Feast for the 4th

I always enjoy coming up with a menu for holidays. Jordan has lots of studying to do right now so we didn't have any extravagant plans for the 4th this year. This was the perfect time to make a fun meal; it gives me something to do with all my time and keeps us home for studying. It wasn't hard to come up with the menu because I got it from a cooking show...of course :)

Last week I was watching, 5 Ingredient Fix, and Claire Robinson was doing what she called a "Passport Picnic." It was a Mediterranean menu and right away I knew I wanted to make these recipes soon...what better time but the 4th of July?!

On the Menu:

Fresh Cucumber Salad

Toasted Israeli Couscous

Lamb Sandwich




The only ingredient I couldn't find was ground lamb, maybe if we lived in a bigger city I would have. I used ground beef instead. The ground beef patties turned out great the mint and feta really gave them the Mediterranean taste. The Fresh cucumber salad was so wonderful; the honeydew melon with the cucumber was a great match and the jalapeno and red onion really set it off with a nice punch of flavor then the Greek yogurt made it nice and creamy! The Israeli couscous was delicious. The crunch from the pistachios and the sweet chewiness of the apricots were the perfect textures; also I love pretty much anything with scallions in it. These recipes were a huge hit with Jordan and I. You should try them all out for sure.

Summer Bounty

Summer is the time for lots of yummy veggie bounty.

We had a couple over for a game last week and to enjoy a wonderful strawberry rhubarb pie (any dessert with rhubarb is my favorite...so tangy and delicious). As a gift they brought with them some summer bounty. They have a friend who is growing some zucchini and they had lots to share. They brought us quite a large one; so I felt that I needed to try something new with this summer goodness. I have heard of zucchini cakes but have never tried them. I went to google and typed in zucchini cakes and tons of recipes came up I went with THIS one, very simple and I had all the ingredients. They were done in a flash and so tasty we just ate them plain. I'm sure they would be quite good with some sour cream and scallions on top as well.

Thank you Aaron and Maddie for this amazing zucchini!

A Girl Can Dream...

I'm in love... with a cookware set and I must share it with all of you.

I love watching several different cooking shows that air on the Food network channel and I have noticed that each of them have something in common. They all use the same pot by Le Creuset. So after seeing these pots so often while amazing meals are being created it makes a girl want one. The other day I was printing off some recipes from the food network website and I happened upon this beautiful set in a wonderful Caribbean blue color...yes in love. Most of my kitchen is filled with red; which I like as well and it seems that most kitchen items are available in red which is why I have so much of it. I am getting a little tired of all the red and would like to add some splashes of colors from the turquoise family which seems to be harder to find; so it was nice to see this set in this color!! Now its time to save up!


Do you have any reviews on this product to share??

Scrumptious

We just ate the most amazing dinner! A couple weeks ago we were visiting our good friends, Carrie and Jesse West, and we had the most yummy stuffed peppers. It was my first stuffed pepper experience and an excellent one at that. Carrie made a rice mixture with corn and beans for the stuffing it was so good. Then a week or so later I was watching my favorite cooking show and she happened to make, Couscous Stuffed Peppers with Basil Sauce. So tonight that is what we had and they were so delicious I can't wait to have them again. The stuffing was incredible; it was full of couscous, feta, dried currants, spinach and garbanzo beans. I had to improvise a little on the basil sauce because they were out of basil at the store and the basil I am growing is not yet big enough; so I bought chives instead. Also I could not find creme fraiche so I bought mascarpone cheese. When making the sauce I added a little more olive oil and lemon juice since the mascarpone is thicker than creme fraiche. The sauce taste great and went so well with the flavors of the pepper and filling!!

Snip Snip

I cut my hair!! I have had long hair for awhile now and I have loved it. I actually didn't think I would be able to cut it and then one day I felt the urge for a change. So I made an appointment and found a picture of my new do.....take a look!

I still want to figure out what hair product to use, it's fun to wear it smooth too. It sure is a fun change for the summer!

Go Fish

For awhile now Jordan has been encouraging me to cook more fish. For one he likes it, and also for the health benefits. I have been a little reluctant, not because I dislike fish, but because of the lack of good selection around here. Growing up in WA there was always a good selection of fresh fish because our location was so close to fresh water. I have decided to give up my prejudices and to cook fish once a week. Since I have a half day on Fridays I have decided Friday is the day for fish. After I get off work I stop by the grocery store and pick out whatever is wild caught and then go home and figure out what to do with it. So far I have done this for 2 weeks. The first week was wild caught Cod. It's a nice mild white flaky fish. I dipped it in an egg mixture then a seasoned flour mixture, it was quite tasty.

The next week I found some wild caught Sockeye Salmon. We love Salmon :). A little butter, lemon juice and herbs was all it needed. It was so delicious!

Next I want to make this Mahi Mahi recipe from a friends blog! I wasn't able to find fresh Mahi Mahi so I went with frozen, it says its wild caught but who really knows.

Time to Rearrange

As a young kid I would frequently rearrange my room. I always enjoyed a fresh new look to my room and loved to reorganize. Since I have grown up so has my furniture. Instead of my twin bed and skinny dresser I now have a Queen bed and and very long dresser. So it seems there is only one way our room can be. I started thinking about other rooms in our apartment and our Living room came to mind. I began visualizing all the ways I thought our furniture could fit. Our living room isn't huge but for some reason we didn't feel very cozy in it and it didn't feel like a good conversational layout. Whoever was on our chaise lounger felt ages away from whoever was on the couch. One day a rearrangement idea hit me and although I wasn't positive it would all fit well, we gave it a go...and loved it!! Jordan and I were so excited we wanted to spend more time in this room. It felt fresh and new even though it was the same furniture.

Here are some before shot's. It's tough to get the whole room in one shot but here is an idea of how it was set up. The couch was facing the fireplace, which is not shown in any of the pictures. The chaise lounge was on one side and the TV is on the other side of the fireplace.


Here are a couple shots of how it is now! Our couch faces out our window/door to the deck, which is a wonderful view to look out at. Also with the rearrangement we feel closer together as well as feeling like a more conversational space. The new arrangement even gave room for a lovely new storage ottoman we bought, which provides easier access to our board games! Check it out.