I had one of the best weekends that I’ve had in quite awhile.  I must confess that Friday was my birthday so in addition to the wonderful birthday wishes and gifts I received, I also had not one, but three wonderful meals at some great restaurants.  Two of which were with my husband, who by the way was such a dear to spend his whole Sunday working on the new site layout.  I guess I was thinking since I’m starting on a new year of life, my blog should reflect the transition as well.  I hope you enjoy!

At work Friday, some of my co-workers took me to lunch at Dos Caminos.  You know how I love Mexican food and this really did hit the spot.  Although, I could have used the rest of the afternoon off to recover from all the guacamole and beef tacos.  Then later that night, Michael and I enjoyed a sumptuous steak at St. Germain, our favorite little French joint in the neighborhood.  And if that wasn’t enough, he took me out again Saturday night to Gino’s, an Italian place also in our neighborhood.  We had wanted to check this place out for some time now and I’m glad we did.  My rigatoni with Italian eggplant and sausage was so good!  I can see why this place always has a crowd waiting to get in.

Of course since it was my birthday weekend, I had to throw in a little shopping too!  Only this time I got to indulge in some food shopping in my neighborhood’s brand new gourmet market.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to have one of these shops close to me.  Robicelli’s is small and charming and just full of goodies.  Plus, they have a small but delicious menu of sandwiches, salads and soups that are available for delivery.  I foresee a lot of my money going to this mom and pop shop which, is just fine with me.  They don’t know it, but I’m going to be stalking their store since it is exactly the type of place I’d like to own one day.

Not to let Sunday go by without any fun, I decided to make Pumpkin Corn Bisque.  I had this soup for the first time last week for lunch and it was so good, I wanted to roll around in it!  After some Google sleuthing, I found a recipe online.  I thought it turned out good, but I didn’t want to roll around in this batch.  It wasn’t as thick as I had hoped it would be and I believe it was because I substituted soy milk for regular milk.  I think the next time I make it, I’ll actually use heavy cream to give it a more velvety texture.

So as you can see, I’ve had a total foodie weekend and I’ve loved it!  Now that I’m completely stuffed, I’m going to enjoy the “new” year and keep on cooking!

New look, same great taste!

Here’s about how a weeknight goes at my house.  Come home, say hello to the hubby, vent about each others day, say hi to the kitties, check email, decide whether or not to go to the gym, then finally get around to making dinner.  And on nights like this, I usually make up concoctions like this one.

I browned some tofu chunks in a little olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper, and splash of balsamic vinegar.  Then I added in a can of drained diced tomatoes and some frozen spinach I thawed and strained.  I also boiled some basmatti rice in chicken broth and right at the end of cooking, I added in a half a teaspoon each of dried basil, oregano, season salt and red pepper flakes.  Throw the seasoned rice into the tofu mixture and this is what you get.  I was happy and pumped to have enough to take for lunch tomorrow.

Ever heard of it?  Well I hadn’t until this last weekend.  Hello? So freakin’ easy I couldn’t believe it!  Of course I gobbled up what I had so no pictures for my post.  However, I discovered this blog - Cooking for Slackers (LOVE the title) - and she’s got a picture and a recipe.  I think I’ll be adding these ingredients to my shopping list this week for some cold weekend when I want to stay home and stuff my face with sweet goodness.

I’ve decided to participate in another recipe contest.  I have no illusions of actually winning one of these, but it helps to give me a challenge.  Something that works my mind and taste buds.  This time I am going for the Food Network Magazine’s Chairman’s Challenge.  It’s like the Iron Chef Challenge, but I only have to make one dish with the secret ingredient.  Maple syrup is the ingredient and my thought, at least for right now, is to use it in a dip.  I may or may not have created a recipe that I like, but I have until the end of November to keep tinkering.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before how I enjoy making big, hearty dinners on Sunday nights.  I try really hard to get all my chores and errands done on Saturday so I can have all day Sunday to just relax.  Sometimes I can accomplish this and when I do, I enjoy having the extra time to think of a great dinner for me and Michael.

When our friends were in a few weeks ago, I had cooked two pork loin roasts in the crockpot and was able to portion one and freeze it for future meals.  Down to the last of my portions, I decided to make a simple Sheppard’s pie since I also had some carrots and instant mashed potatoes on hand.  Never having made Sheppard’s pie before, I decided to base my recipe off of the one in Frannie Farmer’s cookbook.  (This is the cookbook to use if you ever want to know how to make anything!)

I love when carrots have been slow cooked with a roast.  The flavor is just amazing!  Knowing that my carrots wouldn’t have this benefit, I decided to boil them in beef broth before adding them to the pork mixture.  I cooked them until they were tender, but not mushy, and transferred them to a casserole dish.  I cut my roast into chunks and added it to the carrots.  I heated about a tablespoon of butter in small pan and added about three tablespoons of flour and whisked in the thawed roast juice to make a thick gravy.  Once the gravy was ready, I added it to the carrots and roast and mixed well.  Then I made my instant mashed potatoes and spread those on top.  Everything went into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  What came out was a warm, hearty meal.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I work in the financial industry here in New York.  I doubt I have to give any more explanation as to why things have been a bit gloomy at my office lately.  So I decided that I would whip up some cupcakes for my co-workers.  Something to brighten and lighten up their Monday morning.  I didn’t quite feel moved enough to make these from scratch - I mean I’m suffering too you know.  Though I did go in search of a pastry bag with a fancy decorating tip only to come up empty-handed.  I found that Ziploc bags make pretty good pastry bags in a pinch.  Oh and I thought some crushed M&Ms on top of a few was a good idea.  (Honestly, I had been daydreaming about a Sonic M&M Blast when that spark hit me.)  They were a hit!

Michael and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a road trip to Boston.  I was super excited, because I wanted to eat as much fresh seafood as humanly possible.  Even though I didn’t quite get my wish, I did enjoy some good eats.   Although I did take a ton of pictures, the one below is the best.  This was a littel calamari we enjoyed at the Cheers bar in Boston.

Yesterday, our dear friends the McComas’ departed our home after a fun-filled visit of the Big Apple.  They came in last Thursday and we immediately took them to some of our favorite haunts including our local pub, Skinflints and our favorite German place, The Heidleberg.  We also dined at Da Nico’s in Little Italy after a hard day of touring on Saturday and was treated to the spectacle that is the San Gennaro festival.  Sunday, I had to whip out my crock-pot and make them a pork roast with creamy mashed potatoes and roasted carrots on the side. (Sorry there aren’t any pictures of the Sunday meal.  It was gone before I even thought about it.)

I have to say that I’ve decided to keep that crock-pot out for awhile as that was one of the easiest meals I’ve done in quite some time.  And as a bonus, I cooked two pork roasts at the same time and was able to freeze the second one for future use.  The only thing I regret is that I didn’t purchase any of the beautiful cannolis I had seen at the festival.  Wonder how hard it would be to make those?

I spent about four days in my lovely home state of Oklahoma last week.  The moment I made it into the central time zone, I started splurging. There was a little Jose Cuervo bar in the St. Louis airport that helped kick things off.

I spent my days traveling country roads, shopping with my mother, visiting family, and indulging in really bad but tasty food.  Take the fried catfish buffet I enjoyed with my dad or the simple Italian food of the Olive Garden with my mother. (I had to hit a couple of franchises along the way!)  My mother also witnessed my complete loss of control at a Chinese buffet in the mall and she helped clog my arteries a bit by buying me a bad ass burger my last night in town.  I have to say probably the best thing I ate was a simple bacon and tomato sandwich - oh so good!

Perhaps I should have taken a cue from Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks with her tips for eating healthy on the road.  I could have used some advice!  I just love her blog - her beautiful pictures and awesome recipes make me very jealous!  Maybe when the dust settles this fall I’ll be able to work on my blog some more.  Anyhoo, enjoy the pics below.  As I said before, we have company in this week so I’m sure I’ll have more tales to tell.