Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime, with Triple Pork Fried Rice

The rice is from yesterday's meal but I was happy to have it to round out tonight's meal. My husband is crazy for anything ginger so I immediately bookmarked (or pinned) the crab cake recipe when I saw it.

Crab cakes are kind of indulgent for my summer budget and then I had to have a nice wine to with it, so this meal was an unexpected yayyyyyy! (Rosè wine not pictured.)

 

Yesterday I posted this pretty picture to Instagram and titled it "Bacon is pretty."

It was a lot of bacon but my husband digs it. He actually is drawn to the smell of bacon cooking...he comes into the kitchen to nibble it and I usually scold him.

The Triple Fried Rice called for bacon, ham, and chopped pork chops. I had canadian bacon so I called that close enough to ham.

The finished fried rice. Everything was cooked in small amounts of bacon grease. Yum.

 

I also posted this picture of the dirty dishes. I watched an interesting video yesterday about the lost art of cooking. So many Americans don't take the time to cook and instead rely on easy, processed foods. The average amount of cook time is 15-20 minutes, mainly to boil water or reheat proceeded food. That uses about a pot and very few other dishes, so the average time for dish washing is four minutes.

I'm kinda proud to tell you that my husband spends about 15 minutes doing the many dishes that I dirty- cutting boards, prep bowls, food processor parts, multiple pots and pans, etc.

Poor Jim!

 

I mixed the lump crab meat, cilantro, grated ginger, panko breadcrumbs, lime zest, green onions, mayo, and hot sauce about an hour before I wanted to sauté them.

 

I showed my son that these are made just like his beloved chicken sandwiches- dipping in flour, egg, and panko, but with crab. No go. He tried a bite and liked the crunch but not the crab. More for us?

One or two minutes per side in a bit of olive oil and butter and they were done!

We really enjoyed these. I could probably add a bit more ginger and hot sauce to kick these up a notch in flavor.

 

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crab Cakes with Ginger and Lime.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Triple Pork Fried Rice.

 

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"Hotdish" and Blackberry Chèvre Salad

Actually, I don't like the word hotdish. I prefer casserole. It's kind of like my inner struggle with "supper" versus dinner. I prefer dinner. I think I'm resistant to being completely Minnesotan. I have California roots!

Anyway..

I'm done with the Pioneer Woman. I still follow her blog and I bookmarked this recipe. I bought all the ingredients but didn't end up making it last week. My broccoli was on the verge of expiring so I pulled out the recipe for tonight's dinner. I read through the reviews and saw many people proclaim this casserole bland and fussy. I proceeded knowing I should add salt and love to make it right.

I say I'm done because I haven't had much luck with her recipes lately.

So this Broccoli Wild Rice Casserole was okay. Just okay. It happens. It was a lot of chopping and prep, so it's not worth a repeat performance.

 

There is a layer of wild rice, blanched broccoli, cooked chicken (my addition), and then a homemade cream of mushroom type sauce (with a pound of diced mushrooms, some carrots and celery). Oh, and then a layer of panko crumbs tossed with butter.

 

OMG. We have TONS left. I was going to half the recipe, I really was, but I had so much broccoli to use. I did add chicken so I did reduce the amount of rice and broccoli, just slightly. I worried about another ingredient soaking up the sauce so that was my adjustment.

 

Truly, the star of the meal was the Blackberry Chèvre Salad. I am in love with goat cheese. I couldn't find honey chèvre at my local grocery store so I used plain goat cheese drizzled with honey. I toasted the pecans in butter and spices, and I blended some fresh blackberries with red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, and S&P.

 

F@$% yeah! I'm really glad I liked this because this is the start of our week of salads. Side salads and main dish salads. It just feels right.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Wild Rice Broccoli Casserole.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Chèvre Salad.

 

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Pad Thai

It was my first time making this! And because we love all things Thai I definitely want a good recipe in my repertoire!

 

This was a very easy dish to make. So easy that I got a little frazzled in the kitchen, keeping up with the few quick and easy steps and then trying to figure out our other parts of dinner time (James' sides, setting the table, calling the boys to dinner, etc.) I should have done all that other stuff and then started the cooking. Lesson learned! This comes together pretty quickly.

I made one substitution (as suggested by the blogger), using lime juice instead of the tamarind paste. I just could not find it in my local Cub or Target stores. Darn. The sauce was still spicy sweet and flavorful. I'd be curious to find the tamarind paste and see if it improves it. Hmmm.

I do like to stay true to good recipes but I think next time I would add vegetables. Or maybe serve a vegetable on the side?

Dear Jim's verdict was that it was "very good". He said it twice so he meant it! He also said that it reminded him of sweet and sour. We are keeping this recipe and adding it our rotation. Yay!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pad Thai.

 

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Thai Ground Turkey with Basil and Chiles

 

I really appreciated this recipe! I've been craving rice lately and I love these flavors- it reminds me of Big Bowl's Spicy Basil Chicken. Jim and I both agreed that the spice was just right, or maybe I could bring it down a notch so we could notice the other flavors because there is a lot going on here!

Ginger, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, chiles, peanuts, basil, lime, Sriracha, peanuts, green onions, mmmmmmmm.

I'm sure ground turkey is not Thai. It makes for a lighter, healthier meal so I didn't mind it at all. Jim suggested shrimp for next time. We also agreed on more sauce.

I spilled all over the recipe so I'm going to need to print out a new copy. I really, really need to. This recipe is a keeper. (I discovered that if I don't have recipes printed out and organized in my binder, I don't repeat them.)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Thai Ground Turkey with Basil and Chiles.

 

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Turkey, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup

Still working on leftovers. We used most of the leftover turkey in this soup. Soups are my FAVE. We needed to pick up mushrooms (baby bellas), more broth, and an onion.

This simmered in the background while we played with James and enjoyed our Christmas lights.

This was a great soup. I'm so glad there is leftovers of the leftovers!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Turkey, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup.

Grilling- Asian inspired meal

Jim received a great grilling cookbook from my sister Ana for his birthday. It is called The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbeque. The first page that I opened the book up to called our names.

We made Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy, Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce, Coconut Curried Fried Rice, and Sesame Lemon Cucumber Salad.

I almost think we had too many flavors on our plate. They were all VERY good. Everything smelled AMAZING too. I am nuts for coconut so the rice really, really appealed to me. It was also a bit spicy from the curry paste so that was great too.

I did prep everything- the brine, the chicken rub, the sides- but Jim gets lots of credit for the grilling because I don't know even know how to turn it on :) Without Jim this meal wouldn't have been possible.

Lots of spice in the rice. My rice cooker bowl is permanently stained yellow I think. Oh well. The rice cooked with coconut milk... mmmmm......

This dipping sauce was THE BOMB. So easy.

The rub was also pretty easy. I always thought rubs were dry ingredients, but this was one was really wet with lots of lime juice, oil, and spices. Jim said it flared up a bit in the grill but luckily enough of the rub was also placed under the chicken skin. It was really flavorful and MOIST (Ana!) because of the brining.

James stole his Daddy's seat at the table. Too bad he didn't try the grub.

The recipes for the Chicken and then the Cucumber Salad were both from the cookbook. I did find the recipes online and they are linked below. The rice recipe is from a trusty food blogger.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy, Sweet, and Sour Dipping Sauce.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Sesame Lemon Cucumber Salad.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Coconut Curried Fried Rice.

Lemony Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp

I can't believe I ever bothered with precooked shrimp. We much prefer the fresh(er) taste of cooking with uncooked shrimp, especially if you cook them just right! I kept a close eye on these shrimp so they'd be tasty!

Risotto isn't that hard. I don't know what Gordon Ramsey fusses about. Okay, I do really. I guess I just make sure that I have everything chopped and prepped so that I don't have to scurry around the kitchen during that crucial 18 minutes of stirring and adding, stirring and adding.

I wouldn't change a thing about this risotto. It was delicious! Maybe I would add a squirt of lemon juice on top to brighten it up a bit. Maybe. Personal preference.

Thanks Kristina and Ana (& Rich) for the recipe! It will be one of those that you keep handy for comfort food. Jim will love if this makes it into a regular rotation!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Lemon Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp.

Pssssst! Do you see my artisan bread in the background? Third batch of bread! I'm still trying to perfect the master recipe. I think they are going well enough, but I'm anxious to try out something more exotic. It's amazing how yeast, water, salt, and flour come together to make such deliciousness!