November Re-Make Recap

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving with your friends and family! Sorry for the lack of posts last week, but I took a little break so I could focus on the holiday. 

I'm one of those people who waits until after Thanksgiving to switch to Christmas mode, since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. However, as of today, we are in the Christmas state of mind. We put up and decorated our tree today, our Elf on the Shelf arrives tomorrow morning, and the boys are busy coming up with a variety of random things for their Christmas lists (right now, Andrew's list consists of a snow globe, a magic wand that does real magic, and a hamster. Good luck, Santa!). Someone posted on Facebook last night that there are only three weekends left until Christmas, which gave me heart palpitations. I feel like that's very not much time at all to squeeze in all of the my favorite Christmastime activities, but I'm sure we'll manage.

The recap this month is a bit light, since I found myself turning to really simple dinners (spaghetti, pancakes, sausage and potato hash, and yes, frozen pizza) quite a bit. My-kids-are-guaranteed-to-eat-it sorts of dinners. And frankly, those are some of my favorites too.

These shredded pork po' boys are one of my absolute favorite sandwiches. The pork is so flavorful and succulent, and the sauce is so creamy and spicy. Those two elements come together to make one messy, delicious sandwich. I can't wait to show you what I did with the pork leftovers this time around.

 

Every year, the facility where Will has preschool and Andrew has before- and after-kindergarten enrichment hosts a Thanksgiving feast for all of the kids 3 and up. This was Will's first year participating, and since I had to supply something for two kids' classes, I wanted to make the same thing for both boys to take. I immediately thought of these pumpkin cinnamon chip drop cookies, since the recipe makes a ton of cookies. I used white chocolate chips instead of cinnamon chips, since I can only find cinnamon chips at one store around here (ridiculously...) and I didn't want to make a special trip. They were good with the white chocolate chips, but a bit too sweet for my tastes. I definitely prefer them with the cinnamon chips.

I made this spicy sausage dip twice this month, which is about average. We just love this stuff. One night, when my mother-in-law had the boys, we ate this for dinner (because we go a little wild when we're kid-free). I also made it earlier today for the OSU/Michigan game, and ate a ton of it. And then I ended up regretting that, because I felt a little queasy throughout that entire game because the score was so close. The dip was delicious though, and so was the (very narrow) victory for the Buckeyes!

 

My family can't get enough of this chicken parmesan pasta and honestly, I really can't either. I love that this tastes exactly like chicken parm, but takes a fraction of the time to prepare. This is always a favorite in our house.

Speaking of favorites, it had been way too long since I'd made one of my childhood favorites: my mom's shredded chicken sandwiches. In fact, it had been so long since I'd made them, that I don't think either of the boys had ever tried them. We at these sandwiches two nights in a row (at their request!) because they loved them so much. These sandwiches are comfort food at its finest, plain and simple.

 

I turned this classic fried rice into a meal by upping the amount of eggs and adding about half a pound of chicken that I chopped, sauteed, and let finish cooking in soy sauce and honey. What I love the most about this recipe is that it uses up odds and ends I always have lying around: a little bit of rice, a couple of eggs, a handful of peas, a carrot, etc. 

I don't host Thanksgiving, so it's always a very relaxing holiday for me. Now that I think about it, that may partly be why it's my favorite holiday! I always make a couple of contributions to the meal, and they really never change: Mom's sweet potato casserole and the ever-popular broccoli salad. I think the sweet potato casserole just gets better and better every year, and I know you've heard me rave enough about the broccoli salad. I added honey-roasted almonds and dried cranberries to it this time to make it a little bit more festive (I just bought one of those salad packets in the produce section), and those were both delicious additions. 

October Re-Make Recap

Happy Halloween! Our costumes are purchased, our jack o'lanterns are carved, our candy bags are waiting, and our trick-or-treating etiquette has been reviewed time and again. I think we're ready for tonight! Now the rain just needs to hold off until trick-or-treating is over...

I have now officially been doing these re-make recap posts for a whole year, and this has become one of my favorite posts to write every month. As a food blogger, I think there is always a certain pressure to post something new and different, and while that is all well and good, it's also fun to re-make some old favorites. These recap posts have given me the opportunity to do that. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. (And eating all the yummy food, too, of course...)

Remember that phenomenal homemade chicken noodle soup I made earlier this month? I used the remaining poached chicken for a batch of my mom's creamed chicken over biscuits. This is by far my favorite comfort food, and it's perfect for chilly fall nights.

It was definitely a comfort food kind of month around here, and these pork chops with creamy mushroom gravy are a great comfort food. For only containing a handful of ingredients, these pork chops are incredibly flavorful, and the gravy is phenomenal on mashed potatoes. I couldn't find the cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic, so I sauteed a few garlic cloves in some butter and added that to the soup/sour cream mixture. It was a fine substitution.

It had been too long since I'd made rigatoni with chicken, bacon, and mushrooms, so I decided to remedy that. I love this combination of flavors, and, although the addition of the apple juice sounds a little strange, it adds a mild sweetness that really is fantastic. If you make this pasta (and you really, really should), definitely don't skimp on the basil. It makes the whole dish.

This roast beef with creamy mushroom gravy is my favorite pot roast recipe. (Are you sensing a gravy-ish, mushroom-y theme for October?) I bought a huge roast this time, so I had enough leftovers to use the pot roast in two other dishes. In case you hadn't noticed, I've been trying to cook more like that lately. :) I can't wait to share the other recipes I made using this pot roast; they both became instant family favorites.

We love, love, love this recipe for cheesy broccoli and rice. It's so creamy, cheesy, and flavorful. It's also a very quick side dish. If you're like me and you struggle to find interesting side dish recipes, I think you're going to love having this one in your back pocket.

 

I hadn't made this creamy baked spaghetti since the first time I made it nearly two years ago, and as soon as I took my first bite, I regretted waiting so long to make it again. I also regretted not doubling the recipe. I could have happily eaten the leftovers of this for at least a week. I think it would be just as good, if not better, with Italian sausage (either spicy or sweet).

This is a not-great cell phone picture, but I just had to show you the decorating job the boys did on their neena's (grandma's) birthday cake. They were so proud of themselves, and I think they did a fantastic job. The cake, of course, is perfectly chocolate chocolate cake -- the only chocolate cake recipe I (or you!) will ever need. If you haven't tried that, find an excuse to make it soon. I mean, do you really even need an excuse to make chocolate cake? I don't think so!

 

 

Every time I make these chipotle chicken cheesesteaks, I am surprised all over again how one little change (adding chipotle in adobo) can take a sandwich from good to great. And not only do they taste delicious, they're ready in just about 20 minutes. You can't ask for a better weeknight dinner than that!

Here's another meal my family just loves; these bacon and cheddar cornbread cakes with fried eggs grace our dinner table frequently. And with good reason: They're easy to prepare and come out perfectly every single time I make them. Not to mention how delicious they are! Bacon, cheddar, corn, savory stuffing, and velvety over-easy eggs...The flavors just work.

This creamy tomato tortellini with chicken and broccoli was a last-minute addition to our meal plan this week. I made dinner for my mother- and sister-in-law as a thank you for watching the boys while Joe and I went to our first ever parent-teacher conference. It's hard to think of anything that has made me feel more like a parent than that! The conference went great (my A-man is doing awesome in kindergarten), and dinner was great too. I doubled the tortellini but kept the rest of the amounts the same, and I still had plenty of sauce -- and plenty of leftovers, too. But that's okay. They'll definitely get eaten.

And last but not least: It just wouldn't be October in our house without a batch of pumpkin pie-spiced pumpkin seeds. The boys and I are whipping up a batch of these this morning. I'll probably use brown sugar instead of white this time, and we got a ton of seeds from our pumpkins this year, so I'm sure I'll have more than a cup of them. That's great news, because everyone gobbles these up. They're really addictive, and they're a great pre-trick-or-treating snack!

September Re-Make Recap

I feel like every time I write one of these recaps I begin with a statement like, "Wow, another month is gone! Where did the time go?!" So even though that's all still true, I think we can skip it, right? And just get to the food? Let's do it.

(But yes, the time is still going way too fast. Christmas is in three months, people!)

I made broccoli salad for a little Labor Day cookout we had at my stepmom's house, and it was a huge hit as usual. Everyone loves this stuff.

Also on the menu for Labor Day: a batch of these fruit pizza cookies, made with strawberries, blueberries, and white peaches. I used lime juice and zest instead of lemon in the glaze this time, and I liked that flavor a lot.

It had been a while since I'd made two-packet pork chops with ranch-roasted potatoes, so I thought it was high time I put this meal on our menu. Instead of using the onion soup mix this time, I used mushroom gravy mix because I had it on hand. I also used more of a traditional bread-and-fry method for the pork chops, by mixing the ranch seasoning and mushroom gravy mix into the flour, then dipping the pork chops in eggs before dredging them in the flour mixture. If this meal was good before, well, that small change just took it to a completely new level of deliciousness.

This recipe for bacon fried rice is a favorite in our house, and I've made it a few different ways. This time, I did away with the chicken and topped each serving of rice with an egg fried over-easy and a drizzle of sriracha. SO GOOD.

I made a riff on these BBQ chicken taquitos this month using some leftover pulled BBQ chicken I had on hand (look for a great new sandwich recipe here later this week). Since I already had the seasoned BBQ chicken, I didn't need to worry about adding the spices; I just added the cream cheese and cheddar cheese to the chicken, along with some diced green chilies and some bacon I'd reserved from the bacon fried rice for just that purpose. Let me tell you, what a delicious way to use leftovers. I'm already planning to make pulled BBQ chicken again soon, just so I can make these taquitos the next night.

This recipe for chicken and vegetable pasta with roasted garlic cream sauce is my favorite pasta to bridge the seasons. You can still use summer vegetables in it, but it has that warm, heavy, comforting quality that makes you think of fall. I added some fresh broccoli this time as well, which worked great with the rest of the vegetables.

Speaking of pasta, I couldn't wait any longer to make this cheesy sausage penne, which is definitely a favorite in my house. I've made this recipe so often, I could probably make it in my sleep. It is just SO GOOD.

Can you tell I'm in fall mode? I put this best ever roasted tomato soup on our menu on a day that it happened to be about 85 degrees. Why can't the weather agree with my cravings? This soup is so delicious, though, it was well worth heating up the kitchen for.

I have a coworker with a September birthday, and when I asked him what kind of cupcakes he wanted, he didn't even hesitate before he asked for these Oreo overload cheesecake cupcakes. They're the same cupcakes I made for him last year, incidentally, and he said he's been thinking about them ever since. Upon tasting them again, I have to say that I think these are the best cupcakes I've ever made. They're just absolutely perfect.

I made biscuits with sausage gravy on a night that I got home late (which, for me, is like 5:00), and I still managed to have dinner on the table by 5:30. This stuff only takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and it is so simple and delicious that I honestly don't know why I don't make it every single weeknight.

It wouldn't be a fall recipe recap without spicy sausage dip! I typically make this a few times a month during football season, since it's our favorite football snack. I made it last weekend for Joe and me while we watched the Buckeyes beat Wisconsin. Go Bucks!

 

It's time for chili. I just couldn't wait any longer. I've improvised a lot on my chili recipe since I posted it (every time I make it it's an improvisation), but here are some things I did differently in the batch I made last weekend: I added a bay leaf, replaced the petite diced tomatoes with a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, used an entire box of beef stock, and replaced the spicy sausage with chorizo. I think this may have been my best batch yet, and I'm eager to confirm that theory tonight, when we're using the leftovers for chili dogs. Yum!

August Re-Make Recap

I can't even believe that it will be September tomorrow. Where did the summer go?! It seems like winter just ended, and now we're only a few months away from it again. But I'm going to wring every ounce of fun I can get out of autumn this year, as I do every year.

It was kind of a hectic/emotional month for us: Joe and I celebrated 9 years of marriage, and two weeks later our firstborn started kindergarten. We didn't always stay on a schedule, but I did manage to make a bunch of our favorites this month.

 

It just wouldn't be a recap without taco rice, right? This shows up in our rotation at least once every couple of months, and it's always a favorite. Eating this meal always ends with Joe and I having a tense discussion in the kitchen, trying to decide who will get to take the leftovers to work for lunch.

Andrew requested pepperoni pizza puffs for his "night before kindergarten" dinner. I also made them another time this month, when it was just me and the boys home for dinner. These are so simple, and the flavor is just awesome. They're like pizza rolls on steroids, and they taste much better too. I keep meaning to try a Hawaiian version with green pepper, ham, and pineapple -- but we all love the pepperoni version so much that I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

I think it's pretty obvious by now that I love chicken Caesar everything, and these chicken Caesar salad sandwiches are one of my favorites. They hit all the same notes as a traditional Caesar salad, but in sandwich form (and with bacon). Absolutely delicious.

Joe claims that biscuits with sausage gravy is the very best meal I make, so I'm a little bit embarrassed by how easy this recipe is. But despite that, I truly do believe that it's the best sausage gravy ever. It's so tangy and sweet and creamy...just perfect. I served it with some really delicious scrambled eggs (I'll share that recipe, though it's hardly a recipe at all, with you soon), and Joe and the boys made sandwiches by piling the gravy and eggs on the biscuits. If you make one recipe from this site, I beg you to try this one.

There aren't many recipes that have survived from the early days of our marriage, but this smothered chicken is one of the ones that has. I mean, this dish is just incredible -- spicy chicken breasts smothered in peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tons of cheese...I'm salivating just thinking about it.

I think these ranch chicken tacos are my favorite weeknight meal when I want something super quick, simple, and delicious -- which, let's be honest, is pretty much every night. They literally come together in minutes, and they're so incredibly good.

It had been so long since I'd made this recipe for bow ties with spicy sausage in tomato cream sauce that I was blown away all over again by how delicious it is. It's so simple, made with only a handful of ingredients, but the flavor is just amazing.

I made Joe an Asian noodle bowl with fried eggs one night when he got home pretty late from his weekly softball game, after the boys and I had already eaten. Normally I'd just make him a sandwich in those instances (or he'd make himself one), but I think this recipe is just about as quick as making a sandwich. I just made a basic version for him, but I'm still interested in playing with the ingredients in these noodle bows -- maybe adding some carrots or cabbage.

Speaking of fried eggs, these bacon cheddar cornbread cakes with fried eggs have skyrocketed right to the top of our favorite dinners. I don't know what possessed me to even buy a box of cornbread stuffing when I discovered it in my cupboard the first night I made these -- but now I find myself buying it on purpose just so I can make these cakes. This time around, I served them alongside the most perfect summer tomato I think I've ever had. What a delicious meal.

Just as Andrew requested pepperoni pizza puffs for the night before kindergarten, he requested his favorite meal, this sweet and spicy pork and asparagus stir fry, for dinner after his first day. At my friend Sarah's suggestion, I served the pork mixture combined with angel hair pasta instead of over rice. It tasted even better that way -- which is really saying a lot.

Ever since rediscovering this recipe, I've made creamy tomato tortellini with chicken and broccoli no less than four times. It's definitely a crowd-pleaser, and it's so delicious and simple. If you haven't noticed...those are my very favorite kinds of meals. :)

July Re-Make Recap

I can't believe that July is over already!I feel like I say this every month, but this month went by so quickly. August is one of my favorite months -- we celebrate our anniversary and take time off from work -- but this year it's also a little bit bittersweet, since Andrew starts kindergarten in a little over three weeks. Talk about time going by so quickly; wasn't he just a tiny, sweet little burrito baby yesterday?

Anyway, I could write about that for a few more paragraphs, but I'll start to cry, so let's just talk food. A lot of delicious things happened in my kitchen this month.

 

I think this is the second month in a row that this creamy stovetop macaroni and cheese has appeared on my recap, and with good reason. It's so delicious and simple and a great way to feed a crowd. I made it for the Fourth of July to go with the pig we roasted (yes, we roasted a pig; more about that soon), and everyone loved it, as always.

The base recipe for these mint chocolate cookies is the best chocolate cookie base I've ever tried. The texture is fantastic; the cookies are crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. I made them this month minus the mint add-ins, and instead used a combination of dark, milk, and white chocolate chips. They were fantastic.

You guys know by now how much I love my Crock pot, and I used it this month for these slow cooker chicken tacos with cheddar, beer, and black beans. These tacos are so simple and flavorful. When I made them this time, I topped each taco with a sprinkling of lime juice, which really brightened the flavor and worked so well with the flavor of the beer.

I think everyone has a handful of "back pocket" recipes, and this farfalle with bacon, onions and gouda is one of those recipes for my family. It literally only takes about 15 minutes to make, and it's absolutely delicious. I made it twice this month.

This sweet and spicy pork and asparagus stir fry is Andrew's favorite meal, so you can expect to see it appear on lots of future recaps. He ate three helpings and asked to take the leftovers to school for lunch the next day. My friend Sarah made this on the same night I did this month, and she served hers over angel hair pasta. I'm doing that next time for sure. We like it with the rice, but have you ever served rice to three- and five-year-old boys, then walked on your dining room rug after dinner? It's...not the most pleasant experience.

My friend Stephanie made this recently, which inspired me to make this grilled pesto chicken with tomato cream penne again. I'm telling you guys, this is such a fresh and flavorful pasta dish. I could eat it once a week, and probably will for the rest of grilling season.

As I mentioned on Monday, peaches are definitely my favorite summer fruit, and these peach pecan chicken sandwiches with jalapeno mayonnaise are still one of my favorite sandwiches ever. The sweetness of the peaches pairs so perfectly with the earthy pecans and the spicy jalapenos, and the crispy chicken and soft peaches have the perfect textural balance. And, I just thought of this: I think maple syrup would work really well with the rest of the flavors, so next time I make them I may try adding a drizzle of it to the sandwiches.

The chicken marinade that I posted in the recipe for these grilled chicken Caesar flatbreads has become my very favorite chicken marinade. I made chicken Caesar salads this month, and I used that marinade for the chicken. I was planning to cook it on the grill, but we ran out of propane, so I cooked it inside instead. I added bacon to the Caesar salads, so I just cooked the chicken in the bacon drippings. It was delicious, of course.

If you're looking for a delicious brinner recipe, look no further than this jalapeno popper breakfast scramble. It's delicious and simple and made with pantry ingredients, and it works great as leftovers. I only used about half a pound of bacon and six eggs this time, and it still turned out absolutely perfect.

This summer vegetable spaghetti with pesto cream sauce is an excellent way to use summer produce. In true Cassie fashion, I added a bit of bacon to it this time, and I loved the way the earthiness of the pesto paired with the smoky bacon.
 

I've been just slightly obsessed with sandwiches this summer, so it was high time to revisit one of our favorites: these pork sandwiches with sour cream sauce. I added a little bit of Worcestershire sauce to the sour cream mixture this time, which I thought added a delicious flavor dimension to the sandwiches. In my book, you could put mushrooms, onions and Swiss cheese on just about anything and it would be delicious. These sandwiches are no exception. Andrew devoured his sandwich; he's becoming such an awesome little eater.

 

This Mexican sour cream rice is definitely my favorite side dish for any South of the Border feast. It's so creamy, and just slightly spicy, and has a great balance of textures. I can't wait to share the chicken fajitas that I served the rice with this month.

And, finally, I made one of the boys' absolute favorite dinners this month: French bread pizzas. The boys love this dinner because they get to customize their own pizza and make it themselves. In a stroke of inspiration, I actually used a loaf of garlic bread for the base of the pizzas rather than regular French bread. That was a very good choice; it made them even crispier and added another layer of flavor.