Mushroom Risotto.

I don't know about you, but I love risotto! Now that I am thinking about it, I like a lot of rice dishes: fried rice, paella, Mexican rice, Puerto Rican rice... the list goes on and on!

What are your favorite rice dishes??

Anyways, I was at work and really craving Mushroom Risotto. It was literally all that I could think about as I sat working on payroll. As soon as I got off, I drove over to Whole Foods and picked up some mushrooms, chicken stock, and fresh Italian Flat Leaf Parsley. I went to work as soon as I walked into the apartment.

I think I was most excited to use my new Le Creuset dutch oven...

I started with melting butter with onion, and garlic. Then added the mushrooms, celery, and a little bit of garlic. Once they were all covered with butter and lightly sauteed, I added the rice, white wine and some saffron. The hardest part of making this dish is having to slowly add the chicken stock over a course of (30) minutes as you are smelling all of the rich flavors.

I topped it off with a little more Parmesan cheese for garnish, freshly chopped parsley, and enjoyed my creation. In my experience with making risotto, it is very temperamental. But having cooked it more than a few times, I think I have gotten better every time. Cooking with my new dutch oven was life changing, I don't know how I didn't have one already!

Breadsticks.

Years ago, I went to eat at Bravo! for lunch in Des Moines and since the were full, we had a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. They had these amazing crispy bread sticks that you could munch on while enjoying your cocktail. I would crave them all the time. I've tried making them in different capacities but I finally found a recipe that reminded me the most of them.

I found the recipe in Thomas Keller's ad hoc cookbook, and just added a few extra spices like: Herbs de Provence & Rosemary. Keep in mind that they already had Parmesan cheese in the flour mixture, yummy! The thinner you roll them, the crispier the come out.

I had to bake them on the top rack for (8) minutes first, and than turn them all individually and place them on the second shelf for another (8) minutes.

I doubled the recipe because we had friends coming over for a little get together and probably made about (8) batches of them.... I think I over did it ...but....

Once they were out of the oven, I couldn't keep my little display full of them.

Along with hummus, veggies, and other little snacks, these suckers were the first to go! Soooo good. I want to eat more right now as we speak!

Presents.

Who doesn't love gifts?!

Let me share with you, some of the fabulous things that I got...

After years of wanting one, Joseph's parent's got us this beautiful Kitchen-Aid Mixer. Love, love, love it. We also got the Barefoot Contessa's new cookbook "How Easy Is That", (and have even used a few recipes out of it already), a new shower curtain & bed spread set from cb2, and tons of new clothes from J.Crew.

Joseph's sister, Sophie, got me the 1st season of Mad Men and Bethenny Getting Married? Two series that I love!

My mom got us this amazing Cuisinart Food Processor (we recently made hummus and our own bread crumbs). It came with a DVD with recipes and how-to instructions.

Jessica got me those mixing bowls because I always looked at them on my trips to Williams-Sonoma but never purchased them myself but always talked about getting them next time.

My sister, Grace, got me these cute little biscuit cutters.....

....and a metal sieve that I wanted.

Becky and Dan got us clothes and a cute Chicago ornament!

Kate & Tony got us both some really cute ties...

And Caitlin got us a little fondue set, candles, and ice cube makers :)

But this week, I finally got my gift from Joseph. The new Louis Vuitton iPad case! I have been wanting it for so long and they stopped making them but it seemed like all the celebs had one. I kept checking back at the store and after months of saying they were discontinued, they were re-released the first of the year by special order only. I love it!

Thank you to everyone :)

Christmas.

Experiencing Christmas in California was so completely different from any other Christmas that we have experienced in the past.

After having breakfast and mimosas, we quickly threw on some clothes and drove over to Coronado.

Instead of a "snow angel", Joseph made a sand angel.

We decided to walk up to the Hotel del Coronado and have a drink by the fire pits and enjoy the sunset.

While enjoying our bubbly, I ran into so many co-workers! We were all sporting the same Timex watch :)

Once, we were ready to head back home....(mostly because I had a ham in the oven)... we quickly stopped and watched the ice skaters before walking back to the car.

The rest of the night, we played with my gift to Joseph, an Xbox360 & the Kinect.

A few days after Christmas, we headed back to Des Moines to spend the New Year. More to come regarding the fun time we had there soon!

Christmas Card.

In case you were wondering how many pictures we had to take to get the right shot for our Christmas card.... it was a many!

This is me, posing for the camera.... trying to figure out if the lighting was right.

We "hired" Jessica to take our Christmas card pictures. And by hired, I mean paid her with food and wine :) She was more than happy!

We wanted it to look holiday but California too!

We drove up to La Jolla, near Torrey Pines State Park.

Another Test Shot.

This was one of my favorites, but decided against it....

We chose a winner! The sunset was beautiful and the temperature was great. My favorite picture of us in a very long time.

Holiday-ish.

To get in the holiday spirit we did a lot of holidays things...

One night, we went to December Nights in Balboa Park. You get to walk around all of Balboa Park and try a different foods, listen to Christmas songs, and enjoy the holiday season. I got to try Warm Chestnuts that had been roasted on an open fire... and they were actually really good. We ate a lot, drank a lot, and had a lot of fun, overall.

On a separate night, Jessica and I cut snowflakes out of magazine and catalog pages, while Joseph watched. I think he might have made one or two but in reality I did all of the work ;)

They turned out really cool! My favorite pages to cut snowflakes out of were from the J.Crew catalog because of all the cool and funky colors. Can you tell which ones are mine??

It was really fun to walk into the house and see the snowflakes during different points in the day.


And of course we had to get a fresh tree! After much debate (and at a very late hour, I must add) we decided to drive down to Rite-Aid and pick out a tree from their "lot" for the second year in a row. Joseph, Jessica, and I literally took almost (30) minutes trying to pick the perfect tree. Every time we thought we had found "the one", I decided I liked a different one better :)

Finally, after Joseph said no more, I grabbed one and Joseph threw it in the back of the car. We drove home, dragged it in the elevator and through the apartment, cleared a corner for it, and went to work. It was so cute!

Tates.

The minute that Thanksgiving is over.... what is the next thing on the mind?

Christmas, of course!

I remember when I was in middle school and high school, I used to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my mom all day. We would either be the first ones at Target or Kohl's. I literally remembering having to get up at 3 a.m. and then driving to the stores and standing in the cold, waiting anxiously for them to open their doors.

Well, as soon as I moved away from home, I stopped doing it! I miss it sometimes, just the excitement of pushing and shoving people in order to be the first through the doors. But now, I have simpler pleasures like:

Tate's Cookies from Tate's Bake Shop in Southampton. We got so used to having them every year and since we didn't go home to Iowa this year for the holidays, Joseph's mom shipped us a few boxes Tate's to California!

They are the best chocolate chip cookies. They are crunchy and buttery and thin. Serioulsy, if you have not had them, you need to! Check them out here.

French Onion Soup.

Two of my loves in the world?

AllThingsFrench & Soup.

So how does it not make sense that I am completely in love with French Onion Soup?? At one point, a few years ago, when I thought that I didn't like French Onion Soup, I took a small sip of Joseph's at a restaurant. I fell in love. It was totally not what I thought that it would be. It kind of sweet but obviously salty with hints of caramel and just so delicious. I was in love.

One day as I was shopping at Williams-Sonoma, I came across their Basics to French Cooking and it had the most amazing picture of the soup on the cover... I bought the cook book immediately...

The process of making this creation is so extensive and time-consuming. The main ingredients are obviously onions and beef broth.

I've made it so many times but all I can remember about is: cutting up onions, using a lot of butter, stirring and stirring, and then adding beef stock.


Once it is almost done, you put it into cute little bowls, add a couple of pieces of french baguettes, butter, Gruyere cheese, and broil. Who doesn't love soup and all things French during this chilly time of year?!

Turkey Leftovers.

The next couple of days after Thanksgiving, we tried to eat up all of the turkey leftovers...

The next morning, for brunch, I warmed up all of the leftovers and we had turkey panini's with mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing!

It was really yummy!

I especially loved the stuffing. I like mine a little more crispy and crunchy, but Joseph likes his nice and mushy.

Instead of having coffee, I had a glass of red wine ;-) It was a lazy day since I had worked and cooked all day long. I even clogged the garbage disposal with potato peels... oooops! The maintenance guy came and as said "it looks like you did some major cooking, and it smells really good!"

Thanksgiving.

Joseph and I spent our first Thanksgiving completely alone, away from our families, for the first time. Since it was going to be my first Thanksgiving cooking everything by myself, I knew that I had to go all out!

I seriously had to have gone to Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and Great News at least (5) times each, within a two-week period trying to find more things to buy that I could use for cooking. I finally settled on these items:

Roaster: All-Clad

Turkey Lifters: All-Clad
Baster: Crate & Barrel
Gravy Boat: Crate & Barrel
Digital Thermometer: All-Clad

Once I had all my cooking utensils and recipes, I had to get to work:

I had to start a few things a couple of days early, such as this Champagne Salad. Joseph's mom has been making it for years (it is Joseph's favorite) so I had to make it! It is pretty much a mixture of: crushed up fresh pineapple, pureed fresh strawberries, cream cheese, and cool whip. After it is all mixed together, you freeze it.

The day before Thanksgiving, I went out to Bread & Cie (which makes only the best bread in all of San Diego)and bought a big loaf of crusty french bread for the stuffing. I cut the whole thing into small cubes and let it sit out all day and night so that they could get nice and hard.

It was a lot of stuffing... which was totally okay because who doesn't love left overs! Plus, I still had to stuff the cavity of the turkey. I didn't get a picture of the before but I added: chicken broth, fresh thyme, parsley, rosemary, and sage. So yummy!

Since I had to work the morning of Thanksgiving, I left very detailed instructions for Joseph to do while I was gone. He buttered the turkey, stuffed the cavity, seasoned it just right, and stuck it in the oven until I got home. I am pretty sure he is traumatized by all having to touch all of its lady parts.

Note: I originally ordered a (12) pound turkey but with a growing guest list, opted for a (20) pounder... thank goodness for that roaster!

Joseph put together all of the tables we have in our apartment to make room for the (7) guests that we were having over for our family Thanksgiving dinner. I set the table and got everything ready while the turkey roasted, potatoes boiled, and stuffing baked.

For some reason we didn't get any pictures of the beautifully finished dinner but it was so good. It could have been all of the wine we drank or quite possibly the fact that we were all starving by the time I finished cooking. Either way, it was a success and I completely passed out for the night on the couch, on top of everyone right after we ate :)

Disclaimer.

Yes, I have been gone for quite some time.... Sorry!

I went home right after Halloween because my grandpa was very ill and in the hospital. I spent almost a full week in Chicago and the day that I flew back home, he passed away. Since then I has a hard time moving past that memory, hence the lack of post past my Halloween excursion.

However, I am now back and ready to blog again. Please note that when I get a digital picture of my grandpa or am able to track a picture that I can scan, I will do a post in honor of him :)

One last thing... the next few posts may be all over the place, due to the fact that I have no idea of dates, only fond memories...

Thank you.