Thankful

Stud had today off while I had to work. I came home to homemade lobster pot pie. LOBSTER!! I think he's a keeper.

It was phenomenal.

Daily Fluff

How Beau feels about Hurricane Sandy.

Prosciutto Spaghetti

This is one of those meals I refused to eat as a child.  It was a red sauce.  I had issues.  But when i finally passed through my tween years and decided to try food that wasn't white, I discovered the deliciousness of prosciutto spaghetti.  The recipe was a staple in my house growing up and since I no longer have access to my parent's freezer, Stud and I had to make our own batch up here.  My mom usually makes a double batch since she has a stand alone freezer, but Stud and I made a single batch and had enough for one meal plus on quart for the freezer.  This meal was also not a stretch to get on the table at a reasonable hour.  It has to simmer a little, but Stud was happy to stir and taste test.

Prosciutto Spaghetti
3/4 lb. prosciutto, sliced thinly
2 28oz. cans Italian tomatoes
1 large chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/8 c. olive oil
2 T. butter
3 T. dried basil
2 t. oregano
1/2 t. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 1/2 t. salt
Black pepper - plenty

Dice the prosciutto and cook in the olive oil and butter until crispy.  Remove a spoonful for garnish if you want (I say YES).  Add the onions and garlic to the prosciutto and cook until soft.  Add in the basil, oregano, pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook the herbs for a minute or two.  If you have whole tomatoes, I would puree them before adding them to the sauce (I had whole ones).  Add the tomatoes and bring the sauce to a simmer.  Let it simmer for about thirty minutes and then serve with your favorite spaghetti!

ENJOY!!

Daily Fluff

Things are starting to get a little chilly here in RI, and since we have no idea how to operate a radiator, we have pulled out the space heater. Beau approves.

Home and Such

Stud and I recently made a week long trip home capped off with a wedding of two of our good college friends in Nashville.  It was so great to go home for a week and relax and spend time with our families without either of us having to work or study, something that hasn't happened since college summer vacation.  Stud was especially appreciative of the week off since he has been working so hard in the hospital.  It was a great week since we got to see all of our family and friends in Louisville and then see all of our college friends in Nashville!  We crammed a lot of reunions into one week.

Meanwhile, fall has arrive in Rhode Island....

We had our first night below freezing already and it's only October....I'm nervous about the upcoming months!!

Soup Season!

Stud and I have out first soup of the season simmering on the stove for dinner! A delicious batch of chicken gumbo (chicken stock and a roast chicken vs turkey). We added 2 jalapeños in with the veggies, seems to be a great addition for my spice loving husband.

I love fall.

Happenings!

Things have been happening up here in Rhode Island!

Over Labor Day, I flew down to Atlanta and spent the weekend with some great friends on Lake Rabun.  After moving to a new area where I don't know many people, it was so relaxing to spend a weekend with good friends from home and college.  Our activities included pontooning, tubing, jumping, swimming, drinking, eating, napping, sunning, and laughing.  Poor Stud could not come along, but we are hoping we can all do it next year and he can join! The work schedule of an intern does not provide for much freedom....poor guy.  I did bring him back a party favor, some neon shades.

The following weekend my parents came to visit and we had a blast exploring Providence.  We went down to Newport (it's after Labor Day, significantly more manageable!), and had lobster rolls on the beach., YUM! We also explored a good portion of the restaurants in the city, some I had been waiting to try for a while.  Al Forno (an Ina Garten fav), might have been the most tasty...but they were all so good.  We also went over to Federal Hill which is the Italian part of Providence.  It has some phenomenal food stores, and I stocked up on Italian goodies.  Including some Porchetta and this delicious mozzarella roll that included arugula and prosciutto.  We had some good sandwiches last week!

In other news, I have started a job!  Woohoo for employment!  And my computer has decided to lose it's mind, so I am currently blogging from Stud's computer which does not like blogging.  I have to do one picture at a time and I have another delicious looking sandwich that it refused to upload.  I will try and keep up with the blog as things change again around here.  Now I am off to make some pasta for dinner!

Daily Fluff

Last week, Stud and I went hiking in the White Mountains.  Since it's about four hours away, we were committed to an overnight.  And it was supposed to rain.  We planned to hike the following day when the weather was supposed to clear up, so we could sleep in the rain and hike in the clear mountain air.  Well....that didn't happen.  It rained more on our "hiking" day than the day we drove up.  So our six mile loop with two summits of over 4,000ft mountains turned into about a three mile hike with a summit of Mt. Avalon, not one of the 4,000 footers in the White Mountains.  We were wet, tired, and ready to get back on the road.  Someone who did have a BLAST??  Beau.  That dog must have been a mountain goat in another life.  There were some STEEP ascents and Beau flew up them without a problem.  And don't worry, when we got anywhere close to a ledge, he went back on his leash.

Picnic Shrimp Salad

For Stud's birthday beach picnic, I tried to make it minimal effort, but still something special.  So I purchased most of our snacks and then made a batch of shrimp salad as our "entree" and still not too heavy or work intensive for the beach.  And it was amazing.  We have been eating a lot more seafood up here since it's so fresh, and shrimp salad was a great and quick way to have some on hand.  We ate the leftovers over the next couple days as shrimp rolls, in a salad, and just with a spoon. PS I am really enjoying the New England style rolls.

Shrimp Salad
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/8 c. mayonnaise (like one big spoonful)
Juice from 1 lemon
1 T. capers
1 green onion
Hot Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

I roasted the shrimp to minimize clean up and to make it as easy as possible.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tin foil.  Toss the shrimp with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast for about 8-10 minutes until the shrimp are pink.  While the shrimp are cooking, mix the mayo with the lemon juice.  Slice the green onion and roughly chop the capers and add to the mayo mixture and add hot sauce to your liking.  In our household, that's pretty spicy!  Also, ALL of the measurements can be adjusted to your personal preference.  I love capers, so there are a lot.  I also liked the tartness that comes from a lot of lemon juice.  So adapt to whatever you like!  Once the shrimp are cool, chop them into bite size pieces and toss with the dressing. In my opinion, the salad was better the longer it sat, so feel free to make it early.  Our beach shrimp rolls were delicious!

WHALE TALES!

Today is Stud's 27th birthday, and he of course, has to work.  But yesterday, he had a day off so instead of giving him a gift, I planned a birthday day celebration.  He had no idea what we were doing until we were about half way there yesterday when the the curiosity finally got the better of him.  For his birthday, we went to Plymouth, MA and had lunch, went WHALE WATCHING, and then had a picnic dinner on the beach!  I planned a pretty awesome day if I do say so myself.  Plymouth was 1. closer than I thought (only an hour) and 2. a very cute New England harbor town!  Before we got on the boat, I made sure we went and actually saw THE Plymouth Rock.  I had no idea there is a literal rock.  What I also learned is that the Pilgrims first landed at Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod, were dissatisfied with the lack of fresh water and the bad for crops sandy soil, so left the women and children behind to explore the Massachusetts coast, eventually settling on Plymouth.

 

Whale watching was much more crowded than I thought it would be on a random Thursday.  We went with a company called Captain Johns and I think they sent out three boats yesterday afternoon.  Each boat had a naturalist on board who knows all sorts of random facts and can also identify all the whales.  It was about an hour and half ride to the whale feeding grounds, and once we were there, the whales put on a great show!  We found a group of four humpback whales feeding together, and they surfaced several times very close to our boat!  Some of the pictures below are from the Captain John blog since I was too entranced by the whales to take decent pics!

Captain John

Captain John

Captain John

And then the very best!  We had a whale do a spinning head breach and one of the passengers managed to capture it on video (I love his commentary - I got that!):

Then we drove to the beach and had a picnic dinner while the sun set.  It was a great way to end our day.  I think Stud was able to enjoy his birthday (a day early) and get to relax some as well.  And whales are the coolest.  For sure.

Block Island

Last week, Stud had a rare day off that was not a shift switch, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and went over to Block Island!  It is a tiny little island about an hour by ferry from the mainland, and it's a gorgeous spot.  So quiet compared to some of the beaches in Rhode Island!  I woke Stud around 9:30 so we could head down and catch the 11:00 ferry. Dogs are welcome on the ferry and on all the beaches on Block Island, so Beau came along for our adventure.  He DID NOT like the horn on the ferry, but other than that seemed to enjoy his first boat ride.

When you arrive on Block Island, there are tons of small beach front B&Bs and little hotels and a small little town with some really cute shops and restaurants.  Stud and I packed lunch and ate it on the ferry, so we were ready to get going once we got on shore.  Our first stop was about a mile walk, the island has plenty of bike and moped rentals, but we wanted to get some exercise, so off we went to the Southeast Lighthouse.  There are two main lighthouses on the island, but this one had a really close beach as well!  And not too shabby of a lighthouse...

From there we walked about 20 feet to the Moheagan Bluffs lookout which has a little path down to a beach.  We walked down the beach and found a spot where Beau wouldn't be harassing strangers and set up for an afternoon at the beach.  The ocean was great, it was a nice sandy beach and Beau was playing the in water the whole time we were there.

As you can tell, we had amazing weather for our day on Block Island...we went through a substantial amount of sunscreen (I was tan...Stud was a tomato).  After the beach, we walked back to town, did a little shopping, and grabbed dinner at a little seafood restaurant.  While waiting for our 7:30 ferry, we had a cocktail on the beach and just relaxed.  I think it was good for Stud to actually sit and do nothing after a stressful first week in the ER.  Our ferry back was during the sunset, it was an excellent way to finish a great day on Block Island.  I think we will be back for sure!

Yankees?

Hello everyone!!

Well, I'm back! Back whenever my last post was (so long SO SORRY), and I fell off the blogging earth, I was consumed by work, my MBA, and trying to figure out what Stud was going to do with his life.  Since then, there have been some huge happenings!  To sum it all up if there are any of you who aren't friends and family - Stud graduated, I graduated, we went to Thailand, and then moved to Providence, RI!  That makes it all seem so easy....But don't be fooled!  There were several weeks in there where it was a mad panic, mainly the one week we had between Thailand and the date for our movers to arrive.  So Stud is a real doctor, practicing Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital with the Brown University residency program (I have yet to hear the end of the Ivy League-ness coming out of his mouth....).  For all those concerned, and I'm pretty sure the main reason people come back to this blog, Beau has transitioned well to life in New England.  He has also gotten over his fear of waves and seems to be enjoying the ocean.

So, from now on, I will try and be a better blogger and update friends and family on our happenings here in Rhode Island as well as my experiments with seafood.  Below are some pictures to summarize what we have been up to!

DOCTOR!!!

Koh Tao, Thailand

Driving the 16 hrs. to Providence from Louisville

Beach dog!

Friends came to visit!

LOBSTER ROLL.

Breakfast Chorizo Hash

Breakfast is one of my all time favorite meals.  I love eggs and sausage and bacon (duh), and so I jump on any opportunity to incorporate these foods into my weekly menu.  Sometimes they manifest as an easy, quick dinner, and sometimes Stud and I capitalize on the few relaxing weekend mornings we get to spend together.  I was going through my iPhone (sorry, those are the pictures the blog gets these days) and I realized I have several breakfast recipes I hadn’t posted.  They acted as motivation for me to type up some easy recipes and get them up here! 

 Breakfast Hash

2 chorizo sausages

½ bag frozen hash browns (we had the little cubes)

2 eggs

Toppings: Sour cream, salsa, guacamole, pickled red onions (my new favorite thing)

Remove the casings from the chorizo and break apart the meat.  Sauté until hot and aromatic.  Add in the potatoes (I just tossed them in frozen) with some butter, bacon fat (!!), or oil to help grease the pan.  Follow the stovetop instructions for the hash browns.  While the hash browns are cooking, heat up the broiler.  Once the potatoes are good and crispy, make two holes (or more if you want more eggs), and crack two eggs into the holes.  Lower the heat to low and let whites cook most of the way through on the stovetop.  Once they are mostly cooked, put the whole pan under the broiler for a few minutes until the whites of the eggs are cooked.  Remove the pan and dish out the hash and cover with toppings of your choice!

Pretty quick brunch for a Saturday morning.  I was originally planning to make this with leftover corned beef, but what can you do when someone gets a little hungry and eats it all, so I resorted to the chorizo stock in our freezer.  Having a well stocked freezer is the best.  Stud and I were feeling exceptionally lazy the other night and thawed some gumbo for dinner, and it was super easy.  Makes those Sunday’s spent making soup worth it!!

 

Food for Beau

Since I always represent the dietary choices of Stud and me here on this little blog, I wanted to make sure you all knew that Beau Fluff was not abandoned in my culinary adventures.  99.9% of the time, he does not get any human food.  Sometimes his brown eyes get to me and he gets a little nibble, but always out of his bowl.  Beau also wanted to give all of his furry friends some Christmas presents, he is such a kind spirit.  So, I made these extremely easy cookies, and they seemed to be a hit.

 Pumpkin Dog Treats
2 1/2 c. flour
2 eggs
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
2 T. smooth peanut butter
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients together, the dough should be really dry. Roll out the dough to about 1/4-1/2" thick and cut the cookies out in any shape (I used holiday shapes!).  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, until the cookies are dry.  I think mine were a little thick, so I had to bake them for about an 75 minutes.

These were a huge hit, but they should be used up pretty quickly since they are not full of preservatives.  Beau loved them and would run away if we gave him one so he could nibble on it without being disturbed.

Daily Fluff

Beau is very sad the holidays are over and he is home alone again. Good thing he has Santa to console him.

Cajun Gravy

I dog-eared this recipe when reading the November issue of Bon Appétit because it sounded like Stud’s idea meal.  So one night we both had off from school/life (a rarity around here these days), Stud and I hit the kitchen and whipped this up for dinner.  We managed to make it on a weeknight, but it was a rush to get it on the table by a reasonable hour.  I would recommend saving this one for the weekend when there is more time to prep and get things ready.  The recipe in Bon Appétit actually calls for crawfish tails, but this is Kentucky and I had shrimp in the freezer, so we used shrimp instead and it was delicious!

Cajun Gravy

1 lb bacon, cut into small slices

6 T. flour

½ c. finely chopped onion, green pepper, and celery

1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped

3 T. garlic

1 T. thyme

1 T. Tony Chachere’s spice mix

½ t. cayenne

3 c. chicken broth

1 lb. uncooked shrimp (tails removed), coarsely chopped

Salt, Pepper

This can all be made in a large (about 10”) cast iron skillet, probably Stud’s favorite part about this recipe.  He has a weird obsession with seasoning our cast iron skillet.  Anyways…. Cook the bacon until crisp and pour off all but 6 T. of the bacon fat.  Set the skillet over medium heat and add the flour to the bacon fat to form a roux.  Reduce the heat to low and cook the roux, whisking constantly, until the roux is a shade darker than peanut butter, about ten minutes.  Stud and I took turns stirring, you have to do it constantly to prevent the roux from burning, and it gets tiring!  Add the onion, pepper, jalapeño, and garlic (I actually pureed mine in the food processor) to the skillet and cook until everything is soft, about twenty minutes.  Increase the heat to high and add the bacon, spices, and broth and simmer until thickened, about twenty minutes.  Add in the shrimp and cook for about three minutes, until they are opaque. 

Stud and I served this over rice with broccoli and Stud actually ate the broccoli since he could smother it in gravy!!  And since we are obsessed with gumbo, this was right up our ally, but with shrimp and bacon instead of sausage and turkey!  Adding some variety into the menu rotation!