Recipe Roulette: Lamb Beef Kheema with Peas

Since Nichole and I are both watching our waistlines these days, our random recipe this week was one that wouldn't be tempting us to make bad choices. We made this lamb kheema with peas. Only I didn't use lamb; I used beef. I thought about using lamb but at the end of the day, and probably to my husband's dismay, I choose to use what I knew I would like. I served it with basmati rice and it was extremly tasty and very easy to make. I will definitely make this recipe again.

Birthday wishes!

Today is Joe's birthday. We celebrated by seeing The Addams Family musical starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. Afterwards we went out for hot dogs, just what the birthday boy wanted. Happy birthday, Joe!

Recipe Roulette: Four-Cheese and Pesto Italian Baked Spaghetti

I chose this week's recipe and bought all the ingredients before I officially decided to go on a diet. Needless to say, this Paula Deen dish is very high-calorie (who wouldn't love something with four different types of cheese in it?) so I walked four miles on the day that I made it and used it as my splurge for the week. I was not disappointed with the results either. Very tasty. I did substitute linguine noodles for the spaghetti noodles since I have somewhat of an aversion to spaghetti noodles (yes, I realize how weird that sounds).

1 lb uncooked spaghetti
1 lb ricotta cheese
Two 6-7 ounce containers prepared pesto
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup crumbled goat cheese

1. Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Grease a flameproof 13x9 inch baking dish. Cook the spaghetti for 2 minutes less than the package directions specify. Drain the spaghetti well and transfer it to a bowl. Stir in the ricotta, pesto, 1 cup of the mozzarella, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan and the goat cheese. Toss the mixture well and transfer it to the baking dish.

2. Sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 cups mozzarella and 1/2 cup Parmesan over the pasta. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 20 minutes. Turn the oven setting to broil and broil for one minute or until golden. Serve hot.

Ridiculous

The diet starts now. Not only did I eat my body weight in Halloween candy over the weekend but my friend (and fellow foodie) Dorian was here. Let's just say we had a lot of plans involving food...which, of course, is easy to do. I love to entertain (and eat) and Dorian also wanted to hit some great Chicago restaurants. I should have stopped when I went to bed Saturday night with a raging stomachache wondering, "Was it the shrimp and grits? Maybe it was the chips and dip. Could have been the Bloody Mary....or the margarita. Maybe a combination of the hummus and chocolate??" Ahh.

(Dorian, Amy and Monica) Case in point - we invited our friend, Monica over for a "simple" Mexican-themed lunch.

And to top things off, we went for an amazing meal Sunday night. The desert above is actually called "Ridiculous." Why? It's ice cream, wrapped in carrot cake, then tempura fried with caramel sauce and candied walnuts. Yes, ridiculous, indeed.

Recipe Roulette: Chocolate Croissants

This week, Nichole chose these chocolate croissants - YUM. It is a super easy recipe that you could practially throw together at a moment's notice. (Needed: frozen puff pastry dough, dark chocolate and an egg.) I decided to make them thinking we could eat on them for a few days, which we did, but they are definitely better the first day. Definitely.

I did opt to not use salt on my croissants and instead sprinkled each with some sugar after I brushed them with the egg. For my chocolate, I chose Green & Blacks dark chocolate which is 70% cocoa and I highly recommend it.

These croissants will be going back in the recipe box for another time! (Hopefully in the near future.)

Happy Halloween!

Miracle machine

I finally went back to the doctor again on Saturday (the second time in under two weeks) and it turns out I have bronchitis. They gave me a nebulizer treatment, a couple prescriptions and instructions to use the inhaler I received during my first visit more frequently. I am still pretty tired but I am feeling so much better!! But I didn't really want to write about that...what I wanted to say is that when I went to this urgent care clinic, they had a prescription vending machine - It was awesome! What a difference that can make when you are sick. I was not looking forward to driving over to the pharmacy and then waiting around for my prescriptions to be filled. (Especially after being there for three hours.) Nope, they just gave me a piece of paper with my drug information on it and a code. I walked over to the vending machine and typed in the code and within 2 minutes, I had both of my prescriptions filled and the machine took cash, credit cards and drug insurance cards. Maybe I am totally out of the loop but I have never seen one of these miracle machines before??

Recipe Roulette: Chicken Biriyani

This week we chose a random recipe from Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything. The winner was chicken biriyani, also known as the most expensive recipe I have ever made. Of course I had to buy whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks and - the winner - saffron. Ahh. (Unlike Nichole, I was able to find a thimble's worth for $5.69) But now my spice rack is sufficiently stocked. And don't let the spices scare you, this was an extremely easy dish to make and it gave me the chance to experiment with some new flavors.

My only regret? My dish wasn't quite as flavorful as I'd expected. I mean, what does a pinch of saffron really mean? Next time, I will use more and step it up a bit. And, yes, there will be a next time. Not only do I now have all the ingredients, my husband applauded this tasty meal. My only other complaint was that it was impossible to pick out the cloves and whole cardamom and I did not find either to be a tasty surprise while eating.

Did I mention it was healthy, too? I substituted brown basmati rice in place of regular basmati and we are also trying, whenever possible, to use all organic meats (and dairy) these days so I felt even more special about the chicken in the dish, too.

Now that I have spices on the brain, let me know what your favorite spice is to use in a recipe. Mine is cumin.

Go here to read about Nichole's adventure.

Superwoman

My kitchen currently resembles a science experiment gone terribly wrong. That or there was an explosion in the Betty Crocker test kitchen...or Bridget Jones has been here baking for hours.

It all started at about 8:50 this morning when my husband emailed me that tomorrow was his turn to bring treats to the office. He told me that he thought he'd pick up some Dunkin Donuts and maybe something else. I don't know if he was serious or if that was his way of asking for help. I kept thinking about my husband letting everyone down at the office when his unemployed wife sent him to work with Dunkin Donuts. And now, hours later, I think I was a little too ambitious.

So this morning I ran off to the store for supplies. While I was there I excitedly picked up black and orange plaid napkins with matching black plates. I should have known I was not in my right mind when I found the too cute Halloween cupcake liners and practically started squealing in the middle of Target. That adrenaline rush would not last.

One tray of brownies and 46 cupcakes later and I am exhausted. And we aren't talking your average cupcakes either (well aside from the chocolate ones I made). I decided to try my hand at cheesecake-filled pumpkin cupcakes. (Sorry, I'm too tired to type the recipe out.) It didn't seem too hard when I ever so quickly glanced at the recipe. Clearly, I didn't read about the icing which involved three sticks of butter (three entire sticks!!) and the 20 or so minutes of mixing and even placing the mixing bowl in simmering water until it reached 160 degrees. Yes, clearly, I didn't read those instructions first. If I were really a kitchen genius I would have skipped the last several steps and would have just bought the darn icing. Ahh.