Our first Valentine's day together, we decided to cook something special. Kerstin of Cake, Batter, and Bowl had just posted a yummy treat, and I had found some strawberries from the previous summer's farmer's market in my freezer.
So we had to try making chocolate-covered strawberry truffles.
Need a fun but impressive, healthful appetizer to feed a crowd? These spring rolls may be just what you're looking for. You can tweak the ingredients to fit your taste and any dietary restrictions like we did.
Soup season is well upon us here in the midwest. Debbie and I had an inkling to try this Mushroom Barley Soup, but we were short on barley, and aren't too keen on randomly putting bacon in our diet, so we had to change things up.
I started cooking spaghetti squash years ago when I saw a display of them in a grocery store. I read the how-to-cook-it sticker on one and was intrigued. A winter squash that's a stand-in for pasta? Why bother? How could anything be as tasty as pasta? I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. It has a mild flavor, and it has a bit of bite to it. It's so much fun to use it as a sub for spaghetti.
Spaghetti squash is easy to prepare, and it's high in nutrients while low in calories. Toss it with your favorite pasta sauce and maybe some cooked lean ground meat or other veggies. You won't be missing the pasta.
I remember when I came home from college having taught myself to cook risotto. My mom was interested, but worried about the difficulty. There seems to be a lot of misinformation running around peoples' minds about how hard risotto is to cook. It's easy. It does take a little while, and you can't rush it, but it's the kind of background task you can easily socialize while doing. And the results, yum!
Here's a simple, quick-to-prepare, tasty dish: seafood tucked in flaky rolls. Dinner doesn't get much easier than this.
Happy New Year! We had some extra time to catch up on our three favorite "C"s: cleaning, cooking, and creating blog posts about it. If you came to our wedding and wanted to try the other soup mix, or if you weren't able to join us at all, here's a little gift for you:
The one, the only, the page with two Soup-in-a-Jar Favor recipes!
Stay warm and well fed in 2012!
