Welcome home, dear!

Those who know me know I love to cook.  I really love it.  Cooking is a creative outlet for me; it is challenging and immediately rewarding, and so totally different from my work life at the end of the day (even though there is a lot of science to be learned).  I used to furtively look up recipes at work in between making charts, but hey! now I can do it all day long!  Well, that is when I actually have a free hand for hunting/pecking at the keyboard.  It's very hard to disrupt such moments of beautiful innocence for the sake of a recipe.

My latest obsession is a blog called Smitten Kitchen, which apparently everyone already knew about except for me.  I love her writing style and her fantastic photographs...and of course the food!  I've probably made close to 20 recipes so far off her website, and while not everything I've made has been a winner, there have been plenty of meals I know I'll be eating for years to come.  I've fallen in love with cooking all over again after discovering this blog. 

I'm no food blogger but I wanted to share some of the delicious meals I've made in the past few weeks.  First up was a divine breakfast pizza.  Seriously, bacon and eggs on a pizza!  I can't get over the genius of it all.  It was so damned tasty.

Pair that up with some green beans sauteed in the bacon drippings and a fresh peach-blueberry cobbler and you've got yourself a perfect summer menu.

Later in the week I made a tasty zucchini and ricotta galette.  The dough was a little tricky to work with, but in the end it made a beautiful presentation.

 

For those of you who have one of those zucchini plants that is trying to take over the world, here is something easy and delicious to make with those gorgeous yellow blossoms.  Steve and I had these tapas-style in Venice and absolutely loved them.  It's important to pick the blossoms early in the morning while they are fresh and fully open.  If you wait until the day gets warm they will have closed up and be impossible to work with.  Also, make sure there are no pollenating insect stuck inside before you start cooking!

You can keep the blossoms for a few hours in a plastic bag in the fridge with the stems wrapped in a damp paper towel, but they must be used the same day.  We stuffed the blossoms with a mixture of ricotta, mozzarella and herbs, but you can also just use them plain.

After stuffing the flowers we battered them in a tempura-style batter and then deep fried them in vegetable oil.

Once they are golden brown set them to cool on a wire rack.  Enjoy them immediately; they're delicious!

I want to give a shout out to a couple more recipes that I had great success with. I hope you enjoy them too:

• Thai-style chicken legs (Holy wow, I didn't know chicken could be so juicy)
• Mango slaw with cashews and mint(A great fresh summertime slaw)
• Tomato and corn pie (OMFG yum!  Make this tonight)
• Raspberry vanilla smoothie (like heaven in a glass.  I recommend using lemonade instead of cider)

BTW Holly is still wonderful and adorable.  I know you're probably all thinking, enough of the food!  We want baybee pictures!!!  Well, here's a video of the wee one we've dubbed "Thrashy McThrasherson":