Home?

Home is such a relative term. Much like Kate Winslet's character in "The Holiday" says about love, I've found almost everything ever written about home to be true.

"Home, Sweet, Home"

"You can always go home again."

"Be it every so humble there's no place like home."

"How is where your heart is."


"You can always go home again."

Last week I went "home" to stay at my parent's house. The house I lived in from kindergarten through 2nd grade, 8th grade through 12th grade, and summers for three years in college.

Wherever I live, I always miss this:

The fields, the awe-inspiring sunrises and sunsets, being able to see more stars than you ever knew existed and a weird quiet that you just can't get "in the city."

When I get frustrated with this "yard,"


and the traffic in the Metroplex, and never being able to see the stars, (stupid light pollution). This is what I crave...


"Home is where your heart is."

And yet.

Being back there last week made me all to aware of how it's not actually my "home" anymore.

You see, we've built our own home for our tiny family. And so while enjoying the open skies and visiting with family and friends I really don't see often enough, I was missing this handsome guy


and our fat, furry child.

"Be it every so humble there's no place like home."

And while I may not be able to see the stars, or see for miles in every direction, and I can hear about 5 ambulances go by a day, I love the little home we have. And I missed weird things like our big comfy bed,

Please excuse the big blue exercise ball.

my own sink in our bathroom with all my organized hair, makeup and skin care products, and cooking in my own kitchen where I know where everything is and how it works.

And so Friday, as I drove home, (at an undisclosed speed), I couldn't wait to be back to our own

"Home, Sweet Home."

Jennifer

Bruschetta Caprese

So probably one of my favorite dishes ever is Caprese salad; fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, you just can't beat it.

This recipe takes Caprese salad and puts it on toasted bread making something that I didn't think possible to improve upon and make it even better. Delish!

We bought this multi-grain bread at the farmer's market this morning.
Isn't it cute with it's little flour flower?

It's super easy to make, and like usual I don't use real measurements, but I think it'd be pretty difficult to mess it up. It's probably one of our favorite summertime dinners, I like it because it's basically a complete meal in itself.

Ingredients

4-5 ripe Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 loaf artisan bread/french bread, sliced
fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
5-6 leaves fresh basil, chiffonaded (fancy word for herbs cut into little pieces)
1 clove garlic, cut in half
balsamic vinegar
EVOO
s&p

Turn oven on to broil.

In a small bowl combine chopped Roma tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper, a little drizzle of olive oil and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine.


Drizzle slices of bread with olive oil, put on a cookie sheet, and lightly toast in the oven on broil.


Basically, you're just trying to keep the bread from getting really soggy when you put the tomato mixture on it later. Remove bread from oven, using garlic clove cut in half, rub cut side of garlic on toasted bread. Flip sliced bread over, drizzle a little more EVOO on bread and put back in the oven to toast the other side.

When both sides of bread are ligthly toasted, spoon tomato mixture onto each slice of bread.


Top with one slice of fresh mozzarella. Please do yourself a favor and don't use Kraft! Fresh mozzarella comes in a ball about 2 1/2" in diameter usually up in the deli section of the grocery store. It's a little more expensive, but soooo worth it!


Broil until the cheese is starting to melt. If you wait until it's too melted usually the bread will get to hard around the edges.


Let it cool for a minute so you don't burn the roof of your mouth on a hot tomato, then enjoy!!

*This recipe gives instructions on how to toast the bread and melt the cheese in the oven's broiler.  For a great spring & summer twist, try using a grill instead to get Bruschetta Caprese like the first picture in this post!*

Jennifer

Bye, Bye Bland Cauliflower

I'll pretty much eat any vegetable, even the ones most people cringe at. Broccoli we eat on just about a daily basis. Asparagus=yum. Brussels sprouts, love em. Artichokes, yes, please.

One I tend to shy away from though is cauliflower.

It just seems so boring to me. White, plain, and tasteless. I've tried the "surprise" style mashed "potatoes" that were actually cauliflower to no avail.

I just don't care for the stuff.

Enter the following recipe, and a not only edible way to fix cauliflower, but down right delicious!

It uses simple ingredients that cauliflower excepting, most of us have on hand at all times, it's easy to prepare with no great skill required, (hacking the whole cauliflower to death is the hardest part), and it's low maintenance to cook it in the oven while focusing on your main dish. In other words, my kind of cooking. ;)

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, divided into florets
2 Tbsps minced garlic, (or a tsp or so of garlic powder)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 grated parmesan cheese
S&P to taste
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried parsley


Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish.

Mix the EVOO, garlic, and thyme, in a large bowl, whisk together. Stir in cauliflower florets until they're pretty evenly coated with the olive oil mixture.

Dump into the greased casserole dish, and slide the dish in the preheated oven.

Bake for 12 minutes, stir and bake for an additional 12 minutes. After baking top cauliflower with parmesan cheese and parsley, crank the oven up to broil, and broil for an additional 3-5 minutes until the cauliflower is golden brown and delicious.

A really horrible picture of the finished product.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

This past weekend Jonathan's family came in town for the weekend. They got here on Saturday, we had lunch and then headed to Jonathan's aunt and uncle's house to spend time with his family. I snapped a few pictures while we were there:

Carol, Anna, and me looking super pasty!

Jonathan and his PawPaw

Jonathan's aunt and uncle's adorable dog Duchess

Jonathan and his brother Michael

3 generations of Miller men, Jonathan's dad, Jonathan, PawPaw and Michael

Sunday, we went to church, came home, changed, and headed to Jason's Deli for lunch, followed by a Rough Riders game. It was SOO INCREDIBLY HOT! I don't know what is up with the weather in north Texas! We had like six months of winter, then it skipped straight to super-hot summer weather! Yuck! It's supposed to be 100 all this weekend!

These pictures were taken before we completely melted in the heat!

Jonathan and me

me and my sweet sister-in-law Anna
Michael

After the game we got changed again, and went to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday a few days early! We took a few pictures outside before we left since it had cooled off considerably since 2:00.

Jonathan, his dad, and brother Michael

the "kids" Jonathan, me, Anna, and Michael
I always feel like a sore thumb with them and their blonde hair!

Cheesecake Factory was delicious, as always! They always give you so much food!

Anna and me at dinner.
Jonathan and Michael at dinner.
J.D., Jonathan, and Michael at dinner.

We intended to get dessert, but we were all so stuffed we just got a key lime pie cheesecake to go. It was so good! Key lime pie is one of my absolute favorite desserts, and key lime pie cheesecake did not dissapoint! Yummy!

Our waiter brought us the giant display menu of all the whole cheesecakes you can take home.

Monday the guys headed to the golf course and Carol, Anna and I hit the mall for some shopping. I don't think I took any pictures on Monday. Jonathan was supposed to take our little camera and take some pictures while they were golfing, but he accidentally left it at the house. So, no pictures.

After everyone left Monday, we pretty much crashed! We slept late Tuesday and got up with just enough time to eat lunch at Spring Creek BBQ, (Dickey's is still my favorite), and pick up our friends Craig and Jenny from the airport.

That's pretty much it! We're back to our normal night-owl schedules now!

Olive Cheese Balls

This is not only a recipe, but a story about the recipe...

Husband's Grammy used to make Olive Cheese Balls around the holidays every year for people to snack on when they came over for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Husband and his brother Michael love these things!

This is Husband's Grammy, his brother Michael-standing in the chair, and Husband-with the apron on, making olive cheese balls years ago.

When Grammy passed away in 2006, I copied the recipe down from the cabinet where her recipe was posted. I've made them a few times, usually around the holidays, because Husband loves them so much.

This weekend Husband's family was in town and Michael asked me to make some olive cheese balls so he could see how they're made. I took pictures while we were making them, to share with y'all!

Husband -in green, and Michael-in blue, making olive cheese balls this past weekend.

Olive Cheese Balls

Ingredients

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (don't buy the pre-shredded kind, it's too dry)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted
36 green olives

Mix cheese and flour, mix with butter.

Work dough with hands if it seems dry, (Mine is ALWAYS really dry and I have to almost knead it with my hands for a while until it stops crumbling).

Mold 1 tsp dough around each olive; shape into a ball.



Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, (if you don't refrigerate them they just turn into olive cheese mounds, still taste the same, they're just not as pretty).



Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake until set, 15-20 minutes.

The finished product.

Enjoy!

Jennifer