Caroline

So, this is my last official post for A Cozy Kitchen. As you guys know, I started a new blog called Pink Basil, which is now my new home for all of my daily ramblings, recipes and who-knows-what-else.

When Adrianna and I started this two years ago (HOLY COW – have two years really gone by??) we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. I was a beginner baker, couldn’t find the F-stop on my camera to save my life, and the wide world of blogging was something completely foreign and scary.

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Last weekend I stayed with my lovely friends of mine and we had an all-out cook fest. First, we grilled up some fish kabobs. Yum town. Then we drank one too many of these margaritas. I would like to tell you I regret this, but the fact is, I don’t. You should never, ever regret your margaritas.

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Kabobs have always been a bit stressful to me. I know that seems utterly ridiculous considering that they’re meant to be one of the most simple ways to grill your dinner all at once, but I get hung up on cooking time. I mean, if you have vegetables and meat all on the same skewer, how long are you supposed to cook them for? Cause, what if you like your vegetables to be charred and your steak rare? Or, in the case of this recipe, what if you like grilled pineapple to be caramelized and your tuna barely seared?

“Well, let’s just put them on separate skewers.”

This is what my friend Jason tells me. Did I tell you he’s a doctor? Aren’t you glad that he’s the one that operates on humans and not me? In all the years I’ve made kabobs, for some reason this option never occurred to me. Or maybe it occurred to me, but I thought I would be breaking some cardinal kabob rule.

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For one whole summer I was a vegan. For real, I did that. I didn’t eat meat, or eggs, or any dairy products. And for a very short period of time, I kinda liked it. Until of course, I remembered cheese. Seriously, how are there people in this world who live without cheese? One whiff of some baked brie and my stint as a vegan was over.

I may have been a vegan for 3 months, but that is a full 3 months longer than I have ever been on the low-carb diet. How someone can even consider giving up bread is beyond me. If pushed, I could probably go without carbs for…6 hours. Make that 5.

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I tried really hard to think of something to clever to write this morning, and finally had to concede that it just isn’t happening. It’s been a long week, and the week’s not even half over. Plus, the A/C is permanently stuck on “high” in my office, and it’s a balmy 50 degrees outside, so I’m more concerned with staying warm than coming up with cutsy quips.

Uggh, sorry, I wish I could do better for you. However, I do have this pizza. This pizza is delicious to make with fresh, early-summer corn. If you have access to a front porch, I suggest you eat there. If you can whip up a margarita to go with it, that wouldn’t hurt either.

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Update: I had soooo much fun reading about all of your simple pleasures! Thanks for all the inspiration, and here is our lucky winner:

Katy: simple pleasure- sun shining through the windows, hot tea in hand, snuggled on the couch reading :)

There are lots of exciting announcements today. First of all, I made some awesome chewy, gingery, they’re-so-good-i-want-to-eat-the-whole-plate cookies, and they have quinoa in them! Quinoa is an uber-healthy seed that packs protein into anything you make it with. Even more excuse to eat the whole plate.

 

I also have a fabulous giveaway for you today – a Fair Trade baking kit! Adrianna and I were each sent one of these from the Fair Trade organization, and let me just say, I haven’t stopped drooling yet. Here’s what’s included:

prAna Soul-T (doesn’t really help with the baking, but it’s super cute!)
La Yapa Quinoa
SerindipiTea Darjeeling Tea
Green Mountain Coffee
Divine Chocolate Bar
Fair Trade Tote Bag

If you wanna know what Christmas in May feels like, have a box of this stuff sent to your house. Or, leave me a comment and maybe I’ll send you one ☺

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So…you may have noticed that I’ve been MIA lately. It’s also possible you haven’t noticed since if you’ve been too busy drooling over A’s more recent recipes.  At any rate, the short story is that I got a call to come back to NC for a 3-month job, and had only 5 days notice before I needed to start. If you’re trying to visualize what that must have been like, picture this:

Me, running around my apartment throwing whatever random clean clothes I had into suitcases.

Me, getting giddy with excitement about getting to be in Asheville for 3 months over the summer!

Me, crying because I’m not going to get to go to Cinespia this year.

Me, packing 4 pairs of high heels, which I wear almost never, and only two pairs of flip flops, which I wear every day. I, of course, will not realize this until I am all the way across the country. This will happen at the same time I realize I have 10 dresses to wear on the weekend, and only 3 pairs of jeans to wear during the work week. Packing fail.

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This recipe first stood out to me because of how simple it is. And because it’s very French, which for some reason makes me think of spring time. And because eggs are delicious in almost any style. Also, I got it from Ina Garten. This normally means good things.

However, Ina made her eggs in individual gratin dishes that hold 3 eggs, and all I had in my cabinet were some ramekins that could each contain a single egg. Not all of us are lucky enough to have a kitchen in the Hamptons that is probably the size of my entire apartment, and therefore can have every type of serving dish imaginable on hand. Not that I’m bitter or anything…

My point is, I kind of went into this knowing I was playing with fire. I mean, when you change up a recipe you’ve never made before there’s a good chance you’re going to miss a really important detail.

Let’s just say this…it’s possible I opened the oven to check on these eggs and found that the cream was boiling up and over the top of the ramekin. I might have freaked out and yanked the eggs out and started cursing over the fact that I had most likely ruined the them. It’s arguable that I thought the eggs looked kinda gross and that I wasn’t thrilled about eating them. There’s also a chance I considered just throwing the whole thing away and eating Ben & Jerry’s for breakfast instead. Mind you, these are just rumors.

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I’m all about some one-pot/one-pan meals. Reason number #1 – less dishes to clean. I really, really dislike doing dishes, although I guess that’s a pretty obvious thing to say. If you’re a weird person who likes doing dishes, we probably don’t get along.

Actually…if you like doing dishes then maybe we should be best friends. As in, the kind of best friends that will drop by unexpectedly do nice things for each other. How about, I cook dinner in your kitchen and you come clean my dishes? Deal? Deal.

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I have had a decidedly not-cute week. First, I got a cold. The first morning with said cold I was out attempting to walk my dog when I tripped and fell in a HUGE puddle. So, so not cute. Oh, and to the guy that that was stopped at the intersection and drove off WITHOUT helping me: I understand that you were probably paralyzed with laughter and couldn’t get out of your car, but help a girl out next time, okay? I of course got up and tried to pass the other dog-walkers like nothing was amiss. As if I typically spend all of my morning walks dripping water from half my body.

Then I went to work. You know what you do at work when your nose is stuffed up with a cold? You mouth breathe. You ever really though about how not-cute mouth breathing is? Very. Especially when you zone out in front of your computer and have an empty glaze over your eyes while doing it. Seriously people, this is reason alone to stay home from work when you’re sick.

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