Saturday on Sunday

If there is one thing I've picked up from the missus, it's that food tastes better when fresh. Fruit, veggie, or locally-raised meat and poultry; it doesn't matter. The less processed your food is, the happier your taste buds will be. With that in mind, we try to take a trip to the local Farmer's Market in town. Now, it's only one day a week (worth mentioning, anyway) and only for a few hours in the morning. If you can get there at the right time though, you'll come across some fantastic finds and save a lot of money. 

Not referring to people - they just get in the way of our conquest.

Obviously, it would be fantastic to have a year-round, world-famous farmer's market available (like, say, Seattle?), but we make do with what we've got. 

For dinner (last night), Kaitlin put her own spin on a recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I know what you're thinking: why would she put a spin on something from one of the queens of cooking?! Simply put, we were out of stuff. A few essential ingredients were missing, and it was already late; my wife isn't going to let a thing like that slow her roll. It was a simple baked chicken with sauce, and it was delicious.

Preheat the oven to 350, and prepare the sauce while waiting. To do so, mix up 1 1/2 tbsp of dijon mustard, 1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp butter, a chopped garlic clove, and three chopped shallots. Once this is done, trim the fat from the chicken, grease a 9x13 pan, and drop them in. Salt and pepper to your liking, then douse your poultry in the sauce and bake to completion. 

pictured: simple, but delicious

Sauceless Shrimp Pasta

I am what my wife has dubbed (and I have cheerfully accepted) a "Foodiot." If it isn't explanatory enough, it is a portmanteau of "food" and "idiot." It's completely accurate; I don't ask what goes in it for fear of judging it prematurely. I wander around the house keeping the kids occupied and tidying up a bit, taking in the smells and remaining oblivious to the magic in the kitchen. When the time comes, either our daughter or I will set the table, mash up whatever we're eating so the baby can share the wealth, and sit down to stuff our faces. When Kaitlin is ready for everyone to eat, by the way, you had better be ready to eat. When she makes a new dish, she likes to see our face when we take the first bite; creepy though this sounds, it's just her way of judging her own work. Whether or not she likes it is irrelevant, she wants the world to like it. Hopefully, you guys will help with that. Tonight, we had a pasta that is currently unnamed. Don't let the title scare you off, this pasta is delicious. If you've got an idea for a name, feel free to comment and suggest!

-Start by boiling your water. Cooking the linguine will take longer than any other part of this, so get this going in the background before you even peel your shrimp.
-After you've peeled your shrimp (1 lb), throw them in the skillet with 2 tbsp of butter to get them nice and pink. We used fresh shrimp from the farmer's market over the frozen stuff. They got a dash of pepper in the cooking process, as well.
-While you're waiting on the shrimp to turn, get to work on the veggies! Kaitlin used a 1/2 cup of portobello mushroom, 1 cup of roughly chopped spinach, 1 clove of garlic chopped, and 3 sun-dried tomatoes. The tomatoes were simply Giada's jarred kind; substitute your own available brand there. 
-Once the veggies are chopped and ready and the shrimp looks cooked, switch them out. Add another bit of butter to your skillet and sauté the veggies quickly. Add the shrimp back in and leave the heat on medium for about five minutes. Turn to low if your pasta isn't ready.

-When the pasta is cooked, throw it in with 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and mix it up. Add cream cheese to the point you are comfortable with. Kaitlin didn't add much because I'm not a huge fan, but I honestly couldn't taste it; it basically helped impart a creamy texture.

-Plate it, and you're done! We really hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Make sure you come back and leave a comment to let us know.

The Introduction

While we (and by we, I mean me) will keep tinkering with some things under the hood, this site is largely ready to go. Kaitlin and I are new at this, and are largely clueless as to what the daily content of this site will be outside of a major obsession of this household: food!

The colors!

 While I am building this blog in my summer leisure time, Kaitlin is at work. I teach history to 6th graders, she is privy to international secrets and explosive materials. Actually, she works for an oxygen company in the office, doing important things with Excel and paperwork that I can't begin to fathom. In addition to that, we both go to school full-time. Factor these things in, throw in two (adorable) children,

Pictured: (adorable) children

 and you can see how things stay busy. The best way we've found to relax, talk, and laugh, is at the dinner table. I'll save you the statistics of children and family dinners, but rest assured that it is cheaper, more enjoyable, and a stress reliever (unless you hate your family, then dinner isn't your main problem). Kaitlin wants to share her glorious cooking with the world, and this is how we're going to try it. Be warned, she doesn't use hard measurements. It isn't likely I'll be able to pry teaspoons and fluid ounces out of her any more than you can pry the truth out of a politician. When you follow the basic outline, though, you'll end up with stuff like this:

Healthy, delicious, and not bad to look at. We don't have a lightbox, we don't have a two thousand dollar camera, and we don't have top-of-the-line cooking utensils. We're a working family that wants to be happier and healthier. Who knows how we'll do?

Delicious Test