Culinary Adventures

So, by now we all know that I love to cook.  I'll admit, I may not have held up my end of the bargain with my goal of a new recipe every week or every other week, however.... when I do get my culinary brain going, it's hard to stop me.

My mom and her friend come up once ever few months, and I use that day as my incentive to challenge myself the most.  The first time they came up I was living in my apartment, and I made Alfredo sauce from scratch.  That seems like ages ago now.  Between then and now I've made tomato marinated swordfish, stuffed artichokes, stuffed chicken breasts, and many others.

This visit sparked a brand new technique inside of me...Pasta Making!  The show Worst Cooks in America gave me the idea, and it actually worked better than I could have thought.  Without a pasta machine (don't worry I'll have one soon) I had to roll it out by hand so it was a slight bit thick, but it was still yummy.

It was kinda too bad that these Cherry-Glazed Chicken Thighs from my now-famous-on-this-blog Bon Appetite cookbook got overshadowed by the ravioli because it was so delicious on it's own!
And have you ever just roasted red onions in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and salt & pepper?  Well, if your answer was no, then you should try it, they were Delicious!!

Have I made you hungry yet....? ;)

Friends Come to Visit

I am a huge fan of friends coming to visit, and this past Memorial Day Weekend I was honored with a visit from friends I hadn't seen since our wedding day, just about a year before.

Our morning was spent catching up on our year apart, then the afternoon we got to explore Provincetown.  Always a treat to spend time exploring the craziness of those streets and people watching out the windows of a local restaurant.

Lobster Rolls epitomized out Cape Cod day.

Me and this girl know each other because our moms went to college together, and man, am I so glad of that!

My Man of course had to show off his muscles a little bit by picking us both up at the same time to cap off our awesome day!

Thanks so much for visiting Nicole & Angela, I can't wait to return the favor and visit you next!!

Life after Italy

My life after our trip can be pretty much summed up with the words Work & Babies.

This combination seems pretty self explanatory to me...my job had been so busy and crazy, that after work, I have to fill my mind with cuteness and these faces to keep me from going crazy.

Hopefully they help you too!

Then, on the weekends, when there's no work to be had, I have to be sure to sneak in a little bit of this:

even if I have to drive 2 hours to get there :)

Summer has begun!

Italy

Our very special Italian moment came in Rome, with our visit to the U.S. Ambassador to Italy!  I am fortunate to know him through my job, as he is one of the original founders of my company.  He managed to squeeze us in to his extremely busy schedule and spend an hour making us feel like the most important people in Rome!

Thank You David for having us!!

Back to Reality....

...but let's look at the pictures just one more time!

So, as most of you know, the vacation that I went on last month, was to ITALY!! and I didn't go alone, I didn't even go with just me and my Husband... we were lucky enough to also travel with my Parents and my Brother.

We had a great time as a family enjoying the homeland and eating the food.  The Tour group we travelled with was through Gate 1 Travel.  I highly recommend them and I'm so happy that we chose to travel with them.

And now time for a small sampling of the 4000 photos that us 5 people managed to take over 10 days!

Vacation is the Spice of Life

I am one who LOVES travel.

I am not however, one to travel Alone.

I much prefer a companion when I travel, someone to laugh with, enjoy the sights with, and to butcher foreign languages with.

For my next trip, I'm blessed with 4 travel companions...4 of my favorite people in the entire world...and we're gonna take the world by storm every minute of our trip.

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Stay tuned for updates...!!

Cooking Chronicles

Bon Appetite Cookbook has been keeping me busy.

Recently I made a scallops dish that was a total Flop!  However, I'm proud to announce that that has been the only disappointment so far.

The Tunisian Chicken dish has been a fan favorite so far!  I enjoyed the leftovers for days afterwards, and to me, beyond that first bite of awesomeness, that's the mark of a great recipe.

(Apparently I don't have a pic of that one though)

This one was braised chicken with Peppers and Kale.  Yummy!

A rare fish dish, this one was a solo evening when the Hubs was away for a friend's father's funeral :(

The Swordfish with Avocado and Tomato relish was very fresh and delicious.  It's a once in a while recipe though.

 This one was my biggest adventure so far.  Making Ribs without a Grill...

The sauce was a homemade sweet & spicy, basted every 15 minutes, in the oven, on a rack on a cookie sheet...

They weren't quite fall-off-the-bone, and my dad's are still better, but they were lick-your-fingers good, and we ate them all.

Cant wait to get cooking on the next one!