teacher by day - chef by night
This week was the start of fall – but I think that someone forgot to tell the temperatures & atmosphere and all of those things that! Since fall is here, winter squash is starting to go on sale & I just couldn’t resist. I have …
Tonight was a mexican night! I have been craving enchiladas for the past few days since I saw this post from Simply Recipes and realized I haven’t had them in a while and I had a can of green enchilada sauce in the cabinet (I …
No, I have not stopped cooking – I have just not made “beautiful” dishes too often since school has started (and we have yet to be home a weekend – maybe the “relaxing fall weekends” will start in October and then go away once ski season starts!)
I have been craving crab cakes for a week or two now (I made some really yummy ones about a month ago when my parents came over) – so I finally decided to make them. Last time they cooked up kind of strange (I did bread crumbs & canned crab with egg & seasoning, etc). So I decided this time to return to a method I have used before: using stuffing mix!
My recipe is bassically as follows:
Then I pan fried (using Olive Oil) for about 3-5 minutes per side and then baked (350ish?) for about 10 minutes. I served them over a “bed of lettuce” with a dressing I whipped up using: mayo, lemon juice, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil, & Old Bay (I think that’s all I used!)
I made 6 cakes with this method & recipe. 1 was perfect with the (biggish) salad for me – Rich started with 2 and ended up still taking a third, so I guess they were a success otherwise he would have reached for the ice cream instead!
Here is what the ones I made last month looked like:
As I was searching other blogs I came across this one & it had to make me laugh. I keep telling Rich he should start a blog of all the good stuff I cook for him (and his photos would just be of empty plates …
I love dips! I love dips that are healthy even more! Last week we were invited to a Turkish (Muslim) retreat for Ramadan (the retreat is in the area & as part of Ramadan they are to open their hearts & homes to neighbors – …
School has officially started! I have now seen my students for 2 days and am glad to be back (even with all the start of the school year stresses). Last week we had 3 fun-filled days of school preparations and I knew that I was not going to want to cook something crazy after those busy days so I was thrilled that Giant had “picnic pork” on sale! All I had to do was put the pork & ingredients in the slow cooker, turn it on & wait until dinner time (I love slow cookers & our current model was a Christmas present to Rich from his folks last year which got re-gifted to me so I could cook for him more!)
This dish did not photograph as well as it tasted, but we gave it our best shot. Along with the pulled pork (recipe below) were frozen potato croquettes (from Omaha steaks – thanks dad for not wanting them) and sauteed beet tops. To make the beet tops all you have to do is wilt them down in a hot skillet with some oil & then I sliced up some beets (cooked & peeled) and threw it in last minute with some garlic vinegar and some fresh sea salt!
The recipe (as I found it on Allrecipes – with a few alterations, since I am known for not being able to follow a recipe!)…..
Ingredients