Sunday Dinner

6.14.2011

As a bit of a rarity, I actually cooked twice this past weekend. I l.o.v.e. cooking and spending time in the kitchen but traveling every week makes the weekend more for resting than for measuring and mixing. It also doesn't hurt that its GRILLING SEASON! I'll grill anything. I've seen a few good desserts recently that are based on grilled fruit {peaches / pineapple} and I'm going to try those out soon.

Anyway.... on Saturday I made the Cilantro Lime Chicken for dinner to more rave reviews. The tomato, avocado salsa is just salivatingly delicious... even now first thing in the morning.... I'd eat the whole bowl.

When Sunday came around, I saw we had a few extra tomatoes in the fridge and felt like it was the perfect opportunity to try out these Parmesan tomatoes I'd seen on Pinterest. I combined that with some garlic cous cous {couldn't find my favorite Parmesan version!} and more grilled chicken {i'm sure you are surprised.... we are a chicken family}.

The tomatoes were very very easy to make and pretty tasty. Although a few notes for the next time: (1) less "juicy" tomatoes and (2) the recipe totally underestimates the amount of Parmesan required to match the picture. I did substitute fresh oregano with dried oregano from the cabinet and threw on some capers.... well because I love salt.
freshly grated parm ....
ready for the oven ...
out of the oven... and ready for my belly...
When we first made the Cilantro Lime Chicken is was mere coincidence that the chicken got a bit chopped up before grilling. Ever since then it's been on purpose. It such a great way to cook more quickly, eat a less at the table, and have the leftovers more ready for consumption. Baby Sister looooves leftovers for lunch... and I love helping her. I seasoned the chicken with olive oil, a small bit of salt, and my favorite Penzey's Southwest seasoning and then slapped those babies on the grill.



Here is the finished product! I hope you love our classy tablecloth :) Its one of my mom's favorites but perhaps we can replace it with something a little more photogenic if these Sunday dinners continue....

Done. Done. and Done.

Shopping List
- chicken boobs
- Penzey's Southwest Seasoning
- Cous Cous
- Tomatoes {pick less juicy ones, like Roma or Plum perhaps}
- Freshly grated Parmesan {totally makes a difference}
- oregano
- capers {if you so desire}
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Guilty Pleasure

6.10.2011

Earlier this week I went to grocery store {I'll be honest... it was a Wawa} and bought cookie dough frozen yogurt. Then, I proceeded to eat only the cookie dough. I'm not exaggerating ... in the least.

I let the Ben & Jerry's defrost until it was quite melty. Then I got a big spoon and stood over the sink picking out the cookie dough chunks. In an effort to be less piggy, I split up the cookie dough over two nights.

I just love cookie dough.

When I was in college, I always had a roll of cookie dough in my refrigerator. This probably wasn't the best thing, but I lived off of chicken fingers, cookie dough, frozen waffles, bud light, and nachos.

Anyway.... while watching the Bruins game with Little Brother I had a hankering for more cookie dough... and that is just what I did. I "prepared" two tablespoons {one for each of us} and promptly enjoyed it.



Not much on tap for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to relaxing, going for a good run or two, and perhaps taking some pictures of these great flowers I saw on my afternoon bike ride. My aunt called me tonight to tell me she was making the grilled pizza from earlier in the week {woop woop}. I'm inspired to make something else this weekend as a result, we'll see what happens.
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Ready to Relax {at home, not a Hilton}

6.09.2011

June 2011
I'm tired this morning and all I want to do is just relax at home. I found myself scrolling through old beach pictures on my ipad in bed this morning so it seemed appropriate to post a few of my favorites along with one from this past weekend.

One of the things that I love about the beach near my house is that no matter where you stand it looks different (yet the same). There is something super pretty about it whether the fog is so thick you can't see the ocean.... or sunshine so bright everything sparkles.

I'm traveling home tonight and couldn't be more excited to see Minot's Light in the morning. :)

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What is "sticker pizza" .... {and how to avoid it}

6.08.2011


Every Monday that I'm in Pennsylvania, I get the personal size Pizza Verde takeout from Bertuccis. Its perfectly fancy, yet comforting... and I'll be honest 33% of the time I eat it in bed. Let me be clear. When I say "in bed", I quite literally mean I'm under the covers eating pizza. Its a luxury I wouldn't do in my own house/bed.

Anyway, I love this pizza verde since it has some of my favorite ingredients: carbs, cheese, prosciutto, and balsamic {yes, that's pretty much everything in the pizza}. I wanted to recreate this pizza for the family over the weekend and Sunday dinner was the first time we were really all together.

True Confessions? This is actually the second time I made this pizza for the family. The first time they were sweet enough to eat it - hell, it wasn't *that* bad, but it wasn't great. We fondly referred to it as "sticker" pizza since the bottom got so burned well-cooked you could just peel off the bottom to make it taste better.

I attempted to remedy the "sticker pizza" issue this time by lowering the temperature of the grill, and it was successful ... but I ended up throwing the pizza under the broiler to crisp up the prosciutto for little brother.

Here are some pictures of the process and basic recipe at the bottom....

Cooking outside is my favorite
Nice crispy {but not burned} crust...
Freshly grilled dough... with mozzarella and prosciutto
Baby Sister took over on the prosciutto spreading
The finished product
The ingredients and process for this couldn't be easier..... I haven't included amounts because its as much or as little as you want. Like cheese? use more of it. Enough said.

Grocery Store pizza dough ($1.79/each)
Mozzarella ($5.99)
Prosciutto ($7)
Mixed greens ($2.99)
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
  1. Stretch out the dough in desired shape, thinner is better but avoid holes. Who likes holes in their pizza?
  2. Brush olive oil on one side and sprinkle some salt on that sucker.
  3. Flop the olive oil side down on a medium temp grill. Keep an eye on this as you don't want to make "sticker pizza".
  4. Repeat the olive oil / salt treatment... and when ready flip the pizza again. Now you've grilled both sides. Its time for some toppings!
  5. Slap on some cheese and then prosciutto. Drizzle *a little* olive oil on the pizza. I found this helps the cheese melt a bit {perhaps, I'm making this up}. The fam suggested I put a little too much olive oil on one of the pizzas.
  6. Pull the pizza off the grill before the bottom gets too well done. If you want, throw it in the oven under the broiler to crisp up the toppings. Keep an eye on this though... broilers move quickly.
  7. Cut as desired, add the greens, and watch people smile as they eat.
This is just that easy... and cheap. I included what I spent above for the ingredients we had to procure at the store. For a family of 5, we needed two pizzas which would have run us $35ish at the local pizza fav, Riva Pizza.

End result? Saved some cash money. Cooked on the grill. Didn't make sticker pizza. Win. Win. and Win.
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Hot Hot Hot

6.07.2011

I just saw on the news this morning that Pennsylvania is going to get a heat wave this week. A honest to goodness heatwave. While I'm "blessed" to spend this wave in Air Conditioning, I would still much rather spend it sitting on a porch drinking some ice tea.... or perhaps splashing around in the family {baby} pool.

Whenever I'm home, I have / need / must make sun tea. Sun tea tastes delish but requires the patience of waiting several hours for the sun to do its work. The best part about sun tea is that you can get creative with it - throw in as many or as few tea bags as you want, put in some herbs for flavor, you get to pick.

My recipe? 5 green tea bags and a handful of mint.

I had a huge craving for my sun tea last night when I was leaving the gym - well actually, I wanted a margarita, but settled for sun tea. Since I clearly hadn't been making any tea at the Hilton while I was at work, I had to settled for ice tea from the grocery store {ahem.... Wawa}. I'm salivating just thinking about sun tea...
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Traveling fate... It is what it is

6.06.2011


So that is what the Cape looks like from above... Apparently.

I'm not sure I've ever seen that before from the air.

Obviously, I'm back flying again and not to pleased about it. Some days flying is easy breezy, where as the next day makes me cringe with hatred for US Air. For example, today i'm flying to Philadelphia again. US Air has flights pretty much hourly in the timeframe of 530-1030 {I'm sure it continues later than that but what business traveller can leave after 9 am really?}

As a result of some personal stuff, I was at the airport early enough to just miss the 530 flight, see the 630 flight delayed until 830, and not get off the standby list for the 715. At a certain point you accept your fate as a traveler, you won't get to your destination one minute before the airline / FAA will let you .... But you have to wonder what happens inside these airlines a little bit.

For example... In the two months that I've been flying {not train-ing} I think my flight has been ontime once. Maybe twice. That is a horrible batting average... But whatever right? However, today as I'm sitting on the plane awaiting takeoff I get a voicemail from the airline. They just wanted me to know my flight was going to be about 30 minutes delayed. Thanks for the FYI US Air but where were you all the other times. Also, why are you wasting your time and energy calling customers about flights for which they should already be at the airport?



Remember that 630 flight that was delayed until 830? Well, that's the one I ended up getting on. I was pretty stoked to land an exit row seat especially since I didn't pay for it. After all the passengers have boarded the plane, the flight crew thanked us for our patience {you are welcome} and announced that the 2 hour delays has been due to required crew rest. They also dropped a little gem that the flight would be delayed a little bit longer as they fixed a broken door latch. I have no issues with crew rest, I love my sleep and I want those responsible for my safety to get theirs as well. But, if the flight is already delayed two hours and the plane is sitting at the gate... Why did it take you until we boarded the plane to note the broken latch?

I'm going to try and hit up my favorite grocery store for lunch {WEGMANS!} in an attempt to break this Monday of it's downward spiral...
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Meet Walter.

6.02.2011

Meet Walter. My Hammock.

I've wanted a hammock for about as long as I can remember. Its so relaxing just swinging lightly in the breeze - or laying still under the trees {rhyming unintentional, but awesome}. So last weekend, I said enough is enough and went to Lowes and picked up my new favorite thing, Walter. Walter is a Pawleys Island Hammock - which apparently is like a big brand, or not. I went to a few websites prior to purchase {of course, research} and only really found Pawleys hammocks. Who knew? Not me.

Anyway, I love Walter and he was really quick and easy to assemble. I did have one hiccup {as you'll see in the video} because the directions were like non-existent. Plus, I knew the hammock was like 13-15 feet long, but I have no gauge on distance and as a result tried to assemble a 20 foot-ish hammock. Oops.
 
I've been tempted to "pimp out" my hammock with a table attachment, perhaps a bug net... but so far have only purchased a wheel for him.... being as he's pretty heavy. Its only like 65 pounds {stand only} but super awkward to try and move. Not pretty.

Best hammock moment so far? Checking out the stars with Little Brother one night this weekend. We used my Google Stars app on the phone and found one of the dippers and saw a few shooting stars. Yes, it was as dreamy/suburban/awesome as it sounds.

Heaven = hammock + cooking magazine + Starbucks
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Anchors Away!

6.01.2011


Remember the post I did around Valentine's Day about "Talk Nerdy to Me"? Well, talking nautical is just as good. If you some how find a way to merge the seashore and the interweb together... without causing an electrical fire, call me. 

But, in the meantime... I do love all things nautical especially as warm weather is become more and more frequent of an occurrence. I love stripes, I love the color blue, I love canvas. I'm a huge fan of tote bags. Hell, I've even embraced the fact that my hair turns all sorts of unruly around the ocean. Think friz + wavey + uncontrollable. It'll be the only time I break out a hat... ever.

After a super great Memorial Day weekend, I was having a severe bit of long weekend withdrawl this morning and wishing for days that didn't involve conference calls, powerpoints, and project plans. I'm not sure what I did before Pinterest came into my life, but it has this way of resetting the mood. I've been working on this Anchors board for about a week now and here are a few favorites.






I can't wait for the day when I get to cover a study or reading nook with all this anchor business. Thankfully, my dreams of having a "map room" fit quite nicely with the "anchor/nautical" room... otherwise, I'd have to start saving some cash money for all these rooms I plan on "decorating". I use the word decorating reallllllly loosely since I lived in my last apartment for two years and only hung about 3 pictures and they were on hooks that were already in the wall.

I have high aspirations though for my next living abode (target date: September 2011). Although I think the bead board and cool light fixtures have to wait for a house, perhaps I'll be able to throw some blue paint around and slap some anchors on the walls. Or, I'll just spend an entire weekend watching HGTV "Holmes Inspection", "Yard Crashers" and "Income Property" .... chances are pretty good either way.
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