Sunshine Reading

I've been pretty busy taking advantage of this gorgeous weather and catching up on my recreational reading. My stack of magazines waiting to be read has disappeared and I'm checking off my Christmas books left and right. Every morning I get up early and start reading on our balcony with my coffee. I get some good sunshine time until a little afternoon. Then I move inside and putter around with chores and kitchen things. We've been having a lot of fresh food and salads which is wonderful but a little lame in the new recipe department. 

Yummy salad with tuna and hardboiled egg. At least you can admire the Fiesta!

Sunshine reading...

I guess I better start looking for some new books or I won't have anything to read at the Shore! I cannot wait for beach season.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I ventured down to Reading Terminal the other day and picked up three avocados for 99 cents and 5 poblano peppers for 99 cents. It seemed like we were destined to have a Mexican inspired dinner! I used my favorite Alton Brown recipe (minus the roma tomatoes) to whip up a spicy batch of guacamole in the molcajete. 

Next up were these lovely stuffed poblano peppers. I cheated a bit and used a package of spanish style rice instead of plain brown rice or other healthy grain. The result was delicious! There was a ton of filling leftover over which we're going to finish either as burritos or a rice bowl. This was a great summer dish to welcome in this fabulous weather we've been having.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

(Pinterest find! Adapted from acouplecooks.com

Ingredients:
5 poblano peppers
1 package spanish style rice
1.5 cups salsa
1 15 oz. can of black beans
1½ cups frozen corn kernels
1/2 of a small white onion, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
Cayenne to taste

A handful of chopped cilantro
Shredded cheese (Cabot all the way!)
Directions:

1. Cook rice according to directions.

2. Slice peppers in half and remove the ribs and seeds.
3. Place the peppers in a baking dish skin side up. Broil about 7 minutes, then flip the peppers and broil 7 minutes more.
4. In a large skillet combine the beans, onions, salsa, corn, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and cilantro. Heat over low heat. Stir in the cooked rice and mix well.
5. Place the peppers skin side down and spoon in the desired amount of filling. Top with cheese and broil until cheese is melted.

Snow Day Things

Cheers Philly! Thanks for another snow day.

The perfect way to start your morning.

And the perfect way to warm up after digging out your car.

I love snow days.

Trip to 'Cuse!

We drove up to Syracuse to see the family. On the way over to Grandma's we just had to stop at Heid's for a coney.

 CONEY!

The best ever.

 Grandma made us an early wedding present: an orange and blue afghan. 

GO 'CUSE!

 Dad found this old card that I made him. The last line says "I still can't cook, looks like you're stuck with me!" Haha. How things change. I can definitely cook and now Mr. Lawyer is going to be stuck with me!

 Grandma mixing up the sacred broccoli salad.

 Dad grilled two whole racks of ribs for five people. I'm ashamed to admit that there was not a lot left over. They were cooked over charcoal for 4 hours with a spice rub, caramelized brown sugar, and then wrapped in tinfoil with a little beer and cooked some more.

Poor Kingston really wanted in on the action.

 There may have been copious amounts of wine involved and I did not realize my camera was on the wrong settings so this gorgeous picture was ruined. We had a amazing dinner of ribs, coleslaw, potato salad, and broccoli salad.

 Look at this bark! The caramelized brown sugar with spices made for a delicious treat.

 This is a revenge picture (love you Grandma!). I noted that my very own grandmother had consumed more ribs than me (because she's a total badass like that). She told me to "mind your own plate." Challenge accepted.

 We had a great time looking through Grandpa's old tackle box of vintage fishing lures.

 And ended with a campfire on the lake.

Oh Dinosaur....

We were back in Syracuse this weekend to pick up our wedding bands so of course we had to eat at one of our favorite places: Dinosaur BBQ! There are so many yummy food places that we miss it's hard to make up our mind but we can't cram them all into one weekend so we've been rotating. Last time we went for amazing sandwiches at Blue Tusk and I have a pretty good copy cat recipe of Pastabilities Tomato Oil so we decided on good old Dinosaur. Plus there's nothing like seeing your Grandmother down a 1/4 rack of ribs and some pulled pork. Woo!

Behold the Big Ass Pork Plate. Heaven. I always go with the baked beans and spicy mac & cheese.

So we're eating this extremely healthy "calorie burning" soup for the week. A recipe courtesy of the Mother Unit: beef broth, celery, carrots, green peppers, scallions, green beans and tomatoes. It's the only thing I've every had that makes you more hungry after you have a bowl of it. 

Check out my sweet Dalek mug. It was a Christmas present from the Dork.

Lake Love!

This is where I have been all week.

Heaven.

I also picked four pounds of blueberries with my munchkins. 

Anybody have any good blueberry recipes?

I also received some super fresh eggs from W's chickens. Guess I need to make a frittata or quiche this weekend! Or bake a lot.

Syracuse Adventures

Oh my god.

Take me back now I'm going through Dinosaur BBQ withdrawal. I may or may not have dropped my ring off at the jewelers covered in bbq sauce. Also, I don't think you've really lived until you see your grandma polish off a 1/4 rack of ribs.

More delicious pictures after the jump!

Our Italian Market Adventure!

This entry is about amazing food and yummy things but I didn't actually make anything and there's going to be a ton of pictures so I will actually use a page break, even though I despise them.
Today it was nice and warm (sundress time!) so Kevin and I ventured out to South Philly to explore the Italian Market. Best Saturday morning ever. I'm always a little camera happy so the following is a picture story of our adventure or as Kevin called it "It's a good day when you have cheese steak grease on your pants."