Sexy Barbeque

Tim marinated some giant portabellas in red wine, TJ grilled the ballparks, and I strung up some garlic-marinated mushrooms and cherry tomatoes on skewers. Sexy grill-time!

Mom's Day (part II: secret of the cheeze)

Mother's Day was to include a dinner cooked for the moms and matriarch of the Garvey clan. In truest Garvey fashion, I had finished the dessert (mom's Italian cookies) first. With the cookies out of the way, that left my Mother's Day morning wide open, so I planned to direct my culinary prowess in a slightly more savory outlet. Specifically, a few side dishes. And well... we're Irish.

As we were planning on grilling, I figured we'd need some of these starchy treats to counteract all of the juices from those hefty, mouth-watering, bloody boca burgers. 

...

Okay. I was the only abstaining from cow, and believe me. I heard about it all night.

I sliced the potatoes (baby red, yukon gold and sweet varieties) into wedges.

I then tossed them with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and a whole mess of fresh ground black pepper.

After 45 minutes in the oven (tossing half-way through), I squeezed two fresh limes over the wedges, cranked MORE black pepper over them, tossed them, and served.

With dish #1 in the bag, I moved on to a slightly less orthodox recipe (for our family anyway). The way I figured, what side goes better with grilled flesh than some creamy macaroni and "cheeze"? 

Yeah. I went vegan.

In the spirit of the holiday, I did warn my mom, even going so far as to show her the recipe I would be following. She still ate it. You'd think it was Son's Day. I was so prideful and honorable.

I took this:

and added this:

and wound up with this:

Truth time. I didn't take any pictures of the initial batch. Things were kind of hectic as dinner was being served, so I didn't have time. I did, however, have leftovers, which, like any pleased cook, I happily ate tonight.

But you'll have to check back tomorrow for words and pictures of that. 'Tis a whole separate post...

my exquisite lover

I made pasta sauce from it, but that isn't the point. It was pretty average sauce. Ragu could probably do just as well.

What I love about garlic, even more than the taste (and I LOVE the taste), is the tactile experience.
I want to work for it. I want what I eat to be good and beautiful, and appreciated.

Garlic love!

Mom's Day (part I)

I decided to bake my mom's favorite cookies for a special Mother's Day treat. First, though, a few matters of preparation.

You can't be expected to bake on an empty stomach, unless of course you don't mind licking clean the beaters, spoons, bowls, countertops, etc. With that in mind, my pre-baking lunch: 

Full tummy in tact, I was nearly set to commence with the cookie creating process. One last important preparatory step remained, however...

Set.

The cookies in question are an Italian cookie, with a name I can neither pronounce, nor care to spell out correctly. We'll call them lemon drops.

The ingredients include: flour, sugar, orange and lemon zest, juice of an orange, lemon extract, and vegetable shortening. I would've loved to take some pictures of the actual dough-making, but alas (as should be readily apparent), picture-taking/quality are highly questionable at this point. I'll get a real camera soon. I promise.

After a short stint in the oven, an agonizing cooling period (agonizing because I was subjected to watching the Pistons launch a huge comeback against the Magic), and an affectionate glazing process, I arrived at:

Mom's favorite cookies!

P.S. Why part I you ask? We're cooking lunch/dinner for my grandma today... stories and pictures to come!!!

Cinnamon Breakfast

Cinnamon, with or without sugar, is AWESOME on oranges. And toast.

I Need a Camera to Blog?!

I suppose there will be a shortage of pictures from my neck of the woods until I can track down a light-manipulating, image-capturing device (a camera). I also found out I cannot blog while at work *sigh*, which would have been a great way to spend nine hours of my day. I suppose I'll stick to the usual interweb-foodie-surfing and drooling over delicious recipes.

Cue salivary glands.

I found this recipe at my new favorite food blog, fatfreevegan.com, and I've been dreaming about it all day. Too bad I have no idea what "nutritional yeast" is, and a subsequent web search found only one store within a fifteen-mile radius of Glumbard that actually carries it. *sigh* I guess I'll just make myself a gigantic salad instead.

No pictures will be posted of said salad, either.

*sigh*

this was the best lunch ever.

grape tomatoes, olive oil, a wee bit of fresh garlic, and fresh basil leaves,



piled on some Triscuits with a slice of provolone cheese (not pictured because I stuffed that shite in my mouth like a greedy little badger).

Will ___ for food.

I suppose we'll have to start taking pictures of our culinary creations, or, at the very least begin regaling you with the creative process.

I'll spare you the details of tonight's (mis)adventure, but let's just say the ingredient list for this ill-conceived wrap included tuna, spinach, and some homemade roasted-red pepper hummus.

In lieu of pictures, just go check out 101cookbooks.com. 

I do. 

Every day. 

Blackberry Jam Cake.

I start our blog with cake, appropriately.

This recipe will die with my rotting bones, not in the least because I made it up as I went along.