I’m an Auntie! My sister and her husband welcomed their first child, a baby boy, earlier this week (with a rather quick labor for a first child, I might add – just 6 hours!) and we’re all overjoyed. They just brought him home from the hospital yesterday, so now the real fun begins. The “new guy” is just 11 weeks younger than my own little man – our family holiday gatherings will forever have a new “energy” with these two little boys running around!

My nephew is actually among a huge wave of births going on among my friends. There have been at least eight new babies since October (three just in the last week) and another five or six friends are due before June. It’s incredible! Everyone gives each other a lot of support, which is especially appreciated in those early days when you’re a zombified mess from lack of sleep. A number of fantastic ladies brought over homemade meals after I had my son in December and I’m excited to have the opportunity to “pay it forward”.

Which brings me to baked pasta…and this wonderful Shrimp with Orzo recipe, from inside the wrapper of a can of crushed tomatoes.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/shrimp-with-orzo/

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When I was 10 years old, my favorite food to have for dinner was quiche. Yup, quiche. Yup, for dinner.

My mom didn’t make it too often – maybe a couple times a year – so it had a certain “special occasion” appeal. I didn’t actually know until a few years ago that it’s typically a brunch or lunch item because we always had it for dinner. Years before all the “hide veggies in other foods” craze my mom enjoyed great success in getting my sisters and I to gleefully eat our spinach within the context of a fluffy, custardy quiche. Then, of course, there was the fancy French name. And the spelling! I was sure it had to be pronounced “qwitchy”.

This Crab, Scallion & Tomato Quiche ranks among the top three recipes I’ve tried on this blog. My husband described it as “restaurant quality”, which I’ll take as a compliment. It features a generous amount of lump crab meat (the recipe, of course, comes from a crab meat container I bought at Whole Foods) and the flavor is further enhanced by the Old Bay-seasoned custard.

I’m tagging this as a Brunch recipe, but if you feel like enjoying it for dinner instead, go for it!

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/crab-scallion-tomato-quiche/

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I was the last hold-out among my local circle of friends to hire a babysitter. I just couldn’t bear the thought of entrusting the care of my precious little ones with anyone outside of our family. And given that we have no family closer than an 8 hour drive away…well, you can just imagine how rare our date nights have been.

It wasn’t until I was about a month away from my due date with our second child (as it turned out, it was just a week before he was actually born!) that the reality of two kids finally set in with me. My sanity was going to depend on having a trustworthy helper. End of story – the most wonderful woman now comes over to watch Dora the Explorer and rock the infant seat for a few hours every week while I “get things done”. She genuinely loves children (she’s got three grown ones of her own) and, best of all, she loves my children. My daughter took to her immediately which was pretty much all I needed to observe to move past my fears. If she could get comfortable with a babysitter than so could I!

Did I mention that our Mary Poppins likes to bake too? When I told her about Cooking On the Side she remembered a cookbook she had at home, Philadelphia Cream Cheese Classic Recipes, and offered to lend it to me. How cool is that? I definitely had to make one of the cheesecakes – the Cookies and Cream one, complete with Oreo crust, called my name.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/cookies-and-cream-cheesecake/

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Some people get excited over finding lost change in the couch. I’m thrilled when I uncover food in the freezer that I’ve long forgotten about (that’s freezer, not refrigerator – long forgotten fridge food is no treat!). A few months ago when I was in my “nesting” stage ahead of the birth of our new little guy I became a bit of a cooking-and-freezing fiend. I stacked up all kinds of soups, casseroles, cookies, muffins – anything I thought would keep well. Over time, as the stacks got deeper, I kind of lost track of what was in there. I suppose I could take the time to do a little inventory but it’s actually kind of fun to be surprised when I open the freezer door.

I mentioned before that I’d frozen muffins. Well, I didn’t remember this until after I baked for this post! I was getting ready to stash a few of these Banana Berry Muffins in the freezer when I saw not one, but two previously packed-away bags of muffins. Oh well…is there really such a thing as too many muffins?

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/banana-berry-muffins/

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I’ve done what I used to think was the impossible, a feat reserved for only the superhuman among us. With the exception of our regular Saturday night take0ut, as of tomorrow I will have cooked dinner at home every night for the past two weeks.

Between activities, errands, a second infant and witching hour (do all children receive the memo on this one during delivery??) I’d been cooking two to three nights a week at best. Meal planning never worked for me, as I struggled to decide what to make – just thinking through a menu takes a lot of time I usually don’t have. A few weeks ago I finally decided to try those weekly menus and shopping lists you see in some food and lifestyle magazines, like the Grocery Bag feature in Everyday Food and the Real Simple Recipe Shopping Lists. For once I’m glad to have the decisions made for me! I just buy all the ingredients and make all the dishes on the menu, even the ones I’m not sure I’ll totally like. The ingredients in both magazines’ menus are seasonal and take relatively little hands-on prep time; the Everyday Food ones, in particular, tend to be rather economical too. I save my “big fancy meals” and most baking for the weekend when I have more time and an extra set of hands (my husband’s) to watch the kids. I should have started this long ago.

In the spirit of getting mid-week dinner on the table, I wanted to share this incredibly quick, easy and tasty recipe for a Fiesta Chicken Soup that comes from a carton of chicken broth. I suppose it’s called “Fiesta” as it’s similar to a Mexican chicken tortilla soup, with the zing of lime juice in the broth along with the flavors of jalapeño, cilantro and avocado. The way I prepared this soup actually wasn’t so quick, as I made my own chicken stock and grilled some organic chicken. But for nearly as good results in under 20 minutes you could easily use a good quality ready-made stock and rotisserie chicken.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/quick-fiesta-chicken-soup/

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Secretly, I’m very excited it’s Girl Scout cookie time. I’ll admit I look forward to it every year. Their scarcity tactics work very well on me – I feel compelled to buy a bunch of boxes as it will be a whole year until they’re available again. Plus there’s the nostalgia factor, as I was once one of those eager little girls in brown uniforms positioned in front of the grocery store.

They got me in front of Vons over the weekend.

I had to buy a box of Thin Mints, that was a given. Beyond that, I’m all about the peanut butter. Specifically Do-Si-Dos (the peanut butter sandwich cookies) and Tagalongs (the chocolate coated ones with the peanut butter filling). You’d think this would have satisfied my hankering for peanut butter cookies for a while, but no. It actually bolstered it. Yes, despite having all of those other cookies in the house, I made the Utterly Peanut-Buttery Bars recipe from the back of the C&H brown sugar box.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/peanut-butter-bars/

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Food blogging is an amazing pastime for someone like me who loves to celebrate holidays. It seems like there’s always some kind of special occasion happening in the world, and along with it usually comes special food. We’ve just come off of Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day cooking; this week you’ll now find a lot of us food bloggers are turning to Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras. It never ends (and for that I’m grateful).

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/red-beans-and-rice/

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I never ate cake until I was 8 or 9 years old. But I sure ate a lot of frosting! I was that kid at birthday parties who hopped up and down when the corner piece – the one with the profuse amount of frosting flourishes – was being passed out. I’d extract every last bit of sugary, fluffy stuff and leave the cake on the little paper plate. It wasn’t until the middle of my elementary school years that a frustrated parent of a friend finally urged me to try just a bite of the cake “just this once” that I discovered the treat I was missing.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/chocolate-fudge-layer-cake/

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I always enjoyed the ritual of exchanging valentines as a kid. Opening up a box of 32 (plus two for the teachers!) brand-spanking-new valentines, preferably the Snoopy variety. Carefully addressing the envelopes in crayon for all the kids in my class. Even the boys. Dropping a few conversation heart candies into each envelope. Being careful not to include any too-lovey messages in the ones for the aforementioned boys. Eagerly opening the little cards from everyone else in the class. Hoping for chocolate.

{Hmm-hmm} years later, I still love Valentine’s Day. Our playgroup is having a little celebration this week for the kiddies so I thought I’d make some conversation heart-inspired cookies, with one subtle little twist – these are actually made with animal cracker dough. The difference? They’ve got a lot more crunch to them as well as a hint of spice from dashes of nutmeg and mace. For a treat that will be grabbed and tossed by two-year olds I tend to prefer these over traditional sugar cookies. Plus they’re so darned good.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/valentine-heart-cookies/

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Bacon has been a bit overhyped lately…but not for lack of a good reason. The truth is bacon really does impart such an irresistable smoky, salty flavor to so many foods. I unabashedly still love bacon, especially when it’s paired with something sweet. If you’re with me, you’re going to want to look into these Bacon Wrapped Sweet & Sour Meatballs the next time you’re in need of a crowd-pleasing hot appetizer. Like, say, for watching the Super Bowl?

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/bacon-wrapped-sweet-sour-meatballs/

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