Lately we’ve been trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diet. By lately I mean since Baby Boy started pointing at what we were shoving into our mouths and wanting whatever deliciousness we were eating over whatever healthiness he had. Hey, I don’t want this asparagus, I want those tater tots!

The problem with vegetables, in my opinion, is how they are introduced. I absolutely hated broccoli until Rachel introduced me to this Broccoli and CranberrySalad. Now I love broccoli; I throw it in with tofu stir fry, with Asian sesame ginger meatballs, and more. Veggies are an acquired taste and you have to ease into them. Kind of like sushi (love sushi!).

Over the weekend we had such lovely weather we decided to BBQ a pork loin. For a side we made this tortellini salad, but we needed a vegetable to go with it. Thank goodness for our Taste Test Thursday segment, and for Dara from Cookin’ Canuck.

For the new readers, Taste Test Thursday is our weekly segment where we try out a recipe from another food blogger and share with you here. Previously we’ve featured Dara’s Gingerale and Hoisin Sauce Pork Ribs and Grilled Squash, Tomato & Feta Cheese Salad. We’re pleased to share with you another recipe from Dara (we haven’t been disappointed yet, go try one of her recipes yourself!).

Rachel (and her Mom and Dad who joined us for dinner) absolutely loved this Green Bean & Tomato Salad. And what say I, the one who gets caught by Baby Boy shoving tater tots, cookies, or who knows what garbage in his mouth? I liked it. The dressing has a nice Asian flavor to it thanks to the sesame oil, a nice change from many summer salads that are heavy with mayo.

I’m still working up to eating more of my veggies, but Baby Boy is a good motivator. And with recipes like this one it will be more enjoyable

Recipe from: Cookin’ Canuck

What is your favorite veggie recipe? Share a link in the comments below – we always like trying something new!

On the heels of Mother’s Day, we thought it would be fun to share a recipe from my Mom. I use the term recipe liberally because, as Mom says, this is a recipe that is just thrown together. But as I always tell Mom whenever she says that to us, even her just thrown together meals are fantastic.

Mom’s Baked Ziti is pretty straight forward. In fact the hardest part of this recipe was figuring out what the measurements were for the ingredients because it changes every time, both when Mom makes it and when we do. You know how it goes, one of those recipes that you just eyeball.

Mom’s Baked Ziti was a classic dish growing up, and still is, here in our Northern NJ part Italian (100% mutt) household. Having moved out, and now with a family of my own, I still bake Mom’s Baked Ziti, just the way she does; throwing it all together, eyeballing it. It’s perfect for those week nights when it’s just too busy to spend much time cooking.

No matter how crazy it was Mom (and with 7 kids I’m sure it was quite crazy) Mom always had a home cooked meal on the table. I don’t know how she did it, but she did. Moms really are super heroes, aren’t they?

Happy Mother’s Day (again) Mom. This thrown together post is for you

Did your Mom have a throw it together dish? Let us know in the comments below!

This is Rachel’s second Mother’s Day, and boy what a difference a year makes. This time last year we had a 7 week old who couldn’t do much more than raise his head and coo adorably. One year later Baby Boy (or should we start calling him Toddler Boy? Hmm..Doesn’t roll of the tongue as easy) walks, feeds himself, points at things he wants, says a few semi-understandable words, and so much more.

Being the super Mom that she is, Rachel made this Gnocchi with Roasted Asparagus last week for dinner. The fresh herbs and asparagus make this a super fresh tasting, and super tasty, dish. Rachel said it was very easy to put together. We all, including Baby Boy, liked it so much we’re making it again for Mother’s Day dinner. A nice fresh dinner to compliment this beautiful Mother’s Day weather.

To all the Moms, Moms-to-be, and Grandmothers, Happy Mother’s Day!

Adapted from Weight Watchers magazine

I have a problem. I really want to become an artisan bread baker (or as close as you can get doing it as a hobby) but I just haven’t been putting in the time to get better. And like all things, unless you practice you don’t make perfect.

The challenge with bread baking, in my opinion, is planning ahead. Yeast bread needs time to rise, then even more time to rise after shaping the dough. My problem is I’m not a very good planner.

I can whip up a home made chocolate Oreo Cake or Guiness Cupcakes with relative ease and limited planning on a Sunday morning during Baby Boy’s nap time. But bread? In my dreams. Well, most of the time.

Today is reveal day for The Secret Recipe Club, an online group where food bloggers are assigned each others blogs in secret, cook something from it, then share with the world on reveal day.

This month we were assigned the blog Cooking Rookie, a food blog with delicious food photography and recipes. Rachel and I saw this bread recipe and decided to “plan” to bake it – it just looked too delicious to pass up. Feta cheese bread? Yes please.

When you bite into this bread you get that nice crunchy exterior followed by a moist, soft interior. The feta adds a nice subtle saltiness, while the spinach isn’t overpowering and compliments in its own way.

So how does this bread recipe hold up for a time challenged Father of a 13 1/2 month old? Not bad at all. The flavor is outstanding, but more importantly, it’s quite simple to put together. You literally throw all the ingredients in a bowl, mix to combine, then let it sit for 2 hours. We ran errands during that time.

Now, because I’m trying to improve my bread baking techniques, I did get a little fancy. I tried baking it two different ways, both included in the directions below.

The first way was on a pizza stone with steam. That method wasn’t bad but I didn’t get the nice caramelized crust I was looking for. I blame my technique, not the recipe.

The second method produced better looking results, as featured in the photos. I placed by dough ball in a preheated dutch oven, covered with the lid, and baked it. This increased the baking time but resulted in a more satisfying appearance.

Both approaches yielded equally delicious results, so you can’t go wrong either way.

Recipe adapted from: Cooking Rookie

I have a wonderful wife.

I do. And I’m not just saying that because she proof reads my posts.

I came home from work last Friday, on my 30th birthday, to find her pulling these cream cheese filled snickerdoodles out of the oven for me. She wanted me to have a birthday dessert but couldn’t bake a cake from scratch with Baby Boy’s sometime precarious nap schedule.

Isn’t that sweet? (Pun intended – heheh)

Rachel found this recipe from another NJ food blogger, Shelly of Cookies and Cups. I’m kind of embarrassed that here we’ve been food blogging for a year now and we don’t even know everyone in our own back yard! Well, hopefully that will change someday soon. But in the meantime, thank you Google, and thank you Shelly for these tasty cream cheese filled snickerdoodles.

After pulling the snickerdoodles out of the oven and setting them to cool, we headed out to pick up Ethiopian food from a favorite restaurant. Have you ever tried Ethiopian food? I never had until our friend Gabrielle introduced us. The dishes incorporate a lot of spices, some hot and some not, and all very flavorful. Most of the dishes are vegetarian based, such as lentils, potatoes, beans. If you ever have the chance, we highly recommend you try it.

After dinner it was time for birthday dessert – of course! I love snickerdoodles (check out our snickerdoodle biscoff sandwich post) so these were a fantastic cookie to make. The cream cheese filling was a fun and tasty twist on the traditional classic snickerdoodle.

If you’re a fan of snickerdoodles too (or cookies in general) give these a try. It doesn’t even need to be your birthday.

Recipe from: Cookies and Cups

Last week I turned 30. To make myself feel better I made this Oreo Cookie (Cookies N Cream) Cake – and I ate it all, quietly sobbing at my lost youth.

Kidding about the crying part Oh, and I didn’t eat the whole thing either, that’s what teenage brothers are for. Thanks Jim!

But really, who cares about turning 30? It’s just a number. Like turning 20, 40, 50, and so on, it’s a milestone to be sure, but it’s not some big “life changer” as some people make seem to make it out to be. This week is no different than last week.

I’ll take turning 30 over turning 20 any day. Don’t get me wrong, 20 (or 21, actually) was fun, but 30 is so much better. I know who I am; I’m comfortable in my own skin, I’m confident, I’m happy. I don’t need to look externally for fulfillment – Alright, snuggle hugs from Baby Boy are pretty fulfilling, but I think you see where I’m going with this.

Let’s move on to talking about this decadent Oreo cake.

When we were growing up my Mom would always let us decide what kind of cake we wanted for our birthday. Mom is a great baker (reference herbiscotti’s, cheese pie, crumb cake, and more) so we’d get delicious homemade cake or cupcakes. But for awhile there us kids got on an Oreo cake kick. It was nearly every birthday – I have 6 siblings, so there are a lot of birthdays – we had Oreo cake. It was ridiculous.

The Oreo cake came from a local grocery story, and they don’t make the same cake we used to get, so I set out to make my own. I scoured the Internet but didn’t find one that exactly matched what I was looking for. So I took a little from here, a little from there, and put it all together to make my childhood Oreo cake.

The cake is a two layered chocolate cake. The frosting is cream cheese and cool whip frosting, the cool whip adding a nice light texture. I pulverized the Oreo’s and added them to both cake and frosting, using a whole package between the two and decorating.

So did I succeed in recreating my childhood birthday cake? I don’t know! I can’t remember exactly what that Oreo cake had tasted like. Don’t blame it on turning 30, because my younger siblings couldn’t recall either. But what we do know is that this cookies n’ cream Oreo cake is fantastic, and that it didn’t stand a chance. Just like when we were young

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What was your favorite birthday cake growing up?

Rachel has thankfully recovered from vertigo, and as promised we are sharing with you a very special family recipe today; my Mom’s (and her Grandmother’s) Milk Biscuits.

This recipe has been with our family for a long time. My Mom and Nana know it as my Great Grandmother’s recipe, but it could possibly be from an even older family member. Who knows for sure – it seems most family recipes were passed down by mouth and not writing, so it’s hard to know for certain.

My Mom has been baking these cookies for years. This, and her Cheese Pie (also originating with my Great Grandmother), are a part of my family’s tradition and history. I remember growing up my Mom would make big batches of these milk biscuits to give to my cousins, aunts, and uncles. I know these biscuits are extra special for Nana, because she says my Mom makes them just the way my Great Grandmother did.

In my Mom’s worn and well used family cookbook, she has this recipe labeled as Grandma’s Milk Biscuits. But our family has always called these cookies biscotti. And that isn’t biscotti pronounced bis-scott-e, it’s with the NY/NJ Italian pronunciation bis-caugh-tchya.

Looking at these pictures and the recipe, I’m sure you’ll question why they are called biscotti when they aren’t. I asked my Mom that question. She doesn’t know. Somewhere along the way family just started referring to Great Grandma’s Milk Biscuits as “biscotti” and it’s kind of stuck. Funny how that happens huh? Well, like biscotti, these milk cookies are great to have with a cup of tea for dunking.

We started this blog (over two years now!) with the purpose of digitally archiving our family recipes. We’ve expanded on that idea by adding our own creations and the recipes of others, but it’s core purpose is still the same; to store and share our family recipes.

Today we share with you this very special recipe, passed down over 4 generations in our family. From our table to yours, enjoy!

We’d love to hear what family recipes you have had passed down. Share the name, and recipe or link if you like, in the comments below!

We’ve been kind of back in a food slump as of late, lacking the motivation or inspiration to regularly try new recipes. Maybe it’s the changing weather, the shift from cold-escaping comfort food to refreshing spring food. Or maybe it’s the chore of having to go to the grocery store when all we want to do is hang out with Baby Boy and go for walks. Whatever it is, we’re kind of in a slump. How about you?

Thank goodness for Taste Test Thursday. Even in a slump we try to make ourselves try something new at least once a week. This week Rachel and I agreed on popcorn chicken from the food blog BlogChef. I’ve been following BlogChef for well over a year now, always getting new recipe posts in my RSS reader. I’m embarrassed to say it took me this long to finally try one of the many delicious recipes posted on BlogChef but I’m glad we finally did – so tasty!

As a kid I used to love popcorn chicken. Heck, I still do. And why not? The bite size chicken pieces allow for more of the delicious breading!

The recipe calls for deep frying, but we don’t have a deep fryer and I’m really hesitant to do any deep frying. What we did instead was use enough olive oil to coat the bottom of our frying pan to crisp the sides of the chicken. It worked out just fine for us, so if you don’t want to deep fry either you can still make this.

Double dipping on the battering process definitely makes for a thicker and crispier crust, which we liked. But it does, obviously, take longer. Our first batch we double dipped, and the second I only dipped once. If you are crunched for time (or super hungry, like we were) don’t worry about the double dip- the popcorn chicken is still delicious.

This recipe definitely helped ease us out of our food slump, at least for a short while. What do you do when you’re in a food slump?

Recipe from: BlogChef

I love breakfast on the weekends because I get to sit down and enjoy it with Baby Boy and Rachel. Even if it’s just a bowl of cereal, it’s nice, you know?

Sometimes I’ll cook pancakes or waffles (you have to try these club soda waffles). Other times we’ll pick up a few bagels – usually salted (my favorite!) with veggie cream cheese.

This weekend was a big eating weekend. We had a wedding on Saturday and Russian Easter on Sunday; lots of eating. We wanted something light, but filling, to get us off on the right foot. Rachel cracked open one of our Weight Watchers cookbooks and bingo, found this tasty Creamy Couscous Breakfast Pudding. (We aren’t on Weight Watchers, but the recipes are so tasty. The “healthy” is just bonus)

The vanilla extract in particular was quite enjoyable in this satisfying breakfast dish, and the whole wheat couscous kept us full through lunch. We topped with fresh fruit to round out the breakfast meal.

Even Baby Boy had this for breakfast (and lunch the next day) and enjoyed!

This breakfast couscous might not illicit the same immediate mouth watering effect as a familiar bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel would, but give it a try. We think you’ll like it.

Adapted from: Weight Watchers Momentum Cookbook
Note: We successfully halved this recipe.

What is your usual “go to” for breakfast on the weekends?