Amy's Cooking Adventures: July 2015

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Fresh Green Beans with Caramelized Onions

I love summer! And summer gardens!

I didn’t grow any green beans this year, but a good friend of mine did. And when she had way too many, I came home with a big bag of beans!

I almost made green bean casserole (I love it so much, I can hardly stand that it is a holiday dish!), but I didn’t want to make something quite that rich.

So I decided to make some simple sautéed beans with the onions I love from green bean casserole. Plus some bacon. Because bacon always makes everything better. It was a delicious way to enjoy some garden abundance!

3 Minute Buffalo Cheese Dip

Queso will always be rated very high in my book, but queso has a new cheesy contender for my favorite dip.

Buffalo Cheese Dip that is literally prepped and ready to eat in 3 minutes. It’s easy, delicious, and addicting!! I like to scoop it up on a pita chip & top it with a celery stick and then never stop eating ever.

Oh! And you can also totally swap out the seasoning for something else! Cajun dip? Taco? The possibilities are endless!

Roasted Beet Salad

Earlier this summer I went out to dinner with a good friend and she ordered the beet salad.

I mentally crinkled my nose, because beets? Uh, no thanks.

But when her salad arrived, I was suddenly intrigued and tried a bite. And I loved it!

So when these gorgeous young beets turned up a farmer’s market last week, I knew I needed to make beet salad!

The beets are slow roasted in the oven, then tossed with some roasted onions, a light vinaigrette, goat cheese, and basil. The flavors work together beautifully to balance out that strong, earthy beet flavor.

Beef & Broccoli Ramen

My little Sous Chef, my 7 year old, Dude is guest posting today!

He made an ah-mazing beef and noodle bowl. The flavors are just outstanding – this one was an absolute crowd pleaser!

Roasted Tomato Bloody Mary with Slider Garnish #SecretRecipeClub

It’s Secret Recipe Club Day and I’ve been dying to share this recipe!!!!!

This month, I was assigned Camilla’s blog, Culinary Adventures with Camilla and I was so excited!!

Camilla is our Group B SRC hostess PLUS she’s the brains (and hard work) behind #TripleSBites, 15 Cheesecakes, and #HotSummerEats. Camilla is all about the creativity – you have to stop by her blog and see what I’m talking about!

I was looking through Camilla’s recipes, thinking I’d probably make something sweet, when I saw a bloody mary with a slider garnish. It was all over from there. I mean – slider garnish!! How could I not?

Grilled Corn with Garlic Butter & Lime

Dude is back in the kitchen today with a fabulous grilled corn recipe!

When he was disappointed when I already had a meal plan the other day, so I told him he could choose a side dish. He immediately started googling recipes and was ecstatic when he saw that this recipe came from the Food Network!

We made a few slight adjustments to suit Dude’s taste’s (plus Hubs did the actual grilling) and the results were delicious!

Here’s Dude is his own words:

Stove Top Homemade Mac & Cheese

I’m trying my hardest to make all of my kids’ favorite junky foods from scratch.

I started with homemade chicken nuggets and the kids went nuts over them!

Next was corn dogs, which got two thumbs up from the kiddo that loves corn dogs (and meh, from the other).

Homemade popsicles - - pretty meh all around (the kids had a problem with the texture) but Hubs and I thought they were amazing!

So next up is mac and cheese. The boys are absolutely in love with boxed mac and cheese and usually go on strike if I try and make anything that resembles homemade mac and cheese.

Sesame Garlic Glazed Chicken with Stir Fry Veggies #FoodnFlix

It’s time for this month’s Food ‘n Flix contribution.

This month’s movie was Eat Drink Man Woman and hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

Going in, I had no idea what to expect. Turned out the entire movie is in Chinese. With subtitles.

The movie follows a family with an aging Father and his three grown daughters (living under the same roof). There is a lot of change in relationship status and occupation and accepting of oneself through the film.

The family clearly expresses themselves through food (the father is a chef), so there is tons of foodie inspiration.