Octopus on left, Squid on the right. Butterfly roll in the back.
The squid was kind of plain. The octopus was almost impossible to eat without shark teeth or a sharp knife. I didn’t have either of those things.
The butterfly roll has eel, shrimp, avocado and cucumber. It was delicious.
In this one plate, I crossed three things off of the bucket list.
It was a struggle to find a falafel near me. We live in a small town near other small towns. So we found a place that serves falafels when we went to Cleveland. Actually, there were several places that had falafels on the menu.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the falafel. It turns out that I love falafels. I would even buy a restaurant just to be closer to falafels.
It’s a new year. It’s not necessarily a new me. However, I have been in the kitchen more . . . on purpose.
Since it is the last day of the kid’s Christmas vacation and we all survived, I made banana pancakes. The first batch didn’t look very good. It took a lot of convincing to get the kid to eat.
She said something that I’ve never heard from any of my children. She said, “These are really good mommy. You should make some more.”
It was a New Year’s miracle.
I feel like I could be Wonder Woman in the kitchen. It could happen, right?! I could wear my tiara next time.
The editors at Food Network Magazine are seriously good at what they do: making food look delicious and approachable. I mean, most of the recipes look fairly easy to make even for a non-cook like me.
The table of contents has a picture of every dish. So you can look at all of the recipes and see what they look like before you even get to the first page.
My favorite part of the books, besides the photographs, are the snack time sections. Who doesn’t love snack time? The snacks are healthy – At least these snacks are healthier than what we eat for snacks at my house. Honestly, when no one is home, I eat snacks for dinner. However, now I could make one of the snacks from “The Best and Lightest” and not feel guilty the next morning.
If I wasn’t giving this to someone who really loves to cook, I would keep it for my own kitchen.
*I did receive this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for doing a review.
Tell us what makes a party or event successful in your opinion.
This is a list of four things that will make a party successful.
1. People. You have to have people attend the party to make it a real party. If no one shows up, it is no fun. Trust me.
2. Drinks. Non-alcholic or otherwise. People get thirsty so provide some punch or something. Lucas’ mom makes the best punch. It has strawberries, blueberries.Maybe gingerale. Anyway, it’s the best and easy to make.
It’s sort of like this recipe.
3. Food. People need snacks. It doesn’t have to be fancy. A veggie tray, a fruit tray, pretzels. My personal favorite is a tomato and cheese. It’s simple and fancy.
https://chasingdestino.com/2014/05/06/do-you-wanna-see-some-food-blogs-nablopomo/
Here’s a recipe for tomato tartlets. They sound like fun. Tartlets is a funny word. . . 🙂 It should be a band name.
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-tartlets
4. Music. There should be music. The playlist will depend on the event and the crowd.
Most people like Frank Sinatra. Unfortunately, not everyone likes heavy metal. Play whatever is appropriate for the occasion.
