dinner with friends with kids

This past Monday, I went over to cook for some friends. It was the only cooking I did all week.

Madaline suggested pizza. Knowing her kitchen, I figured I would have some feta and greek olives to work with, so I decided to grab some artichokes, tomato and red onion and put together a mediterranean pizza.

She also had some pesto, so after I sauteed the chicken in some oil, I added the rest of the ingredients and baked the pizzas on my favorite flatbread (found in the Publix bakery) for about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

It was probably one of my favorite homemade pizzas to date.

Dimo is not so sure...

And with my leftover feta, I toasted some italian bread and topped it with the cheese, tomato, a little cracked pepper and olive oil.

delicious

That's pretty much it. I also made some brownies from a box. Most of my pictures are of kids doing school-ish things. Maybe I should make a blog about that?

Now I have a question for you-- If you were celebrating a big birthday next week, what kind of dinner would you want?

Just wondering. :)

m

back in session

School is back in session, which means two things: 1. The longest summer of my life is officially over, and I am finally back at a job that I don't dread going to each morning. And, 2. Most nights, I am too busy/tired to cook.

This meant lots of repeats, large batches that made leftovers, and (gasp!) a dinner cooked (mostly) by my sister.

I finally made a trip to one of my favorite breakfast spots, the Cool Moose Cafe for some eggs benedict and the most delicious coffee (Green Mountain Hazelnut, my fave). 

new morning routine

I did find time to cook a thank you dinner for my friends, for welcoming me in Greece this summer. I doctored up the stuffed peppers from last year by adding ground turkey and making a homemade sauce by mixing canned enchilada with fire roasted tomatoes and some spices. Big hit!

Sunday morning scramble

I repeated my meatballs from a few weeks ago, this time using ground beef. I made a red sauce and spaghetti as well as an IKEA inspired sauce that I found online. It turned out to be pretty good. The only addition I made to that recipe was adding some fresh parsley at the end. Also, I used the same pan that I used to make the meatballs. So in the first step, when it says to swirl the beef stock, I also scraped up the bits in the pan, which made the sauce a little richer and more flavorful.

And finally, last night I came home to none other than Little Sister in the kitchen, marinating a couple of pork tenderloins and mixing up a from-scratch batch of cornbread. Score!

I helped a little, tossing some potatoes in dijon mustard, s+p and olive oil to bake, and sautéing some fresh green beans in white truffle oil and fresh ground pepper.

The tenderloin was definitely the star of the show.

That's a brief recap of the past few weeks, sans funny kid stories. And I have plenty.

Also, if you are finding this site lacking in the baked goods department, a friend of mine is now happy to oblige. Head over to DC Sugar for red velvet brownies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, cream cheese frosting, and much more to come!

Now that I'm settling in to a routine, I would like to make more time for cooking. I'm hoping to make a trip to the Mediterranean and Indian markets soon. I still have some real Greek olives to use...


What have you been cooking? What would you like to see more of on this site?
Hope you are having a great week!

m