it was delicious

There was a big home sale at work last week so I finally got a proper set of pots and pans.  To celebrate I made my classic chicken with vegetables and pasta, just super fancy.

The core of my recipe started a long time ago in my college days and was pretty simple back then.  I've experimented with different ingredients and prep methods ever since and have it down to a pretty good routine.  This time though I pulled out all the stops.  I'm talking, deglazing the pan and making sauce kind of fancy.

The best part of waiting until tonight to write this post is that it just got me super excited for leftovers.  I'm reluctantly using the microwave to reheat my dinner, I kind of want to break out the new cookware.  Maybe I'll try a new recipe for my next meal.

Suggestions appreciated.

I want this right now

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Meghan's FIANCE Sam was at the Today show this morning assisting one of his chefs from Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria.

That looks really amazing and I love how interested the ladies are when they come on at the end, they can't take their eyes off of him.

I can't take my eyes off that pasta.  Me want now please, thank you.

a tribute to food on a stick

I don't know why but yesterday I decided I needed to make a meal of things on sticks.  To be honest I had envisioned a dessert course as well but became overwhelmed by the grocery story very quickly.

However, I still managed to pull of an entree of fruit on sticks as seen above, followed by a main course of veggies and steak on a stick:

I did not make this meal alone, I had a lot of help from Scott.  We had a discussion that ended unresolved about who was who's sous chef.  Let's just say we worked together, and the result was delicious.

It really wasn't very hard either, I basically worked on the idea of, 'if you can jab a stick through it, do it'.

My idea for dessert was going to be like strawberries, marshmallows, and chocolate pieces or something.  I don't know, I didn't want to think about it yesterday and I still don't want to today.  I think a food on a stick meal may be best left as a two course affair.

dinner for 3

Meghan invited Craig and I over for the delicious dinner shown above. Parsley and tomato with a tahini dressing for the salad and a torte for the main course which had layers of potatoes, zucchini, squash, and delicious cheesy herby crumblies.

The best part was that Meghan had special jobs for each of us to do. My jobs were usually taken away from me because I couldn't quite grasp what it was I was supposed to do. I would just get too excited about something else and stop paying attention to what I was doing. That's how I cook, maybe it's not "technically" the best way to do it but I make it work.

Anyways, while waiting for food to be ready we had lots of fun activities to enjoy including Meghan regaling us with tales of the murderous squirrel that she scares away by banging spoons on her fire escape, or exploring the creepy haunted apt next door. We played scrabble and both of them ended up muttering curse words at me under my breath. I don't know why.

The final dish was the berry bars as seen below. I just finished my last one this morning, it was even better several days later after the berry goodness had solidified. But fresh out of the oven was pretty good too.
I love dinner parties at meghans, I will miss them. Maybe i'll just fly back weekly...