happy birthday

Happy Birthday my smurf friend!

snapshot of winter 02

I spotted seeds in the store today, I need to start planning the garden!

paper

As if I do not have enough papers, I have a new one to add to my collection, cheese paper.

Another christmas treat from my brother was some cheese paper. The cheese paper is great to wrap up your left-over cheese and it is really cool looking.

If you happen to be in midtown on first avenue, stop in ideal cheese and pick yourself up some cheese paer and other culinary delights, or you can buy from them online.

beets

Last night we served a really good warm beet and goat cheese salad along side the sandwich mixto. My husband and I just came up with what we thought would be good in the salad. The kids loved it, so we consider it a success.

beet and goat cheese salad

6 beets
large bunch of asparagus
baby spring mix
3 oz goat cheese
balsamic vinaigrette (I make my own, but I am sure a good bottled one would work well)
handful of shelled pistachios chopped

preheat oven to 450 degrees

peel and cut beets into large bite size pieces. Place on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, toss to coat and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes.

While the beets are roasting, wash and dry asparagus. Cut into bite size pieces, place on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 10 minutes.

Let the beets and asparagus cool slightly.

When you are ready to serve, place a handful of greens on a plate. Add some beets and asparagus and some crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle on the vinaigrette then sprinkle chopped pistachios on top.

sandwich mixto

Back in our other life my husband and I traveled. Within a year we went on three trips to Europe. Our first trip was to Italy (I think my favorite). The second was an eastern european trip to the cities of Prague, Vienna and Budapeste. Our last trip (I was pregnant with our first) was to Spain. While in Spain we filled up on sandwich mixto. A sandwich mixto is just a simple grilled cheese with jamon, and maybe it was because we were in Spain, but they were so much better then anything I had ever had here.

For Christmas by brother brought me a wheel of manchego, a favoite cheese of mine, along with several other culinary delights (more about them later). It might seem like a strange gift, but he works at ideal cheese in midtown and we have become spoiled cheese snobs. For dinner tonight we made sanwich mixtos with the manchego. We had a hard time finding jamon so we bought an italian ham to use along with a really good italian country white bread. We served them with a warm beet salad (check tomorrow for that) and considered it a hit.

snapshot of winter 01

I am wishing it was spring.

a new year

Times has flown by and it is hard to believe that it is already 2009.
Wishing you a happy new year!