When Cinco de Mayo becomes, Dos, Tres, Quatro and Cinco

Around here we enjoy foods with a Mexican flavor.  Blame it on our love of Tex-Mex.  Blame it my small obsession with cilantro and avocados.  Blame it on my constant search of something good enough to make repeatedly.  Whatever it is, Cinco de Mayo ends up stretching into a few days from that lonely old one day at the beginning of May. 

So, tonight, I gave a new one a try, messed it up slightly, yet it was still good.  I got the recipe for Mexican Ceviche Tacos out of a recent issue of Bon Appetit.  We went by Henry's to get some fresh fish this afternoon, and at the recommendation of the butcher, we decided on sea bass.  When I got home, I washed my hands and got started on the ceviche.  I was all excited about getting to use my awesome knives Drew bought me for Christmas, that I ended up adding ingredients before the intended time, but I stirred it all up and chilled it in the fridge while I took a nap. 
When I woke up it was time for dinner (no comments on the length of my siesta), and it only took a couple of minutes to stir in the remaining ingredients avocado, cilantro, and romaine lettuce and stuff them inside corn taco shells. 
The result:  A nice spring/summer dinner (no heat necessary).  I think we might try another fish next time, just to change it up.  Oh and the avocado was PERFECT!

Mmm...Cozy Soup

It happened last night.  I made dinner!  Not just slapping something together like I have been doing for the past three weeks or taking the easy way out and buying dinner out.  No, this was actual dinner and it was good.  It was good to get the cooking juices flowing again...maybe I will keep this thing up!

Dinner for last night.  Lentil with Spicy Italian Sausage (recipe from Bon Apetit January 2010) with French Bread.  The flavors on this one were fabulous and it smelled great while it was getting going.  I left out the parsnips, because what have parsnips ever done for anything?  Drew had gone and picked up some fully cooked spicy hot links from Target (their Archer Farms brand) and they were perfectly flavored, lots of jalapeno bits in there!  The best part, Drew didn't have to spice the soup at all!

On a sad note, I have figured out that my breadmaker is only half useful.  I think there is something wrong with the heating element because it does not bake bread.  It makes a lovely dough, but it is too high-minded to deign to do something like make bread (oh, the foolish pride of machines!).  I have been putting it to good use lately in the dough department and finishing the breads in the oven; but I tried to make a loaf, start to finish in the maker yesterday and it started mocking me just after the dough was prepped (this involes an annoying beeping sound worse than an alarm that must be electronic speak for, "Think again").  Drew agrees with me that this is sad because the house still smells like bread, but there is no bread to be had.  Not to be deterred, I simply had to have bread yesterday; so I ran out to Fresh and Easy and got a loaf of french bread.  I was sad because I could have made my own, but I used the last of my yeast on the doomed loaf.

Anyway, that was a good news, bad news sort of post, but mostly good news because dinner was great!

Italian Feast

We had my parents and an old friend over for dinner the other night and I went all out on the menu.  I have been intrigued by a recent Bon Appetit article about meatballs from different parts of the world.  So I tried one of the recipes.  The name is really long and I can't remember it, but it was the Italian version of Spaghetti and Meatballs.

The process, though somewhat time consuming, was very straightforward and the results were tasty.  I don't think I let the sauce thicken enough before serving, so the texture was off (my cooking fault, not the recipe).  The meatballs were very flavorful and tender.  I enjoyed them very much. 
Obviously, I made pasta to go with the meatballs and tossed a simple salad with green onion and roasted asparagus.  I also made the French bread mentioned in a previous post. 
And for dessert, by request from Dad...a pumpkin cheesecake.  This is his favorite dessert that I make...this time it could have been a little better, but it did taste right. 
I think I must have been off in the texture department the other day...hmmm.  Oh, well.
We had a great time at dinner and played a new game called Things.  Lots of fun, lots of laughs.  Thanks for the fun evening!