Thursday, May 26, 2011

Never Ending Recipes

Good afternoon! It's May, and the South Carolina scorching summer is already upon us. Even though I'm back in the "real world" with a "real" 8:00am to 5:00pm job, I still feel like summer is a great excuse to play, just a little more than I might during the "school year". Now some of you who aren't familiar with my blog should know, that I'm not a teacher, nor do I work on a school schedule. However, that being said, I'm just a few years out of college and I still remember how it feels to have a summer break, hence the need for a little extra summer fun.

Herein lies the problem, ideally, I would soak up the summer time with a few new recipes BUT, I'm also trying to keep...or get back...my girlish figure. The injury (here) really threw me off my otherwise excellent, if I do say so myself, workout routine. So, I'm trying to get back into the groove of getting out of bed at 4:55, yes ladies and gentlemen, 4:55...and dragging myself, sleepy eyed, to the gym. AND I'm trying to be healthy and get back in shape.

While summer recipes tend to be a bit more fresh and lite, I just caught an episode of Barefoot Contessa about pasta...and I'm hooked. I desperately need to try all of the recipes that I saw on her show, most importantly, I need to try her Lobster Mac and Cheese. It's beautiful! She uses sharp white cheddar and Gruyere to make the cheese sauce and then she mixes in 1 1/2 pounds of beautiful cooked lobster. So, I've decided that I might have to drop my diet for one evening so that I can try this divine recipe! If you'd like to give it a try, you can find it here.

If you're interested, here is a list of other recipes I'm getting excited about trying this summer: Tomato and Feta Pasta Salad, Tomato Feta Salad, Pesto, and The Barefoot Contessa's Lime Curd Tart. Obviously I'm a fan of Mrs. Ian Garten. She might been my cooking hero. So, as we dive into summer...head first, I'm going to try and use the extra hours of day light to grow some fantastic herbs to use in my new recipes! Happy Cooking!