Time for Dinner!

We've had a couple of yummy dinners this last week. I can tell how often I've been cooking - or not cooking - by how many forks come out of the dishwasher. If it's mostly spoons that means really only Baby Girl has been eating homemade stuff while her parents have been eating out. This week, we've been very good about eating at home or at least food made from our own kitchen. Our fridge has actual leftovers in it! We're a real family now.

The first dish just screamed fall to me and I really wanted to stand next to the stove all afternoon and eat it out of the skillet. It made the house smell all warm and cozy on an above 90-degree day (ugh! Today is the first day of fall and you would never know it!). It was a sausage, green beans, and apples cooked in vinegar and beer. I used just the original flavor of Blue Moon beer (I know nothing about beer and really despise the taste of it so I went with what seemed safe and popular). I also used an apple cider vinegar. I figured with the wheat beer it needed a somewhat sweet yet harvest-y flavor. It was so good! The flavors of the entire dish was like eating a perfect fall day where you get to wear a scarf in Southern California.

The second dish we had tonight. Apparently, we decided to be vegetarians for about an hour. Our main course was Penne Pasta with Roasted Asparagus. Another just yummy dish that you really could just stand and pick at from the pan. The asparagus gives it a very fresh taste and you toss it all together with a great reduced balsamic vinegar that has brown sugar and pepper in it. That is what keeps me going back for more.

As a side we had a Broccoli Salad. This was tempting to make because I like homemade dressings, which always seem hard, but they're really not and the recipe called for shallots. Curtis Stone used these all the time on his "Take Home Chef" show and I always wanted to try one. I'm glad I tried it raw for the first time versus cooking. In the salad they are sliced thin so they easily get lost in the salad, but when you bite into them it's the texture of an onion and the flavor of garlic...well, almost like garlic. I enjoyed them and I look forward to cooking with one next.

Give these recipes a try when you can. They are simple and delicious.

Sausage, Green beans, and Apples

Penne Pasta with Asparagus

Broccoli Salad