Spiced Indian Rice with Peas

June 14, 2011 by Monica in Dinner, Entertaining, Main Courses, Quick Meal, Vegetable, Vegetarian

This past weekend we celebrated Tom’s birthday.

Well sort of.

Since we will be leaving for our Mexico vacation in FOUR DAYS… last week was really tough to fit a birthday party. We started with all the intention in the world, but by Thursday I was having a little bit of nervous breakdown. I was putting 12-hour workday, and coming home with no brainpower to even think about a menu for 25 guests – let alone shop for ingredients, prepping and cooking the food.

And if you need to know something about me, I love to entertain, and I put like a huge amount of effort in it, and when I cannot do that, I simply panic and get all crappy and moody.

Tom was in no disposition to put up with that attitude put his foot down and told me to just cancel the thing and that once we got back from sunny Mexico we could just re-hatch the party plans.

I have never loved that man more.

Grilled Lobster with Cilantro Butter

June 07, 2011 by Monica in Grilling, Main Courses, Quick Meal, Seafood, Travel

As some of you may know, this past weekend we were evicted out of our home by the exterminator, who’s job was to get rid of all the nasty creepy crawly critters in our rental house – mainly termites.

Tom and I had no choice but to pack humans and four legged friends and take off, and since we did not get to enjoy the long memorial weekend, what better place than to wait out our eviction but in a beach cottage?

Lemon, Tarragon and Thyme Chicken

May 30, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Main Courses, Quick Meal

You know when you read recipe after recipe after recipe, something just sticks somewhere and when you are cooking you have that brain of your work as a file system.

You start with a specific idea of the dish, then while you are dicing and sautéing you see a half lemon and your brain does a quick search and then tells you, why not add it? You see the fresh herbs in the garden and why not? You see the wine bottle and you think, perfect.