Blog o Pics

So I have some pics to update you with!

I made the White Pizza last week, as promised. It was incredible. I served it with our favorite asparagus, and it was quite the delicious meal.


Our garden has gotten so much bigger since last time. Check it out now!


Say hi to those pretty little radishes popping up! Super excited about those. (Oh yeah, and hi to Chad's Blackberry. Who needs to keep their phone out while gardening?!)


And check out our beautiful plants that are growing - some hydrangeas and mini gardenia:



Here is Chad's new black snake friend that lives in a tree in our backyard. He took like 90509345 pictures of it. He's hard to spot but you can catch his little eye in the middle of the picture and find him from there.

And - of course- some pictures from this weekend's wedding in beautiful Charleston, SC!

A group of my girlfriends from college with the beautiful bride, Sarah.
And me and my bestie Kel, with our men.

A Southern Staple

I am a huge- HUGE- fan of grits. I could (and sometimes do) eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

First thing to know about cooking grits: Please only buy Old Fashioned Grits... not instant grits or quick grits. They aren't nearly as creamy and good. Making Old Fashioned Grits only takes about 15 minutes, so it's not like the instant kind is saving you that much time.

My old-standard variation of grits (perfect for breakfast):
Grits
Butter
Sharp Cheddar (white or reg)
A couple slices of Kraft Singles (don't hate... the processed cheese helps it get much creamier)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt

Follow the directions on the box of grits. When it's close to being done, add the butter and cheeses. Then season to taste. The worst thing you can do to grits is leave them undersalted.

I think what I like most about grits is the ability to customize them. Sometimes, when I'm feeling so inclined, I replace a bit of the water with milk, cream or half and half - or some combination of the above - to make even creamier grits. Or, if you're serving grits for dinner (as like a side accompaniment to meat), I substitute water with chicken stock. Just makes it a bit richer.

And while I love grits as a side dish, they can also steal the show. Shrimp in grits is one of my favorite meals to eat. Such a favorite, in fact, that they were even served at our wedding. I've gone to many a wedding with so-so shrimp and grits, so I made sure to test them at the country club before they were put on the menu. And they were fabulous.

But the great thing about shrimp & grits is every version is different. Here are two of my favorite versions.

The Point (restaurant in Raleigh) Shrimp & Grits <--- served with a Tabasco butter sauce. This recipe looks similar (except please don't use quick grits).


Crook's Corner (legendary restaurant in Chapel Hill) <--- Chad's favorite version. It's lemony, which is different from any other version I've had and amazingly delish. Recipe here.

Lucky for me, I'm heading to the holy grail of shrimp and grits this weekend - Charleston, South Carolina...one of my favorite places on earth. We're going for a dear friends wedding on Sunday, but make no mistake - shrimp and grits will be consumed more than once!Saturday night we're having dinner at one of Chad's favorite places - Fleet Landing - which boasts itself as the only restaurant downtown with a waterfront view. Last time we spent 5 days in Charleston, I'm pretty sure Chad ordered She Crab soup at ever place we visited - lunch and dinner. Fleet Landing's blew the rest of the competition away. However, he has yet to try it at 82 Queen or Poogan's Porch - so I'm hoping to drag him to one of those places for lunch on Sunday... except it will be hard to pull him away from Jestine's!

Pizza pie

Sorry I've been slow to blog this week. I've been super busy at work - and it's not slowing down anytime soon!

We had a great weekend. My dear friend Amy - of LFBP - got married on Saturday. She was an absolutely gorgeous bride. The fact that we could see her smiling with her back toward us from the alter should give you an idea of the happiness that was her and Ray's wedding day. They both looked so happy, in love and relaxed - which is exactly what your wedding day should be. I'm glad we got to be there for it!

On Sunday, for Mother's Day, my siblings and I decided to do homemade pizzas for dinner. I bought all the dough from Trader Joe's (it really is the best), and we all brought different toppings.

Brad's pie was with tomato, ricotta, mozzarella, basil and prosciutto on an garlic olive oil base.

Mike's pie was sauteed prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, sundried tomato, artichokes and arugula.

My pie was also a garlic olive oil base with zucchini, kalamata olives, tomatoes, roasted garlic, spinach, feta, sharp white cheddar and parmasean.

All three were yummy, yummy, yummy. Homemade pizza is so easy to make - and can be really cheap depending on your toppings. We bought all the veggies for my pie at the local Farmer's market.

So I'm continuing my pizza making and trying Serious Eat's White Pizza on Thursday night. I looooove white pizza - it is normally what I order when out at a pizza-by-the-slice place. I never realized white pizza had a sauce - I just figured it was an olive oil base. But this recipe calls for a sauce of oil, cream, garlic, onion and thyme. I'm super excited to give it a try. Will post pics and reviews later.

{{pic via @seriouseats}}

Handy Husband

So I'll start out by saying I'm a darn lucky woman.

Chad's current work schedule allows him to take every other Friday off - and every Friday off during the summer. I get jealous even thinking about it. I hate having to drag my butt up to work on Friday mornings with Chad getting to spend the day at home - nevermind that it's not like he sleeps in much later, and usually spends the whole day doing errands, cleaning, etc. Yes ladies, my husband does errands and cleans. Like I said, I'm lucky.

Well this morning, I get up and get in the shower... and Chad gets up and goes into the kitchen to make me coffee and a hot breakfast. Not only that, as I'm leaving, he's bringing a load of laundry to the laundry room - and is getting ready to clean the bathrooms. Lucky, right? Sometimes I need to pinch myself!

But anyway, this post didn't start out to be about how great Chad is - it was intended to be something else.

About this, in fact:
A couple years ago a commercial came on and I see this cartoon character that looks EXACTLY like Chad (if he were to be cartoonized).
Come to find out his name is Handy Manny. Do any of you know Handy Manny? You know, the one with the talking tools?

I swear he looks just like Chad. They even make the same expressions...

This is Chad with our "niece" Annie. She was like eight weeks old in this picture. Next month she turns 1. Where does time go!?"


This is Handy Manny:
So Handy Manny is now one of Chad's nicknames. And when I saw our little cousins over Christmas, I asked them if they knew who Handy Manny was... and if they thought he looked like anyone... eh hem, Chad... in particular. Of course they burst into giggles and spend the rest of the day running up to Chad taunting "Handy Manny, Handy Manny, Handy Manny..." Yep, he loved me for that one. ;)

So anyway, my little Handy Manny is about to start building us a kitchen table. I've been wanting a farmhouse style table with a bench for some time now. Luckily, our friends informed Chad about knock-offwood.com - a site where this woman goes to different furniture stores and deconstructs the plans to build them yourself.

So we're going to build this Farmhouse Salvaged Wood Table like this one at Restoration Hardware - which of course retails for $2,725...for just the table:



Though we'll probably do what the knock-off wood lady did and stain ours a darker color - like this:


This will be quite an undertaking - but it will be a fun project to do together!

Holy Guacamole!

In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, it's only fair that I share with the masses my guacamole recipe. I know some of you are fussy about wanting measurements, so I'll try to oblige. But seriously, just eyeball it. Like I always say, cooking isn't brain surgery people. And in this case - it's not really cooking either. It's just preparing.

So without further adieu...

MPLT's Pretty Little Guacamole


Ingredients:

- 3 Hass avocadoes, sliced and cut into medium sized chunks
- 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
- 1/2 cup small diced roma tomatoes
- Juice of 1 juicy lime. There is nothing worse that squeezing a lime and getting like 2 drops of juice. Just me?
- Zest of 1/2 the lime
- 1 jalepeno, seeded and diced. I usually leave a few seeds in. I'm wild.
- If I have it, sometimes I'll pour just a teeny tiny bit of salsa verde in there. Like 1/4 cup maybe. I love tomatillos!
- Small drizzle of olive oil
- Big handful (like half the bunch) of chopped cilantro - there is no such thing as good cilantro-less guacamole.
*Sidenote: I learned recently that there is a genetic aversion some people have to cilantro. To them cilantro tastes like soap. I thought this was crazy until I mentioned it to a girlfriend on Friday (who said she doesn't like cilantro) - and she said "Oh my gosh! Exactly right. It does taste like soap." Us normal cilantro lovers can't even imagine how it could possibly taste like soap - but its a genetics thing. Crazy right? I thank God He blessed me with the "I heart cilantro" gene. I put it in everything.

Directions:

1. Smoosh (yes that's a technical term) all ingredients together and then do a happy dance.

Important things of note:

1. Fresh guacamole does not taste anything like what you get at cheapy Mexican restaurants. It's a billion times better and more flavorful.

2. Right when you cut your avocado up, squeeze fresh lime juice over it. The acid will keep it from turning your avocado brown - which is not so yummy.

3. I learned this neat trick the other day and it actually works! Do you know how when you buy cilantro from the g-store, and stick in the fridge in your little plastic bag, how it gets all slimy and gross within a day? Well next time you buy it, trim the stem by like 1/2 inch, and put it in a cup that has about an inch of water in it. Then cover it loosely with plastic wrap - 1 put a ziploc bag over mine. No joke - my cilantro lasted for more than a week. That little tip right there is reason enough to tell 5 of your nearest and dearest to check out my blog. You're welcome.

4. Never, repeat, NEVER buy "guacamole" from the grocery store. Ew. Gross.

5. And if you're going crazy and making delish homemade guac, feel free to make your own tortilla chips! Cut up some corn tortillas into wedges and fry them on the stovetop in a pan of veggie oil. Lay on papertowels to drain.

Ole!

Kevinsgiving

So my sweetest little baby brother turns 21 today. Kev is my buddy. I love that kid a bunch. Maybe too much.

Chad tells me that I worry too much about Kevin. I tell him, "I can't help it, he's my baby!" To which Chad responds: "Um, negative ghost rider. He's your mom's baby." But whatever. He's my baby brother. The youngest of the 3 boys in my family. Though he's got a good 4 inches on all the rest of 'em.

You big sisters know what I'm talking. There is a special bond you have with your youngest brother.

Kev and I are also the most outspoken of the siblings - so we get into quite often.

But he knows that I love him dearly, and I know the same.

Kevin loves to celebrate his birthday though - and for the past 6 months, has talked about "Kevinsgiving" - which is his birthday celebration. There is a lot to celebrate about Kev.

He's smart. Doing great in school. Has a sweet girlfriend. Is hilarious and fun.

And he has great hair.

His senior prom - hair a little on the longish side:

Holy hair! I'm hoping (for his sake) there was a shadow involved:

Trimmed down, a little more presentable:

Gah he's tall:

Looking more grown up:

And so handsome:

So happy birthday, buddy! You ARE the favorite.

Brie + Onion + Flatbread = Goodness

So for Sunday supper, I decided to go ahead and make Cookin' Cannuck's Brie Cheese & Caramelized Onion Whole Wheat Flatbread.

It changed my life.

Here's the first one:

Round two looked even better:

And my messy, messy kitchen - just as I like it! (And say "hi" to MPLT's pretty little Mama... that woman knows her way around a kitchen!)

So a few things of note:

1) I need to learn to read through the whole recipe before I begin cooking. I always skim it, and then just get started. Not always the best idea. I assumed this flatbread would only take about 30 mins from start to finish. Not true. I think I spent 45 minutes simply sauteeing the onion. Oh, but was it worth it.

2) I cheated and instead of making my own whole wheat dough - c'mon guys, I was busy this weekend - I bought a couple packages of Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough (the fresh kind they sell in little bags near the veggie section.) It was delish.

3) Since the onions themselves get pretty sweet, I was a little more liberal in the use of kosher salt. I made sure to spread the olive oil over the rolled out dough to the edges, and added a little extra salt on the "crust" part of the flatbread. Sweet and salty is the best combo.

4) For next time: I didn't have any cornmeal in my kitchen, so I was forced to do without - but next time I make this (and there will be a next time) - I'm going to add some cornmeal to the top of my pizza stone before putting on the dough. I think that little added crunch to the bottom of the flatbread would have made it even better!

But all in all, it was a crowd pleaser. The words: "Best pizza I've ever had" came out of more than one mouth. I'll take it.