my second love in life...

well, in order for me to be able to keep up writing every day in may, i feel that i must include my second passion in life...which is food. i absolutely love cooking, grocery shopping, planning meals the whole shebang. except for doing the dishes, but i digress.

here you can see me at 1 1/2 years old sitting on the counter while my mom is cooking. she told me that i would just sit there mesmerized and wouldn't touch a thing. my sister annie is in the curls, and that's my other sister carol who was going through chemo at the time.



so here is an example of what i like to cook...simple things with loads of flavor and home made. i like to know what's in the food i eat and i try to stay away from preservatives and bad stuff like that. so i bought some lean ground turkey to make some meatballs with some spaghetti the other night. i had made enough to have leftover sauce and meatballs so i could turn it into this delicious submarine sandwich. that is fresh mozzarella cheese on one side and grated parmesan on the other. it was delicious.



i hope your mouth is watering now...if i ever get a chance to meet you in person i'd love to cook for you!

cheers!
xo diane

beautiful day part 2

okay, so if you read yesterday's blog you know that my friend caroline and i went to central market and were going to make something great with our finds. she's a vegetarian so instead of burgers & steaks we opted for something a little healthier....

a grilled veggie sandwich!

but first, here's arty vandalay whilst we grill...he was busy reading magazines and chatting with the girls...



i grilled zucchini, onion, a portabello mushroom and roasted a red pepper. we got some fresh pita bread from phoenicia bakery here in austin which is amazing. i took some simple goat cheese and added fresh garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, onion powder, red chili flakes and salt & pepper for our spread. we built the sandwiches with spread first, i added avocado, the roasted red pepper, mushroom, onion, tomato and mesclun greens. WOW! what flavor! so here is the sandwich in all its glory:



cheers!
xo diane