We ate what was described as "grass clippings."

While at Costco today to pick up various needed things, I decided meat was in order for dinner. I picked up some New York steaks (my personal favorite) and realized I could try and hack one of my favorite steak house sides, creamed spinach.

Late night dinner.

I know this won't seem like the kind of dinner you'll want to make when coming home late, but after my last two shifts at work, some tasty, comforting food was truly in order.

So in the last hour of my work shift last night, I was checking Facebook. I am friends with Smitten Kitchen and there was her most recent update, Dijon Chicken. It sounded like exactly what my husband and I both needed for dinner. Trouble was, I only had frozen solid chicken. A trip to the store would be in order.

I booked it out of work and hit the Trader Joe's very near by for some chicken. I intended on skipping the butchering of my own whole chicken tonight, however, the price of the whole chicken wooed me in. Saving money beat my laziness out.

Purchases made, I headed home. I de-worked myself, got my comfy pants and slippers on, and got to it.

Oven preheated and potatoes go in.

Something a little different.

We like Chinese food. Chinese food however isn't often the best choice for healthy eating, at least if you go to say, Panda Express. I have nothing against the Panda, in fact I'd kill for their orange chicken. But, in the interest of continuing our pattern of healthier eating, I will skip killing someone and try some Chinese meatballs.

Just beets.

You know it's a good basalmic when it
 comes to you corked.

As I have gotten older, been on my own, furthered my cooking abilities and skills, I've found myself going back to foods I once considered yucky.

Yes, that's a very mature word I used there. Yucky. I will be 32 in a few months and I still find the word appropriate in many circumstances.

Take beets for example. They weren't something my mom cooked much at home when I was younger, so my run ins with them involved cold, slimy specimens at salad bars. In that state of existence they taste like cold, oddly textured dirt. Not very appetizing. I'd skip over them and their staining capabilities for something safer like blueberry muffins.

Now though, at a much more mature age, I've found (via my CSA) that beets aren't always yucky. Fresh and prepared in a different way, beets can be sweet and not taste like a mouthful of dirt.

Broccoli Cheese Soup.

I've had a lot of broccoli in the house as of late. It's been coming in my CSA box, it's been coming out of my garden. It's been delicious, I've discovered steamed with a bit of lemon juice on it is yummy. Thing is, I picked up my box last night and had more broccoli to add to last weeks broccoli we still had.

Time for soup!

I like to think I am better than Rachael Ray.

Periodically, when I sit down to write up a blog, I truly have little to no idea of what to say about it. Not even a title, which sometimes is the hardest part.

This is one of those nights.

I too, have kitchen fails.

Hello Miso.

When I planned out our meals for this week, I found a recipe that got me excited. It read like a take on fried rice with miso as a main ingredient. Awesome, I love fried  rice and I love miso. Use it as a chicken marinade? Why not!

I picked up miso paste (why I hadn't before now I don't know) and eagerly looked forward to Thursday when I'd be whipping this up for dinner.

Picture Wednesday.

Breakfast: Oatmeal, diced apple, cinnamon, small squeeze of agave and a *splash* of half and half. Nothing wrong with a little fat.

Lamb dinner for 2.

Need a special meal for a special someone? Would you like to not feel like a blimp afterwards? Me too.

Good thing I found this recipe.

One last Christmas related sort of posts.

This is a bragging sort of post, partly because the gift was so well received and also partly because I managed to have it together enough this year to finally follow through on something I wanted to do when I put my first garden in and started canning.

This year, under the tree, were 7 matching, bright red bags, tied with raffia with tags gifting them to our family. In the bags were the fruits of my labors, a combo of home grown and purchased fruits and vegetables canned by me, tagged by my husband, and put into the bags by the both of us.

Slowly easing back into normal life.

Today was my first days in a few weeks where I wasn't cooking for the holidays, entertaining family for the holidays, traveling for the holidays, eating for the holidays or otherwise dealing with the holidays. Despite the fact my Christmas decorations need to be on their way into boxes for storage until next winter and that my house could use a good straightening up and linens and what not washed from house guests; I took today to sit on my butt, on the couch, with my laptop, my TV and my kittens.

It was nice to do nothing.

Days of Christmas: A final sparkling addition

One last recipe from Christmas and then I think I am done. Whenever I start looking at recipes for anything, I tend to hunt down ones with lemon in them. I have a lemon tree in the back that 9 months out of the year is just kicking out tons of lemons. Meyer lemons to boot.

And I love it. I love the taste of lemons in food, sweets especially. I am the one who like the sweet and sour candy. These cookies aren't anywhere near a sweet and sour sort of taste; they have a light texture with a yummy lemon taste.