vegetarian ratatouille

Bad pic but pretty nice flavor so far. It's still simmering so no idea how the who thing came together. Mostly organic too.

Bellinis in North Conway

Best basil pesto fett. I have ever had. Bad lighting for an iPhone
camera. Was bright green and so fresh.

Leek tart

We buy fresh veggies from Angel Valley Farm at their Saturday morning farm stand in Jonestown, TX. Last week in their newsletter they included a recipe for a Leek Tart. I changed it only slightly, by substituting half green garlic for half the leeks and added prosciutto. Came out great!



bad lighting.. whole quiche


slice of tart

Lasagna

I made lasagna for dinner Saturday and it came out good enough for a picture or two.



4 servings of lasagna


A close up of the nicely browned cheese, so tasty.

new camera, some moon pictures

I've been playing with the new camera for the past couple weeks. Not exclusively but more than I have been cooking. Here are a couple of examples.



Moon in the middle of the day.


Same day but during the evening.



Lost the blue of the sky in this one.


Can still that the sky wasn't really black yet here.


way over processed image that wasn't really very sharp to begin with.

more pickles

sweeter this time and no hot peppers.

vday dinner

I don't remind her enough but I have one of the best partners in life that anyone could ask for. Not only did I spend close to $1000 on myself this week but I didn't even buy a card or chocolates and I am not in the dog house on Valentines Day. We did spend the day together and I got her flowers a couple days ago. We spent the evening making dinner and dessert together. Pictures below.



Beef Burgundy (mostly made by me)


Strawberry Stuffed Blini (mostly made by Michelle)

double roasted red pepper and haloumi bruschetta

Another recipe from A Passion for Cheese that came out REALLY good. The picture below is a small slice of sourdough bread (thank you very much Heather!) with roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, capers and haloumi cheese. This is all topped with a red chili pepper vinaigrette.
This is the best bruschetta I have ever had.

parmesan brioche toast with taleggio, saute tomatoes and oregano

We went to Half Price Books on Saturday to pickup some books in the series I am currently reading. While we were there Michelle found a cookbook, A Passion for Cheese by Paul Gayler. The cover art was of this really nice looking tomato and cheese topped brioche toast. I tried this recipe out today (did not have the same tomatoes as the book , but close enough) and it came out fantastic. Nowhere near as nice looking as the book but the flavor was really good. It's more of a savory french toast than a bruchetta as you might guess. Here is a pic anyhow.


parmesan brioche toast with taleggio, sauteed tomatoes and oregano
page 32
A Passion for Cheese
Paul Gayler

oops, been bad about updating this ... dill pickles!

Been somewhat busy recently with work and stuff and I keep forgetting to update this, not that I have been doing a lot of cooking either... I did make some dill pickles though.

mariquitas

Mariquitas and Mojo Sauce


My favorite side at a Carribean restaurant near Austin. Thinly sliced and fried plantain with a lime and garlic dipping sauce. Turned out pretty good for a fist attempt.

Pizza!!

First attempt at Pizza on the Egg. Not 100% success but is good. Just need to tweak the recipes used and then also figure out moving the pizza stone up some to get closer to the hot ceramic dome for better top browning.



The Egg during startup. Was belching flames through the chimney I had sitting inside it.