Thursday, July 26, 2012

lately.



1. tomato plants are finally producing RED tomatoes... so i can eat them my favorite way ... sliced with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

2. thanks, louie & rena for sending the most wonderful gift!! can't wait to try all the food (especially the lobster pate, who knew there was even such a thing??)

3. one of my favorite snacks... banana "ice cream" , this time skipped the cocoa powder and opted for vanilla extract and pumpkin spice instead! (see original recipe here )

cheers!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

what's it like?

i live in jersey city.

to a lot of people around here, it means "NOT new york city"
(oh? you live in JERRRsey?)

as if it's this awful place or something.

i mean, the media sometimes doesn't help too much
(sopranos and their whole mob thing... jersey shore and their whole, um... just, ridiculousness)

but one magazine has, since 2008, been promoting the great things about our city, jersey city .  it highlights businesses and cultural events, and has interesting articles highlighting growth of the city, historical locations, etc.

here is the summer 2012 edition...



                                            Open publication - Free publishing

pretty cool right??

now for those of you visiting NYC, take a quick $2, 2-stop PATH train ride to Grove St. 

it's a happening place!

cheers.

Monday, July 23, 2012

keeping it local

brick oven pizza with the neighbor
block party with other local friends
pig roast
buffalo calamari with more local friends
watermelon gin and tonic
peach gin and tonic
mango gin and tonic with even MORE local friends
(mega hangover)
ikea trip
new full-length mirror
new flatware
massive amount of veggie lasagna
sichuan dinner with, yes, even more local friends
ice cream with sprinkles

white wine mussels, powerhouse pizza 

margherita pizza, powerhouse pizza  (ha, they totally forgot the basil... good, but it was definitely just sauce and cheese)  


veggie omelet, courtesy of the roomie 

lucky 7 block party! 

lucky 7 block party!  (ha.. notice all the water under the grill... kiddos in the blow-up kiddie pool thought it was fun to lean on the side and let out all the water..)

lucky 7 block party! 

lucky 7 block party!  

lucky 7 block party!  (only $8 for all this food AND a grilled ear of corn!)

lucky 7 block party!  (oh, hey friends!)


drinks at sage in williamsburg, brooklyn (thanks for the pics, sarah! this was obviously not taken by my trusty point-and-shoot camera)

drinks at  sage  in williamsburg, brooklyn  (thanks for the pics, sarah! this was obviously not taken by my trusty point-and-shoot camera)

note to mr p on the breakfast i surprise-made for him friday morning :D

mega-veggie-laZAGna-making station sunday afternoon 

torico's ice cream after dinner with friends at grand sichuan  (can you guess who had all the sprinkles!?!?!?!?) 

new full-length mirror... definitely some rearranging to do... and we need to find a new place for the chevron fabric frames :/


successful weekend NOT going away? mission: accomplished

laundry will have to wait yet another day... i think i can deal, though. 
this beautiful place we live in has just too many fun things that are more important!!

cheers, readers :)

p.s.  the little man is getting SO big! can't wait to see him in october!!!

Friday, July 20, 2012

cat saturdays

for some reason today, i got to work feeling giddy .

it could be because i'm seeing my bestest high school friends a week from TODAY!

it could be because i got an email from one of my mexico trip girls asking about music selections for music on the beach (less than two months away!!) ...which made me super anxious to see those lovely ladies :D

it could be because i'm getting to see LOCAL friends this weekend (oh hey, guys, no we didn't forget about you, we just have too many people to see that live in too many different AWESOME places)

it could be because i got an email from chobani yesterday saying "hey, we wanna hook you up with some free CHO!" (uh, yes please! we're totally getting into this using-plain-yogurt-in-unconventional-dishes thing)

or...

it COULD be because tomorrow is cat saturday!!

i’m totally convinced that the sole reason for mr p introducing me to this awful awful ly “interesting” website is so my desperate NEED to get a cat subsides, and I’m fully entertained by looking at OTHER cats.

well… it’s actually working … for now.

so, without further ado, I now bring you last saturday's  cat Saturday , from thechive.com.  


go be entertained. and be forever insta-excited when you wake up on Saturday mornings!! (and don't look at the rest of the website... there's a bunch of boobs. and i'm guessing you're probably a girl who's reading this, and you don't want to see boobs)










on another cat-related note, this website is pretty funny too.

cheers to the weekend!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

green chicken tacos

these tacos were ah-mazing.  

and totally not mexican at all.  well.. except for the whole corn tortilla thing.  and the salsa thing.

but the rest was totally a "whatever we had in the fridge" sort of thing that turned out super delicious!  and pretty ;)

mr p has been on this kick where he cooks chicken breasts in the crock pot in chicken broth and lots of herbs, then when it's done in the morning, we have insta-pulled chicken! ...for sammiches, salads, and... lately... tacos!

we've been adding spinach, plain greek yogurt, chopped onions, pickled jalapenos, and salsa we bought from a local guy, JC Hot Sauce at the craft fair.

hope you enjoy as much as we do!  we had it two nights in a row... so far ;)


Green Chicken Tacos

shredded/pulled chicken breast
yellow corn tortillas
plain greek yogurt ( chobani is best! it's super thick almost like sour cream)
fresh spinach, chopped
yellow onion, chopped
pickled jalapenos
green salsa ( JC Hot Sauce Jalapeno Onion is our green salsa of choice)

heat/toast tortillas under broiler until they begin to JUST turn brown, flip and repeat on the flip side (they shouldn't crack when you fold them into a taco, that's TOO crispy!).   smear yogurt on one side of the tortilla, add some fresh spinach, chicken, onions, jalapenos, and top with green salsa.  put on as much as you like of all things, but remember not to put TOO much or you won't be able to fold the taco without spilling!!  mr p also likes to use 2 tortillas like they do at our favorite mexican place in philly!

mr p's tacos: double tortillas and some bright green el yucateco

my tacos:  spinach on the bottom, 1 tortilla, and JC Hot Sauce

we know it's a little unorthodox to put yogurt and spinach on a TACO , but hey, we like to mix it up a bit and occasionally NOT use a recipe ;)

cheers!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

split pea soup

i should be telling you about the amazing split pea soup mr p made
(upon desperate request, it's really a winter food, but i've been craving it for a while :P)

..............but..............

all i can think about is how good my breakfast was!!


- chobani PLAIN greek yogurt
- grape nuts

that's all.

i've talked about this breakfast before here, but i'm one of those people who just keep eating what i like until i get sick of it, then put that recipe on the shelf for a while until i get the craving (i guess it's only breakfast foods... i do the same thing with my overnight oats!!)


anyways, this post is about split pea soup!!!
(ewww peas are groooosssss)

don't let the name fool you.  maybe you are thinking you "don't like peas" because your mother made you eat the gross ones from a can or the frozen ones in the bag, and you couldn't even stand the look of them rolling around your plate infecting all the other food (sorry mom... i STILL don't like those peas, unless they are slightly hidden in a soup or fried rice)   this soup tastes NOTHING like THOSE kinds of peas.

well... actually they are the same kind of pea , but the canned and frozen ones are harvested fresh, and immediately canned or frozen or possibly sold fresh.  split peas are left on the vine longer, dried, then split ( thanks, ehow.com ).  usually you cook the begeezus out of them in some sort of broth, so almost none of the icky taste of fresh peas is there. they just taste like the broth they are cooked in.... or... at least that's the case in making split pea soup.  they mostly taste like ham from the ham hock!

enjoy!



Split Pea Soup

Ingredients 2 tbsp. butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, sliced or diced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cups of dried split peas
6 cups chicken broth
1 smoked ham hock or ham bone
1.5 cups of diced ham (you can buy ham steaks at the grocery if you don't want to buy a whole ham!)

Instructions
in a large pot or dutch oven, melt the butter, add the vegetables, and cook until the onions are soft. add the bay leaves, thyme, and salt & pepper and stir. add the split peas and stir to coat with the spices and the butter, then add the broth and the ham hock/ham bone. turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer for a hour. check on the soup: it should be creamy and soft, but not so thick that it's like a pea loaf. If it's getting too thick, add a little more broth. The soup is ready when the peas are soft, about a hour to a hour & half.

Notes
1. our soup never got "creamy and soft". it looked more like vegetable soup, so we blitzed a few times with the immersion blender to break up the peas a bit.
2. we cooked the soup with the diced ham in it, but wish we would have added it after blitzing with the immersion blender.  all the "chunks" definitely got blended smooth instead of staying chunky like we wanted... though the flavor was still SO good ;)
3. WARNING: the soup slightly resembles baby food after taking the blender to it... just so you're aware.  i promise the flavor totally makes up for its ugly appearance!
4. WARNING: this recipe makes a lot! we (2 of us) ate it for dinner 2 nights, lunches 2 days, and we have a quart of it frozen in the freezer...

cheers!

Monday, July 16, 2012

beach babes

last weekend we went to norfolk, va to spend time with GREAT friends who recently moved away, and to spend time with mr p's family.

we spent time at the farmer's market, beach, and pool eating seafood, hotdogs, and all 13 cookies we bought at the farmer's market...

the ocean water was like bath water, unlike our last trip to the beach!! and i couldn't stay away from mr p's cousin's cutie patootie (halfie!!) kiddos.... as if you couldn't tell from the number of photos i took of them. amelia was such a ham for the camera, while clayton was the shy one (though anything BUT shy in person!)

thanks to nick and christina for letting us crash on your futon all weekend and for being our chauffeurs, and thanks to kat (and emily!) for hanging out with us and letting us smother the kiddos all weekend :D

only one weekend of relaxing at home before i'm leaving mr p to have a girls weekend in denver!!

cheers!