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August 27, 2009

it’s really over

Filed under: Blog,Comfort foods,Dinner,Favorites — Tags: calzone, fig, peach, pizza — Kristen :) @ 4:08 am

My first realization to the end of summer was the giant chunk of change that was gone from my pocket with just a mere click of the mouse, and now with the first week of classes, along with work, I’ve come to the final realization that it is definitely over *sigh* Even though it’s only midweek I feel my free time is going to be very tight this semester and the weekends are just going to fly by even worse than before. I want to let you guys all know that I may be lacking in the blogging and commenting department, but I will try as much as I can. I myself like to personally respond back to each commenter on their own blog because I really enjoy getting your comments and I like to see and respond to your blogs too 🙂

Thanks for all your comments I really appreciate them! I’m going to try to get another ride in this weekend, but it will probably be with the slow riders, so I’ll have to some how get in contact with him again. Whatever my thesis may be I think I’m going to ask these guys if they want to come in the ex phys lab. I wonder if they’ve tried coconut water? hmmm . . .

Happy Hump Day! Even though it’s almost pretty well over. I have to say that on Sunday and Monday I went to bed at 9 and wow, what a difference a few, well about 3 extra hours makes! I wish I could go to bed at 9 every night!

For times sake, I will jump right in to one of my favorites. . .

Chris and I always usually make home-made pizza and calzones on a Friday because we can make the worst mess in the kitchen, have lots of red wine and just be happy that it’s the weekend 🙂 This time we made them Tuesday night. Well, Chris made the dough and then we made the rest together that night. Tuesday night was also Chris’ last day before he started his new job!!!!!!!!! We are so excited and relieved that he got this one, it’s just going to be pretty tough juggling everything and dinner with both of us working full-time and doing grad school. We’ll see how it goes!

There is nothing like fresh, home-made dough! It is just so yummy and pretty darn fun to make too. I’ve made this ww dough recipe before and you can find it here, or you can just simply look at the pictures 🙂

Pizza stones give an awesome texture. Oh my gosh the oven was so freakin’ hot and we were dying. Chris also set off the fire alarm using the grill pan for stuffing ingredients, oops! We had to bring down the box fan to get some air circulating since it was just as hot if not hotter outside. I can’t wait till it cools down here!

Happy buns in the oven!

This one recipe makes a whole lotta dough (wish it was the green kind), so be prepared to make a lot for leftovers!

Ok, best pizza topping invention!!!! Have you ever tried fresh figs on your pizza? Sounds kinda weird, but it works so well. I like to use a balsamic reduction as the ‘sauce’, top it with some spinach, fresh figs, crispy prosciutto and fontina cheese, yum!

Another great pizza topping is grilled peaches, I love the combination of salty sweet things and these also pair well with the salty prosciutto.

I make thin crust pizzas most of the time, but every once in awhile I do like a Chicago deep dish from a place called BJ’s. It’s to-die for! And also their pizookies are a big weakness 🙂

Why not have a calzone or pizza making party for your next get-together? I’ve done this a couple times with some friends and we’ve had an absolute blast (of course an addition of wine makes it fun too). Just have all the ingredients and dough ready to go and get your guests working in the kitchen! Nice!

What’s the worst mess you’ve made in the kitchen?

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August 13, 2009

happy camper

Filed under: Blog,My Travels — Tags: casserole, fig, oatmeal — Kristen :) @ 4:40 am

First off I just want to say thank you to all of your insightful comments to my last post. You guys are truly amazing! I loved hearing all your input and different insights to the topic. I felt it was really important for me to get that out and I honestly couldn’t believe their explanation after the fact. I really appreciate all your kind words from the bottom of my heart 🙂

On to something fun . . . a little vacation!

Chris and I wanted to do a little something together before the school year starts up again and we didn’t really have many funds to do something too crazy, so we decided on camping!! You can’t beat $12/night and the great outdoors, right?! We also decided to treat ourselves with one night at a B & B called The Anniversary House. We went there a little while ago and absolutely fell in love with it. It was really a treat after camping!

Originally we were going to go camping this weekend coming up, but we kept seeing the weather report that didn’t look to promising. Camping in the rain is no fun. We didn’t want to risk it, so on Friday afternoon we decided to leave last minute on Saturday! You all know that I like to plan things, so I was a little freaked out by the fact that we didn’t have anything ready. And camping’s not the kind of thing you don’t plan for! (of course this is what my head was telling me) So I ran to the store after work and got together some recipes that we were thinking of making when we went up there with the dutch oven. We also had to run a few errands Saturday morning to get everything, and get Buster off to the vet. We finally hit the road by noon, and it’s only about a 3 hour drive which is not bad at all to get away.

Because we decided to go camping so last minute, we also didn’t have a reserved spot and had to cancel our other one. Yet another voice in my head was saying, what?! no reservation, how are we going to find a spot in the afternoon on a Saturday when everyone’s probably got the good spots already? We decided to stick with the same campground and see what we could find for walk-ups. And what do you know . . . we got the last one! It was right by the toilets and trash bin, but we didn’t care. It still had some pretty good shade, and it’s camping, so we’re supposed to be roughing it.

Here are some shots of the camp site:

Oh my gosh! I can’t tell you how great it was just to get away, just the two of us. I mean everything was smoky from the campfire, we had to sleep on the hard ground, it was 29 degrees F at night, but you know what, I haven’t seen Chris that happy in a long time with all this icky economy work stuff. It was just really neat and made me happy too.

We got in Saturday afternoon and immediately started setting up camp, and of course I wanted try out that dutch oven! We didn’t have any wood and the camp host said they were out, so Chris had to go searching, but finally found some thank goodness!

Dutch ovens are amazing, it’s like a one-pot wonder that you can practically make anything in!

We decided to make Cornbread Topped Chicken Pot Pie. I’ve made this recipe before, but forgot to account for the altitude change. The cornbread went crazy! But it was still oh so good and comforting once that sun went down and the temperature dropped drastically. Yum!

We didn’t mind the charred bits from the fire haha It was sooo smoky. We had to dodge the smoke or it burned our eyes like crazy!

And of course we had to have s’mores, lots of s’mores! This is my ultimate favorite thing about camping. I love how the marshmallows plump up nice and big like the perfect pillow and vehicle for chocolate!

The next morning Chris got that fire going, while I huddled under the sleeping bag trying to maintain warmth without my human heater. It’s funny because once that sun came up it was actually pretty hot!

Breakfast was Fresh Fig Oats! I saw these fresh figs at TJ’s and I had to do something with them. Fresh figs are just special and yummy!

I mixed and mooshed about 3 fresh figs in with 1/2 a banana and added that to the oats as they cooked. Then I topped it with some more fresh fig, banana and TJ’s snack granola. Of course we had to have a scoop of peanut butter with it too. I just love oats because they’re so easy and filling.

After breakfast we packed up our gear and headed to Bryce Canyon for some hiking. Boy was it beautiful! I can’t even explain it, and my pictures don’t even begin to do it justice. It was so surreal and peaceful there. It really takes one back to the essence of life and marveling in the wonder of it all.

This is a place called Wall Street and it was so neat to see. There are two giant rock walls on both sides as you zig zag your way up the mountain. Every step there was another great picture to be taken. I had to be careful I didn’t fall down the mountain while I was gawking in amazement!

Of course I brought lots of snacks! You never want to go unprepared! Here I am enjoying a Luna Bar after our 2.5 mile hike. I think the toasted nuts and cranberry is my fav flavor. 180 kcals and 9 grams protein, yes!

This is one of my favorites of Chris . . . very peaceful scenery.

Happy Campers!

Because I don’t want to drag this post on forever into that mountain far in the distance, I will end it here on the first day. But stay tuned for day 2 of our camping and dutch oven adventures, and our stay at the B & B!

Do you like to go camping, or do you prefer a nice B & B and a hot shower instead?

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June 21, 2009

party time

Filed under: Blog,Desserts,Dinner,Party — Tags: cheese, chocolate, fig, salad — Kristen :) @ 4:56 pm

I absolutely LOVE planning for events, especially events that involve food and friends! I think I should be a caterer and go to culinary school (this is my dream someday). While I don’t handle stress/anxiousness too well sometimes, I love the stress of the kitchen. That rush you get when you prepare something that turns out so well you want to jump or giggle, or the sheer disappointment you feel after messing up a dish and the determination to tweak it and make it better the next time (or right at that moment!). I love preparing great nibbles and seeing the joy on people’s faces when they are enjoying the company of great friends and food.

Even with lots of planning, things just don’t always go as planned haha, and this is where I get a bit discombobulated :/ This week was pretty uneventful, but I did get in a small fender bender on Wednesday that put a ‘dent’ in things so to speak. I was okay thank goodness, but my poor car got about $2,000 worth of damages. The guy in front of me with the truck didn’t even get a scratch, go figure! This is my first accident, so I hope that my insurance won’t go through the roof. While I did get a moving violation for following too close, I don’t even remember being that close. All I remember is coming to a slow stop, starting to go again and before I knew it I was smooshed in the car in front of me. I didn’t have enough time to react, and the guy in front of me also hit the guy in front of him. Not a pleasant experience, but not too bad. I was just bummed because my gym plans were shot! Crazy I was thinking about that, but I’m definitely glad it wasn’t more serious. After filing a claim with my insurance and blah, blah, blah, I’m waiting for the body shop to finish the work . . . (big sigh). Have you ever gotten in a car accident? They scare me so much, and when I first started driving I about went into a panic attack every time I got into the car, especially on the freeway. I didn’t get my license until the middle of my junior year of HS! Now I’m not that bad, but they still give me serious chills.

On to something more fun . . . . PARTY TIME!

Once all the planning, prepping, making and cleaning was all done, it was so nice to have a cocktail (or two!) and enjoy the good company of family, friends and yummy nibbles celebrating our first home.

Oh and I have to fess up that I got myself a new toy! I didn’t really ‘need’ it, but really believe that it will be a great investment for the future of my blog, business and tasty travels. Drum roll please . . . . it’s the Canon Rebel XSi aahhh! I’ve been dreaming about taking pictures like these for years. Yea, I could have gotten a new road bike, a flat screen tv, a bedroom set, or fake grass in the backyard, but I decided to get an awesome camera. What is wrong with my head? I love learning about food styling, and while my pictures are not professional at all, I hope to start learning a lot more about photography, particularly with FOOD! By the time I made my decision, (I swear I was contemplating all freaking day!) it was too late to get it here by the party date, so I decided to speed ship it for a little extra so I could have it for the pics. Let’s see how I did for an amateur right out of the box . . . There is so much to learn with this thing!

And if you have ANY experience with food photography, lighting, etc, by all means please give me some ideas and feedback for what works best for you 🙂

Here’s the spread:

For munchies to start:

Assorted cheeses – Colby, fontina, sharp cheddar, aged gouda, honey and grapes

Brie, herbed brie, and aged parmesan

Bruschetta with fig compote, goat cheese and crispy prosciutto. We also had caprese bites with balsamic reduction.

Panzanella Salad

Chocolate Fountain! This was a hit, who doesn’t love dipping things into falling chocolate?!

Spinach artichoke dip with Hawaiian sweet bread, this is always a crowd pleaser.

Roasted Veggie Calzones with marinara dipping sauce (still have to work on the aperture and depth of focus)

And we got a new TV!! I think I about died right then. Buster likes watching TV haha

It was such a wonderful party, and while it took most of the week to prepare for it, it was so much fun. I think we will have to have another party soon because we have a ton of liquor left! I forgot to take pictures, but we opened up 3 bottles of wine, had that lemon champagne punch (It was so good!), and also made another cocktail, and some pyramid apricot ale beer. We still have a giant thing of vodka, coconut rum, cranberry and pineapple juice left. We’ll have to keep it for another time. Now I have a ton of dishes in the kitchen and loads of wash I need to get cleaning (boo!) . . . and Happy Father’s Day! Give those men in your lives a big hug!

What’s your most memorable party that you have hosted?

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