well, the weather's finally getting hot and summer is flying by. i think i will be back at school before i know it.

on friday for dinner i made two pizzas. a mac and cheese pizza, as promised to hannah because she loves mac and cheese and she loves pizza--so i thought she would love this one. the other was a traditional pizza with italian sausage, tomatoes, artichokes, provolone, and a sweet red sauce. both were loved by all! the mac and cheese wasn't my best mac and cheese pizza ever, but everyone thought it was delicious so that is what matters!







sunday for dinner mom made an awesomely delicious tomato phyllo tart. tomatoes, feta, provolone, fresh basil all on a flaky phyllo crust. it was *soo* good, i couldn't get over it!!








monday for dinner we went chinese-style, with sushi and egg rolls. i made GF egg rolls, which were pretty good, even though they didn't look too much like egg rolls--being a GF dough, it was difficult to roll it out super thin. it just wasn't as elastic as regular egg roll dough either. i baked them and then finished them off with a little oil in a skillet to give them a little color and crisp. i also made foreigner rolls (falang rolls) and veggie sushi. mmmm!



















the other day i also made some sweet and salty trail mix bars. puffed rice, mixed dried fruit, sunflower seeds, cashews, and peanuts. pretty tasty, although they don't hold together like store-bought bars. maybe some more honey to hold them together better and pressing them tighter together in the pan would help. i'm happy i halved the recipe, though, because i still filled a 9 x 13 pan; the complete recipe calls for the mix to be put into a 11 x 17 pan and i think even then, that would have been overflowing.


what's cooking tonight: grilled tuna steak and tropical fruit salad, along with banana-macadamia nut muffins.

oh man, it's been a busy week. we just had our grand re-opening at victoria's secret, so a lot of workin has been going on. but our store is so beautiful! it's the biggest VS in wisconsin and just too fabulous. :)

last wednesday for dinner we had tomato-tarragon soup with croutons. the recipe said to chill it, but it was the type of day where a warm soup was nice. i made a GF baguette for the croutons, and they were very good. the soup was quite thick, so dipping the croutons in it works well. it would make a nice appetizer. however, the recipe did not make very much so i had to quickly come up with something to accompany the dish. mom suggested the leftover ribs from sunday, so i tore the pork of the bones, heated it with the leftover guava barbecue sauce, and made sandwiches on pieces of the baguette. turned out to be a good meal and the soup was really good, i think!



friday we had lunch with the peters for the fourth of july. i had planned to make hamburgers with peach barbecue sauce, however i didn't read the reviews of the sauce before i made it. one said that it tasted like barf. and you know what? it kinda did. so i just made my regular barbecue sauce and used that--which yielded a much better result. i made kaiser rolls where were pretty darn good. i searched for a recipe for GF kaiser rolls, but was unsuccessful. so i decided to throw together some GF flour, cornstarch, water, yeast, salt, and oil in hopes of getting some kaiser rolls. umm...not so successful haha. instead of getting rolls, i got rocks. then, i had a brilliant idea: search for "hamburger buns." duh! that way i found a recipe, and they turned out fabulously. the directions said to make them in muffins rings---which i don't have--so i poured the batter into small pyrex containers. perfect! mom also made an awesome german potato salad and we had corn on the cob, too. mom made lemon bars for dessert.



saturday for dinner i chose to make something from the grand canyon cookbook mom and dad gor for me. i made grand canyon burros, which is basically beef with tomatoes, cumin, other spices, onions, and goodness. i served them with refried beans and corn, and of course tortillas (both flour and corn).




tonight for dinner i made spiced-up, oven-fried chicken and served it with mashed potatoes and corn (love my supersweet corn!). the chicken was good! instead of using a whole chicken, i used chicken breasts. way easy, too--it worked out being a nice dinner to make after work. the only thing that sucks is that cornflakes don't come in small boxes and i only used like 3 cups--and cornflakes aren't my favorite cereal to just eat for breakfast. i might just have to think of something creative to do with them.


tomorrow for dinner is pizza night with the peters!