our sweet reception

check out this spread! our friends brent, maggie, and their son, griffin, threw us a kick-ass reception to celebrate our marraige with all our school friends and these are some of the pictures. everyone was asked to bring an appetizer and we had everything from hummus to stuffed endive, mcdonald's cheese burgers and nuggets to chinese takeout, cookies to coconut cream pie and pretty much everything inbetween including jewish cookies (homintoshin or something...) it was delish!

but that wasn't all! my bf at school, alli, sewed me this amazingly beautiful apron! apparently it's made from pieces of kimonos and some fancy fabric as well as sweet buttons and an aplique from key west. i think it's georgous and it found a home in my kitchen first thing the next morning so that even when i'm not wearing it i can still appreciate it and can show off to everyone what a cool, talented friend i have.

then, of course, there was a cake. and not just any cake! an amazing and delicious cake with REAL buttercream frosting! this was like no other cake i've ever eaten and it was a yummy surprise. the middle layer, instead of frosting (of which there was a delicious abundance on the outside) was filled with a creamy, sweet, yogurty-custardy stuff with all kinds of fruit mixed in; blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, and even grapes! it was so good! tom and i really enjoyed it and apparently a lot of other people did too, since we made it home with less than half of the cake!

we were also nice enough not to smash the cake in each others' faces; it tasted too good to waste on silly antics! brent started off with some nice words followed by beau, the only person who witnessed our wedding, who gave a nice toast of sorts and then tom and i said a bit and then CAKE! it was delish!

so thanks to all our friends! i'd also like to specifically thank people for our wedding gifts, many of which we've already put to delicious use... brent, maggie and griffen threw the great party, albin and erin sent a wine decanter, karen gave us beautiful wine glasses, samir, ben and caroline got us a reversible double grill for the stove, mike and jeanne gave us a big set of baking pans and springform pans, alli made my apron, possum gave us manly grill utensils and a meat tenderizer, jim and kate got us some insulated cappuccino cups, fitz and lindsey got us gift cards, jimmy and mary kate gave us a food dehydrator, stephan gave us baking sheets, measuring cup, and salad hands, and beau funded our original reception. thanks everyone! and keep eating...

mountain O cookies

we cheated with these cookies but they were so tasty that who cares? brent and maggie were throwing us a reception and we wanted to bring something sweet and munchey but were too tired on friday afternoon to actually cook anything so we went to the store and bought those pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough rolls in sugar and chocolate chip. sugar cookies are boring so we also got some pnut butter chips and mixed about 1/2c of chunky pnut butter into the dough too. so we had tiny, one-bite yummie morsels that were the perfect size for popping into one's mouth. and so good! we actually had fun making them too. and we used our NEW non-stick cookie sheets and cooling rack which were a wedding gift from our friend stephan and his wife. and our cookies were a hit! in a pinch you should try this as a fast and delicious dessert or snack and the mix-in possibilities are pretty much endless! keep eating...

most amazing find! SPORKS!!!

so maybe you know this or maybe you don't but i have been on a quest for the past 5 or 6 years that has been completely fruitless. until now, that is! since before i graduated college i have been trying to find metal sporks that look nice enough to use with my everyday flatware. it has been depressing and lots of hard disappointing work. every few months i'd search google for "buy metal sporks" in every way you can imagine saying that. but it always came up short. i could buy big cases of plastic sporks like they have at taco bell or i could get titanium ones that are used for backpacking (which i bought for tom's and my outdoor eating adventures) but never a nice metal spork.

and then it happened. i got a hit that was actually promising! i found a web site that sells medical supplies that carried metal sporks in 6" and 7" lengths! they were sold individually and looked beautiful on the website pictures. so i ordered six of the 7" to go with my ikea flatware which is beautiful and very plain stainless steel. and then the sporks arrived in the most humongous, obnoxious box ever! it was monsterous! but that's fine because it contained my sporks! they're beautiful! i totally love them. they are everything i had always dreamed of finding and they match my ikeaware perfectly. they are the best things ever! there are so many foods perfect for spork usage; think stews, curries, stoups, and all other things liquid and chuncky at the same time. they're a godsend! where have they been all my life? who cares; now i've got a whole set!

the company is AllegroMedical.com and the item is SP1056 Spork - Stainless Steel - Size 7". they had fantastic customer service (i had an issue that was promptly taken care of without any extra hassle on my end) and the order shipped really fast. if nothing else these would make a really cool gift for the person-who-has-everything. they're like $8 a piece and i think i paid about $10 for shipping. highly recommended!!! keep eating...

pork picadillo 10/10!

so here it is again; another fantastic recipe from martha's kitchen. this comes from the june 07 issue from the "freeze it" section. in the back of her magazines she also has a section for menu pairing suggestions. that's how we came to have a mango with hearts of palm salad to start off this fantastic dish. the start was cool, fresh, crisp, and fruity while the main course was rich, spicey and hot. made for a terrific dinner!

Mango and Hearts of Palm Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Prep: 15 minutes Total: 15 minutes
Ingredients
Serves 4.
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 large mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 (14.5 ounces) hearts of palm, drained, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt and pepper
1 Boston lettuce, (about 8 ounces), washed and dried
Directions
In a small bowl, whisk lime juice and Dijon. Set vinaigrette aside.
In a medium bowl, toss mango, onion, hearts of palm, and half the vinaigrette; season with salt and pepper.
Evenly divide lettuce among four plates; top with mango mixture. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with remaining vinaigrette.

pork picadillo

stuff:

1T olive oil

1 sm onion

2 minced garlic cloves

salt & pepper

1/4c tomatoe paste

2 chipoltes in adobo sauce, chopped

1t chili or ancho powder

1/2t cinnamon

1/4t cloves

3# ground pork

28oz whole tomats in puree, cut

2T cider vinegar

1/2c rasins

make it:

1. in a 5q pot heat oil, garlic and onion over medium heat with s&p 3-5min

2. add tomat paste, chipoltes, chili powder, cinnamon, cloves and cook 1min. add pork, cooking til no longer pink, 7-8min

3. add tomats with puree and vinegar, boil, then simmer til thick (30-45m) while partially covered. add rasins. serve with rice.

it was so good! really; one of the best meals we've cooked recently. make it, it's great! and keep eating...

mmm... bread!

so this isn't going to be a recipe but we made the yummiest bread! it was so good and perfect for egg sammies this morning. it took a ton of ingredients like rye, wheat and bread flour, espresso, unsweet chocolate, molasses, wheat bran, and fennel and caraway seeds. it's called "russian black bread" and came from my mom's old dak breadmaker cookbook from like 1990. but it was fantastic! a small, firm loaf that's really easy to cut nice thin slices for sandwiches. keep eating...