Pasta and pesto sauce

Ever since my daughter was born, Target has sort of became my second home.  They have the best prices on diapers and other children's stuff.  $5 pants anyone?   While shopping there, I discovered a lot other stuff at really good prices like my favorite Lint dark chocolate bars with sea salt, water filters, toys, laundry hampers,....and one of the best item I discovered is pasta.  It's called Archer farm pasta which is Target's gourmet brand.  Anyway, out of all the dry pasta I have used including my other favorite, De Cecco, this is by far the best tasting pasta I have ever tried.  So I picked up a package of spagetti and made some home made pesto sauce with parmigiano reggiano, fresh basil, walnut, evoo and pine nuts.

The taste of fresh pesto sauce with good pasta is out of this World.  It really was delicious...and so easy to make.  

My favorite bakery

I am VERY lucky to live close to this amazing bakery called Balthazar.  It's actually a wholesale bread factory where all their bread for their famous restaurant called Balthazar in NYC is made.

You can actually go there and watch bakers making artisan bread and other yummy goodies like croissants and danishes.  I often go there early in the morning before the crowd appears and buy loaves and loaves of bread and small pastries.   On Saturdays, they have more selections of pastries and tarts.  
Oh, they make these amazing sticky buns that will melt you away...So sticky, so sweet, so nutty and so yummy.  

From the top,

Rhubarb tart, their oh-so-french bread paper bag for baguette, potato onion bread, baguette and a large(like 20 inches long) sour dough bread.  I usually buy their olive bread but they were out of them.  Look at those air pockets.  Their baguettes are super crisp and hard hard side and soft and chewy inside just the way I like them.  

http://www.balthazarbakery.com/wholesale/index.php

Buttermilk Waffles

Yup, one of my favorite breakfast items: Belgian Buttermilk Waffle.  I am so jealous of those Belgians!  They've got the World's best chocolate, fries, mussels, beer and waffles to name a few.  I heard they are also known for making the World's best laces and linen but I guess that's a different story.

Anyway, I made this delicious waffles over the weekend.  The recipe I like actually recommends eating them with some sort of banana glaze but since I am not a big fan of banana, I usually skip that and eat them with just plain old maple syrup...and a few slices(or more) of butter.  yumm...

They are light, fluffy yet crisp outside.  I have this really old waffle maker I got from Amazon years ago but this little machine makes the best tasting waffles.  

For the recipe, 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Belgian-Buttermilk-Waffles-with-Glazed-Bananas-232170

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and ginger jelly.

I used my sister's recipe. They were the most moist and fluffy cupcakes I have ever had.

Yummm....

Swedish fetish #1

I've always been very fond of Swedish goods.  If I think about it, it started when I was in HS. While other teenagers were eyeing on hot red sports car, I remember being attracted to an old man's boxy blue Volvo station wagon.  

When my husband and I bought a house about 3 years ago, I immediately knew I wanted to decorate the house with Swedish style furnitures.....until I realized how expensive that can be but I wasn't going to give it up.  

I found these beautiful dining chairs and a bench through internet research.  They were shipped from England but much more affordable than ones you can buy in the America.  I still did end up spending alot more than I wanted to but I ended up with beautiful furniture that will last lifetime and then more.

http://www.theswedishchair.com/

Roasted Chicken

There is nothing so delicious and easy as roasted chicken in my opinion.  I try to use organic chicken if I am making a simple roasted chicken.  Organic chickens are so much affordable these days and available in most supermarkets.

I've tried several different recipes for roasted chicken but there is nothing as simple and good as Thomas Keller's simple roasted chicken.  I normally use a regular baking pan but this time, I used a 12 inch cast iron skillet by Lodge.  I love love this skillet.  No expensive pans make better fried eggs than this simple cast iron pan....but that's a different topic all together.

The chicken was delicious as always.  You really can't mess it up as long as you salt the chicken generously.

I also made some roasted brussels sprouts on the side.   I just added some chopped garlic, salt and pepper.

Here is the recipe for the chicken, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348

Earl grey cookies and ice cream

It was a hot hot HOT weekend! The temperature reached to almost 90 degrees!

Anyway, here is a picture of cookies I made over the weekend(yes, in that heat). I had Martha Stewart's earl grey cookie recipe for a while and so I decided to give it a try. They are really easy to make and only requires 5 ingredients, butter(lots of B U T T E R!!!), 10x sugar(powder sugar), flour, salt, orange zest and of course earl grey tea leaves.

The cookies came out beautiful and really tasty(it better after all that butter).

Here is the link to the recipe. I don't post recipes that are not tested and proven by my family. hehe.

I had them with some vanilla ice cream too.

For the recipe, go to

http://http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/recipe/earl-grey-tea-cookies