The Most Photographed Recipe

Have you ever cooked something and thought it was so beautiful that you had to take a photo? Maybe I am weird, but I photographed "pretty" meals long before I started blogging, and as my last post showed, even when I am not blogging I still take the photos!


There is one meal which I make on a semi-regular basis and pretty much EVERY TIME I make it, I photograph it, and I have NEVER written about it. I went through my photos the other day to see how many I could find, and this is really just a quick sampling.


The photos go back to 2006, which means I have 3 years of photos of this one meal. The meal hasn't changed all that much. Sometimes I don't have sun-dried tomatoes, or I add green beans instead of snow peas, but the beauty of this meal is it's versatility.


I always have a can of Pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls in the fridge and some egg beaters in the freezer. So long as there are some vegetables and cheese in the fridge I can pull a Tomato Broccoli Crescent Pie together in 15 minutes. Sometimes it doesn't have tomatoes OR broccoli in it, but the idea is the same and it's always delicious.


Tomato Broccoli Crescent Pie

It's really hard to mess this recipe up. So play with it and see what comes out. It pretty much always looks beautiful and is absolutely always delicious!



Ingredients:

• 4 cups diced vegetables (coarsely chopped broccoli, onions, mushrooms, peppers, green beans, snow peas, asparagus, etc.)
• 1/3 cup julienne sun-dried tomatoes in oil (if you can't find those in oil, you can use the dried ones, just make sure you soak them in HOT water for 30 minutes first)
• black pepper
• garlic
• 1T basil
• 1T oregano
• 3/4 - 1 cup egg beaters (you can use real eggs if you like, it's roughly 3-4 eggs)
• 1-2 cups grated cheese (mozzarella, sharp, muenster, Parmesan, mix it up)
• 1 8oz. can refrigerator crescent rolls

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Open crescent rolls, unroll and press into pie plate to create crust.
• Chop vegetables and stir-fry for about 3 minutes in olive oil over high heat, just to soften.
• Add sun-dried tomatoes and spices to veggies. Remove from heat.
• In a separate bowl, mix egg beaters and cheese together. Add vegetables ad stir together. The mixture should be gooey and cheesy but not too runny. You really can't mess this one up, so just go with your gut.
• Pour into the pie crust and then throw in the oven. It generally bakes for 30-40 minutes, depending on how thick it is. Just pay attention to it and take it out when it's firm in the middle.
• Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes. This might be why I have so many photos of this recipes, it's something to do during the 10 minute wait (which honestly is generally more like 2 minutes in my house.)
  

Lobsters, Lobsters Everywhere!

Did you know that lobster prices have gone down 25% since last year? Neither did I! Then my friend, JW, visited the office the other day and told me she has been eating nothing but lobster for weeks because it's so cheap. A quick google search revealed that not only was she right, but that I was way late to the lobster party!


Back in September, the New York Times covered the falling lobster prices. They explained that this has happened because lobster is a luxury item and in times of financial duress (ie. major world wide financial crisis) people just don't eat lobster. They also mentioned that "lobster fishermen are hauling in larger catches than ever" which means we have tons of lobster that need eating!


JR is completely and totally responsible for introducing me to lobster. I hadn't cracked a lobster shell until July 4th, 2004 when I spent my first weekend away with JR's whole family. The weekend before, he and I were hanging out in Ashford, and I mentioned I had never eaten lobster before. JR took this as permission to call his parents (who I had met MAYBE 4 times) and say "Karen wants lobster for the 4th of July, can we have it?" I was horrified!

I learned later that lobster on the 4th was a tradition and this wasn't really a big deal, but boy was I mad at him! In any case, over the course of the last few years I have watched numerous lobster dinners come together in New Hampshire. Occasionally, if we are lucky, JR's dad makes his famous baked stuffed lobster, but for the most part we have straight up steamed lobster which is nothing to cry about.


Seeing all these amazing dinners come together gave me the confidence to make a lobster dinner while on our honeymoon last summer. You know what? It really wasn't that big of a deal, it's a lot easier than I expected. So if you have been intimidated by the price of lobster in the past, now is the time to give it shot, because it's cheap!

Baked stuffed lobster is a beast all on it's own, if you are a first time lobster cooker, I recommend just steaming it. The first step to making lobster is making friends with your lobsters. They are really amazing creatures, so when you get home from buying them at the store, make sure you take some time to play with them and take photos of them. Then put them in the fridge until you are ready to start cooking.


When it's time to begin, get the biggest pot you can and a steamer basket. We are lucky because JR's parents actually have a lobster pot, but I am sure any very large pot will do. Add some water to the bottom and bring it to a boil and then place the lobsters in the steamer and lower them into the pot and cover it up. They don't scream or do anything horrible, they just take a nice steam bath. (I say that, but it's NEVER my job to put them in the pot.)

After about 15 minutes, peak in. You know they are done when they turn BRIGHT red. If you can believe it, when they are alive they are kind of a dull dark red, but when cooked they are almost fluorescent. Then comes the part where we are never sure exactly what to do. You have to cut them open. So get the biggest knife you have, and cut them straight down the belly.


I choose to clean out any gunk that is still in there, but some (like my uncle, MD) swear that is the best part. All that left is to grab some lobster (or nut) crackers and start breaking out that meat. Don't forget a plate for all the broken shells and some butter to dip the meat in, then go to town and enjoy!

Bottom line, lobsters are cheap right now. If you have stayed away because you are scared of them or think they are to expense, you don't have any excuses. Go out an get a couple of these beauties and give them a shot!

Stupid Simple Thanksgiving Dinner

It's November, it's dark and cold outside, and there are leaves all over the sidewalk crunching under my feet as I walk to work. As a result, in the middle of last week I started craving Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted mounded forkfuls of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy carefully put together so that each bite had a little bit of everything.

The thing is, the REAL Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away, and pulling together a turkey dinner in true Thanksgiving style takes time. So much time, that I can't quite convince myself to spend a Sunday, two weeks before the real deal, whipping up a Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us.


So I improvised and came up with my newest favorite weeknight meal - the Stupid Simple Thanksgiving Dinner. It was the easiest, most delicious, craving-curing meal I have had in awhile.

First, I ran over to Whole Foods and picked up a rotisserie chicken. I know it's not turkey, but it's close enough and super easy on a Monday night. Then I got some Stove Top stuffing. Do remember the Stove Top stuff commercial from the 80's? The one where the two kids do dinner twice just so they can have more Stove Top?



Well let me tell you, that commercial completely worked on me as a kid and I still think Stove Top is great. Not in a, make it for the real Thanksgiving kinda-way, but definitely in a Stupid Simple Thanksgiving Dinner kinda-way!

I threw some acorn squash in the microwave, steamed up some green beans and opened can of cranberry sauce (actually two cans, the chunky kind for me and the jelly kind for JR) and honestly I couldn't have been happier. The whole meal took maybe 15 minutes to pull together, looked beautiful (see the photos above) and it will hold me off for a couple of weeks until I can celebrate the real deal with my family.

Homecoming Meals & Thanksgiving Tryouts

My girl KF moved to Alaska not long after we finished college. She and her husband were supposed to be there 1 year and it has been much longer than that! Which means when she comes to CT to visit, it's a special occasion that I mark on my calendar and nothing gets between me and heading home to see her.


KF and I stumbled through our first cooking-to-live experiences together when we were living in Germany during our junior year of college. It's a stretch to say we were great cooks, in fact, I think we bordered on awful. At the time I blamed it on bad kitchen gear (we were using a shared dorm kitchen) and unfamiliar grocery stores, but the fact of the matter was, we had no idea what we were doing.

We did survive, mostly on pasta with frozen vegetables, salads, cereal and an occasional burger, but I think it's fair to say my cooking has improved since then. So when KF came to visit last weekend for the first time since my wedding (more than a year ago) I decided to cook her some favorites and show her how much I have improved.


Since the dinner was at my parents house, Mom and I collaborated on the menu. We planned balsamic braised cipolline onions, steaks, potato fries, salad and crunchy baked fennel. Both the cipolline onions and the fennel casserole are Food & Wine Thanksgiving specials that we were testing for Thanksgiving this year.


Jared and I headed down Saturday afternoon and Mom and I got to cooking. I haven't cooked a lot with fennel, but I like the taste of it and want to start cooking more with it, so I was excited about the experiment. The end result was good, I should have listened to the instructions and used 10 fennel bulbs (I used 6 - it looked like so much) but the flavor and crunchiness was perfect. It's a definite yes for Turkey Day.


The onions, which I had made a couple of times before, were like candy. Each tiny little onion is pillow of bliss for your to bite into. It's creamy and sweet and just melts in your mouth. They went with the steak perfectly, but they did not make the Thanksgiving day menu purely because of the time and effort it takes to peel each little onion. If you are having a small dinner, these would be a perfect addition, but for group of more than 6, this recipe is a daunting task.


As always getting to spend time with KF made me realize how much I miss her. I am constantly coming up with schemes to convince her to move back here. (For example, we are going to move our husbands to Vermont to start up a goat cheese farm just as soon as they move home.) In the mean time, I'll continue to save my weekends in Ashford to spend with her when she visits, and hope to persuade her with my much improved cooking.

If you need an additional vegetable dish for a crowd, here is the Crunchy Fennel Casserole Recipe.

If you are looking for something decadent for a smaller group, here is the recipe for the

Balsamic Braised Cipolline Onions

Ingredients:

2lbs cipolline onions (these are the small red and white ones, small boiling onions work as well)
1 1/2 cups fat-free low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1t brown sugar
3T heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or fresh pomegranate seeds if you are feeling decadent)
salt
olive oil

Directions:

Fill your large soup pot half with water and put over high heat. Once boiling, blanch the onions in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them from the boiling water and immediately submerge them in cold water.

Cut off the two ends of each onion, and peel them leaving the core intact. This should be really easy because you have blanched them already.

Heat a dollop of oil in the same pot you blanched them in, and add the onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sauté until brown on both sides.

Add chicken broth, red wine, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn up the heat and increase the boil until the onions are soft and the liquid is thickened, stirring frequently.

Add the heavy whipping cream and dried cranberries, simmer until the sauce coats the onions. (If you are using pomegranate seeds, add them right after you have turned the heat off.)

So Busy!

I can't complain, we are so busy living life, that I haven't had time to write in my blog! Yes, I am cooking. Yes, I am taking photos. But I just haven't had time to sit down and put the two together.

Take this post for what it is, a cop out. I was going through some photos and I realized there were some great ones I hadn't shared yet! So here is to the end of summer and to being blissfully busy.

End of Summer Salads

I recently brought some of this salad into work for DA today (recently being today) and he asked if the recipe was on the blog. I thought it was, because I remember writing the post, and when I checked I realized it had gotten lost in my backlog! So here is yet one more summer salad recipe before it's too late to make summer salads any more!

This year for the 4th of July we decided to stay in Boston and go to the gigantic fireworks display (I have been told it's the largest in the country) with my parents. It's the kind of thing my Mom has always wanted to do, but dealing with parking is such a pain that we never did. Since JR and I now live within walking distance of the river and downtown Boston, this was clearly the year to make it happen.


Mom & Dad came over in the afternoon and brought a big fruit salad and my Mom's world famous Copper Pennies. I then pulled together another coleslaw recipe from Smitten Kitchen, this one a bit different, had no mayo and an Asian influence. I knew my Mom and Dad would love it. We also grilled some corn and fish and had a feast.


Then we walked to the fireworks, which were totally worth it, and highly recommended.




Napa Cabbage and Sesame Seed Slaw

Wasabi Dressing Ingredients:
2 teaspoons wasabi powder (available at Asian markets, specialty stores and many large supermarkets)
1 tablespoon water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tablespoon honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Slaw Ingredients:
1 large head Napa cabbage, finely shredded
2 large carrots, peeled and finely shredded
4 green onions (white bulb and 3 inches of green), finely sliced on the bias
1 cup finely sliced snow peas (strings removed and sliced on the bias)
Wasabi dressing
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, toasted

Instructions:
Combine the wasabi powder and water in a small bowl. Whisk in the garlic, ginger, lime juice, vinegar, oil and honey, and season with salt and pepper.

Combine the cabbage, carrots, green onions and snow peas in a large bowl. Add the dressing and coat well. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Side Note: This salad also made an appearance at Labor Day and about 5 other weekends this summer. We had it this past weekend with some spicy buffalo wings for the second Patriots game and it was the perfect accompaniment. It stores well and everyone loves it. I highly recommend it the next time you need to bring a salad somewhere!

Wildflowers, Lobsters & Tomatoes

Last week JR and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We were lucky to be able take a long weekend and head to New Hampshire where we spent our honeymoon. New Hampshire in August is breath taking. There are wildflowers and butterflies everywhere, and the mornings are cool enough for a sweater, but the days are long and georgeous.


As can be expected, I crafted our honeymoon around food. Since we were staying in a house with a great kitchen, we used the week to gormandize. This weekend was not different, we made glorious feasts each night, and then headed to town to gorge ourselves on desert.

Friday we headed down to the local farm stand and picked up corn, tomatoes, fresh peas and cucumbers. We then went down to the nearest grocery store (a half hour away) to stock up for dinner and the weekend. We decided on our honeymoon to start a Lobster dinner tradition and continue it each year, and so the required lobsters had to be picked out.


This year we went for 3 soft shell lobsters. They have less meat than their larger hard shell brothers, but the meat is supposed to be sweeter and easier to get to. They are also a little smaller, and last year we had tons of left over lobster. As always we played with them for a little while, and I was happy to see they had some spunk.



Making lobsters couldn't be easier, we threw them in the lobster pot, steamed them for 12 minutes, and presto, beautiful red lobsters. We had them with a some corn and of course the required butter. We ended the night biking down into town for ice cream.


The next night we dinned on grilled steak, mushrooms and onions, but the star of the evening were the slow roasted tomatoes. I had been catching up on my blog reading earlier in the day and had seen this recipe for slow roasted tomatoes. I had some amazing cherry tomatoes from the farm stand and I knew instantly what I was going to do with them. We chowed down on them as appetizers, popping them in to our mouths like cherries, while we made the rest of dinner. That night we ate out on the porch and followed up dinner with drinks and desert down at the local hang out. It was a perfect weekend.

Ginger Carrot Slaw - Another Summer Salad

A couple years ago my company merged with another and went from 35 people to ~85 people in a day. It was difficult to know everyone and there was very much an “us” and “them” mentality. I decided in order to try and smooth things over and get people talking we should have a pot-luck lunch. It was a brilliant idea (I am so modest) which we pulled off a couple days before Christmas. A ton of people brought in dishes, so many that we had leftovers for the lunch the rest of the week.

It was also fun because people brought a lot of different types of food from all over the world. There were curries and cheeses and special Pakistani pastry puffs but the only recipe I took away from the event was the Carrot and Cabbage slaw that my friend MG made. It’s a recipe he got from a raw food website that combines shredded carrots and cabbage with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, fresh ginger and lemon juice.


It’s one of the few recipes I make big batches of year round. It’s great to bring it to work for lunch every day for a week and only gets better as the flavors soak in. This past week, the farm share we have been enjoying, delivered both carrots and cabbage and I couldn’t stop myself from whipping this together. I used cranberries instead of the normal golden raisins, and I actually liked it better. Make it next time you want something last a couple days, I promise you will enjoy it.

Ingredients:
5 carrots, grated
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1-cup raisins
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

2 tsp honey or maple syrup
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated ginger
4 Tbsp olive oil or sunflower seed oil
dash of salt

Directions:
• Toss together salad ingredients in a large bowl
• Dissolve the honey in the lemon juice, add the grated ginger, olive oil, and salt
• Pour the dressing over the salad and toss
• Allow to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 24 hours

Great Friends Give Fresh Vegetables

You might have heard that I have not had any luck with growing fresh vegetables or that I crave them something fierce. What you may not know is that I was really worried that Boston would not have the variety of fresh vegetables I have become accustomed to and that they would be hard to come by, was I ever wrong! I also happen to have some great friends and colleagues who keep me in my habit and supply me with fresh veggies.

Last Wednesday, I was given a first batch of veggies from a colleague as part of a trade I have arranged. MG, who read about my lettuce woes and promptly rubbed it in that he has a beautiful garden, brought me summer squash and cucumbers. We have made an arrangement that he will keep me in tomatoes and other vegetables this summer, in exchange for a batch of my BBQ sauce.


That same day, I picked up H&CK’s farm share from Red Fire Farm. They are on vacation this week weren’t going to be able to eat all the veggies. So for 2 WHOLE WEEKS they are letting us pick their share. This past week we got, tomatoes, beets, blueberries, lettuce, kale, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green beans, potatoes, peppers, fresh basil and broccoli! Today I picked up garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, eggplant, watermelon, blueberries, squash, peppers, carrots and corn.


It’s beautiful and tasty and I didn’t even tell JR about half of it so I could horde it all for myself to eat in beautiful salads for lunch. I got home from picking it up last Wednesday and promptly made myself a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad that was delicious.

Then on Saturday, I picked JB up at 10AM and we went up to the farmers marketing in Somerville. We have been doing this pretty much every weekend we are both in the city and it’s been awesome.


The market keeps getting better and better. Since I had so many vegetables from the farm share, I didn’t let myself get too much and settled for photos. I did buy some bok choy for salads and a couple tomatoes, I couldn’t help myself!


It turns out finding fresh veggies isn't so difficult! I am thinking about joining the farm share next year and will keep enjoying the farmers market as long as I can.

Life Changing Turkey Burgers

I have always been a burger purest. In my world there wasn't room for turkey burgers, or veggie burgers or lamb burgers - they were all just cheap imitations of the real deal. Then my sister and brother-in-law gave me this recipe for Southwest Turkey Burgers that has completely changed my mind.

I believe my brother-in-law, JF, made up this recipe. He is the opposite kind of cook from me, he doesn't work from recipes and instead stands in his kitchen and pulls together amazing meals just by adding a little of this and a little of that. He is nice enough to write down the recipes so I can follow along.


The beauty of this recipe is that it's flexible. If I don't have one ingredient, I can add another or just a little extra of something else. It's easy to pull together on a week night and makes 4 burgers, so JR and I get left overs for lunch the next day. It's also healthy! You can use the 98% fat free ground turkey and whole wheat rolls and not feel guilty about shoving a quarter pounder in your face. Additionally these burgers can be made on a grill or in a fry pan, so if you don't have a grill this is still a recipe for you.


These are also the burgers that introduced me to Sweet Pepper Relish which I now cannot live without. I generally do them up with vidaliah onions, my BBQ sauce and some of this sweet relish. The burgers are tender and spicy and it's the perfect summer meal.


P.S. There is no photo of a perfectly made beautiful burger because, um, well...I ate it!

Southwest Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:
1 lbs ground turkey (preferably as free of fat as you can get)
2 cloves of garlic (garlic scapes work really well here too)
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 small bell pepper, finely chopped
1 serrano or jalapeno pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
1 tsp. thyme
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. grill seasoning (McCormick's, any flavor will do)
couple drops Tabasco
Olive oil
Pepper jack cheese
Whole wheat buns
Condiments

Instructions:
1. Chop garlic, onion, peppers and cilantro or parsley and throw into a bowl with the ground turkey. Add the spices and mix well.
2. Form into 4 equally sized patties. I find that the turkey meat can be a little sticky when it doesn't have a lot of fat it in. Drizzle your hands with a little bit of olive oil while you are forming the patties and they come together much more easily.
3. Cook the burgers in a skillet or on the grill. Be careful not to over cook! They are best when they are still moist and tender.
4. Add the cheese for the last few minutes so it melts and toast your buns.
5. Build a perfect burger!

The Art of the Garden Salad

There is something about the summer that makes me want to eat salads every night for dinner. There are a couple of reasons why, the first of which is that are so many wonderful fruits and vegetables available and a salad is the easiest way to eat as many of them as possible. It's also a super easy dinner that doesn't involve any "real" cooking (ie. heat) and is light enough that we can eat 9PM without feeling stuffed.

Since starting my new gig at HubSpot, an inbound marketing startup here in Cambridge, I haven't had as much time as I did before to cook. This means I have been making a lot of salads, but it does not mean that JR and I have been suffering. This weekend I combined spicy radishes and sweet pea tendrils from the farmers market with cucumbers, red peppers and red onions for a colorful crunchy side salad. We tossed it with a balsamic parmesan dressing (something my father's college roommate, LV, taught me years ago) and it was scrumptious.


Then last night I made up a salad that I believe has everything wonderful about the summer in it. JR's sister made this for us once last summer and it was all I could do not the eat the whole thing and force the rest of them to starve. It's the perfect combination of fresh farmer's market tomatoes, sweet corn on the cob, spicy red onions and flavorful basil and parsley. You throw them all together with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and it's an amazing combination. We had it with Mustard Garlic Chicken last night and it made me wish it was summer all year long.


Tonight I decided to try something new. The last item in my farmer's market goodie basket was some beautiful baby bok choy. I was planning on sauteing it, like I do every single time I get it. Then my parents came home from a BBQ this weekend and told me that someone used it for a salad. I was intrigued. I love bok choy, but I rarely buy it because as far as I knew there was one recipe and one way to make it. It's possible my life was changed this evening.

I took the bok choy and sliced it thin including both the leafy green parts and the crunchy white stems. I then tossed it with some sliced green onions and a tangy Asian sesame vinaigrette (if I had a recipe I would have made it, but this time I went with store bought) and then sprinkled it with some sesame seeds. This looked so pretty that I had to take a photo, just look at all that crunchy green goodness.


Then I chopped up some left over grilled chicken, a couple of hard boiled eggs and the last heirloom tomato and threw them on top (ok, I didn't throw anything, I strategically placed them to try and make it as pretty as possible.) Before I knew it, I had an amazing Asian Cobb Salad! It's even healthy because I skipped the blue cheese crumbles, bacon and oh-so-amazing ranch dressing that makes a Cobb Salad bad for you!


My only regret was that the toppings covered the colorful green bok choy, but it tasted great and you better believe I will be using bok choy as a salad base much more frequently from now on.

Technorati Profile

A Perfect Sandwich

I don't know what makes a perfect sandwich. I guess it depends a lot on the quality and proportion of the ingredients, but I know that 9 times out of 10 when I make sandwiches, I am not satisfied. Generally they have too much turkey, or not enough jelly, or the bread is too crunchy and hurts the roof of my mouth. In any case, sandwiches have gotten a bad reputation in my kitchen and I tend to not make them very often. Until recently.

The other evening I wasn't feeling top notch and was just hanging out at home reading and catching up on some relaxing. For dinner, all I could think about was a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. By perfect, I mean the kind of grilled cheese where the outside is a little crunchy and very buttery and the inside is warm gooey cheesy goodness. I headed over to the Whole Foods and picked up some German style whole wheat bread, a hunk of gruyere (a nice nutty cheese that is AMAZING for sandwiches) and a beautiful tomato.


I put that panini maker to work and within minutes had a gorgeous sandwich for dinner. It was so amazing. I had it with some fresh fruit, a pickle and some of this fantastic Mild Yellow Swedish mustard that JB brought me a couple weeks ago. The stuff is like no other mustard you have ever had and I want to drink it from a spoon.

I am also searching for a killer egg sandwich. I try something new at least once a week, but generally it includes good bread, two fried eggs, some kind of special cheese, fresh herbs and a spread (pesto, mustard, cranberry sauce, olive oil, the list goes on.) The desire for this sandwich comes from a couple places.

First, the movie Spanglish featured Thomas Keller's BLT Fried Egg and Cheese Sandwich which rewound to watch Adam Sandler make 3 or 4 times while I drooled. It was written up in Food & Wine about a year ago and I tried to make it one night while Jared was away. It was not all I had hoped for, although the F&W photo still makes me drool, and thus I started on the search for the perfect egg sandwich.


The second inspiration is the Jerusalem Egg Sandwich from the Andala Coffee House just up the street from us. A couple months after we moved here, I started going to Andala every Wednesday morning for a networking event. My first or second time, someone ordered this sandwich, and I have been in love with it ever since. It's a scintillating combination of eggs, parsley and tomatoes wrapped in a toasted Mediterranean pita that I would recommend to anyone.


My egg sandwiches are good, but this one has me coming back week after week and nothing I have made has accomplished that yet. I'll keep trying but if you have a great sandwich recipe that you want to share, please send it along.

The Way to a Girl's Heart is Through Her Stomach

JR and I met during the last couple months of college. On our graduation day, I told my mother I wasn't sure where the relationship was going to go, then Lobster Bowl 2004 happened and I was hooked.

Lobster Bowl is a golf tournament that JR's father plays in each year. It's actually called the Adams Bowl, but I have officially renamed it, because at the end of each tournament they serve the most amazing feast. I went that first summer back in 2004 and I was sold, I knew right then I had to marry JR so that I could come to the Lobster Bowl each and every year and eat enough lobster and shrimp to stuff me full. I am not exaggerating when I say it's tables full of lobster, shrimp and oysters and other amazing goodies.



After showing me this wealthy of goodness, JR didn't bring me back for 3 whole summers! I thought I had been cheated, until today when he finally returned me to the Lobster Bowl, and it was all I remembered.

I stuck to the seafood for plate number 1, and was not disappointed.


I branched out for plate number 2 and included some meat. When I brought this back to the table, my MIL (mother-in-law) said "You go girl!"


When I brought back plate number three, she said "Oh, I think I need to visit the desert table...."


It was amazing, and I am so lucky that my wonderful in-laws were willing to share the lobster and bring me back to the Lobster Bowl.