October 27, 2009

Sydney loves pasta and Lauren loves meatballs. I had a big bowl of the last tomatoes from the garden calling to be used. Spaghetti and meatballs! Both of the girls wanted to help "make" the meatballs. Lauren got the point a meatball should be round, but wasn't concerned about size uniformity. Sydney, however, treated it like playdoh and made anything from meatball pancakes to meatball sticks. I should have just thrown her creations in the sauce, it definitely would have Trent looking at his plate with curiousity...and skepticism.

October 24, 2009

Tonight is fancy schmancy night! Trent's parents are taking me, Trent, and my parents to Roberto's, an italian restaurant by our house. We even have a babysitter! The meal and company were spectacular. I had a caprese salad and Trent and I split a filet with a mushroom sauce. Both were delicious. It was fun to have an evening with just our parents without the kids and have uninterupted conversation. If we would have stayed another hour, I think we might have solved the health care crisis and Jon & Kate's divorce issues.

October 23, 2009

Wing dings. Now that might not mean much to you, but in the Bond household, it means a happy belly. Markham introduced me to the dish a couple years ago, which is also Dennis' favorite meal. It's basically a sweet and sour type sauce baked into chicken and served with rice. I always serve it with a bowl of edamame and cut up pineapple, which is mainly what the girls eat since they don't groove on meat or rice. Kirk was flying into town for the weekend and loves vegetables, so I added some broccoli to the chicken for a happy father in law. Actually, he's normally pretty happy broccoli or no broccoli, but I went for broccoli.

October 22, 2009

On one hand I love roast chicken. On the other hand I love mashed potatoes with gravy. Put those hands together and that was dinner. Then add Sally, asparagus, and chardonnay.

October 21st, 2009

Sally flew into St Louis today to spend a little mini vacation at our house. I love cooking for company! Sally brought a foam halloween house for her and Lauren to put together in the afternoon while I got some things done around the house (LOVE IT!). Sally loves lemon flavored anything, so I decided to make a lemon and chicken pasta. I had some green beans, so I sauteed them with diced bacon and....guess what....more lemon. I also made chocolate rice crispie treats. After we put the girls to bed, Trent and I tried to get Sally hooked on our new favorite show, Good Wife. I think we were successful.

October 17th, 2009

It was Saturday night in NYC. Erin and I had reservations at Kingswood in the West Village. We were late nighters with a 9:45 pm reservation and the place was packed. It was one of those NYC places that has the communal dining arrangement, which is fun for me because I get to peek at other people's food up close before ordering. I wasn't really in an entree mood and the man at the table next to us had a burger that looked incredible. However, I already had an incredible burger for brunch at 44 and x in Hell's Kitchen (also highly recommend). So I ordered something I've never ordered before in my life, but always wanted to, the fish and chips. Boy am I glad I did! Erin has a thing for macaroni and cheese...and Kingswood had it as a side item with truffle oil, so we split it. My belly was happy. We finished dinner around midnight and it was pouring down rain. We decided to head back to her neighborhood to a pub-ishy bar we both like called Swig. And swig we did!

October 16th, 2009

I think my favorite culinary city is New York. Lucky for me, that's where I was Friday night with Erin! We had tickets to see "God of Carnage" (so, so good!) at 8:00, so we decided for early pasta dinner at Vespa, a little italian restaurant right by Erin's apartment. I've been there before and loved it. For an appetizer I had marinated tuna salad and ricotta with fresh tomatoes and basil. They make all their own pasta, so I ordered gnocchi with a gorgonzola pesto sauce, topped with toasted pinenuts. It was so good and I felt awful not being able to take my leftovers with me to eat during the show. Speaking of the show, afterward Erin and I met Marcia Gay Harden outside the theater signing programs and taking pictures. God I love New York!

October 15th, 2009

Remember the scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where little Toula Portokalos is sitting by herself at the lunch table in grade school and one of the girls ask her what she's having for lunch, then Toula replies Moussakka and the girl goes "oh gross you're eating Moose Ca Ca?" Well I found a light version in Rachel Ray's Everyday magazine (october issue) and decided to make it. It tasted nothing like ca ca.

October 11th, 2009

Yesterday we spent the early afternoon at the Columbus Day parade on The Hill. At the parade the cars and people throw candy to the parade watchers (just like the beads with mardi gras, only G rated with tons of tootsie rolls). So we all had our share of sugar for the day, in fact Lauren had 2 lollipops and 2 meatballs for lunch while Sydney had the same, sans the meatballs. For dinner, I decided we all needed a bit of nutrition. I cooked a steak with mushrooms and sliced them over lettuce tossed in a lemon vinagrette for me and Trent. The girls had fruit, cheese, and split a wheat bagel with peanut butter. Mission accomplished and afterwards we played a great game of hide and seek...the girls actually stayed hidden until they were found, which really is the essense of the game.

October 9th, 2009

Tonight is the They Might Be Giants Concert!! A bunch of my high school friends and I had tickets and were all going. Erin was in town from NYC for the concert too. Kevin was going with us, so I invited Ryan, Kevin, and Erin all over for dinner beforehand. They Might Be Giants reminds me heavily of high school, so I went retro and made two kinds of pizza and a salad, which to me is the ultimate high school food universally loved by all. I also made biscotti with cherries and chocolate chips, which has nothing to do with anything except they're quite tasty and if we were running late, I knew I could grab one for the road. Although it didn't stop me from raiding the halloween candy bowl when I got home. Fun size candy is just dangerous to have around.

October 8th, 2009

Yesterday was a very soggy and rainy day. My parents were coming over for dinner and I decided it was the perfect day for meatloaf. Really meatloaf is just an excuse to make mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy to drench over everything. Then I feel guilty if I don't incorporate a green vegetable of some sort and green beans are in season, so there it was. My dad can't have chocolate, so I love trying new non-chocolate dessert recipes for him. Last night I tried frosted pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I think I like my original cinnamon roll recipe more (Cinnamon Rolls III on allrecipes.com), but the orangish color was fun for fall and I liked that the girls were eating a dessert that had a whole can of pumpkin in it, ha!

October 7th, 2009

Growing up my dad would cook a handful of italian dishes when we would have company (he's expanded his recipe repertoire the past couple of decades). Many weekends I would wake up to the smell of meat sauce and it was a good thing. Several times a year I would wake up to the smell of sausage, but I knew it wasn't for breakfast, it was the luganega for risotto milanese (which is just a fancy term for aborio rice cooked in chicken stock with sausage, mushrooms and chicken). Luganega is an italian breakfast sausage that is not cut into little links and it's delicious. Risotto is definitely one of my comfort foods and when the weather starts to get a chill in it, it's my favorite time to make it. Since having kids it's not as fun, because risotto requires much babysitting and stirring right before you serve it. In our house, 5:30-6:00 is a tough time to neglect the kids for rice, but it's worth it!

October 5th, 2009

I love oven roasting meals. Whenever I heat up the oven for something, I try to make it as simple as possible and cook it all in there at the same time. So I seasoned chicken breasts, fingerling potatoes, and green beans on different baking sheets with garlic and herbs, then threw them in the oven at 400 degrees. Meat, check. Green veggie, check. Starch, check. Good smelling house at 6:00 pm, check. My work here is done.

October 4th, 2009

No feet on the table please. You need to sit on your bottom. That's too loud. Please don't play with your food. Don't feed the dog your dinner. Don't poke your sister with your fork. How do you know you don't like it until you try it? If you're too full to eat dinner, then no dessert......these are sentences that come out of my mouth at least once a day, mostly around dinner time. Last night was no exception. It feels normal unless I hear myself say something like "Please stop putting craisins in your belly button." Those times I have to laugh at my life. Last night was just the 4 of us at home for dinner. I made what I call adult pigs in a blanket. It's a nice and quick dinner. I wrap turkey bratwursts in puff pastry that has been brushed with dijon mustard and bake them in the oven. I also made a simple butter lettuce and spinach salad with a lemon dijon vinagrette. Of course the kids were skeptical and looked at their plate like I served them pinecones. I reminded them to try it before making any judgements. They say you need to hear something 5 times before it's in your long term memory, in my experience that can't apply to kids under 5.

October 3rd, 2009

Date night! Trent and I have won the battle of the flu and are going to Cicero's for Mike Steimel's CD release show. We have a babysitter, ordered our tickets, fed and bathed the kids, we're set! We even get out of the house early, so we decide to go to Fitz's Root Beer for dinner, just a block down from Cicero's. We sat at the bar, had a glass of chardonnay and split a reuben with fries. When it comes to sandwiches, the reuben is probably one of our only agreed upon favorite. It hit the spot and we headed to Cicero's to meet up with our friends for a fun night of beer, friends, and music. It felt good to be out and about with the people. There was one incident when I had a full conversation with a couple thinking they were Steimel's parents and turned out not to be them at all, and this was at the beginning of the evening, so cocktails didn't play a roll. I still cringe at the image...

October 1, 2009

Trent's was back at work, I was back to my normal Thursday routine, but both of us were still fragile and marginal. I stomached grocery shopping for the week trying not to think too much...the meat aisle was hard to walk by. Last night I went simple, a throwback to my first trimester days when food was my enemy. Mac and cheese. Normally when I make mac and cheese I try to get a little fancy with the cheeses and ingredients. Nope. I stuck with cheddar cheese and whole wheat penne. Added bonus, Sydney loved it too. Another added bonus, I cleaned out our frig of any leftovers remotely stomach turning (by clean out I mean gave it all to trent to actually pitch in the compost, he's a keeper), so it looks all nice and clean...for now.

September 30th, 2009

There is no way I can post what I had for dinner on Tuesday night because the stomach flu happened a couple hours later. Trent and I were both sick starting in the wee hours on the morning on Wednesday. Yesterday was spent trying to stay still and take care of energetic kids at the same time. Last night for dinner I cautiously had cereal. Trent had gatorade. Let the flu season commence!

September 27th, 2009

Growing up Sunday night was normally family dinner night at my parents or grandparents' house. I like the tradition of Sundays being a nice evening with family to end the weekend and start the week. It's also a great day to cook or entertain because I have all day to piddle around the dining room and kitchen. Lauren loves to make placecards, "help" set the table, and do flower vases. This Sunday we invited my parents, Grandpa Coco, and Maryann. I tried a new recipe, which I tend to do when entertaining, which seems like a really bad idea, but I continue to go down that path. I made a pork loin roast in the crock pot with cranberries and orange. I roasted brussel sprouts and fennel with parmesan cheese and made a caprese salad. Then I made Trent's grandma's recipe for butter baked rice. It's got alot of steps for baked rice, but it's a total yummy comfort food in Trent's family that goes well with anything. We went apple picking that afternoon at Eckert's, so hello homemade apple pie, also a recipe from Trent's family, it's an open face apple pie with the streusel on top. Trent and the girls love apples, but not apple pie, so if I don't send the leftovers home with people, I'll eat the rest of it myself...in 2 days.