Wonderland

Winter Wonderland that is!

We have been getting snow every weekend pretty much since I posted on this blog that we hadn't gotten any snow this winter. (crap, maybe I shouldn't have actually said that on the blog)

Anyways... the one nice thing about snow, is that when the sun shines the next day, it's really pretty!

On my way to work the other morning, while I was stopped safely at red lights, or in my driveway, I snapped a couple of snowy-with-blue-sky photos.

Enjoy :)

hmmm, Pizza!

Our next culinary adventure is brought to you by "Pizza"!  A surefire way to please the crowd :)

 

A friend came over for dinner one day and I already had a simple meal planned of pizza, so we ran with it.  I picked up an extra pre-made dough at the store, pulled out all kinds of leftover items that went well on pizza, chopped them up, and came up with these combinations:

 

Whole wheat crust, crushed tomato sauce, shredded Mozzi, sauteed onions & peppers along with just a touch of crumbled Goat cheese.

Next we have white crust, sauce, Mozzi, chopped chives and chicken that had been marinaded in Italian dressing (pre-cooked by me and leftover from a lunch plan earlier in the week)

 

Needless to say, Pizza is always a Hit!



All About the Food

New Recipes every week continues.

 

I've been doing pretty well with a new culinary adventure every week.  Last week, since Lent was beginning, it was only fitting to try something new with fish.  Tune steaks were on sale at our grocery store, so I went for it.

Apparently i was so excited about going for it that i neglected to take a picture of it, oh well.

I marinaded the tuna with soy sauce and a tiny drop of sesame oil and put it in the oven.  It was delicious!

 

The next day I ventured into my new Bon Appetite cookbook, and pulled out a good one!  Chicken lime-cilantro Fajitas!

 

The marinade was just olive oil, cilantro & lime throw it in a food processor, coat the chicken with it, and cook the chicken.  I had cut the chicken up tiny and put it in a pan on the stove.  sauteed some peppers and onions, pulled some salsa and grated Cheddar out of the fridge... and we had a delectable meal!

 

 

Anyone else been cooking something scrumptious lately?

The Bon Appetite cookbook has about 500 pages with 2 recipes on each page... I'm gonna be busy for a while :)

Winter Fun

This has been a weird winter, with frigid temperatures, but when there's water falling from the sky, it's 50 degrees out and in the form of rain.

If someone can figure that one out, please let me know.

 

The lack of snow around here has definitely hurt the winter-sporting world a bit, but this weekend, we stuck our noses up at mother nature, and took what she gave us, plus a little extra, and enjoyed the cold outdoors.

 

First on the docket was Tubing at Cranmore Mountain.

 

Then, we went for the high-speed enjoyment activity.  The trails were perfect and there weren't that many people to share them with.

 

So, after tubing and snowmobiling, the next logical activity in the snow and 11 degree weather...it's a water park of course!

 

It was a great weekend with most of my family.  Unfortunately my Man and my Brother both had to work at home so they weren't able to join us, they were missed.



My Resolution

I am not generally very good at resolutions, so I try not to make them.  This year though, I came up with one that I think I can actually keep and will enjoy it quite a bit.  The goal is to cook at least one new recipe every week.  (though, if necessary, I'd be ok with one every 2 weeks should it come to that, lol)

 

Week 1 my aunt and mom came up for dinner, so vegetarian dishes were the order of the day.  From my William sonoma Vegetable cookbook i found a recipe using Jerusalem Artichokes.  Looks like Ginger, acts like Potato, and smells like artichoke.  I made a veg casserole with it, and it was a major crowd pleaser!

Oh, and homemade bread sticks too!!

 

Week 2 a friend came over, and I made Kale, Barley, & Meatball soup.  I made the meatballs by hand, and it came out amazing.  Liz was over for dinner, and we both got to enjoy it together for dinner, and separately for lunch the next day.  That's a good recipe :)

 

In between here somewhere i roasted my first ever chicken!!

 

Week 3 I made a veggie dish for Ashley's visit.  I was searching for inspiration with the TV on in the background and Giada's cooking program came on with a great Risotto recipe, so guess what we had for dinner....?

The best part about her recipe was that you don't have to stand in front of the stove for hours to make it.  start in the pan with the ingredients and browning, then put in the liquid, cover, and put in the oven for a half hour.  It was scrumptious!!

 

Week 4, Bridget (my partner in cooking crime) came over and we made a feast for a queen!  Roasted asparagus topped with crisped prosciutto and a fried egg.  All of that was put on top of a potato pancake and topped with a quick hollandaise sauce.  It was so incredibly yummy I can't wait to make it again.

 Cant wait to see what I'll come up with this week.

Friends are Everything

Anyone who knows me personally knows that my friends are a huge part of my life.  So much fun has been had with good friends and good times.  Going through wedding planning and events made me re-realize how amazing friends are.

It's always hard when friends move away and aren't as close and accessible as you as they had been previously.  Liz is one of those friends in my life.  We grew up 3 towns away from each other and met in 6th grade.  We were just classmates for middle school, then in the same group of friends in high school.  But our real bond began in college.  We both independently ended up going to the same school, and were each other's lifeline in the high-school to college adjustment.  After college she started Medical school, and ended up landing in Colorado!

This month, her medical school, which usually has her 2 time zones away, posted her in Boston, and we got to spend some awesome time together.

The East Coast misses you Liz!!