it’s thanksgiving. but more importantly, it’s on my birthday this year.
i have so much to be thankful for. this has been an unbelievably transforming year for me, and i have much to reflect on and celebrate! i plan to take it easy and do whatever i want… and you can guarantee i’ll be EATING today!
here’s the menu : Continue reading
hope you all had a safe and happy halloween! i just LOVE this time of year, don’t you?! i love being in the kitchen more than normal… and i love busting out my crockpot… and i’m even more eager to bust out my vitamix!! i will be doing that this weekend when i am basically a personal chef for my best friends in the rockies 🙂
i also love making my own pumpkin seeds. they are one of my favourite snacks, and when pumpkins are on sale – so what better time to make some?! i paid 2 bucks for my pumpkins on a one-day sale. i would say these average sized pumpkins yield about 2-3 cups of seeds – that’s a decent value!
Continue reading
i’ve been craving slash eating a lot of this lately :
classic grilled cheese and tomato soup… only, as per usual, i mix it up a little.
i use the most healthy bread i can find. usually something a little more dense like a multigrain – or in this case, a flax-seed bread. i opt for organic when i can… bread is expensive! and, instead of traditional tomato soup, i buy this from pacific foods. OH EM GEE, it is so delicious!! the red pepper makes it just a tad more flavourful and sweet and when you dip your grilled cheese in it, HOLY SMOKES!! just – just, do me a favour and go buy some. and then tell me how you’ll never want to buy any other tomato soup again… Continue reading
if you’ve been a reader for a bit, you probably know by now that i do not often cook pasta. i am getting better, but for the longest time it just seemed like i couldn’t make a decent pasta dish to save my life.
mostly, i just throw together stuff in my fridge and call it a “primavera” — and i’ve been on this kick where i just make my own sauce fresh every time i make a pasta dish or spaghetti squash dish. i’m all about things in one pan… make it easy! Continue reading
i have been craving mashed potatoes ever since long before our first frost on october 5th – {what the heck?!} — and i finally made some at home. you wouldn’t think mashed potoatoes would be a “seasonal” food, but apparently according to some, they are. i tend to think of them as a seasonal-transcendant food, but i also tend to think against the grain – whatever.
typically i use creamer potatoes for my mashed taters, and i use a special kind of butter that leaves every guest asking, “what did you put in those mashed potatoes?!?!?!!!” i take a lot of pride in making some mean mashed potatoes. it’s one of my few specialties. not a super difficult dish by any means, but i do think that i was a potato farmer in a previous life, no doubt… so i pour a lot of my soul into my mashed potatoes. and as we all know, my soul tastes like butter… 🙂
this time i opted to try something new. i decided to make “smashed fingerling potatoes” instead. a slightly different potato, but still a creamier texture. and i used a different butter. no matter, it still turned out amazing. Continue reading
sometimes, you just don’t want to have to spend a long time in the kitchen.
i do enjoy cooking, but i also sometimes just want to be super lazy and curl up by the fireplace and eat comfort food. that’s all i’ve been wanting to do lately. the weather is changing a lot here {calling for snow in the next few days – ALREADY!} and i have been kind of lazy extra lazy… just wanting to eat mashed potatoes and soup and bread and wear hoodies all the time. i love changing with the seasons, it gives me something to look forward to. 🙂
so, i made this super easy pasta. i don’t think i need to actually tell you how to cook it. but i tried this new kind of cutsie little pasta – ditalini rigati, which will go lovely in some fall crock-pot based soups i’ll be trying soon!
so, salmon season is pretty much over… i think we’ll get another run or two but that will be it. do you know how you can just kind of guess that the season is about over? well, have you been to the grocer and SEEN the size of salmon filets right now?! massive! like, i mean MASSIVE fish! they’ve been cruising around eating up the other fish, gettin’ all fat and delicious on us… THAT’S how you can usually tell it’s the end of the season. they’re HUGE!
whenever there is a one-day special or sale of any kind on salmon, i nab it up. i don’t like freezing my fish, so i’ll just buy enough for a nice meal with the roomie or cook a little extra for salads. all seafood is so much more expensive out here in the land-locked states, so i don’t eat it nearly as much as i would like. frozen fish just doesn’t taste as good… i prefer only eating wild-caught, in season, as local as possible fish.
the real secret ingredient to this dish and part of the inspiration for even buying the fish was to use some of this absolutely amazing marinade that was gifted to me as a generous sample. it’s a locally made product which is a basil-based vinaigrette that i was immediately hooked on the first time i tried it when the vendor was demoing the product with some simple bib lettuce. i didn’t find a website for the actual producers, but i do know that this particular bottle in the above foto was made only 3 days prior to me consuming it. talk about fresh!! i’m so lucky.
if you can find it, get it. you can buy it online and it’s actually cheaper than the store that way. the ingredients are so simple, if you had the right combo of good oil and vinegar you could almost mimic it. but i tell you, it’s the best dressing i’ve ever tried!! i’m not sure i’ll ever go back to another dressing again! and i have tried a TON of vinaigrettes! italian-style dressing is my absolutely fav, but it simply has to have the right combination of good oil and good vinegar and the right kind of spices. i mean, when you’re basing your dressing around FRESH basil, i guess you can’t go wrong… Continue reading
i like to make up names for my food…
i can’t remember where i picked this idea up… maybe it was during my cleanse, i was talking to someone about dairy and particularly mayonnaise and how i don’t really like it and i wish there was a better dressing for my tuna sandwiches. then i heard about trying an avocado in place of dressing – and HOLY SMOKES! what a better sammy it makes!
so, here’s the extremely simple recipe : Continue reading
these were absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS!! perfect for the football game, easy to make {if you can stand making the risotto ahead of time earlier in the week}, and out-of-this-world delicious! a coworker suggested this recipe to me when i told her i was trying my hand at risotto… i was eager to try BOTH!
here is my recipe for the mushroom/leek risotto that is beginning this dish. start with that – and 2 eggs and some breadcrumbs… i had *just enough* to make these : Continue reading
here’s my “true fat tire story” —
so… by now you probably all know that i got promoted at work – and if you didn’t, now you do 🙂
it’s a good thing. added stress is always annoying, and with management usually comes more stress… but i decided that on my shifts, there will be none of that, no drama, no “issues,” no stress. that’s just how i roll.
i digress.
so, after my promotion, i was all like “i want to buy myself a congratulatory meal!” and so, the first thing i always go to when i want to treat myself with food – is seafood. i love love love me some seafood. anything that’s been in the ocean, really. but my favourite go-tos are shrimp, crab, scallops, or salmon. mostly shellfish, mostly delicious maryland blue crab meat. i have been craving them ever since i made my homemade potato chips… when i visit NYC in october, i’m actually considering making a day trip back to the bay, to mow down on some chesapeake catches! Continue reading
did i mention how i got promoted?!
so, when something BIG happens, i like to celebrate with food. and since i can’t eat a dozen maryland blue crabs right now, i opted for other aquatic delicacies…
a huge pile of freshly steamed wild-caught pink shrimp, colorado sweet corn on the cob, and delicious pan-seared sea scallops.
i take a lot of pride in being able to make really really good scallops. tender, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth amazing scallops! i call them “meat marshmallows” — so delicious! i’m really missing both the accessibility and lower cost of seafood from living on the east coast… this meal wasn’t cheap. but hey, i just got promoted, and so i wanted to treat myself! i deserve it!
if you’ve never tried to make your own scallops because you’re scared of screwing up, i’m here to take away that fear my friends. it’s really very simple to cook them, just keep it like most things should be in life –
low and slow. Continue reading
too soon?!
it’s not quite autumn, i do realize that — but the air in colorado has been changing and i even saw some yellow leaves on a green tree on my walk around the lake the other day… just sayin’ – pretty soon, they’ll be tons of corn and pumpkins!
and besides, i love blue moon beer. i’ve tried {almost} all of their beers and i have enjoyed each one.
simple black bean hummus :
– chickpeas {“this” many}
– 1 can or box black beans
– some tomatoes {did i mention how i don’t measure…}
i used these delicious little cherry tomatoes and golden nugget tomatoes. how incredible do just their names sound?! yum.
throw those three simple ingredients in a food processor, add in a little S&P, and spin in some EVOO as needed – start with a little, add as you go if necessary…
blend until desired texture… you know, like – hummus 🙂
serve with whatever. for lunch, i smeared some on a slice of naan bread. pita would work, too. add in some falafel and make a wrap out of it…
or, dip some blue chips in it. YUM!
i accompanied it with this yummy brew.
who cares if it’s kind of an autumn beer?! it was spicy-ish, less pumpkin than spicy – at least according to my palate. i love the colour and i really enjoyed it. warm and complex, it would be good alone as an after-dinner drink, or with a mild dish like this hummus or even a mild cheese.
when people ask, “where are you from?” you probably have one solid answer, right – “california, wisconsin, canada, las vegas, china, etc…” ?! well, i usually respond with, “i’m kind of from all over…” because, i am. i mean, i just never respond with the place i was born and stop — i don’t claim one place as ‘home’ — i am really, kind of, from all over…
a little history on me :
– born in south carolina, didn’t stay long…
– lived in pennsylvania for a year {ish}
– massachusetts for like another year or so, i think…
– then maryland for a while, with some
– long summers in oklahoma
– then colorado for a while…
– long summers in virginia
– colorado again… always came back to colorado
– then back to maryland for a while
– then back to colorado
– then back east to new york
– and now here we are… once again, living in colorado. i always come back to colorado… i suppose there is something to be said about that…?! Continue reading
pizza and beer, anyone?!
breakfast pizzas are popping up all over pinterest and blog sites alike, and i was so eager to try one of my own. after 14 days of cleansing, i have been obviously rather ravenous lately. carbs, bacon, eggs, and cheese were all that would suffice last weekend. so, i made my own organic breakfast pizza and served it with a delicious farmhouse saison… you’re going to want to try this. Continue reading
food & foto 