I created this recipe after having fish tacos with my husband on his birthday. We went to a pier in Ventura and had fish tacos. Well I had mine with shrimp. They were simple and obviously made with a sauce that consisted mainly of Thai Sweet Chili sauce. I topped mine with their mild and extremely tasty Tomatillo Avocado salsa. Fast forward a couple weeks. Jeff and I went to the Channel Islands Farmers Market and visited Fresh Fish Fanatics. They were selling fresh, local, live spot prawns. I'd never had them before and I was SSSOOO curious. So I... Continue reading

I love pretty much anything that's made with poblanos. Their buttery, peppery and sweet heat are SO tasty to me that it makes me drool. I wanted to make a recipe that incorporated poblanos with a pasta (that's me - carb and noodle freak!). And I just love poblanos and shrimp together - yummy! You could also make this recipe with sausage, grilled chicken or anything else that you'd desire. One of my co-workers used some of the left over pesto to make a panini - yum! This is a very simple recipe and I hope you give it a... Continue reading

This is another dish from Eat Thai Tonight. If you go to their website there's a video that you can watch. I went a little heavier on the noodles than the recipe called for (because I love noodles!) and made some minor substitutions. Below is how I made it. I really recommend visiting the Eat Thai Tonight website. SAUCE: 1 1/2 TBSP fish sauce 1 tsp sugar 1/2 TBSP vinegar 1 TBSP sweet soy sauce INGREDIENTS: 300 grams of fresh noodles (any style), or dried rice noodles that have been soaked in warm water at least an hour - or... Continue reading

Jeff and I found our favorite Pho place in Port Hueneme a little under a year ago. It's called Pho Saigon and they are fast, friendly and best of all, their food in delicious! One of my favorites is their #30 which is stir-fry noodles with a light but flavorful sauce. This is my attempt to recreate that dish at home. It didn't come out the same but I did end up with a pretty tasty creation. I've made it a few times and it's always a hit. It really doesn't matter what kind of noodles you use in this... Continue reading

Oh man oh man oh man! I am SO happy with how this turned out and I really hope that you give it a try. It's really quite simple too! I took a recipe from a really great web-site called "Thai Food Tonight." It's a mother and daughter team that are Thai. They have several recipes posted as well as some with videos. This is my take on their Chicken and Basil Fried Rice. I really didn't make many changes. I used quinoa instead of rice, added some onion and cut down on the fish sauce because I'm not a... Continue reading

***From the Archives*** I'm re posting this recipe because it's perfect for your Super Bowl party! These are a hard item to photograph! At least for me! In my opinion one of the best treats in the world is a fried Jalapeno Popper. Well of course it only gets better when you add bacon. This recipe is heavily based off of the recipe from: Ravenous Couple. I really hope that you give these a try - they are really good and will go fast. This is some what another one of those "No Recipe, Recipes." Because the amount of seasoning... Continue reading

I made these for Christmas at my mother-in-laws in house(Hi Kay & Al!). Turns out my brother-in-law (Hey Steve & DaleAnn!) really enjoyed them, so I told him that I would post the recipe on my website. So - as my first post back that's the one that I'm choosing. The thing is that it's just a recipe guide line really. If you don't like ginger, leave it out. If you love ginger, add more. Don't like spicey? Leave out the jalapeno. I'm sure you get the picture. It's really hard to go wrong with this recipe because everything you're... Continue reading

So to keep in the theme of things with Mexican Poached Chicken, this is a full flavored sandwich that is sure to satisfy. This recipe is from Cuisine Favorites, Chicken. 2 cups of fresh cilantro leaves and stems, packed 4 garlic cloves 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped 1/2 a lime, juiced Salt 2 TBSP olive oil 1/2 cup mayonnaise 2 TBSP canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, seeded and minced 1 tsp sugar 8 Slices sourdough bread Butter 4 oz pepper jack cheese, thinly sliced 6 oz poached chicken, shredded 1) In a food processor, combine the cilantro, garlic, jalapeno,... Continue reading

This is another recipe using the poached chicken from this site. This recipe is spicy but refreshing. Make sure that you eat it with the lettuce for the full experience. 3/4 Cup uncooked quinoa 1 cup shredded cooked chicken 2 medium red potatoes, diced 1 cup frozen peas, defrosted 1 white onion, cut into thin wedges 1/3 - 1/2 red bell pepper, diced 1/3 - 1/2 yellow bell pepper,diced 1 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped 2 cloves garlic minced 1 head of iceberg lettuce SAUCE: 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 6 TBSP Brown Sugar 3 TBSP Madras curry powder 3 TBSP... Continue reading

I always thought that taquitos were only made with corn tortillas and flautas were the same thing but made with flour tortillas. However, according to Wikipedia it can be either or. It just depends on what area you're in. One of the really great things about taquitos is how versatile they are. Stripped down, traditionally they are very very simple, consisting of a spiced meat filling and then fried. But if you were to search for taquito recipes on the internet the results would show you tons of ways to fill them. Some have cheese, some have seafood and some... Continue reading

There are a lot of ways to poach chicken when it comes to what you throw into the pot with it. This is a Mexican style poached chicken recipe. I got this recipe from a friend and co-workers mom. She gave me the recipe after I told her how much I LOVED her moms tamales and the chicken inside (best tamales I've ever had! MMMmmm - I'm drooling from the memories!). This is the simplest recipe, goes fast and the resulting chicken can be used for tons of different dishes. In fact, if you tune in for the following weeks,... Continue reading

Okay ok - you got me. This picture does not depict tilapia ceviche. It is actually halibut ceviche. I made a recipe of the tilapia ceviche to bring to a friends party- but (of course!) I forgot my camera. Of course my friend had hers and very kindly let me use it. Beautiful pictures of food and friends ensued. Unfortunately - there was no memory card in the camera and the beauty was lost (::sigh::). The heart can break in so many ways :o)~ So I did a new (smaller) version at home the next day for my husband and... Continue reading

This is another one of those "no recipe,recipe(s)." However, if you let that deter you from trying these then you are completely insane! My husband came up with this recipe after we had some thing similar at a neighborhood pubin WA, where we used to live. These take a bit of time because of prep work, but they are totally worth it. I've taken step-by-step photo's of Jeff making these for you to follow. Easy Peasy! 24 Jalapenos 24 Slices raw bacon (not the thick cut) (leave in the refrigerator until ready to use) 1 (8 oz) Container whipped cream... Continue reading

Have you ever been to a Chevys Fresh Mex Restaurant? I haven't been there for several years - but I do remember enjoying the food. I really liked the tortillas and my husband tells me that he really liked their margaritas. Chevys is the favorite restaurant of one of my previous co-workers. She had their cookbook and it had this bean recipe in it (I purchased the cookbook after looking through hers). I followed it exactly before and loved the results. However this time my husband wanted black beans instead of pinto beans. He also wanted chipotles added. Those two... Continue reading

No Knead Pizza Dough recipe courtesy of Chef John at http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/ I was perusing other food blogs the other night and came across a video recipe food blog that I think is just great. It's by Chef John and it's located at http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/search/label/Pizza you can also view his videos on YouTube. Chef John's recipes are easy to follow, filmed wonderfully and his voice is very... confident and comforting. The first recipe I used of his is this No Knead Pizza Dough and I'm very happy with how it turned out. When it was time to shape the dough it was... Continue reading

My dad has been making this recipe for all of us for years. My husband called me the other night at work asked if I would make them. It'd been awhile so I was happy to oblige. Especially because this recipe is SO easy. Come to think of it - that's probably a reason why my dad likes it so much too. And if you use those slow-cooker liners then clean up is a snap! I don't know where my dad originally got the recipe from. It could have been a cookbook or a magazine, I'm really not sure. One... Continue reading

Slow-cookers are wonderful. Using them is simple, cleaning them is easy, and cooking with them makes your whole house smell wonderful! Here's a really simple recipe that's my stand-by chili recipe. This recipe is perfect served with Tostitos Hint of Lime tortilla chips. PS~ This recipe also works really well with pork instead of chicken. 1 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken 2 Packages of McCormick White Chicken Chili seasoning mix 1 (10 3/4 oz) can Cream of Mushroom Soup 1 (14 1/2 oz) can Petite diced tomatoes 3 (approx. 15 oz) cans of beans, drained and rinsed (I used... Continue reading

French onion soup is a thick and rich soup that depends heavily on the proper caramelization of onions and a tasty broth. If you don't make your own broth, make sure that when you're at the grocery store, go for the broth that you like the flavor of best - not the cheapest. Here's the thing though - I only mildly like french onion soup most of the time. Where as Jeff loves it. I am not a huge fan because I don't enjoy the flavor of caramelized onions. So when I make this soup at home I slow cook... Continue reading

I decided to try my hand at making this dish because a co-worker said he wanted to learn how to cook and Orange Chicken was one of his favorite dishes. Thing of it is, Orange Chicken is usually battered and deep fried before it's hit with that distinctive thick orange sauce. Neither he, nor I, wanted the chicken to be fried. So I devised this way of preparing the dish that turned out really good. All though we aren't coating and deep frying the chicken - we are giving them a light dusting of flour to help brown the chicken... Continue reading

Lumpia is basically an egg roll - but not. How confusing is that right?! Well it's really easy. The way I see it, there are only a few main differences between lumpia and the traditional Chinese egg rolls that most of us are used to. 1) Lumpia are made with lumpia wrappers instead of egg roll wrapper. The lumpia wrappers are very thin and also very flexible. Because of their thinness they have a really nice crispiness to them. 2) Lumpia are filled mainly with meat and the vegetables are few and in the background supporting the flavors of the... Continue reading

My husband and I LOVE sushi! We actually fight about who loves it more (I do!!!). We also really like to make sushi together. We always make too much and it usually takes us a long time too. I like that it takes us a while though, because we do it together. We rarely cook together, so making some thing that we both love and where you get to be creative is really nice. When we make sushi we get all of our possible fillings and/or toppings together. They get prepped and plated so that when the rice is ready... Continue reading

This recipe is courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis- and it's a good one (Giada was in Peru doing charity work, and that's where this recipe was inspired from). My husband and I couldn't get enough of this chicken. It's also super easy, so there's no reason not to make it. Traditionally this recipe is served with the shredded/pulled chicken meat like I did it. Giada left her cooked pieces of chicken whole because she likes the way it looks better. I watched that episode and I totally agree with her. However I prefer to serve mine the way I did... Continue reading

I've been using this recipe for about five years. I don't remember where I found the recipe, but it was on-line some where. This is a really tasty sauce and I hope you give it a shot. This recipe calls for candied walnuts from last weeks recipe. If you didn't make them, Emerald Nuts makes a really tasty glazed walnut if you can find them. Also, Trader Joe's makes a couple varieties. For this recipe it's important to use the fresh lemon juice and not bottled. And don't leave out the shredded cabbage under the shrimp, it soaks up the... Continue reading

My post this week turned out really yummy. Jeff said the coating reminded him kind of a meringue. Sounds good to me! The nuts from this recipe can be used for snacking, to top salads or mixed into yogurt, added to cookies, muffins, pancakes or even dropped on top of a bowl of ice cream - or anything else that you enjoy with walnuts. There are a lot of recipes out there for candied or glazed nuts. The ones that seem more "authentic" to me require frying. I really didn't want to fry nuts though. My goal was to find... Continue reading

Okay, the recipe title includes the word Orzo but obviously I did not use orzo in the pasta salad that you see pictured above. Orzo is my pasta of choice for this salad and I thought I had some stocked. Turned out I didn't so I substituted some short thin spaghetti noodles and some acini de pepe. This recipe makes a lot. It's great for picnics and potlucks. 1 (16 oz) package orzo 1 cup frozen edamame, shelled 1 cooked Rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat removed and shredded 1 1/2 cups Bay/Salad Shrimp, picked over so there are no shells... Continue reading