For Nate and me, dinner is a low-key, throw-stuff-together affair, mainly because we've already had our main meal at lunchtime and because we've just put the kids down to bed after a long day. Strawberries are just coming into season in northwest Spain, and I love what they bring to a thrown-together dinner. These days, I've been making this easy salad for myself - Nate won't touch walnuts - almost every day, and then scarfing it down while Nate and I sit down and watch soccer (is it ever not on here??). The flavors complement each other well, and I... Continue reading

Oh, how I miss those dinosaur chicken nuggets from Costco. We used to eat those all the time, and when I say "we" I mean the kids and Nate and me. Here in Spain, they do have chicken nuggets, but the ones from Carrefour have gray chicken meat inside (anyway you slice it, nuggets shouldn't be gray), and the ones from other brands need to be deep-fried. So...we make our own nuggets quite frequently, since, again, it's one of the only things that all of our kids with teeth will eat well. They're super easy and a great source of... Continue reading

We first discovered this savory concoction at the amazing soup and salad buffet restaurant chain, Sweet Tomatoes. It was called "Albondigas Locas" soup, and I liked it so much that I wrote down everything I could see: meatballs, carrots, rice, zucchini, onions, red pepper. When we got home, I found some recipes online and started making our own albondigas (meatball) soup. Over time, it's morphed into somewhat of a chipotle pepper + meatballs + whatever-vegetable-you-have-on-hand kind of soup, but it's hearty and fairly healthy (the meatballs are baked not fried), and the chipotle gives it a nice spicy kick. The... Continue reading

Good granola bars are hard to come by here. They're either packed full of artificial flavors, sugar, or substandard ingredients, or they're really expensive. I'm a fan of Smitten Kitchen, and a few weeks ago I found her recipe for Thick and Chewy Granola Bars, which she had adapted from King Arthur Flour. I've made these bars twice in the past three weeks, and they're great - it's a flexible recipe, so you can make them as healthy as you want by adding whatever mix of dried fruit, nuts, and cereals that sounds good to you. The first time I... Continue reading

We eat quesadillas about once every two weeks, and I can almost make them in my sleep. They're relatively easy to make, and - this is always a bonus - all of my kids (the ones with teeth) will happily eat them. I can't say that about every dish. ~ EASY CHICKEN QUESADILLAS Adapted from Cook's Illustrated's recipe for Beef Tacos. Serves about 4. What I like about the recipe is that you don't have to follow it precisely, and you don't need all of the ingredients listed. For me, in a pinch, the top five ingredients that I absolutely... Continue reading

I'm finally, finally feeling the urge to start blogging about food again. It's been a rough year for this food blog - first I got pregnant and completely grossed out by most food, then I had a baby and had no time to blog, and now - it's like Maslow's hierarchy of self-actualization - I'm finally at the place where I feel like I would find joy in blogging about food again (I looked over my blog tonight and saw that I expressed almost these exact same sentiments back in May. But now that we've had the baby and feel... Continue reading

In order to save confusion, I've re-named this blog. Now it's "The Sweet Road Kitchen" instead of "The Ways and Means Kitchen." The URL was always www.thesweetroad.com/cooking without any mention of "ways" or "means" so I thought this name would be simpler. If you subscribe to this blog via email, I don't think you'll have any problems receiving the new emails. However, if you subscribe via the RSS feed, you may have to re-subscribe since it's a new feed name. Sorry for the inconvenience, and, as always, thanks for reading! Continue reading

Our friends Denise and Bill had us over one evening last summer when we were visiting friends and family in the US, and Denise made this amazing pasta for dinner. It had sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini, red pepper, turkey breast, and a garlic-Parmesan cream sauce. When we came back to Spain, we kept thinking and talking about this dish, so finally I had to try to replicate it. We usually make it with chicken breast since turkey breast isn't as common here, and we also add bacon (I can't remember if Denise added that or not) to give it a nice... Continue reading

Now that I feel normal about food again, I'm finally ready to resume this cooking blog. It was a rough few months between January and April with all of the food aversions and nausea that came with being in my first trimester of pregnancy, but now blogging about food sounds fun again. Strawberry Pretzel Salad was something I'd been craving for the past few weeks, and I finally made it yesterday. It was the first time we'd made it in Spain, and we had to tweak the recipe a bit, but it turned out just fine. Yum. I could eat... Continue reading

Bueno, vamos a ver si sobrevivo este intento escribir este blog en español! GRACIAS a Montse por su ayuda en traducir la receta!! La receta de esta lasaña es fácil, pero exige sobre dos horas de preparación. Como siempre, la receta es solamente un idea: experimentad con los ingredientes y con las cantidades! ~ LASAÑA DE POLLO O CARNE para 4 Los Ingredientes: Salsa de tomate: - 1 - 2 cucharadas de aceite de oliva - Media cebolla, cortada de dados - 4 dientes de ajo, picados (lo más fino posible) - 2 pechugas grandes de pollo, cortado de dados... Continue reading

In London this past weekend, the only shopping we got to do was in a grocery store. This was good enough for us, though, as there were plenty of treasures to find there! Here's what I brought home: Tea, of course: Shortbread: Milk chocolate: Mint and chocolate together always float my boat: I'm not really sure what these are, but we're always up for trying a new kind of candy: Something familiar from the US: And while I didn't bring this milk bottle home, I thought it was such a cute package design: Toodles! Continue reading

One of the things we miss the most here in Spain is plump chocolate morsels. They do have chocolate chips here, but they're very expensive and very tiny so we've never sprung for them. We brought a Costco-size, 4.5-pound bag back from the US and sadly we only have enough left for one more batch of chocolate-chip cookies. After that, we'll try using chocolate bars - and they do have some good chocolate bars here, that's for sure - but there's nothing like a sweet homey American chocolate chip. Continue reading

My dear friend, Christine Liu, introduced this chicken-and-rice dish to us a few years ago, and we've made it countless times since then. It's perfect for when you want something hearty for dinner, but don't feel like putting in too much effort: it's extremely easy to put together, you just throw everything into the pot and let it simmer. For a healthy side, add a steamed or stir-fried vegetable. At different times, we've had it with carrots, zucchini, spinach, or broccoli. Adobo Chicken is also a great sick-day dish - if you don't feel like making chicken noodle soup, try... Continue reading

This is an amazing appetizer, introduced to us this summer by Nate's brother, Chris, and his lovely wife Carrie. This is one of those things that you have to be in the mood for, as it is incredibly savory, flavorful, and pungent. It's great for small groups and parties, where everyone can try a small amount. Here in Spain, we serve this with tostadas, which are very similar to Melba toast and look like this: Any large cracker will do, though. Spread the brie mixture onto the tostada or cracker and enjoy! ~ BRIE WITH PESTO AND SUN-DRIED TOMATOES Note:... Continue reading

The last three things I blogged about were all brown, so I'm going to change the pace a bit and share these chicken enchiladas. As I may have mentioned before, there are virtually no Mexicans where we live, which surprised us immensely, because we thought that there would have to be Mexicans in Spain! I guess they all decided to emigrate to other countries instead. So, sadly, there is only one Mexican restaurant in the La Coruña area, and we hear it's expensive so we haven't eaten there yet. All of this means that whenever we have a hankering for... Continue reading

I really like this easy recipe for caramels. They're on the buttery side, and next time I make them I'll have to heed the warning to avoid making them on a humid day so they don't sweat butter all over the place like they did this first time. But they tasted delicious, and the recipe made enough caramels to last through two weekend parties. ~ CARAMELS from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1996 Ingredients: - 1 cup butter - 1 16-oz. package (2 1/4 cups) packed brown sugar - 1 14-oz. can of sweetened condensed milk - 1... Continue reading