One more of the fire, then we're dropping the subject!!

So--here's our house.




and the inside.

and here is the culprit behind the fire....
neighbor's house


So, you see, it really could be MUCH worse!! We decide to make the most of it.

And the view from our hotel. Westin is still waiting for windows that were blown out by the tornado last St. Patrick's day.


Not too shabby, eh?
We're getting more than our fix of HGTV! (It's actually kind of ridiculous to watch this much HGTV)
and I get to cook again :) Pasta with every vegetable we had and some cheese, too.

...so...a cook is staying in a weekly hotel, when...

..it's got a hot plate, a fridge, and here are some blurry pics of us moving in. We will upload clear pics upon attaining a cord for the whole camera to computer situation ;)

Is it weird that my biggest issue was not being able to cook? I felt so...incapacitated.

The blurry...

clearer...

and the fridge.


Can you believe we've been here for less than 48 hours?

This seems fitting. "Road to Nowhere" Talking Heads

We are thankful...

That everyone is okay. Big thank you to Atlanta Fire Department!! ENGINE 6, ENGINE 10, ENGINE 16, ATL Police, Paramedics, Battalion Chiefs and everyone else. You saved our house.







Thank you to Shay and Brooke for the pics and for letting us stay the night.

its Lundi Gras!! Let's have some shrimp creole

I decided to make some Shrimp Creole from another recipe in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I'm not going to lie to you guys--I'm a bit dubious about this recipe. It's very thick and tomatoey--kind of like a pasta sauce. Is this how its supposed to be? With only salt, pepper and bay leaves listed to spice it...well. I just had to add some cayenne, oregano and thyme. Regardless, if you're going to try shrimp creole, I would check out Katherine's recipe over at Smoky Mountain Cafe, first. She's from New Orleans, so I trust her recipe. Wouldn't you know I didn't find it until AFTER I'd already made my batch! sigh.

So, here's the thick, yet still pretty tasty Shrimp Creole. I put turmeric in my rice to make it yellow, and cooked it in shrimp stock.

And to get us in the Mardi Gras spirit, here's some pictures of Tavo and I in New Orleans. Not during Mardi Gras, we went very suddenly over Memorial Day Weekend. Just decided during lunch that we should get out of town, and rolled into New Orleans by midnight. This was a while ago--2007--we need to go again!!




and even though we ended sleeping in the car, we did keep up our dental hygiene.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!

pizza and enchildada and drink and pizza and bollywood

I've had a couple of these, so this might be precious....

Why not? Here's a good song to get you going, from Dil Se...

Anyone else out there a fan of 90's Bollywood?? I LOVE that stuff. The precursor to Slumdog Millionaire, if you will. I didn't make Indian food, but that hasn't stopped me from dancing on top of a train quite yet.

Honestly, though, all I want to do is talk about pizza. I made the "Pasta Milanese" sauce from the Atlanta Journal Constitution(our local newspaper), and decided to just throw it on my basic pizza crust.
Turned out quite nice, though I did drizzle honey on the top to cut the anchovies and olives.
and why not dip a few Georgia pecans into chocolate? (using chopsticks is the way to go)
and as the birthday party(s) began, we had some of this....
and this.........
and breakfast came with a wee bit of this............
oh, and some more of this....

I seriously live for the weekends. And, I do admit that Shahrukh Khan's ladies are 90% of the reason I'm kind of into yoga. One more from Dil Se.

If you want to watch more 90's Bollywood; I have to admit my favorite Shahrukh Khan movie is with Kajol, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Yep, my weakness ;)

this about sums up my day

Sound is a bit quiet, but it's been this kind of day :)

'cause you know I play it like this:


You see, its the Librarian humor that keeps Tavo interested, not the food ;)

Sangria, Cranberry Ginger Pork and a wee bit of Hit or Miss

First things first--I don't know if its because we switched to using Chrome as a browser, but all my pictures uploaded in a ridiculous order. (And apparently I am misspelling every other word) ANYHOW I'll just have a nice glass of Sangria and tell you about our night...

Quick Sangria

-half glass red wine (I'm using box cabernet)

-splash orange juice

-cut up limes, oranges

-Ice

and I change it up depending on what juice / fresh fruit I have

I took a trip to the ever scintillating (and always friendly) Save-A-Lot in the West End. It's usually a bit of gamble, because you can never be quite sure what they'll have in stock. (for example--this week there was no lettuce! Not even iceberg!) I am the type of person who goes to a grocery store with recipes, a two week menu plan, and coupons to match. But I do enjoy a challenge. So this week's "Orange and Ginger Pork" turned into "Cranberry Ginger Pork" after ascertaining there was no marmalade to be found.

Another unique twist--notice how the "top" of this can is not designed for a can opener? (also, see evidence of typed grocery list, complete with menu and recipes)
Bottoms up!
Cranberry Ginger Pork

1 cup cranberry sauce

3 T. orange juice

1 T. brown sugar

zest of 1 lime

1 inch piece ginger, grated (I used powdered)

combine above ingredients in pan over medium low heat and stir. Simmer 5 minutes.

Tavo will wash the pork loin! Now, this recipe simply said, "Pork Loin." So I grabbed one, and grumbled to Tavo about how I spent $7 on his meat habit. (little did I know I'd bought enough pork to feed a small army)

Directions say to brush on cranberry marinade and broil for 15 minutes, rotating once. Hmm....

Yeah, 20 minutes later and we're still raw. So, we sliced up the bohemoth pork loin into manageable half pound slabs and threw it back in.

I will not be serving trichinosis pork today!


Served with saffron rice (vegetable stock instead of water, a couple strands of saffron) and garlic / crushed red pepper sauteed broccoli.

Tavo made insanity pork loin lunches for the week! Stack and drizzle....
Happy Tuesday evening, everyone!!