Best Dinner Ever?

   I blog about my food mostly so that when I am hungry and without inspiration, I can search for one of my food tags and be reminded of dishes I've made before. This one may be the winner, though: roasted chicken (I cheated and bought rotisserie to save time), roasted acorn squash with homemade chili-lime vinaigrette, and spinach salad with fruit, goat cheese, and raspberry dressing. YUM. The chili-lime vinaigrette upstaged everything. It's so good I may have to put it on my cereal in the morning. Okay, maybe not. But it's really, REALLY good!

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   And two hours after dinner, I had a craving and went to the kitchen for a little dessert... another plateful of squash! This is some seriously good stuff.

Dinnertime!

   I'm a decent cook, but some of my best work is undoubtedly born of some amount of desperation: I'm starving, it's 8:30 pm, and I'm NOT running to the store. (By some miracle, I'm pretty good at avoiding the supreme temptation of takeout food.)
   I think this method of cooking works for me because I'm not trying to follow a recipe; there's a certain freedom of figuring it out as you go, tasting and adjusting, leaving the measuring cups in the cupboard. (Unless I'm baking. Because that, my friends, involves actual science. And you do not f with science!)
   Tonight after work & yoga, I began the familiar ritual: open the fridge, stare down the contents and ask, "What's it gonna be?" My own Top Chef-style quick fire competition.
   I had salad fixings, a little marinara, half a red pepper, a few portobellas, and goat cheese. And I ended up with: a salad of Romaine hearts, cucumber, carrot and heirloom tomatoes; and a spicy sauce of roasted red peppers, sauteed mushroom, and garlic over rotini. Topped with chunks of warm goat cheese. Garlic bread. And, not pictured, (ate them too fast for plating. Oops.) baby portobello mushroom caps stuffed with seasoned goat cheese.
   I wish I'd had a hard-boiled egg for the salad, and some spicy Italian sausage for the pasta. Otherwise, perfect. They say to ensure a healthy meal, your plate should be colorful. Check! It was a lot of food, however. Sometimes I forget I am but one person. If you need me, I'll be in a coma for the next couple of hours...

Christmas in LA: Food Aplenty

   C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me. I kinda felt guilty for eating the dough before Kelley had a chance to bake it. Kinda.

   "What's that, Mr. President? You say you need 40 dozen meticulously-hand-decorated sugar cookies, STAT?"

"I'm on it!!!"

Good enough to eat!

   Suzanne's buckeyes freakin' rock! Do non-Ohioans eat these too? They may be the most delicious thing ever (especially Suzanne's recipe), and I have tasted many delicious things, so I don't say that lightly. We'll call these "First Breakfast."

   Followed by Second Breakfast, a yummy frittata. (Aka, the easiest and yummiest way to use up all the odd & ends in the fridge.)

   Another fridge-cleaning exercise produces a super-delicious grilled salmon, avocado, artichoke, roasted onion, roasted brussels sprouts, goat cheese and balsamic salad:

   And the homemade pizzas for dinner didn't last long...

Kristin & Eric approve!