Baked Tomatoes with Quinoa, Corn, and Green Chiles

A few weeks ago I found a recipe in a Cooking Light magazine that looked delicious.  This week I tried it out. It was a hit.

I served it with bread from the farmer's market and a fresh salad.

Here's the recipe

Farmer Market Fresh

Every week there is a small farmers market in our town.  Today we walked over to scope out the goods. 

We came home with a loaf of fresh baked french bread, a head of green leaf lettuce, and a bunch of fresh basil.  It all smells so fresh, I can hardly wait to eat it.

Veggie sandwiches for lunch?  YES. PLEASE.

The Family Recipe

If you know anything about the household I grew up in, you know this for certain:   
We make the best chocolate chip cookies ever. 

(Nom.Nom.Nom.Nom.)

At work we participated in a meal train for a family in need.  Of course I signed up for dessert.  And of course I made the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

My sister is known to be the best at throwing together this family recipe.  She can probably bake these cookies in her sleep.  Even I have the recipe committed to memory.

On Etsy there is a shop called Articipe where you can order your favorite recipe in an artsy way for display in your kitchen.  I'm thinking I might like one of these with our family recipe...just sayin.

Pots and Pans

Have you heard the story of my bridal registry fail?  When registering for pots and pans Hubs and I picked a set that we liked because they were name brand, non-stick, and nicer looking than the hodge-podge collection of pots and pans we had at the time.

My parents were awesome enough to splurge and buy the (kind of expensive) Calphalon pots and pans set that we registered for and gave them to us for our wedding gift.  After the honeymoon, while unpacking gifts and getting acclimated to newlywed life we opened the pots and pans set.  Yep, we unpacked every pot and pan out of the tightly packed box and I started to load our dishwasher with them to get them clean and ready for use.

When. All. Of. A. Sudden...We read the box.  The pots and pans were not dishwasher safe! GASP!  We instantly were like, "Oh, no...not us!  We are not a hand-washing kind of family!"  While disappointed and giggling at the oversight we spent the next hour figuring out how to tightly pack the set back into the box it arrived in to return it to the store in our error.

5 months passed and we didn't take any action to resolve our pots and pans error.

Until TODAY.

Today I ordered a very similar Calphalon pots and pans set that is both non-stick and dishwasher safe!  To top it off I scored a great deal online!  There was a great online promotion that I was able to apply and I had a sizeable gift card to apply toward the purchase.  What's even better?  We are getting an extra Calphalon pan and a Calphalon utensil set for FREE because of the promotion!

I am psyched.  Now it's really time to learn how to cook...

Hiking

Over the weekend Hubs and I went hiking.  Hiking is something we both enjoy doing outside together.  Here is a view from the top of Elmore Mountain.  It was a 2.1 mile hike to see a beautiful view of Lake Elmore and the surrounding area.  The town of Elmore calls itself "The Beauty Spot of Vermont." 

I feel like every time we are driving somewhere in Vermont I say "It's so pretty here!"  It really is a gorgeous state.  As a recent guest of ours recently said, "The mountains are so green...so lush!"

I'm looking forward to many more hikes this summer.