their vacation days but mine included getting up at 5:15 for a little yoga, washing the floor, having a lunch date with my leading lady, Ellie, at Mod Market in Boulder, going shoe shopping for said leading lady, and washing Dozer.  Good stuff all around.  Doesn't sound like much of a vacation day you say?  Well, the fact that I don't have to stress about doing all of those things after working and putting Ellie to bed is enough of a relief for me to call this vacation day a success.

Ellie's new shoes :)

With all that in mind, I have to say that the best part of my day came at around 6:10pm when for the first time, Flick, Ellie, and myself sat down and had dinner together.  We have had plenty of meals where Ellie has been at the table with us, banging around a toy or sleeping in her bouncer, but this was the first dinner where she sat in her high chair at the table and had a mini version of our meal.  It was SO great.  It is hard to beat an awesome meal with your family, out on the back deck on a summer evening.  For me, this meal was the perfect cap to a productive vacation day and gave me a taste of a tradition that I can't wait to get going in the Colorado Flickinger household.  Enjoy the meals this week - we are making some serious headway in getting all those recipes onto the new site!

Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi

Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs

Honey Mustard Chicken with Roasted New Potatoes

Meatloaf...remember this guy?

Intentions

In my pre-baby days I was involved in a number of athletic endeavors.  I played on an indoor and outdoor soccer team, did yoga, rode my bike multiple times a week with Flick, ran, swam, skied, hiked, and occasionally even rock climbed.  Many of those activities had to take a back seat while I was sporting a very protuberant midsection.  In the months following Ellie's birth, it was easy to say "well, I am not doing (insert activity here) right now because I just had a baby".  In my opinion, this is extremely legit.  You birthed another human...you deserve some time off from having to do anything but take care of that little person.  I am reaching the limit of my "just had a baby" response.  I think it is different for everyone, but for my own personal baby experience, I feel like it is time to get back into some of those old habits that I miss so dearly.

Last camping trip before Ellie!

As a step in this direction, I pulled myself out of bed at 5:20 two mornings this week to go to a yoga class...a real yoga class.  Not my beloved prenatal classes where we talked about how we were feeling, swapped stories, and spent an hour and a half limbering up (might I recommend, Yo Mama Yoga to any pregnant Boulderites out there?  LOVE this place).  This was a legs and arms shaking, sweat dripping, Ujai breathing, mind centering yoga class (well, it was for me at least...thank you Radiance Power Yoga!).  It was difficult and really great all at the same time.  For the first time in about a year, I set an intention for myself to focus on during the class - being gentle and understanding of the new post-baby "me".  It is too easy to set high expectations and be disappointed or frustrated when we don't meet them.  When you are just starting out, or getting back into something after a long hiatus, give yourself a break!

This goes for cooking as well.  If you are a take-out kind of family and want to turn the corner and get into the kitchen, start small.  Maybe 2 nights a week you do a home cooked meal.  It is much easier to stick with something when it is reasonable and attainable.  Think of how good it feels to accomplish something and to be able to move on to the next level.  If you start too big and have to scale back, it is still 100% fine but can be a little self defeating.  Give it some thought, set your intention, and get after it!  I hope you enjoy the meals this week:

Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, and Mango Stir Fry

                                   Cornmeal Crusted Catfish

Enchilada Casserole













Curried Couscous with Broccoli and Feta









Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps (again, no photo...I didn't realize I was missing this many!)

Regaining control

Today at work we were talking about how easy it is for your house to get to that point where you feel as though you have lost all sense of control. Maybe it starts with a stray toy being left in the middle of the living room and before you know it there are Cheerios between your toes and your kids have named the dust bunnies in the corner. I swear this happens in a matter of 23 minutes. We desperately try to stay on top of everything, but every once and awhile, you need to re-baseline and take things by the reigns.

I was looking through the recipes section of the blog today and realized that we have quite the collection of recipes in our rotation. There must be at least 50 recipes posted, this gives us a lot of options when it comes to dinner planning. Since we do have so many recipes, I am going to take this opportunity to start recycling some recipes for a few weeks as a way to help me move my recipes to my new site.

I originally intended to slowly move my recipes over in addition to adding the new recipes for the week. Please refer to the above paragraph while I go retrieve the 3 day old Cheerios from Ellie's pincer grasp. Simply put, I don't have much more time than I am currently devoting to spend on the blog! Over the next few weeks I will finally regain control over my blog and will shift all my recipes to the Recipefy site. I am psyched and hope you enjoy the finished product!

The recipes I will call into play this week are:

Baked Ziti with Summer Vegetables

 

Baked Cod Filet

Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Cheddar Burgers with Red Onion Jam (aka: Michelle's Birthday burgers...we had them on my birthday again last Monday!), and finally,

Cheesy Potato Soup with Ham Sandwiches.

Lake Eats

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we love food.  The reason it is so painless for me to spend time putting together a meal is because the end product is so satisfying.  Even when just Flick and I are dining together, dinner is no short ordeal.  We easily spend 45 minutes eating, talking, drinking - and that is on nights when we have a full agenda for the post dinner hours.

With company in town - plan for at least an hour and a half at the dinner table.  Love it.  We just went out and bought a bunch of tiki torches and citronella oil to ward of the mosquitoes and prolong the dinner-time chat out on our back deck in Boulder.  It is the same way at the lake.  When we saddle up for dinner we are going well beyond sunset into the hours of the night when I would normally be getting ready for bed.  How great is that? 

Instead of the normal 5 meals - here are two meal "events" that you can count on to provide you with a great medium for conversation at your next backyard get together.

The first meal is a bit of a one-pot-wonder: the Shrimp Boil.  My brother and sister-in-law have lived south of the Mason Dixon (which, when I Googled it, is not quite as far south as I had imagined, but regardless...) for long enough to be bringing a little southern flare to our gatherings.  They put on a delightful shrimp boil which was delicious and fun to eat (NOTE: if you are taking turns doing dishes, call dibs on this night...trust me).  The shrimp boil involves shrimp, corn, onions, potatoes, sausage, Old Bay Seasoning and a giant newspaper covered table.  Intrigued?  Give this a go - if you have easy going guests who are not afraid to dig in family-style, this will surely be a hit!

Getting ready to chow down!

The second meal was a bit more traditional (in the way it was served) but just as memorable.  We had a feast of steaks, salmon, broccoli slaw, baked potatoes, bread dipped in flavored oil, and strawberry torte for dessert.  Mmmmm.  

The steaks were grilled with a little olive oil, seasoned salt, and crushed black pepper.  We had sauteed mushrooms (slice mushrooms, heat skillet over medium heat and add some butter.  Add mushrooms and saute until softened) as a nice compliment to the perfectly grilled steaks.

The salmon was cooked on a cedar plank - soak the plank for an hour, rub the fish with a mixture of 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.  Lay the fish on the plank and put the plank on the preheated grill (medium heat) for 15 or so minutes or until it reaches 130 degrees.  Serve with this horseradish sauce from Wegmans if possible! 

 

These recipes will be as great individually as they are all together - mix and match, borrow a marinade or cooking technique for a different cut of meat, and by all means, allow yourself some strawberry torte for dessert!

Broccoli slaw?  Yes please!

Strawberry Torte

Recipe Facelift

I am pretty excited for the recipes this week because not only are they delicious, but they are posted on my new recipe website, hosted by Recipefy.  I've been using a Google website that I created to store my recipes, but after only 10 weeks of posting I had reached my photo upload limit (really??).  That was going to be a problem.  It took some digging but I came across this site which is basically like Facebook for recipes.  Most people would not be that excited about it, however, I am over the moon.  Yes, it does mean that I have some serious work to do, moving all my recipes over there and updating all the links in the blog, however, it will be worth it in the end to have such a professional looking, user friendly collection.  Onto the food...

Most of the meals for this week were "indoor cooking" meals but there are some real favorites in this set (does it seem like I am always saying that?  I love good food).  Pork Chops with Country Gravy is a nod to the southern style sausage and gravy that is fun to indulge in for brunch every now and again.  It is a white gravy and is so delicious you would be hard pressed to believe it is "healthy".  We serve these chops with mashed potatoes.  We have not tried it yet but if you like sausage and gravy, you could definitely use this gravy to make a nice hearty breakfast.

We followed up this heavier meal with Garlic and Herb Oven Fried Halibut.  We really liked the crunch of the panko on these fish filets.  You can use any mild, white fish - just adjust your cooking times depending on the thickness of the filets.

The grill dish that we enjoyed this week was London Broil with Tomato Corn Relish.  London Broil can be a tough cut of meat so let it hang out in this marinade for awhile and resist the urge to over-cook it.  The relish is the perfect compliment (and a good way to work some veggies in!).

Honey Cashew Chicken with Rice was one of our "new to us" recipes this week.  Cashews are the number one nut in my book.  I do not pick them out of the mixed nuts (anymore) but I do give myself a mental fist pump when I end up with a solid handful that includes a lot of cashews.  Fun fact - cashews grow on trees and the nut itself grows off the end of a "false fruit" - the cashew apple:

Long story short, the richness of the cashews really round out this dish for me.

Finally, we are featuring another Mark Bittman creation - Sweet Potato Chile Mac.  I'll be honest, I was pretty skeptical about this dish and probably would have passed over the recipe if it had not come from his collection.  That is the power of good branding for you!  The dish went over very well and Flick actually declared "the guy who came up with this is genius!".  Enough said - give it a try for yourself and see what you think!  We used a pressed sausage (more along the lines of a kielbasa) as opposed to a crumbly sausage and it came out great.