oLiViaRz

it’s been a bit quiet around here…

sorry, i’ve just been busy in the kitchen making:

catch-your-mouth-on-fire crock pot buffalo chicken

peanut chicken that was a little too peanuty

tom kha soup (substituted ‘shrooms for the carrots and added a little jalapeno + onion)

quinoa with black beans and corn (delish!)

and

coconut chocolate chip bars (simplest recipe, amazing result)

oh, and i’ve also been logging all of my tumblr likes on my pinterest boards. yep, epitome of cool over here ;)

Pick your own —> Cook your heart out

As you may have guessed, with the goods I picked up at Parkside PYO, Sunday was devoted to fall cooking.

I started with Renee’s inspired chicken tortilla soup, modified. It’s not so easy to get standard mexican food ingredients in London, so I had to do some improvising. In addition to her directions, I ended up using:

• 3 fresh sweet corn on the cub, husked (instead of frozen)
• one chopped green bell pepper
• handful of canned jalapenos (instead of the green chilies)
• two cans of black beans (instead of just one)
• one chopped butternut squash (a great, hearty addition)
• and instead of enchilada sauce, i added a combo of hot sauce and ketchup

And sorry, Renee, but no goldfish for me.  I topped it off with cheese, fresh cilantro and sour cream instead…and corn bread on the side. Delish!

And for dessert - plus breakfast all week - I used the raspberries to make these Raspberry Cream Cheese muffins.

I’m not the biggest fan of baking, but was really surprised by how well these turned out. The tart raspberries are such a great contrast to the sweet and cream cheese. They didn’t rise well because I didn’t have any baking soda (oops), and I’ll probably add more cream cheese next time, but they still got two thumbs up from all of my co-workers who tried them.

Let’s see how long my domestic motivation lasts…but for now, I’m loving the leftovers!