Fondue and Grilling Fun!

I hope you had a nice weekend... it was a busy one for us!  We went to a cookout, had a fondue night (just barely!), had lots of playground time, worked on the house, bought a new sofa, and I feel like the list goes on and on... 

I feel productive, yet exhausted.  Though I didn't feel exhausted until today.  In the rain.  The gloomy, gloomy rain.  Why does rain make you feel like that?  Is it just me?  I wasn't even all that tired today (and I do know tired), but I could probably have taken a solid 2-hour nap.  If I napped well.

I digress.  

It's the food you're here for, isn't it?  

First off, Fondue Sunday with Neal and Casee!  :-)  

They sure do look like a weird bunch, don't they?  (Love you guys!)

Things I learned on Fondue Sunday:

1. You can solder a cord and finagle it so that it works (if you can't find the real fondue pot cord because you moved).  Thanks hubby!

2. Hard cider is delicious.  Seriously, Angry Orchard?  Do it.

3. There's a fine line between cheese fondue and a big lump of gooey cheese that barely counts as fondue.

4.  Fondue pots are not easy to clean when they are filled with gobs of cheese.

5.  You cannot take a picture of someone stirring fondue without it being a blurry, action shot (See below).

We used a vegetarian broth base and then added some garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, and cheese (Sharp Cheddar and Colby Jack).  Now, it's been a long time since we've had a fondue night, but I've found that pretty much whatever you put into a cheese fondue is delicious.  Tomatoes, mushrooms, tofu, apples, carrots, celery, oh, and crusty bread.  Rock on.

I heart fondue.  :-)

Oh, and yes, Jimmy did indeed solder a cord to make our fondue pot work.  We probably spent an hour looking for the cord and couldn't find it!  Ugh.  (I still haven't found it, for the record.)  I thought for sure it would show up immediately after we made the fondue.

Next up... last night's dinner.  I would say that this was something I would never have eaten as a child.

Chicken Sausage with Grilled Onions, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Carrots

I'll be honest.  Not my favorite.  Here I was, trying to like sausage.  What was I thinking?  I'm just not a fan!  With the exception of the Hot Creamy Sausage Dip my mom used to make.  Click here to see the blog post where it was included.

By all means, if you enjoy sausage, cook some up!  I got chicken sausage that was already de-cased or whatever you call it.  I HATE de-casing sausage.  It's icky.  Anyway, since the sausage was already de-cased, it was certainly one of the easiest meals I've made in a long time.  Just chop everything up and throw it on the grill pan.  Enjoy!  :-)

Okay, this post is getting out of hand.  Bear with me!  Here's what I had today...

Moooooore Eggsalad!  (On an Arnold Sandwich Thin)

Can I tell you that it was amazing?

For dinner, I was going to make Grilled Eggplant with a side of Red Pepper Sauce.  Then I realized that you actually need to have a real grill to make that happen.  So, I chopped up an eggplant and grilled it with some mushrooms and red pearl onions (better than the white, yum!) and applied it to some spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce and roasted red peppers.  Mmmm...

Eggplant Spaghetti?

Not exactly the prettiest dish, but it was delicious.  AND... it made enough leftovers so that the hubs has lunch for a week.  I'm not kidding you.  A WEEK.  Score!

Until next time...   

Meat, Mushrooms, and Herbs, Oh my!

I just spent waaaaaaaay too long organizing my blog pictures.  My advice to you is that if you ever start a blog, make sure you have some system of organization from the beginning.  Not just a jumble of delicious looking pictures.  Yeah. 

Now that I have all kinds of folders and labels, I'm ready to show you what I cooked yesterday... more meat! 

Hearty Rice Casserole

I have no idea why this is called "Hearty Rice Casserole" and not "Hearty Double-Meat Casserole".  In my humble opinion, that would be a much more appropriate name.  Sooo much meat.  It smelled so good while it was cooking and I think it tasted even better leftover tonight. 

I also made these:

Sauteed Mushrooms

Mmm... I love mushrooms so much. 

Apparently I'm all about meat and mushrooms lately.  I'm not really sure why.  Everything I seem to cook has both!  What's up with that? 

Oh, on a side note... here are a few pictures of my growing herbs:

The good news is that they're not dead yet.  However, it doesn't look like the cilantro is really growing.  I shall keep watering it and see what happens! 

Off to bed.  I'm sooooo tired and that baby of mine is going to wake me up soon.  Thank goodness she's cute.  ;-)

Soup vs. Stew

Hello again!  :-)

I made a yummy, yet odd, soup tonight and thought you should know about it.  It was kind of a full meal in a bowl and pretty filling... and it quite possibly had the most soup-like consistency of all the soups I've made thus far!  You know, versus being stew-like.  I wonder what actually makes a soup a "soup" instead of a "stew".  Is it all based on consistency?  Hmm... curious.  Anyway, you should also know that this soup did not contain any form of cheese or garlic.  Very weird for us!  We love cheese and garlic.  Well, who doesn't?  Check it out:

Hearty Corn Chowder

Jimmy and I ate it and pondered how strange it was to have so many flavors in one bowl.  Celery, onion, potato, bacon, corn, sausage... all in one place. 

Ultimately, I think we prefer the stew-like soups... what do you prefer? 

White Bean Bisque

Ready for more soup?  Of course you are, don't be silly.  White Bean Bisque, baby!

Okay, so the sausage looks like a little much on top of this little bowl of soup.  However, I was following the recipe and this is what happened.  I made a slight adjustment on the cheese, though.  You're supposed to make these parmesan crisps and I only had the powdered kind.  Maybe next time I'll make the crisps, just to see what they're like. 

Pretty tasty!  The texture was a little strange because it's basically blended beans... but Jim and I both liked it.  He compared it to sausage gravy.  It would probably be fantastic poured over some nice buttermilk biscuits!  :-)

Happy 2011!

I'm baaaack.  I know, it's only been a few minutes!  :-) 

We threw a New Year's Eve party at our place and it was a great excuse to make a lot of food.  Everything seemed to go over pretty well and despite everyone eating lots of food, there were (I should say "are") tons of leftovers.  Here's what I made:

Cold Spinach Dip

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

Pumpkin Smash!

Pumpkin Pie Dip

Vegetable Pizza (I made my mom's version dubbed "Veggie Bars"
and the recipe is a little different from the one linked... fyi!)

Onion Dip

Jelly Meatballs

Hot Apple Cider with Rum
(Pretty self-explanatory!)

Hot Fiesta Dip
(I add green chiles to mine...)

Hot Creamy Sausage Dip

Rosemary Chicken Pockets
(Dubbed "Chicken Salad Wontons" by our party-goers!)

I'm a huge fan of all things dipped, so we put out lots of cut-up veggies, scoops (baked and regular), pretzels, graham crackers, and apples and everyone went into a dipping frenzy!  It was fabulous! 

We also figured out that if you put little umbrellas in random things at the table, people generally stay away from them until the very end.  I say generally because there's always a rebel in every crowd. 

Happy 2011!!!  :-)