When I first got married, I was telling my Auntie Barb about how I had just gone to the grocery store to “stock up” on necessities…spices, condiments, wax paper.  To which she replied, “Wax paper? Why do you need wax paper?” I had no answer. I just knew my mom always had it so it must be important, right?

10 years later I can answer that question no problem!  I use wax paper all the time. When I tray freeze food (veggies, cookie dough, etc). For greasing pans. For lining pans when baking (as long as the batter completely covers the paper, see comment #5 below for more information regarding baking). The list goes on! Last week our good friend Nikki helped me make Nate’s birthday cake (she’s a baking extraordinaire, even though she’ll deny it). She used wax paper under the edges of the cake so that icing didn’t get on the cake plate.

{Here’s a shot of the finished cake…isn’t it cute? And take note of the clean cake platter! Thanks, Nikki!}

On a side note, Nikki didn’t believe the cake strips tip I shared last year. I asked her if she saw the picture…she figured those cakes were not done cooking. What? Doctored photos on This Week for Dinner? I think not! I used my homemade cake strips while she was here, to great success once again.  And, believe it or not, Nikki is still skeptical…what’s it gonna take, girl?!? 

Back to wax paper…if you have some genius uses for the stuff, please share!

 Hello dear readers!  Okay, there’s just ONE MORE WEEK of voting for the BlogLuxe awards.  I really want to get into the top 5!!!  I’m close…so go vote! Click on this link, then click “Tastiest” and scroll to find This Week for Dinner. Voting is easy, free and you don’t have to register to be a member of anything. You can vote ONCE A DAY, so you’ve got 7 more votes to put towards a good cause…that would be me.  

Thank you!!!!  If you all go vote this week, for sure I’ll make it into the top 5. We can do it!

The other day on a walk with my girls I saw a neighbor picking fruit from a tree in her yard.  I asked her what kind of tree it was…and she offered to send us home with a bag of the fruit!  It was a plum tree and this is about half of what she gave us.  We don’t even know the woman.  I love friendly neighbors with an overabundance of plums!

I must confess, I did a terrible job sticking to our menu last week…I was SO busy, I never even made it to the grocery store! Which reminds me, I’ve kept track for several weeks and I’ll do a post soon comparing my menu plans with what we really ate…stay tuned for the scoop!

MONDAY:
– Caprese Salad

TUESDAY:
– Fancy Nachos (we didn’t do this last week)

WEDNESDAY:
- Asian Spinach Salad (if you’re new to the blog, I LOVE this recipe)

THURSDAY:
– Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Grilled cheese and tomato soup

SATURDAY:
– 4th of July! I think I’ll plan a cookout!

SUNDAY:
– Cookout leftovers

Please share your menu for the week – last week or upcoming! And have a happy holiday weekend!

Today it’s all about kiwifruit. I had the opportunity to attend a really fantastic lunch this week…more on that another day. One of the companies at the lunch was Zespri. Zespri represents all of the kiwifruit growers in New Zealand. They had samples of kiwifruit on hand and every course of our lunch had kiwifruit incorporated…and it was delicious!

I learned a lot about kiwifruit.  Here are a few of my favorite facts:

• Kiwifruit is SUPER healthy.  Tons of potassium, vitamin C and fiber. 
• There are two varieties, green and gold.  I’ve had green many times, but I’d never even heard of gold. I LOVED the gold variety. It’s sweeter than green and is harvested ripe, so it’s always ready to eat. Sadly, gold kiwis are harder to find in stores.  Asian food markets are more likely to carry gold kiwis, but you could also put a request in at your supermarket if they don’t carry it.   
• Green kiwis contain an enzyme that tenderizes meat (and curdles dairy, if you ever need to do that!). If you leave a couple of slices of green kiwi on your meat for about 30 minutes before cooking, it will tenderize the meat!

The moral of the story?  Go track down some gold kiwis. You’ll thank me.

Zespri’s website is a great resource, with lots of recipes. 

Summer is upon us…which means the farmers’ markets are in full swing all across the country!  Living in California means there is an abundance of farmers’ markets, many of which run throughout the year. Sadly, I rarely take advantage of these fun, tasty, and oftentimes economical local treasures.

Here in lovely Menlo Park we have a year-round farmers’ market that Nate says is great (I trust him!). We’ve also been to the Palo Alto Farmers’ Market (seasonal), which is also great fun and has live music. Cate could not tear herself away from the blue grass band playing when we went. It was adorable. She showed her appreciation afterwards with a toss into the violin case. 

I love getting fresh flowers at farmers’ markets, but there is so much more to be found. What are your favorite farmers’ market finds?

Feel free to share your favorite farmers’ markets, as well! Please list your city and state so it’s easy for people to figure out which markets are close to home, wherever home may be!

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Hope it’s been a great day!

Cate and I got up early this morning and made Nate’s grandmother’s blueberry muffins for him. The muffins were divine, as always…and the batter was pretty darn good too. This is honestly my favorite batter (yes, I’m a dough and batter eater), even more than chocolate cake mix. And that’s saying something.

MONDAY:
- Spaghetti (I know, we’ve been eating this a lot lately…but BOTH girls actually gobble it up, so gotta run with it)

TUESDAY:
– Nate’s Birthday…celebration meal TBD!

WEDNESDAY:
– Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

THURSDAY:
– Asian Spinach Salad

FRIDAY:
– Hot Dogs
- Fresh Fruit

SATURDAY:
– Eat out

SUNDAY:
– Nachos Supreme, whatever that means  

This isn’t the fanciest menu, but keeping it real for a busy week.  

PLEASE SHARE YOUR MENUS! And don’t worry if your menu gets posted later in the week.  I peruse them the following Sunday, so keep ‘em coming all week!

Okay, a non-foodie post, but I think Mozy is a great idea…so, here we go!

My computer is an important part of my life, both personally and professionally. I back up my files on an external hard drive, which sits right next to my computer.  While I have the files backed up, I must admit I’ve always had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind…what if something happened to our home, I’d lose all of our pictures, music, work files…SCARY.

When Today’s Mama approached me to do a review of Mozy, a secure online backup service, I jumped at the chance. For one year I get to use Mozy Unlimited for free, which I’m very excited about. My computer is backing up files to Mozy as I type…and I finally have some peace of mind. I’m excited to see how the service works over the next year, and I’m so glad to have my files backed up off-site!

Interested in Mozy?  You can sign up for a FREE Mozy account and back-up 2 GB of data. Mozy Unlimited is only $4.95/month! And you can get a free t-shirt by clicking here to sign up!

Today’s Mama is also giving away five 1-year Unlimited accounts.  Click here to enter!

Be sure to check out my first contributed article on Make and Takes, a very fabulous website that I’m excited to be a part of!  Today’s article is about tray freezing and I really don’t want you to miss it…click here!

Remember my wicked awesome party I’m co-hosting at the sold-out BlogHer conference?  

Do you want to go? To the party AND the conference? Now’s your chance! Be sure to check out the “Get me to BlogHer” contest sponsored by Whrrl…you could win a trip to BlogHer! I’m crossing my fingers that one of YOU wins. BIG THANKS TO WHRRL!  Be sure to check them out!

Click here to find out how to enter. Good luck!

I love my pastry blender. I use it all the time. For guacamole. For smashing berries when making jam (more on the jam later this week!).  For “slushing” my cranberry slush.  For making baked goods, which is what it was originally intended for! Once in a while when I’m cooking and using one of my favorite kitchen tools, I know I just have to share it with you.  So, allow me to introduce you to my pastry blender!

Isn’t she beautiful?  Now let me be clear, not all pastry blenders inspire such love on my part. In fact, the pastry blender I had before was almost totally useless. But this one? It kicks some serious blending butt. The blades don’t move. They are shaped so they actually cut through things. It’s super sturdy, and the handle is nice and comfy. I purchased mine at Crate & Barrel years ago, but there are similar models elsewhere. The key is looking for non-moving blades with that flat shape. 

Who knew a pastry blender could inspire such love, such PASSION?

Aren’t these beautiful strawberry tops?  They caught my eye yesterday and I had to snap a photo.  Yes, I know I did not carefully cut the tops off, therefore wasting fruit.  No lectures please.  I was in a strawberry jam emergency at the time of the chopping, which emergency I will share the details of with you later this week!

MONDAY:
- Hamburgers on the grill
- Corn on the cob
- Sweet Potato Fries (Trader Joe’s freezer)

TUESDAY:
- Chicken & Broccoli Penne

WEDNESDAY:
- Either Indian food or breakfast for dinner…depending on what we end up eating tonight, Sunday, as I’m planning this menu

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Kitchen-Sink Quesadillas

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Chicken paninis

Please share your menus!  We can’t wait to see your ideas…big and small!

Okay, so an exposé on This Week for Dinner is definitely not as exciting as one on Entertainment Tonight…but it’s an exposé nonetheless!  Did you know the cinnamon in your cupboard is not really cinnamon?  Shocking, I know!  The stuff pictured below is “true” cinnamon, called canela or ceylon.  What most of us have lying around (ground or in sticks) is called cassia. (There’s a nice side-by-side photo on Wikipedia.)

Years ago, Alton Brown from Good Eats went on and on about how cassia cinnamon stinks and that ceylon, the “true” cinnamon, is the only way to go, blah blah blah. I thought it was interesting and then forgot the different names for everything.  Until Lindsay (my super gourmet friend) pulled out her ceylon cinnamon to grind one day.  Then it all came rushing back to me.

You may be asking yourself, what IS the difference and does it matter?  If you really want to know, click “more” and keep reading!

(more…)

Remember my party? And remember the BlogLuxe awards? PLEASE GO VOTE! Don’t forget, you can vote once a day! Yeah, I know I’m begging, but I figured I should beg just a LITTLE.  Voting is easy, free and you don’t have to register to be a member of anything.  I have that handy dandy button there on the right to make it easy for you every time you visit my blog.

Thanks everyone!  Have a happy day!  (Quick note – make sure you VOTE, not nominate. Just click on “Tastiest,” scroll through to find This Week for Dinner, then click VOTE!)

Our favorite pizza place in San Diego had some delicious pizza flavors. In addition to their sumptuous Thai Chicken and Barbecue Chicken pizzas (you really should click those links there), they make a mean Hawaiian.  Last night as I was sprinkling cinnamon over our homemade Hawaiian pizza, I realized I’ve never written a post about Leucadia Pizzeria’s not-so-secret-secret ingredient.

That’s right, that brown stuff sprinkled over the cheese?  Cinnamon.  Trust me, it is delicious.  Sprinkle a bit  over your next Hawaiian pizza and you will be thanking me.

Quick note: I’m going nuts. The battery on my good camera died and my charger has gone AWOL. I’m stuck with my point-and-shoot.  I’m doing my best to make the pictures look good, which is HARD.  For example, yesterday’s photo of bagged chicken left much to be desired.  Granted, it’s a picture of raw chicken, so how good could it be? Oh, with my Canon Rebel and the 50 mm lens, I can make anything look beautiful.  BOTTOM LINE: I’m desperately searching for my battery charger.  Everyone cross your fingers it magically reappears. Until then, if anyone has a Canon Rebel XT battery charger lying around that you want to give away for a good cause (that cause would be pretty pictures of food for you to look at), I’ll pay shipping and give you my secret hot fudge recipe.

The other day I was chatting with a few friends.  Friend #1 mentioned that she has been buying whole chickens and cutting them up since that’s so much cheaper than buying boneless/skinless chicken breasts.  She also mentioned that their kitchen feels like a butcher shop.

I said, “I just wait until the boneless/skinless chicken breasts are on sale at the grocery store.  It’s usually $1.99/lb.”  Both friends looked at me like I had three heads.

I figured if they didn’t know that boneless/skinless chicken breasts go on super sale at the regular old grocery store, than a few of you might not know either!

In case you are not aware, your local grocery store will carry family packs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.99/lb…sometimes less!  They will go on sale randomly, so I always swing by the meat section when I’m at the store. When they ARE on sale, I grab a few packages, individually bag them up in the food storage bags, tie some knots, and toss them in the freezer.  I literally had 10 pounds of chicken breasts on my counter this morning.

Costco’s chicken comes individually packaged…but it’s more expensive.  I think it’s worth the 5 minutes of time to bag it myself.  And, I’ve been able to find chicken on sale like this everywhere I’ve lived.

Back in the day I wrote about how much I love Rhodes rolls. Seriously awesome stuff.  They recently sent me a a box full of Rhodes goodies to say thank you for writing nice things about them.  I wasn’t planning on mentioning them again…but every single product we tried was delicious.  So, thank you Rhodes!  You’re the best!  If your grocery store carries Rhodes, you should definitely be eating it for me…I don’t have it here in the Bay Area and it makes me sad.

MONDAY:
- Hawaiian Pizza

TUESDAY:
- Chicken Parmesan
- Side of pasta and marinara
- Salad

WEDNESDAY:
- Orange Chicken
- Rice and Veggie

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Hamburgers/Hot Dogs on the grill

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Indian food…details tbd

BRING ON THE MENUS!!!!!!!!! Please share what you’re eating this week…or maybe you can just list out what you ate last week!  I love getting all your ideas, fancy and simple.  Keep it coming and thank you!

Nate and Cate are going on a daddy-daughter camp out tonight, which leaves Anna and I to fend for ourselves.  Which I’m actually a little excited about.  I’m just going to feed Anna some leftover spaghetti.  As for me, the possibilities are endless!

Do I order takeout? Do I cook a favorite dish, just for me? Or how about a bowl of cereal?  Ah, the freedom of only having to worry about myself!  I think I’ll even wait until Anna is in bed to eat, a nice peaceful dinner with my book.

Here’s to a lonely night at the dinner table…yippee!!

P.S…Nate and Cate, it’s nothing personal.  I promise.

I was at a party a few months ago where, at the end of the evening, the hostess began wrapping her leftover cheeses in cheese paper.  I didn’t know anything about cheese paper, but I did know it looked cute, so I took a picture.  The hostess said she got the cheese paper from her local cheese shop and that it helped keep the cheese fresher.  (I wonder how many times I can use the word “cheese” in this post…we’re up to 7 already!)

I’ve done a tad bit of research.  This short little NY Times article indicates that cheese paper does indeed help the cheese breathe better and, therefore, last longer. Click over to this website for a very scientific-looking diagram explaining how the paper works, as well as a video explaining how to wrap cheese in the paper.

Hey, if wrapping cheese in paper is good enough for the French, then it’s good enough for me!  I just need to track some of this fancy, dancy paper down.

Reader Shantel has requested ideas for hamburger toppings…she said she’s a big fan of grilled pineapple, but hasn’t ventured much beyond that. I must admit, I am not very creative when it comes to topping my burger…cheese, lettuce, tomato, sometimes grilled mushrooms, and the classic condiments. Yeah, boring. Tasty, but boring.

So bring it on, folks! What are your yummiest hamburger concoctions? Please share all of your ideas – classic and crazy!

Since I don’t have much to offer in the way of toppings, I’ll share how I mix up the meat. Feel free to offer your recipes for the hamburger meat as well!

Hamburger Meat (great title, eh?)
- Sometimes 1 egg
- Bread crumbs – about a handful
- Couple splashes of Worcestershire sauce
- Salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- Dried minced onion – a few shakes (I know, it’s not fresh…but it’s fast and tasty)
- Garlic powder – a few shakes (again, I know not fresh again…call the authorities)
- ~1/8 – 1/4 tsp cumin

Mix it up with your hands, make into patties (I prefer thinner patties, they always thicken up when they cook) and grill away!