I need to learn how to blog again right after I make the food

Work has been so so. I enjoy what I do, don't get me wrong and I am still aspiring to go to vet school or at least vet tech school but some of the people I work with make it miserable sometimes. All they care about is the money and not the well being of their employees or their clients. It is unfortunate.

Aldi had mussels as a special one week. Yea, mussels, I know, weird. But they were just pre-cooked mussels in a simple tomato sauce that you just needed to heat up in a skillet (or the microwave if you are lazy). I paired them with some grouper I pan fried in the sauce and then added it all to rice:

Really easy and not bad for mussels from a box from Aldi. Too bad I didn't buy more.

 Another easy meal, and the only reason why I am sharing it with you is because Mike made it and poured me a glass of Chianti to go with it:

It's so wonderful what fresh herbs can do to a easy, everyday meal. Which reminds me, it's time to plant herbs again for the fall Florida growing season!

My newest Betty Crocker cookbook (the breast cancer awareness one) as been my go to book for pretty much all of August. Rosemary pork chops with summer squash was our fancy dinner last week:

Sadly, I did not make the bread. We had gone shopping at Whole Foods Market (since I had a gazillion coupons) and I saw these take-n-bake cheesy foccacia rolls that sounded like they would go good with pork. And they did. The only issue I had with this meal is the rosemary was a little over powering. I did use fresh rosemary and maybe I did use a little too much. Eh....at least the pork was really good!

We still have a ton of fish in the freezer. So, with out fail, we have fish almost every week. I forgot where I found this recipe, but it's white fish with some sort of tomato vinegar sauce:

It was all right. Ehh....something I probably won't make again. I was just trying to use up some tomatoes before they went bad.

This past Sunday was baking day. I finally had a Sunday off and after having cinnamon raisin bread earlier in the week I decided to try and make some myself. Mixer in action:

And the two finished loves:

But guess what I forgot to do....put the cinnamon in!!! So it was just whole wheat raisin bread, no cinnamon....tear. Ugh, I fail at baking. Oh well....Mike still liked it.

While the bread was raising, I made a ton of peanut butter cookies (using a recipe from my Betty Crocker cook book):

I thought I would be a nice neighbor and take some cookies over to the new neighbors:

I didn't have any paper plates, just these penny bags. It works.

And, finally, dinner was also a recipe from the Betty Crocker cook book, pepper lime chicken. My make shift broiler rack:

And Mike's plating of the final dinner:

The chicken was very lime-y, which we loved. And it suggested we serve it with salsa, which was a good call as well.

And there you have it. Until next time, please enjoy this photo of our little tree froggy leaving his hiding spot to head out into the night:

OMG....a new blog.....what a shock!

You know that feeling you get when you make something with your own two hands that you really can enjoy? I forgot how good that feels. I need to cook more.

When Mike was out of a town a few weeks ago I didn't do any cooking.....zip, zil, nada. But when he came home he brought me this book:

 I think this cookbook is based on this blog. It's pretty neat and has a log of tips for how to deal with your fresh (or not so fresh) catch. So back on the first of the month I decided to try one of the poached grouper recipes:

It came out really good and the left over veggies from the poaching liquid made a nice topping for the steamed veggies. And, no, I did not make the bread. It's sad, I know. I got the rolls on discount at a WalMart bakery.

The following day I still had some cooking fever in me, but not to the point where I wanted to stand in front of the hot stove. So I tried this slow cooker recipe to use up some country style beef short ribs I had:

I know it doesn't look very appetizing, but it was good with just the right amount of spice. I just need to learn how to time my rice cooker  right to match up with dinner time!

Then, on the 6th, after watching Rachael Ray make some sort of meatloaf burger things, Mike was inspired to make a similar thing with turkey. And thus we have the turkey meatloaf burger:

Of course we had no buns, but they were excellent just by themselves. Mike used mozzarella cheese and basil in them which made them even that much more excellent. And they tasted even better a few days later.
Yum-o  :)

And finally tonight. I had planned on roasting a chicken tonight so I invited the neighbor over (she bailed at the last minute, but I still made everything I planned on). Earlier in the day I made a blueberry strawberry crumble with walnut topping using the recipe from this month's Food Network magazine. Before:

And after:

Delicious! I sort of want to try the variation with cornmeal. I would have never thought to use cornmeal for a crumble. Using a variation of the lemon roast chicken recipe from the Feast book I talked about last blog we have tonight's chicken. Before:

And after:

And I paired the chicken with the rice-pasta pilaf recipe also from this month's Food Network magazine:

Wonderful! I am glad I made everything because it was a great dinner and now we have home made left overs for the rest of the week....the best kind of left overs. And I will also be making chicken stock tomorrow using my leftover carcass. I love home made chicken stock!

Until next time, please enjoy this photo of a little tree frog who has taken residence above the left half of our sliding glass doors: