Food experiment of the day: Grilled sandwich with ricotta cheese, raspberries, and a drizzle of honey.

Verdict: yum - maybe next time I’ll had some greens like sweet basil or mint.

I re-found my passion for cooking!

Tonight’s dinner is chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and French cut green beans. Don’t judge on the beans, I love canned beans and I refuse to ever grow out of eating them.

Braised Island short ribs

This was a modification from a dish my mom used to make. She used pork country style ribs and baked the dish, I used beef short ribs and braised it. The sauce is a sweet and tangy concoction - I can’t get enough of it and I was scraping the bottom of the pan and pouring the extras over rice.

My mom’s version was always good but I think braising was the way to go. To quote Mark:

You know it’s delicious when you don’t even have to use a knife to cut it.

I don’t really have a recipe because I eyeballed all the ingredients. I will tell you it’s a mix of ketchup, soy sauce, brown sugar, spicy mustard, and garlic powder (in descending order of the amounts used). I used red wine to deglaze the pan and vegetable broth to braise it - I just whisked the sauce into it and put the whole thing in the oven for about 2 hrs.

Don’t judge on the canned ‘French-Style’ green beans - I not-so-secretly love them (maybe even more than fresh green beans).

I made cinnamon rolls…

From scratch.

OK - not scratch, I used Bisquik, which I’m pretty sure is devil magic. What else can make so many different things from just one mix?

• Country biscuits - BAM! Bisquik.
• Buttermilk pancakes - POW! Bisquik.
• Waffles - KABLAM! Bisquik.
• Cinnamon Rolls - BOOM! Bisquik.

Like I said, devil magic.

And then I made them more awesome.

That’s cream cheese frosting. Just sayin’.

Also - last week I found out I have the 4th AND 5th off of work. So - yay today!

Cinnamon Rolls [recipe]
Icing [recipe]

I take birthdays pretty seriously.

We’re celebrating my husband’s birthday today - his actual birthday is tomorrow but he’s got dental school finals next week so tomorrow is dedicated to studying.

I created a little spread on the dining room table of the cards and his gifts. I put everything in one box which I’m now regretting as it takes away from the splendor of getting multiple birthday gifts.

I call this cake rustically frosted. I’m no professional but the strawberry flower makes me smile alot.

I also made the cake and frosting from scratch, because that’s how I roll.

[Cake Recipe: super secret/ Frosting Recipe: Link - with ~2 tsp cocoa powder and ~4 tbsp melted chocolate]

Sundays are for comfort food.

[Pioneer Woman’s perfect pot roast]

• Parmesan crusted porkchops (recipe - I used panko instead of italian bread crumbs)
• Asparagus (pan seared)
• Creamy Orzo (recipe - best side dish ever!)

Dinner the other night - simple but delicious.

For Valentine’s Day my husband and I don’t exchange gifts, we just make that day about spending time together and eating a ridiculously good meal.

This year we wanted to save money so we stayed in and dined (also didn’t want to bother with reservations). I made broiled lobster tail, asparagus, and rice pilaf with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Alcohol was also served.

I totally cheated on the rice pilaf and use a box of Uncle Ben’s. I typically try to stay away from pre-prepared dishes like this but I didn’t want to bother with gathering the ingredients for rice pilaf and I already had the box in my pantry. It still kind of counts though, because I had to simmer it for 25 minutes…that’s hard work.

The lobster was a challenge. I’ve never prepared lobster before, I was completely ignorant about how intimate I would have to get with this lobster tail…apparently very intimate, we should have gone out for drinks first.

Throughout dinner I took in the whole spread and felt very satisfied with myself.

After dinner I think I proclaimed, “I AM THE BEST WIFE IN THE WHOLE GD WORLD!”

Which was immediately followed by an eye roll.

Admittedly, while I was rather impressed with myself and my lobster dinner, I doubt that the ability to physically molest a lobster tail, slather it in butter and spices, and throw it under the toaster-oven broiler (that’s right, I used the toaster-oven on lobster) makes me any better of a wife than anyone else.

Hope you also had an enjoyable V-day!

Recently I have learned to poach an egg, it’s an amazing skill and one I never acquired as a child because my parents had a nifty little egg poacher doo-hinky that required nothing but an egg.

The mistake I was making in the past was having the water at a boil but the trick is to keep it just under a boil. Also, adding a dash of vinegar.

Now I have the skill and time to make myself yummy breakfasts like the one I had here. I poached an egg, made some toast, and I threw some cherry tomatoes in olive oil and salt and gave them about 10 minutes in the toaster oven on bake. Then I grabbed my usual morning green tea and patted myself on the back for eating such a colorful and healthy breakfast.

Hot Wings.

Sometimes my husband needs to be reminded how awesome I am - on those occasions I usually whip out an amazing meal, like hot wings and wedge salad. I’m pretty sure making hot wings for dinner automatically labels you as a bad ass.

I roast my hot wings (I know - sacrilegious - but slightly healthier than frying). I simply season with salt and pepper, toss in some light canola oil and throw ‘em in the over for 40-50 minutes at 400 degrees. Then I take them out and toss them in Frank’s Buffalo Sauce and a tablespoon of butter. They are so good! I usually only break them out for the superbowl but sometimes I’m awesome and they end up on the dinner menu.