avablog

You ever have one of those meals that just sticks in your memory? Before we left for our vacation, a colleague of Leah’s clued her in to a restaurant in Winter Park where his brother used to dine when he lived there.  We were looking for a place to eat one evening, and Deno’s Mountain […]

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Leah and I went out for dinner last night while Rachel and Kevin watched Ava. The name of the place is Devil’s Thumb Ranch, and it has a gorgeous view out over a wide mountain valley. Rachel and Kevin had dined there the night before, and they were lucky enough to get a nice clear […]

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What a classic.  Kevin’s asked me a couple times what it is I do with the delicious free range chickens I get in bulk from a local organic farmer.  In the winter I’ll typically thaw one out and drop it in the crockpot with a little salt and pepper before I head out the door […]

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I’m pretty sure last night was the last night of Leah’s birthday celebration.  I’ll have to check with her to make sure.  If it was, it was a nice way to end the festivities. We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie.  We hadn’t made any reservations anywhere, but we figured […]

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Leah’s a big fan of taco pizza. It’s all right. I never really ate it at all before I met her, though I knew it existed. Now, we get one every couple weeks or so when our schedules don’t allow a home-cooked meal. Happy Joe’s is an interesting chain, at least insofar as they’ve really […]

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For the past three years Leah and I have had our families to the house for a big dinner and celebration on New Year’s Eve. It’s pot luck, and I usually do the main course. This year Rachel suggested a French theme, which turned out fantastically well (if I do say so myself). Without further […]

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Leah and I don’t entertain that often, so when we do it’s still quite a process. We’d been talking for months about having a couple of the neighbors over for brunch, and the date finally rolled around this past weekend. The menu included pear ginger muffins and feta tomato quiche. I’d never made either, but […]

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One of my favorite things to cook is bolognese sauce. I was turned on to it by my friend Marcia, who passed me a copy of Marcella Hazan’s recipe. The recipe is very simple. And like so many things in life, the more time you put into it, the better it turns out. The first […]

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The meals are stacking up fast and furious heading into the holidays. It’s a bit daunting to think of all the things I’ll be cooking between now and January 1, but it’s also going to be a lot of fun. Recently I made my first batch of chicken stock using the remains of a chicken […]

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It doesn’t seem possible we’re coming up on another Thanksgiving already. Why should the presence of a baby suddenly make time accelerate so drastically? Anyway. The schedule for this year is going to be the same as last. Wednesday I’ll roast a turkey and make a sweet potato dish with a streusel topping that was […]

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One of the things I’ve tried to keep up on, at least a little bit, during all this Ava madness is my cooking. I have a freezer in the basement (thanks, Harvey and GG!) that’s packed full of tasty organic pork and Greazel beef. So yesterday I defrosted a pork shoulder and tried to come […]

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Marcia was telling me the other day about some pork chops she made. They sounded good. So I decided to make a facsimile for dinner tonight. Very simple. Four chops breaded in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. I think Marcia just pan fried hers, but I fried mine and then baked them at 375 for […]

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So I’ve entered this chili cookoff at work. No big deal. I’m making a white chicken chili recipe of my mom’s, which is quite tasty. I find out yesterday that the guy at the office who’s widely considered the chili champ is also making a white chicken chili. I suppose I can only hope his […]

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