snippets of the long weekend

Okaaaaay...


So, I haven't posted in a few days and someone already noticed. :p Anyway, I was happy to see on Facebook and i-message updates that my sisters and several friends were going on cooking sprees while I was pigging out 6 hours away from home. My hubby and I went with our godparents (in marriage) R & D, to Golfito to ogle, well, buy appliances and other stuff (ooops) in the duty-free port. I won't go into the gory details of what we bought for the house and wish we could take home (yes, stand mixer, you), but I will say we had THE most amazing time and gorged on the yummiest food. :) And yes, I remain to be a dumb-dumb and forgot to take pictures during the trip, but with a new camera in hand, I promise to document our next trips better. 


After we got back, we spent the following day on a cooking and baking spree since we...ummm...like to eat? Okay, so it was so we could use up leftover ingredients that almost went bad while we were out. It's hard to not have stuff get spoiled when you're only cooking for two (with an appetite for four) and most things in the grocery are packaged for more people to consume. 


Anyway, thus banana cupcakes. They turned out a little greasier than I thought they should. But who else is to blame but me because I used an entire stick of butter instead of about 3/4 because I was too lazy to guesstimate how much to leave in the container. ANYWAY... 

Mashing bananas is good for anger management.

...and PF Chang lettuce wraps, which is the best thing to cook (after fried rice) to use up leftover food in the fridge and pantry. The sauce is to die for too! Can be used for salads, just add more lemon or vinegar if you want.Thanks to my friend Anya who is also getting domesticated over in the coast of Australia for this idea :) 

Lettuce, schmettuce. We ended up eating this with rice.

We were also having some friends over after lunch, so we made our favorites to share: red velvet brownies...

I love the dude...so I handed over the whisk after mixing. 

...and chipotle wings. I. LOVE. YOU.

Wings for the brave.

It was a super nice and sunny day and a lot of them came out to play :p

Candy is the queen of the deck.

Bright additions to any party.

Of course, also those who can have chocolate and (tons of) alcohol. 

The weekend extended to the next morning as memories (or the lack of) courtesy of four vodka cranberries kept haunting me. I thought I was going insane when I looked out the kitchen window and saw this:

How was I surprised?! We have horses. We live in a farm.

xoxo, 
Janice


P.S. My new babies just arrived. Will drool over these after my much-needed nap! 

Dear Donna and Ina - We thank you for the excess pounds.

cookin' saturday

Mr. G is finally home from his business trip and a beautiful sunny Saturday (and a giddy me) welcomed him! :) 

After hugs for him and my new Ina Garten cookbook, we headed to the grocery for some much-needed edible retail therapy :) Of course, there was no other thing to do next other than to cook, eat, nap, cook, eat for the rest of the day. Perfect. 

First up, a very easy paella dish from Donna Hay. I just substituted shrimp for some mexican chorizo which I had used in my Jamie Oliver carbonara the day before. AND after sauteing everything, I just dumped it in the rice cooker and added the meat when most of the liquid was gone. I got a little stressed when the cooker turned off and the rice was still hard, so I just added more water and let it cook for a little more (and kept it in "warm" mode for 10 minutes before serving).

It smelled and tasted awesome. Mr. G declared it could be one thing he can eat a few times a week, which made me super happy because it was easy to make, so it won't be too stressful to make once I start working. Of course, variations are needed - different meats, add eggs, shrimp, eat it with potato chips (which is the only way we can eat here). Live a little, go crazy!

easiest paella. adding boiled eggs would be the hardest part. 

I suggest ogling her site because most recipes are not too daunting. I'm not sure which networks carry her show, but fortunately we have it here, which is how I discovered her stuff! 

Of course, we HAD to have dessert, despite being so full from the paella. We heated up one of the chocolate and cheesecake brownies (disastrous-looking) from the day before and topped it with vanilla ice cream. AWESOME. The inside was soo gooey and perfect. It wasn't such a disaster after all :p The result: 

napping at the deck...

...and then later at the couch (okay, we drooled over Tempur mattresses and pillows for while)...and then off to sleep. We woke up at 630pm. I know, we are awful people. But that's how we spend our Saturdays. It can be worse. WORSE. Believe me. Anyway, we finally got up and prepared for dinner. Oh yeaaaaah. Mr. G was in charge of drinks: 

the man loves green label. 

...and I made these: 

chipotle wings. sides: vodka cranberry and JW green label on the rocks.

Thanks to my friend Katrina, who recommended this marinade to me. I used chicken wings instead of thighs because...I felt like it. I will be eternally grateful to the beautiful and funny Christy Teigen who introduced this recipe to the masses. The recipe is basic and chipotle IS hot, so you can modify the recipe to your taste (Christy recommends this). I almost put 2 CANS of chipotle vs the 2 pieces the recipe called for. Remember, I'm an airhead. Katrina was kind enough to tell me that I should add at least 3 times the amount of sugar before tasting. Boy am I glad I followed her because I would have passed out if I tasted the basic recipe. The stuff is HAAAAWT. I almost choked and Mr. G asked what was going on in the kitchen because I was making weird sounds. Anyway, more lemon, ketchup and sugar helped tons. I just marinated the chicken in the marinade, threw it in a pre-heated oven and an hour later, I had a front row seat to this: 

the man loves his wings too.

Oh boy was it oh so spicy, tangy, sweet, juicy. Everything we want in wings, which is one of the things we are absolutely bananas about (also: Amazon, Apple, etc). If it's too much, just eat it with sour cream or blue cheese dressing...or just drink more. If you can get your hands on chipotle (I use the canned ones), then PLEASE make the marinade. It will be money well spent. 

I have another cranberry vodka to down before we move on to our LOST marathon, so I need to go now. :p 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

xoxo, 

Janice