Food: October Eats

Okay so if you haven't noticed already from previous post I am trying to improve my culinary skills, add more fresh ingredients and homemade from scratch items to my families menu.  There have definitely been a lot of hits and misses. For instance a couple of weeks ago from-scratch meatloaf ended up being beef stroganoff after negligently misreading the recipe and adding the cream of mushroom soup to the mixture, rather than poring it on top of the mixture to keep it moist and flavorful.  My from scratch pumpkin pie was okay, not quite a miss but could us some improvement.  I didn't exactly have everything that the recipe asked  for despite sending my husband to the store 3 times in one week, so I had to make substitutions with items I already had on hand.

Photo via boulderlacavore.com 

If you're already following my board Yummy on Pintrest, you know that most of the new recipes being added to my menu can be found there.  One of my favorite recipes is short, sweet, and simple. Home made fries, who need Ore-Ida when you have cutting board, olive oil, salt and a hot oven.  Yes they take a little more time and effort, but it is so worth it.   I used a recipe by Toni of Boulderlacavore.com that can be found by clicking the photo to your immediate right.  I will definitely be using this recipe for years to come, home-cooking made easy.

Photo from foodnetwork.com

Another high note in potatoes was the Tyler Florence's Scalloped Potato Gratin hat I found on FoodNetwork.com. OMG no more box for me, these were so good.  Not the picture on the left is not from my try at this recipe, but it turned out exactly like the recipe said it would, so flavorful and creamy.  I would normally think of using a cheddar or white cheddar for making Potatoes Au Gratin, but the grated Parmesan , nutmeg, thyme, and cloves came together so well in this recipe.  Of course I had to do my soulful thing and add one of my pantry favorites Lawry's Seasoned Salt.  It is just something about Lawry's and the truth is I never follow any recipe exactly the way it is written.

Contrary to the way this post may seem, not everything that I made in the month of October was savory.  I also made a pumpkin pie completely from scratch, hubbard squash bread with raisins, and experimented with baby cereal cookies.  The later was an epic fail, okay well not really since the girls loved them, but they just weren't sweet enough for me.

This weekend I won't get to cook a lot, but tonight is nacho night. I'm feeling pretty lazy and the whole family can make their own bowl  On My Grocery List Tonight-

-Fresh Cilantro
-Black Beans
-Sour Cream
-Lettuce
-Tomato
-Nacho Chips

I will be combining two recipes The Turkey Chili Recipe from Oprah.com and Velveeta Ultimate Nacho Recipe from Kraft.com. I'm making my own seasoning blend using a recipe I found on Rachel cooks.com. I have some ground turkey in the freezer and some Velveeta in the fridge so this is going to be a good night.  What are you cooking tonight?

Najeema Iman, I AM Curly Locks

Follow my yummy board on Pintrest at http://pinterest.com/iamcurlylocks/yummy/

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