turkey + beef meatloaf patties with a sriracha glaze

this recipe is a delicious, easy and sneaky way to get lots of vegetables into your meat focused dinner. the key to making the veggies stealth is to chop them tiny and to saute them in some olive oil to soften them before adding them to the meat mixture. i added onion, zucchini, red bell peppers, carrots and yellow summer squash. i think finely chopped spinach and green bell peppers would be a tasty addition!

chicken and rice soup

i woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain softly drumming on the roof and the wind blowing something fierce outside our window. so of course, i assumed when i awoke this morning, it would be grey and rainy and windy outside. you know, soup weather. imagine my surprise when i woke up and the sun was brightly shining and barely a breeze stirred the trees. 

too late, though, because i already had soup on my brain and so there will be soup ...sunny weather or not!

seriously.

i really feel like i need to (gently) urge you to get on this. this is the second time i have made these broccoli, chive + sharp cheddar twice-baked potatoes and i'm already wishing i would have made even more so that i can hoard them in my freezer.

make them.

you must.

recipe here.

pork + turkey breakfast sausage

i have made this sausage recipe before using just ground pork, but in order to cut back on the fat, i decided to try using half ground pork and half ground turkey breast. i'm pleased to say that the sausage turned out just as flavorful as the full pork ones. i was a little worried that they would turn out dry since the turkey has so little fat in it, but it wasn't a problem.

success!

orange + olive oil cake with a buttermilk-orange zest glaze

i've had this cake tucked into the back of my mind for a long time, and i'm so glad that i finally pulled the trigger and made it happen.

chinese long beans with ground pork

the long beans were looking so lovely at farmers market this morning, and as soon as i saw them i remembered a sunset magazine recipe, showcasing those fresh beans, that i had bookmarked a few weeks ago. i love it when the local produce at the market makes deciding what to make for dinner so easy!

broccoli and cheddar twice baked potatoes

i was in folsom last weekend, dogsitting for some sweet friends, and as i was trying to figure out what i wanted for dinner the first night there, i remembered- they now have a whole foods! yah, yah, "whole paycheck" and all that jazz, but i can't help myself, i love that place.

all american beef chili

this recipe makes a tasty truckload o'chili, so you may want to do as i did and halve the recipe. if you want to make the full recipe, you can just feed a crowd or freeze a bunch of it.

asparagus + goat cheese quiche

the mister was out of town this week. the lucky so and so went to san francisco for a work thing and so i was on my own for meals for a couple nights. 

i don't know about how things work in your house, but around here, when one of us is absent for dinner, the other takes full advantage of that and eats the stuff that we like (and the other isn't a fan of). for me, that means that when the mister is not here, i like to eat mushroom laden food, goat cheese, foods dotted with olives and quiche.

glorious, lovely, silky quiche.

creamy tomato soup

i was so happy that it was raining yesterday, so happy that it finally felt like soup weather. seriously, i could eat soup twice a week, but the mister isn't as fond of liquid dinner as i am. i figured that since i hadn't made soup in a while, he would be game for this, plus i had never made tomato soup before so it would be something new. 

new is good.

buttermilk + honey pancakes

what is a girl to do when she wakes up at 4:30 a.m., stares at the ceiling for an hour and then finally, very grudgingly, gives in and gets out of bed?

why, she makes buttermilk pancakes, of course!

mama's chicken adobo

chicken adobo is a simple one-pot dish of chicken, vinegar, water, soy sauce, black peppercorns, garlic and bay leaves. every filipino family has their own recipe, some using more soy sauce or less vinegar or adding onions, but all use the same basic ingredients.

bourbon + peanut butter banana bread

i'm pretty sure this is one of the most balanced breakfasts that i have consumed in a long time...fruit? check. booze? check. coffee? check.

breakfast sausage with fresh thyme + sage

oh, lucinda scala quinn. you do things so right.

so right.

another (yes another) recipe from my new favorite cookbook- mad hungry by lucinda scala quinn.

she has a way of laying the recipes out so simply, without any complicated directions or ingredients. they are straight-forward, easy, delicious recipes that are good to have in your repertoire.

sharp cheddar + gruyere macaroni and cheese with shallots + pancetta

roasted tomato sauce

this is a super simple way to make homemade tomato sauce. no quick-cooking, peeling or seeding of the tomatoes. there isn't even really much chopping. and the result, of very little effort, is intensely flavored homemade sauce that tastes like you were hunched over the cutting board and stove all day, sweating and crying.

what? you don't cry when you make tomato sauce? huh.

um...neither do i.

that would be weird.

hot potato!

for whatever reason, i've been on a major freezer meal kick lately. these super stuffed potatoes freeze beautifully, are easy to make in large quantities (i made 12) and are an easy weeknight dinner paired with a salad or roasted vegetable.

i chose to stuff mine with sharp cheddar, butter, sour cream, scallions and what else? bacon!

ponce's house rice + freezer burritos

i have to say it just one more time, shutterbean's idea for freezer burritos is awesome.

i roasted some chicken breasts and made some spanish rice (our favorite server slipped us the recipe from our neighborhood mexican restaurant in san diego, ponce's) and the rest was merely assembling the burritos. the rice was cooking on the stove as the chicken roasted in the oven and then i set up my work station and got to work.