Delicious Food

This summer, I've been planning the family meals, and when I'm around, cooking them. RuthAnn suggested searching the food blogs for recipes. About a week ago I found two recipes which looked great. We tried them Monday and Tuesday, and both were a success.

On Monday night, Philip made Spicy Grilled Chicken Salad with Noodles

Click here to find the recipe. Here's what we tweaked: we used oyster sauce instead of fish sauce; we used sesame oil instead of walnut oil; we used regular chili sauce instead of chili garlic sauce; and we used chicken breasts instead of thighs because that's what I had.

It was super delicious. Nice, cool, and refreshing. We all thought it would be great to put on a tortilla and eat as a wrap. Joanna tried it in our last tortilla, and that was also great. You didn't have to worry about everything making it from the fork to your mouth. The downside was all the prep time with the cutting and julienning the vegetables. Yet, it was all worth it.

On Tuesday, I made Baked Ziti. I've always enjoyed this dish at potlucks, but it was always dry. This one wasn't.

I tweaked the amount of sauce; I had a 24 oz jar and then leftover spaghetti sauce I added in too, so I'm not sure how much I actually used. I also used dried oregano from our garden.

I loved scooping it out and cheese was stringing all over. Super simple. We had delicious crusty and chewy bread as a side. A yummy dinner.

Both meals were great food-wise, but also my family was there which made them better. And as we do, we had good family conversation. And of course we spilled water all over the table on both nights. Soon, we'll be even more scattered over the States, and our family dinners will become a rarity. So I'm trying to enjoy all of them (even when I'm crabby like I was Monday night).