More adventures in food!
I've found that now that we're in our new house, we're cooking much more often at home, which is nice on the budget and in the realm of making our house feel like home. And I'm happy to report that several of the meals have been DE-LISH! Here's a few highlights:
Beer can chicken: Whole chickens are incredibly inexpensive here - even for ones that are cage-free, grain-fed. Seriously. About $3/bird. Yes, you have to clean the whole thing, but apparently Will did something with the inside of the chicken that the dogs enjoyed. Anyway. Will used fresh lemons and rosemary from our herb garden and coated the inside of the bird with herbs and garlic and then set it on top of a can of beer. He then did a cajun dry rub on the chicken and baked it in the oven. It was fall-off-the-bone delicious and for someone who hates chicken on the bone, I can assure you that this was the best I had ever had. Juicy, crispy, seasoned perfectly. Plus we had yummy cheesy rice from back home that went really nicely with it. A+!
Spaghetti: Will made spaghetti one evening as I worked late. This time we tried it with chicken sausage and lots of mushrooms and it was soooo good. We are still eating off it! I told him we should do the math on it sometime - figure out how much each item costs and the divide by at least 8 - so we can see how inexpensive it is. Its really one of my favorites. If you ever want my easy spicy sausage spaghetti recipe, let me know. Its pretty much sausage, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and spices. Easy and YUMMY.
This weekend we had our first dinner party. We decided later in the day so we cheated on a few items by buying hummus and tzatziki rather than making it ourselves. It was still really yummy though! Will is still trying to figure out the grill that came with the house and unfortunately, a couple of items got a little overcooked. It still tasted yummy though! Will bought a new type of sausage and proclaimed it inedible, giving it to the dogs who happily ate it up. I made guacamole again and I must say, even though its without peppers (VERY difficult to find here), it was really delicious and saved well.
Last night was the best meal of all: OSTRICH TACOS. We decided to try the ostrich mince since the beef mince here tastes so funky. Surprisingly, ostrich tastes between a mix of ground turkey and ground beef. To be honest, if you served it to me back home and told me it was ostrich, I would have said, "Nuh uh" since it tastes so good and so similar to what we're used to in our meals. On the plus side, Ostrich meat is very lean and has none of the weird flavors that the ground beef has here. We happened to find Old El Paso taco seasoning at the store and I gotta be honest - it was the best meal we've had so far. We used the broken baked tostitos we got in the mail and put them in a bowl with the taco mix on top, then cheese, fresh diced tomatoes, and the homemade guacamole. We also had a thing of spanish rice that was so good. All in all, my favorite meal here so far!
Anyway, I'm just happy to have found ostrich as I felt like our diet was getting a little too rich in red meat. I'm not sure if ostrich will make a good burger or not, but at least we've found something to make tacos, soaghetti, chili, and sloppy joes with! I don't care for pork (aside from bacon and sausage) and chicken is something I'm finding that I have to force myself to eat unless its hidden in a sauce (or yummy like that beer can chicken). I blame college for scarring me for life for chicken on the bone.
If there were more vegetarian options here, I would seriously be well on my way to the veggie life. Alas, Morningstar Farms and Boca are 100% non-existent as are other regular vegetarian substitutes. Plus the beans here are strange. There are chickpeas, kidney beans, cannelini beans, and baked beans in tomato sauce (WEIRD!), but that's it. No pinto beans, no black beans, no nothing. That's been a bit weird as I adore pinto beans (well, refried beans) and black beans. The soup I'm making tonight uses cannelini, so we'll see about those. The good news is that there is plenty of yummy produce and yummy cheese (feta, parmesan, etc.) so hence the reason why we're going to try and be meatless tonight with soup and salad.
Will and I bought lots of items for our garden yesterday. We planted tomato seedlings and are hopeful we get tomatoes from them! We also planted more herbs (oregano, lavender, creeping thyme) and bought a lime tree to go with our lemon tree. Limes are an incredibly difficult find here. Anytime I see them, I buy them all!
Tonight we're having soup and salad. I found a recipe for pasta e fagioli soup (like Olive Garden's) that we are going to try, minus the beef. Another day this week we may have to try ostrich sloppy joes. YUM.
Other news in Life
This weekend was a wonderful long weekend at home. Unfortunately, we spent the bulk of it looking for cars rather than relaxing! I think we will decide on one today as the final numbers are coming in on our top choices. Will REALLY wants the Land Rover Defender 1-10, which you can't get in the states. I'm 99% supportive of it, as the Defender is a safe car, won't get car jacked, and has great re-sale value. Plus it would make all of Will's dreams come true. My only hesitation about it is that its just a bare bones 4x4 safari-style truck which isn't very cushy which is why I'm not incredibly ecstatic about it. But it would be a good, safe car and perhaps we can find ways to cush it up a bit. We were also looking at several Land Rover Discovery 2. The prices are right on those so we'll see... No matter what, we'll have a used car, but we've been able to find them in great condition and in our budget. Keep your fingers crossed as I am so very tired of looking at cars and just want to make a decision ASAP.
We went to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve on Sunday. It was fine, it just made me realize we need to go on safari ASAP as it was kind of like driving through a zoo. Not incredibly exciting. We actually had to leave the park early as we found ourselves in the middle of a huge brush fire. I've never seen fire moving so quickly - or the cape buffalo and rhino that were in its path move so quickly! It was a bit scary, but we made it out unscathed. I'm hoping we'll go somewhere for the Columbus holiday in October when things aren't so busy at work.
Beer can chicken: Whole chickens are incredibly inexpensive here - even for ones that are cage-free, grain-fed. Seriously. About $3/bird. Yes, you have to clean the whole thing, but apparently Will did something with the inside of the chicken that the dogs enjoyed. Anyway. Will used fresh lemons and rosemary from our herb garden and coated the inside of the bird with herbs and garlic and then set it on top of a can of beer. He then did a cajun dry rub on the chicken and baked it in the oven. It was fall-off-the-bone delicious and for someone who hates chicken on the bone, I can assure you that this was the best I had ever had. Juicy, crispy, seasoned perfectly. Plus we had yummy cheesy rice from back home that went really nicely with it. A+!
Spaghetti: Will made spaghetti one evening as I worked late. This time we tried it with chicken sausage and lots of mushrooms and it was soooo good. We are still eating off it! I told him we should do the math on it sometime - figure out how much each item costs and the divide by at least 8 - so we can see how inexpensive it is. Its really one of my favorites. If you ever want my easy spicy sausage spaghetti recipe, let me know. Its pretty much sausage, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and spices. Easy and YUMMY.
This weekend we had our first dinner party. We decided later in the day so we cheated on a few items by buying hummus and tzatziki rather than making it ourselves. It was still really yummy though! Will is still trying to figure out the grill that came with the house and unfortunately, a couple of items got a little overcooked. It still tasted yummy though! Will bought a new type of sausage and proclaimed it inedible, giving it to the dogs who happily ate it up. I made guacamole again and I must say, even though its without peppers (VERY difficult to find here), it was really delicious and saved well.
Last night was the best meal of all: OSTRICH TACOS. We decided to try the ostrich mince since the beef mince here tastes so funky. Surprisingly, ostrich tastes between a mix of ground turkey and ground beef. To be honest, if you served it to me back home and told me it was ostrich, I would have said, "Nuh uh" since it tastes so good and so similar to what we're used to in our meals. On the plus side, Ostrich meat is very lean and has none of the weird flavors that the ground beef has here. We happened to find Old El Paso taco seasoning at the store and I gotta be honest - it was the best meal we've had so far. We used the broken baked tostitos we got in the mail and put them in a bowl with the taco mix on top, then cheese, fresh diced tomatoes, and the homemade guacamole. We also had a thing of spanish rice that was so good. All in all, my favorite meal here so far!
Anyway, I'm just happy to have found ostrich as I felt like our diet was getting a little too rich in red meat. I'm not sure if ostrich will make a good burger or not, but at least we've found something to make tacos, soaghetti, chili, and sloppy joes with! I don't care for pork (aside from bacon and sausage) and chicken is something I'm finding that I have to force myself to eat unless its hidden in a sauce (or yummy like that beer can chicken). I blame college for scarring me for life for chicken on the bone.
If there were more vegetarian options here, I would seriously be well on my way to the veggie life. Alas, Morningstar Farms and Boca are 100% non-existent as are other regular vegetarian substitutes. Plus the beans here are strange. There are chickpeas, kidney beans, cannelini beans, and baked beans in tomato sauce (WEIRD!), but that's it. No pinto beans, no black beans, no nothing. That's been a bit weird as I adore pinto beans (well, refried beans) and black beans. The soup I'm making tonight uses cannelini, so we'll see about those. The good news is that there is plenty of yummy produce and yummy cheese (feta, parmesan, etc.) so hence the reason why we're going to try and be meatless tonight with soup and salad.
Will and I bought lots of items for our garden yesterday. We planted tomato seedlings and are hopeful we get tomatoes from them! We also planted more herbs (oregano, lavender, creeping thyme) and bought a lime tree to go with our lemon tree. Limes are an incredibly difficult find here. Anytime I see them, I buy them all!
Tonight we're having soup and salad. I found a recipe for pasta e fagioli soup (like Olive Garden's) that we are going to try, minus the beef. Another day this week we may have to try ostrich sloppy joes. YUM.
Other news in Life
This weekend was a wonderful long weekend at home. Unfortunately, we spent the bulk of it looking for cars rather than relaxing! I think we will decide on one today as the final numbers are coming in on our top choices. Will REALLY wants the Land Rover Defender 1-10, which you can't get in the states. I'm 99% supportive of it, as the Defender is a safe car, won't get car jacked, and has great re-sale value. Plus it would make all of Will's dreams come true. My only hesitation about it is that its just a bare bones 4x4 safari-style truck which isn't very cushy which is why I'm not incredibly ecstatic about it. But it would be a good, safe car and perhaps we can find ways to cush it up a bit. We were also looking at several Land Rover Discovery 2. The prices are right on those so we'll see... No matter what, we'll have a used car, but we've been able to find them in great condition and in our budget. Keep your fingers crossed as I am so very tired of looking at cars and just want to make a decision ASAP.
We went to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve on Sunday. It was fine, it just made me realize we need to go on safari ASAP as it was kind of like driving through a zoo. Not incredibly exciting. We actually had to leave the park early as we found ourselves in the middle of a huge brush fire. I've never seen fire moving so quickly - or the cape buffalo and rhino that were in its path move so quickly! It was a bit scary, but we made it out unscathed. I'm hoping we'll go somewhere for the Columbus holiday in October when things aren't so busy at work.