Dinner with Friends

Oops, I forgot to post this!

My story begins with my first friend in Northern VA when I moved here about 4 years go. SMC was one of the people in my initial training for work at the PTO and we clicked pretty instantly. Sadly, he moved to Kentucky a little more than a year ago with his insanely adorable son and lovely wife. It sounds like they have a really good life there so I'm happy for them despite my occasional secret hopes they realize how much they miss it here and drive back one night and move back :) ha ha. I'm happy to say that we've done a good job of keeping each other up-to-date about our lives - especially in regards to food :) SMC messsaged me the other day and told me how he recently decided to start up a group which would meet weekly with some people from his church to discuss various religious/ethical topics. He stressed that, although the formal discussion was important, he also wanted to have everyone work on a project together in order for everyone to get to know each other and get some friendships blooming. He thought cooking would be a great mechanism to achieve this and, as a result, they would have a tasty meal to eat once the meeting gets rolling. So here's my contribution to some soup/stew recipes for his new group. Maybe some other people might want to check these out? My suggestion for the simpler soups/stews is to have a group work on the soup/stew, another group prepare a bread and another group a simple salad. SMC, let us know if you find any other tasty stew/soup recipes since those winter months are just around the corner!

I think you should be able to click on each of the pictures and print from your web browser to get a full page recipe.

Enjoy!

Simple Dinners

I realize that I've disappeared from the blogging world for awhile. My initial excuse was that I really haven't been making anything worth posting recently due to time constraints but I decided that was a lame reason. I know most normal (and reasonable) people will cook meals that take less than 30 minutes from start to serve. Most people who know me know that I like to do and pick things that tend to complicated (someone unnecessarily) - especially in the cooking arena. I truly know that complicated meals do not necessarily equal good meals and likewise simple meals can be incredibly delicious. So we've made a shift recently to more simple dishes and it's about time for me to sit down and post about them already and quit being such a recipe snob.

You might ask - what's been taking away from my precious and beloved time in the kitchen? Back in May, one of my dearest friends, m-scribbles, convinced my husband and me to join her in training for the Army Ten Miler in Virginia on October 8. We are less than 2 months away so we have kicked up our training and now are working out 6/7 days a week. Wish us luck!

Anyway, here's some simple yet delicious meals we've made recently:

From Real Simple - August 2006, Peach, Mozzarella and Basil Salad. It's pretty similar to A.C.'s mom's pasta salad but instead with peaches - perfect for those afraid of overindulging in carbs. I was about to say "yummo" - but I think I need a less annoying catch phrase :) I'd definitely make this again but try to look for peaches that were a little more ripe and juicy.

From bakingsheet.blogspot.com, Banana Black Bean Tacos. Have I mentioned these before? It's a great twist on normal black bean tacos by adding pan-fried bananas. The caramelized bananas add a nice sweetness to the relatively healthy tacos. Just make sure to get rid of the extra grease by placing the bananas between paper towels after frying. I think we've gotten to the point where we have been making these about once a week sometimes with Dave Lieberman's guac recipe.

Sorry for no pictures...I actually took some but blogger is being stubborn and will not let me upload. So just use your imagination.