All posts by Gina Kleinmartin

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Foods we ate: October and November

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Camping and our son being out of town and me being sick made meals a little less these months.
We had 4 ready to bake pizzas from Aldi. They were on sale, which made them a really good buy.

Lentil soup on the sides of a lot of lunches and dinners.

Goats cheese triangles: these are an experiment based on my favorite salad from Hutch’s that they don’t make anymore. So it’s goats cheese and sundried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar folded up in phyllo that was brushed with olive oil and baked. Pretty good, but my test was to get proportions, and I was too rushed. Opps. I’ll have to make them again.

Polenta with sundried tomatoes. I don’t remember what protein we had with it.

Ful a few times

Taquitos with black beans

Black bean fajitas

Chicken wing dip

Flautas

Breakfast sandwiches and fruit salad

Margherita salad

Hutch’s Cajun pasta (I used to really like that place. But I would never buy pasta out. This was from a local cookbook)

Bilson lentils

3 bean salad

Lemon beans

Garlic lemon beans (Both have garlic in them, but they are different enough)

Creamy Ceci pasta

Josh’s Dip (Josh (RIP) used to make this every year for his Halloween party. He finally gave me the recipe, and we make it every year while carving jacks. Now I use meat, because Fantastic Taco Meat is no longer available) Oh, yes, with funnel cakes

Ham Bone Soup

The Dip soup (soup made with the leftover dip)
yellow pea soup

Sandwiches

Leftovers

Kielbasa and beans

Chaliapin steak

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Foods we ate in September

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September

Hot dogs and custard for my mom’s birthday

Rubber chicken ( I needed leftover chicken for another dish) salt potatoes,

Rice with perilla leaves (this dish needed the cooked chicken)

Hash and eggs

Shrimp crepes

Greek baked fish

Bacon cheeseburger dip

Ful

Galvan salad ( a salad he made up years ago that we all still like- it has oranges, brown rice, and mozzarella)

Sukut burgers

Eggplant napoleon (a Hutch’s copy)

Sweet potato green curry

Ceci and potato stew

Luzon beans

Stewed lentils and pita

Caramelized onions beans

Lentils Makhani

Turkish style lentils

Mayan stle beans

Blackberry pie

Another piece cake

Sourdough English muffins

Black bean fajitas

Lentil and barley lemon soup (with broth from the rubber chicken carcass)

Dinner out at Yalley’s Nigeria food

‘ends’ salad- a sort of antipasto salad

Halloween, Holidays

Halloween books review

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Halloween is just around the corner, about six weeks away from the time I am writing this to however long it is from when you are reading it. Halloween is always right around the corner, though. Some of us never stop thinking about it.

So, a couple of quick reviews about a couple of Halloween books we got from the library this past summer, which are due back now.  Country Living Happy Halloween (such promise!) and Halloween : a grown-up’s guide to creative costumes, devilish decor & fabulous festivities.

The “Country living Happy Halloween! : bewitching parties and recipes, enchanting pumpkins and decorations, plus lots of other spine-tingling ideas” seemed like it would be fantastic, even if it had an easily torn cover (not by me).

It was full of the same basic things all Halloween books are full of, with no real surprises or creative inspirations. I lost all faith in the book with the recipe for white spiced coffee. Somebody missed that there is a phantom set (perfect for Halloween?) of spices. Spices are used twice in the recipe body, but only one set is in the ingredients. It may be petty, but an editing snafu like that will make me not recommend the book to you at all.

I did adore the idea of using a gourd as a vase, though. That was not something I have seen a lot.

On the other hand, Joanne O’Sullivan’s Halloween book is exactly like the kids Halloween books you remember drooling over.

There’s sections on making costumes, wigs, masks, decorations, and everything you need for a party, from invitations to goody bags. Only they are for adults. There are ways to turn an old bridesmaid dress into a costume, to create costumes from landscaping material and cheesecloth, ways to make a mask from scratch, or embellish a store bought one. There are recipes for grown up foods, instructions for grown up games, and grown up goody bags. This was a fun book and gave me some ideas for what we can do ourselves.

And I adore the idea of a couples costume being a Queen and a drone…

And, I am embarrassed to admit I looked at the spider vest and thought ‘but it only has six legs! That’s not a spider, it’s an insect!’. Maybe I need to get to bed earlier tonight.

So those are two books you can get from our library. If you know of other books you’d recommend, please let me know!