saffron tomato soup and gourmet "grilled cheese"
Andrea
First of all, congrats to all of the BSI "winners"!!!! And of course, the big winner, my cousin Meghann with her Pumpkin Pecan Crusted Chicken!!! WooHoo! Thank you Lindsay for a great BSI week, what a tough decision you had to make! All of the recipes looked amazing!
So a quick note, in the name of accountability (the whole reason I started this blog in the first place!). I forgot to mention this morning that I had a piece of bacon with my breakfast. Eek! Gasp! I know, naughty. But soooooooo good. Who could resist when Brian brought this plate to our breakfast table for his own morning meal?!?!?
Anyway, after posting my BSI recipe this morning I dashed off to a 75 minute vinyasa yoga class. It was amazing. One of the best classes I've been to in the last month, taught of course by my favorite instructor Hilary. She is fantastic. I got such a great total-body strength workout...I could feel my abs screaming at me an hour afterwards and know I'm going to be sore tomorrow...whippee!!! :) BTW, does anybody know of any good yoga reads? I really want to learn more about the philosophies so that I can take more from my practice...any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night, Dal Saag and Vegetable Masala on some white rice. Yummy!
I had lots of cleaning and errand running to do this afternoon in prep for Thanksgiving. There is still so much to do!!! Poor Brian, he's been working his booty off to finish projects around the house...
For dinner I made one of our favorite recipes, Saffron Tomato Fennel Soup. I found it in my Self Magazine 3-1/2 years ago and we've made it many times since, it is SO GOOD!
ingredients
saffron threads
saffron tomato fennel soup
The best partner for tomato soup is of course grilled cheese, so I decided to try a very slightly healthier version. Instead of pan-frying the sandwiches in butter on the stove top, I decided to bake them at 400* on our pizza stone in the oven.
Brian picked up this beautiful loaf of rustic white whole wheat bread.
I sliced it thin and put the slices in the oven for about 8 minutes (on a low oven rack), flipping the slices after 4 minutes. Once the bread was slightly crispy, I rubbed a garlic clove across both sides of each slice. This gives the bread a wonderful garlicky flavor.
I roasted some red bell pepper slices for about 20 minutes at 400*.
Then assembled my little sandwiches with some Taleggio ca d'Ambros cheese...basically a nutty brie. Yes ladies, this is real, full-fat cheese. I'm sorry, but I can't compromise with my cheese. I. love. my. cheese. Luckily the sandwiches were small and I only had one. And, I added veggies. That counts for something, right?
And a glass of white wine (because I had to open it for the recipe!), plus about 1/2 this while cooking...
And now....
Turkey Day Peek!!!
I haven't had any time to elaborate on what we're doing this year because we have been so busy getting ready for guests (and I've been BSI-ing...). Brian and I are hosting Thanksgiving for a group of our friends who live far from family (like us!) and weren't able to get home this year (like us!). We love to cook, and have the experience of hosting one Thanksgiving last year for all of our parents. This year, we are providing the turkey, stuffing, mashed 'taters, roasted veggies and homemade dinner rolls. We've asked our friends to each bring a side dish or two, along with a bottle of wine. Which means LOTS of food and LOTS of wine...!!! I'm super-excited, and have so many things that I want to share but I still have such a long list of chores to accomplish tonight and its already after 10:30!!! :( I'll give one little hint though...we smoke our turkey for most of the day, after brining it in a special Alton Brown brine all night, on our Big Green Egg. Ever heard of a Big Green Egg before? You can read more about it here, but basically it is "Derived from an ancient clay cooker called a "kamado"...The EGG is the most unique barbecue product on the market, with unmatched flexibility and capabilities that surpass all other conventional cookers combined. It is a smoker, a grill and an oven and you can cook literally any food on it year around, from appetizers to entrees to desserts." In laymen's terms...its freakin' awesome. Here are pictures from last year, when Bri and his dad cooked our Thanksgiving 2007 turkey on it:
Sooooo good...I'm drooling right now in anticipation. That's it for T-Day peeks for now, I hope to add something each day until Thursday!
Alright, on to chores. Have a great night!!!
So a quick note, in the name of accountability (the whole reason I started this blog in the first place!). I forgot to mention this morning that I had a piece of bacon with my breakfast. Eek! Gasp! I know, naughty. But soooooooo good. Who could resist when Brian brought this plate to our breakfast table for his own morning meal?!?!?
Anyway, after posting my BSI recipe this morning I dashed off to a 75 minute vinyasa yoga class. It was amazing. One of the best classes I've been to in the last month, taught of course by my favorite instructor Hilary. She is fantastic. I got such a great total-body strength workout...I could feel my abs screaming at me an hour afterwards and know I'm going to be sore tomorrow...whippee!!! :) BTW, does anybody know of any good yoga reads? I really want to learn more about the philosophies so that I can take more from my practice...any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night, Dal Saag and Vegetable Masala on some white rice. Yummy!
I had lots of cleaning and errand running to do this afternoon in prep for Thanksgiving. There is still so much to do!!! Poor Brian, he's been working his booty off to finish projects around the house...
For dinner I made one of our favorite recipes, Saffron Tomato Fennel Soup. I found it in my Self Magazine 3-1/2 years ago and we've made it many times since, it is SO GOOD!
ingredients saffron threads saffron tomato fennel soupThe best partner for tomato soup is of course grilled cheese, so I decided to try a very slightly healthier version. Instead of pan-frying the sandwiches in butter on the stove top, I decided to bake them at 400* on our pizza stone in the oven.
Brian picked up this beautiful loaf of rustic white whole wheat bread.
I sliced it thin and put the slices in the oven for about 8 minutes (on a low oven rack), flipping the slices after 4 minutes. Once the bread was slightly crispy, I rubbed a garlic clove across both sides of each slice. This gives the bread a wonderful garlicky flavor.
I roasted some red bell pepper slices for about 20 minutes at 400*.
Then assembled my little sandwiches with some Taleggio ca d'Ambros cheese...basically a nutty brie. Yes ladies, this is real, full-fat cheese. I'm sorry, but I can't compromise with my cheese. I. love. my. cheese. Luckily the sandwiches were small and I only had one. And, I added veggies. That counts for something, right?
And a glass of white wine (because I had to open it for the recipe!), plus about 1/2 this while cooking...
And now....
Turkey Day Peek!!!
I haven't had any time to elaborate on what we're doing this year because we have been so busy getting ready for guests (and I've been BSI-ing...). Brian and I are hosting Thanksgiving for a group of our friends who live far from family (like us!) and weren't able to get home this year (like us!). We love to cook, and have the experience of hosting one Thanksgiving last year for all of our parents. This year, we are providing the turkey, stuffing, mashed 'taters, roasted veggies and homemade dinner rolls. We've asked our friends to each bring a side dish or two, along with a bottle of wine. Which means LOTS of food and LOTS of wine...!!! I'm super-excited, and have so many things that I want to share but I still have such a long list of chores to accomplish tonight and its already after 10:30!!! :( I'll give one little hint though...we smoke our turkey for most of the day, after brining it in a special Alton Brown brine all night, on our Big Green Egg. Ever heard of a Big Green Egg before? You can read more about it here, but basically it is "Derived from an ancient clay cooker called a "kamado"...The EGG is the most unique barbecue product on the market, with unmatched flexibility and capabilities that surpass all other conventional cookers combined. It is a smoker, a grill and an oven and you can cook literally any food on it year around, from appetizers to entrees to desserts." In laymen's terms...its freakin' awesome. Here are pictures from last year, when Bri and his dad cooked our Thanksgiving 2007 turkey on it:
Sooooo good...I'm drooling right now in anticipation. That's it for T-Day peeks for now, I hope to add something each day until Thursday!
Alright, on to chores. Have a great night!!!