Catch up- Food Pictures

These are in no particular order and with very little description. I'm always willing to give up the goods, so ask if you want any recipes. :) These were the "pretty" dishes or just particularly good ones that we wanted to remember from February until May.

Grilled NY strip and shrimp scampi

Spicy shredded chicken, which we used in burritos, sandwiches and enchilada soup

Brunch! Waffles & berries, bacon, country potatoes and veggie fritatta

Massive (2000 calorie) baked potato, seared ahi tuna and a filet

Giant crab cake with lemon aioli

Red & green heirloom tomato & fresh mozzarella salad with pesto, basil and basamic reduction

Seared cod with grapefruit buerre blanc and green beans

Blackened chicken, white wine shrimp and dirty rice (that I finally got right after several not totally successful attempts to meet Joseph's description)

Mini banana bread loaves, with chocolate chips and almonds

Pad Thai prep

Spring rolls, pad thai and fried rice

Cousin Erin frying won-tons and shrimp rolls, and loving it!

Shrimp Pad Thai, ala Amy

Hawaiian Fried Rice

Chicken Parmesan

Cheese

Cooking Easter Dinner by himself, because I had to work. He always uses his butt as a towel when he cooks.

Easter by Joseph, smoked chicken, green bean casserole (with homemade mushroom soup, no shortcuts here), roasted potatoes & garlic sourdough

Spaghetti and Giant Meatballs

Making ice cream in the kitchen aid

Baked Spinach Artichoke dip

Marinated grilled tri-tip, rice, veggies and wine

Tres Leches cake and homemade strawberry ice cream

Pot roast for 10

Delicious crock pot beans

While cleaning out my cupboards I found 4 open, half used bags of beans. I won't even tell you how many different varieties of rice and pasta I found. Anyway, for obvious reasons, I made some seriously delicious crock-pot beans while I worked today.

I still don't know how to post pictures from my BlackBerry and our computer is having issues so there are no photos. Anyone who has an appreciation for a simple meal for under $10 that's nutritious and delicious that practically makes itself will enjoy this recipe.

Any combo of beans will work just as well.
All added to warm crock pot, cooked for 8 hours.
I used red, garbanzo & pinto beans and a few lentils, totaling about 4 cups. Soaked overnight & drained.
1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 green pepper, 2 stalks celery, all medium diced & 1/4 c minced garlic.
1 T each of chile powder, cumin, paprika, bean seasoning. Sprinkle of red pepper flakes, 3 bay leaves & 2 dried peppers.
1 pound ground turkey (or beef) and 2 links sausage peeled & crumbled.
1 32oz. can diced tomatoes, plus 3 cups water.

Joseph made cornbread and rice to go with it. Nice to leave a home cooked meal for him before work and come home to one after work, and a delightfully aroma filled house. Everyone wins with the crock pot. Season with salt after cooking.

21 oz. NY Strip

Here's how it works at Costco, I have a list of all the non food stuff we need, which we walk around together picking up. Then I leave him in the meat and wine section with a budget and occupy myself in other areas of the store. He likes to pick up every piece of meat and read every wine label, which kind of irritates me, so I wander around gathering produce, cheese, lotions, looking at cameras & jewelery & such. He always makes great choices, so it works better for us that way.

In the meat department he decided on $20 worth of tri-tip (Joseph's favorite cut of beef), four pounds of ground turkey and a 3-pack of Prime NY Strip steaks that weighed 4 pounds!, one of which we grilled "to perfection" last night.



I got home from work early so we were able to go up to spend 2 hours disc golfing before it got dark. I walked with him, occasionally putting or jogging, for 36 holes. It was nice, super quiet, beautiful sunny weather, a 4 mile hike. It had been several months since I had seen him play, and I was impressed. He is really good! He knew I wanted to get some exercise but was pretty tired, so he ran with me. We jogged up all the hills together and from baskets to tees, and even ran down a big hill holding hands. It was really cheesy, so much so that I pulled my hand away at the bottom of the hill and said that I hoped no one was watching. I really hoped that no one had seen us, but I knew for sure that if any one had, they would have been jealous.

We had worked up an appetite so... We used the remainder of the shrimp cocktail, that we made to take to the back ally shindig (I kid, I kid, it really was pleasant and the people were lovely), and added it to a salad to accompany the steak and shrimp. We drank a bottle of "Nob-lee-oh", which is actually spelled and pronounced Nob-il-o, but for rude and facetious reasons we call it Noblio or Nolibo or Nobilio. It was yet another memorable, delicious and happy meal shared at our table.




Before I left for work today I put 4 chicken breasts and the leftover quart of enchilada soup in the crock pot on low for 8 hours. When I got home it was this... Not really, it had to be shredded to look like that, but it only took about 90 seconds. Today we had it over white rice and tomorrow for lunch it will be in burritos. Nice use of leftovers, if I do say so myself. :)

Date Night

Monday has become our new date night. Every other week we go into Austin on Monday to run errands and have a nice dinner. Two weeks ago it was Ruth's Chris, this week we decided it was time for a Korea House fix... Mmmm, yeah! First we went to Old Navy so I could buy some $6 pants, then we loaded up at Costco. That store is still awesome, we love it. Next we stopped by the flying saucer for a cheese plate and some a few beers before heading to Korea House. We had beef ribs and pork on the barbeque, a Diana 2 roll and a seafood pancake. My last meal, should I ever have to request it, would include that seafood pancake and Diana 2 roll.

Clean-out-your-veggie-bin Enchilada Soup

That's what I did today. It's good a good thing to do once in a while, make a giant pot of soup from every scrap of vegetables in your fridge. Here's how it went. I kept it completely vegan til the end, when I added cheese. It was delicious and super flavorful before the cheese, so it's a great alternative to leave it all meat and dairy free.

A few onions, celery, garlic, green peppers, one poblano pepper, shredded carrots, one yellow squash, 2 tomatoes, one ear corn, half bunch cilantro, one avocado and a handful mushrooms is what I came up with from the veggy bin.
Everything was rough chopped and sauteed in olive oil. First celery, garlic and onion.
Then green pepper, poblano and carrots.

Then I added a generous amount of kosher salt, cumin, paprika, chili powder and two bay leaves.

Then the zucchini, corn, tomato and mushrooms.

All this cooked for about 20 minutes. Then I added one large can diced tomatoes, one cup homemade salsa, two cups tomato stock and some Mexican hot sauce.
This cooked for about an hour, until all the veggies were tender.

Then I blended it with an imersion blender, removed from the heat and stirred in one cup cubed cheddar cheese and half a cup cubed cream cheese.

I served it with fresh crispy tortilla strips, seasoned avocado & cilantro with lime and some cheddar cheese. I also diced up half a blackened chicken breast to put in Joseph's soup. It didn't need the chicken at all, I just knew he'd like it. It was rich, filling and flavorful with out it.

After lunch we took the dogs for a walk. It has been nasty and cold for the last few days, and even froze last night. We were happy to take advantage of the afternoon sunshine and warmer weather. Here is Marshall having a stand off with a deer in someone's front yard. In his doggy dreams he wishes he had gotten to catch just one of the thousands of deer he's seen in his life.

When Joseph Cooks

This week I had to work early in the morning on Sunday and Monday while Joseph was off. It was nice that I got to be home to have dinner together, but I was super tired and Joseph was in weekend relax & chill mode. Joseph was in charge of the grocery store this week, and therefore, what we had for dinner on Sunday and Monday. Check out what he cooked for us!

On Sunday afternoon we watched the Lakers kick the Spurs in the ass. Joseph cheered loudly and sent rude unsportsmanlike text messages to some local SA fans. He made shrimp cocktail and a little cheese. He drank Chimay and I drank Shiner Hefeweizen with a lemon. Yumm.

I could seriously get used to coming home from work to find him in the kitchen. For dinner that night he made some bacon, bleu cheese burgers. That's crispy bacon and bleu cheese crumbles mixed into the burger patty. He fired up the grill, even though it was kind of cold. Totally worth it, they came out completely delicious.



Monday evening I was even more lucky! I am off Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so Monday was like my Friday. Joseph had two bottles of wine for us to drink and made the most delicious fettucini alfredo with blackened chicken and shrimp I have ever had. Better than the last time I made alfredo. The wine was awesome. J Vineyard, in the Russian River Valley, makes some of our most favorite wines. The "champagne" has really special meaning to us, and we've enjoyed both the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay several times. I was excited to get to taste a 4th variety from J, the Pinot Gris. Fantastic!! My turn for the toast: "To taking that trip to wine country and visiting J Vineyard before I turn 30!"

He also made casesar salad boats for an appetizer and sizzler bread with the pasta! A-Ma-Zing!