Hunker Down

If there is ever another hurricane, I'm pretty sure the King will demand this be prepared so that we can hunker down.  

Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese.  And yes, it is as good as it looks.  I'm beginning to salivate just admiring the picture.


So anyway, this is what we ate for dinner on Saturday night while the rain poured down outside.  The sad news is, our power went off at 2:30AM.  I sat bolt upright in bed and screamed "oh no!  The buffalo chicken mac and cheese!"  I became increasingly concerned and nervous when we woke up and the power was still out.  I made it until about 11AM when I forced the King to fire up the grill so that we could reheat it for lunch.  Sadly the rest of the leftovers had to go to the garbagemen after our power remained out for 18 hours.
Do yourself a favor and make this buffalo chicken cheesy awesomeness.


* If When I make this dish again, I will be SURE to have all of the ingredients measured out and ready to go in their respective plans.  This recipe was somewhat of a juggling act with 3 pans going on the stove at once.  The kitchen may have looked like hurricane Irene made a sweep through our kitchen.

Support for the King...

I decided to keep my momentum going and blog 2 days in a row!  I know.  Pick your jaw up off the floor and keep reading.

So the King recently decided that he needed to get back to the gym and see a trainer.  This is great news!  I'm fully supportive!  But do you know how hard it is to be supportive at 5:30AM when his alarm goes off to get up and go see said trainer 3 days a week?  Let's be honest, I completely stunk at being supportive the first week.  That's entirely too early!  I need my queenly beauty rest.  That first week, I had a lot of trouble going back to sleep.  Thankfully, I've fallen into a routine of going back to sleep just in time for school to start next Monday morning when I'll have to be up at 6 anyway!

So in trying to support the King in this new effort, I made these yummy, thick, chewy granola bars (I added the yummy...it needs to be included in the title).  I think they'll be quick, easy and something to stick to his ribs while he pumps iron during his early morning workout.

And I'm back to being a supportive wife.  Vote for me!  Wife of the year.

"Easy" Foccacia

I thought this post deserved to stand on it's own.  Last week, the King and I went to see a concert where attendees are encouraged to picnic in the lawn seats!  It was fabulous.  We laid down our blanket and dug into our antipasto salad with romaine and arugula lettuces, cherry tomatoes, canellini beans, shredded fontina cheese, salami, kalamata olives, and capers.  For dressing, I whisked together this Parmesan Vinaigrette.  It was tasty.

On the side I served up hunks of this beautiful guy:

His preparation was a labor of love, but well worth it!!  The "easy" in this focaccia recipe is the ease of slapping the ingredients together.  But if you make it, make sure you have plenty of time to allow it to rise in a variety of positions.  It takes patience!

For dessert we chomped on the last of these Rainbow Cookies and finished off a bottle of Riesling.  It was picnic perfect.

What is your perfect picnic food?

She lives!

So apparently it has been a month since I have blogged!  It has been one heck of a summer.  Lots of vacations for seeing and catching up with family/friends and exploring new places, reading books, afternoon naps, shopping, concerts, a musical, movies, ice-cream, a birthday, a first anniversary, an earthquake, and lots and lots of delicious eating.  It makes me sad that there are only 5 days left!

But I thought because it has been sooo long that I would share some of the things I’ve been making/eating this past month.

For LUNCH I have been enjoying my Greek Panzanella as well as this amazingly low calorie Ratatouille.  

It tastes awesome topped with a little goat cheese and a side of crusty bread.  Speaking of...this is my most recent creation in the bread maker...sun-dried tomato and mozzarella bread!  Yum!

For DINNER I have worked on re-creating a pizza that I love to get at our local cafe.  I may have perfected it:

I used pre-made whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's and topped it with their awesome Asiago cheese that has herbs packed in for some added flavor.  Bake it and then I top it with arugula, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber, red onion and a little tiny bit of lemon vinaigrette for flavor.

Another new favorite which makes a TON of food that you can freeze for easy meals are petite won-ton cupcakes in variety of flavors.  We tried lasagna and taco fillings:

Aside from the ice-cream, custard, and gelato I've been consuming for DESSERT, I've also been eating some of these:

 A peach grilled on my panini press topped with Trader Joe's Sugar, Chocolate, and Coffee Bean Grinder to give it a nice crust and then topped with a piece of hershey's chocolate.  It's the best with big, juicy, fresh peaches!

And then I made these in small batches for most of the summer.  I made some and then froze most of the dough.  They were delicious raw or defrosted for 20 minutes and baked!  It's also fabulous to always have cookies on hand...just ask the King.  It has been one delicious summer, that is for sure!