Newly Inspired

Believe it or not the time has come that I'm finally inspired again to finish the cookbook. Dare I say that I'll actually finish it this time? We'll see... I did however order a darling new apron (is it sad that I own 3 already and my husband has 2 himself - soon we'll need an apron closet!) with my cookbook's title, "blue garlic," monogrammed in script on the front. It is going to be so cute! So with that new push of excitement I sent sample recipes and a description of what I want the book to look like to my wonderful brother in law who is going to write a computer program for me that will format all the pages to look the same. How cool is it that: #1 he CAN do that, and #2 that he actually came up with the idea and OFFERED to do that for me. THANK YOU SID! Now all I have to do is narrow down the number of recipes, edit each recipe, cook everything and take photos, design a cover, edit the introduction, figure out where/how to get it printed, compile the index, put everything in order, get them printed, etc..... no big deal.

No Bake Zone

Matt has officially reminded me that my baking skills are not up to par with my cooking skills. Why do I know this? Well, this past weekend I made my dad some oatmeal raisin cookies with chocolate chips in it. After I served the cookies with milk to my dad and Matt these are the responses I got.

Dad: after a big yawn - "this feels just like kindergarten, I'm gonna take a nap now."

Matt: "These are the best cookies you've ever made honey!"
Anne: "Matt you don't even like oatmeal raisin cookies."
Matt: "Well I know, but at least they aren't burned this time!"

Although I laughed when I was baking cupcakes yesterday I forgot about them being in the oven TWICE. They didn't burn, thank goodness, but still. I am not cut out to be a baker. If I EVER decide to open my own restaurant I'll make sure that I have a pastry chef to handle the desserts.

Gumbo & Bread

Matt and I are officially on the HIGH-carb diet. I got a bread machine for Christmas and we are using it like crazy. I finally tried it two weeks ago and we've made 5 loaves since then - basic white (blah), beer bread (we actually like our other one better), french (tasty!), banana walnut (yum), and a cheese bread that I've invented..... we're gonna work on that recipe.

Mom and Dad gave Matt "The Little Gumbo Cookbook" for Christmas. So yesterday I made a chicken and sausage gumbo that is delicious. We had leftovers for dinner tonight. And maybe tomorrow night, and the next night, and the next night. Now we only have 26 more gumbo recipes to try out of that book - YIKES - we have our work cut out for us.

Oh, at lunch today I made venison burgers on the stove (it was raining and we don't have a grill at the moment) and then made an onion and green pepper brown gravy that we put on top. Serve with warm buttered bread and hot sweet potato fries and voila! I could really get into eating venison a lot - Good thing since we have about 34 more pounds to go...

Yet to come this week: Asian style pork medallions with cashew and cabbage salad (the salad is delish!), chicken marsala with spaghetti, and homemade 3 cheese ravioli with venison marinara sauce. I'm thinking while my dad and sister are here we might try banana stuffed french toast with chocolate hazelnut spread... mmmm....

Southwestern Chicken Caesar Salad

I realize that this is my third post so I'll be quick. I just wanted to suggest that if anyone likes chicken caesar salads but wants a twist on it. PLEASE try add chipotle puree (canned chipotles that if you puree you can keep in your fridge in an airtight container for a LONG time), lime juice, and a little chili powder to your normal caesar dressing. It was delicious. I wanted chicken caesar salad. Matt wanted Bobby Flay (of course) so the compromise was southwestern chicken caesar salad and it was GOOD. Easy way to spice things up!

Falling off the Bone and Facing my Fears

Since Mom and Dad gave Matt a gift card to Fresh Market we decided to splurge this weekend and try something new. We started by sauteing veal osso buco (a shank) in a dutch oven. Then proceeded to make a trinity (onion, celery & carrot) saute which we added a marinara sauce and wine to. Add the meat back in and cook for 2 hours. Of course, there was a little more detail than that but the end result? The meat literally fell off the bone. When Matt when to put mine on my plate, the meat came with the tongs and all the bone was left behind in the pot. It was so incredibly tender. Pair that with a creamy risotto (my newest favorite side dish) and we were in HEAVEN! It was so good that I could barely believe it. Unfortunately it of course had to end which was seriously sad. Ugh...

Day 2 of the cooking fest: What do you get when someone gives you 36 pounds of venison and your husband loves Bobby Flay recipes? Chili - yes, I despise chili but he was so excited that I thought I'd suck it up and eat a little bit on a lot of bread. So, I made homemade bread and we made venison chili. It had 8 different types of chiles, chocolate, beer, chicken broth, and fresh venison. The result? BLAH BLAH BLAH... I didn't really care for it, but that was no surprise. Matt said it was blah though so guess who's not gonna take the time to do that again! No thank you.

Afterward however we made crepes with fresh strawberries, fresh bananas, homemade chocolate syrup, and homemade whipped cream. Those were delectable and will definitely have a encore appearance in our household. Oh they were good. Speaking of..... is it time for dessert yet?

One last thought about the weekend. My family and friends in Little Rock, Oxford, Memphis, and north AL all have loads of snow and a snow day today. We have icicles hanging from our patio furniture cushions, the Christmas icicle lights, our boat, and the bushes outside our window are leaning over to the ground from the weight of the ice. But do we have an ice day today or any snow? That would be a no. We're working, just like normal and it's no fun at all!!!! No hope of snow either as it's supposed to be back in the 50s this week. Bummer dude.

Long Time No See

How sad is it that I just realized it has been since MAY 2010 that I wrote something. I'm sure no one even looks at this anymore. Nonetheless, I am feeling inspired to try and do this regularly again. So along with writing here at least 3 times a week I have decided what my New Year's Resolution should be....

TO FINISH MY COOKBOOK!

Every time I see Sid (my brother-in-law) he asks me how it is coming along and I unfortunately report that I haven't touched it in months. Most everything is typed, I just have to narrow down the number of recipes, edit them, make sure the pages are uniform, add photos, and format it to print it. Lol... that's all. Maybe I can get some feedback from anybody who actually still checks that page. We'll see how it goes!