Fast Friday: Prosciutto-wrapped chicken stuffed with pears & Brie

Hey, would you look at that?  It's Friday!  For once, the "I have no idea what day it is" confusion has surprised me in a good way.  I spent most of yesterday feeling like it was only Wednesday.  That being said, I will never, ever not welcome Friday with open arms.

I think much of the reason my days were mixed up is because Monday felt like an extension of the weekend.  Matt and I left work early and headed to the Hyundai dealership to close out the lease on our car.

In the end, buying the vehicle was a no brainer since we love our Accent dearly.  Also a no brainer?  The minimal amount of paperwork involved; it took less than 5 minutes to complete, much to our surprise.  Three cheers for being official car owners!

Maple dijon roasted apples, potatoes, sprouts & sausage

Raise your hand if the fact that Halloween is tomorrow frightens you.  How is October nearly over?

Time is running out up for me to come up with a creative Halloween costume.  Our office party was earlier this week, and I really phoned it in with my getup.  I wore a black top and pants with an orange scarf, and declared myself "festive."  Thankfully, my office neighbor did the same thing.

As for the actual holiday tomorrow, we're spending the evening at our friends' house.  The men will be dishing out candy and attempting to spook the neighbors with their garage-turned-Ebola-quarantine-unit.  From the current e-mail chain, I get a sense they are going all in.  Requested items include white painting jumpsuits, face masks, goggles, biohazard stickers, and even cooked spaghetti and sausage to act as human internal organs.  Two quick thoughts: Gross, and what a waste of good food!

Harvest apple chicken burgers with cranberry Stilton

Remember that time I bought 22 pounds of apples?  Yes, really.

I swear it didn't seem like that much at first.  Matt and I each filled a bag to our hearts' content.  He loaded up on softer apples like Cortlands, Empires, and McIntoshes.  I, however, went straight to the super firm and sweet Honeycrisps, Jonagolds, and Braeburns.  We checked out and lugged our haul up to the car before returning for pumpkins.

It was a storybook fall afternoon.  The air was cool but not cold, a light breeze scattered just-turning leaves all about, and everyone around us seemed to be in a cheerful mood.   We sipped on apple cider, feasted on barbecue and mac & cheese, sampled all sorts of apples, and wandered around (in our matching puffy vests) without a worry in the world.  Oh, and I got to sport my first heavy scarf of the season!  Can you think of a more perfect way to spend an afternoon?

We totally permitted ourselves to get swept up in the moment... and it was fantastic.

5-ingredient Pesto chicken and bean soup

Raise your hand if you're in need of one really good dinner recipe.

Now throw your hands in the air

Raise your hand if you want said recipe to also be healthy, easy, fast, cozy, filling, and delicious.

Wave 'em around like you just don't care

Normally, I'd save a recipe like this for an installment of Fast Friday but, you know what?  Forget that.  I have a feeling you might need this sooner -- need and want, to be clear. 

Say it with me: Now through your hands in the air / Wave 'em around like you just don't care

Fast Friday: Smashed white bean & kale quesadillas

Happy Friday to you, yours, and everyone else's!  How was the week?

Ours was nice and chill.  After a busy weekend, largely spent away from the apartment, we laid low in the evenings and entertained ourselves at home.  We even hosted friends dinner twice.  Not surprisingly, those two dinners were the only two that went off exactly as I'd planned; the rest were delicious but waaaaaaaay off the beaten path original meal plan.

Recently, a friend was teasing me for planning all of our meals for the coming week.  I gave my spiel about how much easier it makes grocery shopping and ensures that I don't have to make return trips to the store later in the week.  (You know, except for those emergency baking errands.)

Baked cheesy mushroom tomato chicken

I know it's been quite a while since I shared a casserole recipe with you guys, but I promise this one is worth the wait.  Here's hoping you're more patient than me, though I won't judge harshly if you're not :)

If there's one surefire way to tell that fall is just around the corner, just take a look at food blogs and Pinterest.  Everything pumpkin and casseroles for miles.  And, you know what?  It couldn't have happened a moment sooner.

Chicken sausage & broccoli pizza

Somewhere in the middle of all of this summer fun and travel, we totally lost sight of one of our favorite weekly traditions -- Friday night pizza.

Well, maybe not completely; we did devour two tasty pies on Friday but they weren't homemade; I'll get to those bad boys in a second.

Continuing the recent trend of pack, unpack, do laundry, repeat, we ventured out of the city this weekend to Deep Creek, Maryland.  Our goal was simple: have a good time with good friends.  Mission: accomplished, despite mostly foggy and rainy weather.  The skies parted and the sun peeked out for a few hours on Saturday, which was perfect for an afternoon of hiking and scoping out a few spectacular waterfalls.

Summer squash & quinoa salad with goat cheese

That husband of mine, let me tell you -- he's a gem!

He's funny and smart (and a smidge nerdy, which I adore), patient and selfless, and so handsome that I sometimes have moments when I check him out and think, "Man, that guy is hot!"  And then I remember that I'm married to that guy.  He's legally bound to me.  How did I manage to trick him get so lucky?  Best keep quiet before somebody notices and cries foul play.

Aside from all of those wonderful meaningful traits, there are so many superficial and silly things I love about Matt.  Like how he giggles like a schoolgirl at the sight of pugs.  And how his hair gets this crazy cowlick on one side of his head.  And how his appetite for goat cheese knows no bounds, especially when it's paired with zucchini.

Caprese sirloin burgers with balsamic mayo

Almost a month after my birthday, and people are still asking me, "How does it feel to be 30?  Do you feel old?  Or even different?"

I don't know what they're expecting me to say but, based on their reactions, I know it's not this: "Feels good.  Exactly the same!"  Maybe they wanted to hear of my new affinity for "simpler times" and subscription to AARP magazine?

I'm only sort of kidding.

Truthfully, though, what I've seen of 30 so far has been nothing short of outstanding.  And, more importantly, what I've tasted has been outstanding, thanks to one of my birthday gifts -- a meat grinder!

Old Bay summer corn & zucchini chili

Summer vegetable garden abundance?  I've got you covered.

No patch of your own but have a friend whose garden is overflowing, thus supplying you with his/her summer vegetable garden excess?  I've definitely got you covered.

Or, if your growing situation is somewhere in between -- like ours -- I've got you covered, too.

Chicken with strawberry & avocado salsa

This is the story of a dinner that almost never was.  A meal that, for weeks, became known as "the impossible dinner."

Impossible not because of the level of skill required to make it (read: none) or difficulty wrangling all of the necessary ingredients (read: also none).  But nearly impossible because we couldn't seem to keep the aforementioned ingredients around for long.

As it turns out, we have a bit of a strawberry problem.  And a very major avocado problem.

Apricot-glazed bacon-wrapped chicken

There's an old saying that goes like this:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You should know I don't take directions well.  Never have, actually.  So, I ignored that advice and came up with some of my own:

If it ain't broke, just add bacon.

Inspired by my timeless 4th of July running attire, I jazzed up one of my go-to chicken recipes for dinner on Monday.

Southwest pulled pork salad

 

Every now and then More frequently than I should admit (being a food blogger and all), I make a dish that I go absolutely gaga over and you're none the wiser.  It's not that I'm knowingly keeping delicious food from you.  It's merely that my brainstorming for that week's meals was a little fuzzy, and I didn't think that particularly meal would be worthy of fussing and photographing.

Like the sweet & spicy pork chops.  And the Thai mango salad.  Oops.

Sometimes, I have the bright idea to make it again and document the process-- sheer brilliance!  I diligently plan, stage, and snap step-by-step photos, and present it to you in a timely fashion.  No matter if it's the second or seventieth time I've cooked that frittata.  At last, you can make it, too.

Blue cheese-stuffed pork chops with pears

"Less is more," said me almost never.

Despite my less is more stature, I'm not one for keeping things simple.  In fact, it could be said that I regularly go out of my way to make things more involved and, occasionally, more prone to failure.  But, with increased risk comes the promise of greater reward, right?  Go big or go home.

For example, I won't settle for canned baked beans.  Instead, I follow Sally's lead and jazz them up with beef, bacon, and molasses.  They're the stuff of dreams, I tell you!

I wasn't content with one dessert at our wedding, so I set up an entire dessert bar, in addition to the cupcakes, complete with cookies, pie, torte, and candy.  Oh, and the favors were cookies, too. 

Heck, I even found one of my kind in my wonderful husband, who always, always adds bacon to his haluski, the traditional Polish cabbage dish.  He just gets me :)

Haluski (cabbage & egg noodles) with bacon

Almost 4 years ago, I skipped town on vacation and temporarily handed over the reigns to my blog.  My then-boyfriend offered to cook, photograph, and write about one of his favorite recipes to share  with all of you.  How sweet of him!

So much has changed since then, like the fact that I no longer have a boyfriend but a husband.  An awesome husband who insisted upon cooking dinner every single night (!) last week.  We had tacos, sausage with peppers and onions, huevos rancheros, chicken Caesar salads, and -- Matt's specialty -- haluski with bacon!  Despite having eaten many versions of haluski, we both agree this is the best version, thanks to the bacon.

Here's the updated recipe with some new pictures and the original post written by Matt:

I have to start by applauding Katy for her skills and organization in the kitchen.  My attempt to prepare a meal, take pictures, and make mental notes about what I was doing can best be described as a maelstrom of chaos (this description brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department).  Bear with me, as this is my foray into the food blogging world.

Panko peanut salmon

When you buy/cook/eat salmon as much as I do, sometimes you think you've given it every possible treatment.  You start to go through the catalog of delicious recipes in your head (and online, thanks to one very handy resource, ahem) in order to pin down that night's dinner.

The old recipes are good, even great, but I really wanted something new.  I got a new iron, new pair of kicks, and newly-inspected car all in time for a new month -- hello, April!  Oh, and don't forget a new cookie recipe.  New is the name of the game this week.

"Spring cleaning" has also been the name of the game.  Clearing out and cleaning (I first typing "clearning"), I've found things I forgot I had in the first place.  My coworker calls this "closet shopping."  In this instance, I call it "pantry shopping."

Pasta with asparagus, chicken & goat cheese

Looking at the calendar, it's hard to believe that Matt's been in my life since 2007.  We met in February of that year at work, became colleagues and then friends, and slowly (and secretly) started dating that summer.  There were so many opportunities for us to miss one another had we made different choices leading up to that meeting.  But, thankfully, none of them matter because today he's my partner, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

All that's happened in those short 7 years could fill a book: highs and lows, good times and not so great times, and so much teaching and learning.  I can honestly say that Matt has brought out the best in me and continues to challenge me and open my eyes to new things every day.  What more could a person ask for in a partner?

Recently, we had a conversation about some of those changes, like things we once disliked but now love thanks to the other person.  Maybe it was a previous negative experience, a bad review from someone else, or simple ignorance; whatever it was, we were not fans of this stuff.

Cod with tomatoes & white beans

Has this happened to you?

After a fantastic weekend, Sunday night starts to poke its head out around 5:00 and, suddenly, the feel good, free-spirited mood you were enjoying is zapped.  Stopped in its slipper-forming tracks.

Dun dun dun.  It’s the Sunday evening slump!

Immediately, thoughts of work, to-do lists, work (again), and responsibilities in the week ahead cloud your mind.  It’s almost enough to spoil those last few hours of relaxation.

Penne with spinach & fried eggs

Considering what a neurotic perfectionist I am, my daily life is full of little failures.  Or, maybe it's the other way around: my life is full of little failures because I'm such a perfectionist.

What's that?  It's Monday, you say?  You came here looking for a light-hearted story and an easy recipe rather than the cynical ramblings of a 29-year-old complaining about first world problems?  Keep reading -- I promise this is going somewhere delicious.

I'm currently training for my second half marathon (May 4th is the big day).  By no means does this make me a seasoned runner or marathoner, yet I feel so much more at ease this time around.  I wish I could tell 2009 post-foot surgery and pre-half marathon Katy the following: "Chill out and enjoy yourself!  You've trained enough; the rest is mental."  After all, my goal then was simply to finish.

Turkey, black bean & pepper quesadillas with spicy apricot salsa

I don't know how it's possible, but I always seem to forget about quesadillas.

Allow me to pause while you pinch yourself.  You're not dreaming.

Standard bread sandwiches are just more familiar and, therefore, easier for my brain to recall in stressful times.  Stressful times = when my stomach is sending my brain impatient and borderline angry messages demanding sustenance.

But, every now and then, the universe sends me a sign puts an entire show on TV about quesadillas and the nudges me in the right direction.