RecipeMuncher

It's Saturday morning.  My kids are watching the movie Shark Tale and when that's done, we're heading up to the kitchen to make another batch of pancakes.  Like last time, there will be half plain, and half flavored somehow.  I'll let you know.  I'm thinking of keeping "Cooking With My Kids" as a regular weekly feature.  I'm sure at some point we'll move onto something besides pancakes. 

Not sure what I'm doing this weekend.  We've got some snow, but it's very light and fluffy, so I don't think we'll be making snowmen.  Honestly, I'm hoping it melts soon.  I'm looking forward to Spring.  It's pretty, though, this snowfall.  Maybe I'll take a few pictures.

Speaking of Spring, don't forget to check in periodically with my gardening blog.  If you're interested in gardening stuff, that is.  At the moment it's probably just lots of "the (insert plant name here) is up!" but as time rolls along, it should get more interesting.

I love listening to my son when he's playing with his toys.  Right now he's playing with some of his 8 zillion dinosaurs.  There's some sort of horrible carnage going on, by the sound of it.  Lots of growling, squealing, roaring, and all sorts of other assorted noises.  I love it when he's so completely engrossed in the world he's created.  Yay, imagination!

Julia seems to be feeling better today.  She's still all congested and occasionally really gross, but she slept through the night and is currently dancing wildly to the Shark Tale soundtrack (the credits are rolling now). 

Today, besides pancakes, I need to bake some bread, and I'm thinking we'll bake some cookies, too.  Last night we had tacos for dinner.  Not sure what tonight's will be.  Sometimes I get these mental blocks about making dinner.  I know, I know.  I've got tons of cookbooks, how could such a thing happen?  It just does.  I stare at all the possibilities, and maybe we don't have an ingredient, or we just had pasta last night so I don't want to do another pasta thing…who knows.  Sometimes I think it's also because I have a family to cook for.  If it was just me, I'd be fine with a grilled cheese sandwich or a bowl of cereal.  But with a family, I feel a greater sense of obligation to prepare A Meal most of the time.  Sometimes we'll have breakfast for dinner nights, or grilled cheese and a can of Campbell's tomato soup.  And no one complains about it, but it's not something I can do all the time. 

Maybe pizza tonight.  I've got homemade sauce in the freezer, I have a bunch of mozzarella cheese, and I can easily make dough.  Other toppings?  Well, we've got some leftover stuff from taco night…and I can raid the freezer and cupboards for other vegetables.  Okay, I think I'm all set now.  Phew!

So, since I'm on the topic, what are your go-to meals when you can't think of anything else to have for dinner?  What can you toss together easily that will please everyone you need to feed? 

Here it is, my all-time favorite Mexican dish. If I could choose only one Mexican dish to eat, this would be it ~ hands down.I first tasted Carnitas over 30 (!) years ago at a little roadside restaurant in Mexico. On a very warm summer afternoon we pulled into the dusty parking lot where an enormous cauldron was bubbling furiously, suspended over an open wood fire.We quickly walked past the heat

Well, I know I have spoken about this before, but I can’t not mention it again as I am so wrapped in this spice. (Oh that is such good English, LOL)
This time I used chicken breast cut into odd shapes and washed it in egg, then dunked it into a mix of flour and Harissa spice.(About half and half) Cooked it in Rice Bran Oil and Butter for just a couple of minutes each side. Drained it on kitchen paper towel.
I served it with a dipping sauce of sour cream and Harissa spice. And on the side was a potato salad, pasta salad, and (the first of the season) cherry tomatoes and chopped spring onion. Also celery and carrot roses.
Everyone enjoyed it. Including the men who are painting our pool at the moment, they could smell it and wanted to know what I was cooking. So of course they had a few pieces, which left plenty for the family. My son said, he wasn…