Sunday Dinner - Gumbo

I am not a big seafood fan but the rest of the fam likes it, so lately I've been trying to add more of it to our menu for them.  I found this recipe at Food 52 and I do like Gumbo so I made it for a Sunday Dinner.

There are 2 pretty big changes I made to the recipe - I used baby shrimp instead of the medium shrimp called for.  I don't mind baby shrimp and they are so cute looking floating around in a soup.

Anyway, back when I found this recipe we were actually having shrimp for dinner that night so I saved the shells and froze them, so I already had the shells to make the stock which made the decision to use the baby shrimp and easy one.

The other change I did was to use 1 1/2 times of all the ingredients except the shrimp and the rice, to make it a bit more soupy, the way we like it, and to stretch it a bit further.  It was a good choice.

This was an excellent meal and even though The Grandpa and The Mister were a bit skeptical ("You mean there's no okra?  It isn't a gumbo if you don't use okra!" and "What kind of sausage are you using?  No sausage?  OH.") THEY LOVED IT TOO.

Very very delicious recipe here - Shrimp Gumbo

Sunday Dinner - Enchiladas, Mexican Street Corn and Apricot Cake

I love Tex Mex and Mexican food but we don't each it much. Why, I ask me? 

I was perusing Homesick Texan's website and I found her recipe for Cheese Enchiladas. Yum! 

I asked The Mister if he thought that would be a good dish for Sunday Dinner and he agreed, but he of course thought adding some chicken or beef would be a good idea. ^eyeroll^. 

So we had some cheese enchiladas and some beef and cheese.  

We had some salsa, sour cream and guac for the enchiladas as well as some veggies 

and also some Street Corn.

I set out some mayo, parmesan cheese and cotija cheese, which I found as Fresh is Best, along with the corn tortillas.

It was all delicous - especially the CHEESE ONLY enchiladas (ahem) and the corn.

We finished dinner with Apricot cake, which would have been better if the apricots had been a little bit riper.....

Recipe:  Cheese Enchiladas

Recipe: Apricot Almond Cake

Book Club - Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

"Most important thing in life," he would say, "is learning how to fall."

I realized that in the months since Helen had died, I hadn't been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyways.  It didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me."

"No looking back."  I said.  "You can't.  You just can't."

__________________________

For Summer Reading Club 2018 - Staff Pick

Book Club - Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

'I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book - less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life.'

'The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel.  My grandparents knew nothing about such a world, I decided, there was no point disturbing them with questions they couldn't answer.'

"Seems to me we should be worrying about whether our own stuff's together instead of passing judgement on how other folks are supposed to act."

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Summer Reading Challenge 2018 - Biography or Memoir

Japanese Spinach Salad - Gomae

Gomae is one of my very very favorite Japanese dishes  - and it's easy to make at home! 

We had a meat and cheese and bread dinner one night and I added some Gomae at the last minute because we had a bag of spinach in the fridge.

Never forget how much spinach wilts down when you cook it.  Thank goodness the kids didn't want to eat any of it so there was enough for the adults.

I thought I would make this again and again over the summer but alas I did not.  So this fall and winter will be my season of Gomae, maybe.  It's quick and easy and lasts for a couple of days in the fridge so it would be a good lunch addition.  Just remember to squeeze the spinach as dry as you can get it - make room for that delicious dressing.

Recipe: Spinach with Sesame Sauce (Gomae)

Sunday Dinner - Garlic Butter Chicken and Cauliflower Rice

Who can BELIEVE it is September. I mean, come on. 

The Summer was gone in an instant.  Our bucket list did not get very far this year.  

2018 started off terrible and slow and now we only have 4 months left of the year.  FOUR!  

Let's make them good ones.

Now on to Sunday Dinner.

 So, I am trying to lose weight and it is not going well.  At all.

I was/am/trying to get back to trying low carb eating.  I lost a few pounds in July but gained them back in August because August has become a difficult month for me and eating is how I cope, dammit.

I found this low carb chicken and cauliflower rice dish online.  I like cauliflower a lot and so does the fam so we gave this a go.  My Dad was not impressed about the cauliflower rice when he arrived for dinner and saw me cooking it, but in the end he really enjoyed it.

This one is a keeper - a nice quick delicious meal.

Recipe:  Garlic Butter Chicken with Parmesan Cauliflower Rice