The Kitchen Whisperer

Archive for the ‘Weekly Menu’ Category

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Apple Crumb Cake with Apple Cider Glaze and the 10 Minute Pressure Cooker Chicken Barbacoa Soft Wraps!

Happy Sunday TKW Family!  How are things in your world?  Dish – what’s the best/most funnest (yes I said funnest – go with it) thing you did and or ate?  For me I’d say it’s two things:

1. The Fantabulous in-laws spent the weekend at our house.
2. The second best thing was the Italian Braciole I made for them.

I absolutely love my in-laws to pieces and would love nothing more than to have them move in with us. They are both in their 80’s and while they are as spry as can be, their house is just too much for them to take care of. Since we live an hour away it’s not like we can just pop over and do their grass after work. Now Mama Fantabulous tells me she’s not going anywhere but I just smile and tell her “That’s okay Ma. I’ll just kidnap you one of these days.” And that’s when she tells me she’ll put a hit out on me. Hahaha… gotta love that woman!

The second thing was the braciole. So Mama Fantabulous for years would talk about how she always use to make it but that she hadn’t made it in years because it’s just the two of them and it’s time-consuming. So I took to Google to see what braciole actually was. First I had to figure out how to spell it. All I’m going to say is “thank you google for understanding what’s in my head when I butcher the spelling of words”. LOL Once I got that and realized it’s honestly nothing more than just a piece of flattened beef, stuffed with “stuff” and then rolled up super tight like a cinnamon roll. Once you do that you deglaze the pan, add in some tomatoes with sauce, put the rolls in the pan, cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Yeah, it’s that easy. And what’s great about it, is you get to stuff it with whatever you want. You want bacon, cheese and chopped veggies – go for it. For me, I decided to more of an Italian route. I toasted up some pine nuts and breadcrumbs. To that I added some cheeses, peppers, golden raisins and a few other items. Mama Fantabulous helped me tie it up. Normally you would pan sear it off then do the whole tomato/tomato sauce thing and put it in the oven but we had other plans. I took Mama Fantabulous shopping.

Of course we hit up Home Goods which is my all time favorite store. Next, I took her to At Home which is brand new to Pittsburgh. She was awestruck. Seeing her face light and up and hear her say “Oh Lori, look at this!”, “OHHHH Look at that!!!” was priceless.
Take today to be lazy!

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Hot Damn! Honey Butter Sriracha Roasted Chicken and the Creole Cajun Shrimp Po’Boy!

Happy Sunday TKW Family! Before I get started I want to take a moment to say a prayer for those, these past few weeks, that have been struck with such devastating blasts from Mother Nature. From Hurricane Harvey to now Hurricane Irma it’s heartbreaking. Then that 8.1 earthquake in Mexico… I’m at a loss for words. Love and continued prayers to those impacted by this. May God keep you out of harms way. Please, whatever you can do to help out, do so. Even a silent prayer helps.

On a more personal note, THANK YOU ALL so much for your continued love and prayers for Mr. Fantabulous. He’s on the mend but it’s a slow process and unfortunately on top of the infectious disease he contracted, we both have a nasty virus (cold) that has hit us hard. But to be honest I kind of expected us to get a cold as it’s the change in seasons here in Pittsburgh plus it didn’t help us going from 110F weather to the 50’sF pretty much in one day. The bad part is we’ve pretty much done nothing but sleep or feel crappy. But at least we’re feeling crappy together, right?  That whole “in sickness and health” marriage clause is in effect now.

Today should be a fun day as I’m going to a dear friend’s bridal shower. She’s a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland therefore her shower is themed as such. We’re to wear our tea attire and maddest hat. I’m actually really excited as I get to see her plus some other friends and it gets me out of the house for a bit. The only down size is I am wearing a dress. I. HATE. Dresses! Even as a child I hated dresses and skirts. Perhaps it’s from my always being the fat kid and my chubby thighs rubbing together, dunno. BUT tis her day and I want to make her happy.

Since we’ve been sick, I’ve been making pots of soup for us as honestly that’s about the only thing we want to eat. Well that and pizza. I always want pizza. Plus with Fall in the air soup is like a requirement in my house. From now until April (because that’s when it’ll finally start to warm back up here), you will always find one batch of soup in my fridge. Do you have a favorite Fall soup that you always have on hand?

It’s soup and chili weather!

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Thick ‘n Creamy Loaded Potato Soup and the Mexican Baked Beef Short Rib Soft Tacos!

Happy proper Sunday TKW Family! I’m just drained – physically, emotionally and whatever else “ally” word there is. So much has happened this past week, heck these past few weeks that I don’t even know where to begin. So as you recall we flew in super late last Sunday and Monday I ended up rushing Mr. Fantabulous to the ER as he became gravely ill. That ER doc was a complete joke and could have killed my husband.  Thank God when I called the Infectious Disease doctor’s office in the morning the nurse told me to immediately rush him to another ER. I drove mock-speed to the that ER and he was admitted immediately. He had lost a good portion of his vision, he would break out into critically high fevers/sweats and then immediately start to shiver. His cognitive functions were extremely slow, his eyes were painful to the touch. His chest would seize upon any movement and he couldn’t take but a few steps without being completely winded. While not all of the cultures are back (this will take weeks to grow) the doctors are leaning towards it being Coccidioidomycosis or Valley Fever. He contracted it while we were in Arizona. It’s a fungal infection in the lungs that can, if not treated immediately, be deadly.  Since we weren’t in the dessert or hiking, most likely they feel it was contracted by the construction that was taking place on site where we stayed.

He stayed in the hospital all week and I was finally allowed to bring him home on Friday night but with several restrictions – no exertion, short distances, breathing treatments, high antibiotics, and a few other items for the next 4 weeks. Thankfully his vision has started to return and his headaches have seemed to subside though he still gets the fevers/chills and winded. Since Monday is a holiday, I’ll have to wait until Tuesday to call all of his doctors to schedule follow-up appointments. So needless to say I didn’t sleep more than maybe 2 hours in 4 days.  However Friday night, once I knew he was in his REM sleep, sleeping like a baby, I finally slept. I’m still not fully with it (i.e, I’m having dreams about Charlie Sheen. WTH?)

Scary…

So yeah, this past week has been hell. But I did get some good news, my shoulder surgeon did release me to go back to work (limited duties and restricted driving). I have to have an EMG test though to see why I have weakness in my right arm/hand – like I can’t even pop bubble wrap with that hand. I’ve heard that that test is not pleasant and kind of hurts a tad but if I must, I must.

God, when in the hell did we get….old?
There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Pressure Cooker Mom’s Classic Pot Roast with Savory Onion Gravy and the Creamy Cheesecake Strawberry Parfaits!

Happy Sunday, Monday, um… Tuesday TKW Family. I’m so sorry for getting this out 2 days late but so much has happened in the past 2 weeks and more importantly, last 3 days that everything is a blur.   I’m beyond exhausted, my shoulder/bicep just needs fall off, I’m doing everything I can to not freak out and cry from both joy and fear (you’ll find out more in a bit). God, where do I even start?

So Mr. Fantabulous had to fly out to Arizona for work and since yours truly can’t drive, cook (hell I can’t even cut a piece of toast in half with a knife!) and pretty much can’t even dress herself without assistance I went too. Maybe it was a vacation but it didn’t feel like one though for the most part. He worked and I would stay at the resort either sitting by the pool (okay fine that was the vacation part) or sitting in the room with him to try to take care of him. When he wasn’t sick we’d go to a few local spots and I even got to meet up with Isabel and her friend, Vanessa, from Tasty AZ at one AMAZING restaurant for lunch. Seriously those 2 girls are like my West Coast twins as our food tastes are so similar that it was scary but exciting!

While we were there Mr. Fantabulous fell ill. We both thought it was just allergies but when he started having trouble catching his breath and lost his voice we went to an urgent type clinic. The doc said it sounded like just an upper respiratory infection so he put him on Prednisone, Tessalon Pearls (for coughing) and an inhaler. After about 3 days of taking it he started to feel better. At the same time little did I know that the man was conspiring behind my back with the resort staff. You see our 10 year wedding anniversary was approaching. That day, he woke up feeling much better however it was yours truly that felt like crap – headache, fever, just downright sick. Well the staff said “Oh Lori, there is some famous food critic here today and you’re going to meet him, have lunch and talk food.”  I just looked at Mr. Fantabulous and he knew I felt like death. Well before I could say no, they said “Okay they’ll be by the room at 2:45 to pick you up.”

I wasn’t too happy and Mr. Fantabulous didn’t help matters much as he said “Oh honey that’s cool!  Maybe it’s Chef Ramsey.” Well, okay, he first called him “Dave Ramsey” who is a talk show host that is a genius when it comes to managing your money and saving for your future. HIGHLY recommend listening to him. I just sighed and said “fine”. After breakfast we went over to the spa just to relax – well okay he goes to relax, I just sat by the pool to get some sun on this very, VERY pasty white body. About 45 minutes into I texted him and said I was heading back to the room as I just felt horrible.

I married the most amazing man ever!

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps and the – Caramel Infused Apple Cheddar Chicken Burgers!

Happy Sunday TKW Family! How’s your week been?  The past couple of weeks ours has been rather relaxing. Sometimes you have to just shut off the world and take a breath. We (all) work so super hard that often we lose track of ourselves and our needs. We push ourselves to (and through) our limits just to meet a deadline or get something done. Or maybe that’s just the norm for some. Only knowing full speed or level 10 high at a constant rate. However, at some point you’re going to burn out or worse.

We forget to look after us or put our needs last. That’s kind of what we have been doing. Well, not so much me as I can’t do much, but rather Mr. Fantabulous. About 2 weeks ago, after our sister in law passed away, Mr. Fantabulous’ brother called us and asked us to go on a last minute trip to Ocean City, Maryland for a couple of days to just get away. His heart had been broken with the loss of his wife and he needed to get away from their house just for a few days.

So us, and the Fantabulous in-laws, headed up to Ocean City for a couple of days. Overall the trip was really nice as anytime I can spend with the Fantabulous family is a blessing. I truly am blessed to have married into such a great family. Have you ever been to OC? This was a first for me. See growing up we couldn’t afford vacations like that. Our vacation was maybe a weekend trip to Sea World in Ohio for the day and then we’d all cram in a single crappy motel. I always always got the rollaway bed.

Let’s get our deliciousness on!