What I Ate for Lunch :: Shrimp Dumplings and Noodles in Soup

[Shrimp Dumplings and Noodles in Soup, $7.95]

I should've ordered the extra wontons for an additional $3.50 so I could try the different dumpling filling.

Full Key Restaurant
2227 University Boulevard, W.

Wheaton, Maryland 20902

What I Made for Dinner :: Slow Cooker Pork Loin Roast

This is Trisha Yearwood's Slow Cooker Pork Loin Roast that I found via someone else's cooking blog. I served it with sauteed kale and Creamy Parmesan-Garlic Quinoa.

FYI, the website where I got the quinoa recipe seems to give my browser issues, so here are the directions in case you don't want to click through:

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1-3/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Rinse quinoa really well under cold running water in a fine mesh sieve. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat extra virgin olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until barely golden brown, stirring constantly. Add quinoa, then toast for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add broth, turn heat up to high and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down heat to medium-low. Cook until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in parmesan cheese before serving.

I don't know why I was surprised but the pork was really quite tasty ... and easy! It did, however, make me realize yet again that I need to get a fat/grease separator. I know it's a unitasker, but it would make life so much easier when I'm making sauces.

What I Made for Dinner :: Caramel Chicken

This Caramel Chicken recipe is from Bon Appetit magazine. I only used chicken legs, no thighs, so it cooked just a bit faster than the recipe says. It's really quite easy and delicious. Don't forget the green onions; it cuts the rich flavor of the sauce. I served the chicken with rice and roasted kabocha.

What I Made for Dinner :: Bibimbap

What I Made for Dinner :: Chicken Florentine Style

We eat a lot of chicken around here so I'm always looking for new chicken recipes to try. This one's a keeper :: Giada De Laurentiis's Chicken Florentine Style. It's not as labor- or time-intensive as the Chicken Florentine recipe I've made since college, and the sauce is good.

Although we eat a lot of chicken, I'm not usually a fan of chicken breast. It often cooks up too bland and dry for my tastes. But this recipe kept the chicken fairly moist and the sauce was flavorful. It might help to pound the breast a bit to even out the thickness, or cut the breasts in half horizontally if they're thick.

Bonus that you cook veggies with it, and the sauce helps the spinach be more palatable for those who aren't fans. The recipe calls for frozen spinach but I had fresh on hand, which worked just fine (I used two bags of the TJ's baby spinach).

What Ian Made for Dinner :: Bucatini with Butter-Roasted Tomato Sauce

Now that my son is in high school, it's really hitting me hard that I need to prepare him better for real life and surviving on his own. Chief among these tasks is cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Slowly, but surely, he needs to practice these skills so he doesn't end up as a ramen-eating, still-in-the-same-clothes-as-a-week-ago, I-live-in-my-own-filth college student. I'll settle for I-only-eat-ramen-sometimes-and-I-changed-my-clothes-yesterday college student!

Anyway, I came across this recipe for pasta (we didn't have Bucatini) with butter-roasted tomato sauce and it looked easy (and good ... mmm, butter!). The kids were still on winter break so I told Ian he was making dinner and helped him get through the steps. It was pretty easy to assemble and required very little knife work. (I did help him with draining the pasta; poor kid has no arm strength and I was afraid he was going to spill boiling water on himself.)

[smashing garlic cloves = no need to use the knife for cutting]

Final verdict? I'll definitely have him make it again. The sauce was a bit more tangy than I imagined it would be, but I think more time in the oven (with a smidge of sugar) will tone it down.