Tomato appetizer

Simple but delicious

-Slice some fresh tomatoes

-chop some garlic and sprinkle it on top

-add basil

-top with bocconcini cheese, or parmesan, or feta or mozzarella

-drizzle on some olive oil

Green Beans!

Simple but delicious, a staple at the Leeksma house.
Boil the green beans until a little tender and then run them under cold water to stop the cooking.
Put the beans back in the pan.
Chop up some dill and add it along with a dollop of butter and mix it together.
Enjoy!

Spaghetti and meatballs

Made an oversized amount of meatballs. But you can cook them and easily freeze them after. We tripled this recipe

Meatballs
Ingredients:
-1/2 pound pork + 1/2 pound minced veal
-1 tsp salt
-2 eggs
-1 tbsp parsley, finely diced
-1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
-1 cup fine bread crumbs
-1 tsp basil, finely chopped
-2 cups tomato sauce (we used leftover from another night)

- mix everything in a bowl and put in the oven at 350o
- turn them over after a while

Sauce
Ingredients
-3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
-1/2 large onion, diced
-2 garlic cloves, diced
-1 large can whole, peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand (we used costco cans: La San Marzano)
- 1 tbsp basil, chopped
-5 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
-1 bay leaf
-salt and pepper to taste

-heat the onion and garlic, add the rest and let sit on low to thicken up

sometimes we add the rind of the parmesan cheese

-serve with ceasar salad (lettuce, croutons, parmesan, renées salad dressing) and texas garlic toast (costco)

GIANT Reese's peanut butter cups

Dark chocolate giant Reese's peanut butter cups, yum!! Amelia is sporting her Nick Miller turtle face:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/turtle%20face?before=36

Avocado macaroni grilled three cheese sandwich

I asked Aric what we should make for lunch, my suggestions were KD, grilled cheese, hot dogs and side kicks, he then wondered if we could combine some of those. Here's what we came up with
-heat oven to 350
-spread olive oil on the bread
-place mozarella on one side and gruyère with avocado on the other
-grill each side seperatly in a pan on low heat
-place macaroni into the sandwich, put both sides together and place in oven

I think to make it even more gooey I'd add real cheese to the KD next time

Slave Cake!

 The best damn cake ever made by my mom. I do not know the recipe but it involved chocolate mousse, a sort of home made raspberry jam and lots of time. It's also known as raspberry babinka!

Sausage Kebabs with pasta salad

 We added a few more things to the kebabs from this recipe. We added onions, and I also think that pineapple could be a nice addition. This salad was so good and refreshing!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/grilled-sausage-kebabs-with-pasta-salad-recipe/index.html

The veggies we made were: Asparagus on the BBQ and kale on the BBQ (http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=4476)

Niji Sushi

Best sushi ever! We always order the same thing and often get free soup and house salad and green tea ice cream. This is our order for 2:

-sometimes spicy wakame salad

-salmon sushi pizza

-spicy salmon roll

-spicy tuna roll

-dragon roll (eel on the inside, avocado on the outside)

and Samir always gets his extra salmon skin hand roll! sooooooooooo good everytime!

https://www.facebook.com/ilovenijisushi

Alexandras birthday dinner

Menu:
-BBQ asparagus
-Lamb chops
-Risotto
-carrot cake

 Spinach and raisin risotto

Ingredients:

-1 lb spinach

- 3 cups chicken stock

- 1/4 cup butter

-1 medium onion finely chopped

-2 cups arborio rice

-1 tsp nutmeg

-1/2 cup raisins, i would also try craisins

-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

-salt and freshly ground pepper

1. wash the spinach and place in large pan while wet, cook until wilted, pour through the a sieve, but make sure to recover the liquid in a bowl, shop the spinach

2. fry the pine nuts in a pan, stir often

3. pour stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil then let simmer
4. Mellt the butter in a larger nonstick saucepan, fry the onion until it is softened (2-3 min)
5. Stir in the rice and cook (2 min), until the rice is coated in onion mixture

6. Stir in spinach water until its absorbed by the rice

7. Add a ladle of stock at a time and mix until the liquid is absorbed by the rice

8. Mix in nutmeg, cooked spinach, raisins and pine nuts

Lamb chops
-combine rosemary, olive oil, garlic and pepper in a bowl
-pour and rub into the lamb chops
-let sit
-cook on BBQ