I haven't forgotten

I didn't stop my February challenge. I just had a three day weekend in Texas with good friends. Ben and the boys stayed home so I am catching up on life with them and then will post my last two recipes. One good, one ok.

100th Day of School

Today was our 100th Day of Kindergarten. It was a fun day.

We started the day with my version of "Egg in the Hole" They liked it!

After we had finished school, we met up with a friend of Yared's from preschool. She is also being home-schooled and we have had fun doing play dates with them through the year. We went over to their house and made crowns for the day. We also had a special lunch. I made place mates with 10 circles. My friend had cut tons of food up so they could count out and eat 100 pieces of food. Besides being fun, quality people, another reason we love hanging with this family is the girls eat as well as my boys. So YES the two big kids ate all 100 pieces:).

We also made my new favorite cinnamon pretzels and the kids rolled them into 1's and 0's.

The weather was great and we went in the back yard to play. These little girls are great at rough and tumble so the four kids had a blast tearing up and down the slide in a huge pile. It was so great to be outside and warm and hearing birds sing. Ahh I love spring.

I think Nati likes spring too.

A great fun day. I can't believe we have already done 100 days. But as Yared is reading, writing, adding and subtracting I guess we have been in school awhile.

February 16th - PW Meatloaf

I knew I had my book club meeting Wednesday night and that I would eat dinner there. Since the other two meals this week were going to be Cooking Light I thought I should go the complete opposite and cook a cooking completely totally unlight meal. Ben doesn't really like meat loaf, but I thought he might like this recipe as it sounded good. I have a few things I should have planned for.

First, I should have read how many it was intended for. It is meant to feed 8 and as this was made for 1 man and 2 boys there was WAY too much food.

Second, it is to be cooked on a broiler pan... I don't have one. I improvised which worked for the first part of the cooking and then began to leak and the dripping fat started to smoke and burn.

Third, I should have given myself more time. I needed to leave for my Book Club. I had followed all the directions but the meat was not done. I left poor Ben (who cannot cook at all) in a smoky stinky kitchen with half cooked meat loaf and some mumbled instructions to watch it until it looked done. He was a good sport and unfazed kissed me goodbye through the cloud of smoke.

I did try to meat loaf later and it was ok. I do think the cooking on a broiler pan is brilliant as it leaves the meat more like a burger and less like a soggy mushy pile of meat. But there is so much stuff in this meat loaf that you can't really taste but they add calories . I am going to work on find a healthier recipe BUT keeping the broiler pan idea. I will also get a real broiler pan.

That saying here is the recipe

PW Meatloaf

Family rating - 2

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - if you have a broiler pan it is easy.

February 15 - Indian Spiced Chicken with Tomato Chutney

After a week of not getting a work out in (sick kiddos and busy schedules) I felt the need for some lighter meals this week. I went to Cooking Light and found a gem. This is one of my favorites of the month so far. It has tons of flavor and is healthy too. All I can say is yummy, yummy, yummy. It does take a bit of prep work but it is well worth the effort. I think this will be a summer staple in our house.

Indian Spiced Chicken with Tomato Chutney

Family Rating - 2.75 ironically only Yared gave it a 2. We all loved this recipe but him. He said "Thank you Mommy but I think this is a 2" Of course he finished his entire meal before we were half way through ours so I think it was still pretty good.

Ingredients - a few odd spices

Difficulty - a little more work.

I have to brag that I made home made Naan. It was pretty good but I need to tweak it a bit more before I post the recipe and what I did.

February 14h - Go to Moe's

Here is tonight's recipe.

Ingredients
1 Great Husband
1 Corny but sweet holiday
2 Fun loving hungry boys
1 Mom who hasn't started cooking dinner
1 Local restaurant that has instant yummy food.

Directions

First, find a quality man to marry.
Spend many years together so you know how to show love to each other.
Don't start dinner too early on Valentine's day.
Have said wonderful husband know how much going out to eat means to you:).

Willingly jump into passenger seat of van when he tells the family we are going out.
Go to local restaurant Moe's Southwest Grill
Enjoy yummy meal with no prep and better yet NO CLEANUP.

Finally come home to and enjoy present of spa gift certificate!!!!

Family Rating -3
Ingredients - hmmm good husbands can be hard to find.
Difficulty - Sit back and enjoy


And yes this really is a restaurant and yes it really is called Moe's. In fact when you go in they yell "Welcome to Moe's" at you. The boys love this and yell back.

Happy Valentines Day

February 13th - Thai Style Chicken Thighs

Another friend recommended Smitten Kitchen to look for recipes. I found

Thai Style Chicken Thighs and have been itching to try them. I knew they would be good and they were. Yummy. I licked my fingers clean. After a snow storm this week it was great to hit the 50's today and even more perfect to light up the grill to try out this new recipe. I did take a photo but it looks terrible and you'll never try this recipe if I post it. You'll have to trust me it is good.

Family Rating - 3... I am going to tweak this recipe here and there to make it easier and a little healthier.. making chicken breast on the bone rather than chicken thighs, but it was still great. Plus I am a white meat sort of girl.

Ingredients - you will probably need a few things from the store

Difficulty - I grilled so super easy. I want to try baking too.

I ate like a queen today as our good friend dropped off some injera I had ordered through her. She has found an older Ethiopian lady who makes fresh injera upon request. My friend brought by the injera along with two different wats and some fresh made bread. I know!! I am so spoiled. ANYWAY, we had this for lunch today and ate family style. We hadn't done that before. Yared was so excited he kept calling it a feast. I added left over Tibs wat that I had made and it was like a fancy Ethiopian restaurant in our own dinning room.

February 12 - Hungarian Goulash

Yared informed me that this was not a new meal. I think he likes all the variety. Our friend makes this dish and gave me the recipe, so no it is not officially new to us but I haven't made it so it is new to me!!

It is a great crock pot recipe and those are the perfect recipes for when you remember to plan ahead and you know your evening will be hectic.

Family Rating - 2.5 Ben and I gave it a 2. I think some are confused that a 2 is bad. It isn't. It means we like it. A 3 is when we LOVE it and would eat it once a week. Yared likes everything and wants to praise my cooking so has given everything, except the pizza, a 3. Nati wants to be just like Yared so gives everything a 3 and sometimes a random unallowed 5.

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - super duper easy. Great plan ahead meal.

Recipe

Ingredients

* 2 lbs beef stew but into 1 inch cubes

* 1 large onion, sliced

* 1 clove garlic minced

* 1/2 cup ketchup

* 1 T brown sugar

* 2 T Worcester Sauce

* 2 t paprika

* 1 can chicken broth

* 1/4 cup flour

* salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat, onions and garlic. Put into crock pot. Mix together, ketchup, brown sugar, worcester sauce, salt, paprika and broth. Pour over meat and cook until tender.

Stir in flour mixed with a little broth or water.

Serve over egg noodles.

February 11th Cinnamon Pretzels and Spaghetti Bolognesse

(Side note - all the recipes have links to them. I couldn't figure out a way to make the links highlight with a brighter color but just find the name on this page and it should lead you to the recipe. Also feel free to keep the comments coming. I get inspiration knowing others are out there... hint hint.)

I am sorry but I have no pictures which is sad as both of these turned out looking great and I could have got some fabulous pictures. Also it is kind of boring with no pictures. It was a busy day and getting the pictures fell by the wayside.

In the morning the boys and I had been invited to go to a Valentine's Day Party. I said I would bring pretzels as I had found an easy online recipe using pre-made dough. I woke up on Friday morning realizing I had not bought the dough so I looked for another recipe and found this one.

Buttery Soft Pretzels

It is great and easy to do. I used my Kitchen Aide to make the dough and then just kneaded it for about 2 minutes so making the dough was fast. Then I broke the dough into 16 pieces rather than 12 and shaped the dough into hearts. I also cooked them for only about 10 minutes. I just watched them until they looked done. I didn't sprinkle with salt. After they came out I put melted butter all over them and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. They were a huge hit at the party. It is a nice treat that isn't too sugary. I recommend them for a Valentine's day treat if you are assigned to bring one to a party. Ben didn't get a taste of these but they are strong 3.

Family Rating - 3 (based on the people at the party not just on the family)

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - easy

The second recipe was

Pastor Ryan's Bolgonese - from PW

I was taking dinner to a friend that just had a baby and thought this would be an easy sauce to take. All the reviews online were raving about it so I figured I couldn't go wrong. It is pretty easy to make but I didn't LOVE it like everyone else. I liked it and thought it was tasty. I think the problem is not the sauce but rather that I am not a Bolognese fan. I prefer the simple tomato, garlic, basil combos from Naples. Especially those with a little cheese and red pepper flakes and life is good. I don't need the meat in my pasta sauce. I found out Ben and I are the same on this point. We both gave it a 2 and the boys gave it a 3.

Family Rating 2.5

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - Easy

February 10th - Maple Oat Nut Scones

I used to love Starbucks Maple Oat Nut Scones. They don't have them anymore but I figured someone would have a copy cat recipe online. I was right they did. That is what I chose to be our new meal for this Thursday.. remember this is the day that I luck out and get a meal cooked by our friends at a Bible study we go to. But I bring dessert. This week in school we are doing the letter R so we have talked about rocks and rainbows. This was my version of a cooked rock:).

Scones with yummy glaze.

Scones fresh out of the oven.
Thursday is baking day in home school so here are my little helpers.
We were lucky to get anything done in school today as we woke up to more snow and the boys wanted to play. We did as I declared in Home School Snow Day!!

Cool mini pile on a tiny plant.

The side street looked beautiful.

We did finally get around to doing some school and even had baking Thursday.

Back to the recipe

Family rating - 2.25 it is good but we probably aren't die hard scone fans.

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - surprisingly easy. I never knew scones were that easy.

These last two shots are for Grandma who has been requesting more kid pictures. This is our rainbow snack we made this week.

February 9th - Tibs and Misir Wat

I decided it was time for some more Ethiopian food in our meals so I tried to make one of my favorite vegetarian dishes, Misir Wat. Luckily I wasn't convinced the recipe sounded right so I tried a new Tibs Wat as well. I will link to both recipes but tell you right now that I would not bother with the Misir Wat. It did not taste good.

Here are the links to the recipes and the family rating for each.

Tibs Wat

Family Rating - 3

This was very yummy. The only thing I changed was I added a can of diced tomatoes. I would also recommend marinating longer and simmer longer to get the meat even more tender. But I will definitely make this again.

Ingredients - a little hard to find if you don't have bere bere
Difficulty - easy

Misir Wat

Family Rating 1.5

This is not a good recipe. I do not recommend it. Yared liked it but I am going to keep searched for the real deal.

Ingredients - pantry plus lentils

Difficulty - easy

February 8 - Japanese Curry

Today there was a grand Mama plan of going to the mom's group at my church, then having my friend over to cook with/for me, then lunch, then nap, then the YMCA to work out. But I was woken up at 6 am with a little voice telling me his tummy didn't feel good. I am NOT a morning person so I managed a somewhat loving response to this. Then my Mama heart sank as I realized my Mama plan was out the window. Yared had a tummy ache, a runny nose and a massive cold sore that I literally felt I could watch grow as we talked. I called my friend to tell her we couldn't go to the Mom's group at church. I love this group. It is so encouraging to me and challenges me to be the best Mom I can be. It also has great food and good company so I was rather sad that I couldn't go. I secretly hoped my friend would still want to come over and cook with us but I didn't want to ask. I should have known she wouldn't care about germs either. Her son had a cough so she pulled him out of school and they all came and spent the morning with us. Ahh the day was saved.

I met Aya through another Navy wife almost two years ago. Our mutual friend moved away and Aya and I started almost a weekly play date. Our kids treat each other like siblings rather than just friends. We will miss SO our weekly adventures with Aya, Kai and Mia.

After a delicious cappuccino we started cooking while the kiddos played. I say delicious cappuccino as I just found a way of ordering our favorite Italian espresso, Kimbo, online. Yared loves Miss Aya's cooking and was continually in the kitchen to see, smell and hoping to taste what was cooking.

Now Aya doesn't have a recipe so I'll have to describe below what I saw and did. Here are my beautifully chopped onions.
She taught me a new way to cut carrots.. I felt like a real chef.
The first half of our adventure had a background noise of miss Mia having a fit. This is not normal behavior for her. She is normally very easy going but this morning she wanted to be held and ONLY by Mommy. This is what happened if Aya put her down. Neither of us are super sympathetic to tantrums so we had to capture her joy on camera.
Nati came to see what was going on and made this face.. not sure what it means.
The chopped vegetables.
The chaos that was happening in the living room while we cooked. Notice Mia is once again happy.

Yared once again hoping for a taste.
He wanted to me to take his Buzz Light Year pose.
Yes this recipe has chocolate in it:). I told you it was good.
Yared wishing that chocolate would go into his mouth.

Sadly I didn't get a shot of the final product before we ate most of it. But it was goooood.

Family Rating - 2.75 Yared and I gave it a 3. Ben a 2.5 and Nati a 5 which we down graded to the highest rating available of 3:).

Ingredients - besides the curry cubes pantry

Difficulty - easy

Aya's Japanese Curry as best I can write it out.

1) - some meat cubed into bite sized pieces. I used chicken but Aya says you can use any meat and meat on the bone works well too.

2) - at least one chopped onion

3) - 1 clove garlic smashed

4) - 2-3 diced celery sticks

5) - 5 chopped carrots

6) - a few cups of broccolli

7) - 4 pealed and cubed potatoes

8) - Garam marsala

9) - salt and pepper

10) - curry powder

11) - ginger powder or some minced fresh ginger

12) - a piece of chocolate, ketchup, soy sauce, ketchup, wine...pretty much anything that adds flavor

13) - Japanese Curry cubes- I don't know their name but I took a picture for you. For my military buddies Aya says you can buy them at the commissary. The rest of you might have to visit an Asian market and ask for them.

First, sprinkle a few teaspoons of garam marsala over the meat to marinate it. You can add some salt and pepper too.

Chop vegetables while the meat marinates.

In pot heat some oil, butter or ghee. Add garlic for a minute or two.

Add meat and saute for a few minutes.

Add all the vegetables except potatoes.

Cover with water and add some tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, some ginger, and some curry powder.. this was all sprinkled on so I can't give you measurements.

Bring to boil and then lower to a simmering temperature to cook vegetables.

When vegetables are tender add the potatoes.

When they are soft add the Japanese Curry Cubes. They come in boxes with six cubes each. She used both boxes so all 12 cubes. You mix them in slowly to a bit of the fluid.

Then comes the cook by taste bit. She added a piece of chocolate, some ketchup, some soy sauce and said she has added wine, fruit, ect... she just goes by taste and so will you:). You can also change the vegetables and the meat. I think the key is the Japanese curry cubes. They make the flavor and the thickness of this sauce.

Serve this over rice and ENJOY.. it is so good.

February 7 - Betty Crocker Swedish Meatballs

Ok so I didn't plan this week quite so well and all the sudden it was time to cook dinner and I hadn't planned ahead. I couldn't go back to one of my old favorites as I had said I would do a new meal EVERY day. I found ground beef and went to look on line for a good Swedish Meatball recipe. Then... the internet decided to poop out on me. No problem I ran and grabbed my Betty Crocker Cookbook. An hour later I served it up and it is our first YUCKY meal. I love Swedish Meatballs so this is totally the recipe, so I am NOT posting it in defiance of a yucky meal.

Rating - 1.5 ...Ben and I gave it a 1. The boys went a bit higher than that. Nati liked it but he had done some serious running today and was hungry.
Ingredients - pantry
Difficulty - medium...anytime you have to mush meat with your hands it can't be an easy recipe as some small person will inevitably need to go to the bathroom and you'll have to wash your hands half way through to help them. Then just after you start to mush meat someone will bang their head and need a hug so more hand washing.

Tomorrow I have a good friend coming to teach me Japanese Curry so it will be a good meal for SURE!!! This lady can cook!! And by this lady I mean her not me:).

February 6 - Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Super Bowl Sunday inspired me to serve a less healthy meal for dinner. We had our good friends come over for the game and they are moving to Chicago this year. In honor of them and football I went with a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza for dinner. When I started looking for a recipe I found that people from Chicago are VERY proud of their pizza and you better get it right. I found a recipe from Uno Chicago Grill.

To be honest I forgot to ask the family what their rating on this was. I think that it was probably about a 2.5 based on how fast and how much was eaten. I gave it a 2 as I prefer real Italian pizza. After eating pizza in Naples nothing else can match up. Sorry to those of you from Chicago but Italy did invent it and they did perfect it.

Ingredients - pretty much pantry

Difficulty - Easy.. you have to make the dough ahead of time but if you have a good mixer it does the work for you.

Good times and my team won!!

February 5th - Pasta Alla Vodka

Ok... so one thing I didn't consider when I went into my February meal deal was guests. Last night we had friends over and I was actually quite nervous about what new meal to make. I ended up going to another PW recipe. I continue to think she is really twins presenting herself as one person BUT I like pictures. I like pictures of every step of the recipe. I chose to do her Pasta Alla Vodka. It turned out great and even all the kids ate some.

We are not big drinkers so we only have wine in the house and a bottle of brandy I use for cooking. I had to go to the local liquor store for vodka. I do wish I had that trip on candid camera as it must have been funny to see me and two local bums go in to the store at 1 in the afternoon and all come out with our small brown paper bags. They immediately opened them up and began to drink and I quickly walked away so as to not be confused as town bum number three. I am not being judgmental here. I get hit up for money every time I go to this parking lot so I recognize faces now. In fact I sometimes skip going to the grocery store that is next to this store even though it is the closest as I get tired of the begging.

I didn't get pictures of this meal for you.. sorry I was hosting. I almost took a picture of the massive pile of dishes I washed afterwards. I decided since I was going full force with the new meal deal, I would look up a fancy way to cook broccoli. I will add that recipe tomorrow as I have to find where I put it.

Overall family rating - 3!!!

We all loved it and Nati gobbled his whole plate down and wanted more. Our friends kids weren't sure at first but went back for seconds.

Ingredients - Grocery store - easy ingredients but I don't generally have full cream or crushed tomatoes or vodka.

Difficulty - easy peasy

February 4 - Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken also comes from PW. I am a little addicted to Indian food. But then again I also love Thai food, Ethiopian food, Mexican food, and my new favorite Morrocan:). I think I need a job that has me travel the world eating.

This meal rated a 3 from the family. We all agree it is a great meal. Is it exactly like Butter Chicken from a restaurant? No. But it is good. Someone on PW claimed it was really Chicken Tikka Marsala. It is NOT. I make that dish and I am actually pretty good at it and it is not the same thing. The only improvement is a suggestion of adding nan. Even Nati, who has claimed to love every meal so far but picked at them, gobbled this up. He had seconds and declared again. "Very nummy food Mommy." Yared's mouth was full but I am pretty sure his comment was positive too as he was throwing thumbs at me as he said it.

Ingredients - I would say pantry for us.. as long as you have cilantro

Difficulty - easy - surprisingly so.

I almost forgot the cilantro and that would have ruined the dish. As I chopped this lovely herb and added it to the dish I had to smile. I HATED cilantro when I first moved to the US. If my sister in law is reading this, she will tell you, I used to throw hissie fits if cilantro was added to my burrito. I wouldn't eat it. It was considered ruined. I now have cilantro as one my favorite herb/spices. Basil stays as number one. Cumin is right up there. Garlic..well who can't love garlic. I sometimes play that "If you were on a desert island and only had three spices" game and end up in a dilemma every time.

Ok enough about food. Time to go put my feet up and enjoy a glass of wine and recover from a busy fun week.

February 3 - Zebra Cake

Ahhh.. you think we are eating Zebra Cake for dinner. You are right and wrong. Thursdays we go to a small group from our Church where our wonderful host makes us all dinner and I bring dessert. So there will be no new meals for you on Thursdays BUT.. it is baking day in homeschool so we will try a new dessert. This week we were doing the letter Z and Zebras.

So I found a recipe for this cake.

It was very easy to make. It is weird around the edges as they said to use parchment paper and I couldn't get that to go flat so it is wobbly. But I kind of like the look. It is NOT very sweet so I added a fudge icing that I make. This recipe is NOT new so if you want it, you'll have to ask. It takes 10 minutes and tastes like heaven. I had to wash the rest of it down the drain as I was eating it by the spoonful. It makes too much for one cake:). Here is the recipe for the cake. Her cake is much whiter than mine. But I am partial to chocolate and to brown in general...my little men made me so.

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - EASY

Rating - 2.75

Everyone gave it a three but me. I like the look but I like my cakes sweeter than this.

February 2 - London Broil

Ah so day two came via recommendation from my good friend, who I get to go spend a weekend with in two weeks. I can't wait. Anyways, this was another hit with the family. It was a perfect day for it with the weather climbing above 60 at LONG last. I had to laugh as the recipe says "Prep time: half and hour. Cook time: 15 minutes. Ready in: 5 3/4 hours." I don't know about you but that is not the math I learned in school:). I marinated the meat for 5 hours like they said. I think next time I would do it the day before and add a bit more salt and garlic. Other than that it was easy. I also added Roasted Potato Wedges from PW blog. They really were as easy as she said and the boys were in heaven to see "french fries". Add a huge salad and dinner was served.
London Broil Recipe

Family Rating 2.5

Ben - 3... duh it is red meat:)

Yared - 3... duh it is Yared:)

Mo - 2.. it is red meat

Nati - once again he said 3 but he lacks the molars to really chew meat.. so while he LOVED the potatoes I down graded his rating to a 2 as he had a hard time chewing.

Ingredients - pantry as long as you have the flank steak

Difficulty - easy

One random side note. The salad dressing you see in the pictures and to which I am now addicted to and buy by the pound is "Goddess Dressing" from Trader Joes. We are 40 minutes from a TJ's and I will make the trip just for this but I do stock up. If you haven't tried it.. you should. Maybe I'll have to research a recipe on how to make my own.

February First - Chicken and Dumplings

When I mentioned to others that I was doing a new meal every day for February, I had at least two people mention Pioneer Woman. I know of this lady's blog but get so overwhelmed by it that I tend to avoid it. I mean seriously, I home school one child and Kindergarten at that. I sometimes take a few pictures and most nights I have a meal on the table. Then a few times a month I post a blog about life, kids, or randomness. How this woman is able to do all she does is rather frightening. She seems like a nice lady but I am pretty sure she functions on a lot less sleep than I do and she has to be exhausting to be around. I feel lazy just thinking about her. BUT... she was the inspiration for our first night. I started looking through her recipes and I love the pictures of cooking the food. I love cookbooks that have pictures of every single dish in the book, so to have a blow by blow of each step as you cook is perfect.

Yared saw me looking at Chicken and Dumplings on PW's blog and wanted to know what it was. When I told him he said, "Like we'll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes?" He means from the song "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes." This was about two weeks ago. He has been asking for this meal since then but I made him wait until Feb 1st. Luckily for him it was worth the wait. Here is my rating of this recipe. Read this post if you want to know more about our rating system.

The only thing I did different from her was I only used split chicken breasts as I couldn't find a whole chicken, not that I mind. I am not a huge brown meat chicken sort of girl. I also didn't follow her advice for using Tablespoon size dumplings and mine were huge. They seems to expand on impact and I was a tad worried they were going to out grow my pot. They stayed contained and tasted great, so all's well that ends well.

PW Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients - pantry

Difficulty - regular

Star rating from family - over all 2.25

Ben - 2

Mo - 2

Yared - 3

Nati - said 3 and told me how much he loved this "nummy food" then he proceeded to take forever to eat it and finally finished by telling me. "Me no like this soup." I think he liked the dumplings but not the chicken.

Over all pretty basic to make and it was yummy. Maybe a once a month recipe.

Fantastic February's Fanatical Feasts

Ok... so I decided in January to take a whole month and try new recipes. Why? I am bored with my own cooking and unless I make it challenging I won't do it. I have told all three of my men that for a month they will not get any dinners that I have made before. I will take a picture of the final product and attach a link to the recipe on the blog. I will also include MY opinion of ingredients and level of difficulty.

Ingredients will mean

Pantry - stuff you probably have

Grocery Store - stuff you might have to go on a special trip for

Gourmet Store - stuff you REALLY have to search for

Level of difficulty

Easy - in my world this will mean under 30 minutes and can be done while both boys completely lose it in the background and Ben isn't home:).

Regular - can do on most nights as long as you have an hour and feel slightly sane still

Complex - only do when Dad is around to corral children out of the kitchen

The men in the house have a job too. First, they have to thank me profusely for cooking something new and exciting. Then they HAVE to at least try it. Finally they have to give it a rating. Here is my rating system

* - thanks for cooking it but please don't serve this again

** - thanks a lot for cooking this and I will look forward to having this again

*** - thanks a million for cooking this and I can't WAIT to have it again.

If you have a favorite family recipe please send it my way to be used this month. And don't be offended if we don't like it. We have Yared who will LOVE pretty much anything as long as there are no apples or green beans. Ben who will eat most anything but stinky cheese and fruit. Nati who seems to have developed a visual taste bud and gags if something doesn't look right. I have literally had him eat with his eyes closed at some meals. And me... I like most things but NOT shell fish and I don't cook fish as I can't stand the smell. I save that for restaurants.