Green Beans w/Green Olive Dressing (side dish)

by Irene Lindvall

I wanted a small side dish to go with the fish cakes tonight, and I was attempting to make a summer bean salad recipe and realized I didn't have all the ingredients for it, but luckily I have more than one green bean recipe waiting to be made. I pulled shallots from the deck and cut fresh Italian parsley and used garlic stuffed green olives for the base. I could easily see using this as a tapenade and serving it with bread or crackers. Eric wasn't a fan of the topping as he doesn't like olives, but I happily ate it.

Things I learned from this recipe:

I can't imagine steaming green beans for 15 minutes like the recipe suggested. I did eight minutes and thought it was too much. I typically do three minutes. I did like the idea of adding the beans to ice water.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Grilled Chicken Kebab w/Charred Coleslaw

by Irene Lindvall

I am going to put it out there. The BEST recipes are in the Cooking for Two from the America's Test Kitchen book. This recipe rivals our favorite grilled chicken wing recipe in taste. It is phenomenal. The thigh meat cooked amazingly and the sauce was truly delicious. A real barbecue tasting sauce, and then there is the slaw. Eric said it was the best slaw he's ever had, and that's saying a lot because he's really picky about slaw and the amount of mayonnaise most call for. 

The best part about this recipe is the story they give on how they came to the final ingredients. My favorite line is "When our barbecued chicken grilled up dry, we turned to our favorite problem solver: bacon." Adding a bacon paste (uncooked bacon put through a food processor) is something I have never heard of. I used my go-to turkey bacon and it came out fine and paste-y. Truly fascinating thing to add and it makes me wonder what would happen if I started adding this paste to other recipes. 

My favorite part was the sauce. I'm kind of a condiment junky and this blend of ketchup, molasses, shallots, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, and sugar is so simple but so so so delicious. 

Things I learned from this recipe:

I ended up doubling the cabbage and ate the excess just plain and made the slaw in the amount the recipe called for.  

Would I make this recipe again?:

Definitely

The recipe:

I highly encourage the purchase of the America's Test kitchen book. I bought it in magazine form at the grocery store.

Malaysian Noodles w/Crab & Sausage

by Irene Lindvall

Oh my...this dish was quite tasty, but also extremely spicy. I'm not sure if it was from the (chicken) sausage w/habañero, the 1 Tbsp of chili paste or the white pepper I used, but all of them worked well together. We both enjoyed the crispy bites of noodles and sausage. I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen, but it came from them sitting the three minutes in the wok while the eggs were cooking. I'd say the only downside to this dish was not being able to taste the crab more. There were so many flavors that crab was sometimes the last one I tasted. I also think this dish would taste amazing on a cold fall or winter night. 

Things I learned from this recipe:

I'm glad I made the extra effort to find the thick rice noodles instead of going with the slightly thick ones I already had. 

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Chicken, Tomato & Cucumber Dinner salad (lunch)

by Irene Lindvall

While the recipe implies it should be eaten for dinner I decided to make it a really great lunch. I added a myriad of additional ingredients into each of our salads. I used chicken breasts instead of tenders because they weren't available. I added spinach to mine and arugula to Eric's. I added radishes and almonds to both of our salads, and I omitted olives from Eric's. I also used fresh cut Italian parsley instead of thyme for the dressing. All of my additions worked out great, but I have to say the almonds were the best. A note about the actual recipe: the dressing was delicious and tasted great with the feta.

Things I learned from this recipe:

My creativity is improving.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Sure

The recipe

Vegetable Pad Thai

by Irene Lindvall

I needed a lunch dish today as we had dinner plans and decided on a quick pad thai. As with other wok dishes, it did require having all of the prep work completed before turning the burner on because things happen very quickly in the wok. Pretty straightforward dish and really quite tasty. I have to admit that I had limes cut-up and forgot to plate them and use them. Very disappointing. I was so disappointed after lunch that I squeezed one of them on the leftovers still in the wok and had another couple bites. It was much better with the lime. Overall, a pretty good dish that could easily have tofu, shrimp or chicken added to it.

Things I learned from this recipe:

Collard genes taste like other greens when pan fried.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Maybe

The recipe