fire up the grill

This summer has already been incredible.

When Dusty picks me up at work, he always has his sunglasses on, the windows down and the sunroof open, and some music blasting.
We've gotten in a habit of yelling, "Summertiiiiiime!" while we pull out of the parking lot.

We go to Caribbean Snow about once a day, on average.
Not really...more like 3-4 times a week. Is that better? No. No, it's not.

It's our new summer spot. It's a little shaved ice hut in the parking lot of our grocery store, and lemme tell you, as soon as you pull in and hear that festive Caribbean Bahama-Rama Music coming from the hut's speakers, you can't help but be in a good mood.

Good moods.

Kiwi and White Coconut are by far the best flavors. Throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center, and you might as well call yourself Gilligan because you've found yourself right in the middle of paradise.

In other news, the warmer weather has allowed us to break out our grill! My dad got us a fantastic Cuisinart grill, and it made its debut on Memorial Day. :)

I'm letting Dusty take the credit for these little burger baskets and festive napkins -- he was pretty excited when he saw them at Michael's :)

All the fixins for a good time! Burgers, brats, "hint of jalapeno" chips, corn on the cob, little medallion potatoes, baked beans, and homemade mint Oreo ice cream and American cookie pie for dessert!

The boys were outside during the prep time, enjoying the hot, sticky weather and watching the hamburgers and brats roast away. :)

Corn on the cob is pretty much the best thing ever.
Slathered in butter, with chili powder and garlic salt is how I like it best.

That little strip of buttery burn is the best part of all.

After our feast, we got to enjoy some super creamy mint Oreo ice cream.
I'm excited to really get the hang of this ice cream maker, and experiment with flavors and textures!
The weather is hot and the taste-buds are a-callin for some freezer foods.

Yum!

Apart from having friends over and eating a lot of sugary cold substances, we've also been doing a lot of renovations to our little apartment!
Why?
BECAUSE I'M A WIZARD at collecting whosie-whatsits for the home.

Exhibit A:

This wooden fiend grabbed my attention before I could even recoil at the pile of old sheets behind it.
Good Will is sometimes a home owner's small apartment renter's best friend.
$15 later, I couldn't wait to get it home and have Dusty sing my praises.
Hopefully with "You're So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker or the theme to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Not sure why, but I think if he sang that when I came in the door it'd somehow translate into a stellar compliment.

 Luna's version of approval:

Voila:

We love it! We're finally getting to the point where our apartment feels complete.
We've thrown around the idea of moving to a bigger place, and it's still a slight possibility, but I think things have really begun to click with us and this little home of ours.

The next BIG change all took place within about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon.
As I was getting ready to get off work, I was trolling around Craigslist. I've been hoping to find a tall and skinny dresser-type unit to replace my giant plastic bin of fabric in the craft room.
(That's the saddest, most sporadically decorated room in the house).
Instead, I came across 2 most intriguing listings.
In this case, "intriguing" means "cheap".
Now, I know. Thomas Jefferson advised never to buy something just because it's cheap.
But if someone offered you prime rib for 50 cents, wouldn't you take it?
No, scratch that. That's gross, and you might die. What about...what if someone offered you a bouquet of red roses for $1? That's better, and far less dangerous. The moral of the story is, don't buy 50 cent meat from anyone. Ok, kids?

This listing said TWO wooden chairs for $5.
The next listing said a dining room table for $2!
Surely I was hallucinating.
It didn't occur to me until later that this person could be luring strangers to their home with evil intentions, but by then, Dusty was already on his way there and I was in the Chiropractor's chair.

While we still aren't sure about the details, the owners of this fantastic furniture were obviously moving in a hurry, and just needed to get the furniture out of their home. They seemed to be a nice family; the husband was from Africa, and they had several cute (according to Dusty) little kids.
Dusty gave them $10, and somehow managed to get the table and chairs in our little car.

I'm absolutely kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures of it. I had to wedge myself underneath the table in the back seat, while both front seats were lying flat, and Dusty was sitting up with his side squished up against the door by the table.
We drove very carefully, and very slowly. We also said "I love you" a lot in case we died on the way home.
Worth it? Absolutely.
If we had actually died on the way home, well...then no. No, it wasn't worth it. Lesson learned.

But I'm still pretty amazed at how nice these are!! We updated our apartment furniture this week for $25!
Beat that, Martha Stewart!

It was perfect timing too, because we were having some friends over for dessert and games that night!
We now have a table fit for any game. It can comfortably sit more than 3 1/2 people, and still works perfectly with the space we have.

I cut up some fresh mangoes for homemade mango ice cream this week
(See below for how to easily cut a mango!)

And Dusty fired up the grill once more, and made some kick-tush Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs.
He's a pro.

YUMMO.

I can't wait to get home, have some mango ice cream, and enjoy our apartment.
Next on the list is that craft room...

Wish me luck!

In love,
Cait

Top Recipes of January

Due to the continued onslaught of great recipes that can be found for FREE online, (not to mention the fabulous online resource, Pinterest), I have hardly touched my cookbooks. Which is probably a bad thing -- I need to go old school, and get familiar with some real paper recipes!
But, today is not that day. Today is a recap of all of the online recipe experimentations that took place in our home throughout January!

This first one is a recipe I gathered on Pinterest! If you'd like, you can hop on over to my Pinterest boards by clicking here.
I have recently taken to "surprising" my husband with dinner, because oftentimes, his response to my experimental suggestions is "uhhhh...are you sure about that?" or maybe just a very hesitant, disapproving look. When I offered to make a quiche dish for dinner, I can tell you, he did everything in his power to dissuade me!
But as always, I simply respond, "Have I ever failed you yet?"

Quich a la Parm

(Parmesan Quiche)

Find the original recipe here, at the naptimechef.com!
My version will include a couple of my own ingredients.

For the Crust:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened.
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 cup ice water
A-lotta salt (as much as you desire!)

For the Filling

3 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 medium-sized potato, chopped.
1 c. (as much as you want) of corn (I used frozen)
1 carrot, chopped
1 handful of freshly chopped basil

A-lotta salt & pepper!
 
DIRECTIONS:

1. For the crust, add all the ingredients to a food processor
(I don't have a food processor, so naturally, I just mixed it all up until it became a crumbly mess and squashed it together into the pie pan, forcing it to do my bidding) until a dough forms. Roll it out to 9" in diameter and press (smash/squash/force) into a pie plate.

1. For the Quiche: Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Whisk together the eggs, milk and cheese in a bowl, then set aside.

2. In a skillet over medium heat, add the onion, potatoes, corn, carrots, and basil. Cook until the onion is soft. Add to egg mixture.

3. Add salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste, then pour the egg mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and the quiche is totally set.

YUM!

Another successful parmesan cheese-centered recipe.

The great thing about this, is that you can pretty much make it whatever you'd like to. Adding different veggies and seasonings based on what you already have lying around makes for a unique experience every meal! (And not having to have a pre-made, store-bought crust is a bonus! Cause who has those lying around??)

The next recipe was mainly created because I had a pre-made, store-bought crust lying around. :)

Mozarella Pie

(Yummy Pizza Pockets)

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Pie Crust

Marinara/Pasta Sauce

Leftover Meatbals and/or Sausage

Mozarella Cheese (shredded)

Directions:

Roll out your pie crust (it's best to leave it out on the counter for a little while, so it will be easy to handle and not cold enough to break).

Cut your crust into four pieces, then smother with red sauce and add your fixin's (sausage and/or veggies, etc.), and sprinkle with copious amounts of shredded cheese.

 

Then, take your little pockets of sunshine and fold them together, using a fork (if you'd like) to press the sides together so they look nice and cute.

Bake them at about 375ºF, keeping an eye on them until they get a nice and toasty golden brown.

This was a perfect little meal, served with veggies and/or salad on the side. We were both a little shocked how delicious a pie crust could be, in this context. While it's not dessert, it still worked like a charm!

Pear and Ricotta on da Grill

Grilled Cheese gone Fruity

I'm going to preface this recipe with the fact that it wasn't my favorite meal ever.

BUT -- what I liked a lot about it was the mind-blowing realization that grilled cheese doesn't have to be wheat/white bread with cheddar/Kraft singles.

I saw this pin on Pinterest, and it was like a mental bomb went off. Must. Try. New. Grilled. CHEESES!

Luckily for me, I happened to have Ricotta cheese, honey, and pears in my refrigerator. While some of the other options sound much more tasty to me (namely the Jalapeno), I opted to use what I already had. 

Here was my step-by-step experience:



Thinly sliced



Asian Pear





Put on da bread



Spread with Ricotta



Doused with honey



Grilled and Eaten

I made Dusty a regular, old-fashioned grilled cheese, and we both had a bowl of tomato soup on the side.

Needless to say, my little sandwich was much healthier than his! It was light and pretty good, although I'm convinced I could come up with something else to add that might zing it up a little.

And last but NOT least, I made the most incredibly stellar chicken last night.

Of course, I didn't take any pictures and don't remember anything about how I made it.

No but really -- here's the gyst of it, and I'm begging you all to try it.

Brosugamozarellarlic Chicken

Chicken made with Brown Sugar, Garlic, and Mozarella

Ingredients:

1 Frozen Chicken Breast, thawed

1 half yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, or a copious amount of garlic powder/salt

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. brown sugar

Mozarella Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (I know, that's a lot!)

2. Take thawed chicken breast and chop into thick chunks, big enough to stuff with mozarella cheese!

3. Slice small openings into your chicken slices, and cut up pieces of mozarella cheese to stuff them with.

4. For the sauce: in a small skillet, heat up the olive oil and add your garlic (whether cloves or powder/salt), and your onion, letting it heat up for a while until the onions begin to sizzle and soften. Then add your brown sugar, to create your glaze!

5. Line up your mozarella-stuffed chicken pieces in a casserole dish (since I only did one chicken breast for the two of us, I used my glass pie pan...), then cover with the glaze!

6. Bake the concoction for 15-30 minutes, keeping an eye on it until it gets nice and bubbly, and the glazed chicken begins to brown.

This truly is my absolute favorite Chicken that I've ever made. I couldn't believe how good it was. It may even top the jalapeno cream cheese stuffed chicken. It's a toss up!

The flavors were incredible, and it was so easy to make.

I hope you've enjoyed looking through some of our kitchen experiences from January.

I'm getting better at the whole cooking thing, and I'm finding that it's way more fun than I ever thought possible. The eating out has really diminished, and we've both gotten good at really disciplining ourselves to utilize our leftovers and not go grocery shopping every other day!

Happy February, all :)

In love,

Cait