It’s Tuesday…and all I can think of is the past weekend and the weekend coming up. We live for weekends don’t we? Weekends seem like the only time I am able to play in the kitchen and take photos at my own pace…and this weekend I did just that.

Started off with breakfast outside on the patio….

Here I am busy working in the kitchen while Casey snoozed:

End result = eggs with chives & cheddar, toast with strawberry puree and coffee!

Our plates were licked clean…

I did some gardening…

I bought a new doormat for the patio…

A new fern for each bathroom (i love them!)

We fixed up our other deck and ate the Orange Strawberry popsicles I made on Friday to celebrate!

I stuck three cucumbers in the juicer and out came this lovely shade of green…

The cucumber pulp inspired me to make tzatziki…and then I ended up with this:

I made turkey meatballs without following a recipe…

And of course I had to use that cucumber juice so I made a delightful ginger-ale/cucumber/mint/lemon concoction…

cheers!

Also:

-watched a few movies (La Vie En Rose, Into the Wild & Alpha Dog)

-Casey continued to work on painting our kitchen cabinets

-I started a sewing project that ended terribly :(

-Took a trip to Home Depot

-Daydreamed about my perfect kitchen…..

What are you doing this weekend?

This weeks girls night (plus 1 boy) was all about comfort food.

I made a New York Times recipe for Creamy Macaroni & Cheese (found via Smitten Kitchen).

Thank you Deb!

Did I ever tell you how much I love the crunchy bits of Mac & Cheese??  I used to fight with my two older brothers over the crunchy parts when we were growing up.

Aren’t you jealous- Ryan?

Here’s a close up of the creaminess….the cottage cheese was a nice touch!

I paired the mac & cheese with a salad (cucumber, tomato, red onion & feta with a mustard dressing) and some steamed broccoli.

I HAD to balance out that fat/veggie ratio….

Creamy Macaroni & Cheese

New York Times 01/04/06

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup whole milk cottage cheese
•  2 cups milk (not skim)
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 handful of breadcrumbs (not in the original recipe-I added this)
• Pinch cayenne
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
•  1/2 pound elbow pasta, uncooked.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and position an oven rack in upper third of oven. Use 1 tablespoon butter to butter a 9-inch round or square baking pan.

2. In a blender, puree cottage cheese.  When consistency is extremely smooth, add milk, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper together. Reserve 1/4 cup grated cheese for topping. In a large bowl, combine remaining grated cheese, milk mixture and uncooked pasta. Pour into prepared pan, cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes.

3. Uncover pan, stir gently, sprinkle with reserved cheese and breadcrumbs. Dot with remaining tablespoon butter. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes more, until browned. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

***The only thing that I regret…is not making a double batch!***

And for dessert…..

Earlier that day I decided to make these brownie cookies I found from one of my flickr buddies. I totally screwed up the batch when I made it a couple of weeks ago.  I ended up with 1 big cookie the shape of my cookie sheet!  I got it right this time…Not sure what happened.

Better-than-Brownie-Cookies

makes about 18

The recipe came from  Welcome to My Pantry  (thank you!)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups total chocolate chips
• 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1/8 cup unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

-Set oven to 350 degrees

1. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 2 oz. of unsweetened chocolate. Add butter, stir til melted.

2. Mix eggs, vanilla and sugar in a medium bowl.  Combine thoroughly. Set aside.

3. Mix flour & baking powder together in a small bowl.

4. Add melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and slowly add your dry ingredients.  When stirred, add remaining cup of chocolate chips- stir!

5. Scoop cookies onto a cookie sheet.  Bake & try not to scarf them down the second they get out of the oven!

FINAL RESULT:

My makeshift neapolitan dessert!

I put two cookies in each of bowl, topped it with vanilla bean ice cream and added some strawberry sauce on top!

For the strawberry sauce, I pureed strawberries with a little bit of sugar & water. Taste as you go and check the consistency and it’s pretty darn easy.

What’s your favorite comfort food?

I spent this past weekend with my prettie/vegan best friend, Erin. Every year we try to see each other at *least* twice. She came down to visit this past weekend and we had loads of fun trying some vegan treats in the Bay Area! Of course we’re both really into food- so we did some damage at a few places…..

I started off by making Penne with Pesto, Asparagus & Roasted Pine-nuts (all vegan) for dinner on Thursday:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Earth Balance Margarine
• 2 heaping tablespoons Better Than Cream Cheese
• 2 bunches asparagus cut into little pieces
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• juice of 1 lemon
• handful of pine nuts
• handful of walnuts
• a large batch of the pesto from the link below for recipe & ingredients
• 1 1lb package penne

To make the pesto part of this dish- follow my pesto recipe but omit the parmesan. I added more pine nuts and a handful of walnuts in this batch!

After you cut the asparagus, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a frying pan and cook the asparagus in the pan on medium heat. (It’s really good if you brown them a bit but do not over cook!) It should take about 5-7 minutes. Splash a teaspoon or two of the garlic powder in with the asparagus.

Once finished, set aside the asparagus and add the pine nuts to the pan. Toast them in the pan for about 5-8 minutes until they turn brown. Be sure to not over cook them as you don’t want nuts that look like coffee beans in your pasta! ack!

Once the pasta is cooked, drain into a strainer and reserve a little bit of the pasta water. Put the pasta back in the pot and drop the remaining 2 tablespoons of the margarine in. Mix until pasta is coated.

Add the Better Than Cream cheese to the penne and stir. The penne mixture might get really thick…so start adding a bit of the reserved pasta water. Now add your pesto (the more the merrier!!!!) Then add the asparagus and pine nuts. I saved a bit of each to garnish on top of the served pasta. Stir it up and add some fresh lemon juice!

***This pasta was excellent the second day! I even had some a few days later. Just add some more lemon juice to freshen it up! It’s sooo tasty. This recipe serves about 4-5 people. There were 3 of us who had second helpings and there was tons left over! It would be a great dish to make on a Sunday night and continue to eat for the next few days. ***

It’s really good if you add Parmesan on it….I’m just saying….

Back to the visit….

We spent the day shopping in the city on Friday with another good friend and had sushi at a place called Cha-Ya in the Mission.

Here’s our table & the sea vegetable salad I ordered:

next we had edamame & the best miso soup I’ve ever had:

we devoured avocado rolls/avocado tempura rolls & eggplant nigiri:

fell in love with veggie tempura & the vegan roll:

On Saturday, we went to Fraiche in Palo Alto to get some soy frozen yogurt:

And for the big blow out, we went to Millennium in SF on Saturday night with my parents for a fab meal!

here’s our table & the menu:

we HAD to order the mushroom flatbread pizza & garlic fries:

scarfed down some fried mushrooms & avocado grapefruit salad

I ordered wild cherry & chard roulade & Erin picked the smoked tempeh with sweet potato mash

Casey got the edamame & shiitake cakes & I drank a sparkling grape soda with mint

For dessert…

coconut rosewater panna cotta with strawberry sorbet & pecan orange cake with mint julep sorbet

And of course…the sweet indulgence plate & a ginger lemon digestive drink to end!

Also during the weekend we:

- binged on the first season of Carnivale (love!)

- stayed up til 3am chatting

- went to Target, Sephora, H&M, & GAP

- ate our weight in bagel chips

-snacked on some ginger almond cookies

-tried to do pedicures…but gave them the cold shoulder

-had a drink with a friend

-shared home ideas over coffee & vegan pastries

-found out our good friend is having a baby girl!

-met an illustrator who had a high strung dog that bit my finger

It was such a good weekend. Thank you woot! I love you!

It dawned on me that I forgot to post pictures of last week’s girl night!

Let’s start with dessert first!!

I sliced up some fresh strawberries…

I put them in a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar and a heaping tablespoon or two of thick aged balsamic vinegar…

(let that sit for at least 30 minutes)

I made us some whipped cream…baked a vanilla bean cake from Trader Joe’s and assembled the strawberry shortcakes…

and then we brought them to my living room and watched movies…..

I brought the extra whipped cream in because YOU KNOW I’m not letting that go to waste!

Prior to all this….I made us tacos for dinner!

Here’s the spread:

I like to fry up flour & corn tortillas instead of buying store bought ones. My mom taught me this long long ago!

here’s one of the many tacos I devoured…..

I want a taco soooooooo bad right now!

note to self: make more breakfasts like this one!

ingredients:

honey/cinnamon kashi with raspberries, a splash of half & half….and a drizzle of wildflower honey:

the secret: I added frozen raspberries to help cool down the oatmeal.  They melt right away! mmm

Turkey meatloaf, smashed fingerling potatoes & a green salad with balsamic dressing

Turkey Meatloaf (adapted from a Barefoot Contessa recipe)

The recipe was for 8-10 people so I halved it accordingly for a 4 person dinner (with leftovers).

• 2 1/2 lbs. ground turkey meat
• 1 large yellow onion chopped
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsp. tomato paste
• 3/4 cup of dry bread crumbs
• 2 large eggs (beaten)
• 3/4 cup ketchup

Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme until mixture is translucent (but not browned). This should take about 10-15 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste and mix well. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.

Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs and onion mixture in a large bowl. Mix well with hands and shape the meat mixture into a rectangle on an ungreased sheet pan. Spread the ketchup evenly on top of the loaf. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until the internal temperature is 160 degrees F & the meatloaf is cooked through.

Ina recommends a pan of hot water to be under the loaf in the oven to prevent cracking. I took a walk on the wild side…and did not obey! There were no cracks in my loaf.

***We each had a thick slice…husband had two. There were about 5 pieces leftover. So this is an excellent dish to make on a Sunday/Monday night and eat for a few days as leftovers. ***

And for dessert…

Lemon Vanilla Cake with Blueberry Topping

-buy some of the Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix. Follow the instructions on the bag and when you are mixing it all up add a heaping teaspoon of Lemon Extract in the mix. If you don’t have lemon extract but have a few lemons hanging around your house, finely grate some lemon peel in the batter.

After the cake has finished baking, pour a few cups of frozen blueberries in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes. The juices will start releasing from the blueberries. I added a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s ginger jelly spread and dumped that into the mix. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes and you will see that the berries have released most of their juice. I stirred for a bit and then added a few teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken up the sauce. The longer you keep it on the heat, the thicker your sauce becomes.
Let the cake cool for a bit and then load the blueberries on top.

I think it looks nice when there’s blueberry sauce dripping down the sides. Enticing? YES!

I topped them with Double Rainbow Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from TJs. It was delish!

And then when you have leftovers….pour yourself some coffee or tea the next morning and have yourself a slice. It will start your day off right!

And then weep…because Kit is no longer on Project Runway…..sigh.