Recipe Re-blog #29

Even though it's been crazy hot in Ohio this week I'm continuing down the tracks on my bread train. And I threw in a couple other new recipes too. Watch out for this kitchen choo choo!

Baguette: I LOVE baguettes. OK, I really just love bread in general. I followed this recipe exactly and made 2 shorter loaves instead of 1 long one. I did not, however, bake for the full 30 minutes at 500 degrees. That seemed nuts to me! It probably ended up baking for about 20-22 minutes and it was perfect. Crusty on the outside, warm and chewy on the inside. Yum!


Pesto: I have been wanting to make pesto for FOREVER. Sadly, my basil crop never produced enough bounty for me to do so. Until now! My basil plants are out of control. Perfect opportunity! I picked a basic pesto recipe from the Food Network and let 'er rip. Well sort of. I don't have a food processor so I had to use my blender. Also, pine nuts are expensive, yo. I read somewhere you can substitute walnuts. This is true, but be warned, the color of your pesto will be less green and more sludgey from the brown skin on the walnuts. Also, the walnuts slightly overshadowed the basil flavor but it was still mighty tasty.

Grilled Tuscan Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon: I have had this recipe bookmarked in my Everyday Food by Martha Stewart cookbook for awhile now. Until this summer, we didn't have a suitable grilling area. John actually cooked this up for us. He followed it as written, I think. The thing that really helped the moisture of the chicken was all the lemon juice. Give this a try for a light summer grilled chicken. We served it with sauteed zucchini and summer squash.

P.S. Sorry for the non-hyperlink. I'm trying to fix that. Blogger and Internet Explorer in a fight and I'm stuck in the crosshairs. :( If the chicken one doesn't work, go to marthastewart.com and search the name of the recipe. You'll find it there!

500 posts!

Just popping in unexpectedly on a Friday to say, Ashley Sees, Ashley Does has surpassed 500 posts!! This boggles my mind. You know what else boggles my mind? When it's closing in on 11:00pm on a Friday and you tip-toe into the little hallway between the kitchen and garage so your husband won't hear you opening the container of gorgonzola and sneaking a few crumbles. Why? Because you're ashamed, that's why. Oh well, the gorg is worth it. And you'll just end up confessing these indiscretions in 10 minutes anyway.

Hey - you got watermelon in my beer

You guys. When you walk down the beer aisle of your local gourmet grocery store and you see a 6 pack labeled Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer, you chuckle at the name and then you scoff at what the can contains. But after that, you can't stop thinking about how it might taste. How it sounds gross but could be one of those beers that is so out there that it's insanely delicious. Because you've been pondering this taste for weeks, when your husband leaves you in charge of beer selection one fateful Friday you don't even question it. You make a beeline to the cute little box wrapped around six designer cans and smile on your way to the check out. At home, your husband will be the one scoffing. He is ruing the fact that he gave you the beer buying task this week, until he cracks a can for himself.

This offering, from the 21st Amendment Brewery, retails for $9.99 for said 6 pack. And, my friends, it tastes like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. No joke! It was so delightful and refreshing. It is the epitome of a summer beer. Light on alcohol content, mouth-watering on flavor. If you can find it, please try it. If you hate it, you are a loser.

A fan of fans

During the building process, for some inexplicable reason, the original owners of our home decided the two extra bedrooms upstairs did not need ceiling lights. I'll let you in on a little secret. One plugged in lamp in a bedroom is not enough light for much of anything. It's certainly not enough light to sew by and when your husband makes you buy those crazy lightbulbs that need time to "warm up" it's really not enough to do anything. High on our list of house priorities was the installation of electricity in the ceiling so that we might have not only light but also ceiling fans.


In my house growing up, we didn't have any ceiling fans. We did have window unit A/C and later whole house A/C so we were always cool and comfortable. It wasn't until I moved into what would be my last rental before purchasing this home that I really came to love ceiling fans. They are so useful! Do you remember on that TLC show Trading Spaces when all the designers promptly removed every ceiling fan they met? That always frosted my cookies. I am not one to need freezing cold rooms in the summer but a ceiling fan moves air nicely and lets us give our A/C a break every now and then when the temps drop a tad. Luckily, the master bedroom does have a ceiling fan and light. But, it soon came time to outfit the other two bedrooms.


Admittedly, we had no idea what this would cost. Although John has changed other light fixtures in the house, we didn't think we wanted to tackle cutting a hole in the ceiling and running wires and what-have-you with our novice electrical skills. Upon a recommendation from a friend, I called a local electrician. I honestly thought this project may cost us up to $1,000 to accomplish. I hear you laughing at me. If he had quoted me that price, I probably wouldn't have batted an eye. Foolish. Instead, he gave a flat rate of $100 per fan even before seeing the rooms. Yea hooray and SOLD! We headed out to the store to purchase two fans/rights (with remote, the master doesn't even have that!)


A few hours on a Saturday and we had fans! (Here is where I would normally post a picture but the spare bedroom is a mess and the sewing room will be posted later for a more exciting reveal -- we're talking paint, people!) Just in time for our first set of parents and summer guests' visits. I think they enjoyed not having to get dressed in the dark. I'm sure they enoyed the cool air the fan provided. This also means, we can now move forward on my sewing room! One step closer to not having my machine live on the dining table for the life of each project. Oh happy day!

Tomato harvesting

I have been not so patiently waiting for my garden to produce fruit. The herbs are coming along nicely and I've been able to use them in many recipes. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my tomatoes. There are lots of big green buys growing on the Jetstar hybrid tomato plant and lots of little guys on the cherry tomato plant but nary a red one for harvesting between them. Until now.....

Last night, I plucked three cherry tomatoes from my Sweet 100 that were ripe and ready. They popped right off the vine.

I don't really like tomatoes on their own merit but I decided I should try one since I did grow it myself. It was sweet, but still a bit tomato-y for my liking. John thought they were delicious. I can't wait until I have enough to make caprese bites or put them in salads and on pizza. The big guys were supposed to reach maturity in 60-70 days. We have just passed that threshold from when they went in the ground to I feel like they'll redden up any day now. We shall see!

If You Were Here

If You Were Here is Jen Lancaster's first attempt at fiction. I have previously read all of her memoirs and blogged about the majority of them too. These include Bitter is the New Black, Such a Pretty Fat, etc. and so on. I think there are 5 in total. Because I am a fan of her quick-witted tongue and she can usually get a laugh out of me, I picked up If You Were Here expecting the same results.

Mia, an author in Chicago, and her husband Mac have decided it is time to purchase their very first home. After years of renting, they have finally become fed up with the state of their current neighborhood and their landlord. Mia has an unhealthy obsession with John Hughes movies, a theme that carries throughout the book. When she realizes the house used as Jake Ryan's home in Sixteen Candles is on the market, she must have it....no matter what condition it's in. The rest of the story centers around the trials and tribulations of home improvement, and rebuilding. Mia and Mac's relationship is tested as their battle of wills come to a boil. Helping them through their journey is crazy cast of characters including a foreign grandma, shady contractors, overbearing friends, and the grave of John Hughes, which Mia visits regularly.

I wanted to like this really badly. As I said, Lancaster's memoirs always entertained me. As I was reading, I tried to decide if I would have liked Wish You Were Here more had I never read those memoirs. Mia was only a slightly veiled fictional version of Jen herself. It had some funny moments but I almost gave up a few times. The only reason I didn't was because I wanted to be able to write about it here and didn't think it fair to do so if I hadn't stuck it out for the entire book. You can skip this one. Sticker to her memoirs instead.

Rating: * 1/2

Recipe Re-blog #28

This was kind of a crazy week. Maybe you noticed my absence. Maybe you didn't. Either way, despite out of town visitors and a death in the family, I still tried a new recipe. The streak continues!

Baked Pasta with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Spinach: Doesn't that recipe title just sound healthy? I really like pasta meals that fill up an entire 9x13 pan. Because there are only two of us, these feed us for 3 nights, or 2 plus freezing. I love leftovers because as much as I love cooking, I don't like cooking dinner every single night. Our weeknight schedules are pretty full because we both have to work out and shower when we get home. If I threw in cooking dinner, we wouldn't eat until after 8:00 pm. Not good. What IS good is this recipe. Full of fiber! Especially if you use whole wheat pasta, which we always do. The spinach selection at Kroger wasn't looking so pretty so I substituted frozen chopped spinach instead. Plus it was cheaper! I thought it fit well with this recipe. We actually made this a night ahead and did the baking the next night. The recipe also gives instruction for freezing. This is a good, hearty, meatless meal. Cheap and easy to make. Who doesn't love cheap and easy?