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Our culinary adventures have been so non-existent this week that all I have to show you is this dessert I made last Sunday. Nearly a week ago. Sure is pretty though!

Strawberry almond cream tart.

Not feeling very good right now. I might just go lay down. Watch some tv. In my jammies. I have what I think is supposed to be an outdoor wedding to attend this afternoon and it’s raining. So typical. I get to serve cake. I had better be feeling better by then.

Gonna go curl up in the fetal position now. Happy weekend!

P.S. Last night I used my kitchen torch to toast the outside of marshmallows, peel off the toasted layer, eat the toasted layer, then repeated. mmmmmmmmmm

Had the chance to play with my new creme brulee torch yesterday. Actually, Isaac did lots of “playing” with the torch. I used it for its intended purpose.

my first use of vanilla beans

We had such a yummy dinner I’ve been inspired to blog about it. Some of it was planned but much of it was me staring at the contents of my pantry wondering what in the world I could make. There was lots of staring. My pantry is full, yet it can be so hard to figure out how to turn all that “stuff” in to something edible.

My go-to cookbook lately has been the recently acquired “Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2010″. I can now safely throw away all of the torn-out pages of last year’s Cooking Light magazine that I’ve got in my recipe binder.

Yes, I have a binder. Don’t you?

The cornerstone of dinner was the Broiled Salmon with Peppercorn-Lime Rub (page 116 for those that have this book). 20 minute entree that included peppercorns, one of my favorite things in life. Gives Ella anxiety though. “What’s that black stuff? Is it hot? It’s hot! Ow, my mouth hurts”. Queue eye-roll from mom. The sooner she gets on this pepper bandwagon the better off we’ll all be.

I always start my cooking prep by reading through the recipe completely. Ok, so that’s what I try to do. And I did this time. Then I looked at the pretty pictures in the middle of the book and saw the Lemon-Thyme Quickbread (page 162). Mmmmm. Recipe read, ingredients on hand, 1.5 hours ’til dinner, let’s make it happen. Also got to make more use of my stand mixer. I’m still in love with it.

Speaking of which. I bought mine through Costco and got a bonus attachment, which just arrived yesterday. It’s the rotary slider/shredder. Now I have to find a recipe that involves lots of slicing and shredding.

All right, with the bread in the oven and the entree waiting for the oven to become available I began the staring of the pantry to figure out what else we should eat. I had hoped I had some couscous or something, but we’re mostly out. Also out of sticky rice and even minute rice. There was barely enough of the dreaded brown rice. I cooked it in chicken broth rather than water and that helped.

Lemon-Thyme Quickbread

Finally I went with a staple around here for our vegetable. Yet another Cooking Light recipe, I tore this one out last May, but you can find it on page 124 of the 2010 annual recipes book. It’s Green beans with feta (and red onions and some other stuff).

So, to recap, the menu, minus all of the above filler:

Broiled salmon with peppercorn-lime rub
Lemon-Thyme quickbread
Brown rice
Green beans with feta

Broiled Salmon with peppercorn-lime rub and green beans with feta

I’m off to get my 5th slice of the bread. What did you have for dinner?

Ok, so it’s not quite a year yet. I’m 11 days early, but my appointment was today so it’s close enough. It was a quick appointment with just the lower wire changed and my Herbst re-activated on the left side only. What this means, essentially, is that my bottom teeth hurt (top don’t hurt at all right now) and my smile is a bit lopsided — to the left side. Hopefully this corrects itself after a couple of weeks. I can only touch a couple of teeth together… again. Kinda hard to eat when your eating tools are unavailable.

I asked the doctor (again) when I get the Herbst out. He confirmed what he told me last time (I am nothing if not persistant) - 4 or so months. Essentially, appointment after next and they’re about 10 weeks apart.

I also asked if we were on track with the braces and he figures I may get de-braced closer to 2 years than to 2.5. Sweet relief! If I run in to one more adult with braces who’s been in them for 4 years I’ll just… feel really badly for them, I guess? Tell them they chose the wrong orthodontist? I don’t know. Suckers.

Photo update. Honestly, even I can’t tell the different since 10 weeks ago. But do marvel at the change that’s occurred in a year.

And now the face shot comparison after a year.

It seems like it ought to be fairly obvious to some from the pictures, but yes, I have lost weight. 27 pounds in the last year. Thanks in part to the braces, at first. My battle with acid reflux can be thanked for the rest. The loss has plateaued though. I wonder what kind of non-diet I can try next??? I honestly don’t know what foods I could cut out of my diet now that I’m all ready not eating fatty and fried foods. Bread, maybe. I love bread and it loves me back. Why would I want to quit that??? And when you can make and bake it in your very own home it’s a tough thing to give up. I’m going to just say no.

So I had a birthday recently. No, please, stop the clapping. Low-key affair this year. I was quite pleased though to receive from my mom a creme brulee torch and creme brulee set. Looks like I’ll get a chance this coming weekend to put them all to use. Creme brulee is my most favorite dessert in the world.

I’ve also been craving these coconut cupcakes with lime butter-cream frosting though. Maybe I’ll have to bust them both out. Dessert, any one?