Yes, Risotto Can Be Easy to Make

        I've been doing a tremendous amount of reading lately. It's tremendous to me, anyway, because I haven't read this many books in a row in a long, long while. To name a few... "Before I Go to Sleep", a debut novel by S. J. Watson about a woman with an unusual type of amnesia, was (in my humble opinion) incredible. Definitely makes my All-Time Favorites list -- I couldn't put the darned thing down. Then, after a recommendation from my Zia Nadia, I finally finished reading "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay, a work of historical fiction about the Holocaust. It was very good but incredibly sad, which is to be expected. I was almost in tears toward the ending of the book. Why did you tell me to read this, Zia, WHY?! Why couldn't I read a book about sunshine and rainbows?!  

        I have some great news. I bought a new camera -- the Canon Rebel T2i. I've had my eyes on this baby for a while, and I'm so happy to call it my own. From now on, all the photographs on my blog will be taken with my new camera, including the photos of the delicious and easy-to-make risotto I have to share with you today. 

Easy Buttery Risotto

Don't Forget the Chicken

        I've never been the best person to remember things. Lately, my memory has been especially terrible. Either that or someone's pulling a practical joke on me, in which case he or she is probably laughing it up somewhere. 
        See, I'll walk around with something important in my hand (i.e. my cell phone, which I lose on an almost daily basis) and then it just disappears. Vanishes. Out of thin air. I'll go to use my phone and realize my hands are empty, yet I can never remember having put the darned thing down. I would call it and listen for the ringtone, except it's always turned off somehow. A few days or even weeks later my phone will turn up in some bizarre place, like in my sock drawer, or in the little bag where I keep my toothbrush. How does this happen? I have no idea.

Oven-Fried Chicken

When "Easy as Pie" Makes Sense

        Sometimes I wonder who coined the phrase, "easy as pie." I've mulled those three words over in my mind countless times when working with pastry. Pastry, like pie crust for example, isn't too hard once you get the hang of it, but it's far from easy when you're just starting out. At least, it was for me. It took a long time before I knew what I was doing, but I loved homemade pie crust too much to simply purchase it store-bought.
        Then came puff pastry. Making your own puff pastry is supposed to be very time-consuming -- it can take over five hours of prep-time. There are some days when I'm perfectly willing to spend that amount of time in the kitchen. There are other days when I want to pop into the kitchen for only a few minutes, throw a few ingredients together and into the oven, be on my way, and pop back in half an hour later to find… magic. I love to find a meal that seems to defy logic -- so little time and effort is needed to produce it, yet the meal itself manages to be incredibly delicious.

Chicken Pie with Puff Pastry

My Sweet Life Has a Savory Side

        There's a time and a place for everything. No matter how much I love sugar and its sweetness, the two of us go our separate ways come dinner time. When I'm hungry, my tummy cries for nourishment in the form of a hearty meal and it's a need that no slice of cake (no matter how good) can satisfy. So, at around 6:30 P.M.--standard dinner time in my house--I yank out the sweet tooth, set it aside for later, have a seat at the table with my family, and consume the delicious savory dish that is my meal on that particular day.

        I often like to prepare dinner, not because I have to but because I want to. It isn't unusual for there to also be some sort of dessert made that same day we sit down to eat (I like to go all out), waiting somewhere very nearby for mealtime to end and transition into dessert time. That's when I pop the sweet tooth back in. Until then, though, I focus on what's in front of me. 
        During my last meal, I was faced with a pie. It wasn't a sweet pie (though I am certainly very familiar with those), but a savory pie. The ultimate savory pie... Chicken Pot Pie.

The Ultimate Chicken Pot Pie