Getting Back to My Roots

Today was a long day. I feel like I barely had a moment to myself. It doesn't help that I'm bummed about my camera. I sent it out to Canon today because there was nothing I could do to fix it. I tried cleaning it out (no dust Natalie), rubbing the contacts with an eraser, cleaning the contacts with Alex's glasses cloth, rotating the lens, and who knows what else. All I can do is hope that they fix it and get it back to me sooner rather than later.

To cheer myself up I'm thinking about Colombian food. I recently discovered that our local supermarket sells Colombian chorizo (sausage). This is huge because the closest good Colombian bakery is at least a 20 min drive and I try to avoid driving in Miami at all costs (not easily done, by the way). I've been wanting to learn how to cook more authentic Colombian and Cuban foods and eating this chorizo has inspired me. Are you guys familiar with Colombian or Cuban food? Anything you'd be interested in seeing?

Packaging

Raw

Done

Delicious!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! We had a lot of fun celebrating with our new grill! I never really "got" grilling but now that we have a grill I love it. It not only gives us variety in meals but it also makes Alex the one responsible for dinner. Plus, meals are so much quicker to prepare when done on the grill.

How cute was Cati on her first Independence Day?? I'm proud to say that I made her bow :)

Thanksgiving Recap

Have you had enough Thanksgiving food? With the exception of breakfast and two lunches all I have eaten since Wednesday is Thanksgiving food. I'm not sick of the food yet but I am happy to report that all the leftovers are a meal or two away from being gone. I can't get over the amount of turkey I have eaten. I have eaten from THREE different turkeys. I do not eat turkey at all during the rest of the year so I definitely overdo it with the turkey during Thanksgiving.

Our Turkey Day Marathon started off on Wednesday with a dinner at Alex's parent's house. They decided to celebrate it early since Alex was on call Thursday. Funny thing about Alex being on call...you have no idea how disappointed I was when I found out he'd be on call on Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday of the year and this is the second year that we don't get to spend the actual holiday together. Last year I spent Thanksgiving alone in Boston because Alex was down here in Miami trying to impress his future potential employer. This year, that potential employer is his employer and made him work Thanksgiving. So dinner with his parents was a day early. There was a ton of food and the most interesting dish was my mother-in-law's sweet potatoes. I'm used to the traditional sweet potato mixed with brown sugar, but she mixed things up and added pineapple juice to the sweet potato. This made the Thanksgiving feel very Floridian.

Bacon wrapped turkey.

The spread. My dish.

Turkey Day Marathon continued on Thursday with a dinner at my mom's house. The day completely sucked because Alex was working and I couldn't tell if I was feeling extra sensitive to this because I'm pregnant. At least I got to see my brother, hang with my sister, and get a ton of my baby books and pictures. It's nice to see how my mom hasn't changed how she does Thanksgiving dinner. There's comfort in finding the same dishes year after year.

The turkey.

The spread. My dish.

Last but not least was the turkey dinner I made on Friday. I felt very strongly about us having a dinner for just the two of us. We have so much to be thankful for and it was really important to me that we got to reflect on how blessed our lives together are. Plus, I was excited about our first turkey dinner in the new house. I didn't get too many pictures of what I made because Alex hadn't eaten anything in close to 20 hours and I didn't want to make him wait while I took pictures.

The turkey.

Partial spread. My dish.

The most interesting "trend" this year was bagging the turkey. Both my in-laws and mom roasted the turkey in a bag. Neither have ever done this and it caught me off guard when I saw the birds come out of the oven in a bag. Both swore the turkey was juicier than normal, but I think my regular roasted turkey was just as juicy. Or maybe I'm just biased.

And now, because one of the things I am thankful for the most is the expansion my love for Alex and of our family I leave you with this picture. I secretly hope our daughter is as cute and happy as I was as a child.

Today, I Crave.

A buffalo burger. We went into B-Good for the first time this weekend looking for a quick lunch. They specialize in burgers and sandwiches and have some of the best baked fries I have ever had. I ordered a buffalo burger and it was delicious. It was oozing with hot sauce and blue cheese.

Obsession of the Week

This weekend we went back to one of our favorite wings places, Wings Over Brookline. I discovered this place close to 2 years ago thanks to my friend Edgar who was a Wings fan since his days at UMass-Amherst. We've had wings at a few places throughout the city and none compare to these. These wings are succulent, juicy, and spicy! They have a huge selection of flavors, but my favorite is the Red Alert buffalo flavor.


Wings Over Brookline is located at 477 Harvard Street in Brookline, MA.

Obsession of the Week

My absolute favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Alex always says that he loves to watch me eat breakfast because of how much I eat. He gets amazed that I am able to eat as much as I do. What can I say? I love breakfast! And I especially love how Mike's Diner does breakfast. They are my absolute favorite place to go to breakfast. They have that diner feel with quick service and great meals. I am obsessed with them and like a good obsessive person I introduced my obsession to my friend Edgar. I am happy to report that he liked them too!

When we went we both had the Emergency Room. This lovely meal comes with two pancakes, two eggs, a meat (ham, bacon, or sausage) and home fries. The pancakes are the best I have ever had and are super buttery.
The first time I ever had home fries was at Mike's and now all home fries compare to these suckers.
Hello, my name is Stephanie and I am obsessed with Mike's Diner. Can you blame me though??

Another Day, Another Beer

I am taking this beer drinking stuff very seriously. I'm even starting to wonder if there are beer tasting classes, just like there are wine tasting classes. I already know a little about how beers are made but I' like to refine my palette. It's amazing how many different beers there are out there. As we both knew, Alex didn't like his Christmas Ale. He just doesn't like beer and I don't think it's something he'll ever like. I thought the beer was pretty good. The best way to describe the beer is to imagine chewing on pine needles and adding regular beer to it. The bottle was so cool too; definitely very Scrooge-like.

I think Scrooge needs a drink to lighten up :)

Something to Miss: Miami Fast Food

I love Miami. I'm sure I have expressed my love for the city a million times but you just can't help but love a city that sells a dish like this at a fast food place:

Grilled chicken, rice, black beans, and a dinner roll courtesy of Pollo Tropical.

Knaus Berry Farm

Yesterday we took a trip out to Homestead to the so-called Amish. Almost everyone in Miami knows about the Amish, their farm, and their amazing cinnamon rolls and strawberry shakes. The one thing they don't know, however, is that they aren't Amish at all. Apparently, they are a sect of German Baptists. Regardless of who they are, whether it be what people think they are or what they really are, there is no denying that they make the most delicious sticky cinnamon rolls I have ever had in my life. If there is one sweet that I could eat everyday, I think this would be it...they are seriously addictive! Alex loved their strawberry shake because it tasted just like a ripe strawberry freshly picked from the fields.

This website has some great info and pictures of Knaus Berry Farm.

All the veggies

Strawberry Shake


Addiction


This thing was massive


Directions, in case you were interested :)

Bubble Gum Dreams

One of my favorite childhood memories is eating bubble gum ice cream. I used to eat it all the time as a little girl in Chicago and I remember missing it when we first moved to Florida. It took me several years to discover a place that sold bubble gum ice cream, but when I did I was ecstatic. Swensen's bubble gum ice cream took me back to Chicago and it made my world just a little bit brighter. I had to beg Alex to take me to Swensen's because he finds my obsession with bubble gum ice cream a little weird. This ice cream is amazing and it tastes just like gum balls. One day, when I'm not feeling lazy, I will actually make this ice cream (check out this great looking recipe).

Heaven on Ice

I wish I could take the whole thing home.

It's Turkey Day!

I love this holiday. I love how my apartment gets filled with all the delicious scents of traditional Thanksgiving food. I love how I get to spend the day thinking about everything I should be thankful for, including my husband, dog, family, friends, and life in general. This Thanksgiving has been different from past Thanksgivings because this is the first time I have spent the holiday alone. Well, not completely alone because I have been playing Bond movies all day, but he doesn't really count since he didn't eat any of the food I made. I now have enough leftovers to probably last for the next week which is perfect because I'm sure cooking will be the last thing on my mind while I'm studying for my five tests.

This year I made a turkey breast, cream cheese mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cornbread (recipe here), cheddar biscuits (recipe here), and the Santa Pie for dessert.

I hope everyone else had a fabulous holiday and got to enjoy the company of their loved ones :)

Baked Turkey: It preferred to be on its side

Definitely done.


Most of the spread.


Single serving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day Preview

I did my turkey day shopping yesterday and I am so pumped! Even though I am celebrating Thanksgiving on my own this year, I can't let tradition slide especially when Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. The smallest turkey breast I could find was 7lbs so I will be eating turkey for the next week...yay! I love Thanksgiving leftovers. I'm a cheater when it comes to stuffing because stuffing isn't high on my favorite Thanksgiving foods list, but I still can't picture my meal without stuffing. I'm still trying to think of a dessert with my meal since I like to try a new dessert each year with my meal. Last year I made oreo truffles and cinnamon rolls, the year before that I made fruit ambrosia and banana bread, and the year before that I made cinnamon bread. I love having to make these kinds of decisions!

Basic Turkey Day Menu
-Turkey
-Gravy
-Mashed Potatoes
-Sweet Potatoes
-Cornbread
-Stuffing
-Cheddar biscuits
-Dessert??

To Eat and Eat Some More

What is the best part of vacationing? Eating! And not just eating like you do on a regular basis, but eating like you will never see food again. I have a theory that a person's stomach expands when they are on vacation. How else can you explain the constant hunger and the multiple trips to the buffet? No where else is this more apparent than on a cruise. We recently got back from a family vacation that took place on a cruise and I was amazed the whole time because of how much everyone ate. It was like our stomachs were bottomless pits that were never fully satiated. The cruise had an incredible amount of food and the buffets had an assortment goods. But on this cruise, it was the restaurants that really had me impressed. The presentation of the food was great and I liked how they used Cooking Light recipes to create a menu that was not only delicious, but also healthy. Here's a snippet of some of the dishes we ate (and drank) aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's Spirit:

Apple Pie


Veal Wellington with Fresh Vegetables


Shrimp Risotto


Chocolate Mousse in a Chocolate Cup


Cosmopolitan Martini


Salmon and Crab Legs


Creme Brulee


Crab Cake with a Spicy Guacamole Sauce


Lobster and Mashed Potatoes


Tiramisu


Ricotta Cheesecake with a Strawberry Sauce


Veal Scallopini