Look Who's Coming to Dinner

The Maillard Reaction

For Christmas, I got Kavan a cookbook called The Science of Good Cooking put out by Cooks Illustrated. This cookbook is supposed to teach 50 basic cooking skills that form the foundation of good cooking. Each lesson is accompanied by several recipes that utilize the new technique to make mouthwatering food.

This lesson went over the Maillard reaction, which uses high heat to perfectly brown meat and veggies.  Kavan made stir fry the other night, and tonight I made chicken (seen in the pic) with quinoa and sauteed vegetables. The browned chicken was so crisp and flavorful. It was deelish  :-)

Simon pic of the day

He loves gardening.

More ice cream please

For Christmas, Kavan got me the ice cream maker attachment for the kitchenaid mixer. We christened it last night with cherry bourbon ice cream, which we also ate for breakfast :)

Prettiest box in the post office

Go Bengals!

First sewing project with Belle

Curtains! Unfortunately Nana's old Singer bit the dust, but now that I know I will actually use a sewing machine, I decided to replace the singer with a new one.  I got a pink brother 25 stitch machine (her name is Belle) and you better expect great things when the Boston cold sets in hehe These curtains were a piece of cake, an easy straight stitch around.  Next I am going to try some actual clothes, cross your fingers!

160 Mile Bike Ride to Cape Cod? Piece of Cake (no not really)

No joke, Kavan and I really did bike 160 miles from Cambridge all the way to Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod.  With this pilgrimage, Kavan and I can finally call ourselves New Englanders... if we wanted to :P 

Kavan has been wanting to bike down to P-town all Summer, and a couple of weeks ago we decided to make the trip.  When Kavan brought this trip idea up at the beginning of the summer I was sure there was NO WAY I was biking all the way to Provincetown.  The longest bike ride I had been on at that point was 50 miles over two days.  For this trip, I would have to bike over 60 miles the first day, then another 50 the next, and finally top it off with a "measly" 30 mile ride into P-town.  The first words that came to my mind when I thought about this were: pain, sweat, and tears.  While the trip did include a little pain and a lot of sweat, I am happy to report tears were not shed during the making of this bike ride.

The whole trip was awesome, and making it to P-town was the best feeling ever!!  Some highlights from the trip include:

Light house viewing

Whale watching.... We saw so many whales!!



Sunset

 

National Seashore Park... The sand dunes were HUGE

 Basically, P-town is the bomb...  What a great way to finish out the summer :)