Whirley Pop

Check this out. I found this on my doorstep. Nice, huh?

M and I enjoyed some mighty fine corn pop last night. Oh boy!! The smell alone is wonderful!

Last night was our standard happy hour at Corner Bar. I’ve been going back to an old favorite. The greyhound. Give me Tito’s and grapefruit and I’m one happy gal.

Have a great weekend!

Salsa

Salsa

2 cans Muir Glen stewed tomatoes

1 can Muir Glen diced tomatoes

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 heaping TBS adobo sauce

2 TBS flour

2 to 3 jalapenos, diced

1 TBS olive oil

1 TBS minced garlic

½ TBS red wine vinegar

1 tsp lime juice

½ TBS sugar

1 tsp celery salt

1½ tsp cumin

½ bunch of cilantro, stemmed and chopped

Sauté onions and jalapenos in olive oil over medium heat with salt and pepper until translucent. Stir in 2 TBS flour until combined. Cook an additional 2 minutes. Add garlic and adobo and cook another 2 minutes over medium heat. Stir in tomatoes, red wine vinegar, lime juice sugar, celery salt, cumin and half of the cilantro. Simmer uncovered for one hour. Add additional cilantro and puree in a food processor/blender until desired consistency. Refrigerate up to 8 hours or overnight. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Bread again

I baked this first thing this morning. Whenever I have extra ripe bananas on hand there is only one thing that comes to mind. Banana nut bread. As you can see, I did not waste any time getting a piece. I have a stick of softened salted butter out on the counter to slather on whenever I get the urge to have another piece. I could make icing, but softened butter is my compliment of choice.

Banana Nut Bread

 

2/3 cups softened butter                                                    1/3 cup buttermilk

2 ½ cups sifted flour                                                           2 eggs

1 2/3 sugar                                                                            ½ cup chopped walnuts

1 ¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas (mashed)

1/3 cup buttermilk

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix ingredients from the column on the left in a large bowl. Then add ingredients from the column on the right and mix..

 Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes.

While I was baking away this little guy was catching some shut eye.

He’s pretty cute even if he does wake me up constantly throughout the night for some good lovin. Carlos sure loves to get his purr on.

I’m off to the grocery store. We are in need of something for dinner tonight other than pizza. This is a rarity in our house seeing as we live for Saturday Night Pizza. Not tonight. We are officially pizza’d out. I’m thinking of a nice stir fry. We’ll see what tickles my fancy at the grocery store. I tend to get inspired by the produce section.

Hummus with Roasted Red Peppers and Kalamata Olives

Adapted from Cosmic Cafe.

2 cans chickpeas

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup tahini

Juice from one large lemon

Zest of one lemon

½ cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

¼ cup Kalamata olive juice

2 roasted red peppers, seeded and chopped

½ bunch cilantro, stemmed and chopped

1 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp red pepper flakes

½ tsp pepper

 

Combine all in a food processor except for the olive oil. Slowly drizzle olive oil into the mixture with the processor running. Refrigerate overnight for flavors to combine.

Valentine’s goodies

Is this cute or what?

I saw this at World Market yesterday and immediately put it in my basket. I gave it to M for Valentine’s Day which means that I got a new mug. Sweet!

M and I always celebrate Valentine’s Day with pizza. It’s how we celebrated our first together and it’s been that way ever since. Our evening started out at Corner bar and then we hopped back home and called up Brothers. They kicked butt again. We devoured every slice. We finished our meal with sweets. My Mom got M and I a cheesecake (no pics) from Sweet Temptations. Talk about a mean cake. That bad boy was awesome! Thanks, Mom.

As you can see, cheesecake was not enough to conquer our sweet tooth. I’m a big fan of Choxie. M hit a home run when he gave me these tasty truffles. My favorite is the hazelnut biscotti. M hit another one out of the park with this.

I can’t wait to flip through the pages. Looks like I’ve got my day planned.

Now, on to more searching on the internet. Is anyone out there worried about the salmonella scare? I keep hearing of more and more recalls. I only ask because I nibbled on several Choxie peanut butter pretzel melt aways last night. Now, I am thinking of tossing them out. I guess it would be too late.

 

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine’s. How did you celebrate? Did you go out? Did you stay in? Did you get anything with peanut butter?

Hump Day

Wow! What a busy week. Is it the weekend yet? I woke up this morning excited about two things; coffee and Chipotle. Last week M and I picked up a couple of burritos for dinner. Our dinner was so quick and delicious that we decided to make Chipotle our Wednesday night staple. Not a bad idea, eh? Hmm.. 8 hours and counting. What to do with all that time in between?? Okay, okay. I’ll go to work and be productive. My work load has increased significantly which has really started to interfere with my blogging. How dare they cut into my blog time! hehehehe

About the coffee mug for my MIL, I ended up getting her a really cute one from Sur la Table. It’s a mug with the word diva on it. Does it get any cheesier? Yep, it’s got swiggles and polka dots too. I forgot to take a picture. I would have bought one for myself , but I was with M and he’s all about saving money so that wouldn’t have been in the budget. Had I been there on my own then I’d be sipping out of that mug right now.

It’s no secret that I love coffee. Especially, my morning coffee. I’m curious. Do you drink coffee all day, in the mornings or not at all? I’m a morning gal myself. There are times when I go to bed at night just to get to my morning cup of joe quicker. Here’s a look at my newest mug from Kroger.

Coffee mug help needed

This morning’s breakfast. Mmm…

What a week! It’s been so crazy at work that I have been having a hard time keeping track of the days. Shh. Don’t tell. I actually like being this busy. Idle time and I are like oil and vinegar.

On Wednesday, M and I discovered the greatness that is Chipotle. I had it in my mind that Chipotle was a lunch place and not a place to go for dinner. I was wrong. Talk about a big honkin’ burrito. Wow!! I told myself that I would only eat half. I fought a losing battle. I stuffed myself to the gills.

There comes a time in your life when you can run miles upon miles a day and still have to watch every little bitty piece of food that you put in your body. Grrr… I remember when running shed everything. Not the case anymore.

This is a female issue. Men can run half as much, eat buckets of fried chicken and look ripped to shreds. Not fair.

Thursday night was awesome! We went to dinner with M’s dad. The greatness of dinner with M Sr. is Hook Line and Sinker. Bring on the baskets of fried pleasure! Of course, this just happens to be the week of meat and dairy elimination (two week trial). Grilled zucchini and squash, fries and hush puppies made up my non meat/dairy meal. Fine, you caught me! So what if I dipped a few fries in the tartar sauce.

I left work early yesterday to get some grocery shopping done. I’m hosting a retirement party for my Mother-in-law on Sunday. What started out as 10 people has somehow grown to over 30 people. I’ll be making two lasagnas instead of one and a TURBO-size Caesar salad along with Cosmic Café’s hummus. I delegated the rest of the spread to my in-laws. Other than my Mother-in-law, the rest DO NOT cook or bake. That means it must be something that can be purchased from the super market. Think garlic bread and cake (suggested ordering from Romano’s bakery).

Friday night was spent on the sofa watching DVD’s and drinking wine. Parker Estate Cabernet to be exact. It’s my new favorite.

I need suggestions for a funky/quirky coffee mug. My MIL loves coffee and I’d like to get her a unique mug as a retirement gift. Help me out guys. Where can I get one locally?

Did I really just buy that?

Carlos says, “hi!”

What a weekend! Friday started with drinks at Idle Rich and then over to The Porch for some overrated and overpriced food. This time around I ordered the burger. I mean, how can you screw up a burger? Well, go to The Porch and they’ll manage to do just that. The burger and I did not make friends. It’s a good thing I’m okay with drinking my dinner. More wine, please!

Saturday started with a trip to the gym then a  trip to Super Target. I should share with you that I’ve been quite emotional lately. I mean it’s freakin ridiculous! I’ve also recently discovered my love for Celine Dion. When I say recent, I mean on Saturday. I can’t believe I just admited that I love Celine Dion. I’ve never liked her before. Now, all of the sudden, I have to hear Celine blasting from my car stereo. Of course, many tears are in order for every song. I really need to evaluate all aspects of my life. This is obviously out of control. Did I mention that I have been slowly weaned from my meds. Yep, it’s a long process.

I ventured over to Chocolate Angel again! I have an obsession with that place. I’m sure it has nothing to do with their desserts. Speaking of desserts. Did you check out that Choxie bar? Oh lordy! Yum! I had the tuna on sourdough with a side salad and pasta salad. I love me some Chocolate Angel.

Sunday night, we made fajitas for the Super Bowl. Take a look.

My chicken was camera shy. It’s hiding underneath the salsa.

Choxie

 

I  have been waiting for quite some time to try this. Everytime I go to Target this particular Choxie bar is never in stock. Today must be my lucky day!! Cheers to dark chocolate and coconut! This bar is da bomb!

In my book Choxie chocolates are so good! I’ve had their espresso bar as well and it’s mighty fine. I can’t wait to check out their other flavors!