Went to the Long Island Children’s Museum yesterday with my friend Emily and her son.  First time being there but definitely not the last.  We all had such a great time.   This wall is outside the museum and I thought Ben looked supa cool in his hoodie (hehe).  I have lots more photos but don’t have the time to post now.  I need to research Long Island Restaurant week now.  It crept up on us and we never miss it.  (That’s right Joe…another date night!)  Check out the link and go treat yourself.

Every once in a while I feel the need to share something simple and delicious.  I think it was two years ago that my cousin-in-law Melinda’s Mother gave me a cookbook for Christmas.  It is called, “The three ingredient cookbook” written by Jenny White.  I have to admit that I didn’t open it for over a year.  (sorry Dorothy)  After all that time, I really forgot that I even had it.  I pulled it off my shelf in desperation one night hoping that it would hold the answer to my dinner problem.  The problem being that there was no dinner.  Lo and behold it did!  As a matter of fact it has a lot of great ideas.  Here is the recipe that I used.  I picked this one because I had a ton of tomatoes from my garden and I didn’t want them to go to waste. 

8 Large ripe tomatoes
Pasta
Goat Cheese
There are your 3 ingredients……BUT this recipe is just screaming for some garlic!

Preheat oven to 375.  Place the tomatoes and garlic in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Roast till soft and slightly charred.

Meanwhile, cook  your pasta.  Don’t forget to salt your water.

Slice up the cheese.  It will totally crumble but it doesn’t matter.

Roughly smash the roasted tomatoes.

Add pasta and gently stir in the cheese.

Enjoy!

It’s easy, fattening and DELICIOUS!

Japanese Fried Spaghetti

1 lb. spaghetti (I like to mix regular and whole wheat)

1 lb. bacon diced and fried

Remove bacon from pan and leave 1/2 the oil.

Brown 2 cloves garlic

Add 2 Tbl. chives

Throw in One head of Cabbage (diced)

Stir Fry with garlic and chives until it is well coated and getting soft and brown.

Add in slightly undercooked spaghetti to pan (deep wok or something works best)

Let it get a little toasty and then add

4 Tbls. soy sauce (I use low sodium)

When everything looks good enough to eat, add bacon back in and a little fresh parsley.

Enjoy!

(Norine - let me know how it turns out)

: )

A few weeks ago, you might remember, we went to visit Julie and Samy.  I wrote about it in this post.  Samy made us a dinner that night that was soooooo fantastic.  I thought you might want to see some photos of what he created.  It’ was not only delicious but it was a work of art.  He carefully plans out these menus and cooks all day with the finest ingredients of the East end.  I forgot to write down what each dish was so Samy, please send me the descriptions when you can and I will add them.  Thanks again for a wonderful meal.

Cucumber topped with guacamole and seared scallop.

Butternut puree with Sea bass and cipollini onion.

I can’t even guess what this was…..I know mushrooms and some sort of roast. (Yikes! Help me out Samy)

Nectarines, grapefruit and cherry with some sort of creamy, fresh sauce.

 *******

On a side note:

Girls, Have you gone for your mamogram this year?  I just went for the first time.  If you haven’t……Make your appointment TODAY!

We spent the afternoon/evening out by Julie’s on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day and being at the beach was delightful.  The Monsta ran all around picking up rocks and putting sand on his head.  He would take Grandma’s hand and run down to the water totally squealing as a wave approached and then run back.  They did this about 1000 times.  He sat on the lifeguard chair and made a friend.  Then he climbed all the way up the hill back to the house by himself.  Samy was busy cooking and was all ready for us to sit down and indulge on one of his awesome dinners.  I will definitely have pictures to show you when I’m done editing them.  It was marvelous!  About 3 minutes after we got in the car to go home, cookie was fast asleep.  Another awesome day!

I’ve been having a time getting Ben to eat vegies lately.  He used to eat everything and now he definitely is getting picky.  UGH!  Why does that happen?  Does he not like things now or is this just a control thing?  Whatever it is, it’s happening.  Yesterday, we went shopping at Trader Joes (my favorite store) and they were giving out samples of hummus made from white beans instead of chick peas.  It was really delicious.  I bought it.  Today, I made Ben his egg and cheese omelet.  BUT….I beat in the hummus and sprinkled in some frozen spinach.  I put muenster in the middle and served as usual.  Do you know that the boy ate it all up!   Go me!  I think I have to be more sneaky from now on.  Does anyone have any recipes they would like to share?  I’d love to hear about them. 

It’s all I got for ya today.  This was dinner the udder night.

Craig bought me the Jessica Seinfeld book, “Deceptively Delicious” for Valentines Day.  I had flipped through it a couple of times and thought she had some pretty good ideas for incorporating healthy foods into your kid’s meals.  Well on Sunday, I decided to make her Tofu Nuggets.  Ben loves chicken but how much chicken can I make.  I thought tofu would be a great alternative for protein.  It was easy to assemble and HE FREAKIN’ LOVED IT!  I changed up the recipe a bit (I do that sort of thing) and it was so simple.  Here is what I did:

Mix together some breadcrumbs, flax seed, parmesan, paprika, salt and pepper  (you’ll need to buy the book if you need exact measurments or come over and look at mine : ))

Slice up some Tofu in nugget shapes.

Beat a couple of eggs and dip the tofu in.

Coat in the breadcrumb mixture.

Fry it up in some olive oil (or cooking spray).

Plated it with some Spaghetti and Broccoli with garlic and oil that Craig made.

Served….

and We Watched the delight!

Last night, Julie and Samy invited girls only to their house for a special dinner.  It was a dinner to thank some of Mom’s special friends for giving her so much support when Gram passed away.  It turned out to be spectacular.  I’ll get right to the pictures….

Raw scallop with grapefruit and ginger crackling.  Sprinkled with sea salt.

Seared scallop with red pepper sauce (for those who didn’t eat raw).

Red pepper with black olives, swiss and sour cream (for those who didn’t eat shellfish).

Potato leek soup with black pepper Crème fraîche and olive oil drizzle.

My personal favorite…
Potato pancake topped with mushrooms, spinach, dill and cipollini onions.

Braised short ribs with parsnip celery puree.

Buttermilk panna cotta with blood oranges and raspberry sorbet.

To finish this beautiful meal, Julie made authentic Moroccan Mint Tea in this gorgeous tea pot.

It was a dinner to remember.  Thank you Samy and Ryan (a chef friend that helped) and Julie. 

Samy’s Grandma passed away yesterday and our hearts go out to Samy and his family.  ((hugs))