Playing catch up.

The weekend before last:

 Grilled veggies

Soon to be grilled pumpkin (bleh).

Ground lamb, pine nuts, and rice with rosemary.  :)

Last weekend- calzone party!

Pyramid of Oreos

Monster dough

Manatee calzone

A Mr. S. creation

Faloodeh, a Persian dessert

Randoms:

Fresh dill from our garden

Mr. S's taco pizza

Chicken & asparagus in Wasabi Teriyaki sauce on udon noodles

From ground to table in ~20 minutes

This is a variety of lettuce from the Univ. of Louisville Common Garden.  The red leaf lettuce was quite bitter, but the other kinds were lovely.  It's been a while since I've eaten anything but iceberg in salads.  They also have beets, celery, carrots, Swiss chard, arugula, and broccoli!

Chocolate chip cookies are a girl's best friend

I had too much leftover pumpkin from October taking up space in the freezer.

Now, I'd exhausted the options (or so I thought) without having to resort to pie: cookies, bread, and grilled.  Bread's fine and dandy, but the cookies disappointed me (and don't get me started on the grilled stuff).  So I decided to try a new recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Pumpkin-Cookies-2/Detail.aspx

I think I ate 7 of these last night.  :-O

Modifications:
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 c applesauce instead of oil
-2 cups fresh pumpkin
-2 cups King Arthur white wheat flour, 2 cups all-purpose flour (I FINALLY got rid of the whole wheat stuff)
-ADD: 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ginger powder, 1/8 tsp cloves
-about 1 cup of chocolate chips (I really don't measure these)
-no walnuts

Yield: 31 (I scoop too generously.)

These are VERY cake-like.  The recipe states to bake them for 14 min. max, but I tried 16 and they still didn't get crispy.  I know that this may be due to the fact that I made them very large, and may be due to oven discrepancies, but they just don't get crispy.  If you can live with that, you will like this cookie.

You know that I love you boy, hot like Mexico (enjoy)

What should I make next?  (Please post in the comments section.  If no one votes in a week, I'll do what's easiest.  And remember, you can vote anonymously.  =)  )

1.) Homemade soft pretzels (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html)
2.) Pecan pie bars (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pecan-Pie-Bars-I-2/Detail.aspx) 
3.) Chocolate chip pumpkin cookies (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Pumpkin-Cookies-2/Detail.aspx)
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And now for something completely different...


I made this cake today: Kittencal's 5-Minute Cinnamon Flop Brunch Cake (http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Kittencals-Easy-Cinnamon-Flop-Cinnamon-Brunch-Cake-77397).  It was okay, but I didn't add the melted butter and that probably made it less appetizing.  Plus, it was far too sweet.  I have crumbled it up and will be making cake balls (with mild cream cheese frosting).

Random assortment of pics, mostly from last week:

Scrambled eggs & zucchini, with spaghetti noodles and homemade basil/walnut pesto

More strawberry ice cream

Mr. S.'s taco salad ("Wow, you made my food look halfway decent.")

White bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Mixture of leftover turkey sausage, spinach, egg, & tomato, sprinkled with a generous amt. of basil (no salt/soy sauce/fish sauce...the sausage was salty enough.)  And with the bread from above!

Chicken, zucchini, & mushroom in Soy Vay Hoisin Garlic glaze

Mr. S.'s version of my aunt's dish: chicken with ginger, zucchini, and mushrooms in chipotle peach/pineapple salsa

Candy that makes me want to swear off Hershey's for good

Candy for Caring is a local candy shop run by two nuns that makes lovely handmade candy, for various good causes.  Mr. S. and I finished a 6 x 4.5 inch box of Victorian almond brittle in 2 days.  And he doesn't even like candy.

That is why I don't have any pictures, but it's the best brittle I've ever had---wafer thin, just the right crunchiness.  And very chocolatey without being overly so.  :)

I can't wait to visit the shop. 

Mr. S. wants you to play this game

I hate calling him "my husband" (sounds pretentious and like I'm a member of the "Smug Marrieds") but anyway, here's a game that he really likes (and that's food related!):

http://armorgames.com/play/5481/i-was-hungry-but-there-were-cannons

Update: *sigh* I can't link to it, don't know why...but just type in "hungry" in the search field and it will come up.

P.S.  I forgot to mention that I visited Trader Joe's for the first time last weekend.  It's overrated.  Sure, there's a lot of organic food, but most of it is packaged.  "Two Buck Chuck" sells for $3.79.  I did get two chocolate bars there, the 73% dark chocolate (which we had at a friend's house and is excellent) and the "dark chocolate lovers" bar which was really cheap comparatively (and thus is suspect).  We'll see...

Food heaven, as promised.

Mr. S. and I went on a road trip to visit my grandparents.  I'd missed them, and it felt so good to visit.  
As always, the food did not disappoint.  I got to watch a master chef at work and picked up some new recipes and techniques.  :)  I think that we've both eaten enough for the rest of the week...

Back to front, clockwise: pork chops, chả, beef with broccoli in oyster sauce 

Fried catfish with bell peppers, tomatoes, and homegrown onions (and a cilantro/perilla garnish)

Grilled duck and pork ribs

Bánh bao  

This doesn't even include the gigantic bowls of phở we had, both at the beginning and at the end of our visit.  Homemade phở is the best.  :)


We did make a little time for road food, in the spirit of Alton Brown.

 I didn't buy anything, but aren't the cakes gorgeous?  If only I had that much talent... 

"Do you have to take a picture of everything?"  Yes, I do.  This little Greek pastry (chocolate almond...something) tasted like a doughnut due to the copious amounts of glaze.  I prefer baklava.

Kraut balls-- as in, fried balls of sauerkraut.  Much better than I anticipated.  Now we're just wondering how to make them.  :)