Groovebag

Bite My Cookie

I got an e-mail from Bite My Cookie last week:

clearly this wins cracks. i hope they're as yummy as your contraband. send me your address, please.
xobmc

She left me that comment in reference to this post.

Then today I got the tastiest package in the mail!

I took this photo about 32 seconds after I opened said package.

I will have to exercise enormous restraint and try not to eat the remaining 5 cookies, like, RIGHT NOW!
But you can bet that I am going to lick those crumbs off the plate as I soon as I finish this post.
Damn they are tasty.
Is it wrong that my lunch today was a crack cookie and a cup of tea?

Thank you BMC!

Added note: Bite My Cookie has opened up an Etsy shop here.
Now go get yourself some cookies!

Delicious Dinner...and Easy!

I make this dinner quite often.
A) Because it is very tasty, and
B) Because it is dead easy to make

So I felt it only fare to share it.
I can't even remember where I found the original recipe.....I can't take credit for originating it, just riffing on it.

Roast Salmon and Veggies
Here is what you need
2 large fennel bulbs, trimmed of fronds and cut into 1/8ths
1 pint grape tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
1 lemon, thinly sliced
extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
fresh thyme
4 salmon fillets or I sometimes use rainbow trout just to mix it up a bit

Preheat oven to 400 F.
In a roasting pan combine fennel, grape tomatoes, garlic and lemon.
Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.
Throw in some sprigs of thyme according to your own taste. I usually toss in about 8-10 sprigs.
Cover and put in oven until the fennel is tender, about 30-35 minutes.
Season your fish with some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
Once the fennel is tender (but don't let it get mushy), place the fish fillets on top of the veggie mixture, cover and return to the oven.

Cook for about 12 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
I like to serve this dish with Basmati rice, but tonight I kinda forgot about the rice until it was time to serve the meal.
Oops.

The plate looks a little bare with out the rice doesn't it?

Another great thing about this meal is that the clean up is super fast....just a roasting pan to wash!
Enjoy.

Happy New Year

We had a lovely evening last night.
For the second consecutive year, we stayed in, just the two of us, got all gussied up and cooked a fan-freakin-tastic meal.
There was no stress of guests arriving and oh-my-god-I-haven't-showered-yet.
There was no stress of going out and will-we-ever-hail-a-cab-in-this-freakin-cold.
There was no stress of a-way-over-crowded-bar-and-I'll-never-get-a-drink.
There was just no stress.
Just good food.
Good wine.
And great company.

His outfit looked great with the exception of the nasty looking crocks. He quickly changed out of them into something more suitable.

I am often made fun of for my, ahem, protective eye ware when I cut onions.
Laugh all you want.
My eyes don't tear up this way and I'll be damned if I was going to ruin a near prefect eye make up job.
And the near perfect eye make up job never, ever happens let me tell you.

A dance and a kiss at midnight of course!
 There is added significance to the midnight kiss and dance for the two of us.
He kissed me for the first time on New Year's Eve of 2002 on our second date.
And then the next day he asked me to go to Mexico with him for two weeks.
That was our third date.
It was a great date.

More on that story sometime in another post.

And today we went for a nice long snowy walk in one of the nearby ravines.

All of the best in the New Year to everyone!