Do you like your noodles drunken or dragon?

Other than what I posted about for our belated Cinco de Mayo snacks and meal, I haven't shared much of what we've been eating the last couple of months. Don't worry, we aren't starving or anything!

Hawaiian grilled chicken
When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I just HAD to make it. And I am SO glad I did. It is so flavorful and really is an amazing way to use thighs instead of breasts. The kids always like thighs because they don't tend to be as dry, but when they are bone in, I can sometimes not enjoy them very much. These boneless ones are the perfect solution! And grilling takes away any jiggly-ness, which makes me happy. We have had this a couple times and it will definitely be a regular on our grilling menu.

grilled pineapple
I don't bother with sugar or honey or anything else when I grill pineapple. It's sweet and delicious all by itself!

coconut rice
I love coconut rice at Thai restaurants, but for some reason never make it at home. I finally decided to so we could have it with the Hawaiian grilled chicken and grilled pineapple. I just replaced have the water with coconut milk. Easy peasy. And tasty!

pup and meat
This is something I can't really share any real recipes for, but since it's something we eat and something we all love, I wanted to share! Pup is a traditional Zambian dish and is made from ground white cornmeal (in South Africa, they use yellow ... right, Roy?!?!). The meat Roy makes to go with it has crushed tomatoes, onions, beef stock, a touch of tomato paste, and a little garlic. I often do all the prep for him but have never tried to actually cook this myself! I do make the tomato and onion gravy and the peanut cabbage all on my own though. Yay me! Roy's mom taught me many years ago, and although it's not as great as hers, it does the trick for us!

creamy ham pasta with roasted brussel sprouts
We enjoyed celebrating Nash's birthday AND the giant amount of leftover ham Lindsey sent us home with. I made some scalloped potatoes with ham one night, but we still had a chunk I needed to use up. I decided to treat it like pancetta and combined a brussel sprout recipe (roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta, onions, and a balsamic reduction - why haven't I made this since then, I ask myself?!?!) I made before Leighton was born with my love for all things creamy pasta to come up with this delicious dish. First, I roasted the brussel sprouts in the oven. While those were roasting away, I cooked the pasta (penne) and also diced up the ham and sauteed it with some diced onion. To that I added a little chicken stock, cream, and parmesan cheese to create a creamy sauce and tossed it with the cooked noodles. I topped the pasta with some of the roasted brussel sprouts and some fresh diced tomato and a but more parm.

funny face bagels
Leighton had been wanting to try out these bagel faces from the cookbook his Auntie gave him (previously discussed here). We have been having difficulty locating sprouts, so made some adjustments with the hair and came up with this!

chicken divan casserole
I have fond memories of my Mom's chicken divan. Yummmm. So, when I saw Rachael Ray do a chicken divan casserole a few years ago, I decided to give it a try. It's one of those recipes I forget about for months and months at a time, but then when I make it, I can't believe I don't remember to make it more often. The first few times, I followed the recipe and did the casserole part. Since then I've decided I like the noodles tossed in the sauce with the chicken and the broccoli and that's it. No need to top with cheese and bake. Also, it had been a while since I made this and was following along with the recipe without thinking and did the blanching method with the broccoli. Not my finest culinary moment. It was mushy. I had forgotten that. I must remember that we like it steamed only for this. And I am sure roasted would be amazing. But no dropping it into boiling water again. Ick. And for me, the mushroom sauce is really the star of the show here. The chicken isn't required. Just the mushroom sauce on pasta with some roasted or sauteed veggies would be delicious.

roasted cauliflower
Another thing I forget until I make it again is how much I love roasted cauliflower. I sometimes over-salt it for some reason, so always have to remind myself to take it easy with the salt before tossing it in the oven. And I never, ever remember to record the time and temp at which I roast it. Never. Including this time. But next time I will!! Because I am tired of googling recipes and reading about 20 before deciding!

VERY lazy lasagna soup with panko crusted goat cheese balls
So, I've had this recipe for baked panko mozzarella balls in creamy tomato soup pinned forever. Still haven't made it. And then I recently came across this recipe that includes oven fried, panko crusted goat cheese. Hello! Who had a Costco sized log of goat cheese to use up? You guessed it - me! And at the time, I was wishing for lasagna soup but was a little a lot lazy. So, I improvised and this is what we ended up with for dinner! I browned some ground beef and seasoned with garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. I cooked some noodles (I used rigatoni this time, but broken lasagna noodles or any short, thick noodle is great for lasagna soup). And then I opened a can of Campbell's (As an aside, is it just me or is what they sell in Canada way tastier?). No homemade soup for us on this night! But I did get some basil from the garden. Does that count for anything? Plus, I put my effort into those little goat cheese balls instead.

hoisin beer braised short ribs
A friend introduced this recipe to me several years ago, and it is definitely one of our favorite things to eat. Not much else to say about that!

Creamy eggplant, cannellini bean, and ricotta soup
Back in the Leighton-eats-everything era, I used to make this soup. He'd beg for the ricotta salata while we were getting it from the deli. He'd steal little fistfuls of the beans while I was getting my ingredients together. He'd slurp down more than one bowl of the soup. Ah, the good ol days! I haven't made it in years though since I know neither kid would want to eat it, and although Roy tries to be enthusiastic and is always appreciative, he's just really not a pureed soup kind of guy ... or a soup guy at all, really!). But our friends gave us some eggplants from their garden and Leighton was so excited to eat them. I used some to make the roasted veggies in phyllo again and he REALLY wanted me to make this soup. So I did. And I knew he wouldn't love it. But somewhere deep inside I was reeaaaallllly hoping/dreaming that he would. Why do I even fool myself with these silly thoughts?!?! He gave it a good shot. He took a few mouthfuls and proclaimed that he loved it. But, it was pretty obvious that he did not. The good kid really tried for his mama though!

orecchiette two ways
I was wishing for some creamy pasta. Yes, I know - when am I ever not wishing for cream sauces on my pasta?!?! Anyway, I kind of sort of forgot about my butter in my little pan on the stove and it browned. Not one to waste food, I decided to grab some sage from the garden and make a brown butter sage sauce. But I still wanted creamy, too. So I started again and made a super simple cream sauce with fresh basil from the garden, as well.

grilled bruschetta chicken
I first blogged about this recipe here but wanted to post about it again because it is just so tasty and moist and delicious, and I thought you all might need a reminder to try it if you haven't already!

zucchini pasta
For several years a friend has been encouraging this zucchini recipe whenever someone comments that they are overrun with them in their garden. It always sounded appetizing, but for some reason I never got around to making it. Well, I finally did. And I am SO glad. It's simple, too - grate zucchini, saute in butter, season with salt and pepper, toss with hot cooked noodles (we've tried fettucini, whole wheat spaghetti, and rigatoni so far).

gilled pesto chicken
I had some pesto in the fridge that needed using up. And chicken breasts in the freezer. I loved the method for making the grilled bruschetta chicken. Dinner = done!

bang bang cauliflower
When I saw this recipe, I HAD to try it ASAP. I made both the sriracha and the sweet Thai chili versions (all accounts say to avoid substituting Frank's Red Hot). I also did some shrimp along with the cauliflower the first time and some avocado the second. The cauliflower is by far my fav. And I love both sauces. The shrimp was good too, but I realized that although the avocado worked really well, I don't love warmed and mushy avocado unless it is on a chicken burger or something like that. Saves me from making the avocado fries I always see on Pinterest! I had pictures of these delicious little morsels. I know I did. I can't find them. They were taken during my computer dying/needing to back up on my external hard drive/PC to Mac transition phase. I think the photos from that day must have gotten lost in the shuffle. You will just have to trust me that it is worth your time and effort to make this without seeing my photos. Just click on the link to the recipe - mine looked like that anyway! It is so so so so SO good. SO good. And now I will be making these again soon because I can't stop thinking about them!

Italian drunken noodles
There are some friends who I trust completely with food. When I see them trying something, I can pretty much guarantee I will love it too. And that was the case with this recipe. I love noodles in all shapes and sizes and forms. Drunk or not (the noodles, not me!). But I really, really love the Thai dish called Pad Kee Mao or Drunken Noodles. So when I saw a friend was making these Italian drunken noodles, I got the ingredients together and put it on the meal plan the following week. And now you should too. Trust me on this one. So, it's been confirmed that I like love Drunken noodles, whether they are Italian or Thai in origin. And Dragon noodles. Stay tuned to find out the next 'D' noodles that I fall in love with!

Summer Peach Custard Tart
I made this for dessert the other night when we went to Lindsey and Charlie's for dinner. The peaches we have been getting lately have been so amazing. They are giant and rock hard but after two days on the counter, they are perfect. So, when she asked me to bring a dessert, I immediately thought of the 10 peaches I had in the fridge taking up A LOT of room! I scoured Pinterest for something new to make. I love the peach cobbler I've made in the past, but I was ready to try something new. I liked the idea of a peach custard tart. It was then debatable whether I go with a pie crust, the tart crust we all love, no crust like the pear custard tart we love, or a graham cracker crust. After consulting with Roy, I went with graham cracker for something new. Big mistake, I think. It was far too overpowering for the custard and definitely for the peaches. The peaches were intended to be the star of the show. Sadly, they weren't in this one. And the peach ice cream I made didn't want to freeze well either, so it was a bit of a flop of a dessert. I thought so anyway, but nobody else complained. I think that maybe they were just being polite! I have some photos, but they are still on the camera and it is far too late and I am far too lazy to go get it form the other room right now. I will update tomorrow. Or the next day. Or maybe the next!
And, here it is!
Fresh from the oven:

Room temp:

Why can't America get poutine right?
This isn't a recipe I made, but a very funny article I read tonight.