new hair

sleepy eyes

Here comes Julia

The OC

Somehow last year we started another weekly meal tradition: pizza and The OC on Wednesday night. Sometimes others join us, sometimes it's just the 2 of us. Well, The OC is moving to Thursdays so pizza night will move too. Tonight we watched the "preseason" OC teaser and enjoyed good ole pizza.

Yesterday we made a special trip to Fraboni's, a local Italian market/ deli, to pick up sausage, cheese, and Justin's favorite pizza sauce. (We also got last night's potato salad there). We used the usual Boboli crust, topped with sauce, fresh garlic, cheese, red onion, Italian sausage, and olives (the left-overs from Tuesday).

I'm off to California tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to take some snap shots of the food we girls munch on this weekend to add to next week's blog.

The finished pie

Picking basil leaves from our "vertical garden"

Chopping garlic

Picnic Point

I know that there are very few days of warm weather left, at least here in Madison, so Justin and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful evening. We took our first trip out to Picnic Point for a picnic dinner. I was thinking finger food that tastes good "room temperature" and logically thought of fried chicken. So that's what we had . . . Fried chicken breasts and corn salad.

Since I was using skinless chicken breast I wanted to crunch them up a bit so I loosely followed a crispy fried chicken recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Dredge, dip in egg and milk mixture, Dredge again, then fry - it turned out much better than the last time I attempted fried chicken. And of course the corn salad - I got this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa . . . cooked corn cut off the cob, red onion, fresh chopped basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil and cider vinegar for a simple dressing. I love this salad. It's so easy and light and I think the flavors are great. And I don't think it hurt that I was able to get the corn fresh at a farmers' market on the way to the court house. Justin and I also bought some potato salad from a deli, but we forgot it at home and when we tried it later it wasn't that great anyhow. I think I'm giving up on store bought potato salad.

Anyhow - the lake and the view beyond were great. The weather was perfect.

Now, I look superimposed.

Justin looking superimposed.

View from the Point.

Looking silly.

Off to a picnic at Picnic Point.

Fried Chicken and Corn Salad.

Steamy Paige.

Taco Tuesday

As I write the initial entry I feel it is my duty to explain the premise or at least the original premise for this blog. I enjoy cooking, however some of my favorite cooks live thousands of miles away. This blog will hopefully serve as a way for us to share our latest discoveries in the kitchen and as a food diary of sorts.

Tonight's dinner was a Tuesday favorite: tostadas and Justin's favorite Uncle Ben's Mexican Rice. Chicken seems to make up a large portion of our diet so I tried to stray from that tonight and we had ground turkey tostadas with some of our favorite toppings. The turkey I had cooked and frozen previously so it was a quick reheat. On top of the fried (yes, fried) tortilla was refried beans, cheese (pepper jack and cheddar), delicious salsa, avocado, lettuce, sour cream (fat free), and of course turkey meat. A particularly special topping was the little red pepper we harvested from our garden and cooked up with some onions, olive oil and spicies.

Other than the pepper the dinner was pretty standard Tuesday fare (+ wine), but it was tasty and filling.

Tomorrow Justin and I are planning to have a picnic dinner - we'll see what exactly that entails...

Justin shredding some of Wisconsin's very finest.

Dinner is served.

I am full and sleepy.