boeuf bourguignon

Beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onions, and mushrooms.

Well now that I have promised to do a fancy dinner weekly. I have bucked up and decided that next week I must make this. I have to make this before school starts. So I will. Next week it is on! It will take me all day, maybe even longer, but hopefully it will be worth it. I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully I will make Julia Child proud.

school lunch weird girl

Since we still don't have a dinner table, we eat off our coffee table. This is bad for me. I am a horribly messy person when it comes to food. When I was little I was super messy. My dad would just wait during every meal for me to spill all over myself; and every meal I did. Well for a few years recently, I got good at eating. I rarely spilled and was quite proud of myself. But now it is back. And now instead of my dad, Kevin waits for it. Every meal I spill on me and on the floor numerous times.

All throughout school I had my mom make me lunches. I refused to eat school lunches. I had a horrible fear, and this really was horrible of me, of the down syndrome kids licking their lunch trays clean of the ketchup, fry sauce and anything else left. I told myself I would never eat off of those or the utensils. I was such a prejudice little girl. I had a hard time even walking by the "resource" or "special" kids classrooms. Well my mom fortunately made the best lunches. I was always known as the girl with the weird lunches. She would pack stuff like hearts of palm, whole cucumbers, apples stuffed with peanut butter, cucumbers in vinegar, tuna fish mixtures , sandwiches wrapped in parchment paper... and the list goes on. For little kids- these foods were weird. But I loved them and I would eat it all, and there always was a lot to eat. I would sometimes try to sneak food out onto the playground because all my friends would get done before me and get anxious; but I always got caught. Back to the meaning of this... My mom would put the cucumbers and vinegar and other concoctions of sorts in plastic baggies. After I was done eating it, I would bite a whole at the bottom of the bag and drink, yes drink, the vinegar. Well today at our picnic lunch I did that same thing. Except I was out of practice. The whole bag of balsamic vinegar dripped down my neck and hair and onto my lap. So that was my messy, little-girl move of the day.
I also remember watching this fat kid eat bananas and chocolate pudding all the time in the cafeteria and I told myself I would never eat those.
I was a funny little girl.

Tonight I made wedge salads with this blue cheese dressing which is to die for. This is the only blue cheese dressing I will ever eat now. But be careful this wedge salad is messy! Well it was for me. I spilled more than usual.

Blue Cheese Dressing

1/4 pound crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons buttermilk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2-1/4 teaspoons white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
ground black pepper to taste
Combine all in a bowl with a hand mixture.

Wedge Salad:
1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 8 wedges
1 roma tomatoes, diced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 pound crumbled blue cheese
I also added:
crumbled bacon
sliced apples
homemade candied pecans

the new weekly fancy dinner

Since I am surrounded by fancy food and drink at Tiburon now, I somehow think me and Kevin now deserve that. So I have decided to do a weekly fancy dinner. For last nights menu:

Artesian Bread w/ oil and balsamic vinegar

Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad

Chicken Cordon Blue

Non-alcoholic Champagne

Sadly, I didn't make the bread. I suck at making bread, well actually I would like to blame this on my oven. So this was just a Walmart special. But everything was absolutely delicious. I have made this chicken recipe too many times to count, and it is delicious every time. It is amazingly rich. The caprese salad was a first, and required some time to do, but was completely worth it. I love love love the combination of basil, mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette. And since you cook and reduce the dressing, it makes it that much more delicious and savory. I bought the mozzarella cheese balls at Pirate Ohs and they were the bomb. I also got the non-alcoholic champagne at Pirate Ohs. I have never tried it before but it was so good! Its just like sparkling cider but with a bit more bubbly. Kevin loved popping the cap off. Im so glad he did it outside because it FLEW into our neighbors yard. It definitely could have put a hole in our ceiling. And the popping sound made it all the more fancy. Ha us mormons...
We finished the night with Inception. We rarely go see movies at the Real Theater. Real as in $8.50 a pop real. We have a really hard time spending $17 for a movie, but maybe being fancy got us in the mood. Well it was worth it, very worth it. It was a very creative and intelligent movie. Christopher Nolan has a gift and I think he needs to keep on sharing it. We want more Christopher!

Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad
(My Kitchen Cafe)

2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and patted dry
1 cup chopped fresh basil

In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes, sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt together. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes so that the tomatoes give up some of their juices. Transfer the tomatoes and any accumulated liquid to a salad spinner and spin to remove the seeds and the liquid. Then pour the accumulated seeds and liquid into a fine-mesh strainer to remove the seeds, reserving the liquid. (I don’t have a salad spinner, so I dumped the all of the tomatoes and juices into a fine mesh strainer set over a liquid measuring cup and pressed on the tomatoes lightly to give up more of their juices. I picked out a few of the seeds but didn’t worry so much about eliminating all of them.) Return the tomatoes to the original bowl and pour the tomato liquid into a small saucepan (you should have between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of liquid).

To the small saucepan, add the vinegar and garlic. Simmer over medium heat until the mixture is reduced to about 3 tablespoons. This will take about 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature and then whisk in the olive oil.

Add the mozzarella cheese, basil and cooled dressing to the bowl with the tomatoes and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Serve

Chicken Cordon Blue

6 chicken breasts
ham
swiss cheese
1 tsp paprika
3 Tb flour
6 Tb butter
1 bouillon cube
2 Tb corn starch
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy whipping cream
toothpicks

Flatten the chicken breast and cut an insert. Add slices of ham and swiss cheese. Secure with toothpick (you might need 4 or 5 in each). Mix the flour and paprika and coat chicken on both sides. Melt 6 Tb butter in a large saucepan and brown chicken on both sides. Add 1 1/2 cup water and bouillon cube and simmer on medium for 30-35 minutes, don't cover.
Mix the cornstarch and heavy whipping cream in small pan and boil for 2 minutes. Then whisk and cool. If it is not thick enough, add more cornstarch.
When chicken is done, add a slice of swiss cheese on top, and spoon over whipping cream mixture. ENJOY!

appletini's & bombay's

Last night I started my first server training shift at Tiburon. What a doozy. It is NOTHING like my previous serving job. I have to learn about meat, cuts, food, sauces, herbs, vegetables, their garden, WINE, BOOZE, BEER, everything! Makes me tired just writing it all. But don't worry they just threw me right in. They have a bar, but no bartender-the servers are the bartenders. I cant believe how much hard alcohol and wine they have. But having a mormon bartender is such a great idea. While I was concocting 5 appletinis, and 3 or 4 bombays for this couple (oh how they could put drinks down!) the vodka and triple sec was dripping down my arms. Im sure anyone else would love to just lick that expensive stuff up. The server I was shadowing was luckily the only other mormon there. She told me my husband will just get used to me coming home smelling like booze. Mom and Dad arent you so proud of me?....
But I really do like this job, everyone that works there is so generous and nice. The gardener told me I can go out and pick whatever I want. The chefs make a special dinner for the servers before tables start arriving. Last night it was a delicious pizza. Then all through the night they are making things up and having you try them. They made us a fruit salad, a smoothie that was delicious that had so many ingredients in it, duck with a special sauce, and at the end of the night they made me my very own New Zealand Elk plate. Oh man was it good. It was hard for me to save some for Kevin but I did. I think Kevin is going to like this new job of mine...

birthday boy

Ok we all know I suck at birthdays and Christmas. I get too excited. I just cant wait. Well dont think this birthday will be any different. Kevins birthday isnt until August 3rd but... I couldnt wait. I got his mazagine publishments (I know thats not a word but I am keeping it) framed. I also got our bridal one framed for me. I wanted them all nice and classy looking for our kids. I know there will come a time when they think their parents are soooo lame. Well we will show them when we whip these bad boys out. We will go Hazaah! look how cool we were and still are!! That'll show em.

blessings

You know when you receive a blessing and you know you don't deserve it? Well that has happened to me twice in the past few weeks.
Number one. I recently got a new calling in my ward (I have had 3 in the past...6 or 7 months)- Relief Society Secretary. I could not believe it when I heard it. Really? ME in the relief society? Were still pretty new in our ward and I just bet you most everyone thinks I am still a laurel in Young Womens. I had told Kevin after I got my 3rd calling that there was no way I was going to say "yes" to another calling that was in a two month span of my old calling. I was sick and tired of being the new person in Achievement Days, then Cub Scouts, then Primary... But when I was asked to serve as the RS secretary, I had a calm feeling overcome me and I knew I had to say yes. Oh you should have seen Kevins face when I said this, he knows how stubborn I am with things. He told me he got nervous for the counselor who extended the calling to me; he thought I was going to give him a piece of my mind. Well with being so scared and nervous for this calling, I have completely loved it. It is the perfect calling for me right now. I am getting to know the women in my ward. And I love the presidency I work with; I feel blessed to work with them.
Number two. I got a new job! I went job hunting last week and went to Tiburon to drop off a resume; really just for the fun of it. I thought this place was too nice for a mexican server like me. Well it just so happened that the owner was right there when I walked in. Perfect!! I told him I would love to serve for him and had experience, and for some reason he liked me! He told me he didnt have any openings at Tiburon currently, but was opening up a new restaurant in October- so I could start serving there. He gave me his email so we could keep in touch. Well the next day he called me and hazzaah!, one of his servers wanted a month off, so he wanted to start training me for his position. I went in the next day, he didn't even interview me, and we just talked and he officially hired me. So I should be starting to train either this week or next. So this was blessing number two. The timing was perfect. And I wasn't interviewed - Heavenly Father knows me all too well. Blessings, blessings, blessings!

good job guys, good job...

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