Ready. Set. GO.

So I’ve got some pretty darn good news: I get to move in to my new apartment early. Nervous news: I AM STARTING LAW SCHOOL. Oh my gosh. I’m nervous, but I have wonderful, supportive family members and friends that are giving me so much hope for the next three years.

In telling y’all this, I want you to know that next week will probably be hectic/crazy and with slim-to-none posts. I will try to time it out so that I can keep up with the pace, even while I am in Hurricane Law, but no promises.

For now, I’m here to tell you all about Goats and Blue Cheese Burgers.

Goats first.

As I alluded to yesterday, during my trip to Wisconsin, we went to boyfriend’s favorite restaurant: Al Johnson’s. Its in a tiny town called Egg Harbor and the food is BOMB DOT COM. I mean seriously. I have never had such wonderful swedish pancakes in my life, topped with about a pint of legit maple syrup. And by legit maple syrup, I mean it was probably taken off the tree that morning.

It was accompanied by this:

Hot. Chocolate. For. Breakfast.

I was about as happy as a 7-year-old on Christmas Morning.
And check out the swedish garb on the waitress. HOW COOL!!!

Seriously, you guys, I know I am a fan of Texas and everything, but Wisconsin puts up a pretty good fight. You just can’t beat the places we found in one single county.

Now to the Blue Cheese Burgers. The night before I left for the wondrous adventure, I made blue cheese burgers for the fam.

Basically, it was about the simplest recipe ever, but the patties came out fantastic, and the blue cheese pairing was to die for.

Blue Cheese Burger Recipe: Serves 4
adapted from Ina Garten

(Ps- before I begin, I know I’ve been gettin’ a little crazy with Ina, so next recipe I promise will NOT be from the Barefoot Contessa… but I do HIGHLY recommended her cook books!)

1.5 pounds ground sirloin
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3 tbsp. A1 steak sauce
1 egg
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

4 gourmet whole-wheat hamburger buns

4 oz. blue cheese

Combine first 6 ingredients into a bowl and make patties. I tend to make mine about the size of my palm. (But since I am smaller than everyone else, I made the others larger.)

Heat up the grill. Cook the burgers for four minutes on one side. Flip patties. Cook four more minutes. Remove patties and cover with foil.

Add buns to the grill, cut side down, and let toast for a few minutes (cover should be open).

Prepare burgers with bun, meat patty, blue cheese, tomatoes, and arugula. Serve hot.

This recipe is so simple, and a crowd pleaser. Plus, you really don’t have to do anything. Oh, and it has a hint of barbeque sauce in it. TEXAS.

Don’t you just want to take a bite out of it?

Where Have I Been?

I don’t know. Its hard to say myself.

Let’s see… I spent the last week and a half here:

And here:

And here:

I have to say, my life is pretty good right about now. Which is great, because in about a week and a half, a brick wall called “law school” is going to careen right in to me.

Boyfriend and I traveled up to Door County, Wisconsin for some R&R time with his family. Not too sound too “ooey gooey” but seriously, it was the most perfect week I’ve ever had. One of the best vacations I’ve ever taken. And his family is wonderful.

It was just the perfect trip- filled with sun, one perfect rainy day, love, family, friends, food, booze, and fun. Lots and lots of fun.

After we flew back to the great state of Texas, I stayed with him for one night and attempted to make him pasta.
Sneaky Barefoot Contessa added the words “let soak for four hours” at the end of the recipe.
People- this was already 7pm and my stomach was talking yelling at me.
So, no soak. But the pasta was still pretty darn good.

Ina Garten’s Summer Garden Pasta (sans the four hours soak time):

Serves 2
Ingredients:
1/2 pint Cherry Tomatoes, chopped in havles
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
6 basil leaves, julienned
1/4 tsp. crushed rep pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4-6 oz. whole wheat angel hair pasta
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a large bowl and stir. Cover it with saran wrap and set aside (room temperature for 4 hours)—– or you know, don’t let it sit because you don’t read instructions well.

Cook pasta al dente in large pot of boiling water and a pinch of salt. Drain Pasta. Add pasta to cherry tomatoes and toss. Add parmesan. Serve with extra basil leaves and cheese.

It was light and so good! Perfect for a long day (if you’ve got four hours to kill), and just perfect with a tall glass of wine.

Told you so.

Have a few more recipes to add on here, so keep checking back in the next couple of days! Also, I’ll post more WI pictures of our travels. Especially here:

Yes. You guessed right. That IS a GOAT on the GRASS ROOF of a SWEDISH RESTAURANT in WISCONSIN. Bet you thought you needed to get your brain checked!

Sleep well

Ina Garten’s Stewed Lentils and Tomatoes

Man, oh man. This stuff is GOOD.

As y’all know, I picked up the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook last weekend. Well, this is what I decided to make of it (plus another recipe appearing tomorrow).

These stewed lentils and tomatoes were SO amazing, and oh so spicy. BRING ON THE SPICE. It calls for 2 tsp. of curry powder, and boy, does it make you sweat!

I went back for seconds, then thirds…oops! But it was soo good. I’ll make sure to bring this recipe back when it gets colder — or for rainy days. Kinda hard to eat stewed lentils when its 102F outside!

Just make sure you DON’T cook the lentils beforehand. Most people would say “duh,” but apparently I am not most people. Trial and error, guys, trial and error.

Regardless, this was yummy, and I highly recommend this recipe. Especially because you basically combine all of the ingredients, and then leave it simmering for 40 minutes– giving you time to have a nice glass of wine, talk to friends, or watch some quality E channel shows. Whatever floats your boat.

Recipe for: Stewed Lentils and Tomatoes

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cups diced yellow onion
2 cups diced carrots
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28oz) can plum tomatoes
1 cup french green lentils (uncooked!!)
2 cups chicken stock — (I used homemade)
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Add carrots and onions. Heat for 8-10 minutes, then add garlic for one more minute.

While this is cooking, put can of tomatoes (juice and all), in a food processor and pulse a couple times so the tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Rinse Lentils.

Add the tomatoes, broth, curry powder, thyme leaves, salt and pepper to the sauce pan and bring it to boil. Once at a boil, bring the mixture down to simmer. Cover and cook for 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Take off heat, but keep covered for 10 more minutes.
Should look like this:

Then add red wine vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Go make it. Now.

For me, its off to read my new book: The Book of Lost Things. Hope its good!

Lemon Blueberry Morning Muffins

Don’t you just wanna take a BIG BITE out of it?
I do.

Just did.

One of my favorite flavors/foods of all time is blueberry, of course. I love them. And I wish they weren’t so darn expensive and only available in the summer. Why do I have to love such complicated fruit?

Anyways, as the summer is winding down (is it really July 15?), blueberries are going on sale everywhere. This makes me very, very, very, very……happy

Since boyfriend’s favorite meal is breakfast, I made him these lemon blueberry muffins. It is one of most simple, and sublime, muffin recipes in the whole wide world. I think it takes more time to bake than put together, and the lemon glaze (not pictured) just makes everything better in the morning. So, make them, and then sit back with a large cup o’ joe tomorrow. It’ll make your weekend.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins
adapted from the Brown-eyed Baker

Preheat oven to 350F.

2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix and sift these dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.

In another bowl, add:
1 egg
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp melted, cooled unsalted buter
1 1/4 cup light sour cream

Whisk egg, then add sugar and whisk until thick. Add butter in parts, whisk thoroughly. Add sour cream in parts, and whisk.

Add 2 cups blueberries to dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to sour cream mixture.

Brush top of muffin tins lightly with oil. Add liners in the muffin molds.

Scoop batter evenly into the muffin cups. Then bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating pan half way through.
Once done, cool muffins on a wire rack.

While muffins are cooling, mix 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice with 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Top the muffins with the lemon glaze for some extra flavor

This recipe makes about 16 muffins, but I baked 12 muffins and used the rest of the batter to make mini-blueberry muffins.

Cute huh?
Toasted in the morning, these are even better. Plus, its always fun to eat miniature things.

Hope y’all enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend. I just picked up Barefoot Contessa-At Home cookbook so look out for some new recipes and trials in the next days!

She’s my fav, and I’ve already got my eye on her blue-cheese burgers and summer garden pasta

Cherry Almond Oat Bars

Hey guys!

Sorry I have been MIA since Sunday– I’ve been workin’ smirkin’ all week, and had some mild surgery on Wednesday, so I’ve been resting up. But if any one knows me, I cannot sit still. I have a serious problem trying to relax. So naturally, I spent yesterday baking when I should have probably been laying down. Oopsies. I’ll try harder today, I promise.

BUT the main reason I was baking was because the two year anniversary with boyfriend is on Sunday (the official day). So I made him some of his favorite treats, re-mixed.

In this post, I’ll tell you all about the new flavors I put into the trail mix bars I’ve been making for a year or so. I found the original recipe on Eat-Run-Live, called Yogi Trail Mix Bars.

They are the best bars for a pre-workout energy bar, a mid-day snack, or you know, just because. Plus, chocolate is an ingredient. So, you know, its like a healthy dessert.

They are the perfect combination of savory and sweet, crunchy and chewy.

See what I mean?

Here’s the recipe:
Adapted from Yogi Trail Mix Bars

1 cup honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt

-Bring these ingredients to a boil over the stove top. Once at a boil, take heat down to a simmer and let the batch simmer for four minutes. Once done, add it to the mixture detailed below:

While the batch is heating (or before) mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In should go:

1 1/4 cup rolled oats (old fashioned)
1/3 cup oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup raw sliced almonds
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried currants
5 tbsp chia seeds

Pour the hot mixture on top and fold in. Should look something like this:

Then, add 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips and fold in quickly. (Make sure to do this as quickly as possible so the chips don’t melt!)

Pour mixture into a greased 9×9 pan. Wet hands and press mixture down until flat (this prevents the batter from sticking to you!)

Refrigerate for at least one hour. And you’re done! How easy is that?
And it comes out looking like this:

You will need a pretty sturdy knife and spatula to get these things out! Cut them into “bar” shapes. Once you get the first one out, they all come out pretty rapidly after, but it makes it easier to cut the shapes into the pan, rather than cutting afterward.

YUM. They are the BOMB.

Look out for another post later today– gotta go rest for now

I’ll give you a little hint….

Hattie’s & Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Good morning afternoon.
Today we have been moving slower than usual. Probably due to the one or four pina colada’s we may have had last night. I took it upon myself to be the designated pina colada maker at a friend’s apartment last night, but being the official taste tester has been detrimental to my vitality this morning.
Let’s just say that I have been sprawled out on the couch with a plate full of cookies and jersey mike’s. Some days are clearly brighter than others

Before the margarita-ville mixer went crazy last night, boyfriend and I celebrated our two-year anniversary! Crazy, huh? I feel like it was yesterday that we were beginning to date and he was doing everything completely wrong, but somehow he managed to trick me into loving him

For dinner we headed to the Bishop Arts District in South Dallas. OH MY GOSH! I cannot believe I hadn’t been there before! It is such a wonderful neighborhood and definitely gives off an Austin or Atlanta (off of MLK hwy) feel. All the stores are locally owned and the food was amazing!

We made an early reservation at Hattie’s- a gourmet southern restaurant that wow-ed the both of us. The atmosphere was so romantic, but seemed so comfortable. It was like we had traveled across the mason-dixon line and ended up in Myrtle Beach.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted (shocker), but I decided on Shrimp and Grits with a side of mac n’ cheese, while boyfriend opted for the bacon-wrapped, jalepeno stuffed quail. I CANNOT EVEN EXPLAIN IN WORDS HOW GOOD THIS FOOD WAS.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company style

I devoured my food (and some of boyfriends) before moving on to the mac n’ cheese. The shrimp was cooked perfectly- and I literally have never had better grits (sorry, Mom). I kept asking boyfriend to remove us from the restaurant so I wouldn’t go back in the kitchen and eat a giant pot of this dish!!
His quail was amazing as well- the meat was so tender and the jalepeno punch was subtle, but was such a wonderful compliment. Its hard to make a good quail dish, but this passed with flying colors! (get it? flying. ha ha.)

Sweet potatoes too? Yes, Please.

I always tell boyfriend that you can judge a place based on their mac n’ cheese, and well, I was sad to report that it didn’t live up to the other dishes. It was pretty good, but we have been spoiled by hibiscus. And you just can’t beat theirs. No way, no how.
Who ever thought cheese and pasta could become such an intricate thing?

Overall, the meal was AMAZING. I wish I lived here again just so I could go back every weekend and eat those grits!

After dinner we walked around the district and went into a chocolate shop that boyfriend has been raving about for a while: “Dude, Sweet Chocolate.” He first went into this shop on an accounting recruiting event, and it totally lived up to his reviews.

The woman who started the shop was so enthusiastic about her business. It makes you want to go back repeatedly and never give money to Godiva again. She patiently tells you about each and every creation and she lets you try as many flavors as you want! We told her about my nut allergies and she diligently cut pieces on a separate board. It was special

I walked away with WAY too much chocolate (is that even possible?) and a full belly. I think boyfriend and I downed 5 servings just trying all the flavors! The chef was so patient and helpful, and the chocolate is even better. Apple-butter dark chocolate won me over– and is currently eyeing me from across the room.

I picked up some truffles for my chocolate loving dad. Hopefully he’ll like them. And if he’s anything like me (which he is, ’cause, HELLO- he’s my dad), he will go into a beautiful chocolate food coma.

Last night was a wonderful night for southern food and chocolate. Now lets hope I can get off this couch at some point so I’m not a total waste today. On second thought… I’m gonna go watch Iron Man with boyfriend. You win some, you lose some.

Ooey Gooey Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

Last night, as boyfriend and I were watching Iron Man, I came to the conclusion that I am not actually making up recipes, I am simply making them in order to become a better cook. The last few weeks I have tried recipes that I normally would leave to someone else, but I’m glad that I haven’t taken the easy road (sometimes…). I feel that the direction of my blog is now centered more around my trials, errors, and successes in cooking, baking, and fitness. Since this is somewhat of a “transition” point in my life, its nice to try new things to make them habitual (aka cooking and running).

So, with that said, my blog will now (continue to) be centered around just that— my cooking concoctions (with much help from recipe bloggers) and my fitness goals.

And now, as I promised, COOKIES.

These cookies are delicious. And by the taste and the look of ‘em, you would never guess these are low-fat and low-calorie cookies. YOU HEARD ME: low calories. As in, about 80 calories per cookie, using no substitutes or artificial ingredients. That means, ladies and gentlemen, more cookies

CHECK IT OUT:

Its almost like a buy one- get three free deal on cookie calories.

I made these for the court, and everyone loved them. Including the intense male lawyers that were yapping about hunting, fishing and MANLY activities… IN YO FACE.

So here’s the recipe for… RAISIN, CRANBERRY APPLESAUCE OATMEAL COOKIES:
(that was a mouthful)
As adapted from Nick Malgieri

1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. unsalted butter– at room temp!
1/2 granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup rolled oats (old fashioned)
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup dried cranberries

2 baking sheets lined with foil
Ice cream scoop & fork

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (racks should be on upper third and lower third of oven to evenly disperse heat)

2. In small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt

3. In large bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar until smooth. Then mix in brown sugar. Then, mix in the egg, applesauce and vanilla.

4. Stir the flour mixture into the large bowl, then add the oats, raisins and cranberries.

5. Use the ice cream scoop to scoop out cookie drops on to the foil. I usually use about 1/2 of a large ice cream scoop to measure the size. Then, lightly flatten the tops of the cookie drops with a fork. **This is the #1 tip for cookies– always use an ice cream scooper followed by a light press with the fork**

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

There you have it, amazing and healthy cookies to beat the summer heat and belly.

Now its time for some lunch with boyfriend. I just took out some fresh chocolate chip cookies that I know he will LOVE.
For that recipe classic, its on the back of the nestle bag. Seriously.