Twinkle Toes

As I previously mentioned, BF de Luxe (who may be referred to as the following: "D", Spartacus, 300, BFDL, etc.) and I were going to cook dinner together tonight...but while I was twirling my Tutu around ballet class, he graciously decided to start prepping. Sweet deal for many reasons:

1. My hands didn't have to get dirty with raw chicken

2. I didn't cry (and stink) while chopping onions

and most importantly

3. Early prepping = Filling my belly faster.

So when I got to D's house, this is what I saw:

2 different kinds of onions (some for grilling & some for the bruchetta), 2 different kinds of chicken, and 2 different kinds of shrimp. Have you figured out what's cookin' yet?? You'll see!!

Next on the To-Do: slice the peppers

Spartacus didn't want to show his handsome face off on the blog yet...so the hands will do for now.

Once in a large bowl, add a good amount of quality olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, and enough salt to season. (I'm not including exact measurements in this post for a couple reasons. First, because I didn't do the prep work. And secondly, because in cooking there really is no exact measurement. Every person has their own preferences and nutritional requirements. I'm not a dietician or anything but I do believe that you when you eat whole, healthy foods, you don't need to measure.)

NEXT...begin skewering!!

"We" repeated this process until all the chicken & shrimp were on skewers. Keeping them separate is a good idea because the shrimp only take about 6-7 minutes to cook, whereas the chicken takes a bit longer. Raw chicken = Bad...unless you enjoy spending the night in your bathroom.

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What we used: Chicken breasts & Frozen shrimp (thawed)

1/2 of the shrimp & 1/2 the chicken were marinaded using good olive oil, Juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt and dried oregano.

The remaining shrimp & chicken were marinaded using olive oil, a dash of salt, orgeno and a dash of red pepper flakes for a kick.

While BF was outside sweating over the grill, I stayed comfy cozy indoors & got started on the bruschetta. Someone has to do it!!

Step 1- slice up your favorite loaf of bread & drizzle with yummy olive oil. I used this bread from Costco. It's perfectly crunchy on the outside & fluffy on the inside.

Step 2- Bake the bread for 5 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
Step 3- In the meantime, dice up your favorite tomatoes. This would be a great opportunity to get some heirlooms from your farmer's market. You'll also need some good feta cheese for this bruschetta. I prefer the box of Dodonis which contains liquid. This keeps the feta from drying out. Crumble the feta & combine with the tomatoes in a bowl. Add in a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few sprinkles of oregano. (My hands were so sloppy at this point I forgot to take a pic of the bowl. Sorry!)

Step 4: Remove sliced bread from the oven & heavily top each one with the tomato/feta mixture. You can pile these as high as you'd like but REMEMBER that you & your dinner guests have to fit it in your mouths...or you could be like me and dump it all over your dress. That's cute, too.

Final Step- Put back into the 375 oven for another 4-5 minutes.

VOILA

A perfectly grilled dinner (cooked by a cuteypatooty guy) + a cool, sweet glass of Canyon Oaks moscato = one VERY happy Ballerina.

Thanks, D...you can invite me over for dinner any day!

Simply Sunday

I love Sundays. I always have. It's the one day a week, even as a little girl, I remember my entire family being together for the whole day. What could be better? In our house, the women (my two sisters, MamaDeLuxe, and myself) are the ones in the kitchen-cooking, baking, pouring the wine & chatting...and the men are usually doing other things...like watching tv or napping until the food is done. European men have it made. Enough said. Besides that, the house is filled with the sounds of childhood innocence. While sometimes I do enjoy a nice quiet afternoon (ie. last Saturday), majority of the time I love hearing the voices of my neices & nephews and the pitter patter of their little feet running through the house. Yes, today was perfect.

It started off with my Mom's amazing homemade egg salad sandwiches.
We started by boiling the eggs.

In the meantime, we chopped up red and orange bell peppers, a few green onions, and half of a regular white onion. Along with that we also zested about half a lemon.

To top the egg salad, we baked several slices of Pancetta in the oven. Pancetta is like a much healthier, less fattier Italian substitute for bacon.

Once the eggs were finished boiling, we peeled them (stiiiinky!), and cut them into halves, then smaller pieces.

Combine the eggs in a large bowl with all other ingredients & add a good amount of S&P, a few shakes of Cayenne, 2 small spoonfulls of Dijon mustard, and 2 small spoonfulls of Mayo (any kind will do).

Gently mix & set in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes. Once done, start assembling on your favorite bread (we used Arnold's rye today).


I topped the sandwiches off with Kraft's new Bacon&Chedder cheese slices. Lord have mercy. That's all I'm saying.


The day only got better from there. I started on my pie adventure (as previously posted) while the other gals got dinner started. On the menu...

Happy Hour & Appetizers:
I mixed 2 of my newest wines together for a milder, sweeter afternoon beverage. You may recognize lastnight's Malbec purchase. The other wine is Canyon Oaks moscato. Moscato wines are made from the muscate grapes which are much sweeter in taste. This wine has wonderful fruity hints to it.

Along with the wine we baked up some of Wegmans' Wine & Cheese flavored pork sausage. I don't usually gravitate towards sausage but this was very good. It had the perfect amount of cheese flavor with a slight kick at the end.

We also baked up some Brie cheese & topped it with Wegmans' mouth-watering caramel pecan cranberry topping. You can find it in their cheese section.I prefer Carr's brand crackers with my brie. A little more expensive but very delicious. I'm not kidding you, this was HEA-VEN-LY! I actually saw the skies part & could hear the angels singing, "ahhhhhhhh". Just like that.

Main Menu:
Sweet corn on the cob, which we coated with Olive Oil & cilantro

Beer,Bourbon,and BBQ'd ribs (literally melted off the bone!! )

Grilled chicken & Greek-style Ratatouille (called Briami)

And a nice, fresh salad topped with black olives, Parmesano Reggiano shavings, and dijon dressing

Finally, at the table...Happy Sunday, everyone. Hope you have a wonderful week.