Buzzed & In-Love

Married ONE year - crazy! The weekend consisted of lots of
good food, great wine and romance.
Word on the street: the first year of marriage is the hardest. Articles on how to survive it are abundant and were sent to me regularly by the Nest (the next 'step' after the Knot). LOL ... well, I survived it and it was not too bad... so bring it on!
{Cheese alert}:
I truly am fortunate to have married Mikey. He is my best friend, my confidant, my party buddy, my 4-movies in a row viewing friend, my workout partner, my dish cleaner (b/c I hate doing dishes more than anything in this world), my foot masseuse and my lover -to name just a couple.

The last 12 months were indeed a 'reality check' - testing my patience and helping me to become a selfless person. At the same time, the last 12 months were some of the best of my life. I found myself at times thinking, "this is for real, I am wife, Mikey is my hot husband and we are going to start a family and have a real grown-up life together." It's funny! I am a wife! GAWD... not that long ago I was living paycheck to paycheck, making multiple trips to Nordstrom and only concerned about myself. I am a grown up, I am a grown woman! (Screaming this, standing on a rooftop in a sexy Tarzan/Jane outfit. See it?) Mikey has taught me a lot, and I AM a better person because of him. He is thee sweetest, most genuine and thoughtful person I have ever met (besides me, LOL). I will always remember the last 12 months of our lives, the first year of our marriage: furnishing and decorating our first home, our apartment...buying a car...cooking and drinking...dance parties...farting in front of him for the first time...Laughing non-stop...Deep talks about our goals, dreams and aspirations...Knowing the comfort and joy of having the security of such an amazing man-friend that will be in my life forever... PRICELESS.

Here are just a few of the highlights from our charming weekend:

Market Street dining
The perfect romantic picnic spot at Red Butte Gardens
Picnic assortment: cilantro lime shrimp, caprese, reallly good
bread and some great white wine and raspberries

Back home to eat. Again. We made yummy tortellini with a pesto sauce!
One year later, our top tier of our cake is
still beautiful... but how does it taste?
Veueve to celebrate this Milestone!
Cutting in with a butcher knife...
Mmm... looks pretty! As for the taste- it was not the most disgusting
thing I have ever tasted, but a few bites each, and we were good!


Here is to many more years of love, happiness and health!!!
We had a wonderful FIRST year anniversary celebration!

My Weekend in Food

After a somewhat dreadful week, I made up for it with a weekend full of good times and good food. The Tim McGraw concert was fabulous, and this year I remember it :) Hopefully Jaima will get me some pictures soon that will tell the tale of our evening!

Mikey, Mike (Mikey's Dad) and I hit up Farmer's Market for our first time this season on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, we have been missing out all summer and are planning to be back there next Saturday morning. Easier said than done, we passed up all of the incredible (smelling and looking) food at the market as nothing can compete with a Caputo's craving.

I never appreciated, desired or enjoyed Caputo's as much as I do
now - thanks to Mikey.

As Linda (Mikey's Mom) is out of town to be with Alicia (as she is ready to pop any day now!!!) we decided to try something new for dinner and have Mike over to thank him for the great day! With our borrowed deep fryer from Mike and a craving for some fish... I decided to make

fish and chips!

Fish:
On a quest for halibut, I decided fresh cod was a more economical choice and went with that.
I sliced the cod, salt and peppered it, dipped it in egg and smothered it in Panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs).
In a pan with about a tablespoon olive oil and a tad of beer and lemon, I browned each side of the fish in separate batches. {this turned out AMAZingly, I will be doing it again}

"Chips":
I cut up a ton of potatoes and tossed them in the deep fryer for a simple and oh-so-delectable fresh fries to accompany the fish... simply tossed with salt and pepper. {anyone who knows me well'ish, knows that I could live off of fries and having this handy dandy fryer in my possession is a potential detriment to the size of my ass}

A fun extra:
Never having made onion rings and having this fryer on my hands, I decided to use the onion I had on-hand and give it a whirl.
I sliced the onion and tossed in in flour, baking soda, salt and paprika and set them to the side. I added in some milk and an egg to this mix which created a batter. I then coated the onions, covered them in Panko and tossed them in the deep fryer... these turned out like WHOA. :)
The Drink:
Feeling more than appropriate for the dinner theme I had created, I used extra jars from my jam experiment and made a YUmmy spiked lemonade, dressed with a fresh lemon.
Ah... I LOVE food, and love making new things. This weekend's experiment turned out incredibly. Now, back to a week of the gym and non-extravegant meals... we our celebrating our one year anniversary in ONE week!

Light and Easy Tastes for Summer

Mmmmm... Mikey surprised me with this flavorful and light meal for dinner!
BBQ chicken from the grill
Flat Out wraps (I pack these for lunches too with turkey and all the yummy fixings)
Your favorite toppings and side dishes

Thanks for the yummo dinner Husb! :)

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo... the celebration Mexico's heritage and pride {and my own}. In honor of this glorious day, I thought I would post pics of Machel's Mexican Casserole that I posted about a while ago. I had a special request from Kelly Judd asking for photographs! I made this on Monday, and Mikey and I both had leftovers for our lunches on Tuesday.

Always a favorite and always super delish!

Introducing... the ingredients. (This time I added some "fake" Spanish rice because I felt like; makes it a bit more heavy but that much more delicious).

We have tortillas (the kind you bake yourself from Costco), a mix of corn, black beans and peppers, re-fried beans, chicken and rice.




Cilantro and avocado... two powerful ingredients that totally make this dish! I change up what I do pretty much every time, but I always use these two key ingredients!

Now that everything is prepared, let the layering begin... I always start with #1: the beans, #2: the cheese and then layer on from there as you wish!

Last but not least, the rice!
I make a second layer and top that one off with one last tortilla, three tortillas total.
I let it all melt together for 5 minutes or so...
Voila! Sometimes it turns out prettier than others. Despite the looks, this simple and quick delight is sure to satisfy.

Margarita por favor?

My version of a Greek dinner

Mikey and I are both huge fans of BBQ'ing chicken kabobs. We normally marinate the chicken in Yoshida's teriyaki sauce, the longer the better, and build kabobs with chicken, red, green and yellow peppers, mushrooms and zucchini. I serve this with rice and it is so yummy. Refreshing and not too bad for you, great summer evening dinner.

After discovering this Greek seasoning in the aisle of seasonings... I created our new favorite dinner. I made it for my Mom and even SHE was impressed and has made it twice on her own as well! So- we know it's good now, right? Machel's Greek Fiesta:



I marinate my chicken and pepper in a big bowl with olive oil a a generous amount of this seasoning. I built my kabobs and the rest (the BBQ'ing) is all Mikey.









I serve the kabob with lemon rice... I brown regular white long grain rice in olive oil, add juice from one lemon, add some of this yummo seasoning and add in the appropriate amount of water.









Pitas: I just get these from the bakery section of the store, Dan's and Harmon's seem to have the best pick! I brush both sides of the pita with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt.









THE money maker: my proud tzatziki sauce. I was inspired by a co-worker, Britni, to try this sauce out. This is what makes this GREEK {ish} meal SO amazing. I take a big container of Greek yogurt... add in one shredded cucumber that has been de-seeded, drained and shredded, about a tablespoon of olive oil, about a tablespoon a half of red wine vinegar, a ton of fresh minced garlic( (like 5 big cloves) lemon juice to taste and dill to taste... AMAZing.









I suggest you try this immediately. The tzatziki recipe makes a ton and is an incredible leftover!