Unusual Toppings

Brian and I went to the home inspection of our new house on Saturday.  Since we went alone, does that qualify as a date??  :)  On the way home we were starving and decided to stop for lunch.  I wanted to go to this roast beef place in what would be our new town, he wanted to go to this place called "2 Ovens" in our current town.  He made an excellent point for his choice, that we'll be living in the new town for a long time and can go to the roast beef place anytime.  He's also never led me astray in restaurant choices, so off we went.

Was I ever glad that I acquiesced...this place was fantastic!!  They have a simple concept:  everything they feature on their menu is cooked in one of their (you guessed it) two ovens.  No fryolaters or heat lamps here!  We shared a roasted sweet potato appetizer, which was delicious.  Brian had their pulled pork sandwich and I ordered the second-strangest pizza that I have ever had....topped with ricotta, fennel and butternut squash. Say what??  It was incredible!

This restaurant is now officially one of the reasons that I'm sad to leave town.  Luckily though, we're not going so far that we can't come back!

Keeping it Simple

Guess what?  We sold our house.  Well, I shouldn't jinx it like that.  We received an offer on our house, and we accepted.  It took eight weeks to get it ready to sell.  It took TWO DAYS on the market to get an offer!

We've found a new house, two towns away.  Let me tell you, it's got a GORGEOUS kitchen!  Very big, lots of cabinets, and newer appliances with a lot more bells and whistles than my current ones.  Not to say that mine are crap, but I'm very excited about an ice maker.  

So meals have tended to be on the simpler side lately, as we have mortgage paperwork to hunt down at night or packing.  Oh lord, the packing.  We packed up about half of our stuff before the house went on the market and put it in storage but still have some more to go.  I haven't started on the kitchen and that is going to take some serious time and boxes.

Anyway, dinner tonight is an old Campbell's favorite:  chicken divan.  It was delicious!  The notebook has been a saver lately, with old favorites.

For a Change, Fish.

Moving and packing make for boring eating.  It's all about the sustenance and how quickly you can eat and go back to work, and not about fun and flavor. 

A couple of weeks ago, though, I made panko-crusted cod with a tomato and basil relish.  I couldn't take the bland choices we had been making...we needed to shake it up and create EXCITEMENT!  Ok, not quite.  I just wanted something a little more interesting than meat, starch, vegetable.  And honestly, I've seen enough pizza lately to want  a break from that as well.

Straight outta last month's issue of Cooking Light, this looked easy and delicious.  Breading the fish with the panko, frying lightly and finishing it in the stove:  genius.  The fish isn't super-oily like fried fish can be sometimes, and there's still plenty of moisture.  The crunch was very satisfying, and the relish was cool and refreshing.  (Though the onion flavor was a little heavy-handed.)

One sidenote about the couscous:  normally I'm not a fan.  This was a box mix, and it was a generic brand.  Really, really good!  I'd definitely buy it again.