happy halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you had a lot of trick-or-treaters like I did. I saw quite a few tiny ones pretending to be scary, cute, and fun. My favorite was this 2 year old boy, he was a dinosaur and he actually growled at me and said TRICK OR TREATTTT! I gave him double the candy of course. I also ate a lot of candy while waiting for these little guys go from house to house. I ate a ba-gillion tootsie rolls.

So I'm not posting anything halloween-y unfortunately, but I am posting a look into the space I have set up for myself. I've been working on this for a week now and I'm pretty satisfied. There is nothing like having a simple space to manage all of your creative thoughts.

The year of 2011 hasn't been extremely kind to me. I've been stuck in a rut for MONTHS now, don't you HATE when that happens? Now that I have somewhere to write, design, read, and watch movies I'm feeling much better. A space outside of my bedroom that I call my own. I hope you all have a place to escape to when the world isn't very kind.

On that note, I hope everyone had a splendid night/weekend of candy eating, and dressing up!

Enjoy!

creamy & roasted tomato basil soup

This weekend was full of pumpkin carving, the farmer's market, and making a lot of soup.

The farmer's market was buzzing, as always. There were so many tomatoes I didn't know what to do! Well obviously I found something to do... I made tomato basil soup. Duh!

Also this weekend was the perfect fall weather. I was able to wear my favorite fall outfit: skinny jeans, brown leather boots, and a comfy sweater. And we happened to carve pumpkins outside on my picnic table. The sun was shining... not a cloud in the sky, and squirrels were tormenting my cat. Perfect. Fall. Weather

Now let's move on.. Tomato. Basil. Soup.

This soup is packed full of veggies, and herbs. SO MUCH BASIL. I love it. It is SO hard to find 2 cups of basil this time of year. Luckily one of the markets I frequent had plenty of greenhouse grown basil, I was so lucky.

I also love the fresh thyme in this recipe. All I had was "thyme" this weekend. Wow what a cheesy joke, I'm full of 'em, what can I say?

This soup was perfectly paired with some brioche that I picked up at the market. I have a bad obsession with brioche bread. It goes good with everything and I could eat it everyday? Do you agree? Well if you do we just became life long friends.

Roasted & Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

by: spoon fork bacon

1 1/2 lbs roma tomatoes (sliced lengthwise)

3 tablespoons EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion (diced) (I used two small sweet onions)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme (minced)

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 cups basil leaves (roughly chopped)

2 tablespoons dried basil (I actually left this out because I ran out)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups low sodium chicken broth (I used no salt added)

salt & pepper to taste

2/3 cups heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Put those roma tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil, season with salt & pepper and stick them in the oven for about an hour.

3. Melt butter in a large pot on medium high.

4. Add your onion and sauté for 5 minutes.

5. Add garlic & thyme. Sauté for 5 more minutes.

6. Add crushed tomatoes, basils, & sugar. Also salt and pepper to taste.

7. Stir and reduce heat to medium/medium low. Simmer for 10 minutes covered.

8. Pour broth & roasted tomatoes in pot. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Simmer, covered for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

10. Pour soup in blender and blend until smooth.

11. Put the soup back in the pot on low. Add cream and slowly incorporate.

12. Simmer for another 3 minutes.

13. SERVE IT UP!

Give it goat cheese,

Give it basil on top,

Give it grilled cheese,

Just give it a friend!

& a pretty bowl!

Enjoy :D

Sunday Funday.

Today is Sunday Funday.

Sunday always marks the day before work begins again. It is a prelude to a never ending case of the Mondays. So I initiated Sunday Funday, a fun day before the dreary work week starts.

On the agenda is this delicious breakfast, followed by the gym with my girlfriend Ginna, a bit of shopping (found some new dishes!), and dinner with my Grandpa. Oh and how could I forget... DEXTER!

I hope you all are having a fun Sunday!

Where did the Chili go?

Sunday is a day for rest, a day for family, and a day to do what you want before returning to work Monday morning. This Sunday was daddy/daughter day.

Now, my dad claims he has never heard of this chili cook-off before. Yet when we get to downtown Plymouth and all I see are a sea of motorcycles he decided to "remember" that every october plymouth has a huge motorcycle festival.

I think I was tricked. I think I didn't mind it. Actually, I know I didn't mind it. I had so much fun that I honestly forgot to take pictures of the chili from all of the great chefs!

Motorcycles everywhere!

Don't mess with my Dad and his italian sausage!

Chili's!

An extremely packed tent

streets of Downtown Plymouth

Water fountain!

Oh, how time flies!

So I've been a bag blogger the past two weeks. I have been so busy! This past weekend my family gathered to remember my Grandma who passed away a year ago on 10/01/10. It was a sad day for all of us and a sad few weeks prior to. BUT! We are so glad that she is no longer suffering and up in heaven :)

Now down to business. I still owe ya'll a post on What's Cooking Detroit, which was amazing! Claire was amazing! The food and wine was amazing! Overall a great event. And in other news I also found my DSLR! So hopefully from now on I'll have beautiful photographs.

So in the past two weeks I have cooked some pretty good recipes, hung out with great friends, started fall activities, and even bought a few halloween costumes... for the cats.

See? We have a little frog on our hands.. he kind of hates me in that picture.
Here we have some delicious shrimp cooked with some veg, lemon infused olive oil, and tyme. I just had to pull out the cast iron skillet for this. Later the shrimp was tossed with some whole grain spaghetti for a light (and springy) meal. This isn't spring! It is fall... Well good thing I also made a good go to fall recipe with some butternut squash.

This is SO simple! Take some butter (brown it up!) with some garlic, 1/4" big butternut squash, and thyme. Boil those cheese ravioli until done and then toss together, add some parm on top! DONE! Literally a 15-20 minute process.

I finally found those leopard print shoes I've been looking for, and guess what? 10 BUCKS! Forever 21, you sure did save my life savings here. Okay, maybe not my life savings, but you have to admit $10 sure is better than $100+. So thank you Forever 21, thank you!
I got to hang out with this little ferocious lady, POPPY! Not pictured are the fairy wings I bought her as a little present for her AND her lovely adoptive parents Blake and Ginna.
I ate peanut butter cookies made by Claire Robinson. Yeah, that is right, Claire freaking Robinson. Literally, this made my day, week, year, century!

I also caught Chester in this unique position watching television. This cat really is the definition of lazy and laid back. I'm telling you gingers are just great. Alright Chester, time to sit up! You don't want to ruin your little kitty posture now.

So for now peeps, this is it. Hopefully this weekend will be less chaotic and I can give you a complete and detailed post of What's Cooking Detroit. I hope everyone is having a fabulous week. Fall really is here, the heat is on, the scarves and gloves are out, and I have put thick blankets back on my bed.

Until we meet again...