Cabo San Lucas

Mike and I went on our honeymoon a few days after closing on the house... a very well deserved honeymoon I might mention. I was going through a serious lack of sleep due to the wildabeast and I slept SO much on our trip thankfully!

We went to a beautiful resort on a cliff-like side of Cabo San Lucas called Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. While the beach water wasn't swim friendly, it was quiet, sunny and incredibly relaxing!

Here are a few of our shots from our trip - You can see more on Mike's new facebook page (search for Michael Hardisty Photography) or check his blog in the next few weeks!

Bucatini All'Amatriciana with Spicy Meatballs

I made this Giada recipe for a change from jarred spaghetti sauce. (Marinara sauce is actually really easy.) I made regular meatballs using extra lean turkey meat. I have made these meatballs before and wasn't in love with them so I stuck to the simpler version (basically not going the extra step with forming the meatball around a piece of smoked mozzarella).

Mike likes a lot of sauce so this recipe didn't make enough actual sauce to cover the meatballs and pasta we had. I'd recommend an extra half to doubling the recipe for the amount of meatballs produced from a pound of meat and a pound of pasta.

One thing I love about this recipe is the fresh parsley in the meatballs!

You can also check out the pre-edited version of our kitchen. Look at all the extra space I have now!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Gumbo

Mike and I had my parents, sister, her boyfriend and Kozmo in town for Thanksgiving. We went non-traditional again this year and had chicken and sausage gumbo for our Thanksgiving meal.

Ingredients
Oil & Flour (enough to cover bottom of pot - a few heaping tablespoons usually)
Onion (1/3 cup small chop)
Bell Pepper (1/3 cup small chop)
Garlic (4-5 cloves minced)
Celery (3 stalks small chop)
Green Onions (3 small chop)
Water (6 cups)
Black Pepper ( 1 tsp.)
Gumbo File (1 tsp.)
Cayenne Pepper (1/2 tsp.)
Salt (2 tsp.)
Chicken Bouillon Cubes (4)
3 lbs. mixed white and dark meat chicken (leaving the bones in while cooking gives the gumbo more flavor... my dad does this and then removes near the end of cooking while I skip this part and use boneless)
8 links Zummo brand sausage links (boiling the sausage links before adding to gumbo will help to remove some of their grease)

Directions
Chop vegetables and slice sausage. Turn burner to medium/medium-high.

Cover the bottom of a pot in oil and sprinkle flour to soak up the liquid. Stir frequently and cook roux over medium-high heat until dark brown.




Mix in onion, bell pepper, garlic and celery and make sure to scrape up all of the roux mixture from the bottom of the pot.


Fill pot with water and stir in spices. Add chicken.

Bring to a boil and then lower heat to low. Cover and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally. Add sausage or shrimp and green onions when 30 to 45 minutes remain.

Serve over rice. I like mine with a good mix of liquid to rice while Mike eats his with mostly rice and a little liquid, more like stew over rice, and my parents eat mostly liquid with only a little rice so its totally up to you! We always have ours with my grandmother's potato salad recipe and oven-crisped french bread slices for dipping.

Kozmo waiting under our table - the little Thanksgiving scavenger