This next recipe blew my mind. It was so delicious and very summery. I found organic baby tomatoes at Wal-Mart and they were delicious. They were less than a dollar more than the non-organic tomatoes. I feel like I have really random luck buying baby tomatoes as far as flavor goes so I opted for the organic with my fingers crossed that they would taste delicious and they did! Worth the extra money.
This recipe comes from a really great web site called Ezra Pound Cake. Love that title! You have got to make this dish. I am telling you; I was in HEAVEN eating this. Who ever thought that plain yogurt could replace so many things in the foods we eat and make them taste just as good as their richer counter part and make it healthier for us?
This is called Pasta with zucchini, tomatoes and creamy lemon yogurt sauce.
Here is another Pinterest recipe I made. I told you, I am on a total Pinterest spree right now and I am ok with that because the food that I am creating is delicious. Not one bad one yet. I am on a roll.
This one is called Guacamole salad. I changed this one significantly and it turned out amazing. From my experience with cooking, I have found that I have a pretty good sense of taste for certain things and when I saw that this called for raw tomatillos I was a little concerned. I bought them anyhow. Before I added them I tried one raw and I was correct; they were not good raw. Roasted or in salsas, amazing. Raw, not good. They have a very bitter, unappealing tastes. I opted to leave them out. I added jalapenos, raw pepitas, and one granny smith apple with skin on. Yeah, it turned out amazing. The crisp, sweetness of the granny smith apple really added a lot to the salad. The pepitas give it a nice crunch for some added texture. The same night I made this I also made some random roasted veggies of poblano, mushrooms and a mexican squash called a chayote. So that next day I made a salad with greens, the guacamole salad and the roasted veggies. It was pure heaven. Love it!
I made this soup up inspired by a cookbook I have by chef Rick Bayless called Salsas That Cook. I was reading through it and the recipes all call for some kind of salsa. I thought why not. I bought the Frontera Tomatillo salsa. I saute a white onion and garlic. I steamed some butternut squash and chayote in the microwave to speed up the process. I used a quart of chicken stock, dumped in 3/4 of the jar of salsa, the butternut and chayote, about 3 T of corn masa (corn flour to thicken) and about a cup of corn. I topped it with some more salsa and a dollop of plain greek yogurt. I must say I was pretty darn impressed with myself.
My husband surprised me with a trip to Chicago overnight with my girlfriend Laura. Wow! I was floored and we had the time of our lives. We were up gabbing until after 4 in the morning. Wild! That's even without wine.
For a late lunch we dined at Rick Bayless XOCO. There wasn't much of a wait. I ordered the XOCO salad which is greens topped with the delicious slow cooked, tender pork, avocado, grilled onions, and fried tortilla strips. This was served with a lime vinaigrette. Really delicious.
These pictures are from our dinner place called BellyQ. The chef there Bill Kim is a guy me and Jason have always liked. He has two other places in the city. Both of them are low key unlike this one which is a full scale hipster dining joint. Belly Shack and Urban Belly are his other two places and both very memorable as well.
Here we had a salad of greens, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, rice puffs and a vinegar dressing. Amazing and refreshing.
My friend Laura ordered the smoked duck which is served with house made buns. It was amazing. I ordered the salmon with was served with a pickled papaya salad with strong vinegar notes. Wow! I will be ordering that next time I go. It was the perfect portion and amazing. Loved it.
On the trip I took to the city with my friend Laura I had to take her to my favorite breakfast spot called Yolk. They have three locations in downtown Chicago only. This was a dream breakfast for me. Hash of baby red potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, asparagus and two poached eggs on top. The fruit is always amazingly fresh and the bottomless coffee was insane. She said it was a special blend made by Metropolis Coffee company. She was also nice and gave us cups to go. Yummy! We stuffed ourselves.
Me and Mr. Miles made a fruit dip that I found on Pinterest. All you do to make it is use 1 8 oz package of cream cheese, 1 jar marshmallow fluff and 1 cup powdered sugar. They liked it okay.
Here is our dinner from tonight. Kind of a simple meal but oh so dreamy to me. I roasted some sweet potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and potatoes. The white stuff next to my burger was my new dish I tried. I saw a recipe on Pinterest for a cauliflower mash. I changed it up. I steamed an entire head of cauliflower, added two roasted cloves of garlic to the cauliflower in the food processor. I added a single serving size of plain green yogurt, 1/4 c of shredded parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. After pulsing it for awhile to make it creamier I added to it some of the water from my steamer. This turned out really yummy. When my five year old tried it and asked what it was I told her mashed potatoes. She didn't question me and said it was yummy. Enjoyed it a lot.
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