First on the list was homemade pesto! We had some leftover pesto from my trip to Steamboat (Mom loaded me up with all sorts of goodies and household items...THANKS MOM!) and got inspired to make our own. It turned out sooooooooo amazing! We used about 4oz of fresh basil, 2 cloves of garlic, a 1/4 cup of cashews (since we're too poor for pine nuts...), 1/3 cup of parmigianno reggiano(sp?), and a cup or so of olive oil. Literally, you just throw it in the food processor and it comes out absolutely DIVINE!! We smothered a couple of little corn tortillas with it, covered it in parmigian and mozzarella and had two incredible mini pesto pizzas :)
Next up was homemade almond butter! Again the trusty rusty food processor is all it takes. Throw the almonds in, and let it go to work. It took a loooonng time for the almonds to be broken down enough to release all their good fats and oils, but now it's perfect to go on apples, or on tortillas or just about anything :)
After that, Caley had a craving for chocolate chip cookies. He used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen website, and I'm telling you, they are the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I'VE EVER HAD. And folks, I've had a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my time...Seriously. The trick I think is the way they have you combine the butter and sugar. You have to brown the butter, then stir in the sugar for 30sec every 3 minutes for 12 minutes or something like that. In any case, request that he make them for you the next time you're over at our house, cause they are over-the-top amazing!
Still to come this evening is some tilapia curry. Not sure what all is going to go in there, but I'm sure it will be delicious!
Also, I realized it's been awhile since I've updated this blog! Let's see....last week I worked 47 hrs in the deli. That was brutal, but only because the weekend before, I was gone to Steamboat to visit my dear sister and mother and grandmother. It was a wonderful little vacation. We stayed in a condo about two blocks from the race venue, and about a block from all the restaurants, coffee shops, stores, etc. Perfection! Caitlin and I spent a good deal of time shopping for a "cowboy shirt" for her boyfriend, Tim. Let me tell you, I've never shopped so long for a shirt in my whole life. I guess it doesn't make it easy that Tim is 6'5 and about 145 lbs. Can someone say string bean? :)
The races were exciting to watch as well! Caitlin, Tim and her friend Anna Karin (who stayed with us at the condo) didn't actually race, but it wasn't hard to get into the team spirit and cheer for all the kids from NMU as well as some kids I grew up with who now race for other colleges around the country. Collegiate racing for Nordic is structured very differenetly from cycling. For example, they limit the field size for each race at NCAA's to 39 skiers. Basically this makes it an extremely elite competition. Just being able to qualify and race there means you are super duper fast. I got all inspired and a little sad wondering what it would have been like if I'd tried to go to college just to race skis. I guess it was never really an option I thought I had. Leave that to the younger sibling :)
Here are some pics for your enjoyment! I wish I'd gotten more, but I kept forgetting my camera :)
Oh, AND we had another alphabet party! A super fun night filled with super awesome friends. Caley made an eclair from scratch! It was soooooo gooooood! Other food included egg rolls, espresso (Matt brought an espresso machine!) eggnog cake, espresso marinated beef, edamame, and enchiladas! I can't wait for "F"!
And! I almost forgot, I went salsa dancing two Tuesdays ago. It was so great to see old friends and I ended up staying until the last song! That hasn't happened for awhile :) I arrived home happy and tired.
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