Burger

Inspired by some delicious burgers we had at Katie and Ryan's recently..... and by some cheddar horseradish cheese from the Amish Store.... and by some giant onion buns Martin picked up the previous Sunday, we were pretty stoked for deluxe burgers on Friday night.

Me: Wait. Where is the lettuce?
Martin: (silence)
Me: There were two pieces of lettuce sitting right here? Do you know where I put them?
Martin: (more silence)
Me: I don't know how I lost them between the counter and the table.
Martin:  I might have ate them.
Me: What do you mean, 'you might have ate them'? I specifically didn't cut two pieces up for salad so we could put them on our burgers.
Martin: Well, I couldn't figure out why you didn't put them in the salad and I thought you thought they were bad or something. And I couldn't find anything wrong with them so I figured I'd better eat them before you threw them away.
Me: Oh. You're crazy.
Martin: And then when you started asking about them I thought maybe if I just didn't say anything you would forget about it.
Me: Forget it about it in the middle of the question?
Martin: Well, it was worth a try.

Oh. And a great burger tip from Katie and Ryan: Oatmeal. Egg. Onion Powder. Salt. Pepper. Paprika. Grill!

Cinco De Mayo....Menu

As you can probably tell by the stream of my posts this week, I'm inappropriately excited to have a Cinco de Mayo party with Aubrey's cousins this weekend. I recently made this rice as an accompaniement to tacos and it was fantastic. And also easy. It's not really even a recipe.

Cook rice according to package instructions.
Add salt, cilantro and juice of half a lime.
I also always add tumeric to my rice when its cooking to turn it that beautiful yellow color. I think this is mostly because I have terrible memories of plain white rice with ketchup that my dad used to gobble up for dinner during my childhood (my poor mom for having to cook for that man).

And a few other suggestions for a Cinco de Mayo Party:

Pork, beef and chicken tacos
Gaucamole
Fresh Salsa
and possibly some Quesadillas

Raspberry Pie Bars

/

You should probably think about making these for dessert sometime this week. I'm not usually much of a sweet tooth, but when I saw these Blackberry Pie Bars on Annie's Eats - I knew I had to make them......quickly. I didn't have any blackberries on hand, but I had a bag of frozen raspberries from my mother-in-law in the freezer and I figured that would fit the bill. Really any fruit would work well. I barely changed the original recipe at all.

To make the crust/topping:
Mix together (in a food processor)
1 and a half cups of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
Pinch of Salt
Zest of one Lemon
To this add
 12 tablespoons of butter, still hardish, and cut up into little squares. (12 tablespoons is a stick and a half)
Mix together until all the butter is incorporated (at this point it is supposed to be crumbly, but mine seemed more solid)
Reserve 3/4 cup of the mixture for the topping and pack the rest onto the bottom of a 9 x 13' pan in an even layer to form the bottom crust.
Bake at 350 for about 12 to 15 minutes.

while that is baking make the filling:
Mix together until incorporated
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream)
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Juice of one lemon
Whisk in
15-16 oz fresh or frozen berries of your choice (thaw frozen berries and drain of any juices)

when the crust is done baking:
Remove from oven and let rest about 15 minutes so it can set.
Pour filling on top of crust
Sprinkle the reserved 3/4 cup of crust evenly on top (I did not think my crust/topping was crumbly enough and so put it back in the food processor with a couple additional tablespoons of flour and sugar and remixed. This seemed to do the trick.)
Bake until the top is beginning to brown. About 45 minutes.
Let set for a little bit, but try them while they are still warm...because they are absolutely AMAZING.

I really think it's the lemon with the berries that make these so spectacularly good and I will forever feel indebted to Annie for posting this incredible recipe.

Shrimp, Rice and Spinach with Onion

 

On Saturday evening, Martin had a bachelor party to attend. I had been stuck in the house since Wednesday on an intensive potty training schedule (more on that later) and was dying for some human interaction. And then Martin left. I wasn't mad at him for going to a bachelor party, but I decided if he was going to go have fun, I was going to do something fun too. So I decided to be super rebellious and make myself shrimp just for myself. I know, I know....I am a rebel. For some reason cooking shrimp without Martin being home seemed like a really mean thing to do and I actually debated if I should for a good five minutes. I finally decided if Martin was out drinking and partying with friends, the least I could do was eat shrimp.

I ended up throwing together an insanely delicious dinner with just a few ingredients, and some leftovers.

Throw approximately two tablespoons of butter in a skillet and turn skillet on low-ish.
When butter is just starting to melt swish it around the pan so it covers the entire pan
Slice an onion and carmelize it in the pan. The best way to do this is to let it cook on low for a long time - like 45 minutes.
Once the onion is fairly well carmelized throw a few handfuls of spinach with the stems cut off into the pan. Let them cook down.
Put a little garlic in the pan
Then take a handful of rice (mine was leftover from dinner the night before) and toss that in the pan to warm it up.
Finally, throw some shrimp on top and mix it all together.
Remove from heat when the shrimp is warm.

Sidenote: I had precooked shrimp in the house. If I was using raw shrimp, I would have thrown it on the skillet before the rice so it could cook through.

And if you're feeling really rebellious about eating shrimp without your husband, go all out and set a placemat on the table and mix yourself a gin and tonic. It will make you feel deliriously giddy.

First Stop: Columbus

Our first stop on our family vacation was Columbus, Ohio where my brother, Alex is an engineering student at The Ohio State. Aubrey was very excited to see her uncle and was undetered by his very collegiate getup of a Polo sweater, khaki pants, boat shoes and a mustache(who is this kid??) She prompted started climbing all over his bed and asking him a million and one questions. Then, after Martin and Alex investigated all the Columbus restaurants that have been featured on Man vs. Food, it was deteremined that we would dine in Germantown that evening.

The German part of Columbus ended up being super cute with brick streets (that were actually well-maintained....ahem.....ITHACA) and cute little bookshops and restaurants. It was a section of town that I would gladly wander about in the daytime. And the German food was amazing! I'm not a huge fan of sausages. I eat sausage. I like sausage. But I never really crave sausage. But the German Potato Salad was AMAZING. And the German Meatloaf......Just like my Grandma's! I am now determined to find her recipe. It's melt in your mouth meatloaf!

Alex downloaded a memory game on his phone to keep Aubrey entertained during the wait for our table. She was so excited about playing it she also made him keep it out throughout the entire meal and completely ignored the crayons brought to her by our server. She was so entralled in the game, I briefly contemplated downloading it on my own phone, but then quickly decided my patience would be better served if I didn't have to spend the rest of my life telling her she can't play my phone at this minute.Then we dropped Alex back off at his house so we could keep moving while the girls slept in the back and Alex could meet up with his friends to drink and discuss a bottle of wine otherwise known as the Fancy Fellows (seriously, who is this kid and where is my brother??)

Banana Bread

Two weeks ago I bought a bunch on bananas for Aubrey to snack on throughout the week. Then, she went through some sort of no bananas phase and wasn't really interested in eating bananas for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner). So, I decided to try my hand at banana bread. I turned to one of my go-to recipe blogs, Annie's Eats, in search of a banana bread recipe. And, Annie did not dissapoint! I made a few revisions to the original recipe which you can find here, but these revisions were mostly out of neccesity or sheer laziness. In Annie's recipe she highly recommends squeezing the water from the bananas and then cooking it down to a more concentrated liquid. As soon as I read that, I knew I was probably too lazy to do this step and then when the first comment mentioned that the smell of the bananas cooking in the microwave almost made her throw up, my laziness was suddenly justified. I was also out of vanilla, so added in a little more granulated sugar AND I have difficulty reading completely through instructions so I added the sugar into bread. My only real comment on the recipe is I wish I had tried this sooner! It was completely delicious.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine the following dry ingredients in a bowl.
1 and 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons of sugar (this part I accidentally combined in here because I didn't read the instructions thoroughly. The granulated sugar is supposed to only be sprinkled on top and it's supposed to be 2 teaspoons. I increased to five due to being out of vanilla. The bread turned out so delicious I think I'll keep this recipe when I make it again)

Melt in the microwave
8 tablespoons (1 stick) of unsalted butter

In a large bowl mash with a potatoe masher
5 ripe bananas until smooth

Into the banana bowl whisk in
2 large eggs
The melted butter
3/4 cup or brown sugar (I had a scant 3/4 cup due to being almost out).

Mix in dry ingredients
Pour batter into 9 inch loaf pan (make sure you spray the pan with some cooking spray first)
Bake for 55-75 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean
Enjoy!

The Small Things

Eating Jelly Beans at my parent's house goes something like this. We all are only fans of the Starburst variety. That is at least one thing we can agree on in life. Aubrey is just excited that someone is giving her candy and will gladly eat any flavor. My mom will only eat orange. My dad, a lifelong supporter of my mom, makes a concerted effort to pick out all the orange beans for her. Martin will eat any color without complaint, but doesn't go out of his way to save colors for anyone. Both my brother Mitchell and I fight over the pink ones. Garrett eats them all but, understandably, gets angry because there are never any pink or orange ones in the mix. It's a blood battle over jelly beans. So when I saw these in Target the other day - I got really excited. These jelly beans were made for me and Mitchell. I obviously had to buy a bag and may have shouted This is the best thing ever! in the aisle of Target causing an associate to look at me and laugh out loud. I tried to send Mitchell a text message about this discovery, but apparently we haven't talked on the phone since I lost all my numbers in October (whoops!) So, Jessica, show this to him when you see it, and maybe buy him a bag.

Stromboli

This isn't a recipe post. We haven't even eaten the dinner yet. It's really just a post about cooking. Or how cute Aubrey is. Or something like that.

I love having Aubrey cook with me for a couple of reasons: She's excited about everything. She's becoming better and better talking company everyday. And mostly, she's a really good snacker. Basically, she's not always the best at sitting down and eating an actual meal but she is really good at snacking on all the components that make up a meal during the preparation. So while she probably won't eat much if any of this stromboli when Martin and I sit down to eat dinner later tonight, I can at least be comforted in the fact that she did eat plenty of cheese, olives, mushrooms, italian sausage, spoonfuls of sauce and then an orange (not a component of stromboli, just an after preparation snack).

So, the above picture: A perfect toddler doing a fine job rolling out dough.

Somehow developed into this: a toddler on all fours on the counter eating cheese in a doglike fashion.

ps. for those of you wondering...I'm obviously still with child

Oreos

Gabe: I have some Oreos.
Me: Wait. You have oreos here??
Gabe: Yeah, you want some? I can go get them. 
Martin: Gabe, she's pregnant and she can't drink. Oreos are like crack to her now. You're definitely ranking higher than me. That blows my whole washing dishes move out. 

Creating A Taco Bar

I would highly recommend this as a meal or snack option for any large gathering. It looks pretty. It takes hardly anytime to prepare. It's a huge hit. Can you go wrong?

This photo was taken before we had set out the warmed soft shells, the sour cream or the cheese. Also, I had plans of doing corn and beans but then decided basically forgot about them.

Martin had a great idea that we should have a taco bar for our New Year's Eve party and I couldn't be more happy with this plan. It just came together so well! All night long people were raving about the tacos and asking for recipes, etc.

So, in the spirit of feeling particularly instructional this evening....some steps to creating your own taco bar.

As you know, I got really into crockpot chicken tacos early in the fall. The basic recipe of chicken breast, a jar of salsa, taco seasoning, and diced chilis really can't be beat.  For this taco bar, I wanted to have lots of options so I decided to do Pork, Chicken and Beef.

Pork: Buy a pork shoulder roast. I cut out the bone and cut a bunch of the fat off before cooking. The preparation of the pork for the crockpot was definitely the longest of the three and when I say a long time I mean 15 minutes. Put the pork in the crockpot. Season with taco seasoning (Here you could either do a package of taco seasoning or do what I did and just roughly throw some garlic powder, cayenne powder, paprika, chili powder and black pepper onto the pork.) Pour a jar of salsa over the top. Open two cans of green chilis and add those into the pot. Mix everything together. Turn on low for 5 to 6 hours. When it is done everything will literally fall apart with a slight touch of a fork or tongs.

Chicken: I used a five pound bag of frozen chicken breats. Thaw the chicken the day before. Put the chicken in the crockpot. Follow the same seasoning process as with the pork. Cook on low. It will also fall apart, but not quite as easily as the pork does (I think it has something to do with the fact that there is more fat in the pork but don't quote me on that, I'm really just making stuff up as I go along)

Beef: Use a chuck roast. I think mine was about three pounds. I wish it had been slightly bigger. Place the roast in the crockpot. Follow all the same instructions.

The amazing thing about these is they are so customizable. If you're going to be gone all day at work....who cares....you really can't overcook them! They just continue to get better and better! We were having a lot of guests and I am paranoid about running out of food, so I made sure we had a lot of meat. You can always decrease the recipe if you wish!

The toppings!
My favorite part about a taco bar are the variety of toppings to choose from. I made these super cute tortilla bowls by taking large soft shell burritos and putting them in the oven, pressed down in a large bowl at 350 degrees. This yielded great results but I only had one bowl that was oven safe and big enough for what I wanted (a soup or cereal bowl isn't really large enough to allow your tortilla shell to hold its shape before it hardens) To move the process along faster I would keep the shell in the bowl until it was sort of firm and the top was brown and then let it finish the browning and hardening process directly on the oven rack so I could start a new tortilla. For the smaller ones I turned a muffin pan upside down and positioned the smaller tortilla shells between the muffin cups. These definitely browned up more quickly, but I found them to be a little bit harder to form into very nice bowls.

And don't be afraid to go crazy with topping options
Lettuce
Tomato
Onion
Cheese
Olives
Sour Cream
Gaucamole
Rice
Beans
Corn
Cilantro
Salsa
the possibilities are almost endless.

So there you have it! A taco bar. A delicious and easy addition to your next party!

2012: Review

Maybe no one else is excited about a post in which I review the past year, but looking through everything that has happened was super exciting and also extremely nostalgic for me.

January: We rang January in the right way last year, with lots of excitement. Aubrey started walking. I almost burned the house down. Martin wore footie pajamas. Can you even ask for any more in just one month?

February: Aubrey becomes a groupie. Martin and I continue to have ridiculous conversations. We enjoy the best subs in the world!

March: Aubrey continues to get cuter and cuter in her daddy's shoes, on the farm, and playing in the dirt. I get my first pedicure! Katie teaches me the fine art of making the most delicious fresh salsa on our fabulous vacation in Florida.

April: Aubrey gets really into showing off her muscles. I have a spectacular time in Georgia with college roommates. The ridiculous conversations continue. I start making the most delicious pork tenderloin.

May: My mom turns 50! For the first time ever, my brother wants my approval. It
becomes apparent, once again, that I am terrible with cars. And Aubrey has adorable clothes.

June: Martin and I can sleep through anything. I learn some motorcycle lingo. Aubrey falls in love with strawberries and wildflowers. Caton continues to exaggerate (but less so).

July: We temporarily were without internet this month. But..... Aubrey starts climbing out of her crib. Martin defends the family. And we discover that ice cream is a huge hit.

August: We enjoy a weekend vacation for a wedding, and Martin is again...ridiculous. Aubrey finds her favorite toy. And the sleeping saga continues.

September: We go to a Zac Brown Band Concert. I become obsessed with Chicken Tacos and spend way too much time thinking about the meaning of hashtags. And Aubrey gets a kitten (or three).

October: I think I've finally overcome my issue with picking out vehicles (turns out, I haven't). The sleeping saga continues, again (the good news is at this point it's almost over). We find out we're having a girl! And we close on our dream house and move in!

November:  I really dragged my feet on getting internet access in our new home so I have a limited recollection of what happened in this month. But it included some home improvements and Aubrey learning the blame game.

December: I lose my keys. Aubrey gets really into Hide and Seek. My brothers attempt to help Martin with my Christmas Present, and of course, Christmas happens.

So.....that pretty much sums up 2012. See you next year!

The Beauty of the Booth.

Sometime since Aubrey turned one, I've been avoiding restaurants like they are the plague. Believe it or not, a toddler really doesn't get the concept of why they need to sit in a chair for a half an hour before any food arrives. Nibble at their food. And then continue to sit there for at least another half an hour while the adults chat. It's not something you can reason with a toddler.

Aubrey has always been notorious bad with restaurant highchairs and the few times I've taken her to a restaurant since she's been able to walk she's spent the majority of the time in the restaurant trying to sneak out of the high chair while I've spent the majority of the time trying to keep her corralled in the chair. I don't even remember whom I had the pleasure of dining with on these occasions because I was that distracted. And then I basically just gave up on the whole meeting people in public places thing and chalked restaurants up to the type of place I would visit in another 5 to 20 years, depending on how quickly Aubrey/baby girl mature.

I really hadn't even attempted a restaurant in at least a few months when Aubrey and I went to visit Caton in Boston. When we arrived on Tuesday night Caton was beyond giddy about going to an amazing tapas restaurant because she had a coupon that made all tapas only $5. Although I had a lot of fears about the event, I love tapas and so pushed them aside and joined in on the excitement.

Turns out, with a blank piece of paper, four crayons and a booth where she is shoved in the corner, Aubrey is a pretty good dinner companion. I mean, sure, she's constantly crawling down below the table and hiding, and anything on the table within arms reach is fair game - but considering she's not disturbing anyone at tables surrounding and the people I'm dining with are fully aware I have a toddler and still invited me to dinner, I'll chalk it up as a win.

In light of this successful evening, I was eager to try Aubrey's skills again and so when our friends Matt and Judy came over on Saturday night I suggested we go out for dinner. (This was also partly because we hadn't purchased any groceries since Thanksgiving and our refrigerator/pantry was getting scarce.)

I thought the trip was pretty successful. Not quite as successful as the tapas trip, mostly because our booth was the end booth by the wall on the tapas trip so there was no one for Aubrey to ogle behind her as there was on this trip, but all in all, pretty successful. Matt (who I should point out is notorious for getting embarassed way to easily), however, was a little uneasy with the whole situation. Towards the end when Aubrey was starting to grow impatient and had taken to dismantling the beer list (which I could easily put back together in under a minute) I suggested that we head for home. Matt, who was apparently dying of embarrassment, jumped up from the table and ran to the door forgetting both his leftovers and his hat. He did, however, remember Aubrey's sippy cup.

...Because I thought this post needed a picture

French Dip and the Leftovers

Somehow this is turning into a food blog this week. I guess I've just been eating a lot of delicious food that I really think you should enjoy too! Last Wednesday I made French Dip for dinner. The meal French Dip sounds way to sophisticated to be so easy, but, for some reason it is very easy. It goes like this:

Start in the morning when you're eating breakfast (or in my case after your finished breakfast and you're waiting for your toddler to eat her cheerios faster than one at a time)
Find a crockpot.
Grab a chuck roast.
Salt, pepper, garlic powder on the chuck roast.
Sear all sides of the roast on the stovetop (I'm sure it will turn out fine if you skip this step, I just like to think it helps to hold all the juices in) (Also, Caton, sear basically just means to brown all sides in a pan on your stovetop)
Throw the chuck roast in the crockpot with 2ish cups of water.
Turn the crockpot on low and let sit all day
Come home from work and notice that your house smells amazing.
Shred the roast with a fork and knife. It will fall right apart.
Slice up some of that nice Italian or French Bread you picked up at the grocery store.
Place some meat between the bread.
Ladle some broth into a small dipping bowl.
Dip and Enjoy!


I didn't take any pictures of the original meal of french dip and sweet potatoes. I did take a photo of the following night's meal. French Dip Grilled Cheese.

Take two slice of that nice Italian or French Bread from the previous day and butter one side of each slice.
Place some meat from the previous days dinner along with some mozzarella cheese between the slices.
Grill on the stovetop like you are cooking a grilled cheese.
Warm up a bowl of broth from the previous day's french dip.
Dip your grilled cheese and enjoy!

What is Football without Great Food?

Like I've mentioned before, since attending a Buffalo Bills game last year - I've been much more excited about football. But the fact remains....I'm mostly in it for the food. This year I've been trying to have something delicious every football Sunday. One week we had chicken tacos. They were so amazing I made them again the following week. This past Sunday I made homemade mozzarella sticks.

I got the recipe on Skinnytaste and I pretty much followed it to a T (something I rarely do). It was well worth it. Besides being super easy to make. These really were delicious. Aubrey was so excited to eat them I couldn't even take a picture before she had her hand out there dipping! And Martin was really impressed that I warmed up the marinara sauce (he's sometimes too easy to please).

Mmm. Headed for her second cheese stick

Martin and Aubrey dicussig how delicious the mozzarella sticks are (I'm not even lying!)

Our Super Awesome (And Super Lame) Saturday Night

When I described this Saturday night to a few friends in person I didn't receive very good reviews - so I don't really expect anyone to find our plans last night the least bit interesting.

We watched the Jon Stewart/Bill O'Reilly Debate. Also known as The Rumble 2012.

I first learned about this debate when a fellow high school graduate posted about the upcoming event on facebook about a month ago. I immediately grew extremely excited and text Martin saying "I have really exciting news, call me when you get a chance"

When Martin called our conversation went something like this.
Me: So Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly are having a debate! We can watch it streaming live online.
Martin: Oh wow, that is awesome. I thought you were going to say someone is pregnant.

Then I told me sister-in-law, Ingrid, about the event.
Ingrid: So who are you cheering for??
Me: I don't even really care. I just think they're both really smart people and neither of them are running for office so it should probably be the best debate we've ever seen.
Ingrid: Yeah. I guess that sounds pretty cool
Me: You can watch it too. It costs five dollars to buy an online ticket to view it live.
Ingrid: Well.......it's a Saturday night so I'm probably not going to do that.

Then I talked to one of my best friend's, Amanda about the event.
Me: I am so glad that Brad posted about that debate. I am so excited about it!
Amanda: Oh yeah! That sounds really awesome. I was going to go see it with him but I couldn't make it work.
Me: You can still watch it online!
Amanda: Yeah.....(her voice trails off and she changes the subject).

When I excitedly told my mom our plans for Saturday night her response was "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a weekend"

Finally, I sent a text to my friend Kerri inviting her and her boyfriend over to watch the debate with Martin and I. I even tried to entice her with the menu of mini pizzas I planned on making for the viewing.

She never responded to my text messages at all.

Even with the lack of enthusiasm from all my friends, Saturday night came with much anticipation. And it was great!

And the mini pizzas were amazing! Here's the line up of varieties.

Beef with Boss Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese and Onions
My classic favorite - Marinara Sauce with Mozzarella Cheese, Mushrooms and Pepperoni
Fried Egg and Bacon - I've been wanting to try fried egg on pizza for months. It was delicious.
Another classic - Marinara Sauce with Mozzarella Cheese, Pepperoni and Onions
A new favorite for both of us which will definitely make it into our pizza rotation! - The chicken from chicken tacos, cheddar cheese, onions, black olives and cayenne pepper spice.
Another favorite - Sundried Tomato Pesto, Mozzarella Cheese, Diced Tomatoes and Artichokes.

Was your Saturday as awesome/lame as ours?

The Buffalo Bills and Chicken Tacos

Ever since I took Martin to a football game last year, I've been really excited about watching football. I've become a huge Buffalo Bills Fan. Unfortunately for me, the game I took Martin to see was the second to last game of the season so I've had a long time to wait to rekindle my appreciation for the sport. Needless to say, I was very excited about the season opener on Sunday and even more excited because my friend Michelle was coming to hang out and watch it with us!

I made chicken tacos for the event which were equally as exciting as the game (which was a huge bust but I got a chance to wear my Bills jersey while eating delicious food, so who can complain?) I am already contemplating how amazing this same recipe would be with beef or pork and have big plans for hosting future football Sundays.

Chicken Tacos. Of course, I found this recipe on pinterest.

Throw 5-6 Chicken Breast in a crockpot with a packet of taco seasoning and a jar of salsa. I only had 1 pound of chicken and I didn't have any salsa. And I never buy taco seasoning (it's so easy to make your own!). Anyway, I just threw the chicken I had in the crockpot with a jar of enchillada sauce. I set the crockpot on high for 5 hours and then turned it down to warm until Michelle arrived. The chicken just shredded itself to pieces and it was absolutely amazing. I think next time I would put a jar of diced green chilis in there just to give it a little extra kick. But....mmmm....so good.

Mustard Pork Tenderloin

I've been cooking tons of amazing dinners this week (not counting the fish tacos which I had really high hopes for and which kind of let me down). And I will definitely feature my favorite recipes from this week, but today I need to feature this pork tenderloin I grilled a couple of weeks back. One of the main reasons I need to feature it is because it was amazing and I didn't really have a recipe so I need to forever internalize the ingredients I used to recreate this dish again and again. I love love love pork tenderloin and this recipe does a pretty good job of rivaling my other favorite, balsamic crusted pork tenderloin. I might even like this one better. So.....before my memory fails me.....

This recipe came to fruition because I had purchased two pork tenderloins on a whim that maybe we would have some company over and I would cook them both at one time. But then things got busy, we wound up not having company over, and I had an extra tenderloin and didn't want to have the exact same meal one week later (you can do that with hotdogs and spaghetti, but not with tenderloin). In an effort to go as far from balsamic as possible and off a suggestion of a coworker, I was looking for a mustard based recipe. I got home from work and headed directly over to Annie's Eats for some consultation. This  is the only mustard based pork she had on the site. I probably could have found a more suitable recipe somewhere else, but I was racing the clock and decided to wildly improvise.

For the rub:
Two tablespoons of Dijon Mustard (I actually didn't have dijon at this time and instead used a dill mustard I had recently purchased at a winery....I was insanely excited about the mustard probably in no small part due to the fact that I was unable to consume wine)
One teaspoon of Black Pepper
Two teaspoons of Brown Sugar
A hint of Salt
One teaspoon of Olive Oil

I did not cut the tenderloin into medallions and flatten them and all such nonsense. Pork tenderloin is delicious in its original state and I'm too lazy. But mostly, it's delicious in its original state.

Rub the above rub all over the tenderloin and grill until cooked. If it is winter and you aren't able to grill, I usually brown the tenderloin on the stovetop and then finish cooking in the oven at 400 degrees.

For the sauce I really strayed from the original recipe. Basically I took some butter, some more mustard, a lot of onions and a little bit of dried parsley and cooked them on the stovetop until the onions were carmelized. These onions in mustard sauce were amazing and I kind of wanted to smother this sauce all over everything and eat it on a daily basis. As a last minute addition to the meal I threw some red potatoes in the microwave to eat as baked potatoes on the side, but if I had been planning far enough in advance I would have cut the potatoes into pieces and cooked them in the pan with the mustard and onions.

Mmm. Delicious. Quick and Easy. And its homemade so even with the butter you used to carmelize the onions......no calories (that's a trick I learned from a coworker - anything homemade...no calories.)

Quesadillas with Carmelized Onions, Black Olives, Tomatoes, and Hot Peppers

When you're looking for an absolutely delicious and quick dinner quesadillas are definitely a good route to travel. Last night I was looking for something that fit this bill while also using some of the vegetables in my refrigerator. My refrigerator was running a little low so I used pretty much everything I had.

I started with about half an onion - the road to success is always better paved when onions are carmelized so I sliced it, threw it in a pan with some butter and let the butter and heat work its magic for about 20 minutes.

I used a block of sharp cheddar cheese that I shredded up for the cheese, but any type of cheese would work fine.

Fresh tomatoes are a must in every summer meal.

Aubrey pulled some black olives out of the cupboard and I decided she was probably onto something. (Martin and I used probably a total of ten olives between our two quesadillas - we cut them in half - the remainder of the 16oz can was consumed by Aubrey. That girl loves her olives!)

I had a hot banana pepper that I was planning on using to make some fresh salsa with, but I couldn't resist adding a little heat to our dinner. I am of the thought that hot peppers should be diced very finely so that the heat is well dispersed and in every bite (rather than a huge bite of hot that you can't handle) so I usually throw them in the food processor to avoid having to do tiny dicing on my own.

Tortillas (either flour or corn) are obviously a neccesary element in quesadilla making

And I served this meal with a side of salsa. I would have definitely also served the quesadillas with sour cream or guacamole, but I didn't have either on hand.

The only ingredient that I think really could have propelled this quesadilla to even greater would have been some spinach to throw in the quesadillas. I only had romaine lettuce on hand and didn't think it would work quite as well in the quesadilla.

These are amazing! Obviously, assemble all ingredients grilled cheese sandwich style and cook on a stovetop. I usually butter the outsides of both tortillas to get that nice golden brown crispiness while it toasts on the skillet.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Raspberry Milkshakes

Back way too long ago to just be posting about now. I'm talking over a month ago, Aubrey and I went raspberry picking at Panek's Pickin' Patch. Aubrey pretty much ate her weight in raspberries in the patch, but it was extremely hot this particular day and I pretty much put my nose to the grindstone and picked as quickly as possible while Aubrey leisurely ate every berry within reach.

Most of our pickings were quickly gobbled up on their own before, during and after lunch. But I managed to set a few aside for an after lunch treat the I think you should probably make sometime soon. Chocolate Raspberry Milkshakes. You need vanilla ice cream, milk, chocolate syrup and some fresh raspberries. I tend to like my milkshakes really think so I go a little heavier on the ice cream lighter on the milk, but you can make yours however you prefer. Throw them all in a blender and blend to desired consistency. Trust me....you won't be dissapointed. Mind blowing milkshake.

Ice Cream!

A few Saturday nights ago it was HOT. So we headed down the road for an after dinner ice cream snack. Aubrey loves ice cream. Just look at the bite! She is literally trying to fit that entire scoop of ice cream into her tiny mouth.

This picture would be amazing if Martin didn't look so angry for some reason.

I just need to somehow splice Martin's face from this picture into the previous on. Perfect shot!

Oh, and note Martin's cockeyed hat. Such a gangster. Ha!