When you house sit for us...

one can expect many surprises and treats...

* The first is this smiling face...literally in your face the whole time :)
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Well that is true, except for when our angel decides he's tired and cuddles up into a little peaceful ball...so cute and innocent right?!?!
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Hubs and I know our pup is an acquired taste and can be a lot to handle for the wrong person. With Hubs gone and the road calling me away from home, third party dog care is something I'm having to to take into consideration.
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Up until my last trip The Sox Family (aka my brother/sister in-laws) have been incredible about taking the Pups into their home for days at a time. Pups loves it and they also seem (or rather claim, haha!) to enjoy it. On the last trip though, The Sox home was booked to capacity with visiting family, so we had to move to Plan B...Blue Light.
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Blue Light is the mother of two wonderful little girls and has a special someone she shares her days with. Coming to my rescue, Blue Light and her whole crew moved into the house for a night and assumed all doggie care responsibilities.
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When one house sits for us, they can expect all sorts of special treats...
for Blue Light and company it was an Asian Feast!
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I picked up some sweet sugar snap peas at the Farmers' Market over the weekend. They were so darn good, how can you not love the summer freshness!?!?
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They were cooked up in sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce and salt/pepper.
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I also did a little spin on my mother's fried rice recipe. Trying to be sensitive to kiddos eating this meal, I really wanted to maximize the veggie use. Rather than meat in this rice I went with a combo of carrots and green and red peppers.

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Making this Veggie Fried Rice, Korean-American Style, is pretty easy...

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Begin by heating oil in a wok.

Saute garlic and veggies until softened just a wee bit.

*Note I did cut the veggies up pretty small, just in case that would help in getting the kids to eat it.

Add cooked rice (I use Korean rice and my handy counter top rice cooker), scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, and black pepper.

Mix until combined and everything is evenly heated.

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There you have it, pretty simple, mighty tasty and provides an additional servings of veggies, well hidden :)

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The centerpiece of the meal - my mother's recipe for Bulgogi!

A Korean stir fry type dish, it is a salty/sweet treat made up of beef, garlic, onions and scallions.
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This was actually one of my lil' sis' favorite things to eat growing up...translating to our family eating it a lot! Her favorite thing to do was to have the sauce poured over her white rice, so of course mom would usually try to make extra. The extra sauce approach has stuck and so when I do whip a batch up, there is plenty of to go around.
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Made the evening before my departure, everything was packaged up and set in the fridge for easy reheating. I also picked up milk, fruit juice, Trout River's Rainbow Red Ale (for the grown ups), ice cream dots and Ben & Jerry's.

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My hope was they would have everything they might need or want...and a couple of special treats :)

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Thank you for the help Blue Light!!

When pigs fly...

It's real Spanish pig and the city!!!

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Over Memorial Day weekend I attended a Beantown wedding and made the adventure with my foodie favs B&A. All in all it was a fun weekend between a wedding celebration and the taking in of a Sox game. However one of my most favorite parts of the weekend was our arrival lunch.

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B&A had the most amazing menu packed in a cooler for our pre-game session before the wedding.

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Homemade roasted red peppers.

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Homemade 'experimental sandwich bread.'

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B is trying to create the perfect sandwich bread...sort of a cross between focaccia and a baguette. While he was not 100% happy with this batch, I thought it was pretty fantastic!

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Homemade pickles from their veggie harvest last summer.

*Freshly picked lettuce mix from their garden this season.

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And now for the Serrano ham...straight from Spain.

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Two kinds of this very special ham successfully made it's way carefully hidden in a suitcase of one their a good friends.

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The incredible flavor, texture and sight made it one of my favorite parts to the weekend...being ahead of my nostalgic Fenway Frank, it was quite frankly the best thing I ate on the whole trip!

*Pretty amazing spread right? Well B&A take it up another notch, yet again wow'ing me with their preparedness...a travel size bread knife. Who knew these existed haha!!

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With a spread of herb'd goat cheese all of the delicious components to this sandwich were layered on.

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It was absolutely delicious!! Salty, piggy, sweet, herbed deliciousness!!!

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B&A are amazing friends...so kind hearted, fascinating and just flat out great people to be around :-) Not to mention 99% of the time I am with them, we are enjoying some pretty awesome food...it's a wonderful match haha!!

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This week they are off on a European vacation and I can't wait to hear about their experiences when they get back!

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Cheers B&A for a fun, safe and food packed trip abroad!!!!

Cooler Full-o-Lisai's: Part II

I am off and running folks!

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I've been on the road all week and as a result have been sadly ignoring my blogger duties.

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Turns out I am headed out again today for another 3 days away, but this time for coaching some hockey! The trip should be a great time and we've been working hard all month for it...but what is just as exciting is that it marks the end to my March Madness!!

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After this weekend life should resume as normal, with nightly meals being cranked out of my recently neglected kitchen :O)

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Cooler Full-o-Lisai's Continued

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For me patty sausage is the ultimate breakfast meat and I will always choose it over bacon, ham, etc. On Day II of Cooler Full-o-Lisai's we tried their breakfast sausage patties alongside some scrambled cheddar-n-steak eggs.

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When the breakfast cooking first began, the intention was to make a cheddar-n-steak omelet from my leftover rib eye and cook up the butcher made sausage. I have never been very good at making omelets, mostly because of my poor technique. Relying on Hubs' help, we tried to 'flip' the egg over with a swift wrist movement...but all we managed to do was splatter egg all over the kitchen. Haha, it was pretty funny!!

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To salvage what was left, we turned it into a scramble.

Cheesy-onion-beefy goodness!

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As for the sausage...it was okay.

I felt the seasonings were a bit off and the texture was a bit too coarse for my preference.

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The best part of this meal was not actually the food. What was so amazing about this meal was that this was the first Saturday morning in months where Hubs and I were both home with no where we had to be :o)

March Madness & Rotten Apples

My March Madness continues. Sorry not a cooking entry, but an experience I felt like posting...
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The 2010 Women's National Hockey Tournament is in Green Bay, WI. For various reasons, most of our region's teams have pulled out from participating this year.
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At most levels, the team(s) remaining were automatically given our region's National bids...well all levels, but one.
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The national spot still up for grabs was the Women's C level - [a rough definition for this level is a competative recreational player with no college hockey experience].
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Since the two teams remaining were 2-5 hours south of our neck of the woods, the state board decided to forgo hosting rights/accommodate and move it south. As it so happens, this move also caused the duty of organizing/directing to default to me.
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A best of 3, Game 1 was Friday Night. I left work mid-afternoon and made the 2.5 hour drive to the new arena. Being a player on our state's Women's B team, I've not been on the otherside of the glass much for women's hockey. In fact, other then lending a helping hand, I've never actually organized a tournament myself...or better yet a season end's Regional Tournament!
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With no clue on the USA H rules for regional tournament playoffs, I had to rely on the trusty cell phone to speed dial our region's director and my copy of the 2009-10 USA Hockey Annual Guide.
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FRIDAY, March 5th @ 7pm
Game 1: Butterflies vs. Large Cats
*Not the acutal team names....but close.
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>>>Regulation time ends (3 x 15 minute periods) with a 1 to 1 tie...oh crap, what happens now?!?!
>>>Sudden Death Overtime for 5 minutes. No one scores, there is a 6 player fight on the ice (yes, these are grown women), penelties were thrown out...great, so next is???
>>>Shoot out, which goes through the full 5 shooters per team.
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Final Score 2-3; WINNER is the Large Cats
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SATURDAY, March 6th @ 11am
Game 2: Large Cats vs Butterflies
>>Entire game goes rather smoothly and overall play was great (refs let a lot go). In the end it was a goal in the last minutes that won the game.
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Final Score 2-3; WINNER is the Butterflies
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SATURDAY, March 6th @ 1pm
I need a drink...
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So I had one of these...
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I should have had another one of these (but restrained myself)...
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a little Ceasar Salad
(cause you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach)...
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a Buffalo Chicken Deep Dish Pizza...

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and dessert to go - White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie.

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SATURDAY, March 6th @ 5pm

Game 3 Championship: Butterflies vs Large Cats
>The game was close, VERY close...so close in fact that I had to call to ask what happens in overtime for the Championship Game! [fyi, it is a series of 10 min sudden death periods until a winner is decided]

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Toward the end, the claws really came out on some of the Large Cats and the Butterflies were no angels themselves. There was plenty of smack talking, backlashing and just plain nastiness to go around. My Dad actually came to help out, so while I ran the clock, he was responsible for the Large Cats' penalty box. With as many as 3 players in the box at a time, he was a busy man haha!

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Ultimately the Large Cats took themselves right out the running with their actions.

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Final Score 3 to 1; REGIONAL CHAMPS - The Butterflies

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Well Large Cats, all I have to say is - that's the way the cookie crumbles.

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And another cliche that fits is that a rotten apple spoils the barrel

(in this team's case it was a couple of real mushy brown ones).

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Thanks for the help Dad!!

What's Cookin'?

Not too much...actually nothing at all! Sorry everyone!!
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I've been on the road for last three days at a work conference. Considered a destination location, this annual shindig is held at one of New England's many ski resorts. Being from Vermont, folks assume I'm a skier or snowboarder. In fact they often gasp when I tell them, sorry nope...I'm not either. I have found I am almost always able to leverage conversation with the fact I play hockey, so I'll keep using that so long as it does the trick!
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This year my room was somewhat unexpected. By luck of the draw my room had a kitchen! As soon as I saw this, I thought - Jeez, I really should go to the grocery store, pick up some goods and do the unthinkable...be a cooking road warrior! As it so happens, there is no structured time for cooking and being up on the mountain, does not make groceries all that accessible. Instead I joined the ranks of attendees and consumed the prepared/preplanned meals that come with the conference package...bulk produced resort dishes, blah :-P
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On my ride home today I did make a stop at a little, in the middle of nowhere grocery/convenience store. As I cruised the isles I stumbled upon some delicious looking locally made Maple Donuts! I had to get some of these to sweeten up the weekend's breakfasts...Hubs will be psyched!!!!
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As I drove the 4 hours home I had a lot of time to think. I spent a good chunk of it trying to think of what to do for my sweetie this Valentines Day.
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Last year I researched and made a very close knock off to Gino's East's deep dish pizza. I even stopped on my way home (from this very same conference) to pick up some delicious sausage from a butcher's shop about an hour away. The finished pizza turned out so close, I can't help but wonder if the seasoned pan was all that I was missing?!?!
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Then the year before that we had our HUGE winter storm, where the entire city shut down. Since we were snowed in, we found ourselves at the mercy of our kitchen cupboards and whipped up some wonderful spaghetti and meatballs. Between the storm, worldclass dinner selection and one too many bottles of red wine...it was one of the most romantic Valentine's Days I can remember!!!
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What to do this year?!?! It is our first Valentines Day as Husband and Wife, so it should be special and memorable. I thought maybe something new like Beef Wellington or a Bouillabaisse? Or what if I did my own tasting menu and produced a variety of small plates?? Hmmm, that's something to think about.
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While still thinking about dinner options, I realized that my Hubs has to work this Valentines Day...boo! I thought that I may just pack him the sweetest meal to bring with a mini box of chocolates, love note and all!
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We'll see what happens. Hubs is working crazy hours from today through the weekend, beginning at 4am and lasting 12+ hours. The final choice will really depend on what seems could hit the spot for him. Not mention with me being out of town, the poor guy has had to fend for himself at every meal.
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So, if you have any ideas for what to cook up this year, please share!!! The countdown to V-Day has begun and I've gotta get the menu planned asap.