Welcome to the weekend, my friends! Are you enjoying the cooler fall weather as much as we are? My brother is in town and I’m looking forward to much laughter, delicious food, and some board games, too. Since the weather is supposed to be great through the weekend, I’m hoping that we’ll be outside as much as possible in the cool mornings.
ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Tender pieces of flank steak are simmered in their own juices creating a rich and super flavorful broth to make the Carne en su Jugo (a.k.a. Meat in its Juices) that my family loves so much.
When I say that my family loves this, what I really mean is we LOVE LOVE LOVE this meal. So much so that my oldest son has requested Carne en su Jugo for his birthday dinner for the past five years now.
This easy-as-can-be sheet pan chicken dinner has become a favorite in many of your homes over the past two years. And my family continues to make it at least once a month. It only takes about 5 minutes of effort to toss the chicken, potatoes, and green beans in a simple lemon and herb vinaigrette before roasting until tender and crisp.
Honey glazed carrots are a welcome side dish combining the natural sweetness of carrots with a light and buttery honey glaze. This recipe can be made in just ten minutes, about the same amount of time it might take to steam some vegetables. And while I do enjoy a good many steamed vegetables, the wow factor of this glazed carrots recipe is a step or two above that.
Crispy Cajun cauliflower brings a kiss of heat to this tasty, slightly crunchy side dish. Cauliflower is a wonderfully blank slate when it comes to playing with different flavors. This makes it a perfect canvas for roasting and adding seasonings to pair with any dish.
Chock-full of bacon and beef, sweetened with molasses, and simmered until thick and sweet, cowboy baked beans are sure to impress! This recipe has been my favorite way to make baked beans for years.
An orange banana smoothie is proof that the simplest things are often the best. With just two ingredients and under five minutes, you can make the easiest smoothie ever. (And if you choose to include the bonus ingredients, it gets even better!)
This chocolate pudding bundt cake is pure chocolate lover’s heaven! Rich, deeply chocolatey, and super moist, this cake gets rave reviews and recipe requests every time I serve it.
Creamy sweet vanilla ice cream with a hint of fruity olive oil on the back is an unexpected grown-up flavor treat. I absolutely loved this olive oil ice cream served with a dish of fresh berries, and two of my children surprised me by enjoying it as well.
What I’m CRAVING: Lynne’s lemon olive oil cake! It is moist, tender, and bursting with fresh lemon flavor. (It would be pure dessert heaven with a scoop of that olive oil ice cream on it, too!) When she baked it for me last time she was here, I finally had to call a friend and give away the last half of the cake, just so I would stop cutting a slice every time I passed the cake in the kitchen.
What I’m READING: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I’m about 2/3 of the way through this one, and I’m breaking my self-imposed rule of not recommending books that I haven’t finished reading. This has been a slow, though interesting, read for me. I’ll admit that in the past, an Oprah recommendation has been more likely to put me off than to convince me to read a book, but this time it has not disappointed.
I don’t even recall who recommended this book to me, but I’m grateful for it. It’s been a very different kind of read for me, more likely to be a book my sister would enjoy than one for me, but it’s good! (I’m laughing to myself now, wondering if Jenny was the one who recommended it in the first place.) I’ll update with my final thoughts on this one next week.
What I’m LISTENING to: Walk Through Fire by Ben Fuller. I absolutely love this album. I heard his song “Walk With Me” a couple of weeks ago and immediately added it to my playlist. Turns out that the entire album is just as good.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Wishing you a beautiful week filled with little things that make you smile!
Mary
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