Farm Fresh To You

I was happy when my husband told me he signed us up for Farm Fresh To You. I was even happier when I left the house the other morning at 6:00 am and there was a big box of fresh produce sitting on our front door stoop. Ummm... such an amazing present to wake up to!!

Ok, where has this been all my life?

The box is stuffed with amazing produce goodies, including two delicata squashes. Since I have never cooked with them before, I found a recipe for a delicata gratin.

Stay tuned.... :)

What's on the menu?

I cannot take any credit for this idea... I have a friend who has used framed menus to decorate her kitchen and I have always admired it. So when I took one look at the menus when we were recently celebrating our anniversary dinner at Bouchon in Las Vegas, I knew it was time to be a copy cat.

The menus were big pieces of parchment paper and were actually folded around our napkins when we sat down- such a fun idea! Anyways, I brought mine home and framed it. It's going up in our kitchen not only as a reminder of the wonderful weekend we had, but it's totally serving as inspiration, too!

Oh, and how was the dinner, you ask? Fabulous is an understatement :) Here's a close up of the dessert section... I'll take one of each, please!

Banana Bread Bonanza!

There was a problem a-brewing on my kitchen counter...

Hmmm.... instead of giving them a toss, I did what any other baked-good lover would do and made banana bread.

I found this recipe on my Epicurious app on my iphone (except I left out the chocolate chips...) and have been feasting on this beauty of a banana bread loaf all weekend long.

I like to think that it's healthy and will keep telling myself that after each bite.

Pasta- A Culinary Band-aid

Pasta has a way of making everything better. Especially after a long day (Ok, is it really only Tuesday?)

I found this recipe in the August issue of Martha Stewart Living for fusilli with potatoes and haricot vert in lemon sauce. It's simple, fresh and delicious.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt to serve it in a heart-shaped bowl.

Wouldn't that make any day better?

I Seriously Love Leftovers

I'm a big fan of cooking way too much food than I need. It's great. You cook once and have food for the week. Brilliant. After dinner last night, we had practically a whole leftover tri-tip (we are also huge fans of tri-tip... see my previous post about our household tradition of Tri-Tip Tuesday). Here's what I did with it.

The leftover:

We layered sliced meat, grilled onions and brie on a sub roll and popped it in the panini press. Chris added some Philippe's hot mustard to his.

Seriously, does this need a caption?

Then, I put the remaining in a container with some salad greens and some cooled grilled onions. I'll bring it to work with me for my lunch tomorrow and shake up with some balsamic vinaigrette.

And maybe a scrap accidentally fell on the floor to appease this precious face...

What's your favorite leftover re-recipe?

Lemon Basil Bliss!

Happy weekend! This heat is really starting to cramp my style... but it's given me a great excuse to make sorbet all summer!

What's not to love about sorbet? Simple syrup and juice... could it be any easier? I made a Lemon Basil sorbet that is pretty ridiculously good.

Make a simple syrup with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and toss in a big handful or basil leaves (about 1 cup). Once the syrup is cooled, strain the basil out and mix it with 1 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Pop in an ice cream maker to set up.

Fabo!!! Seriously, this stuff is heaven in a bowl.

Move over! Man in the kitchen!

One of the best surprises is when your husband says these few words... "I'll take care of dinner tonight." Another added surprise is when you come home to find him BBQing (this is especially surprising if said BBQ has been sitting in your yard out of commission for months due to lack of propane...) That's totally the cherry on top!

My wonderful spouse ground some lamb, beef and onions with our new meat grinder attachment for our kitchenaid mixer. Forming them into patties, he BBQ'd them up, melting some shredded mozzarella on top.  We took a large piece of pita and spread some homemade hummus over the whole thing and on one half layered some mixed greens, sliced cucumbers, the burger and crumbled feta. Then fold the top half over to make it look like a huge taco. It's a taco/pita/burger. And it's amazing.

For my vegetarian friends, you can omit the meat and make a grilled veggie version with some grilled onions, peppers, tomatoes and lots of yummy cheese. Or if you're feeling adventurous, try making a base for veggie patty by pulsing some onions, carrots, potatoes, sundried tomatoes and other veggies of choice in a food processor. As a matter of fact, even thought I'm (clearly) not a vegetarian, that sounds pretty good, too...

I'll never come between my man and his mission to make a meal!