This week!

Fun flowers we (Buddy and me) saw on our walk

It was a fun week cooking in the Stewart house.  The day after Easter I was zonked.  I went to Trader Joe's, after having planned out a few meals...and when I went to check out my cart was OVERFLOWING.  Like - bigger than I've ever filled one before (granted TJ's carts are small).  And I had a big watermelon inside.  But still...stopped me in my tracks.  Mostly because we were planning to leave for a week and already had food at home.  I thought, "there's no way we'll eat all of this."  So...in my zombie-esque stumbling I went back around and put several things back. 

I must also say - I had about 3-4 mini-cups of coffee - I'm spoiled by TJ's free coffee!

I then swung by The Fresh Market (a sucker for free coffee!) - and had fun staring at grains, sauces, and such.  It is good to just explore and get a feel for prices and random ingredients. TFM has anything yuppie-ish you may need for a fancypants recipe. 

Anyhoot, my friend Sarah's been cooking up a storm lately and is re-inspiring me.  She sent me this cool link - Hungry Happens - some great ideas that are healthy and many are gluten-free or vegan or easily adaptable!

Mike loves watermelon - and I mixed in some basil and goat cheese (could have been feta) and didn't have any limes - but tried with lemon.  Lime would have been better!  Here's the inspiration!

Of course, I had to enter the EPA Pie Contest.  I didn't know what to make, so I googled "Ree Drummond Pie recipes" as my mom suggested her as a great resource.  I stumbled upon the "Pie That'll Make You Cry" - and went for this one.  Basically her re-visiting of traditional pecan pie - but I don't know what she changed!  I did read before that the key to keeping pecan pies from being too runny is the egg yolks - so don't short-change yours.  I agree with her that its hard to gauge just how long to bake.  Ours ended up being about 1 hour!  I did use TJ's frozen pie crusts, a cashier said they were really good back when I made Mike a blueberry pie for his birthday last month.  She instructs you to put all the pecan pieces at the bottom, and then pourover the liquid - the pecans rise to the top.  I agree with her that you use the chopped pecans because when you cut the big pecans, the fold into the pie and it gets even more messy than it already is!  Mike suggested making something chocolate, and it wasn't til AFTER that I remembered a Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie I made before for Thanksgiving!  Oh well!

mmmm pie. 

For Mike's mom's birthday, we had Lemon-scented Crispy chicken Thighs!  It took me most of Friday to find a "14" Oven-proof Skillet" - spoiler alert: they don't exist in Cary!  But I did find a good one at Target that was 12".  I ended up making chicken thighs, breasts, and two legs.  TFM didn't have bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, which I think would have been better.  But I still got a good sear on the meat.  The meal was hearty and a good "center of the plate" dish.  I served it with some bread and salad.  Works well with my in-laws who like to all eat at the same time (in other words - the make-your-own-pizza night wasn't as well-received).  The recipe calls for fresh-made croutons, but I cheated and got pre-made ones that looked awesome - also at TFM!

Btw - her cookbook Kitchen Confidence is super fun and I recommend it!

Mike's mom, Joanne, also loves molten cake!  So I attempted personal chocolate molten lava cakes.  I used Ree's recipe again - using powdered sugar.  I read in her blog that an extra yolk makes it even more runny.  I liked the blend of bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolates - it was very rich but good.  And the 13 minute bake time was right on!  Made for a very nice birthday cake!  Fortunately we found a candle hidden in the drawer :-)