Comfort Food: Sausage Goulash

It feels like we've been eating "comfort food" consistently all winter....  We haven't, but we did explore our Eastern European sides and made goulash.  It was amazing; and it fed us for about 4 days.  Okay, maybe three days.

Super Bowl Treats

Oh, Peyton Manning.... I would have loved to see you end this amazing season with a win - what happened?  The Broncos looked more like the Bears... maybe the two orange and blue teams had a "Freaky Friday" experience?

Aside from Bruno Mars and a couple (not many) good commercials, the highlight of my Super Bowl was food (duh).  We trekked out to the 'burbs to watch the game with my mom, stopping to visit RJ's parents on the way; my mom's one request? Bears' dip.  If you are going to Google search the dip - please note this is not the actual name... we have no idea where we got the recipe, but our family has made it on Bears game days for as long as my memory has been operational and, thus, my sisters and I just call it Bears' dip.

With such a salty dip, I just knew we'd need something just as intense on the sweets side.... I mean, right?  Around the holidays, I found this recipe by Inside BruCrew Life on Pinterest and had been wanting to try it, but kept forgetting to pick up pudding mix at the store.  We've had a package of Candy Cane flavored Oreos that I've been trying to stay away from.... and I finally grabbed some pudding... so bright and early on Superbowl Sunday I woke up to crank some cookies out.

Couple on a Mission: Irish Soda Bread and a Sunday Roast

Sundays aren't typically the most eventful of days for us.  If I'm feeling up to driving out to the suburbs, I'll go visit family... If we're a bit hung over, we'll go for a greasy brunch or (better yet) Taco Bell (you aren't allowed to judge - this is basically my favorite food group ever; and yes, I know it's disgusting, but have you tried the new Grilled Stuffed Nacho??).  Given that the weather has been absolutely awful here in Chicago and you can't really get out of the house much, we thought we'd ring in Episode 1 of the 4th season of Downton Abbey with a scalding hot Sunday Roast and some home made bread.  Really - what's better in the middle of winter than that?  (Actually - it's a toss up between a good roast, beef stew, my mom's chili, her spaghetti, and hot dogs with mac&cheese and spinach souffle....)

Recipe: Polar Vortex Veg and Lentil "SToup"

If the words "polar vortex" instill just as much desire to fill up on intense quantities of warm foods in you as they do for me, then fear not the swirling winds - and boil up a delicious, thick "sToup".