Sauteed Chickpeas and Spinach

I saw recipe over on Perry's Plate that instantly set me to dreaming. Especially because (in the sign of a meant to be recipe) we had everything in the house. A few days later, I threw this together based on my memory of that picture and a quick scan of the recipe.

Fresh Pea Soup

Faced with two weeks worth of CSA peas, the hubby and I were brainstorming what to do with them when he had a brilliant idea. "We should make pea soup! With ham!" I adore split pea soup so I went digging for recipes. Most of the ones I found called for dried peas, but I did find one using fresh peas. We adapted it to what we had on hand and are so very glad that we did. : )

Meatballs (Take 2)

We've made meatballs before. It was our first try and while they were brimming with potential they were also a bit big, a bit bready, and a bit crumbly. So we tried again, this time winging it based on what we remembered. I say we. The credit for this one goes entirely to the hubby. Yay hubby! : )

Chicken Pot Pie Filling Take Two

I couldn't convince the hubby that mincemeat pie would be a nice savory addition to our Pi Day plans (darn!), so we decided to go with chicken pot pie. We made Chicken Pot Pie for last year's Pi Day Celebration as well. However, while that recipe was tasty, it was a little fussy and not quite *perfect*. So this year we decided to try another recipe.

Garlic Chicken and Orzo

Looking for a quick recipe using only what we had in the house, the hubby and I decided to tweak this recipe. Real food in under 30 minutes. Absolutely awesome.

Italian Soup

I bought a pound of sweet sausage intending to make biscuits and gravy. Only then it dawned on me that there are only two of us. And a POUND of sausage gravy was, perhaps, a bit much. Especially since my husband does not really understand the whole biscuits and gravy phenomenon. Which is why I was very happy to run across this recipe. I tweaked it to suit what we had in the house, and came up with a wonderful winter meal.

5 Cheese Macaroni

For Christmas dinner, the hubby wanted to do a "fancy" version of macaroni and cheese. So fancy we went! (Although after seeing the price tags on some of these cheeses...yikes!) We adapted this recipe to our taste.

Garlic Potato Soup

With a bounty of potatoes to go through I figured we needed something that would use a few more than the potato rolls did. I used this recipe as a base and tweaked it to suit what we had on hand.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

The other day I was in dire need of some macaroni and cheese. Real macaroni and cheese. In the past, my go-to solution has always been the frozen Stouffer's stuff because it is thick, creamy, and requires no cooking! So a good macaroni and cheese recipe is a real linchpin in my "quit buying frozen and prepared foods and instead make and freeze them yourself" mission. I found this recipe and went to work making myself some real honest to goodness macaroni and cheese. On a weeknight no less.

One Pan Breakfast

Lately, we seem to be on a breakfast for breakfast, brunch, and dinner kick. Maybe it's because it's quick and easy. Maybe it's because when you have a fridge full of potatoes and onions and squash it just screams breakfast. Or maybe that's just me. Regardless, this is a simple, straightforward, dump-everything-in-and-go sort of recipe. Which makes it perfect for days when you are a bit short on time but still want something more involved than cold cereal.

French Toast

French toast and I have had an understanding for years now--other people made it and I ate it. But having made pancakes and omlets and breakfast potatoes rather to death this summer I decided to get adventurous. And get this--french toast? Totally easy. Amazing.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I'd never actually had stuffed bell peppers before but with the super sweet and flavorful CSA bellpeppers we were getting, it made sense to make them the star on the dish instead of just a supporting actor. When we received several small bellpeppers, as well as one large one, in this week's share, we seized the opportunity. We used this recipe as a base and used what we had on hand.

Blueberry Pancakes

My daily contribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



I'm am a particular pancake eater. I like them fluffy, moist, and just-so or I don't want them at all. So when I decided to toss most of our CSA blueberries into the pancake recipe from the Breakfast cookbook by William Sonoma, there was some trepidation. Boy am I glad I took the plunge! Perfect, soft, delicious pancakes!

Meatballs

Growing up, whenever we had spaghetti, it was in a meat sauce. Meatballs were a special treat and came from Costco in a frozen bag. Whatever the inital reason was for doing so, I just assumed it was because meatballs were hard. Or time consuming. Or too much bother. Recently, the hubby and I got it into our heads to make some. I looked up several recipes and braced myself for a long wait for dinner. Psh, the whole thing took about 30 minutes. That's weeknight fast. I have no idea why it never occurred to me before that the reason spaghetti and meatballs is such a staple is because it is easy.

Swiss Chard Macaroni and Cheese

One of my new fave veggies, thanks to our CSA, is Swiss Chard. It's amazing wilted and put into just about anything ever. Of course, I like greens anyway, but YUM. SO when I found a dish that combined swiss chard and macaroni and cheese (one of my all time favorite dishes), I knew we had to give it a try!

Pasta Primavera

With lots of fresh veggies to use and fresh butter on hand pasta primavera was a natural choice. The alfredo sauce comes from PASTA by Williams-Sonoma, the rest was improvised on the spot.

Penne With Bacon and Butter

This dish is an example of two being better than one. The hubby wanted a quick pasta dinner. I wanted something new and not from a jar. A quick scan of the cookbooks brought me to a recipe from Williams Sonoma's Pasta. We had most of the ingredients and we just fudged the rest. It turned out rather well, if I do say so myself.