Trying my hand at Sancocho

Not exactly perfect, but received rave reviews :-)

Brunch at home

Cookie time

Just tweaking my fave chocolate cookie recipe :-)  hope all of you had a great holiday season!

Me too

Friday beer!

;-)

A very bright skirt, thrifted along with those books.  Additionally, trying to add photo mid post. Apologize for random!

Trying out my phone...

Aka making lots off random posts until I figure it out. Can you guess my present??? B-)

Winter

Just a quick scene from the living room. You can see my blanket encased feet ;-)

Happy New Year

Wrapping up the semester...

...with a cup of coffee and a view of the city. Finals this week and we're going to head somewhere warm for christmas. Photos to follow!






Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Almost thanksgiving!!!!

My favorite holiday--no presents, no religion, just eating food and being thankful. How great is that? Here is one of the fastest, easiest side dishes to make.  

Chop 2-3 sweet potatoes, an onion and some garlic.  (I know I used green pepper, but I didn't like it so I wouldn't recommend it--any other root veg would be good, though)

Add thyme, rosemary, chili flakes, and salt.  Toss with olive oil until all veg is coated w/ oil and spices.

Roast in 450 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, or if you're cooking with the turkey at a lower temp, go for an hour or so.  You can broil them at the end if you want some more carmelization.  I tossed them once during cooking.

Excellent!  Leftover are also good mashed up as a hash and fried, with some eggs.  Happy Thanksgiving to  you and yours!

Someone is addicted to Pasta Salad...

I am not sure what has come over me, but for some reason I can not seem to go more than a couple days without making another pasta/bean/vegetable salad. I love them. It's serious.

I added tuna to this one. YUM. Parsley, too. The great thing is that no matter what I add, it still tastes good. I guess I'm just trying to eek out the last of summer.


Makes such an easy lunch. If you start chopping the minute you put the water on to boil, everything comes together by the time the pasta is cooked. Fifteen minutes, tops. How could you not love that?



Enjoy your autumn!

Good weekend!

Started out with an alcoholic slushy (I love these things!)

Made some "bad art" (below photos taken by my friend Saira)
Went to a festival, cuddled up with cute dogs...




It was a perfect autumn weekend.

Mediterranean Salad with Shrimp, Artichokes and Garbanzos--big thank you to Newman's Own

So, it was an early Christmas in the house of Tavolini! Last night, I came home to a giant package from the Foodbuzz Tastermaker's Program and Newman's Own, containing 3 types of salad dressing, two pasta sauces, a pizza coupon....AND a Flip Cam!!! (WOW!) Behold the loot:

Even came with "name brand" batteries--swanky!

The letter said to post by October 20th, but as it was already October 25th, I decided I would just throw something up quickly today, and really ponder a good recipe to make this weekend. This was (going to admit it...) what was left in my fridge / cupboard. Garbanzos, cilantro, artichokes, a red pepper, a jalapeno and some frozen shrimp. Considering how good the dressing is...even these ingredients were top notch ;)

Marinate:
1 can garbanzos, drained and rinsed
1 handful cilantro, minced
1/2 red pepper, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 small jar artichokes (or half a can) drained and chopped
1/4 cup Newman's Own Family Recipe Italian salad dressing

Throw all in tupperware and place in fridge for an hour or so

About ten minutes before serving, boil 1/2 pound of frozen raw shrimp and peel.

Feel free to make a jack o' lantern out of the remaining portion of red pepper :)

Drain and rinse shrimp, peel...

Either mix shrimp in to get the vinaigrette, or divvy evenly among salad bowls. I prefer my shrimp warm, so I add them in at the end. Leftovers get mixed in to be eaten at a later time.

A nice, easy salad with good leftovers for tomorrow (or work later on tonight!)

Thank you Newman's Own and Foodbuzz!!

Landscaping in the sun

So, first things first, I have been on a *slight* margarita kick. As it was in the 80's all weekend, may as well partake, eh? Nothing fancy, this was the combo pack that was on sale. Went down quite nicely, though.

I painted the kitchen aqua--playing up that kitsch.

Gustavo worked on the fence--as you can tell, our backyard is tiny and quite hilly--this was definitely a creative effort.

He also built retaining walls for our hilly front yard--looking good, babe!

What these pictures don't show is the ENORMOUS amount of kudzu that he had to cut back and get rid of. Tons of it! Also, we found dozens of those kudzu bugs that were actually featured on the front of the AJC today. (Click here for article)

Finding guns in your backyard is cool...

...pretty sure its a toy. Additionally, we have found the vast majority of a car (two tires, car seat, etc) under the house as well. Interesting, isn't it?

Mondo grass and hostas (planted in an old enamel pot, also unearthed in backyard)

Gustavo brought me flowers on the front porch :)

Hope all of you had a great weekend as well.