Beach

Well, we have been at the beach for the past week, therefore, not too many new cooking adventures to report on. We did, however, have quite the adventure getting to the beach. You see, this trip normally would take us anywhere from five to six hours. Twelve hours later on Saturday, we arrived at the beach. Our car gave us a lot of trouble, making it a long, drawn out road trip, but we survived it, together. I can really say, though, there's no one else I'd want thing to go so wrong on a trip then with my husband. When we arrived at the cottage, Grandma had our favorite spirits waiting!

I've been cooking with my husband's grandma all this week and it has really been fun. We cook very similarly so it is neat to be in the kitchen together. Highlights from our menu this week include: crab legs, bay scallop gratins (Ina Garten), ribs, mashed potatoes, corn salad, shrimp with fettuccine, and a lot of varying sides and appetizers. I think chicken wings are up tonight, then we'll work it all off mini-golfing. I'm excited!

Baguette Pizzas on the Bedroom Floor

Tonight, husband and I are going to make baguette pizzas. Only- since we live in such a small place that does not readily produce baguettes on a Sunday (which is when we bought our ingredients because we live 30 minutes from the nearest grocery store and were already "in town"), we are making it on a French loaf. We will see how it goes!

Here I am now, having made the pizzas and they were delicious! We made them with, as I stated before, a French loaf (garlic and parmesan flavored) , cut in half. We spread pizza sauce on both slices, sprinkled them with shredded mozzarella, and placed pepperonis, diced red onion, and fresh chopped basil and oregano on top. I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes on 350, let them cool, and then sliced away.

So you may be wondering about the "bedroom floor" portion of tonight's post title. It happens that tonight we had some people occupying our living room for a meeting. So, seeing how our kitchen has zero space to eat in, we resorted to the bedroom. I am a fanatic about no food in bed due to my desire to sleep in a crumb-free environment, so that is how we ended up eating our yummy baguette pizzas on the floor. It was romantic in a cute sort of way.

I remembered after we had halfway eaten the pizza to take a picture. So, it's not the best shot in the world, but it will do. Until next time...

Sick Husband & The Great Guacamole Disaster

I've been out of town for a while with no opportunities to cook, thus no blogging. But, now I am home setting forth on more cooking adventures. Since returning home, my husband has been feeling sickly. So, yesterday I cooked up a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. It's a recipe I adapted from Rachael Ray to make my own. It is especially delicious in the winter or when you're just not feeling up to par. The vegetables I included are: carrots, celery, and spring onions. You can really use a yellow onion, but I decided to change things up a little. Then, its just 1-2 diced chicken breasts, 64oz (4lb) of chicken stock, salt, pepper, egg noodles, and herbs. I wanted to use some herbs out of my herb garden so yesterday I included chopped parsley, oregano, and thyme. It makes a huge pot, so we are continuing to enjoy it.


Tonight we are having tacos for dinner. We're making them the old-fashioned American way tonight with just ground beef. My favorite meat to use in tacos is Chorizo, a Mexican sausage. But- ground beef is what we had in the freezer to use, so ground beef it is. Since I was feeling in the Mexican food mood, I decided that I was going to make guacamole. I thought it'd be a breeze. The recipe was simple enough (Barefoot Contessa, Food Network), and I'd even watched Ina do it on TV before. No problem. Wrong. Clearly, my definition of a ripe avocado and what a ripe avocado is were two very different things. The under-ripened avocados that I bought kicked my butt. I cut into one and it was incredibly difficult to get the actual avocado-ness out. So, I tried to ripen the others in the microwave since I'd already cut the one open and I'd already prepared the other ingredients. Now, please note that I would have never gone to such measures under normal circumstances. Well, the microwaving softened the avocados enough to where I could use them. However, getting the actual flesh out was painful to the flesh on my hands which got burned in the process. Anyway, I smashed them up, sprinkled with fresh lemon juice, added garlic, tomatoes, and a red onion, and called it a day. It is certainly the worst guacamole I have ever had, but alas, it is edible (although I have no plans on serving it to anyone else, ever). The mess of the whole fiasco is still sitting in my kitchen. Pictures below.