Chicken/Turkey Pot Pie.

So for pretty much the entire month of November, I cooked all sorts of new dishes using bits of other people's recipes and lots of luck. I don't even know how to get back on track with my blogs, so I'll just pick a different November recipe until I run out or decide to use recipes from the present haha. 

Some of my favorite dishes were chicken and turkey pot pies, using leftovers from either the oven-roasted chicken or turkey. Kevin and I bought special little ramekins specifically for pot-pies and they are adorable!

As for the recipe, I think for the most part it was very similar to Barefoot Contessa's, with the little pearl onions, frozen peas, mostly boiled potatoes, chopped carrots, celery and onion, as well as a sauce made from a traditional butter and flour rue and lots of good chicken stock (not homemade, because let's face it, it's a hassle and if it's not used quickly it goes to waste, sorry Ina). There were also the classic spices, pepper, salt, garlic powder, oregano, and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes. We cooked up all the hardy veggies first, then added them to the rue, and then added the chicken, pearl onions, potatoes, and peas. Then the seasonings, and finally, the chicken (or turkey). Once it was bubbling and we had considering skipping the baking part altogether (it looked so good we just wanted to eat it!), we spooned the thick and colorful filling into the ramekins.

We had made a traditional pastry dough, y'know-- flour, butter, water, and added spices to it to make it a more savory treat.So we rolled that out and cut it out to put on our pies. Rather than do the classic pot pie with pastry dough on all four sides, we only coated the top of the ramekin. 

We egg washed the sides of the dishes and tried to place the dough so that it would look like it had just fallen onto it, then egg washed it and made cute little shapes. Then we baked them in a 350 degree oven until the crust was golden brown. I'll just post the finished product recipes for both:

This batch had turkey and a savory crust, and as you can tell it was after thanksgiving so we had moved on to our Christmas decorations

Kevin's had a cute little candy cane on it.

 

Mine had a little snowman.

This is our chicken batch, we out little moons and heart shapes cut out free-hand because I didn't know where the cookie cutters were =]

This is how I picture an alternate universe in my dreams, Kevin and I are food.

This batch of pies had a pepper and salt crust unlike the savory crust that we made later.

MmmmM, my spoon fell in love.

Kevin tried to get a good representative spoonful of the filling. Neither of us wanted to destroy our pies right away.

Here's a little peek into the yummy world inside the dish. Oh it was delicious!

 So anyways, I hope you not only enjoyed that little picture show, but that you actually try to make some yummy pies on your own! I'll post the recipe as soon as I go and actually figure out how much of everything I used (I eyeball it when I'm cooking, but I'll look at the actual measurements and update soon!). Happy holidays and may you and your tummy stay warm and full!!!

I'm Coming Back!

So I realize I haven't updated in a while, but I somehow got busy! With the recent holidays I ended up doing alot more than I usually do and so even though I've been cooking like crazy, I haven't gotten a chance to post anything. Alas I have tons of pictures and recipes to share and will post them sometime this week. I guess I lost enthusiasm because I didn't think anyone was reading this, and let's face it, very few people do, but I appreciate the few that do, so hang in there strangers, i'll post something new real soon! I think I'm also going to add a link on my facebook page that way my friends can actually know about the existence of this page and I won't be relying solely on the random person to stumble on it (not that I mind that, it was my original intention). Also, I will continue to cook my random personal recipes rather than focus primarily on Ina's; although I love her I find it hard to cook only her food. She's a fancy lady, and I'm not as good, alas someday! Okay, well new posts to come! I promise!

Chicken Little got roasted =]

I am too lazy to write a complete blog, but a few nights ago I made this roasted chicken. I get into a frenzy when I eat roasted chicken, so I carefully documented the steps as I cooked this poor little fella. I think I ate 3/4 of it. Sorry veggie-only people, I like eating birds =]

Ina's Lemon Chicken:

Y'see all those little lemons? Yeah, them and the garlic cloves were all in for a little adventure in a very weird and unknown territory.

Only two lucky lemon wedges got to see the inside of my oven.

 

Then once it got cooked:

 

And it didn't go alone, noo, it had friends...

Aren't pearl onions the cutest?

Yummy caramelization and a wee bit of white wine didn't hurt ;)

Ta-Da!!! I wolfed this down in about 4 minutes. Glorious.

All for now. Hope you're staying warm and eating lots of yummies!

Self-Proclaimed Badass

So it's been a while. That I've written in here anyways. I look at this site almost everyday, keep up with the blogs I follow and such, but I haven't done much Ina. so I don't have much to say about my cooking experiences. The past three days alone I've cooked a lot, yesterday was a bigger cooking day since I teamed up with my brother and sister in law who live about an hour away and we made tamales using my mommy's recipe. I think they were okay, but still not as good as hers. I think the secret is in her homemade chicken stock, that stuff is so amazing, my taste buds can't look past it. Everyone else said they liked them and happily ate them as we watched How to Train Your Dragon, which was adorable although a little darker than I thought it would be at the end. It was cute.  Vikings and dragons unite!!! Haha. 

And tonight I made what Kevin called a "fancy goulash" haha. It was just his normal goulash with a little kick, well, more like celery, bell peppers, sauted garlic and onions as a base, slightly over-browned ground turkey, and lots and lots of spices. I can understand why explorer's traveled for spices so greedily. I used to think it was a bunch of lies, well, there must have been alterior motives, but still, a world without spices is just bland. =] I love, love, love having lots of flavors in my food, the more complex the better! Oooh, that brings me to my recent sushi-attacks. Oh my goodness. I have not craved sushi harder than I have the past three days. I have described those delicious little spicy dragon rolls to the point where my mouth watered and Kevin had to shake his head sadly at me for thinking so hard about something I just can't get. I mean there are sushi places here (who knows how the fish quality is), but I think it's more of the home experience that I miss. I want to go to sushi with people I love (Kevin doesn't eat seafood, so he can't really go to a sushi restaurant without me feeling guilty for making him sit in a place where everything around him will gross him out), so the idea of going to sushi in my current loner-Coloradoan state doesn't seem too appealing. So instead i've been mercilessly craving it, and I had to give in and have some from the little to-go trays in Whole Foods (ew, I can't believe I just advertised that over-rated store. Although have you tried their leaf-shaped chocolates? They're like crack!). So my sushi-need is very closely attached to my homesickness which has been looming like a sneaky little kid while I play in the sandbox of newlywed joy. Oh well, Christmas isn't that far away. Mid-December we'll be going back to my good old Cali and I cannot wait =] I want sushi, and some time with people I miss and I just wanna have friends that I can actually hug and stare at as they talk. =] I don't know how much I like people here.

Oh, that brings me to another things that happened over the last few days: so it was Wednesday night. I was sleeping, having the most beautiful, and well choreographed dream ever, when the music in my dream just wouldn't end, so the people were all breaking the fourth wall and looking around nervously, so I finally woke up and realized that I was still hearing loud music in my apartment. Apparently the downstairs neighbors thought that it was okay to blast music, at 2 in the morning, with their window wide open while they played videogames in the living room. I psychotically got dressed after listening to all ten remixes of the same song, followed by crazy mixes of techno music, and was looking for my flip flops when Kevin got up and decided to come down with me. So downstairs we marched, and he knocked and they didn't immediately open the door so I went latina-crazy and looked in through their open window and, much more politely than I had intended, asked them to turn down the music, the tall but lanky kid looking back at me had said he turned it off and that he was sorry. I kind of wanted to laugh then and there, but realized that would throw off my disgruntled neighbor front. So I said Thank You and went back upstairs. Once I had shed my clothes and jumped back into bed I realized that I had actually told neighbors to be quiet. I was so proud of me! I usually give people multiple chances, but something about getting a dream ruined just wasn't gonna let this slide. I guess I've been having too many nightmares to let my few dreams get away. =] So yes. I am officially a badass. Self-proclaimed, neighbor-scolding badass. Very proud. The girl from downstairs even ran into me on the stairs today and she smiled, without looking scared or sarcastic, more like a "Sorry we're such dickheads, we were just a little too stoned to know what time it was," (hey, it's Boulder).

Oh and on friday night Kevin and I went to this laser light show at the planetarium set to the music of The Beatles. It was good although they didn't let me bob around and giggle while softly singing "I wanna hold your haaand" to myself. Very dissapointing, but still nice. Although I told Kevin that perhaps a bit of a natural help *wink wink* would have made the experience a little more psychedelic. Maybe next time. Okay, snacks are calling me. Goodnight. 

NewlyWed Cutsies...

So this past Saturday was Kevin and mine's 4 month wedding anniversary and today I had one of those moments when I felt like photo-montage-scene from a movie depicting how cute having a newly-wed lifestyle is. Y'know the kind where the girl is cooking for the first time in her life and everything's burning (I don't understand how they go so long without cooking before that moment, but then again I don't know how I managed to set off the smoke alarm so many times, so that's embarrassing too). I smiled the first time the smoke detector went off like "aww" but the following 6 times just made me jump around angrily while trying to swat at the smoke detector. The worst part is that I didn't burn anything obvious, the bottom of my meatballs was a little blackened and "crispy" but not significantly burnt, so I dunno what the detector was thinking. I was so upset about its beeping that i forgot to take pictures of the actual meal so, all I have is a picture of peeled garlic cloves and garlic bread pre-baking. I don't know if that's worth posting, I'll decide by the end of typing this haha. So anyway, I made Ina's garlic bread recipe, minus the same bread, I used a french bread, and minus the basil, I looked at the wilty excuses for basil at the grocery store and decided not to spend $7 on weedy looking herbs. I turned to my dry herbs and mini-food chopper to create a delicious spreadable mush for my bread. Oh and we were also out of aluminum foil, so I just open faced baked it. It was hilarious, even the simplest recipe I feel like I just can't do it up to Ina's standrads, i mena even the aluminum foil decided to thwart me! We just ran out yesterday, very dissappointing. Alas in the end my husband and I happily munched away on our meal and when we were done eating our spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and salad, Kevin leaned back and said that it was delicious, so I smiled and thought it was so worth it, even the seven smoke detector freak-outs. 

We went to the grocery store for some late-night grocery store cruising, and ended up purchasing some desert, sorry Ina but I cannot make cookies as delicious as these store-bought brownie M&M cookies! They're amazing. And I refuse to use the oven until I figure out what the smoke detector's problem is (ugh, i'm ending that sentence with an "is").

As for the rest of my day. It started off with me doing some yoga off of my OnDemand menu. I love it. I want to master the firefly pose. I'm going to have to order a new set of dvds and get serious about really incorporating the workout into my daily schedule. My goodness I will lose ten pounds even if it kills me! Well, not not really, just until I feel like I look ten pounds lighter haha. 

As for my card creations, well I worked on trying to figure out how to make a true business letter with a real mission statement and all that so that the hospitals wont think I'm just some lunatic that sprinkled itching powder on the paper or something. You never know these days, so hopefully my letter will make the hospital excited and happy to know that there are caring people in the world who just want to make kids smile. =] Ah! I will post pictures of the cards real soon, tomorrow's entry for sure. But for now I need some sleep and hangout time with my hubby, so off to bed for me. Goodnight!

It's Raining Back Home and that Makes Me Jealous...

So it's been raining all weekend in my hometown of South Lake Tahoe. I really wish it would rain here. Rain is my favorite thing to watch, listen, smell, feel, and yeah even taste. I like eating things that may be possibly polluted or cause some sort of virus, hence my sushi eating and my lack of concern for organic food. Alas, I don't think I'll be ingesting any infectious rain drops anytime soon unless the gods listen to me and actually grant me my wish of rain. AhhhHh! 

Anyway, I made some of Ina's chicken piccata (not from her first cookbook, but still Ina). I made smashed potatoes and steamed baby carrots and broccoli; not gonna lie the whole meal kinda looked like a frozen tv dinner when it was all together, let me show before I continue to explain how funky it looked: Okay, so you see how even the lemon slices didn't class it up? Haha, and the chopped baby carrots would have not gained Ina's approval. I should have added a fresh bunch of basil or something. Or maybe some really good gravy. Or just added a glass of wine to make it look fancy. Haha. Actually I think there may have been more wine drenched in my sauce than I would have actually drank. Y'see I added some wine after the sauce had already reduced, so basically it was just a shot of wine at the end of the cooking and it tasted like a lemony wine. It was amazing haha. 

Wait, I forgot that I did attempt to add something, a, oh my goodness I'm slightly ashamed to say it, a store-bought onion roll!!! Ahhh!!! My husband brought it home so I was tempted! =] It was delicious! Oh and if you can see my husband's plate peeking in the upper left corner, that's my husband's parmesean chicken which he made with my deliciously breaded and baked chicken. But see how little cheese it has? Yeah, we hate grating cheese and we always buy huge bricks of cheese because it holds up better, but really we eat it so fast it doesn't really matter how long it holds up. 

This is a shot of my lemon massacre. Although it kinda looks like the lemons won, the way that the knife is just lying there all defeated looking. I like how the bottle of wine just reads "WINE" haha. It's actually called "House Wine" and it's not dry white wine as the recipe calls (gosh I'm just full of disappointment today haha), instead it's a mixture of white wine with reisling and other stuff, like I said I'm not picky as long as it tastes good. Mm.

Oh and here's the mostly alcoholic sauce I made to coat the chicken with: Well, that's boiling and reducing away, I guess it wasn't drunk at this point, just funny looking. Oh and please ignore my electric stove top =[ Some day I'll have a gas stove again! ahhh! The plight of not owning your own house. And being unemployed I suppose. Yes, post-grad hobo-ness is everything I ever dreamed it to be. 

Oh and interestingly enough, I found my old diary entries and I cried, laughed, and can't wait to be 65 and dying (due to my bad fooding choices), and look back and can't believe that I ever purchased a fuzzy green diary. Haha. Anywho. I am done for now, there's a fruit salad in my line of sight and I intend of eating every last chunk of sugary goodness!

Can I get some cheese with my whine?

I've been having a lot of nightmares lately. This morning was no exception. I woke up from one bad nightmare after another. You'd think that would have motivated me to stay awake, but it didn't... I'm a relentless sleeper. So needless to say, that got my morning off to a bad start. Then I wake up with my usual morning nausea (I'm not preggers, just take medicine that makes me queasy when I wake up). Then I walk out in to the living room and find that Kevin has made me breakfast, but my extra nightmare time has made my waffles soggy and not as good as they could have been. Also, they were banana waffles, so the cold flavor isn't something I can enjoy having just awoken with nausea. Alas I managed to eat the peaches served on the side and watch "Project Runway" without blowing chunks. Then I guess I went through a few more mindless things, and it wasn't until I upset my lover a few minutes ago that I realize what a downer I've been all day. I am typically a very happy and optimistic person, but this morning I have been awful and I just don't know why I can't stop being this biting, cruel thing. It seems like my mouth has spewed nothing productive this morning. I've talked to my mom and Kevin and have come out feeling annoyed that they can't understand what I'm saying. But now I've realized that it's probably just me that isn't saying what I really feel and instead projecting my anger with whatever little thing I'm nitpicking about in order to mask it. Ugh, it's gross. The worst part is that I really don't know why I'm upset. Well, more like I can't pin-point the one thing that is upsetting me more than usual. I continue to have the same levels of problems and anxiety, but I guess there's just something that's fallen out of it's little mental shelf where I've stored it. Maybe I just need a nice long bubble bath. 

That's what I'll do, a nice long bubble bath complete with those fancy bath salts someone gave us as a wedding gift. But first I'll do some yoga and tie my hair up and away from my face so that I can see clearly how lucky I am to be able to sit around planning yoga sessions. (And by yoga I really just mean stuff called yoga on TV, not like real lessons or anything haha) 

Hopefully that will make me calm the hell down and I'll get back on track. I want to make a bunch of cards this weekend. I also want to sit down and write my mom and brother's some long long letters. I love snail mail. I don't want it to ever fade out of style. 

Okay, time for action, I'll post pictures once I have something yummy and happy to share =]

Two Week Hiatus

So despite my initial excitement about cooking and blogging, my life during the past two weeks kept me away from blogging. I'm not sure if it was lack of inspiration, lack of motivation, or just pure laziness that kept me away. My teenage angst always made me write in my previous blog most when I was upset, so maybe now I'm just not depressed enough to feel like I have to write things online in order to get them out. Or maybe I've suddenly been faced with adult issues and can't waste time going online to rant. Or maybe I just haven't cooked anything worth posting about and so I found it unnecessary to post. 

Anywhooodle, so prior to my online absence I actually cooked three Ina recipes in one day. I made her rapsberry tart, lemon tart, and scezhuan noodles with the addition of my own orange chicken creation. The noodles were good although the sauce definitely had too much peanut butter and not enough spice. I really loved what the seasoned rice vinegar and peanut butter did to the sauce. And the orange chicken looked so good and tasted surprisingly good too! Let me show a picture here: 

It's sitting on top of the noodles and it was delicious. I guess I could post my own recipes on here in case someone that stumbles upon my site actually wants to try it out. I'll perfect the sauce and write down the real measurements before i post it next time =]

Anywho, so while I made this dish I was also working on kneading dough for my tarts. It looked a little like this:

And the actual cooking looked more like this:

 This is the lemon curd which looked pretty revolting to start and never did actually set to that delicious consistency that makes you want to eat it. I think it's because an eggshell piece may have somehow made its way into the mix...who knows how that got in there... and below is a picture of my stovetop with more things than I could handle: a pot of nasty looking lemond curd, boiling noodles, a wok full of hot oil to deep fry the chicken with, oh and not pictured in the top right corner is the pan in which I stir fried carrots, onions, bell peppers and garlic.

The next picture is just the countertop with Ina's book and a knife that looks menacing than I meant for it to look. Haha.I'm shocked that I actually left the book on that messy countertop because I cannot stand to get stains on any of my books (the cookbook is still spotless, let's see how long that lasts, my old "new Home Cookbook" is still in pretty good condition although it has fallen victim to multiple dough stains and sugar spills.

So my hubby got home and helped me finish cooking off all of these things. For desert we stared at the nasty looking lemon curd (which I will attempt again soon...soon-ish), and then made the raspberry tart and kevin made himself a Nutella covered piece of tart because he hates raspberries (I don't get it either, but I humour him because I love him).

And how can I not love him? Look at the amazing french toast he made at some point over the two weeks. I was gone. During week one actually, when I was still in Boulder (I went back home for a week to visit my mom and family for her birthday. Sadly Kevin couldn't come with me so I missed him terribly but I had fun still).

Well enough for now, I'll just leave you with a banana bread that looked and tasted amazing and made me feel like it was quite possibly stuffed with love and hugs. That sounded so disturbing, but somehow it makes alot of sense to me and I hope it makes a lot of sense to you too. =] Kevin and I devoured it and we even covered it up in Nutella just to indulge our taste buds further. Yummy yum.

Weekend Bliss

So, despite how much I told myself that I would write in this blog every single day, I went the past two days without writing. I tried, but I just couldn't find the energy to keep myself away from enjoying the weekend away from my laptop. Go figure.


So recap on the cooking update in case that's all anyone really wants to read about ;) 
Uhm, well, I've planned several meals for this week to be purely Ina. It's been hard to keep my college studying habits away, I've had this ridiculous urge to color-code tab every page in her book based on when I plan on cooking it or what kind of dish it is. I mean they're already pre-organized, but I was going to tab them based on which week I'm going to do what. Oh! I'm really excited to try out her eggplant dip this week! I got the plumpest looking eggplant at the store today and I am super excited to see how it turns out. I am also making two of her tarts: a raspberry and a lemon curd tart. I can't wait! I told Kevin I'll start making her gooey-delicious deserts when I start working out (I haven't been able to work out the past two weeks because my knee has been bothering me and everyone who has had knee problems in the past told me to "STAY OFF OF IT!" so I am following their advice and staying off it for the most part, although I do some crunches and planks in my living room when my tummy starts telling me to quit being so lazy. Oh and I walked for an hour today with my husband =] ). Anywho, back to the real food news. Kevin and I will also be testing out her szechuan noodles, grilled lemon chicken, lemonade, french potato salad, and possibly one of her chowders. MmMMmM! I am not doing non-stop Ina because I don't wanna make us feel sick of her food (if that's even possible). Plus, we didn't feel like buying a whole new pantry stock. It's funny the things you take for granted at your parents' house, the fully stocked spices, the endless amounts of weird oils and vinegars, the nifty little weird herbs. So, being a brand new married couple, we have to take it a few steps at a time and buy stuff for a few recipes at a time rather than just run into our walk-in pantry. (By the way, our apartment is pretty small, so a walk-in pantry at this point would mean not having a bathroom. Haha.) So wish me luck this week with Ina's dishes and I will post pictures soon, although I know mine wont be as luxurious looking as hers, but we'll pretend just the same =].


Now, for my weekend in case you're still interested. 
Kevin and I went out on dates both Friday and Saturday. Let me just say, Friday was one of the absolute, most perfect days that I have had in a long time. It was all of the little things--they all just made sense and fit into place, one after another all day long--, and that hasn't happened to me in a long time. It was just one of those days where I couldn't stop smiling the entire day. Nothing extraordinary happened, no surprise bonuses or anything but the good old having-everything-go-your-way kind of day. Our date was a cheaterific meal, delicious asian food. We would have cooked, but I mean it was date night =]  after dinner, we stopped by Borders where I found some nifty books with ideas for handmade cards and paper craft ideas, so I of course got these to supplement my other plan at hand (more about this below). Then we watched a movie and called it a night. It was lovely. PS, go watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; it's ridiculously funny and geekily good.


Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast and went about our domestic chores. Then Kevin and i discussed more of our card collection ideas and I got overly excited and pretty much thought of nothing more than that project all day. It wasn't until about eight that night where I realized what time it was and Kevin suggested I put down the scissors and get ready to go out into downtown. the Boulder downtown is quite fun to walk around and browse. So we spent awhile in a bookstore (Oh the wonderful new book scent!) and then wandered in and out of shop windows. We discovered a new place for our fro-yo addiction and got to watch a little girl dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, as she sang and play her banjo. Street performers are starting young apparently. We actually overheard a lady comment on how the adorable little girl was "Cute, but I think her voice is soooo *gross face*" which just made me feel like that woman should have all of her uterine ova removed just to ensure the world that she won't procreate and then lower her kids self-esteem their whole life. Evil witchy lady. Anywho, so we ate our delicious honeydew and mango fro-yos, clapped at the little girl's performance until she realized it was her bedtime and packed up to leave, then we looked at the smokey little bars and wondered where all of the "cool kids" in hang out in Boulder. Our lack of friends is starting to slightly take a toll on us, but patience will help us find some real keepers I hope =] Haha. Anyways, so our night ended with a late-night food run to the grocery store where we wondered around looking at all the new Halloween decorations and kitchen supplies (of course, although don't get me wrong, it wasn't like kitchen utensil-connoisseur,  it was all cheap plastic stuff that no real home would probably have). We opted for a frozen pizza and some cold beverages ( ;) yup not for kids ). And that's how my lovely Saturday night ended. I love being a grown-up mid-newly wed era. 

As for today. Well today has involved a lot of card-making, concept creation, and discussing my card-idea with someone other than my husband. My mom. =] she was very supportive and it made me get more excited about making this that much more legitimate.  So hooray! I am really trying to continue full-steam ahead and make this project take off. I want to do it for them. The kids who will actually value my creations rather than toss them at just another birthday party or other  celebration. I am so excited! So yes. Besides grocery shopping and walking to the gym (then not going inside and instead stretching out my knee on the lawn while thinking and cell-phoning), I worked on my card project and thought about Ina's food. I was originally planning the grilled lemon chicken for tonight, but after our dinner-rush-mob visit to the grocery store, we got back to our place later than we had planned (the True Blood season finale was on and we don't have a dvr =[. And I am obsessed with Eric, well the whole show, but Eric especially. If you haven't watched the sow, just watch it, you'll understand that's it's not just another vampire sap story; rather it is a sexy, vampire porno-drama. Although as I typed that I realized that that may also not be up everyone's alley. Haha). So we rushed home and ate food so un-Ina that I wont even dare mention it (it may have involved a guacamole that was not from her cookbook...). 


Tomorrow I have an info session in CU Denver for their teaching program, so hopefully that will only add more exciting things to look forward to in my foody/crafty/dorky life. 


Oh and while I was at the grocery store today, I managed to knock down a whole rack of re-usable shopping bags at the check-out stand. Needless to say, the people around me (the store was crowded with the previously mentioned mob), stared and I'm pretty sure I heard several chuckles, although one of them was my husbands. Everyone was friendly chuckling though, like an "Oh that's so cute!" kind of chuckle. Or at least that's what I told myself.


<3 and goodnight! May tomorrow be filled with tasty things for your tummy and heart!

Sweet Tooth Restored

So for the second Thursday in a row, I had a cavity filled. Now, I haven't had a cavity since I was six years old, and other than getting my wisdom teeth removed when I was fifteen, I've had very little dental work (which is surprising since I eat sweets every day! and no I am not ridiculously overweight). So of course, I was terrified about getting these fillings, but my husband coached me through it and I made it through the fillings without crying. Plus my dentist is a huge dork like me so I am more than grateful to have picked a good one out of yellowpages.com haha. 

I've been finding most of my Boulder stops through yp.com the last three weeks. Oh the joys of being friendless in a new town. Surprisingly, not having any new friends hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I mean there are the few neighbors who I smile at and have introduced myself to, but other than those interactions I've relied on random people, mostly in customer service, with whom I have weird conversations and end up telling people unnecessary info., (much like this blog I guess).

Anywho, for the cooking update! Well, my sore mouth prevented me from any real fooding. I only ate a little bit of my gnocchi and salad tonight. It looked and smelled delicious but my jaw was just too sore and I felt like the food was stubbornly hiding in the left side of my mouth. Sheesh! My husband and I have planned a date for tomorrow night, so I think we'll go out for dinner, so I guess I will have to make something from Ina's book for lunch; something light and yummy. I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I am excited to go shopping for ingredients to initiate my Ina cooking after that. Well, at least I think i'll have an appointment in the morning, unless the fire makes it into town and they evacuate the area. I hadn't been very concerned about the fire, but now I am semi-seriously telling my husband that we are going to have to repack everything that we spent the past two weeks unpacking. Haha. Oh the joys of not having renter's insurance. Well, I am going to bed so that I can wake up bright and early tomorrow and get my day going. I also need to take and upload a new picture for this blog. 

----------Oh and on an unrelated to cooking note...-----------

I have a new focus for my card creations! I am going to make cards and send them to children's hospitals. I got inspired by my friend Jennifer Tran (who will soon be receiving a package full of my cutest greeting cards, but shh, she doesn't know that yet) who is a truly altruistic young lady who is in medschool and already makes kids smile with all of her efforts and sweet heart. Hopefully my cards will add to her visits to the children hospitals. Hooray!

Well my cavity-free teeth and I are excited for our brand new day of Ina-inspiration tomorrow, so bedtime! Goodnight and may tomorrow be lovely, about seventy-five degrees and a blue sky with a few, cotton-candy-ish looking clouds =] Oh and I hope you eat something delicious and new with someone you love, or at least while you're thinking about one of your fondest memories with someone/something you love.

Rainy Afternoon-- Feeling Breezy and Determined

Like during all of my moments of inspiration, the sun has managed to hide behind the mountains and the stars are lightly twinkling. I was a bit hesitant in starting a new blog at almost 11 at night, but I guess I haven't been able to completely shake off my undergrad habits just yet. But this time I'm not staying up late to cozy up with a stack of science notes--although that does sound quite good right about now, it's been a long summer--instead I am embarking on a weird new idea, sparked by my husband and our celebrity idol, the lovely Ina Garten. And I suppose my love for food and EATING are really the forerunners in my new quest. This is pretty much like the movie "Julie & Julia", but with a more modern inspiration and a much dorkier girl. I want to cook lots of new food, and I want to cook all of the food is lady Garten's cookbooks, starting from the very beginning. I've stared at her cookbooks glossy pages and bit my lip just thinking about how delicious and exciting it would be if I properly executed the dishes she makes on her shows. I've tried many of her recipes off of the Food Network website and now I am ready to just go ahead and focus on her cookbooks rather than choose recipes at random.

I love food. Well, I love most food, chicken and turkey being my prime victims in the kitchen, but also love red meats, our friends from the sea, and the rest of the world of poultry. I am not fond of olives, mushrooms, and salami, not by choice, but because my body just has a strong aversion every time I try to acquire a taste for them. Alas perhaps I just haven't found that one method that makes them tickle my taste buds; hopefully Ina's books will help me with this. 

Well, I will post my first attempt at her cooking as soon as I decide with which recipe I will inaugurate my kitchen adventures. Until then, I hope the rain keeps drizzling because I love the way it smells...