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Lots of Yum

So we are still around…I know I have been way off schedule with this blog, but there has been a lot going on and I have been putting way too much energy into watching football lately (how did that happen!?).  

Anyway, we’ve had lots of delicious things going on.  I’ve got a few recipes and more detailed things to post, but for now, here’s a breakdown of some really wonderful things we’ve been eating.

Root Vegetable Chowder, thanks to Emeril (with lots of additional veggies tossed in)

Cheddar Garlic Chive Scones topped with pan-fried ham and sunny side up eggs for breakfast:

Cuban-inspired panini: ham, turkey, thin-sliced pickles, onion, tomato mustard—all on garlic bread.

Chili Mac Casserole, made with ground turkey and topped with a corn tortilla chip crust (plus cheese, sour cream and salsa, obviously).

Roast chicken with kale pesto rubbed under the skin, with green beans and potatoes and a Caesar salad.

  Amazing breakfast scramble with bacon, spinach, potatoes and onions….plus Beecher’s flagship cheddar. This was our treat breakfast for the week and was so so spectacular.

Spinach, onion and garlic english muffin pizzas with italian and feta cheeses. Plus a side of broccoli.

And I’m still celebrating this amazing Christmas present from Matt:

Love <3

November Has Been Good To Us

As November wraps up, I’m realizing that amid some craziness, stress and worry, there has been a lot to be thankful for.  Matthew and I have had a really great month.  We got our holiday flight for Christmas nailed down, watched the Yankees win the World Series and got a brand new comforter for our bed…we are easily impressed

Mid-month, around my birthday, we flew to Hawaii (a  partial work trip) and took full advantage of the sun, relaxing atmosphere, tourist-y goodness, and amazing food.   Here are some pictures to share: 

Love

    

Some of the food….

Sampler (for lunch) at the Kona Brewing Restaurant. Lots of pineapple at the Dole Plantation…where we tried to refrain from chomping them right of the stems    

   

Fancy dinner at Roy’s, where we had an AMAZING meal:

Free spicy edamame appetizer. Pineapple martini (that piece of fruit had been soaking in vodka for days).

Macadamia-crusted Mahi Mahi w/ lobster butter sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caramelized scallops with a blueberry vinaigrette and some bacon-wrapped sweet potatoes I think. The scallops were cooked to perfection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, pineapple upside down cake, which you give them 30 minutes to prepare because they make each one fresh.  They sliced the pineapples thinly so there were juicy amazing layers of pineapple on top of the cake.  On the side: vanilla bean ice cream in a burnt sugar cup.  All in a caramel sauce.  Unbelievable.

———-

To wrap up our wonderful November, we are in the middle of a spectacularly relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.  We’ve been together almost 3 years and this is the first time we’ve spent Thanksgiving together.  It was wonderful.  We went with turkey tenderloins, sliced into medallions, marinated in Annie’s Natural Tuscany Italian dressing, breaded with Panko breadcrumbs and pan fried.  Really yummy.  With some comforting sides and homemade stuffing/dressing….yum! We went with a nice mix of new/more-involved things and easy standbys. Matt was in charge of the traditional green bean casserole and did a great job!  I made some dinner rolls from a Cooking Light recipe, and my favorite was the turkey knot…

Here are the rest of our pictures, including pumpkin pie that we were so excited about we made 4 days earlier, and some gorgeous orange flowers we got for $5 on sale!

 

Thankfulness all around!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Let’s cross our fingers for a December that is full of pleasant surprises, healthy families, lots of love and new adventures.

A Pumpkin-Filled Halloween

Since it is nearly the end of November, I figure it’s about time to get my Halloween post up.  We were very un-halloween-y this year.  The wonderful Dori was in town, and we didn’t eat any Halloween candy at all! We didn’t dress up and we didn’t trick-or-treat (and since we’re in a secure building, no kiddies stopped by for our non-existent candy).  However, we kept the spirit of the holiday alive with lots of pumpkin!

So that is actually a picture from last year’s pumpkin t-shirt.  It is one of the most adorable Santana pictures ever.  But she did wear it this week to celebrate!  This year she was actually a scary scary green monster…

Last year she also attempted to be a bat….this got mixed reviews.

Instead of eating out for Dori’s whole visit, we made a fun asian-inspired dinner one night. It included peanut butter pumpkin curry noodle.  It was…strange. But mostly good.  At first, the flavor of the sauce was very off-putting, but once we thinned it out and added a bit more peanut butter, it was pretty tasty and made a nice side to the coconut shrimp soup we made.  This was a really light, pretty soup that I enjoyed quite a bit and had for leftovers the next day.  In the original version of the soup, the shrimp was cooked perfectly, nice and soft, but of course when reheated it got a tiny bit rubbery. Bleh.

 

We also tried these fancy juices called “First Blush”.  They’re basically grape juices from wine grapes…chardonnay, merlot, etc.  We did a group taste test. Including one that was a juice-tea blend.  I think we all agreed on which one we liked best…but I can’t remember which it was at this point.  Dori, do you remember???

To round out the pumpkin-y-ness of the weekend, Dori had french toast stuffed inside of a pumpkin for breakfast one day. Insanity!

2 stolen recipes and some frozen corn

One of our favorites this year has been Major Grey’s Chicken.  I posted about this earlier…maybe?  I can’t seem to find the post now.  I will link to it if I find it.

It is a delicious, creamy, mango-filled pile of deliciousness.  The recipe we use is stolen from one of Matt’s co-workers, and I usually add some fresh mango to the mix because we have some on hand.  It’s actually usually the mango that inspires us to make this dish, since it’s a failsafe use for the fruit.

We also stole another recipe from a coworker of mine…Kale Pesto!  We’re both wary of dark greens in general, and have had some bad luck with them in the past.  Kale is no exception, and I’ve consistently avoided adding it to my salad in our cafeteria at work.  But I heard rave reviews about this kale pesto—the bitterness is cut with a few handfuls of basil, but the healthy kick of kale is still blended in.

We used a huge package of basil (the kitchen smelled AMAZING!) and a whole bunch of Kale that came in our CSA box.  Matt was in charge of adding everything to the bowl, so I’m not sure of the exact amounts, but garlic, salt and olive oil all went into the mix.

Then….we realized we really need to invest in a food processor soon.  Where will we put it? No idea.  Maybe in our imaginary cupboard with the stand mixer, pressure cooker, waffle iron and rotisserie cooker (this one’s just for Matt). 

Anyway, we got it blended in tiny batches and then mixed all together. Tossed with some tri-color pasta. Yum yum yum.

These two seemed a little mismatched, but I figured the bitter of the kale would pair well with the sweet and creamy of the chicken dish.  What kind of side could make this even more strange?? Some frozen corn, of course!  The only other option in our freezer was cheesy broccoli, which I thought was way too out there.

It was a little all-over-the-place, but still delicious, and Matt has been eating leftovers this week while I’m on the road

In the spirit of fun fall stuff, here’s our decorated mantle for the season! Very exciting—notice the real life candlesticks…I’m pretty pleased with how grown up these beeswax taper candles make me feel.  Plus, the adorable mini-loaf pan that I turned into a candle holder.

We used that loaf pan a couple weeks ago to make some amazing banana nut bread for a party, and now it’s clean and full of pumpkin spice scented candles!  Spectacular!

   

Also, this is how Santana sits while I cook.  She’s so dainty and genteel, huh?

Back to Basics

I’m currently blogging from the lovely Red Roof Inn just outside of Charlotte’s airport.  We spent the long weekend in NC with my aunt, grandma, brother and his girlfriend.  Extremely relaxing and just what I needed.  We did absolutely nothing…sat around, watched tv, made fun of each other, and ate lots of grandma’s delicious food.  Love it.  We’ve been spending lots of time watching the US Open….Matt is a huge tennis fan, and I am catching on.

Santana spent the weekend at the PetSmart PetsHotel….I felt like a mom dropping my kid off at school for the first time.  It was rough.  I called to check on her once this weekend, and the guy I talked to said she has been having a great time, playing with other dogs, and really enjoying the extra vanilla ice cream treat we paid for.  I can’t wait to see her!

Anyway, before we left, there wasn’t much to blog about food-wise, since we spent the week using up the stuff in our fridge.  Not only did we pull out some of the leftover frozen chili (mostly so that I could make cornbread and make another strata!), we also used a bunch of our fruits and veggies from the CSA in really easy, hearty and satisfying dishes that just got tossed in the oven to bake.  It was nice having things that were so quick and simple.  I love being able to just add a little oil and seasoning (or sugar and cinnamon in the case of fruit), throw the pan in the oven and have a tasty dish that brings out the best qualities of the produce.

Here are a couple pictures of our roast vegetables (pre-roasting and finished product).  We always love these, and I think in the winter we’ll do it a lot more.  It’s hard to justify heating up the apartment with the oven mid-summer.  This batch had freshly dug red potatoes, beautiful striped beets (they lost their stripes while they roasted!), local carrots and a couple green bell peppers.   Tossed with some olive oil, smashed garlic, salt and pepper.  We served it with some butter lettuce dressed with a bit of parmesan herb dressing.  We had some salmon burgers from the store we planned to add on top, but they were not tasty at all, so we just omitted.  It was still delicious and I had the leftover veggies the next day for lunch!

I love the way the veggies get crisp along the edges and all of their sweetness comes pouring out with a little bit of coaxing.  

The second was a fruit crisp.  We got a ton of blueberries in our box (and had some leftover from when Matt’s mom and aunt were in town), so we grabbed some raspberries and peaches from the store.  Tossed with a little sugar, cornstarch, and a couple other things. The mix filled a huge baking dish.

These colors are amazing together.  I didn’t manage to get a picture of the finished crisp…we were too hungry…but it got topped with a streusel-type topping and baked away.  Gooey and warm and perfect for topping some vanilla ice cream.  My coworkers got the leftovers of this one.

A week of delicious reminders that sometimes it just takes a tiny bit of prep to create some wonderful flavors from produce. 

We get home tomorrow afternoon and then head out Thursday morning for a long drive down to Berkeley for a wedding.  Another week with very little cooking.  We’ll see what comes the following week and then I’m on the road for the last week of September and most of October/November as well.  Maybe Matt will have to guest post with all the fun things he is eating while I’m travelling for work.