New Park, Nantasket Beach, Green Onions, and Lots of New Recipes!

On the plate:  Leftover steak, caramelized onion, and goat cheese pizza, wheatberry salad, goat cheese-stuffed turkey burgers, home-made s'mores, and BLT pasta

Soundtrack to cook to: India Arie's Voyage to India.  There's so many upbeat and soulful songs that make you want to get down with your bad self and sing out loud.  I used to play this CD all the time during college.  It's all about love, being in love, and celebrating the one you love.

Speaking of things that I love, this post is chocked full of recipes that I personally loved while I was making and finally eating them. :)  I would just like to say that I am sooooo happy that I am feeling back to normal, can cook in the house, and have enough energy to actually cook again.  My first trimester and half of my second were pretty brutal and it's so nice to feel normal again.

One night, Joseph made some beautiful filet mignon for dinner.  We had one little steak leftover, but it wasn't enough for either of us to make a meal out of it.  Thus, I had an "AH-HA!" moment, took the steak, cut it up into small pieces and made a steak, carmamelized onion, and goat cheese pizza.  We had leftover goat cheese from Alex's birthday party that I had frozen, and I had bought some whole wheat pizza dough from the grocery store.  I felt like these ingredients were just begging to be played with.  In my quest to get rid of old vegetables and make a tasty pizza, I came across a pepper, and even found some canned artichoke hearts that I cut into fourths.

Ingredients needed:

• 1 ball of whole wheat pizza dough (check the bakery or deli section of your grocery store)
• 1 pepper, cut into chunks
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 logs of goat cheese
• 1 can artichoke hearts in water, cut each heart into quarters
• Rao's marinara sauce (sooooo stinking good!)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (it was leftover - you don't have to include it if you don't want to)
• Italian seasoning
• Pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Cut the pepper into chunks and slice the onion - you can really use
any vegetable that you have leftover in your fridge.
Spread the pizza dough onto a greased pan so that the dough meets
in every corner of the pan, top with sauce, assorted toppings, cheese
and end with seasonings.  Place the pizza in a 400 degree F oven for
20-25 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly and the crust
is golden brown.

Voila!  I don't mean to toot my own horn, but *toot toot*, this was
a fantastic dish made entirely out of leftovers.  So delicious and satisfying.
Even Alexander loved this dish and gobbled it all up.

This month has proven to be a very busy one for Joseph.  The poor guy had his rotation at Mass General (which is a great hospital, just not as close to home as Brigham and Women's) where his days would begin at 6 a.m. and ended anywhere from 8-9:30 p.m.  Thus, I got used to making meals and eating with just Alex, while portioning the leftovers onto a plate for Joseph to have later.

This fourth of July proved to not be so great, as Alex was just getting over his hand, foot, and mouth disease, and Joseph had a late night that evening.  I still wanted to have a nice fourth of July dinner and decided to get a little creative with the menu.

A friend of mine had made this absolutely delicious wheatberry salad at a party of hers, and I thought that would be a nice addition to our meal.  I absolutely love the texture of the wheatberries - they're delightfully chewy and almost pop in your mouth.  I searched high and low for these little guys, and could only find them at Whole Foods.

Measure out 1 cup of wheatberries and cook them in an uncovered pot
in 3 cups of water on low for 45 minutes.  Do this step first, because
by the time you're done cutting everything and measuring out
the rest of the ingredients, your wheatberries will be nice and chewy.

Dice the carrots, red pepper, onions, and slice the green onions
so that they're about the same size as the wheatberries themselves.
(This part took the longest for me, but the effort is well worth it for the perfect bite.)

Cook the onions until slightly translucent, and then add in the
balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

This is what the wheatberries looked like when they were done cooking.
Note that they have plumped up nicely and almost touch the top of the water.
Drain these in a colander.

Mix the wheatberries, cut up vegetables, and onions marinated
in olive oil and balsamic vinegar together in a medium bowl.
Then try to restrain yourself from grabbing a spoon and eating the entire
bowl by yourself. :)
It's a delightfully sweet, tart, crunchy, and chewy salad that is very healthy
and hearty at the same time.  

I felt like no fourth of July dinner would be complete without a burger.  Unfortunately, our condo doesn't allow us to have our grill out on our little porch.  Thus, if we want to grill anything, we have to wheel our grill out into our parking space - not ideal when you're by yourself and your child is playing in the parking lot.  So, I had to get a little creative and whipped out our little George Foreman grill  to cook up our burgers. :)

I chose to make turkey burgers and had a little bit of goat cheese leftover from the previous day, so I decided to make goat cheese-stuffed turkey burgers.  

Ingredients needed:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 onion, grated (it adds moisture to your burger so they're not all dried out and still have a nice flavor)
• 1 green onion, sliced (because I had it leftover)
• Pepper
• 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 log of goat cheese
• Montreal steak seasoning

In a mixing bowl, combine the turkey, onion, green onion,
pepper, and worcestershire sauce.  Mix well and form into 8 patties.

Take 1 patty and put a small amount of goat cheese into the center.
Then form a patty around the goat cheese so that the goat cheese
is hidden inside the center of the burger.

Season the patties on each side with Montreal Steak seasoning
and grill until the juices run clear (about 4-5 minutes on each side).

Mmmm!  Beautifully charred and crunchy on the outside with a
deliciously salty and creamy inside.  I like to top my burgers with
lettuce, a slice of tomato, and pickled jalapeno slices (because I loooove spicy food!)

My happy little guy, about to dig into his fourth of July dinner.

I wanted to make a traditional dessert for our fourth of July dinner.  I kept thinking back to when I was a kid and my family and I would toast marshmallows over the grill and make s'mores.  Alexander hadn't ever had this treat, and whenever I start thinking of something and craving it - I have to have that one certain thing and nothing else will do.  So I gathered low calorie graham crackers (because you have to save your calories somewhere, right?), Hershey's chocolate (I feel like you just cannot substitute and have to go for the traditional), and jumbo marshmallows.

Very complicated dessert preparation - LOL!

I really wanted the toasted marshmallow flavor and had to get creative
once again.  Thus, I had another "Ah-ha!" moment, took the grates off
of our stove, and toasted the marshmallows on the open flame.

Alexander holding his S'more like a big boy and relishing each
deliciously sweet and gooey bite.

Alexander digging in!  He absolutely loved it (and who wouldn't?)
and was covered in chocolate and marshmallow at the very end.
A very successful fourth of July dinner if you ask me. :)

Joseph had a full weekend off (what a treat!!), so we took Alexander to a park and brunch one day, and  Nantasket beach the next day.  Whenever Joseph has time off like this, we really try to make the most of each moment together.

Alexander playing around at the new park (i.e. not 

the one across the street from us, so we called it a "new park").

Alexander singing to himself at the dinner table.

I was catching up on my DVR'd shows the other day and came across a Rachael Ray show episode where she made meals out of leftovers (my favorite!).  She made a BLT pasta dish.  The "b" for bacon, "l" for leeks, and "t" for tomatoes.  It looked simple enough to make and seemed like it would be yummy.

Cut 5 slices of turkey bacon into small bites.  Then put in your
cooking pot and brown the bacon pieces.

While the bacon is cooking, cut up the red pepper, garlic, and leeks.

After cutting the leeks, soak the leeks in a water bath in order to
get out all of the sand and dirt from the various layers.

Once the turkey bacon has browned, remove it from the pot and
set it to the side.

I had some mushrooms and wanted to add them into the mix as well,
so I sliced them up very thin.

Throw all of the vegetables into the pot and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Then, add cherry tomatoes and wine, and put the top on the pot
for about 10 minutes.  The cherry tomatoes should be busting out of
their skins.  Once the cherry tomatoes have cooked, use a potato
masher and mash the tomatoes.  Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste.

Mix together fresh herbs (I used basil and rosemary) with creme fraiche.

Add 1 lb of cooked pasta, reserved turkey bacon and herbed creme fraiche
to the vegetable mixture and mix together well.
This dish was a big hit in the Franses household and made a HUGE amount
of food.  Therefore, if you're cooking a meal where you want leftovers
or are feeding a bunch of people, then this is the dish for you.
I'm sure that this dish would freeze and reheat well, too.

On Joseph's weekend off, as I said before, we ventured out to Nantasket beach.  It's a lovely beach and is perfect for young families because they have on-sight bathrooms, a little boardwalk with a carousel and games, and delicious fresh seafood.  Here's a few pictures from our day in the sun:

Joseph, getting Alexander all suited up for some fun in the sun.

Alexander didn't quite like the feeling of the sand beneath his toes.

Our little playboy, posing for the camera.

Getting set up at the beach.

Alexander clinging onto me as we play in the waves.

Joseph and Alexander making a little pile of sand together.

Me and Alexander playing in the waves!

In the wave aftermath :)

Drink break!

Alexander enjoyed digging up the sand and putting it
into his bucket.

Daddy and Alexander playing in the sand.

After we had cleaned up and dried off, we decided to have lunch at a local restaurant that boasted its fresh seafood.  A perfect way to end our morning at the beach if you ask me. :)

The Franses men, patiently awaiting their food.

Here's a few other random videos and pictures from that week:

Alexander enjoys cleaning...he's clearly my kid. :)

It's incredible how big he's gotten!

Alexander being silly in the car with my sister's bracelet.

Alexander just hanging around during gym class.

I was preparing a dish and noticed that my green onions

kept disappearing...then I saw the culprit. :)

We've had a busy, but great summer thus far in the Franses household.  Thankfully Joseph's got the next month off and will be able to be home so that we can go on a few more little day trips together as a family of three (plus one if you're including Oscar).  I can't wait to see what other little adventures we'll go on together!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki