Food, Style, and Travel
I had this half-written recipe post saved in my drafts titled “BJ’s inspired sauteed shrimp quinoa bowl.” It all started with a date night out to BJ’s Brewery about a year and a half ago when I was pregnant and craving both shrimp and lots of vegetables.
Continue reading “Skillet shrimp with orzo pasta”
One of my favorite comfort meals is macaroni and cheese, especially when it’s cold. It’s one of my favorite winter meals, right up there with chili and broccoli soup. Although it’s not winter yet, it’s starting to feel like it. Today it rained fairly hard and it was windy too. That doesn’t happen too much around Southern California, so when it does it’s a big deal. We’re wimps, I know.
My mom used to make this skillet chicken with orzo pasta when I was growing up. I loved it and started making it myself when I moved in with Paul a few years ago. It’s pretty easy and very satisfying. She got it from a newspaper column that I think was in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
This meal is good for weeknights, especially because there are very few dishes involved. The fewer dishes, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s great for lunches the next day too. I can’t remember for sure, but I think my mom packed this in my lunchbox when I was in junior high or high school. It’s funny to me that I can’t remember high school as well as I used to. It was 10 years ago now, so of course.
For this short rib recipe, jalapeño, onion, garlic, beer, and rosemary all come together to make a savory and slightly spicy braise. I love that the liquid imparts a lot of flavor on the short ribs in the long cooking process.
I should probably mention that you should plan on getting started on this about 3 hours before you would like to eat dinner. It takes about 1/2 an hour to prep and sear the meat and then it cooks in the oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. It is so worth all that time in the oven though. The meat becomes very tender and pulls completely away from the bone.
Continue reading “Beer braised beef short ribs in a Dutch oven”
As promised, I’m sharing my mom’s fried rice recipe with you. It goes great with the orange chicken I posted on Monday.
Fried rice is a great way to use up leftover white rice. This recipe is one that my mom used when I was growing up.
I made this for my husband Paul and me for dinner and he said, “This tastes like takeout. Better than takeout!”
It took me about 45 minutes to make the orange chicken from start to finish, and that includes stopping to take photos here and there. You may be able to have it done in 30 minutes or less.
If you’re part of my family on my mom’s side and reading this, you may recognize this recipe because it’s in the Carpenter Cookbook.
Hello, friends. I’ve been working on a few new recipes, but I want to test them out a few more times before sharing them with you. For today, I have an easy dinner idea that I have done a few different ways plenty of times over the past three years or so. It’s not really a recipe, but I hope you still get inspiration from it and try it out yourself.
I like having the ingredients on hand for an easy meal like this so I can have a healthy lunch or dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.
When I was growing up my mom used to make this broccoli soup that actually made vegetables enjoyable. It reminds me a little bit of pot pie, which is probably because the base is a creamy white sauce made with a roux. It’s enough to make me want to start all my soups from roux and caramelized onions.
