Oh yum! These were so good. I put the kabobs together and my husband did the grilling. He mentioned he intended to make a dressing with the same spices and herbs that were in the chimichurri rub, but we didn’t get to them. Nevermind: these kabobs were delicious just as they were.

I admit that I didn’t eat any of the poblanos. Even my husband admitted they were hotter than he thought they’d be. I also am not a huge fan of mushrooms. But I think a variety of other vegetables would work on these kabobs: zucchini, bell peppers, etc. I used Roma tomatoes and cut them in to quarters. I don’t put amounts by the vegetable ingredients below because it really depends on how much you want to use. I think I used about 10 ounces of onions, but I wish I had more. I also used four pobalno chiles and that was too many. I had at least a pound of tomatoes, but I wanted more because I loved the grilled tomatoes. I didn’t have enough mushrooms; I think I had just one carton.

I used about 1/2 regular paprika and 1/2 smoked paprika; I wish I’d had smoked paprika for all of it, but we were out. I also used a sirloin tip steak, rather than the ribeye, simply for cost purposes.

We prepared these kabobs for dinner guests, so of course, we were hurrying around at the last minute getting dinner on the table. When do other food bloggers take a picture of their food? I’ve considered it every time I’ve made something new, but I just don’t know when to find time to do it. These kabobs seriously came off the grill and onto the table for consuming.

I wish there were leftovers.

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What We Ate (Week ending Aug 1)

This week was full of disasters, except for the luncheon I made for my sister. That turned out okay. But, I burned the macaroni and cheddar under the boiler, the tomato separated from the milk in the soup so it was grainy and gross, and I didn’t cook the onions until they were sweet for the soup, so the crunchy onions ruined the overall flavor of the chicken pot pie stew. Overall, not such a great week. The chicken cordon bleu was okay, but not an all-around winner.

Sunday: [leftovers]

Monday: Birthday luncheon for my sister: chicken fettuccine alfredo; grilled chicken salad with maple vinegar dressing; fresh baked bread via breadmaker

Tuesday: Macaroni and cheddar

Wednesday: [leftovers]

Thursday: Cream of tomato soup with cheddar biscuits

Friday: Chicken pot pie stew and buttermilk biscuits

Saturday: Chicken cordon bleu; green salad with vinaigrette; mashed potatoes

What We Ate (Week ending Aug 8 )

This week was low-key and busy, so I didn’t make many interesting things. The braised chicken was actually made on Wednesday, but the shallots were still onion-y and dish was practically inedible. It fared much better by sitting in the fridge for a day; we ate it on Thursday. It was much better, and I intend to redo that recipe in a slightly different way next time. When it’s good the first day, I’ll share it with you.

My brother got married this weekend, so we were away from home Friday night and Saturday morning. When we returned Saturday afternoon, the low-key soup was just right.

Sunday: [leftovers]

Monday: French toast

Tuesday: Parmesan risotto with peas

Wednesday: [leftovers]

Thursday: Braised chicken in mustard with garlic and mascarpone, rice, vegetables

Friday: [Dinner with family]

Saturday: [Wedding luncheon with family]; Dinner: Carrot Ginger Soup

You’ll note I don’t provide pictures of the food I cook. I’m not a professional food photographer, and I find that many pictures of home-cooked dinners look pretty awful when done by amateurs. Besides, many of these meals look pretty unappetizing when I prepared them, even without taking a picture of them. Nonetheless, they are tasty to me.

I recently finished two food books for the Spice of Life Challenge, the reading challenge I’m hosting. I posted them on my book reviews site, but I neglected to cross-post them here as I had intended to do. I’ve included relevant excerpts from those reviews below.

The first book was Molly Wizenberg’s memoir, A Homemade Life. I loved this book! As I mentioned in my previous post on this site, Molly’s life has been defined by food, and I envy that. As she explains each chapter of her life for us, she provides recipes so we can experience the integral food too, if we choose. It’s so much fun to see a life through the eyes of delicious foods. Molly shows that food is a communal part of our lives, helping to form lasting memories and lasting relationships. Food really can tell the stories of our lives, as Molly’s memoir/cookbook attests.

But A Homemade Life is not just about the food. Molly’s memoir is excellently written, easily readable, and absolutely delightful. I know “delightful” is a cliché, but this book seriously fits the word without being cliché. It is real, and yet amusing and engaging all at the same time. In fact, the only thing missing from this book are the gorgeous photographs Molly normally includes along with her blog posts on Orangette.

Many of the recipes Molly shares are a bit too “fancy” for my tastes. I’m primarily a family cook, and I don’t cook with specialty foods simply for cost reasons. “French style” cooking is not really my thing. But I do like simple food, and some of the recipes appear simple; at least a dozen and a half have entered my personal recipe file for future experimentation.

Molly’s story comes full circle, with the one center point in every part of her life being food.  In the end, I love the concept that foods, and not only the events, make up a life. In the end, I can say I liked reading Molly’s story so much I intend to reread it someday. And maybe cook some of her recipes. (Read the full review on Rebecca Reads.)

The second book I read was a cook book novel, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. The traditional Mexican recipes are provided in a novel format as it tells the story of Tita, Tita’s overbearing mother, and Tita’s lover, Pedro, who marries her sister. And yet, it’s not a cook book, and I don’t think it’s not an ordinary novel.

To learn the basic plot and some thoughts about magical realism, read the full review on Rebecca Reads. I will say here that I loved reading this book. It was part novel. It was part romance. It was part magic. It was part cook book (although I’d never attempt to create the meals, given the long-winded, unclear instructions that start with plucking feathers and so forth). Like Water for Chocolate emphasized the need to have a passion, a love, and a purpose in life, and Esquivel defined those aspects of life by the recipes and the sensual exaggerations common in magical realism. Certainly, Like Water for Chocolate had it faults in that it is short and all people in it were caricatures. And yet, I didn’t care. It was a fun book.

I’m giving away my lightly used paperback copy on that site if you want to give a read.

I also recently read a children’s cook book. My son is only 22-months old, but he loves to cook so I look forward to attempting some of the recipes in it. And then I’m also reading a book about knife care, something I desperately need to learn about.