Successful First-Attempts

Well, it seems that it has been a while since I've written! I have been busy cooking!

When I was working it was not unusual for us to have crock-pot soups more than once a week, easy meals for working people. But now that I am very pregnant and have a lot of beautiful time on my hands, I have been venturing into new worlds of new recipes...

I have had four very successful first-attempts in the past month!

1~ Potato skins with cheddar cheese and bacon
The Joy of Cooking has a great recipe for these. It took me two whole years of serving these at the restaurant I worked at before I made them myself. They always looked appetizing, but I was turned away by the fact that they were deep-fried twice and microwaved once before being served. No thanks! We were in for a delicious surprise when I finally made them.

2~ Meatloaf
I can't say this word without thinking of The Brady Bunch! But seriously, it is really good and a very economical dish for a crowd of people. (Nourishing Traditions recipe). Toby says yes to leftover meatloaf sandwiches. Next time I am going to make chile with the leftovers.

3~ Eggplant Parmigiana
Okay, so this picture is not too great, but the dish sure was. Again, I got the recipe from the The Joy of Cooking. Eggplants were from the farmer's market- yum!

4~ Stuffed Peppers
Thanks to Matt and Dulcie for the garden-peppers. They were stuffed with ground beef, rice, onion, chicken stock, spices, pine nuts, and topped with cheese- You really can't go wrong! A successful Nourishing Traditions recipe.

Maybe next time I will venture into a new cookbook!! I just can't seem to get enough of those two.

Baby Weinert is a lucky one! So is Toby.

Happy Experimenting!