No Mr. Nash Week

I won't really be cooking this week, other than soup and salad and GRILLED CHEESE.
Sorry. got excited.

Lee is in a conference all week until at least 10pm each night so I am left to eat simple food. I am positive one night will include PW's Bacon Spinach Salad.. but otherwise I see alot of soup and GRILLED CHEESE's in my future this week.

Oh, other than Tuesday when Carl is cooking for Donald's birthday.

But seriously, the rest of the week - GRILLED CHEESE!
(and treadmills!)

Donald's Meatloaf

Donald loves meatloaf.
So last night as an early birthday, I made him meatloaf, potatoes, and green beans.
I thought it was one of my best meatloafs so far...However, no matter how yummy the meatloaf may be...
Do NOT serve it to your husband the very next night after you made a Julia Child recipe. Just doesn't have the same ring to it...
(and I ran out of bacon for the green beans since I used it all the previous night. oops.)

Beouf Bourguignon

Sunday I went and bought the book... and I did it.
I made Julia Child's Beouf Bourguignon.

It was fabulous.... worth all the time and effort it took..

Garden Time

Around the Nash household, spring has sprung in many ways! One of them being our garden.

This week Lee and Bo built a garden bed. Then Saturday we went to Lowes and spent a bazillion dollars on dirt and compost. After filling in the bed, Donald and I ran up to Home Depot and got the veggie plants. Lowes sucks at plants, btw.
Here is the finished product!
Last year, we tried bell peppers and that didn't work out. So if it looks like we have alot of onions, well that is something I buy every trip to the store so I thought it would be nice to pluck one out of my own garden! We have 4 different types of tomatoes - Early Girl, Beefsteak, Cherry, and Solarfire.
The radishes are seedlings, so we'll see if they pop up or not!
I already had the rosemary in another pot and transplanted it. I am hoping it is really happy in this spot!
Teddy was a major helper:I will keep taking progress photos as things begin to bloom!

A-HA!

I had an AHA moment the other day.

Most of the recipes I cook are from magazines or the internet, and then I start messing with them to make them my own. But I normally need the recipe right in front of me because I don't really memorize things.For instance, I have made my chocolate chip cookies about 1 billion times, still need the recipe.
I have a knife magnet over the oven and all it holds is one knife. I have a chip clip that for some reason unknown to me, has a magnet on it.
AHA!The chip clip now holds the recipe above the oven for quick reference!
Like that pink paper? We bought that 5 YEARS AGO to make programs for the wedding.
And I still have a good 50 sheets. So i print stuff on it that I am trying. If it works out, I re-type it into my cook book format and it goes in my binder.
The binder... that is a post for another time...
Oh and about 5 minutes after I took this photo I broke the pretty measuring spoons hanging on the cabinet.
Then cried.
It's been that kind of weekend folks...

Anyway, the recipe up there is Pasta with Bacon and Peas.
Verdict: good. Something happened and it got a little dry - like the cream didn't really coat the noodles. But, it was tasty and I may try it again.
However, it was similar to a wonderful Pioneer Woman recipe, Pasta with Mushrooms... so maybe these recipes should get married? Just add a few peas to Pdub's recipe and you got it!

My Kitchen

I was cleaning up the kitchen today, before cooking dinner (because I can't start dinner without cleaning the kitchen first!) and it dawned on me how much I love my kitchen. See, I live in a little 1,165 square foot bungalow about 10 minutes from downtown.. yet with what we paid for it, we could have a nice 2,500 square foot house in the burbs.
But we don't like the burbs.Not to live there and drive in from anyway.

So when we got this house, I knew that with the kitchen size and living room size, we would be happy here. Through bathroom renovations, kitchen renovations, and misc house issues and tasks, this little house has really become ours. All that is left is to paint the brick and put in a new driveway.Here is my kitchen "BEFORE":Original 1954 cabinets and counter (yellow tile!). I livened it up with some blue paint, that I quite honestly miss a little! It was fun! We took down the big upper cabinets and put up shelving so display my bright plates. Notice: No Dishwasher.
After:
I had been using my butcher block on the right side of the oven before for extra counter space. Now that I have real counter space on that side now, I can use this for it's intended purpose! My grandfather built it by hand and I love it. I wanted the open look of the shelving but EGADS the dust it accumulated! So glass doors helped with that feel. Originally the little upper cabinet by the back door should have had glass but something happened when putting up the cabinets. So this is my cook book cabinet. This is one of the original photos I took after it was done. There are dog food containers under the butcher block now, and blinds over the windows, but this is my home. I am in here about 75% of my time. Watching tv, cooking, baking, cleaning, drinking coffee. It's MY ROOM. Next thing we need is a new dining table. We are thinking of the pub height, but then the bench wouldn't be sat on... hmmmm....
While I long for a spacious master bedroom that I can put a pretty chair in to sit on and put on shoes... I will settle since I have my kitchen.

Dinner with Kelly and Clark

Last night Kelly and Clark wanted to cook for us, since I am always cooking for them. Well thanks to the Easter Holiday, lamb is on sale all over town. So Clark was in charge of the lamb and Kelly made a wonderful sundried tomato risotto and roasted asparagus!Lola took her spot under the table, as always...They had picked up some cupcake and cannoli's from Whole Foods for dessert. Our consensus was that they were made last week - very dry!