Day 18 of 365-Triple Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (WOW, that's a mouthful) & SUSHI!

The boys were off of school today for MLK day and it was extraordinarily windy and rainy so we decided just to hunker down for the day!  I was asked to make cookies for the rugby club to bring as thank you gifts for their host families in San Diego this coming weekend so I thought that today was as good a day as any to get started!  Fourteen dozen down so far!  Quite a lot of work!

One of the many dozen made today!

They wanted one of their faves for dinner...French toast.  I made some simple sushi rolls for Dan and I with what I had in the house...yummy!

Inside-Out Philly Roll with Avocado and Cucumber

California Roll

Philly Roll

Day 17 of 365-Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Ice Cream/Sunday Football Snacks & The BEST Roasted Chicken Ever!

Sunday Football Snacks- I couldn't resist!  Avocados were 2 for $1 at Safeway and the Roma tomatoes were $0.47/pound!  Made for yummy guac and pico de gallo...and of course you can't have that without a cold Corona and a lime!

Made some delicious Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream for dessert!!

This is the best and easiest roasted chicken ever!  It's a recipe from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, and it comes out perfect and juicy and tender everytime!  Definitely one of my go-to's!

Day 16 of 365-New York Style Bagels...in Cali!

The family had eaten me out of bagels since last weekend...they were super yummy!  I decided to make another couple of batches this morning while still in my bathrobe...they are so good and the process seems to get easier each time I do it!

I think that this may be the most beautiful piece of dough that I've ever seen!

Still working on the best way to shape these little guys...

The secret to the crusty outside and chewy inside...boiling in water, salt and malt syrup

The finished product...this salt one didn't last long...I threw it in the toaster as soon as the shutter clicked on this photo!

Day 15 of 365-**LATE AGAIN AND NOTHING**

Well...late again on the blog post!  Oooops!  I think that I may have been fighting something off today...I was FREEZING all day and fell asleep at 7:30 PM!  Must've needing a good night's sleep!  I made NOTHING today...first time in a LONG time!  A neighbor gave us an extra Papa Murphy's Take 'n' Bake and the boys ate Annie's Mac & Cheese!  That almost never happens in our house!

Day 14 of 365-**LATE AGAIN!**

I don't know what is up with me lately but I keep falling asleep on the couch before I get my daily blog in!  Sorry!  Today was a crazy day of run, run, running boys from practice to practice, to sports fundraisers, etc.!  We did manage to get a yummy dinner in, though.  London broil again (this time with everyone here to enjoy it!) and homemade boule bread!  I am liking the recipes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day so far!

Marinated London Broil with Herbed Compound Butter

(I marinated it in beer this time and it was actually quite yummy!)

Homemade Boule

Day 13 of 365-**LATE!**

Oooops!  I fell asleep on the couch watching American Idol last night before my daily blog post!  It must have been a homemade Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Ice Cream-induced coma!  LOL

YUMMY!

Day 12 of 365

Today ending up being a very busy cooking day for me...lots of things that I wanted to experiment with so....here it goes!

MORNING

I had two bananas that were starting to go bad so I thought I would make one of the boys' favorite snacks...banana bread with chocolate chips...it's more than half gone tonight (and this was just half of the loaf in the picture)!

MIDDAY

I found a book yesterday at the library called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.  The whole premise behind it is that artisan-sytle bread dough can be made in larger batches, on the wetter side, without kneading and kept in the refrigerator for up to TWO weeks!  When you want to bake a loaf or rolls, you just cut off a portion of the dough and "cloak" it, let it rise for about 40 minutes and bake.  It was actually quite good...the crust was a little off...I'm going to have to work on that portion a little more but on the whole the taste was great!

EVENING

I fed the boys their favorite of "breakfast-for-dinner" so that Dan and I could try a new recipe I saw on Giada the other day...California Chopped Salad.  It was pretty good but I think that I would play around with the recipe a bit next time

Grilled romaine lettuce, grilled fresh corn, grilled zucchini, grilled green pepper, fresh Roma tomatoes, avocado and grilled shrimp with a light citrus/honey vinaigrette