HAPPY EASTER!

As most of you know (haha, all two of you), Scott and I spent the past year living in a really SMALL apartment out in the boonies. It had a lot of pluses (cheap, quiet) but it was time for a change. We just moved last Thursday to a larger apartment that will be better for many reasons, so we're really happy! We're all unpacked and it already feels like home. So much like home in fact that we hosted a small Easter gathering today! It was super great! Here's what was on the menu. . .

A delicious Sangria that I've made a few times before. I love the fresh lemon and orange juice. Also, I use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier. It's less expensive, you can't tell the difference, and I can use the left-overs for future margaritas. Thanks, Emeril!

My mother-in-law brought her famous Easter Bread. It's not Easter without it! Unfortunately I don't have the recipe, but I do have a picture:


Isn't it pretty? And around the edge of the plate are her yummy Egg Biscuit cookies.

I made a new recipe today too: Baked Asparagus with Balsamic Butter Sauce:


I took a recommendation from some of the reviewers to brown the butter a bit. I also used olive oil instead of cooking spray. It was really good! Definitely a recipe I'll use for another holiday. For everyday though, I prefer my asparagus a little more plain.

I made a chickpea salad too that I wrote about in the post below this that was tasty. Also on the menu was my mom's rice pilaf. You want that recipe? You got it!

Mom's Pilaf:

3 Tbs. butter
1/3 c. orzo
1 c. long grain rice (I use Jasmine, my mom uses Uncle Ben's)
2 1/2 c. vegetable broth (or chicken) -- I use Better Than Bullion in water

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Add the orzo and cook until golden brown, making sure not to burn it. Add the rice and stir to combine. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir, remove from heat, and enjoy!

Diane made delicious Spinach Beregs, an Armenian appetizer similar to Spanikopita. Buttery, cheesy, yum.

I had a bit of a snafu with my Vidalia Onion Quiche. It's hit or miss really, and Diane has experienced the same thing. Sometimes it comes out soupy (like today!) and sometimes it's fine. Up until today, I thought that using half and half instead of 2% milk was the right choice for a more firm consistency but maybe not, unless I just didn't cook it long enough which is definitely possible. So I won't give you that recipe, though it's DELICIOUS. . . it's just kind of a mess sometimes. I can give you a picture though!


Sure, it LOOKS all innocent, right? OH, and I forgot to mention that I made two of these but one of them was a complete fail. Apparently when I was poking a few holes into the frozen pie shell with a fork (while still partially frozen, before adding the filling, so it wouldn't bubble up while baking) I may have poked a hole in the bottom that went all the way through the tin foil pie plate. . . so all I was left with in that quiche was, well, onions. I'm sure it tastes good, so I saved it. Good thing I put it on a cookie sheet before putting it in the oven!

We finished off the meal with my favorite carrot cake -- which I added 3/4 cup of raisins too because I think in the past that a whole cup is too much. I decorated it with my mother-in-law:


She did the egg and border, I did the writing :)

Wow, how's that for a long post to catch up for lost times?! I just hope I don't take an unintentional hiatus after this. I've really missed being able to host holidays and other food gatherings, so now that we have SPACE to do it I think we'll be hosting more often. You know what that means -- more cooking (and blogging!) YAY!

Catching Up!

Hi, my name is Mel, and I suck at blogging. (Look, Jenni! I'm back!)

Let's rewind a few months. . . I'm always a bit stressed and busy over the winter at work, but now that things are starting to wrap up for the year I'm ready to do some REAL cooking. For the past couple of months, I've gotten into the habit of really easy, fast, cheap meals. For breakfast it has been fruit, toast, maybe cereal (cold, I can't even be bothered with my usual beloved oatmeal!) Lunch has been peanut butter and jelly or spaghetti/ravioli (if I'm teaching a lot and need the fuel), and dinner is either salad, spaghetti (if I didn't have it for lunch!), pizza. . . oh, and if I REALLY want to go crazy, I'll heat up some fake chicken nuggets, make my mom's pilaf (see that recipe on this post), and cook some frozen broccoli or sugar snap peas. Yes, a three-part meal. Shocking, no? I did come up with some great salads though during this whole salad phase. I have rediscovered my love for salad in a bag, namely the Camps Elysee blend from Trader Joes that has mixed greens, radicchio, and shredded CARROTS for only $1.99. . . yeah, who wouldn't love that? So with that mix, I'll add cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, pre-marinated and grilled tofu that just needs to be cubed (easy AND delicious. . . ), honey roasted sliced almonds, and some kind of light dressing. Mmmm!

Here's a salad that Diane and I came up with over-the-phone that I made for Easter today. I cut some cherry tomatoes in half (maybe three packages?), rinsed and pinched the skin off of two small cans of chickpeas (yes, I pinched the skin off -- because I'm crazy), one English cucumber, three scallions, a small handful of shredded carrots, chopped, a small bunch of fresh basil, a smaller bunch of fresh mint, the juice from one lemon (could've used more but that was all I had), a good drizzle of EVOO, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. It was delicious! I'm not sure how long a salad like this, pre-dressed, will last though. But hey, it might not last too long anyway!


Okay, time to blog about the rest of Easter. This requires a different post all together! Stay tuned. . .

desperate times...

I've been busy lately. Too busy to talk to most of my friends (Hi, Mel!), too busy to go grocery shopping, too busy to eat three meals a day most days. In addition to being busy, I'm also training for a race at the end of May. It's an interesting kind of race, and I'm sure I'll give you the details of it later, but it posed an interesting problem to me today. I woke up and ran this morning at 8:30am, but I was slated to do another run at 5:30. After my first run I ate some peanut butter toast (among one of my post-run faves!) and got down to work. By about 3:30 I realized I hadn't eaten since the toast. Toast alone isn't generally enough to eat for one day, but certainly not one day when you hope to run a total of 10 miles. Of course, I had no food to speak of in the house, but I knew I must eat something. Something...fuel-y. And so, lasagna rolls were born.

I had half a package of lasagna noodles, some cherry tomatoes, a yellow squash, some grated parmesan cheese, and some fresh basil that we've been growing in the house. I sauteed the squash and tomatoes in olive oil, with a bit of basil. Then I combined the cheese and some more basil in a bowl, added the veggies when they were done. This was my filling. I dropped a few scoops onto a single lasagna noodle and rolled it up. Not surprisingly, they were delicious. And probably not a great idea to eat that 45 minutes before the second run. But, I can't wait for the leftovers!