It's Party time

Every good party has two things going for it - silly party tricks and tasty food. 

C has turned out to be quite a little ham.  She has never met a stranger and loves to be the center of attention.  Her newest party trick is showing everyone how she can 'jump' ... and it's adorable.  Bless her little heart, she thinks she is jumping so high and she never actually leaves the ground.  I captured her trick on my phone yesterday.  Enjoy.  (The first 6 seconds are blurry, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut that part because it's so cute)   



 A few weeks ago I came across the most fabulous party sandwich idea (at HEB, of course)... Lazy Girl Muffalettas.  I've made them twice already - once for a party and then on a smaller scale for dinner for my family. 

To feed a crowd you'll need:
1 loaf of ciabatta or French bread
olive tapenade
provolone cheese slices
mozzarella cheese slices
deli slices of ham, turkey, salami and or pastrami (I use a combo of all of 'em)

Heat the oven to 350.

Slice the loaf lengthwise and spread both sides with some of the tapenade.  Layer your chosen meats on both sides of the bread, followed by the cheeses (one type on each side) .  Put the two sides together, with the cheeses meeting in the middle.  Wrap the entire thing in foil and then pop it in the oven for 20 or so minutes, just until everything is warmed through and the cheese is melted. 

Delicious right out of the oven, but just as yummy as they cool also.  I'm planning on making several variations on this theme over the next few weeks/months.  Seems like it would totally work in the grill too.  I'm always trying to think of ways to NOT use my oven during the summer months.

Yes, I'm Still Alive

Just pulled up my blog for the first time in a loooong time. I thought it was very interesting that the last post I made was EXACTLY one month before C came into this world! Yep, we had a Groundhog Baby. I ended up being induced and was able to choose between January 31st and February 2nd. For some reason I have always really liked the month of February, I wanted her to be born on an even day (weird, I know) and Groundhog Day is also my grandparents' anniversary.  It was the most amazing experience and one of the best days of my life. We now can't imagine life without C!



Just a few hours old.  Isn't she precious?



There were a few bumps in the road along the way the first year. We dealt with nightly 1 - 3 am scream-fests for a few weeks, difficulty digesting dairy (I ended up giving up dairy for 5 months so her little tummy wouldn't hurt), and chronic ear infections that led to C not sleeping through the night before her first birthday.  I will be forever grateful to Dr. Harvey Karp’s book Happiest Baby on the Block, all of the great dairy replacement options on the market and to Dr. Jakob for putting tubes in C’s ears.  Through it all the Hubs has been such an amazing support. I know I would not have survived without his encouragement and love. 

Found this stuck to my  lamp while getting ready for bed one night.

Although it’s not my first choice, I did have to go back to work this school year and honestly, balancing working full-time and trying to be a good mom has been really hard.  I rush home from work every day and try to cram in as much quality time as possible before bedtime.  And before C began sleeping well at night I was still getting up 3xs a night on average.  Needless to say I was exhausted.  For the first year of Little C's life I didn’t do much cooking.  Never before had we ever eaten so much take-out, fast food and pre-packaged meals.  It’s not like I was happy about it, but I just felt like I had no other choice.  I did make a fair amount of her baby food, but not as much as I would have liked - still working through all of the ‘mom guilt’ I feel about that one.

This photo captures it perfectly.

It’s only recently that, as I posted on Facebook the other day,"I'm finally starting to feel morelike ' me'... starting to cook more and meal plan again, tackling a few 'just for fun' projects, and am ready to buy some new, stylish clothes for my post-baby body". C has started sleeping very well, only occasionally waking up once during the night. She also now plays independently for extended periods of time, freeing me up to actually prepare meals, as opposed to just heating something up.   I have missed cooking.  A lot.  But I am getting back into it, slowly, but surely.  I’ve found that planning ahead and utilization of the crockpot are keys to success for me.  For April I actually made a monthly dinner plan calendar! 

It's color-coded and even includes hyperlinks to recipes

On Pintrest I have seen a ton of links to sites that say something like “prep a month worth of meals in 1 day”.  I excitedly open each of them hoping that they hold the key to simplifying my life, but without fail they require large chunks of hands-on time to do the food prep. This is a problem for me for several reasons: 1) I work full time and 2) the Hubs holds a second job as a photographer and most weekends he has at least one, and many times two photo shoots, in addition to several weeknight sessions.  Two other criteria that have to be met for a meal plan to work for me are that the meals need to be fairly nutritious and budget friendly.  I’ve been trying to take some of the ideas behind those “ahead of time food prep” sites and shape them in ways that work for my family with my time, nutrition and budget constraints. 

C is such a big help in the kitchen

One thing I have noticed is that tons of make-ahead recipes utilize already cooked and chopped or shredded chicken. If you’re using store-bought rotisserie chickens it can get really expensive really fast. So when bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts go on sale at my local HEB, I stock up and roast them all at once. Super simple. Here’s what that actually looks like time-wise at my house:

1. When I get home from work I turn the oven on to preheat (375°F) while I’m changing clothes and getting us snacks.  C then helps me season the meat with some olive oil, salt and pepper and any other spices I feel like using. (I’m currently addicted to this blend from Penzeys).  
2. We play outside while the chicken breasts roast (45 - 50 minutes) and then I let them cool completely while we eat dinner and do our bedtime routine. 
3. After she is down it takes me about 10 minutes to remove the skin, pull all of the meat off of the bones and then cube it.  I typically use my FoodSaver to vacuum pack the meat into 2 cup portions to go in the freezer. 

This means that this week I spent a little less than $10, lost no precious time with my daughter and ended up with over 12 cups of cooked, cubed chicken that I am using in empanadas, green chili chicken enchiladas, chicken tortilla soup, and homemade pizzas (Thai & BBQ) that we will eat later this month and next month, too. 

Score. 

What we did over our holiday break...

So besides that pre-Christmas baking spree, I did almost NO other cooking.  I couldn't.  We were so busy trying to get the house ready for Little C that there just wasn't time.  Despite the fact that I feel more and more like a beached whale every day, these seriously might have been the most productive 6 days we have ever had.


My view of the world these days.

 We've been in our house for a little over 5 years and never really defined a purpose for each of the other three bedrooms.  Basically they became collect-all rooms full of a random assortment of junk and none of them were really functional.  With Little C's arrival only 6 weeks away, it was time to spring into action.  Closets needed to be cleaned out, rooms needed to be painted, furniture needed to be moved, purchased or thrown out and new carpet needed to be installed.  That's a lot of work. 

Holiday Re-Cap (...so far)

First off, a little humor to get things rolling this morning.  This comic strip was in the paper the other day and for whatever reason I could not stop laughing.  I love Rhymes with Orange.

It was so nice to have the entire week off of work to spend a little time getting ready for the holidays.  I was able to clean out a few drawers, cabinets and just try to get the house ready for Little C's arrival, in addition to making numerous trips to HEB and spending a lot of time in the kitchen tackling new projects.

On one of my trips to HEB last week I heard a familiar voice as I was double-checking my list to see that I had gotten everything.  When I looked up, much to my surprise, I saw Scott McClelland standing right in front of me! 

I think Little C was excited also!

In case you don't know who he is, here is an excerpt from his bio on Forbes.com:

"Mr. McClelland is President of H.E. Butt (H-E-B) Grocery Company's Houston and Central Market Division. H-E-B is the 13th largest grocery chain in the United States with over 55,000 employees and 300 stores in Texas and Northern Mexico."

He stars in all of the HEB commercials they run on TV here in the area and since I love me some HEB (and spend way too much time and money there) he is a celebrity of sorts!  Turns out he is one of the nicest people.  When I shyly asked if I could have my picture taken with him he immediately stopped what he was doing, wrapped his arm tightly around me and gave a genuine smile.  After posting the photo on Facebook I was amazed at the comments people made about how involved he and his wife are in their church and other charitable organizations.  He's the real deal. 

I also tackled 2 items from my Baby Bucket List: Salted Caramel Sauce and Caramel Frappacino Cupcakes.  I slightly overcooked the first batch of caramel sauce (however, I loved the deep color and slightly burned/rich taste, so I kept it for myself), but was able to get the second batch just right.  It is delicious!  In fact, I was so pleased with the result and how easy it was to make that I ended up cooking another double batch.  Yum.

This was my breakfast on Christmas Eve

I used some of the Salted Caramel Sauce in the Caramel Frappacino Cupcakes.  Overall, I would give these little guys a 6 out of 10.  However, I think they can be a 10 out of 10 with just a few tweaks, so I will be trying them again sometime soon.  If you choose to make them here are a few tips:

1. The cupcakes cook quickly.  The recipe says 20 minutes.  I took them out at 16 minutes and they were still slightly overcooked and a little dry.  Next time I'm yanking them at 13 minutes.
2. My mousse never set up as well as it should have.  Maybe I didn't beat my whipping cream long enough before I folded it in to the egg and sugar mixture or maybe the ratio is just a little off.  Just know that it's not a thick mousse.
3. Although they need to be stored in the fridge, let them completely come to room temp before serving them (30 minutes out on the counter should do it).  If you don't, the Swiss Meringue Buttercream will remain too firm and the flavors of all of the components won't fully develop. 

I also found time to bake up a batch of super-simple Almond Biscotti and some Blood Orange & Clementine Marmalade.  Sadly, I didn't take pictures of either of these before giving them all away, but both were beautiful and incredibly tasty. 

The various Santas in my life gifted me with some amazingly fabulous items over the past few days that will only enhance my cooking and blogging experiences.  They are so 'me' and I can't wait to share them with you.  I hope your holiday has been full of love, laughter and close friends and family thus far and that those things continue into the new year. 

A "Bucket List" of Sorts

I hit the beginning of my third trimester last week.  How can that be?!?!  It seems like only yesterday that we received the shock of our lives when we found out I was pregnant and then a month later had it confirmed by the doctor and got to see an image of the little one for the first time. 

The last 28 weeks have been filled with so many exciting moments.  All tests have come back with good results for both the baby and me so far and I have managed to stay very healthy (no swelling, high blood pressure, morning sickness or even a cold).  About 2 months ago we learned our baby is a girl!  I was so happy that I started crying right there on the ultrasound table.  Little C is growing like a weed and makes her presence known on a very regular basis.  I've been feeling kicks for almost 3 months and finally about 3 weeks ago The Hubs was able to feel her move too.  I'm amazed by how strong my love for her is already and I haven't even met her yet.

Little C grabbing and playing with her toes

I know that our lives are about to change forever.  Our time will no longer be completely ours, but will instead be largely spent taking care of and enjoying Little C.  If I'm completely honest, in some ways that makes me a little sad.  For the past 6 years it's been just the two of us (wedding anniversary was this month) and we've really enjoyed that season of our lives.  Although we feel incredibly blessed and cannot wait to bring Little C home, change can be tough.  I know there will be an adjustment period for all of us and yes, things will never be the same, but I'm also expecting these to be really good changes. I cannot wait to see what our little family of 3 is like. 

The Hubs and I

However, I am determined to make the most of these last 10 pre-baby weeks so I've come up with a Pre-Baby Bucket List.  These are things I've always wanted to try/do and if I'm realistic about it, probably won't have the time or energy to try them for awhile once Little C arrives.

1. Attempt a souffle
2. Make a salted caramel sauce that will make my sister drool
3. Cook a meal that includes duck breast for the Hubs (he's been asking for years).  Ideas anyone?
4. Make a batch of these Frappacino Cupcakes
5. Make homemade pasta

My goal is to do a post about each of these as I attempt them, whether I succeed or fail!  Wish me luck. 

Thankful

Thanksgiving is my sister's favorite holiday.  She loves the Thanksgiving meal - the sweet potatoes, cornbread dressing, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy and turkey.  It's a meal she looks forward to all year long.  Seriously.  She's hard-core.  Me, I like Thanksgiving, but surprisingly it's not the food part as much as the whole spending time with family and friends thing.  I think the big reason why is because I'm not really a turkey fan.  It's okay, but I've never had one that blows me away.  And I don't like that jellied cranberry stuff either.  Do those two statements make me un-American?!?!



GROSS!

We did Thanksgiving with my extended family this past Sunday and it was wonderful.  Despite the 80+ degree temps, everyone had a wonderful time stuffing their faces and catching up on life.  Mom and Sis are both nurses so we've become quite creative over the past 5 years as to when we actually celebrate the holidays.  We're going to my in-laws' a little later today for a small family meal.  It's quite nice - two Thanksgiving celebrations, but they aren't squeezed into the same day! 



How we entertained ourselves at our early Thanksgiving dinner

 I'm struck this year by how many things I have to be thankful for.  I'm thankful that even though last year was one of the toughest of my life (personally and professionally), I was able to learn so many valuable lessons from it.  I'm thankful for my family, I no longer take their health for granted.  I'm thankful for my job, I no longer just assume that because I'm a teacher I will always have one.  I'm thankful for the friendships we have, they truly have become our extended family.  I'm thankful for the Hubs who keeps me sane and supported me through last year.  I'm also thankful for his incredible talents and how he is able to use them to bless so many other people.  Finally, I am thankful for Little C.  This unexpected blessing has already changed our lives so much and she's still just cooking!  God definitely knew what our little family was missing. 

Little C @ 20 weeks (she's a LOT bigger now)

One last thing I'm thankful for: non-traditional Thanksgiving desserts.  We don't have these often (Dad loves and insists on the traditional pumpkin and pecan pies), but occasionally I try to sneak one in.  One of my favorites is Pumpkin Creme' Brulee.  Super simple and super delicious!  A great make ahead dessert that pairs perfectly with those Thanksgiving leftovers everyone nibbles on all weekend.

PB & C

I think I've blogged about making these before. 

 I cheated this time though. I used a box mix for the cupcakes and only made the frosting myself. That's my Lazy Girl short cut for when I'm in a time crunch. My theory: If you use delicious frosting nobody will notice that the cupcakes are just "okay".

Chocolatey Stacks of Goodness

Our PTO held a luncheon for us the other day.  The dessert table is always my favorite part of the event.  Good stuff.  Always.  Yesterday however, there was something new.  Reese's stuffed Oreos.  No, that is not a typo.  It's a Double Stuff Oreo with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup stuck in the middle and then dipped in chocolate.  I didn't have one (I'm a slow eater and they were all gone by the time I got to dessert), but all of my friends around me did get one and said they were amazing. 

They looked pretty simple to make so this morning I purchased some supplies at HEB and get to work.  Turns out they are even easier to make than I thought!  The dipping was incredibly easy because the Oreo filling acts like a glue that holds everything together.  Hardest/most time consuming part was untwisting the Oreos.

For each 10.5 oz bag of snack size PB cups you will need one 15.35 oz package of Double Stuff Oreos and a 1/2 pound of melting chocolate.  Simply sandwich a PB cup between 2 Oreo halves and then dip the stack in melted chocolate, put it on parchment paper-covered cookie sheet and allow it to chill for about 15 minutes.  That's it. 

I'm thinking these are going to be my "Go-To-Dessert" this holiday season.  So easy.  So rich.  So yummy. 

Cookin' Up Somethin' New

So, I obviously haven't posted much this summer.  At all.  Ugh.  This is the one time of year when I actually have time to do lots of cooking and write ups and I have not taken advantage of it.  That makes me sad.

The truth of the matter is that I just haven't felt much like cooking.  What have I done a lot of?  Napping.  And snacking.  And then napping some more.  And avoiding strong smells.  Basically, I haven't been very productive when it comes to things around the house this summer.

So what have I been doing?  Surviving my first trimester. 

Turns out this Cookin' Up a baby thing is hard work!  So glad these first 3 months have passed and so looking forward to that 2nd trimester burst of energy that should show up any day now...

Foil Dinners... Italian Style

Any former Girl Scouts out there who fondly remember the requisite foil dinners you would make on every troop camp out?  I loved those things.  Such a nice combo of chicken, potatoes, green beans, carrots and spicy seasoning (Lantana was my favorite!)... Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about them.  In fact, both my sister and I loved them so much my mom used to let us make them at home and cook them in the oven or on the grill.  I guess she gave in because they were not fussy, quite healthy, cleanup was a breeze and everyone could make their meal to suit their own taste. 

Turns out you can make lasagna foil dinners!  I had no clue you could make lasagna on the grill until I read the most recent issue of Food Network magazine.  The method works so well with my summertime aversion to oven usage.  The process is really simple and easily customizable since you're making individual serving packets and not an entire pan, which is great for a families where everyone wants something different! 

Lasagna Foil Dinners
(adapted from Food Network Magazine July/August 2011; serves 4)

12 no-boil (oven-ready) lasagna noodles
10 oz fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
pinch red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 T olive oil, plus more for drizzling
3 large tomatoes (2 sliced and 1 chopped) or 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 c pesto
5 oz baby spinach
1 c Italian sausage, browned
1/3 c ricotta cheese
1/3 c fresh herbs, chopped (parsley, basil and/or mint)

1) Preheat grill to medium. Combine mozzarella, grated parmesan, red pepper flakes, 1/2 t salt and all but 1/4 t of the garlic in a bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss to combine. Season the sliced tomatoes with salt.

Lasagna Foil Dinners assembly line

2) Lay out 4 double-layer sheets of non-stick foil (or just PAM you're regular foil).  Drizzle each with a little bit of olive oil, top it with a noodle and sprinkle a generous T of water on the noodle. 



First layers

 3) Divide half of the pesto, tomatoes, spinach and Italian sausage among the 4 noodles. 

My packet - all veggies, no sausage

4) Repeat steps 3 and 4 to make another layer of noodle, water, pesto, tomato, spinach and sausage.  Then finish each stack with a noodle, another T of water and a drizzle of olive oil. 



The Hubs' - diced tomatoes and Italian Sausage


5) Bring the foil together and tightly crimp to create 4 flat packets. 

6) Grill the packets with the lid closed, until they are tender.  It takes about 10 - 12 minutes per side.  Let them rest 5 minutes.

7) Meanwhile, combine the chopped tomatoes with the T of olive oil, 1/4 t garlic and chopped herbs in a small bowl. 

8) To serve: Open the packets and cut each "lasagna" in half and top with one fourth of the ricotta cheese and the tomato and herb mixture.

Add a simple green salad or some grilled green veggies to these little lasagna packets and you've got yourself one heck of a tasty meal. 

Lazy Girl Mini Key Lime Pies

The Hubs loves key lime pies and I make a really mean one (if I do say so myself), but my "go-to" recipe involves baking.  And right now it's way too hot outside to even think about turning on the oven.  Solution: the Lazy Girl mini key lime pies. While they don't pack quite the intense key lime punch that a regular pie does, they're a pretty darned good summer substitute.

There's something just perfect about citrus flavors in the summertime. I found the recipe via foodgawker the other day and couldn't get it out of my mind. The only cooking is on the stove top to make the lime curd (8 minutes tops), but if you were really feeling lazy you could just substitute a jarred version.  Also, it looked as if she made her own tart shells, but since my whole goal was to avoid using the oven I made a Lazy Girl substitution and just used Keebler mini graham cracker crusts (6/pkg). 

Basically all you do is fold lime curd into the some sweetened whipped cream, fill the crusts, garnish and let them chill a few hours.  Could it be any easier?!?!  I was really pleased with how the little pies turned out.  I had exactly the amount of filling for my 6 shells, making this recipe perfect for a dinner party.  They are super cute and make for a nice, refreshing dessert. 

The only change I'll make next time is to increase the ratio of lime curd to whipping cream.  She has it at 1:1 and I'm thinking 1.5:1  would provide a more key lime-y punch.  I also think this would be great if you swapped lemon curd for the lime curd and garnished it with fresh berries.

Gluten Free Biscotti

This is the chronicle of my first foray into gluten free baking. 

The finished product.  Anyone have a cup of coffee I can have?

My cooking gal pal from last summer is back!  We got a later start this summer (she's quite the jet-setter with a busy schedule), but at least we got started.  She has discovered that she is gluten intolerant and wanted to experiment with some gluten free flour.  We wanted to start out with something simple so she chose biscotti.  We had lots of success with biscotti last summer and since it doesn't have the typical bread/chewy texture we figured it would be more forgiving. 



Doing some gluten-free baking research.

Basically, we followed this recipe for Lemon Poppyseed Biscotti and just swapped gluten free flour for regular AP flour.  We had both tried (unsuccessfully) to find xanthan gum at HEB and ended up just deciding to leave it out and hope for the best.  Halfway through the batter making process (prior to adding the lemon extract and lemon zest) we split the batter in half and made half of them orange, cranberry and almond flavor instead.



Oops!  After the 1st round of baking the two ran into each other. 

Although the batter was a little more wet than normal and we had to increase the 2nd baking time by 5 minutes, the final product ended up very similar to biscotti made with AP flour.  The verdict: A great substitute for those who are gluten intolerant.  Texturally, you can't tell the difference.  The Hubs thinks they're great.  But I'm not going to lie, in my opinion they have a slightly "off" aftertaste.  I think I'll be attempting the recipe again later week, but with AP flour.

Spare Pears

I love a good pear.  You know, the ones that are amazingly ripe and juicy, but not at all grainy or mealy.  The problem is that the entire bunch tends to arrive at that point at exactly the same time (or at least that's what happens to me) and then I have a plethora of ripe pears and not enough ways to eat them all.

Sometimes I slice them and serve them with a good cheese. I put them in salads.  I make pear tarts.  I even add them to pizzas with goat cheese, carmelized onions and arugula.

Recently I've found a new way to use them up...in muffins!

These are moist, dense little guys that are pretty easy to make.  A wonderful muffin that at room temperature 'pears' perfectly with a hot cup of coffee. 

Next time I make these (yes, there will most definitely be a next time) I think I will swap almond extract for 1/2 of the vanilla and sprinkling some blanched sliced almonds on top. 

Playing Hooky

I took the day off today.  It was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time.  Both of the courses I teach finished their content for the year last week and my AP kids had their exam.  I barely survived.  Many days over the last 8 months I have looked a lot like this:

Frazzled and more than a little stressed, but trying to pull it all together and keep smiling.  There have been countless breakdowns, tears and sleepless nights (not to mention the 5+ pounds and numerous gray hairs I've gained from stress) this school year.  However, I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel since we only have 12 more school days.  Hallelujah!!!!!

I celebrated my day off by staying up incredibly late last night reading and then sleeping in until almost 8... just because I could.  Heavenly.  And when I finally did get up and out of bed this morning I found this on our bathroom mirror:

Made my day!!!!  The Hubs earned some major brownie points for that one.

I spent the day tying up loose ends around the house, running errands and renewing my license at the DPS.  Not especially exciting, but incredibly relaxing.  All of that time spent waiting for them to call my number to get my new picture taken gave me even more time to read.  And the best part of the day - no one asked me any questions!  The teachers (and moms) out there know what I mean. 

To wrap up such a great spring day I needed a delicious, light dinner.  A spinach and arugula salad topped with roasted pecans, red onion, fresh goat cheese, roasted salmon, sliced strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette fit the bill quite nicely. 

YUM!  Perfect way to round out a perfect day.

Pilsner + Pork = Perfection

I had something today that I rarely have anymore- time.  Time to clean the house.  Time to do laundry.  Time to grocery shop.  And most importantly, time to cook.  I even squeezed in a yoga workout and a trip to one of my favorite local ice cream shops.  It was a fabulous day. 

The Hubs was busy tutoring students all day for their upcoming AP Exam so I had the house to myself...for almost 7 hours.  These days are very rare and I treasure them.  I'm an incredibly independent person and so "alone time" has always been very important to me.  It also meant that I had time to attempt an all-day recipe. 

Yum.

I have one word to describe this "sandwich":  Yummy



photo: The Hubs



They are amazingly easy to make and almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  Slices of panko-crusted eggplant serve as the 'bread' for these tomato, basil and chevre sandwiches.  Genius!  They are perfect for a lunch with the girls or as a light dinner when paired with a green salad and a glass of wine.   

I'm forever in my cooking gal pal's debt for choosing this recipe for us to try last summer.  We used standard eggplants then, but tonight I used baby eggplants and  loved how much more manageable it made the sandwiches.  One more tip: season every step of the way and don't forget to sprinkle the hot slices with salt as soon as they come out of the pan. 

Enjoy!

Spring Salad

I was so ready for spring to arrive this year.  I have enjoyed the clear, warm afternoons spent on the back porch after work recently.  I have adored the way springtime foods seem to awaken my palate after a winter of creamy and heavy foods.  There's nothing like the perfect salad this time of year to remind you what fresh tastes like.

photo: The Hubs

Although the grilled pork chops weren't bad, the real star of tonight's show was the Asian Citrus Salad.  Very simple: some arugula, spinach, dill, cilantro, & parsley, some thinly sliced red onion, a few blanched sugar snap peas, an orange and a handful of roasted cashews.  It was tossed with a simple vinaigrette made with the juice from the orange, a grated clove of garlic, a spoonful of orange marmalade, a splash of soy sauce, a couple of splashes of rice vinegar, some olive oil, salt and white pepper. 

Crisp, clean and perfect.

Hotel Aranjuez

What would your life be like if you could start every day with a breakfast like this?

...In a setting like this?

...With people like this?

Life would be very nice.

The only way it could be any nicer is if my kitchen had tile like this:

Yes, I seriously love this tile.  I know most people probably hate it and think it's hideous but I adore it and would give my eye teeth to get it put in my kitchen.

Need a chocolate fix?

If so, have I got the cupcake for you.  Seriously, these are gooood.  Really good. 

I've always been a huge fan of cream cheese frostings, but this one reaches a whole new level of deliciousness.  I've used the frosting on this particular chocolate cupcake recipe twice, as well as on a batch of white cupcakes.  Both combos were amazing.

Next time I'm thinking about swapping some Kahlua or Bailey's for the heavy cream and vanilla in the frosting.

PS: These make the best breakfast and pair really well with a cup of hot coffee.

PPS: Does anyone have a birthday or special occasion coming up soon?  I would love to have an excuse to make yet another batch of these yummies.

65 years and counting...

Two weekends ago we braved the frozen overpasses to head down to Galveston to celebrate my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary.  No, that's not a typo, they really have been married for 65 years. 

They have definitely set a great example for their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  It hasn't been a cakewalk by any means.  They have had their fair share of issues to deal with, but they have chosen to deal with them together.  Sadly, that becomes more and more rare these days. 

Makes me appreciate the Hubs that much more.  I know he's in it for the long haul.  Our relationship isn't perfect (we're both human), but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's always willing to work on us and to work things out.  There's a lot of security that comes from that. 

We don't get many photos of the two of us (he's the one always taking the pictures of everyone else), so I was incredibly happy that I found this one while going through the pictures from the celebration weekend. 

We'll be having a low-key evening here at home (we don't like fighting the Valentine's Day crowds) grilling burgers and enjoying the 70 degree weather.  I think we have a nice dinner out planned for this weekend... I'm hoping for something ethnic.