These are a few of my favorite things...

It's 2:16 am and my brain just absolutely refuses to shut down tonight. Thank goodness it's a weekend. I got up to sit at my computer for a while, hoping to get a little sleepy, and was looking at a few pictures of things I've cooked and thought I'd share them here.

This one to the left is from a recipe I found on foodnetwork.com from Bobby Flay, found here. It was pretty amazing and everything in the recipe went so well together. I would even be inclined to use the vinaigrette as a marinade for steaks or chicken.

I cannot remember where I found the recipe for this one, but this was the bourbon pumpkin cheesecake with toasted pecans and bourbon caramel sauce. The original recipe was for the pumpkin cheesecake itself, and it just turned into this monster. It's very sloppy...the result of me having never made homemade caramel before. I ALMOST burned it, but thankfully I didn't. I will try to repeat it this year for Thanksgiving, but will definitely attempt to make a prettier cheesecake.




This is one of my husband's favorite things I make for him. It also comes from foodnetwork.com, courtesy of Melissa d'Arabian, and can be found here. We love the spiciness and all of the flavors of the dish. The recipe calls for regular cous cous, but the pearl cous cous is so much more hearty in my opinion and pairs well with everything. I also substitute the beef for ground turkey (we try to eat as little red meat as possible.)




Just one of my made up meals, and a super easy and delicious one. Turkey burgers with bacon, blue cheese, red onion, roma tomatoes, and chipotle mayo, fresh corn on the cob, and an ice cold beer to wash it down. One of my favorite summer time meals.








Another made up of mine, and probably one of my personal favorites. This was a salad of mixed greens, dried organic cranberries, and walnuts that I had candied. I tossed the mixture in a red wine vinaigrette (olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a TEENY TINY smidge of dijon) then topped it with chicken that I rubbed in various spices, then grilled. On the side I sliced a baguette super thin, toasted the slices (a bit too much as you can see but not inedible), then topped with camembert and freshly cracked black pepper. It was so delicious.

I think that's about it for now. I am still not sleepy, which is incredibly frustrating. I suppose I will go and watch a movie and see if that helps. Goodnight all.