Mint Glazed Carrots

Eric is a fan of mint. That is a pretty odd statement, but it is very very true. Mint (chocolate chip) ice cream, mint toothpaste (there are actually non mint flavors, he won't touch them), mint M&Ms, heck he even once ate a whole tin of Altoids in one day, simply because they tasted good. Looking back, he admitted that this was pretty gross but pointed out that he had amazingly fresh morning breath the next day.Anyways, when we hit across these carrots, glazed with mint, Eric was all for it. It also helped that this is a super easy way to spice up an otherwise normal side dish. Now don't get us wrong, normal is not bad its just that, normal. You've had it before and you'll probably have it again. We like it when every now and again we can take something so every-day and quickly and easily turn it into something that makes you go "wow". We use carrots pretty often in every day cooking often as an afterthought. They usually get picked with a discussion like this:

"We need something else besides just meat"
"How about carrots?"
"Oooh-kay, we'll just steam them in the microwave real quick".

Thats about how it goes with our sides most nights, something to fill out the food pyramid and take up space on the plate. With dinner together being the centerpiece of our nights, having the same thing over and over gets down right boring. It's probably that way with most families though, keeping food interesting is a big struggle, something that is probably a huge stumbling block for a lot of people when it comes to cooking.  Cooking dinner and having everyone sit down to eat together is such a hugely important part of being a family that can get brushed aside partly by boring, regular food. Especially with kids (and husbands) having food that is different and interesting as often as possible is a huge incentive to come together. Who would skip out on something like Mint Glazed Carrots? Not us!

Skillet Cornbread

We hope everyone had a happy 4th of July weekend, we know we did! We've been busier than normal lately, so posts have been hard to put out on time, but things are back to normal, and have we got some great things for you. Later this week we'll show you how to make a good meatball and turn that into a meatball sub and we'll have a watermelon salad (we've done a lot of cooking lately). But today, we've got another One Pan Meal, Skillet Cornbread. Okay so it's not a whole meal, but it is pretty easy and tastes great. Just about everyone on or from the Western US  is familiar with Marie Calanders, home of many awesome pies and the 4PM early bird special. Marie Calanders is also famous for their cornbread. We both remember growing up on Marie Calanders cornbread and pie, which is a winning combination on its own! As everyone knows, we love our cast iron skillet, so we jump at the chance to cook with it anytime we get one, and firing cornbread in a skillet just adds that special something.

Hit the break for more pictures and recipe!

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Fritata

Who says you can't have eggs for dinner? In fact we find ourselves facing breakfast for dinner on a regular basis.  Waffles, french toast and bacon are always appropriate in this household, any time of the day. A fritata is a great way to satisfy those breakfast craving and still get your veggies in and great protein too. It's also a great way to rid your fridge of any left over veggies, which helps prevent waste, and gets the kids to eat them too. Have one zucchini left? throw it in! Some chard and half an onion.? throw it in! Pretty much anything will work. For this version, we used a base of caramelized onions and cremimi mushrooms (which are one of the best mushrooms). I also used some fresh chevre broken up into small pieces and floated throughout the egg mixture. This is making my mouth water for more just typing it. Once again this dish is so easy to make, and if you have a little vegetable garden of your own everything should be right there, fresh as can be. This dish is perfect for a nice hearty brunch (remember its Mother's Day on Sunday)! Paired with farm fresh strawberries and champagne this could be the best breakfast in bed for your favorite mother!

Pictures and Recipe after the break

Wine-Braised Chicken with Shallots and Panchetta

Now we're both sick, but the Wine-Braised Chicken is not! With Eric on the mend while Charisse is just getting started, this cold is interfering with our ability to get posts out in time. Somethings going around the Bay Area, even Patrick Marleau seems to be out with this bug (Sharks still won game 1). Next week should be better though. Don't worry, Blogger has an extensive antivirus system, so you can't catch this from the pictures or the recipe. We served this with mashed potatoes and carrots as Patrick and Monica Farnsworth's anniversary gift dinner, and what a great meal it makes. Actually, a well cooked meal, some wine and martinis and a great night with family always makes the best gift one can give. That and diamonds.

The actual dish is really a very basic, easy to make, one pan meal. We haven't talked about this much, but when your doing multiple courses, part of the planing involves making sure you have enough pans to cover all the courses. For example, if we wanted to do an upside down cake and say a skillet roasted chicken, you'd run into trouble, as both dishes need the same pan. So any time you can do a course in a single pan, it helps free up your other pans for other dishes or courses. When your as crazy as we are and have around 6 different frying pans its usually not an issue, but for most people there's usually only one or two of the same pans in the house, so planing out your courses and doing as much with each pan becomes really important, and a key factor in planing out your meal.

Speaking of cast iron skillets Charisse's birthday was yesterday, and Eric got her a new cast iron skillet from amazon.com and this one is 15 inches. That is HUGE. its seriously the biggest pan we own. Can't wait to fill it with BACON!

Pictures and Recipe after the break