Pulled Pork Tacos!

We come up with some pretty awesome things to do with our leftovers!  Our favorite is Mexican food - so much flavors to be had!

Brownie roasted a chili for us, I made rice .... and that was that!  The smoky flavor of the pork was just to die for!

Always consider Mexican food when you're wondering what to do with leftover BBQ! :-)

Sweet Red Bistro

We haven't had a date in a long while, we were due!  Tonight we chose Sweet Red Bistro in Albany, Oregon.  This wasn't our first trip to the restaurant, but I thought I would share a little about it here.

This space was home (for years) to the old Boccherini's Coffe & Tea House.  It's always been a quaint and relaxing space to spend time in.  Albany-ites were so sad to see Boccherini's go but now .... we have Sweet Red's in its place!

You can order from a list of beautiful wines (lots of sweeter dessert options here) or you can even bring your own bottle and they will open it and pour it for you.  I always like to try one or two of their wine flights to taste which goes better with what I'm eating and tasting.

Tonight I also decided to try the tomato basil soup - I was starving.  It was delicious and full of basil flavor!  

We ordered the cheese board, knowing that it would fill both of us up and we felt like playing and flirting and creating fun combinations of nuts and cheese and fruit.  It was perfection!  

The atmosphere here is perfect for a romantic date night.  The lighting is low, you can tuck yourself in the back and enjoy your food.

The staff is so friendly and knowledgeable about the wines and food!  They answered all of our questions without a blink and when my flights of wine came, I got to hear all about each of them. 

Tonight we also did something we rarely do:  we ordered dessert!  No need to order coffee, the wines went wonderfully with our chocolate dessert!

Overall, we adore this place.  The art on the walls, the ambiance, everything just screams 'relaxing sexy date night'.  It was perfect for our mood!  Love it!

Shrimp Remoulade

When I visited New Orleans in my early 20's - this was by far my favorite dish to eat everywhere we went.  I spent every morning at Pat O'Brien's with a Hurricane and a Shrimp Remoulade salad.  When I came home - I missed these babies so much!

I have found several recipes online with different variations of remoulade sauce - all of which are delicious.  But I do have my favorite and it's easier than you might think!  Just PLEASE be sure to let your sauce sit in the refrigerator for a while and let those flavors mingle - it's SO important for your final product!

And never toss the shrimp into the big bowl of your sauce - you'll contaminate everything.  Keep the sauce stored separately and toss in a small bowl ONLY what you'll be eating.  Trust me.  The sauce can make the shrimp limp if it's in there too long, too.

Go recipe hunting and make your own 'Nawlins shrimp salad! :-)

Trout Cakes and Mashed Potatoes

The kiddos love to cook with us!  Well, sometimes.  Today was a college football day and a few of them just weren't in the mood to sit and watch the games.  Now, I know they can make mashed potatoes, so that was easy.  But what else to use?  All I could think of was some trout that we had caught and cooked that was waiting to be eaten in the refrigerator.

So we de-boned the meat and made trout cakes!  The kids love to impress their dad and I with pretty plating when they make food - so this was their final product!  Of course, potatoes and trout aren't a usual pairing but ... the kids were so proud and ... both were delicious so ... win/win!

Happy Footballing, college fans!

Brownie's Birthday Dinner

We were so swamped this weekend with my sister-in-law's wedding!  Somehow, the kids and I pulled off plans to make Brownie a fabulous dinner we knew he'd love.

The kids helped me make the French Onion Soup, his favorite, they made the mashed potatoes and one of my stepson's even took his Bobby Flay perfect grilling instructions out to the BBQ grill and grilled the steaks 100% by himself!  He did an amazing job and we are SO incredibly proud of him!

Brownie was relaxing and enjoying watching us go in and out of the kitchen - it was a fabulous birthday dinner for him, he loved it!

Our kids are awesome!

Canned Tomatoes

Gorgeous tomatoes out of the garden, waiting to be canned!

Being a Foodie is always about quality ingredients in our opinion.  We grow tomatoes, we can the tomatoes.  They're delicious straight out of the jar over pasta in the fall and winter and they are the perfect base for sauces when we want to make Italian food!

If you don't have a garden or you don't produce enough in your garden to can in jars, I suggest finding a local farm or market selling tomatoes by the pound and getting 30 - 60 lbs and canning them!  You won't regret it.  In fact, you may become dependent on them and panic if you run out of jars.  No need for a pressure canner, these babies use a simple water bath.

Home Canned Tomatoes, cooling.

For the record:  no, this really wasn't enough jars for this past winter :-)  We'll be doing more this year!

Ducks on The Patio!

So we finally got a TV mounted out on the covered patio this year!  Of course we will be having lots of gamedays out here, but this was our first!  As a house divided, we will have some Beavers games as well!  This way, everyone can grill their food and never miss a play or a bad call!

Brownie even had his neon sign out and plugged in....

Now on to the food - you know that's our favorite part!  We made sure snacks were available and ... that they were all green and yellow!  It was a fun day!