French Bread

It was a warm and cozy night when I decided homemade bread was a good idea...

Well, actually, it was supposed to be a warm and cozy night, but apparently San Diego forgot to catch up to the season change up in here and it has been HOT!

Like 80-90 degree hot.

It's not cute.

Summer is over, Weather Gods!

News Flash:

It's fall.

FALL!

Catch up already.

Get with it.

Give me a season change!

I'm ready for cooler weather, snuggling under my covers, cozier foods and, most importantly,

wardrobe changes!

It's time for scarves and boots and sweaters... oh my!

And did I mention cozy food?

Chilis, soups, stews, breads.

Yes.. the wafting scent of fresh baked bread filling up the house.
mmmmm.

Nothing like it!

Just does something to your brain, puts it in a happy place.

Takes you back to the time you were in Paris, walking into a boulangerie where they had all kinds of fresh baked breads.  You had a complete sensory overload and you couldn't imagine your life ever being the same again.
Remember that time?
In Paris?

What?

You don't?

Well, neither do I.

But in my head, when I think of 'French' bread, that's the image that I conjure up.

Doesn't it sound lovely?

Can you tell I don't get out enough?

Ok, enough of that BS.

Back to the bread.

The recipe I got is from Emeril.

Now before you judge me, I have to say that of all the research I did for baking french bread, this one was the easiest, but had lots of the same elements of the other recipes.

So naturally, I decided to give it a try.

I'm really glad I did because I've made this like three times in one week and it gets devoured in one day.

The boys LOVE it.

Well, they love bread period but I like to think they love this particular bread because it had my blood sweat and tears in it.

Ew. 

Not really, but kinda.

No, not even kinda.

It's really, really easy.

Promise.

And it has the perfect french bread texture.

Crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

It's so delightful, I can't even tell you.

It keeps for days, not that it lasted that long in this house.

But in case you don't live with a pack of wild wolves like I do, then it might last more than an hour in your casa.

Plus, it's pretty.

I seriously had a hard time cutting into the first loaf because it looked so good.

I know, I'm a freak like that.

I love to look at food as much as I like to eat it.

Weeeeeeirdoooooo.

Just a little extra little snippet about me that I'm sure you were dying to know.

Do you think I added enough pictures of essentially the same shot?

No?

Well, here's one more in case you missed the first 200.

What does the bottom of the loaf look like you ask?

Great question!

So glad I got that shot for you as well...

Booyaahhhh!

Bottom side of the bread.

But of course I forgot to get the all important 'sliced' shot.

Sadly, the wolves descended at first slice and all hell broke loose.

There was no time to take the pic, only to save myself a slice before the guys got to it all.

But trust that it was perfection!

Find the recipe here.

PS I don't have an electric mixer, so I did it by hand.

Turned out great.

Lobster Tacos

I know what you're thinking.

Ohhh, lobster tacos..

you think you fancy?

A.  I am fancy.  I thought you already knew that.

and 

B.  I haven't posted for a while so I thought I'd come back with a bang.

Hence, lobster tacos.

In honor of my fabulous hubby's day of birth yesterday, I put together a little menu to set off fireworks in your mouth.

Sadly, this is the only item from my 'poppin' menu that I actually took a picture of.

Loser, I know.

But in my defense, I was drinking copious amounts of IPA (it was a football game, after all) and that is never a good idea when I'm attempting to remember to do something... like, sayyyy, take pictures for my blog perhaps???

I did take these few on my phone though so they will have to suffice.

Big words on this fine Monday morning.

Suffice.

Well, it's a big word for me.  Sounds cool, too.

Suffice.  Suffice.  Suffice.

What?

I'm normally talking about Legos and going potty, so let me get an adult word in today, will ya?

Ok.  I'm done.

So I bought a one and a half pound lobster, steamed it and took it out of the shell.

Sidenote: normally wherever you buy your live lobster from, they will happily steam it for you, free of charge.  That's what I did.

I chopped the lobster into about 1 inch pieces and set it aside.

In a skillet with olive oil, I sauteed one chopped onion, about 1 cup of corn, 1 cup black beans and one finely chopped chipotle in adobo sauce.

Season it all with salt and pepper.

I let that cook for about 7-8 minutes, letting the corn get a bit of color in the pan before adding the chopped lobster.

Just let the lobster heat through.  

You don't want to cook it because it's already been steamed and is fully cooked.  

Otherwise it will get tough and then you might as well call 9-1-1 and have yourself arrested for committing a hideous crime of turning the beautiful, delicious crustacean into rubber.

ew.

So, just till the lobster is heated through, got it?

Good.

Then turn off the heat and squeeze a half a lime over the whole mixture and toss it altogether.

Trying to keep in the spirit of appetizers, I bought these cute little corn tortillas that were about the size of my hand, so they were pretty mini.

That way they were more user friendly for the boys to scarf down in between shouts and high fives during the game.

What's that about, anyway?

I don't think I will EVER understand the crazy, psychotic yells to the TV because of a bad play.

I mean, do they know that the refs can't hear them through the screen?

I always wonder if my husband secretly owns stock in the Chargers because of his undying faith and passion he has for that team.

It disturbs me and fascinates me to no end.

Ok, back to the food.

I also made an avocado cream sauce to top the tacos with.

It's so simple but adds so much depth to these luxurious tacos.

It goes a little something like this:

One ripe avocado, 1 garlic clove, a handful of fresh cilantro, 1/2 cup sour cream, zest of one lime, juice of 1/2 lime, 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper.

Throw it in the food processor, or if you're lucky like me, your Vitamix and let'er rip.  

Taste it for seasoning and then it's done.  

You.will.love.this.

I hope you try these.

One lobster made 7 tacos.

Not bad, right?

This is a great way to buy an ingredient that you wouldn't normally splurge on and make it stretch to feed a family of four.

Or a family of two... depending on how naughty you'd like to be with your portions.

Just an FYI, my husband and I could have crushed these all by ourselves.

Yes, we are naughty and like to live on the wild side.

peace out.