Spring Roll Pizza and New Uses for Cauliflower

I'm not sure when cauliflower became the duct tape of the culinary world, but these days it seems to be the cure-all, quick-fix du jour.

Want mashed potatoes?

Mash some cauliflower.

{Blech, btw}

Want rice?

Rice some cauliflower.

{Gotta say...tried it once and it just wasn't doing it for me}

Want a steak?

Grill some cauliflower.

{Tried it.  Good, but no substitute.}

Want pizza crust?

Use some cauliflower!

Ok, that last one...I've been mildly successful with.

I mean, not like "ohmygosh, I can't believe it's not bread!" successful, but tasty successful.

Totally passable on a low-carb diet successful.

{In fact, totally check out this recipe if you're low-carbing it, it's great!}

Lets just say, as a whole, I've not been super-impressed by the ways in which cauliflower has moved up in the world.

Incredible Sauces and Former Vegetarians

My freshman year of high school I announced to my mother that I was becoming a vegetarian.

This announcement triggered a years-long attempt on her part to care for my nutritional needs by sneaking tofu into food, pointing at the word "seitan" in a recipe for the clerk at the health food store to avoid mispronouncing the word, and making sure that beans and rice were always paired to create a complete protein (to be honest I don't even know what that means...should I have learned this in Biology?).

Tofu was in enchiladas.  Tofu was in lasagna.  Tofu was everywhere.

Despite the fact that I'm still not much of a meat-eater, I haven't been a vegetarian for 18 or-so years now- and I haven't bought tofu since I moved out on my own.  This isn't the kind of recipe I'd normally gravitate towards!

Thai Beef Curry and Unforgettable Meals

Cooking for my family can be a challenge.

My daughter and husband?

Meat and potatoes all the way.

My son?

Oh wow.  He's pretty much the pickiest eater on the face of the planet and there are almost no meals I can make for the rest of the family that he will eat along with us.

Then there's me.

I was a vegetarian for six or-so years.  I eat meat now...in very, very small quantities.

I like weird foods.  Or last least a variety of ethnic foods and more "new American" fare.

If it's different and full of flavor I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Sweet-and-Sour Meatballs and Unhealthy Obsessions

I've mentioned before that I have a certain penchant for the less-than-gourmet inventory of a Chinese buffet.  I can't help it- load me up with a variety of dishes coated with several different thick, sweet, and savory sauces and I'm a happy girl.

I can't be trusted in the face of sesame chicken, orange chicken, General Tso's chicken, whatever chicken, or any of those fried tasty bites (I'm looking at you Crab Rangoon...)  with an *ahem* generous serving of sweet-and-sour sauce.

Seriously.  I have problems and I know it.  :-)

The other day I was craving something in that vein when I came across this recipe for Sweet-and-Sour Meatballs.  I already had all of the ingredients on hand (always a plus) and they seemed like the perfect topping for the fairly ridiculous amount of basmati rice I'd made the night before.

Crab Rangoon Pizza and Unbridled Gluttony

  Crab.  Rangoon.  Pizza.

I know.  Sounds a little...weird.

Also, I know I just wrote about crab rangoon.

Sorry.

I've had this recipe on my radar for quite awhile, yet every time I mentioned making it my husband recoiled.

He might not be quite as adventurous as me when it comes to food.

Seriously, though...it might sound weird.

But we already know we like crab rangoon, right?

There is NOTHING not to like.

Crab Rangoon and Insatiable Cravings

Sometimes I get a craving for Chinese food.

No...not the kind from a nice sit-down restaurant.

Not that (delicious) Asian Orange Chicken I make.

Nope.

It's that super-Americanized, incredibly gluttonous, buffet-style Chinese food I crave.

Sesame chicken.

Egg rolls.

Beef and broccoli.

Fried rice.

Those super thin rice noodles.

A little bit of everything...

And crab rangoon dipped in gobs of sweet and sour sauce in the most unnatural shade of red possible.

That's a must.

It's not a craving I indulge in often, not at all.

However when the craving hits, it hits hard.

Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls and A Very Old Picture

I've spent today scrubbing my house and cleaning it top to bottom, doing laundry, and trying to get back into the swing of things around here following a long visit from my parents.  The floors have been mopped, the carpets vacuumed, the counters scrubbed, the bedding changed, the laundry is in the process of being washed.  We've definitely spent more time off enjoying each other and having fun over the last couple of weeks than we have staying on top of housework!

It's so hard to believe that summer break is coming to a close, first for the kids and then for me as I'm actually headed back to school myself this semester after a long....loooooooong...break from college. You may have noticed, as some have asked me about, that my Etsy shop is on vacation and the link at the top of the blog has vanished- lets just say that between family and school there probably won't be much time for popcorn-making anytime soon!

I've tried to make the most out of this summer before school craziness consumes us.

I think I've done ok.  :-)

Satay Chicken Pizza and Very Long Days

I love peanut sauce- pretty much on anything.

 The first time I made it was as a dipping sauce for Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls, which I would have sworn up and down I had written about years ago until I went back to find the post to link to a minute ago and lo-and-behold it just doesn't seem to exist, so FYI that will be coming soon.

The picture for those spring rolls will be super old (actually it will pre-date this computer because I just stopped to check to see when I took it and evidently the only place I even have a copy is on Facebook from five years ago...) but the recipe is worth sharing.

Sorry if I'm being a bit ramble-y...my parents flew home from their visit this morning, which always leaves me a big, messy ball of emotions.  I'm kind of out of sorts.  Add to that the fact that I've been up since 3am and I've driven an hour in one direction long before sunrise to take them to the airport, an hour back, and then two and a half hours in a completely different direction to pick up my husband's new car, then two and a half hours back...I'm toast y'all.

I'm so much toast I just said "y'all", guys.

That's how tired I am.

I need sleep and wine.  Maybe not in that order.

A Homemade Sushi Feast

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that I had started a post about our New Year's Eve sushi extravaganza 7 MONTHS ago and hadn't gotten around to finishing it?

Yeah well..I finally decided to get on that.

This stuff is just too good not to share- sushi is fabulous.

My problem hasn't been laziness, but rather that I didn't want it to to be incomplete picture-wise.  I kept planning on re-creating our entire sushi feast so I could get some decent pictures for you guys and for one reason or another I just haven't gotten around to it.

Sorry about that.

Asian Peanut Chicken Fried Rice

I have this set of Asian dishes I've been holding on to for 16 years now.

They're totally impractical- the plates are small, and how often does the average person use Asian soup spoons and cute little dipping sauce bowls?

My guess is almost never.

Yet for 16 years every time I have moved I've dutifully bubble wrapped those babies and found an out of the way kitchen cabinet in which to tuck them for those rare occasions on which they're a practical choice.  They have followed me everywhere.

I always get a little excited when the opportunity to use them presents itself- both because they're fun to use and because I love using them in food photography.  Look back at almost any Asian dish I've written about over the past four years and more often than not you'll see those white dishes with the blue design on them somewhere underneath the food.

They're just fun, you know?

I made this Asian Peanut Chicken Fried Rice the other day, and of course I pulled out my favorite dishes!

Ok, so I have a bit of a story to tell you about this dish.

Asian Orange Chicken and Organized Freezers

So back when I was settling into the whole stay-at-home-mom gig and I was keeping myself super busy playing Super Homemaker I was really good about keeping a soup file.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it a time or two on the blog.  Just about any time I cooked something that lent itself to freezing I would triple or quadruple the batch and freeze the extra.  After cooling I would divide the extra between freezer bags, freeze them flat, and then store them vertically- it's absolutely amazing how much food you can fit into a freezer when you handle your freezer space that way.  It makes both menu planning and last minute good meals amazingly easy when you're a quick defrost away from dinner.  I'd been handling leftovers like this for quite awhile when I read a magazine article with Jamie Lee Curtis coining the phrase "soup file" and I thought it was pretty great so I stole it for myself.  :-)

Sesame Pasta Chicken Salad

Spring is in the air and I am absolutely loving it!

You know it's funny, you get so excited about summer break when you're a kid.  Warm school-free days, swimming pools, friends...then you grow up.

Once you're in the work force summer break loses some of it's luster- regardless of the changing weather the work week is pretty much business as usual.  Those beautiful sunny days have you working for the weekend but that's about it.

I'd really forgotten about the joy of summer break until I had my second child and we decided that it made sense for me to stay home.

I'm so blessed.  Seriously.  I count my lucky stars every day that we are in a position where I can be home with these kids.  Anyway, I quickly re-discovered the joys of warm weather and school breaks when I quit my job to be a stay at home mom.  Don't get me wrong, I stay plenty busy with popcorn but overall I have a lot more time for sleeping a little later, playing a little harder, and adventuring a little further with the kids over their breaks and I find myself looking forward to their time off just as much as they do.

Ridiculously Easy Wonton Soup with a Kick

I'm seriously shocked at myself.

I have absolutely no idea how I've managed to go so long without sharing this recipe with you, I honestly thought I had written about it a really long time ago!  While I was writing up that last post about Cheeseburger Egg Rolls I searched the blog for recipes I'd posted that used wonton wrappers and this one was no where to be found- I've been remiss, my apologies :-)

This is not one that should have been forgotten!

This recipe is one of my own, though it is one of the (many, at this point!) recipes I've had published on Allrecipes.com.  Almost all of the reviews have been 5 stars, which makes me pretty happy!

Simply Delicious Chopped Ahi Burgers

Asheville, NC is one of my favorite places on Earth.  Tucked away in the mountains, it's a haven for foodies and artists alike.  When my husband and I need to get away from reality for a bit, it's easy to jump in the car, drive an hour over the mountains, and spend the day sipping wine, eating good food, and wandering the countless galleries and stores downtown.

Also, it reminds me of home.  Like really reminds me of home.

It feels very much like downtown San Luis Obispo, CA to me- and I've heard the "it feels like home" comment from other West-coast transplants...

It feels like Portland.

It feels like San Francisco.

It feels like Seattle.

It just has that vibe.  To be honest, my adopted home- though beautiful- is way different than what I will always consider to be my real home, and it's nice to have such familiarity within driving distance.

That and food.  I kind of love food.

I have a laundry list of much-loved Asheville restaurants I've worked through, as well as an ever-growing wish list of places to try on future visits.  One of my favorites is Sunny Point Cafe in West Asheville.

Chopsticks and Stir Fry

My daughter and I have a tradition.

Every time my husband goes out of town on business, I have to make something we can eat with chopsticks off of the Asian-inspired dishes that generally live their lives unused, tucked away on the top shelf of a little-used cabinet.

It all started one year ago exactly with this recipe for Birds Eye® Teriyaki Chicken I made for Allrecipes for an Allstar assignment and apparently never blogged about.  My husband was out of town- Minnesota?  Utah?  Arizona?  lol he's gone maybe 6 weeks out of the year and I honestly can't remember where he was this time last year- anyway, he was somewhere in this great nation, and my daughter and I ate with chopsticks out of the dishes I never use.

Spicy Peanut Sauce and Yummy Broccoli Slaw

I've been stuck on broccoli slaw lately- I love that it has a crispness that works well in slaws and a hardiness that stands up to cooking as well.  I've used it in everything from Broccoli and Ramen Noodle Salad to No-Noodle Pad Thai lately- it's safe to say it's having a moment in my kitchen that I don't see ending soon.

I had a couple of bags of it in my fridge that needed to be used before heading out of town to visit family and I turned to Pinterest for some ideas, stumbling across this recipe for Thai Broccoli Slaw Salad from Lindsay at Perfecting the Pairing.

Super easy, just a package of broccoli slaw, honey roasted peanuts, and peanut sauce tossed together.

I got excited about this, not only because I could use up my broccoli slaw but because one of my favorite recipe creations in the history of ever is for my- rather boringly named- Surprising and Spicy Peanut Sauce.