Kitchen Adventures...

When we are not traveling, we bring the adventures to us. Adventures at home frequently come in the kitchen. When Chris and I met, the first thing he made me was "Steve Rossi Spaghetti" - basically pasta with stewed tomatoes, black olives, garlic and artichoke hearts. Squishing the tomatoes with our hands was like a Ghost moment, - I was totally impressed and a little weak in the knees. We still make this but now with homemade pasta and a little additional spice in the sauce.

The first thing I made for Chris was pancakes in my mom's kitchen - he was impressed with my memorized "from scratch" recipe (1c flour, 1c milk, 1 egg, 1T baking powder!). Somehow we both convinced one another that we knew how to cook when in fact we both admitted, we didn't know how to make much. For the first year in NYC we had pasta QUITE often - typically with sauteed chicken breast, peppers and onions. Some other staples of the first year or two:
-sloppy joes, mac and cheese, chicken ala king, fajitas, tacos, apple pancakes.

However, over the past 8 years of convincing ourselves that we knew what we were doing... we kind of learned what we were doing.


Chris has tackled Indian, Middle Eastern and Thai dishes and gotten creative to keep the kitchen from overheating in the summertime. Some of his other specialties are killer pizza, bread and beer!

I am typically drawn to pretty recipes. I like to make involved meals which I regularly get me overwhelmed - I am slowly learning how to time a meal and am reminded over and over again of the need to read a recipe through thoroughly before starting. Sometimes when I cook, we end up eating dinner at 10pm, but I will say it's pretty much always delicious!

We are also both very skilled at making a mess in the kitchen. Until we live somewhere with a dishwasher, "clean as you go" is something we need to work on. This is, in fact, Steve Rossi Spaghetti mess...

I have loved having this summer to cook and try to get something from our garden into every meal. This year we grew 3 kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, green peppers, cabbage (which got attacked by something, complete waste of space), swiss chard, beets, carrots, radishes, peas, lettuce, potatoes and some herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme... basil, oregano, and mint.


I figured as long as I'm going to make picture perfect meals, I might as well start taking pictures! Here are some of our recent delicious adventures: