Back - and ready to roll

Us at the Mayan Ruins at Coba

Mayan ball field at Coba

CB Climbing down the Great Mayan Pyramid at Coba

The thing I love about going away is the fact that I always want to come home. I love traveling and experiencing new things, but there's nothing like coming home and sleeping in your own bed.

Mexico was great, it was warm, the water was blue, the hotel was amazing, we met amazing people on our trip who we will no doubt keep in touch with, and the people of Cozumel were so nice and genuine.

Our first full day in Mexico we took the 9 hour trip to Coba on the mainland of Playa del Carmen. We sailed on the ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen, and then took an hour and a half bus ride to Coba; one of the Mayan ruins sites on the island, and the only site where you can actively climb the ruins, which was just amazing. After touring the ruins with a Mayan tour guide we stopped off at a small little open air restaurant and ate the best food - CB had chicken, pork, beef, and I had rice, beans and fish. It was soooo good.

We relaxed by the pool, snorkeled in the ocean, ate too much, drank too much, staved off a bit of traveler's diarrhea (I know too much information sorry, and it was bad, must bring antibiotics on next trip to Mexico!)

Glad to back, glad to be cooking and baking, I made risotto and biscotti when I got home yesterday - posts coming tomorrow.

8 Days

No posts until next Wednesday at least people. I'm taking a break....sipping cocktails, sleeping past 5 friggin 30, and I'm going to love every minute of it.

And Sweet Jebus please let my eye stop twitching by the end of the week, it's really driving me nuts.

See next week guys. Take Care, Eat Well.

Spaghetti with Eggplant, Butternut Squash and Shrimp | Everyday Italian

Could you possibly spy this eggplant at the market and not buy it? Could you then not bring it back to your office just so you could place it on your desk and wait for your fellow employees to walk by your office and get a glimpse of it, and then take a double take? Could you then not dress up the eggplant, call it Mr. Eggplant Head, and take far too many pictures of it? Well maybe if your mature you can stop yourself from doing all these things, but I am not so I did all of the above, and then I took it home and ate it. In fact, we ate it so fast I didn't get any pictures of the dish, but it was very very good. It was a Halloween recipe from Giada's Everyday Italian. Here Goes.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 5 cups)

2 Japanese eggplants, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used regular eggplant)

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 1/4 cups dry white wine

2 cups fish broth, fresh or frozen, or canned vegetable broth (I used vegetable broth)

2 pounds uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined

Salt and pepper

17.5 ounces orange-colored fresh spaghetti or linguine 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Heat the oil in a heavy large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for just a minute. Add the squash, eggplant, rosemary and thyme and saute for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the wine and broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer until the squash is tender and the liquid is reduced by about half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer gently until almost cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta. (Alternatively, you can use dried pasta, which will take 8 to 10 minutes to cook.)

Toss the pasta, squash mixture, and butter in a large bowl until the liquid thickens slightly and coats the pasta. Transfer the pasta mixture to a wide shallow bowl and serve.

Note: I wanted to thicken up the sauce a bit so I dissolved a tablespoon of cornstarch in a few tablespoons of water and added it to the sauce. I think it worked better doing that than if I hadn't.

Rating = Damn Good

Witch's Brew

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble...Happy Halloween Everyone.

My posts are lacking because I'm pretty much chained to my desk right now. There is a veritable perfect storm or project deadlines I have to deal with. I had one go out last night, one out tonight, another out tomorrow, and then one more has to go out on Friday. I've been at the office from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm everyday since last week and there will be no end to that schedule until Tuesday of next week when I will either be dead from a massive heart attack or I will finally be taking some well deserved time off from work.

So I will try to post a few times over the next few weeks, but no promises. And if you don't see another post before Thanksgiving I am have definitely died and my cat is surely starting to gnaw at my dead decaying body. Let's hope you see posts before Thanksgiving.

The good thing about going to work at the crack of friggin ass, is that you have the most unexpected encounters with people on the street. Just yesterday as I was walking to work a nice man called to me and told me he just wanted to thank me for, and I quote, "making America beautiful". Well isn't that nice. I mean, he was homeless, had about three teeth, and was yelling to me from the bed he had made on the subway steam grate, but you know what, I still smiled, and laughed and thanked him for his kind words. I then pelted off in a hurry hoping that he wasn't following me. The sad thing was, that was the nicest thing anyone said to me yesterday. I should have given him my coffee. He wasn't there this morning when I walked to work, I hope he's ok.

So, I suck. The posts will be here and there from now until Thanksgiving. Believe me, I'd rather be at work writing recipe posts than actually working, but I got bills to pay and they write the checks, so bear with me - it will be better after turkey day.

PS. Yes, I did carve that pumpkin, I got mad skills.

Simply Pumpkin Biscotti

First. I'm working on about 4 hours sleep here because my Red Sox clinched a World Series berth last night (or actually early this morning) and I live in the Fenway, as in the neighborhood named such because Fenway Park is right down the street. After the win, the 34,000 plus fans in the stadium poured out onto the streets, turning the neighborhood into an all out block party. Don't you just love October? Don't you just love baseball in October?

Don't you just love naps, I'm going to need serious cat naps until after the World Series is over, I blame this on Fox Sports, whom it seems can't push first pitch back far enough, the games used to start at 8:00, as in first pitch at 8:00, now coverage at the ball park starts at 8:00 and first pitch happens somewhere around 8:35 or so, causing every game to stretch into the early morning hours, I hate you Fox TV and your stupid Chevrolet commercials, if I hear this is our country one more god damn time I'm going to lose my shit, really - get some new commercials because these are painfully, ear piercingly over played...this is our country ugh.

Anyway - with the games not starting until after 8:00 I seem to be finding more time in the kitchen at night, (considering I'm usually watching the game an hour earlier at 7:00) - so it affords me the opportunity to make even more ass expanding treats, oh joy. No really these are good, and not too fattening. Again, the recipe is from Elise at Simply Recipes and like most of her recipes it was easy and delicious.

Here is the link to her recipe.

Rating = So Damn Good

Gingerbread Scones

These lasted about 2.5 minutes in my house the day I made them. We just continued to eat them until they were all gone. Did I mention I need to get into a bikini next month for vacation? It's not going to be a pretty sight. Maybe I can buy one of those wraps that people wear around their waists when they go to the beach, but I'll just buy a really big one and hike it up to my neck so it covers my whole body. That should do the trick. Did I mention that this vacation is also all-inclusive, or as I like to call it, Bring on the moo moo, Jules is heading back to the buffet again, why yes, I'll have another frozen drink, I'm sure there are no calories in that, why don't my pants button food plan. It's gonna get ugly. Real ugly. I should be all set for fat pants by Thanksgiving, just put some ropes on my ankles and wrists and put me in the Macy's day parade. Anyway, the recipe is adapted from this Joy of Baking recipe.

1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all purpose flour
3/4 cup (60 grams) old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup (72 grams) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I used 1/4C butter and 1/4C applesauce)
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1/3 cup (35 grams) dried cranberries or cherries (optional)
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk (I used soymilk)
2 1/2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the lemon zest and dried cranberries, if using. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, molasses and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 3 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Rating = So Damn Good