Roasted Red Pepper and Chicken Orzo

Tonight was a "What do I have in the fridge??" night. I had 2 red pepper on the 'must eat today' list, an onion, 1/2 box of orzo pasta. I usually have a jar full of olive oil buried garlic cloves. So I roasted the peppers just to prolong their life and thought I'd use them later this week, but they smelled really good. I found a really simple recipe for a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, Michael cooked up some chicken, the orzo, and we topped it off with the sauce. Simple, easy, delish. It easily fed 2, with some left over...all for under $5.

Rafe had a strawberry (beet) banana milkshake and is getting in the groove of smiling on cue! Skye had milk. Again.

Falafel

We have discovered a new food in the past few months. Suprisingly one that Rafe will eat on occassion, falafel. I think it is the ball shape that gets him. This one we made on the fly with a matzo falfel mix (not particularly one of our favorites, but it was in the cupboard.) I used ranch and tahini with some cumin and other seasonings to make the sauce, threw in an avocado, and saute'd up the one and only egg plant from our garden efforts. Also some feta. It was pretty tasty, and a quick meal too.

Sourdough Pancakes

Grandma Wiltbank makes amazing sourdough pancakes with fresh strawberry syrup. We tried to make our own sourdough pancakes using a sour start given to Michael by a fellow 'foodie' co-worker. We found a recipe online that would work with our quanity of start. It was pretty good, but strangely called for olive oil?? Not exactly the same flavor as Grandma W's but it worked for that morning. We made Rafe Mickey Mouse shaped hot cakes, he ate 4!

Spinach Stuffed Pork and Cake

Last night we made Spinach Stuffed Pork with blue cheese, spinach, and bacon, WOW! It turned out moist and amazing. We had it with whipped red potatoes.

I've also been making a few cakes for people lately. Rafe loves to get in on the action, constantly asking for a taste or an opportunity to lick the beaters in a sweet, "On my finger please?"

Yesterday I made a chocolate skateboard themed cake for Marvin's birthday, and a yellow gerber daisy cake for my friend Jeanna's birthday. Every cake Rafe asks if it is for his birthday...coming in December. I say no, and he say's, "Not for Rafe, I want a _____ cake." Which has a different theme each time.

Kicking off "What I had for dinner"

(Almond Danish)

So Shannon and I have decided to give our family blog a slightly different focus. We have a secret hobby of making good food (at least we think it is good). So to celebrate our successes and cry about the failures we are going to post them all here and let the world know "what we had for dinner last night". Of course our postings won't be limited to dinner, because really breakfast is just as important as dinner as far as the culinary arts are concerned. Here are some of our latest efforts. Hopefully the postings will be a little more regular due to our love of food and desire to share.

(Spiced Peach Coffee Cake)