Saturday, February 18, 2017

What I Cook on Repeat



I'm often asked what I like to cook the most, and frankly I do not have an answer because I do not like repeating recipes that much. In fact it used to drive Jim crazy that I always wanted to try something new instead of recreating a successful dinner that he loved.

I think it was partly due to the fact I FELL so hard and so fast IN LOVE with cooking. Like anything obsessive, you can imagine my craving for knowledge was so great that I was ravenously consuming recipe books and food blogs for new cooking techniques and new ingredients to try.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Lots of Seafood this Week

I neglected to renew my domain name. Ooops! It's gone and I doubt I will play $60 to get it back from the company who is holding it hostage. For the time being you can find my recipe archive at www.homewithmandy.blogspot.com and I may be doing a re-branding later this year. We will see what happens.

Let's get back into the swing of regular blog posts shall we? This was our menu from last week and I mostly appreciated how quickly everything came together each night. There are times when I relish the long list of ingredients I chop and tend to. This was not that week.

Italian Mussels: Mussels are one of our favorite meals to cook and eat on a weekend. I do my grocery shopping on the weekend and this is an item you really don't want sitting in your fridge, it is best to cook it the day you buy them. Mussels are also a fabulous dinner party food because I serve them family style in a big shallow bowl. I have changed up the recipe over the years to keep things interesting, but my standby is posted here. I now add 2-3 sausage links to the pot while I'm softening the vegetables. The way I do it is to squeeze 1/2 inch size balls of meat out of the casings right into the pot. I like how rustic it makes the finished dish in the end.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Peppermint Marshmallows

There was the cupcake fad, then the homemade marshmallow hit the big scene. I wanted to try my hand at it and here is what happened.

I used this Alton Brown recipe for marshmallows because his way is always well thought out and scientifically based. Foolproof, right?

Clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and cook water, sugar, corn syrup and salt until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.