My husband purchased a toaster oven recently, because our microwave caught on fire. It involved a sponge and me pushing the cook button instead of the timer. Microwaves really aren’t good for you anyways. So, apparently, my husband liked that the oven had a lot of special features on it. Of course, I don’t know…
Category: Small Dice
Small Dice Challenge: Thanksgiving Aftershock
My favorite holiday is over. My parents returned to Texas only a couple of days after Thanksgiving and left us with a bunch of leftovers, including turkey, cranberry sauce, half of two uneaten pies, more than half a container of jello salad, and more. The first day, I decided to make a soup, because my…
Small Dice Challenge: Gigi Edition
It’s almost Thanksgiving, and my family came up from Texas to visit. My mom, aka Gigi, who I have mentioned before, is a master in the kitchen. She always kept us well-fed growing up and then some. I decided to challenge her for this week’s Small Dice. I chose the following: Organic Dark Sweet Cherries…
Small Dice Challenge: Leftovers
Last week, we went to the library for the Day of the Dead story time. This one kid proudly announced that he was “a little sick” after my son had been chewing greedily on the same chair the kid had just infected. Sure enough, a few days later, we were the living dead. Throughout the…
Small Dice Challenge: BBQ Chicken Wing Salad
My daughter wanted to cook dinner this week while I chose the ingredients. I told her while she cooked that I was going to sit back and drink some wine. She pointed out that I would have to help her with the stove. I have such short-lived dreams. I still chose some pretty easy ingredients…
Small Dice Challenge: Pumpkin Curry Soup and Ribs
This week, we (pumpkin) spiced things up by going with a Halloween theme. I let my daughter go grocery shopping with me, so she could pick out her “spooky” ingredients. She promised me she wouldn’t get “watermelon brains” like we had watched on Chopped recently. She, instead chose: The day before cooking, we decided to…
Small Dice Challenge: Thai-inspired Fish and Rice
This week we changed up our scene a little. My daughter had expressed a few days earlier that she wanted to help me cook on Chopped night after cooking something with her Papa. After the initial “Eek,” I agreed that it was a “great idea” and thanked my daughter for taking the initiative to blah blah…
Small Dice Challenge: Lemony Spinach Alfredo Pasta
When we came home from Jazz class, my daughter asked to watch Chopped. They had a Halloween special with gory-themed ingredients, including eyeballs and meal worms. The eyeballs were really mozzarella balls with olives, but the mealworms were really mealworms. As she watched, my daughter was inspired to dress up in one of her three Halloween…
Small Dice Challenge: Johnny Cakes
I was hoping my daughter would choose our leftover Chinese food, and I could call it a day. I saw this on Facebook and wanted to make a burrito from the fried rice and sesame chicken. But, alas, she chose some pretty ridiculous things. Pickles Annie’s organic mozzarella pizza poppers Campbell’s Organic chicken noodle soup featuring Frozen characters…
Small Dice Challenge: Shrimp Curry and Lassi
There have been three influences in my life that encourage me to try to cook more creatively (or at all). My mother, the original role model, could take yesterday’s leftovers and create an entirely different meal from it. My husband, my muse (and really the pickiest person I know), sees a Chopped-stocked refrigerator when looking for…