Dang, I'm Good.

I was not in the mood to cook today. Must be the weather. I finally decided I would do something with the whole chicken sitting in the freezer. I started defrosting the whole chicken this afternoon, circa 1pm. The plan was to cook it in the crock-pot for a delicious dinner/something different from roasting it. Said chicken was still frozen circa 3:00 PM when I had to leave the house to pick up Henry from school. Therefore, said chicken would not make it into the crock-pot and would not start crock-potting until 6:30 PM. This places the crock-pot dinner time roughly around 1:00/1:30 AM. Obviously this would not fly for Wesley's belly nor mine.

Of course, its now 6:45 PM and I am trying to figure out what I am going to feed Wesley and he is just bucking at everything I suggest. And by everything, my two other suggestions. =) Finally, I have it - Breakfast for Dinner. Did he go for it? Oh, yeah he did. What else did this mean? Wesley was cooking dinner. Why, because I have led Wesley to believe he is the only one in the whole wide world who can cook eggs, bacon, and pancakes. It's true - he is the only one. =) And that is why I left the kitchen with a smile on face, because dang I am good.

Rest assure, instead of watching some fabulous show on BRAVO, such as Real Housewives of Atlanta, Orange County, or wherever, we watched the Daytona 500. It's all about compromise, right?

Blueberry/Chocolate Chip Pancakes - Our favorite combination

(Don't knock it till you've tried it - it's yummy)

Bacon - Nom. Nom. Nom.

Empire State of Mind

Come Friday morning, Wes and I will be headed to the Big Apple to see Grandpa!

& my fabulous Cousins

& my fabulous second cousins!

That's Amore

When the stars make you drool
Joost-a like pasta fazool
That's amore
When you dance down the street
With a cloud at your feet, you're in love
When you walk in a dream
But you know you're not dreamin', signore
'Scusami, but you see
Back in old Napoli, that's amore

Last Thursday night, I was inspired by my Italian roots and one of my patients. My patient was from Italy and lived in New York for many years before retiring with his wife to Winston-Salem. So needless to say, I was like his long lost grandchild and we were lucky enough I had him for five nights. Our favorite conversations revolved around Our State magazine and food. He convinced me I could make my Grandfather's pasta sauce again and not fail, same for my meatballs. He had me so convinced, I decided on Thursday, why not, let's give it another go. I hail from great Italian ancestors, it's in my blood...well 25% of my blood. (Perhaps that's why my meatballs went astray last time....)

Well lets just say the confidence he gave to me is just what I needed because my sauce was amore.

My Grandpa sent me the recipe for the sauce. The recipe consisted of four items written down a piece of paper. No quantity, no instructions. When I called Grandpa to ask for further instruction, he goes, "Eh, you put a little of this with that, you sauté this, and you will know." Oh, okay. But, I must say, you do... when creating your sauce, it is different every time. Allowing the flavors to simmer and give them time to come to life, ie you need patience.

I made homemade meatballs as well .... my darling meatballs tasted fabulous, however they had some issues sticking together once in the sauce. Next time, more eggs will be used. The meal was completed by a pound cake with fruit.

Now, in even more Italian fashion, a meal like this is best shared with friends and family. Even better when Wes has purchased a new toy. Wes enlisted the help of his friends John and Jamie to help move this 300 lb beast into our basement.

So who better to share an Italian meal with, then three hungry boys?

The ADD Cook

I have ADD - like I am legit, diagnosed by an MD, legit. As an adult, I find ADD to be very handy, especially in my type of work. I have learned to channel my ADD for the greater good. Seriously! Okay not seriously. I am sure my patients think I am a nut - but - hey with my mind going a million miles a minute I seem to have a knack for realizing things going astray. And that they do appreciate.

Now, when it comes to my other passion in life cooking ... well ADD can be a bit of a hindrance. I try to follow recipes but that never works out as planned because half way in the process of cooking - I come up some other idea of what to put in. Please see below:

As you can see here, my kitchen is about two different shades of hot mess. We should play an "I spy" blog addition - who can spy all the food items? Let's please call attention to the most important item - my cheetah print wine glass. I find it very necessary to cook all meals with a glass of wine. Just one - if you go into glass number two ... things tend to get a bit burned.

This picture was taken on Monday night in preparation for the Valentine's Day Party I threw at work. I made rosebud cupcakes and chocolate oreo puddin' chocolate cake. Now the other items in this picture were dinner for Monday night. What was going to be cream cheese and basil stuffed chicken breasts ended up with mozzarella cheese, basil, lemon juice, garlic, and heavy whipping cream stuffed into the breast instead. (Well hello ADD) I then took bread crumbs and olive oil, rubbed it all over with chicken. Finished the dish off with tossing cherry tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper.

I give you my master piece:

And my trader joe's side =)

It was down right delicious.

Polished the dinner off with two vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods - oh the joy of feeding Wesley a vegan cupcake - having him finish that puppy off and then telling him what he just ate. He also had a glass of Almond Milk. Love it.

Celebrating Wesley

I told Wes Ground Hog's day is my new favorite holiday. Why? Because that is the day he was born! Awwww. True story.

Being that this birthday marked the countdown to thirty - Wes was not into celebrating. He wanted nothing to do with having a birthday. Well - that is not going to do. Not for me - especially when planning parties is what I do. And with tailgating season being long over, I have been itching for something to do.

Thursday we headed to 42nd Street. Originally we were going to go to Poole's Diner for dinner and we were both looking forward to the amazing meal we would have BUT they were closed for a private dinner. Next choice and our go to dinner place is 42nd. Who doesn't love eating delicious shrimp, oysters, and scallops? Exactly. Followed up by a giant piece of cake from none other then Hayes Barton Cafe . Delicious.

Wes's birthday gift:

He is now cowboy chic!

Saturday I planned a little surprise for Wesley. He thought a group of us were going out for Sushi - ha.

Instead ROAD TRIP! We headed to Wilson, NC to the Beefmastor Inn.

Here is their menu that was taken from their website. Please note their extensive menu.

Our menu includes:

Steaks starting from 8oz on up

Baked potato

Salad

Baked sweet onion on request

Drinks including:
Tea, Water, and Coffee

No deserts, but you are welcome to bring your own.

No reservations required

Now - being that they do not take reservation - tailgating comes highly recommended during your wait. Love it. We brought snacks and beers and had a fabulous time in the parking lot.

Tailgating! We would be the only people in the parking lot who brought a tent. Clearly I come prepared when it comes to tailgating.

What size would you like? I will take the whole thing, thanks.

Delicious.

Happy Birthday Wes ! I made Wes his favorite kind of cake ... chocolate with buttercream icing.

And that's a wrap.