Let's Play A Little Catch Up!

I'm sorry for this long overdue entry! Jeremy went out of town last Thursday (he's back today!) and it totally threw off my routine. Lame, huh?

But I'm back and now it's time to fill you in on what's been going on the past week or so.

First of all...I need to give a little shout out to my mom and sister.

We spent a belated Mother's Day in Seattle on the 15th. I met them at the Paramount Theater where we had the chance to see Mary Poppins! It did not disappoint.

It was so much fun to spend a day in Seattle and it was a chance to do some great mom-daughter bonding. We hit up Cheesecake Factory and had the most amazing desserts!

Yes...there were multiple pieces of cheesecake involved.

After the Sunday in Seattle I came back to Portland where we were blessed with a bit of sunshine. I made some of those recipes I blogged about last week and then Jeremy was off to New York for his younger sister's graduation from West Point.

I wish I had been there. I am so incredibly proud of her and what she has accomplished.
West Point is a hard road for anyone, but Lisa met the challenge and is now a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army!

Here's an amazing photo of Jeremy, Lisa, and John. The three Maginots in the military. They look pretty good right? :)

While Jeremy and the whole Maginot crew were in NY I had the chance to spend the weekend celebrating my friend Dani's upcoming wedding! Her wedding is in June, so Lauren, Kylie, Dani, and I (three bridesmaids + the bride) headed out to Dani's hometown of Seaside, OR.

Lots of fun was had. There was a hilarious underwear game. See photo below. Followed by a few hours out on the town. We made a great "to-do" list for Dani that she had to complete before the end of the night. 

Doesn't she look like she's having fun? :)

Sorry for the dark photo, but here we are! What a fun celebration we had!
Can't wait til June 17th!!

So I think that's everything I had to share with you today! I promise to get back on track with entries now. So keep checking back!

A Twist and a Turn

Today I expected to update you all on the weekend.

Tell you tales of my Seattle adventures and new kitchen creations.

But you'll just have to wait.
:)

Today I decided to do a little re-vamping of the blog.
I wanted to make this simpler and more useful to all of you.

I played with format.

Added a couple of new pages.

(Please take a look!)

And now I need your help.

What do you all think?

Good changes? Bad changes? What were you thinking changes?!

Leave me a comment or shoot me an email.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
It's my goal to become really good at this blog thing, but it's going to take a team effort!

One more thing!

Does anyone have a graphic designer they love/trust who could create a nice little blog banner?
I'd love to hear your recommendations!

Stay tuned for more updates!

xoxo.

Adventuring

This was a weekend full of adventuring. If that's not a legitimate word, it should be.
Saturday morning began when I rediscovered Portland's amazing Farmers' Market. I've been wanting to experiment with various greens, so I figured I'd pick out some fresh options and then test them out for dinner Saturday.

I went home with
kale,
collard greens,
mustard greens,
and Swiss chard...

...along with these peonies and some fresh mint, asparagus, and rhubarb.

I might have gone overboard,
just a little bit!

After the farmers' market I went hiking with a friend in Forest Park. I will fill you all in on this Portland gem tomorrow or Wednesday.
When I came home from the hike it was time to start experimenting with all of these fun new ingredients.

Let's start with the kale.

Baked Kale Chips
Inspiration from The Little Red House

Ingredients:

one bunch of kale, washed, dried, and torn or chopped into 3 inch pieces

lemon zest and a little bit of lemon juice if you'd like

1 T olive oil

sea salt and pepper

Directions:

Toss your kale in a bowl with the other ingredients. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 mins at 250 degrees. (Light and crispy is the goal, no soggy pieces!)

I ran a little experiment by putting a bowl full of these next to Jeremy while he was working on an assignment.

He devoured them and then asked for more!

Looks like I'll be buying kale from now on.

A few hours later it was dinner time. Here comes experiment #2.

I found a recipe via foodgawker.com for Collards, Bacon, White Beans and Quinoa.

A pretty safe rule of thumb...anything with bacon will be good.

Collards, Bacon, White Beans and Quinoa
Inspired by Vita Nostra

Ingredients:

6 slices maple bacon

1 yellow onion, diced

1 and 1/4 C low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 C apple cider vinegar

2 T granulated sugar

1 bunch of collards, remove stems and coarsely chopped

1 can Northern White Beans, drained

1 C quinoa

2 C low-sodium chicken broth

Directions:

In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crispy. Set aside on a paper towel.

Saute the onions in the bacon grease until translucent. Add 1 and 1/4 C chicken broth, vinegar, and sugar. Stir over low-med heat to dissolve sugar.

Add the collard greens and stir until slightly wilted. Add bacon. Reduce heat so the mixture is just simmering and then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Stir every couple of minutes.

Add the beans and simmer another 30 minutes. The goal is for most of the liquid to cook out.

In a separate sauce pan, boil 2 C broth and then add the quinoa. Stir. Cook for 20 minutes, until liquid has mostly disappeared. Quinoa will absorb all the broth.

Serve quinoa in a bowl and add the collard/bacon/bean mixture on top.

Delicious!

Another major kitchen success using interesting ingredients.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow I will fill you in on my trip to Seattle Sunday to see my Momma and little sister. I will also be experimenting tonight with the chard, so if that goes well I'll be sure to share.

Happy Monday!

Easy as Bolognese! (That sorta rhymes right?)

Happy joyous Friday everyone!

Today is one of those days. When I woke up and everything felt good. The sun is shining in Portland. We are supposed to hit 70 degrees. And tonight Jeremy and I are going to a concert!

Woo hoo!

I told you guys it's concert season now.
I warned you!

Tonight we are driving out to Spirit Mountain Casino to see the 90's country superstar
Jo Dee Messina!

Heads Carolina, Tails California...somewhere greener somewhere warmer...
...up in the mountains, down by the ocean...
where it don't matter
long as we are going!

If you can't tell I'm really excited. But enough about that.

Today I have a lovely recipe to share with you.

Recipe: Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
1 C onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
dice up some carrots and green bell pepper (or use red/yellow for more color!)
a few thyme sprigs (slide your fingers down the sprigs to pull off the leaves into your sauce)
chili flakes (to taste put start with 1 tsp)
2 lbs. ground beef, turkey, or pork
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 C dry white wine
1 28 oz. can crushed tomato (add as much as you like until you get the consistency you want)
1/2 C veggie broth
Parmesan cheese for topping
Pasta (I used spaghetti but pick your favorite)

Directions:
Cook your veggies, garlic, onion, thyme, and chili flakes in a large sauce pan over medium heat until softened (5 or 6 minutes).
Add your ground meat and brown. Takes 5-7 minutes or so.
Add salt, pepper and more chili if you like.
Add the white wine and then let it simmer until the white wine has almost evaporated.

Add your tomatoes and veggie broth and simmer until your sauce is the consistency (as thick) as you want it. I simmered mine for around 15-20 minutes.

Cook your pasta, then drain and and mix the pasta and sauce all together.
Add a little cheese.
Spin around in a circle and poof!
You're done.

Delish in a dish.

Rat-a-tat

Did anyone else see that Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille?
Well I did and it inspired me to find my own ratatouille recipe!

First, I had to figure out what ratatouille is:
ra-ta-touilleNoun: A vegetable dish consisting of onions, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, fried and stewed in oil, sometimes served cold.

Hmm.How about we don't fry it, instead we saute it? And rather than only using eggplant and zucchini, let's use all the bountiful and delicious squash we can find?
Much better.

Here is my recipe for ratatouille. I've been making it for a few years now (read: ever since the movie came out) and it is always a huge success. The herbs add amazing flavor and it's seriously healthy. Just look at all the veggies in this dish!

Allison's Very Own Disney Worthy Ratatouille
Ingredients:
2 C cubed eggplant
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C chopped onion
1 med. green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T canola oil
1 1/2 C diced zucchini
1 1/2 C diced yellow squash/summer squash/whatever squash you like :)
2 T minced fresh oregano
2 T minced fresh parsley
1 tsp. dill weed
pepper to taste
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
Parmesan cheese
hot cooked pasta

Directions:
Place eggplant in a colander over a plate, sprinkle with salt and toss. Let stand 30 minutes; rinse and drain well.

In a large non-stick skillet, stir fry the onion, green pepper, and garlic in the canola oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggplant, zucchini, and summer squash.
Cook and stir for 5-7 minutes or until the veggies are crisp and tender.
Stir in parsley, oregano, dill, and pepper. Heat through.

Sprinkle with tomato and Parmesan cheese.
Serve over pasta.

*I recommend once you've chopped and placed your eggplant in the colander, spend that 30 minutes getting all of your other ingredients chopped and ready to go. It makes life so much easier when things start to heat up and you're adding ingredients every few minutes.

I hope you'll try this recipe! It's absolutely delicious. We had a nice evening last night (70 degrees!) so we ate our ratatouille on the patio. It's a great eat on the porch kind of dish!

xoxo.

Bread and Butter

Blogs and photos go together like bread and butter (creative post title right?). A good blog must have good pictures to go along with each entry. I mean who's going to try a new recipe if there isn't a delicious looking picture to go along with it. Not me, that's for sure.

Unfortunately for me (and all of you) I'm no photographer. I wish I was and I hope to get better, but until then you'll have to put up with my less than perfect photos orrrr when you're lucky I'll include some photos Jeremy takes. He happens to do much better than I do with all those funny camera settings :)

Take for example these lovely photos he took last night.

Yes, I'm posting photos of Buoy again.

He happens to be a very photogenic subject.

Andddd isn't he just the cutest?

I also figured I'd share with you my latest adventure in the kitchen.
It involves a chicken and chicken parts.
The gross parts.

Sunday I decided that this would be the week. The week when I roast a chicken for the very first time.
I know some of you are thinking why? or who cares? or maybe that's disgusting?

But it was time and roasting something always felt to me like one of those kitchen must-knows. I mean come on Martha includes a whole chapter on roasting in her Cooking School book!

I bought the chicken.
Pulled out all the guts inside.
Jeremy gagged and then I said, "I thought men were the tough ones." Ironic, considering what will follow in this story.

How to Roast a Chicken
Wash. Pat dry. Place in roasting pan or Pyrex baking dish.
Rub with butter/lime/red onion/salt/pepper/jalapeno mixture.
You can fill in with any rub you want, just add something to the butter...herbs, lemon, garlic and onion. Whatever your heart desires.
Put in oven at 400 degrees for about an hour.
Thermometer should read 165 or so.
Let the chicken "rest" since roasting is such hard work for about 10-15 minutes.
Carve and enjoy.

{Insert fancy photo of the chicken here}

Everything went according to plan.
I did it! Yay!
Add THAT to my cooking resume.

And just when I was feeling pretty darn good about roasting a chicken and not giving Jeremy or myself food poisoning...I decided to do the dishes.
That's when I sliced my finger with the sharpest, biggest knife we own.
Blood went everywhere.Blinds. Sink. Counter.

And suddenly in that moment I was the least tough chicken roaster in the history of chicken roasters.
Jeremy had to come save me from an almost certain fainting episode followed by lots of tears.


What a night!

I've Got A Feeling

I've got a feeling you might see a lot of recipes on here this week. I think because the weather has started to get a bit nicer, I've been cooking a lot less the past few weeks. Jeremy has been barbecuing and I've been enjoying the break. But I think this weekend was the end of my self-imposed vacation. I've recently started to really miss cooking for our family of two. So I changed that.

Saturday morning we woke up and decided it was a pancake type of morning. After seeing this entry on The Pioneer Woman last week, I decided to experiment with adding lemon to pancakes.
You must try this.

See how delicious these pancakes were? I'm tempted to make them for dinner tonight.

Recipe: Lemon-Blueberry Pancakes1 cup Bob's Red Mill Buttermilk Pancake Mix
1 egg
1 T oil
3/4 C milk (I used 1/2 and 1/2...don't judge)
Zest of 1 Meyer lemon
Loads of Blueberries

Mix it all up and cook on the griddle over medium heat!

Also...pretty sure the mouthwatering effect will be the same no matter what pancake mix you use.

When the pancakes are done add some fresh berries on top, some butter, and real maple syrup.

Heaven!

Then on Sunday I had a moment in the produce section at Safeway. Right next to the strawberries were the most beautiful, bright red stalks of rhubarb I'd ever seen. I was inspired to experiment. Do you guys ever have one of those moments? When some potential ingredient in the store inspires you to create or find a whole recipe to use it? That's what happened with me and the rhubarb.

My grandmother always used to make the most delicious strawberry-rhubarb pies. So I figured she'd be very proud to hear I tried. :)

Martha Stewart had a whole slideshow full of rhubarb recipes, so it wasn't too hard to find a couple of recipes to try. I'll tell you about the second one tomorrow, but for today I'll share with you her recipe for Rhubarb-Berry Crumble.

Keep in mind when you buy rhubarb it's very tart until you cook it! Don't try to eat it plain (at least I wouldn't recommend it).

Recipe: Martha's Rhubarb-Berry CrumblesIngredients:
1.5 lbs. rhubarb, cut in 1/4 slices (like you'd cut celery)
2 cups strawberries or whatever berries you like
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 T instant tapioca
1/2 tsp. grated orange zest
2 T orange juice
pinch of salt
Crumble Topping*

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Stir together rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, orange zest and juice and salt. Let stand 15 minutes and stir occasionally.
Divide rhubarb mixture among 6 individual oven-proof bowls. Place on baking sheet. Sprinkle each with crumble topping.Bake until topping is golden brown and the berries underneath are bubbling. 30-35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Crumble ToppingIngredients:
6 T unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 C packed light brown sugar
1 C all-purpose flour
pinch of salt

Directions:
Put butter and brown sugar in a bowl, with an electric mixer mix until creamy. Stir in flour and salt. Work mixture with your fingers until it forms small clumps (size can range).

I hope you enjoyed this little bit on rhubarb and have been inspired to go out and buy some! It really is a unique ingredient that you can only get a couple months out of the year. So take advantage of it and make something!