France

This is my home remake of one of my favorite foods from Paris.  It's just a baguette, slathered with butter, with arugula and ham.  And it is awesome.

Shallot-wine reduction

I've had a couple of bottles of cheap red wine lying around for awhile that I need to get rid of.  Since I don't drink red wine, and it's not stew season, I used some to make a topping for an inexpensive piece of meat.  It worked out pretty well.  The wine itself was so unappealing though we poured the rest of the bottle down the sink.

Mac and stuff

We had leftover hot dogs from last weekend, but no buns, so I decided to make macaroni and cheese.  I was lazy though and thought I'd leave out the breadcrumb topping and the baking.  As a result the sauce was runny and the whole thing was a little bland.  I did like my decision to go ahead and throw the sauteed Brussels sprouts right on in there there though.  Everybody into the pool...of cheese.

Pepperoni Pizza

It's turkey pepperoni.  I don't think it makes much difference and it allows me the illusion that this is not unhealthy.

Brinner

This bacon was so good.  It's thick-cut.  Also, it's made of bacon.

special guest star: Andrew's mom

Look at this antipasti platter.  Just look at it.

Pasta Carbonara

Carbonara is probably what I would consider my "signature dish".  I prefer to make it with rotini.  It holds the sauce better, plus I'm a big texture person.  The last couple of times I've made the dish I've felt like it's missing something.  I'm thinking of adding peas next time.

Drink experiments and raspbery preservation

I'm trying to get rid of about half a bottle of limoncello.  First I made a recipe I saw on Giada At Home. It's basically half limoncello and half pellegrino, garnished with raspberries and mint.  It was awful.  So then I tried it again using gingerale instead of pellegrino and leaving out the mint.  This was better but I could still only drink maybe half of it before giving up.  Then, I took a page (literally, I have the page) from Martha Stewart and made raspberry ice cubes for future beverages.  Some of them are star-shaped.

Grilled spicy chicken

The tastiest chicken coating is 50% Old bay and 50% sweet paprika.  The corn is also grilled, and I had it with lime juice and salt.

5th of July bbq