My mother signed me up for 4H when I was a young girl. Not agricultural 4H, but the sewing and cooking version. I loved it! I got to spend extra time with my friends and I got to do cool stuff with my mom.
I learned how to sew and how to sort of cook. Meaning I enjoyed the sewing more than I enjoyed the cooking...
I grew up, went away to college and ate at a dining hall. We had a tiny stove and toaster oven in my dorm suite, so I learned how to make ramen and how to make toasted cheese sandwiches.
Flash forward to adulthood-and I never became much of a chef. I'd prepare your standard fare of hamburger helper, pot roast, hamburgers, pork chops and the like. Actually, I cooked like my mom and grandmothers...
About 5 years ago, my mother introduced me to pinterest. At first I thought, oh, please...I won't use this much. HA! I've been an adict ever since! For a long time I used it for craft and holiday ideas. But now my cooking boards are bigger than any other boards!
A friend invited me into a dinner/cooking group on facebook. People post what they've had or made for dinner. I literally only know 2 people in this group, but these women have become my idols!
Many post photos to show what they've made. Lots of them link to the recipe and others just give a general description.
It has inspired me to cook better and eat better. Granted, I only post a photo when it's a good meal that I've prepared. I never post when it's a depression Big Mac and fries...
My goal this week has been to be able to post every day because it makes me feel so much better to know I've cared enough about myself to make a "photo worthy" meal.
Here are a few recent meals we've had at our house:
I used spinach instead of kale.
It was awesome! This will be something I make if we have company for dinner.
This winter, I had made a soup with barley, so I had that ingredient on-hand. I also had beans in the cupboard, so I had minimal shopping to do for this reciper. Technically, it's supposed to be served as a salad, but we had it as a warm main dish. Again...it was really good!!
I ran across Amuse Your Bouche somewhere online...reddit...facebook...pinterest...and this carrot and brie pasta sounded amazing. She also featured roasted radishes on her blog. So I thought...hey! let's try this!
It was a little labor-intensive (for me) but it was awesome!! I used pine nuts instead of walnuts, as I had them on-hand.
And let me tell you about the roasted radishes...actually...I've been telling anyone with ears about the roasted radishes ever since I made them: Ah-mazing! We loved them. They are a perfect substitute for potatoes. They were juicy and fluffy all at the same time. I will make these all of the time from hereon! I quartered the radishes, tossed them in olive oil and threw some salt, pepper and oregano on them. Do it!!! You'll thank me :)
(and that's sauteed broccolini on the plate, too)
Now that I want to talk about this lemony bacon pasta salad...I cannot find the recipe!
I used bowtie pasta,spinach, fried bacon really crisp, cooked up a little bacon and made a light mayo/lemon dressing to toss it all together. It was a quick weekend lunch to use up ingredients left from the week of dinners. Chad really raved about this one!
I LOVED this pizza. Loved it!!
Last February, we visited family in Denver and had a dinner at Steuben's and it was a great meal. They have roasted brussel sprouts on the menu and we had to order them twice!
Thus began a love of the b. sprouts at our house.
We like them simply roasted with dry italian dressing and a little sugar, but I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe.
Pretty sure I could have eaten the whole thing myself!!!
Well...thanks for looking. There will be more recipes and photos that I'll share another time. You can follow me on
www.instagram.com/heatherhasler if you want to see more.
And feel free to tell me what YOU'RE cooking up in the kitchen! I love new ideas and recipes!
~heather
