The last time my husband made dinner

This picture doesn't do any justice for the presentation and flavors of this lovely creation. Homemade Ahi Tuna and swordfish steaks, served with a watercress olive salad, and angel hair pasta with lemon sauce. 

Beginners Cabbage Rolls & Strudels

For dinner Tuesday night I made cabbage rolls for the first time ever. As far as I can remember I've only had cabbage rolls a handful of times in my life. Raven claims said he's never had them. The recipe I got from "Tasteof home for classic cabbage rolls" was beginner to medium difficulty. (See copy below) I added my pictures.
Cabbage Rolls

• Prep: 30 min. Cook: 1-1/2 hours
• Yield: 4 Servings

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Ingredients

My ingredients from the grocery store (above)

• 1 medium head cabbage
• 1-1/2 cups chopped onion, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) Italian stewed tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1/4 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 1/2 cup V8 juice, optional

Directions

• In a Dutch oven, cook cabbage in boiling water for 10 minutes or until outer leaves are tender; drain. Rinse in cold water; drain. Remove eight large outer leaves (refrigerate remaining cabbage for another use); set aside

Using Tongs and a strainer were helpful getting the cabbage out of boiling water.

• In a large saucepan, saute 1 cup onion in butter until tender. Add the tomatoes, garlic, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The onions were had roots

• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the rice, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and remaining onion and salt. Crumble beef and sausage over mixture and mix well.
• Remove thick vein from cabbage leaves for easier rolling. Place about 1/2 cup meat mixture on each leaf; fold in sides. Starting at an unfolded edge, roll up leaf to completely enclose filling. Place seam side down in a skillet.Top with sauce.

I added sliced carrots to the bottom as a side dish.

• Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Add V8 juice if desired. Reduce heat to low; cook 20 minutes longer or until rolls are heated through and a thermometer inserted in the filling reads 160°. Yield: 4 servings. I'm sure there were more like 5-6 servings. I made 9 cabbage rolls. 

Nutritional Facts1 serving (2 each) equals 499 calories, 21 g fat (8 g saturated fat), 85 mg cholesterol, 1,845 mg sodium, 49 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 32 g protein.

***I made some substitutions such as using ground turkey instead of ground beef and brown rice instead of white rice. This helped to decrease fat and a small increase in fiber. 

Overall I think eating brown rice is a preference and doesn't increase fiber by much. Brown rice is over priced in this country considering it is less polished and processed then it's counterpart white rice. On Wikipedia it says in Asia brown rice is associated with wartime shortages and poverty. Interesting when you think brown rice and raw sugar and more expensive at the grocery store.

This was the final product! Overall delicious except I would pick a more bland tomato sauce for the top to balance out the flavors on the inside. 

Now for dessert some simple peach and apple strudels...

Start by thawing an award winning puff pastry. Got this one from Trader Joe's.

Making the fruit filling is easy. Just medium to high heat add cinnamon and brown sugar. Then use a touch of cornstarch to thicken. (tsp)

The Garden

Wow! It's been a really long time since the last post. So much has happened over the last 2 years. We've done lots of great things like raising a puppy and starting our own vegetable garden. Here are some pictures of what we have so far. I got a bit later than I should have so some of the vegetables are still growing. 

This is a picture of Rosco our Whoodle (Soft coated wheaten terrier & Poodle). Rosco helps in the garden by keeping the squirrels and chipmunks out. He loves loves to play in the ivy box and relax in the shade.

But does it blend?

Mango, vanilla ice cream, Greek yogurt and a bit of frozen strawberry's - does it blend? you betcha!

Lisa's Breakfast

When Lisa has the day off, she makes breakfast. It's funny because I heard about this breakfast during my lunch break - she called to tell me how excited she was about steaming broccoli. So, here it is, Lisa's breakfast. It looks like broccoli, scrambled eggs, and a quesadilla.

Tapas Night

Last Thursday was tapas night. I love tapas. I love the flavors. I love all the different tastes. It's fun to make - even more fun to eat, and it allows me to experiment with different foods and food combinations.

When I'm in the grocery store shopping for tapas it's rare that I bring a list with me, rather I'm flying by the seat of my pants and picking the foods that look fresh and/or interesting. I make up the dishes as I go in the store grouping the ingredients in the shopping cart that I'll later combine into a recipe. I'll start in the produce section; my train of thought goes something like this: "Oh, arugula is good. I like arugula it's kinda bitter so to make a salad with it maybe I'll do some tomatoes with it. Oh look cherry tomatoes!"


That's the first tapa. Thinly sliced avocado, roasted cherry tomatoes, and arugula. I whipped up a paprika vinaigrette to top it off. The result was pretty good. Roasting the cherry tomatoes took out the "spontaneous burst" of tomato you normally get when biting into these little guys and brought out the natural sweetness. The paprika vinaigrette was the bombdiggity.


The next tapa was a little more hearty. If you're looking for a rice/pasta/potato substitute try polenta, it's corn meal based and can be prepared the same way you would any of the above. I bought the pre-made polenta stuff that comes in a tube. This stuff is pre-cooked so all you have to do is heat it up. I cut it into 1/4" slices and pan fry in olive oil until I get a golden brown crust on both sides. I then topped it with garlic, baby bellas and fresh jalapeno. The combo was awesome.


This one is more finger food. It's a recipe my mom makes. Blue cheese and black olive paste. I found this roquefort style blue cheese made with goat milk (instead of sheep milk), so it's a bit softer - less crumbly, and I thought it spreaded nicely. For the olives I threw some pitted black olives I got from the olive bar at Whole Foods in the food processor and combined it with a bit of olive oil to make a paste. My mom puts pine nuts in her's - that is the way to go but I didn't have any, and didn't have the foresight during my seat of the pants grocery run to pick up any nuts. Oh well, still not bad.

Not pictured, I also made a small batch of cauliflower with white cheese sauce. Typical Belgian food. Consistently awesome.

Cinnamon Pinch Coffee

The coffee we have at the house is delicious! Raven, despite what he wants to believe is sort of a coffee snob and I can't blame him. Since drinking whole bean "Motor City Blend" coffee (local-Fair trade organic from Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company) my expectations have changed. During this weeks 3 day work seminar they offered complimentary breakfast, lunch, and snacks. However the coffee in the morning was blaH. Usually they serve Starbucks at the hospital but we were off campus and catered by some unknown company. I rarely add sugar but had to add several packets so my tastebuds could withstand the lack of flavor. I learned my lesson and ended up drinking tea or brewing my own the next couple of days.

Anyhow today I decided to try adding cinnamon to my coffee bean grounds to see if I could mimic the smell and flavor of a local restaurants. It turned out pretty good. I recommend a pinch of cinnamon if you want to try something new or run out of milk or creamer. I wonder if it will make icky tasting coffee taste better? However I'm not willing to experiment.