Thai Pho Soup

I made this pho soup after having some at a restaurant, I tried to reverse engineer it.


First, I sautéed one small white onion in a little olive oil, added two cloves crushes garlic and about two teaspoons shredded fresh ginger, I added about 3/4 cup mushrooms (I wished I had the black ear type) . Then I added 32 oz seafood stock, 1/2 lb. Fresh lomain nooddles, 1 teaspoon oyster sauces, 2 teaspoons fish sauce, 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer. Add 1 tablespoon fresh Thai Basil, 1 tablespoon cilantro , 1 tablespoon mint and 1/2 lb. fresh shrimp. Simmer two to three minutes. Add 1/2 lb. mung beans, simmer one more minute. Enjoy!

Note: amounts are estimates.

Festival of Leftovers

Today I needed to eat some stray items in my fridge, freezer and pantry, so here is my lunch:





Trader Joe's Couscous with lentils and baby garbonzo beans, turkey sausage, onions, carrots and zucchini. It was good, but I think I'll use the shredded veggies next time and maybe add some garlic and spinach. What is hanging out in your kitchen that you want to use up?

Breakfast

So one of my favorite things to do with left over potatoes is to make hash browns.  Luckily for me, my Dad feels the same way.  Here is the yummy breakfast that he made today.  Cheese omlette with turkey sausage and hash browns.  He used his bacon press to get the hash brown crispy.

Grilled Lamb and Yogurt with Black Forrest Sauce

 So, more vacation cooking with my Dad, here in Colorado.  The funny thing is when I'm at my Dad's, I don't cook at all.  I return to the kid, at least now he lets me do the dishes.  As a person who lives alone, it is pure joy not to have to cook and clean up.  Here is one of our dinners:

Grilled Lamb Loin Chops with Pommery Mustard, fresh corn (cooked only for 3 minutes) and boiled potatoes.

Dessert was frozen yogurt with his latest project,
Black Forest Sauce (cherry with coco sauce) and chocolate sauce.  The recipe is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  So yummy with leftovers for lunch.

Cookbooks

I love to see how people keep their cookbooks.  Here at Casa de Dad, he has not a shelf, but an entire bookcase of cookbooks.  I love how he has enough room to have not only his books, but little art/bookends.  My aunt make one of the pottery pieces, one bookend is made from the bricks of the building my grandfather had his dental practice in for years, the ducks were purchased on a trip to Montreal, so more memories with the books.

 Here is the go to classic section.  I love to look at his Better Holmes and Garden Cook from the 1960's "new" recipes.

Here is his Mexican food on the right and canning section to the left.  Only a tough guy like my Dad can pull off the cute bear in the bookcase.  Here is one of his favorite books.

Dad's Canning Stash

My love of food came from my parents. I'm visiting my Dad this week and he was as eager as 1st place science fair winner, to show me this:


His canning stash for his Christmas care packages. I can't reveal all the goodies, but here are two gems.


Cherry and chocolate!






Pineapple Chipole Salsa!

Oh there are going to be some happy faces at Christmas Time.

Mixing Up the Salads

I have so many wonderful salads that I love to make in the summer, but sometimes I don't have all the right ingredients for one, in that case I like to mix-up the recipes.  here I have a lovely mixed green salad with grilled chicken and cilantro lime salad dressing (from Florida Style Grilled Chicken Salad).
This post has brought to my attention that I have not posted this salad, so you'll just have to wait until I make this.  It is from the book list here.