tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48806032955070704792026-02-28T06:37:43.121-06:00Notes from a Minneapolis couple who love to eat & cookkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.comBlogger1162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-60747627096748131582013-11-19T11:48:00.002-06:002013-11-19T11:48:37.327-06:00

This is a gorgeous and flavorful fall soup. Even though it is very creamy, thanks to blending, there is no cream in it except the soup cream you garnish it with. Fresh ginger and a pinch of cayenne give it that touch of warm that is perfect for colder winter. Wouldn't that make a beautiful starter for Thanksgiving? Or just great meal with some bread on a busy weeknight? It is really complimented

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-74152169118338061302013-11-05T10:00:00.000-06:002013-11-05T10:00:05.658-06:00

This was another dish inspired by leftovers and what was in the fridge. Basically, I had some roast chicken that needed to be used up, plus a head of cabbage. I don't know why, but that just seemed like a start to an Asian soup to me. Add the fact, I had some fresh ginger and my path was clear. The ingredient that really makes this dish is the Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. It gives it a wonderful

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-49261207005651750212013-10-29T11:08:00.001-05:002013-10-29T11:08:22.281-05:00

It's Monday night and Matt and I haven't been to the grocery store in over a week. Time to see what I can create for dinner from the fridge and pantry. There's some leftover chili that needs to be eaten, but there isn't enough for two servings. What to turn it into? I also had some pasta and cheese (well, Velveeta, so kind of cheese), so decided to try a chili mac. This went over really well

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-40616642064263988322013-09-03T15:53:00.000-05:002013-09-03T15:53:21.632-05:00

Thanks to dreadfully hot weather, we almost didn't make it out to the State Fair this year. Luckily, the last two days the temps dropped into the 70's, perfect weather for looking at livestock and eating fried food. After a lot of bad reviews on Heavy Table, we didn't bother to try all the new foods this year. Some we wanted to try had crazy long lines (the day we went broke the all time

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-52559688076025040712013-08-28T08:00:00.000-05:002013-08-28T08:00:02.433-05:00

We are in the midst of a record breaking heatwave here in Minneapolis. Temps in the 90's with high humidity have not made going to the State Fair very attractive. But, but we need our food on a stick! Luckily, one of our local restaurants, Haute Dish, is offering a food on a stick menu served dim sum style until August 29th in air conditioned comfort. Fourteen incredible bites on a stick all

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-17425523670498701132013-07-19T08:29:00.000-05:002013-07-19T08:29:20.439-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we are in the midst of selling our house and moving into a loft downtown. The process of selling with showings and inspections has us in and out of the house at all hours. And the process of setting up a new place has us sitting around a practically empty space waiting for deliveries. This morning we had to be at the new place for an early morning mattress delivery

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-43448826178158517982013-05-16T11:51:00.001-05:002013-05-16T11:51:06.029-05:00

Where oh, where have we been? Well, we have been continuing our diets, which doesn't always lead to the most exciting of menus. That said, the diet has been going well, Matt is down 34 pounds and I am down 23. I'm not saying we don't still eat well, just not as many fun things to share. On top of that, we have just gone into contract on a new kitchen... Ok, not just a kitchen, but the whole

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-50788380896217172032013-04-19T08:34:00.000-05:002013-05-04T17:54:02.635-05:00

The other night Matt had a meeting leaving me on my own for dinner. I was craving some rice, so I went looking through the fridge and freezer to find things to add to it. What I came up with was this mix of Spanish and Asian flavors. I have to tell you this really worked. The smoked paprika flavor of the sausage worked so well with the sweetness of the peas. I kept the sauce simple, just some

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-44351715278516956702013-04-17T08:00:00.000-05:002013-04-17T08:46:54.119-05:00

I have been meaning to tell you guys about our Easter dinner for awhile now. We had pork, but not your typical Easter ham. Instead we went south of the border for a Mayan-inspired pork. I was recently introduced to pork cooked with annatto at our favorite breakfast place, Blackbird. Matt had it as part of a breakfast taco and let me have a little bite. It was so good, I said we needed to try

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-61032427985183490862013-04-04T09:03:00.000-05:002013-04-04T09:03:33.100-05:00

The current issue of Cooking Light (a magazine which has really been great while we are counting calories) has a section on Macaroni and Cheese dishes. This dish is adapted from one of those recipes. I am not calling it a mac and cheese because really it doesn't have much cheese flavor. That is because we replaced the Velveeta in the recipe with cream cheese. Why did we make the replacement?

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-70362592379434339582013-04-02T11:03:00.002-05:002013-04-02T11:03:57.658-05:00

Pizza is one of those things that can be a little tricky to fit in when you are counting your calories. The killer is the crust. We had gotten lazy and were using a very good store bought dough, but after looking at the calories I knew that wasn't going to work anymore. Our homemade crust is a little better and we usually just top it with fresh tomatoes, a few slices of pepperoni and mozzarella.

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-67135494740075668982013-03-28T10:58:00.000-05:002013-03-28T10:58:27.650-05:00

We tend to get into a real rut with side dishes, typically leaning towards a steamed green vegetable or roasted root vegetables. So, when we were figuring out what to have with a roast chicken this week Matt said he wanted different. We remembered the brussels sprouts Matt's mom had served at Thanksgiving, that everyone loved, and decided to try to replicate them. Actually, it ends up these were

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-9727266103539440472013-03-25T08:00:00.000-05:002013-03-25T12:53:36.761-05:00

Here's a pasta that comes together in about 15 minutes and yet is still nice enough to serve to guests. It was a great busy Sunday night dinner for us. A good deal of the flavor in this dish comes from the smoked salmon, so I would suggest getting the a good one. Or you could smoke your own like we do. The rest of the dish is composed of classic salmon pairings; cream cheese, capers, red onion

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-30247326236817082412013-02-28T10:57:00.002-06:002013-02-28T10:57:40.844-06:00

Alcohol is one of those things we've cut back on since we've decided to count our calories. We haven't given it up completely, but it's now a treat once or twice a week. Matt is typically happy with a beer, but I like a refreshing Gin and Tonic (with Hendrick's Gin, of course). The problem is tonic is quite high in calories. Sure I could use a diet tonic, but have you tasted diet tonic? It's

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-39543273348602265032013-02-13T11:36:00.000-06:002013-02-13T11:36:11.255-06:00

Things continue to go well on our "diet." We are learning to portion better, lighten our existing recipes and are trying lots of new ones too. We are seeing some success too, Matt has lost 17 pounds and I'm down 8. Not too bad for 6 weeks in. This is a new dish for us to make. Matt ordered some Bob's Red Mill Red Lentils after trying a Campbell's Golden Lentil with Madras Curry Soup. He loved

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-34114861978544766052013-01-30T14:27:00.001-06:002013-01-30T14:27:34.970-06:00

I was looking through the freezer the other day to see how many chickens I had left when I stumbled on a package of boneless chicken thighs. I pulled them out with the idea of doing some sort of one pot, Mediterranean-influenced dish. The star of this dish ended up being the Kalamata olives, their brininess just adds a brightness to the sauce. Enhanced with a little white wine, fresh thyme and

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-25380413641715331072013-01-23T09:30:00.003-06:002013-01-23T09:30:52.660-06:00

We roasted a chicken last week, so there was lots of leftover chicken to use in other dinners. One of my go-to dishes for leftover chicken is enchiladas. Well, I took one look at the calories in a tortilla and knew that was out right now. I decided to make a hot dish that would gives us the same flavors with less calories. You know, hot dishes are just never the prettiest thing to photograph,

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-52044652378538552462013-01-17T10:44:00.003-06:002013-01-17T10:44:52.989-06:00

With only two people in the house, Matt and I have to think when we are shopping and planning meals how we are going to use ingredients that come in larger sizes without a lot of waste. Can something be used in more than one meal that week, like a whole chicken? Should we make a larger dish and have leftovers for lunches? Can we cut it up and freeze the rest to use later? We did the later with

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-3609784266863976592013-01-14T09:35:00.000-06:002013-01-14T10:30:25.870-06:00

We picked up a new toy for the kitchen this weekend, something that Matt has been thinking about and researching for a little while. It's a Breville Fast Slow Cooker. What the heck does that mean? Well, it's a slow cooker, but also a pressure cooker, and a steamer, plus it apparently makes the fluffiest rice ever. Oh and unlike other slow cookers, you can sauté and sear ingredients in it before

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-39063942254358422362013-01-11T10:27:00.002-06:002013-01-11T10:52:52.066-06:00

Well, we have jumped right into our new eating plan for 2013. It is taking a little getting used to keeping track of everything, but we are already seeing a difference on the scale which is satisfying. Eating at home is, of course, the easiest and I feel like I'm eating more than I did before actually. What we really have to learn is how to eat out and still stick to our goals. Other than that,

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-71179342351749396882013-01-02T11:42:00.002-06:002013-01-02T11:42:50.136-06:00

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time you know Matt and I love food. We love to cook it and eat it. Well, 7 years of enjoying food together has taken its toll on our figures, so this year we decided we needed to do something about it. Now, we aren't going to go on a fad diet or start fasting or anything. Instead we are going to focus on the basics, counting calories and trying to

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-24117331183678775822012-12-17T09:29:00.001-06:002012-12-17T09:29:42.366-06:00

We are so busy this time of year getting ready for Christmas. Meals tend to be hearty and easy. If they give us leftovers, all the better. Soup seems to fit the bill a lot. This classic soup is fill of umami and will keep you satified on a cold winter night. We used farro in this soup because we didn't have enough barley on hand, you can certainly substitute. Beef, Mushroom and Farro Soup 1 T

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-63439276785483692222012-12-04T13:51:00.000-06:002012-12-06T13:30:26.009-06:00

Oh my gosh, where did the time go? This past month has just been a blur with Christmas shopping, a minor surgery, traveling for the holidays and work and lots of holiday craft projects. It's time I got back to sharing food with you all. If you remember when I was last chatting with you all, I told you about the amazing dinner we had at Geranium in Copenhagen. One of our favorite dishes was this

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-81115498186573627502012-11-05T11:41:00.000-06:002012-11-05T11:41:18.639-06:00

When we first decided to go to Copenhagen this year our goals was to eat at Noma, called the best restaurant in the world for 5 years. So, that found Matt on his computer at 3am one July morning when the October reservations for Noma were open. After 70 minutes of not even getting into the reservation system he gave up. We hear approximately 20,000 people try to get a reservation each month they

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880603295507070479.post-3516586020590550362012-10-29T11:54:00.000-05:002012-10-29T11:59:00.637-05:00

We have our fair share of good bakeries in the Twin Cities. One of them, Patisserie 46, was recently called one of the best patisseries in the world! But none of the ones we've tried have the Austrian-style pastries we had gotten just a little addicted to in Denmark. In particular, I find myself craving a kanelsnegle around 4:00 in the afternoon. (Kanelsnegle at a Copenhagen bakery.) So, it was

kathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10462007067131792229noreply@blogger.com5