Chilled Soups - Take One!

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Chilled soups... are they SO 2005? I think not. Gazpacho has been popular for decades in the restaurant scene, but I'd like to think that different varieties of chilled soups have gained its fame only in the recent few years. Once a dish becomes popular in restaurants, it's only a matter of minutes till it becomes popular in home kitchens.

So here was my shot at a chilled soup made with honey dew melon, cucumber & mint!

I simply blended all of those ingredients w/ a dash of salt but I'm pretty sure some kind of stock and or thickening agent (yogurt?) would have gave it more "umph."

Garnished with super crispy bacon, I liked it a lot! However I wouldn't serve this at any traditional dinners since most of my guests were more amused by the concept than swoon over by the taste.

Celebrating America's Birthday

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Happy (belated) Fourth of July! (Above: gorgeous sunset from my patio...)

Since everyone's holidays are hospitality professionals work days, I celebrated July 4th a day late. We served barbecue on the function that I worked on the actual 4th, so I definitely needed to create my own!

I picked up two racks of pork baby back ribs and chose two recipes for the dry rub & the babecue sauce from none other than Ms. Paula Deen. For the dry rub, I added everything on the recipe list I also added few dashes of: celery salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper powder, ginger root, and Chinese five spice (thanks Jess --my roommate-- for the awesome selection of spices from Sprouts!)

With some nice rub down, the ribs were ready to go in to the 350 degree oven to start baking.

After 2 hours, they were starting to form nice crusts... and they also had my apartment smelling like a smoky barbecue joint!

The barbecue sauce required some bourbon, which we saved some for cocktails later!

Corn on the cob was in the oven alongside the ribs then tossed in parsley butter...

And the beans were out of the can added with some crispy bacon!

Roasted cauliflower & brussel sprouts for the veggie aspect.

That is fall-off-the-bone goodness!

To wash this big dinner down we threw down some gin + ginger ale cocktails with my berry tarts served with butter pecan ice cream (the tarts are the same recipe as this, just with berries).

Boy was I sleepy after this meal...

I would have loved to spend the holiday with my family and friends back in Midwest, but I had my furry baby so it was aaaall good. I mean, there will always be a coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I'd rather take what I have right at this moment and be thankful! It's the little things that keep a smile on this girl's face! Speaking of smilin'... guess what this oddly pretty picture is!

My barbecue pan soaking in soap water. Ha!

Choc & Chix

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If you know me, you should know that I'm not too big of a "sweets" person nor a baker... but for some reason I've been craving a homemade chocolate cake. So what better way to end a relaxing day-off then to bake the Pioneer Woman's "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever?"

Well aside from the endless amount of utensils and measuring needed, here's another reason why I stray from baking... it's always a MESS!

The only switch I made from the original recipe is using dark cocoa powder rather than regular, and skipping on the pecans simply because I didn't have any around the house...

Prep took longer than the actual baking time which was on 20 minutes! Love it.

Sooooo yummy and luxurious. Well I suppose with the amount of butter that went in it, it ought to be yumolicious!

With some vanilla ice cream it was purrrrrfection!

Since I'm on a low grocery budget after the move-in expenses, dinner was another brainstorm of things to cook with what's on hand. Open fridge: chicken. check! lemons. check! capers. check! Chicken piccata it is! :)

I pan seared the thin strips of chicken first... (simply w/ some s&p and dried oregano)

Then I sauteed diced shallots and crushed capers in the same pan with some fresh lemon juice and caper liquid! mmmm LOVE zappy, zingy, citrus-y sauces!

Then in goes the chicken, more caper liquid and lemon juice w/ lemon slices on top. Everything to simmer.

I threw it next to some leftover pasta that I sauteed with carmelized onions, baby arugula, and EVOO. So pretty on my purple plate.

Not sure what I will come up with next with what I've got in the fridge (which sadly isn't a lot), but one thing I know for sure is that I've got me chocolate cake for dayssss. Haha.