Mardi Gras Traditions

No need for Captain obvious statements: I'm aware that Mardi Gras was actually a week ago! But let's forget the date details and move on to the tastiness.

This is a King Cake, the most marvelous of treats. It's a Mardi Gras tradition to place a small plastic baby inside the baked cake and whoever gets the baby in their piece has to throw the party next year. Hooray!

Bring in the pig!

My sister asked me for some easy dinner recipes and I'm going to attempt to accommodate her here. She's a big fan of meat (when presented with a tofu curry, she asked repeatedly why there was no form of the good stuff located on her plate) and alcohol (who doesn't like Sunday Funday?), so here is my marriage of the two.

Shallot Risotto with Sausage in a Beer-Mustard sauce. And some green stuff for color.


Bomb-diggity.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Thai food has always seemed far too complex to attempt, but this recipe is shockingly easy and magically tasty. Probably because the most difficult part of this fantastical assortment of ingredients (the curry paste), is easily purchased in stores. Of course, it's far more rewarding if you make the paste yourself, but we're not always going for rewarding. 

We're going for awesome. And by gum, that's what we're getting!

Winner winner chicken dinner

I've been shamefully remiss with my work lunches lately and have found myself shelling out far too much moolah on a daily basis for a tasty sandwich from the local haunt. No more! I am determined to find meals that are relatively easy to cook during the week that will keep for a few days and take the place of recent extravagance. I think I found a good one with...

Pesto chicken pasta bake. A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of pesto with almonds, macadamia nuts, spinach, arugula, and basil, which was pretty darn smooth and tasty. I portioned it out into an ice cube tray and put the frozen chunks into a freezer bag for later use. Tonight...they called to me.

Pizza Puffs

Football freaks (said with love): you can stop looking for the perfect finger food for the big day (which I'm pretty sure is coming up sometime soon...I'm not 100% on that front). Enter stage right:

The Pizza Puff. These delightful bits of nirvana come in two varieties tonight: Bacon Caper (my favorite combo, thanks Luci!) and your standard Pepperoni (classic nom). I will be dispersing them among my coworkers tomorrow, who will soon be victims to my diabolical plan to have all 401Ks signed over to me. This victory will be deliciously satisfying.

Going Greek

The last couple of days I've been on a real eggplant kick. Don't ask me why, it just spoke to me and I am rolling with it like a champ. Last night was garlic eggplant with rice, and tonight we have....

Moussaka! A tasty, hearty, totally awesome Greek/Middle Eastern casserole dish that will warm you right to the very core. My friend Leah described it as "lasagna made with eggplant instead of noodles", which is a very apt description. Of course, that makes it sound a tad healthy, which is a bit of a stretch. It starts out with good intentions, and then goes all rogue with a solid helping of bechamel sauce.

December Desserts

I told myself that December would be full of posts about holiday foodstuffs, and just look at how I've failed! Since I wasn't able to deliver on that front, I'll just give summary of some of the golden moments of the last month of 2011:

1. Maple Bacon Cupcakes