wow, it's been ten days since my last post! well, i've been busy. and plus, mom and dad left for vacation starting on tuesday, so i didn't cook anything of note for a few days. but! it all started back up again when david came to visit on thursday night. for dinner i made an awesome pizza with sweet italian sausage, roma tomatoes, marinated artichokes, sauteed red onions, provolone, and a red sauce. i ventured to create a new red sauce (i always use the same one). i sauteed red onion, garlic, and garlic chives, then added a bit of white wine; i added canned whole tomatoes and simmered that for a while. then i pureed it and returned it to the pan, seasoning it as necessary (i think i added sugar, pepper, some more white wine). it was a really tasty and flavorful, yet lighter than my normal, sauce! definitely a keeper.

friday for breakfast we made crispy waffles with salted caramel coulis. oh-my-gosh were they good! and i have to credit jen with the coulis, as she did most of the work (she and bryan surprised stopped by). however, the coulis does get a little rich after a while. we then went to eh mall, and came back for lunch--thursday's leftover pizza. after lunch we went to the art museum, then to alterra on the lake--had to show him my favorite coffee shop. :) we then drove along lake drive so david could see the cool, fancy, old houses. he was totally impressed with them. then, we drove around milwaukee so he could see what it's like. we started searching for a place for dinner and decided on rock bottom brewery. it was a beautiful night out and we got to sit out on the patio, next to the river. for an appetizer we had the asiago cheese dip with with homemade beer bread. *so* good! i had the tuscan smoked chicken salad (chicken, red peppers, carrots, granny smith apples, and candied walnuts on a bed of green); he had the grilled mahi-mahi but wasn't real impressed with it.

saturday morning i had to run 3 miles so david biked along with me. it was a nice morning for it. we then had a late breakfast/brunch of bananas foster french toast. i tell ya, the boy knows how to make french toast! (i was in charge of the bananas foster part) for lunch we met jen and bryan at singha thai. david and i shared the cashew chicken (one of my favs), and i don't remember what jen and bryan had, except that jen's was tasty and bryan's looked like cat food. they also had some spring rolls, which they love but i'm not too crazy about. david and i went to the zoo for the afternoon, and let me tell ya--it takes a lot less time when you're older and don't go with kids! i think we did the whole zoo (minus the farm animals, cuz really, we live in the midwest. farm animals, not that uncommon) in like an hour or hour and a half. for dinner we made pierogi and potstickers (we combined parts of a few planned meals because turns out, we had more meals planned that days haha). david showed off his polishness with blueberry, strawberry, and apple pierogi. the potstickers were good but kind of unsightly. the wrappers got very thin (i think the filling was too wet), but nevertheless they were able to be steamed and eaten.

for breakfast on sunday david made his famous oatmeal that i had been waiting a month for! it was fabulous. david was then supposed to leave to go home after church, but long story short, he ended up staying until monday due to part of 94W being closed (compliments of the crappy weather). we went to family parties for the afternoon, then finished up with dinner at singha thai, once again. he had the pad thai with chicken and tofu (that tasted like cheese)---it was super good. i had the rama beef, beef in a peanut (curry?) sauce with vegetables. mmmm! you can never gone wrong with that place!!

david did end up leaving on monday morning (despite my efforts to get him to stay oh you know, the whole summer haha). for dinner i made corn on the cob (with corn from david's mom--it's the best) and sun-dried tomato burgers with balsamic-glazed onions (both with the help of mom doing the grilling). the burgers were good, especially because the balsamic with real stuff from modena (compliments of the boy).

tuesday's dinner with chicken salad with peanut-lime vinaigrette. mom simmered some chicken with vegetables to get our cooked chicken. i left out mayonnaise, and topped it with salted peanuts instead, and it turned out well. however, the recipe made a ton of vinaigrette, so i would definitely recommend halving or quartering that portion of the recipe.

for dinner tonight, i made island pork tenderloin salad. it was super fab. the pork was very tender and moist, and the glaze was good, too--it would be good by itself, not only just on a salad. oh and i left out the avocados cuz yuck! :p phew.

i think that's it. i work tomorrow and saturday so won't be cooking, and i haven't decided on sunday's dinner yet. i think i'll work on that now!