SUCCESS! Slow-cooked Chicken & mushroom

A couple of weeks ago it snowed here in Phoenix. Now certain parts of Arizona get snow throughout the winter however Phoenix is not one of them! I was sitting in my office at work, looking out my window and white stuff started falling from the sky. J. thought this was the best thing ever, I however wasn’t impressed since I moved to Arizona to escape the craziness of Melbourne weather…

The snow however did inspire a hearty slow cooked chicken and mushroom recipe!

I made this one up as I went along but I was really happy with it.

First thing first I chopped up 4 large cloves of garlic, 2 large shallots and peeled about 20 small brown onions. I cut the onions in half as well.

In a frying pan I heated up about a tablespoon of olive oil and added some sprigs of fresh thyme. In small batches I then seared the chicken thighs. I had seasoned these first with salt and pepper. Skin side down first to get it nicely browned and crispy. I used 8 large chicken thighs for this recipe.

After these were all brown and crispy I set them aside… Note that I didn’t cook these all the way through.

I dug out our slowcooker from the back of our kitchen cabinet and set to work putting the deliciousness in. On the base I put fresh sprigs of thyme and rosemary. I then layered the chicken, the onions and freshly chopped mushrooms on top of that. I added more thyme and rosemary as I went. I used a mixture of Portobello and Button mushrooms for this – about 4 cups of mushrooms in total.

In the pan I had browned the chicken in I cooked the chopped garlic and shallots. When they had started to soften I deglazed the pan with 1 cup of white wine. I let this simmer for about 2 minutes before adding 2 cups of chicken stock and freshly cracked black pepper. Again I just let this simmer for a couple of minutes before carefully pouring it over the layers of chicken, onion and mushrooms in the slowcooker.

I put a couple of more thyme and rosemary sprigs on top before closing the lid and let is cook away for 4 hours.

The smell the permeated the house was just amazing… it made me sooo hungry for the entire afternoon.

When it was cooked I strained all the juices into a pan and let them reduce. While this was happening J. whipped up some quinoa for us to eat with the chicken. The juices became a thick, rich and yummy sauce which we poured over the tender, falling off the bone chicken, juicy mushrooms and delicious onions.  . Of course the skin didn’t stay crispy but it didn’t matter, it was still nice and brown though and tasty.

It may not look so delicious but it tasted fantastic! Considering I made this up on the spot it was a huge success… J. loved it – really, really loved it. Which was a good thing since we had a huge amount to eat for lunches for the rest of the week. Finally an experimental success! And a perfect meal for those snowy? desert days!

At the Feet of a Master

This is our 100^th blog. This is such a milestone, J. and I wanted it to be one about something that was special to us. That is why it has taken so long to post. To make it even more special I thought J. should write it… So from J. and I thank you for your support of the first 100 entries, we are looking forward to the next 100.

C & J

Take any style of cooking or cooking technique.  From any country.  I’ll give you a second to think about that for a bit.  No, really, think of any country or cooking style… Italian, French, Greek… you name it.  Guess where they got their origins?  China.  That’s right… any type of modern-day cooking technique has come from the Chinese.  Grilling meat over coals… they came up with that.  You think the French came up with sautéing?  Guess again.  The Chinese came up with that in a little vessel called a wok.  You thought boiling noodles until they were al dente came from the Italians?  Chinese came up with that centuries before Marco Polo made his trip back.

For all of their amazing techniques, you’d think there would be a lot more authentic Chinese food here in the US.  Unless you happen to live in San Francisco or New York and within walking distance to their respective Chinatowns, chances are what you know as Chinese food here in the US is fake.  I hate to burst your bubble, but P.F. Changs or that chain with the smiling panda found in most airports are about as close to real Chinese food as those Gucci purses that just happen to be on sale for $20.

So when C and I had the opportunity to enjoy a banquet to end all banquets prepared by a Chinese grandmother, we couldn’t help but document the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Let’s be honest, grandmothers kick ass in the kitchen.  That Italian grandma you have who came from the old country who makes that great polenta you like?  Nobody can duplicate it.  That Polish grandmother who makes the best pierogis?  She’ll kick your ass with her kitchen skills.  With this banquet, we were bowing down to the one true kung-fu master in the kitchen.  Grand Master Qi Fen (for an apprentice like me, I must refer to her as master or shi fu)!  Grand Master Qi Fen just happens to be a brand new grandmother after her daughter (SW – C’s sister in law) gave birth to a bouncing baby boy over the holidays, and she was gracious enough to prepare an amazing meal of 10 dishes for the whole family.  I’m going to let that settle for a bit… that’s right… 10 dishes!

She spent the entire day shopping, prepping, and cooking the amazing meal and I had no choice but to take my place as the apprentice, knowing that I didn’t even come close to her kitchen prowess.  That place just happened to be the kitchen stool next to her.  Watching her knife skills, her seasoning technique, her marinating technique, ingredients she used, and most importantly, her ability to balance up to 5 dishes being cooked at the same time yet making sure each was closely watched.

Ever see a Chinese cook use a meat cleaver as precisely as a paring knife?  It’s something else.  You think you have good control with chopsticks?  I’m half Korean and have been eating with chopsticks since I was 5.  Grand Master was using long giant ones as if they were built into her wrist.

More importantly, watching Grand Master allowed me the opportunity to find out how the Chinese get those amazing flavors in to their food.  I don’t mean to give up a secret here, but you only need a handful of ingredients to get great authentic Chinese flavor in your dishes:  dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, green onion, garlic, and salt.  That’s it folks… you figure that out, you’re about 2% there in becoming the next Grand Master.  The other 98% I think is attributed to years of experience and repetition, but what do I know?

I’m not about to give out recipes in this post… that would take an eternity and I think C would rather give out that information after we take a shot at a few of these dishes ourselves.  I’m not about to name all of these dishes either but I’ll do my best in trying to describe them.  On to the food!

Kung Pao Chicken – Cut chicken thighs marinated in dark soy, Chinese cooking wine, a little salt and green onions quickly cooked with Chinese chili flake oil and green peppers with peanuts.  Who knew a dish in almost ever neighborhood Chinese restaurant menu would taste this good.

Pork with Capsicum/Peppers – Thinly sliced pork (sliced with a meat cleaver no less) cooked with thinly sliced green capsicum/pepper.  I dare anyone to try and cut pork as uniformly as she did with a cleaver, and not lose at least part of a finger.

Mapu Tofu – Ground pork with spicy tofu.  The dish to judge all Chinese cooks by.  This one was flavorful and delicious. We have made this before – but we do it the cheats way.

Stuffed Pork Meatballs – I have no idea how those balls went from hollow fried spheres, to soft, flavorful stuffed globes full of pork.  The dark soy/Chinese cooking wine marinade was excellent once again.

Pork Belly with 100-Year Old Eggs – Ever seen what the Chinese call 100-Year Old Eggs?  These weren’t those but they sort of looked like them with the dark soy infusing to the egg whites.  Soft pork belly slow cooked with that rich marinade.

Kick-Ass Fish – I challenge anyone to cook a flavorless white fish like tilapia and have it packed with as much flavor as Grand Master did in this dish.  One of the better fish dishes I’ve had in my life.

Salted Cucumber – A simple dish to cleanse the palate.  Crunchy cucumber cut uniformly with a giant cleaver.

Shrimp with Egg – Ever try de-veining 30 or more shrimp with a cleaver?  Try doing it and let’s see how many fingers you’ll have left.  Grand Master did that for every single shrimp (prawn for you Aussies) we had.

Snowpeas with Garlic – Crunchy snowpeas that went so well with rice.

Vegetable Medley – Gotta love that corn starch slurry to give it that classic Chinese shine!

Definitely a meal I won’t soon forget.  I feel as if we’re indebted to Grand Master for this meal.  Maybe one day I’ll get to make my famous (to a circle of about 8 people) BBQ ribs for her, although that won’t even come close to the spectacle she put on for us.

If Grand Master Qi Fen ever has a chance to read this, she’s invited to our house any day for dinner.  If the meal we cook for her is even halfway as good as the meal she prepared for us, then I would consider that a success.

Marvelous Muffins

After making the banana muffins last weekend I was inspired into a little more muffin madness. For Valentine’s Day I decided to bake up a batch of Raspberry Chocolate Muffins for J. and I to take into our offices.

This is another Australian Institute of Sport recipe my mother commandeered and just unbelievably delicious!

In a large bowl I sifted 2½ cups of self-raising flour, ¼ cup of good cocoa and ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. I then added in ¾ cup of caster sugar (super fine sugar) and mixed all of this together.

The recipe says to add a ½ cup of Dark Choc Bits but I am not a huge dark chocolate fan so I added in ¾ cup of milk chocolate bits. What harm could a little bit extra chocolate do!?

I mixed all of this together and made a well in the center (pretty much the same instructions as the banana muffins I made earlier in the week).

In a small bowl I melted 1 tablespoon of margarine. I added 1 cup of skim milk to that and then whisked in 1 egg. I then just gently started to fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. When it was nearly completely folded together I added 300 g frozen raspberries. I add these as close to the end as possible because I don’t want them to break up to much.

Again, make sure you don’t over mix. Just fold the raspberries through until everything is combined.

I put some paper cupcake liners into my muffin tin and then spooned in the mixture. I filled them to about ¾ because I didn’t want them too large and I needed enough for both of our offices. This made 20 muffins but you could make them larger and only make 12.

I put them into the oven that had been preheated at 350F. They baked for 25 minutes and then I took them out and let them cool.

We both packed up a bunch each and set off to work. They disappeared in my office very quickly and everyone thought they were delicious. The chocolate bits and the tang of the raspberries really do make them really really good. They are also incredibly moist (still hate that word) from the fruit and chocolate. I have to admit the extra1/4 cup of chocolate did no harm, they probably made them even better!

J’s office didn’t finish them off the way mine did… they were lucky enough to have other treats as well. But those who tried them enjoyed them and more importantly J. preferred my treats over the others that were on offer! Ok, that isn’t sooo important but still nice to know!

Though they are sweet and sugary there is a lot less fat than normal muffins too which you just have to love. I strongly encourage you to give these a try… they are incredible!

Love & Lamb

We aren’t really ones to celebrate Valentine’s Day, even in the early days of our relationship we didn’t exchange gifts. The most we would do is wish each other happy Valentine’s Day.

So last night we didn’t do anything special… we headed to the gym because we knew it would be nice and quiet with everyone else celebrating the holiday. J. also got a new BBQ (read grill if American) delivered this week so he decided to cook me dinner and try that out.

He fired up his new Barbie and I sat down and watched… and drank a beer. We had some meaty lamb shoulder chops ready to thrown on. We eat a lot of these and our freezer tends to be well stocked with these chops. It is also one of the cheaper options here when it comes to lamb.

Anyway, he cooked the lamb beautifully… the BBQ worked as it is meant to work and most importantly J. thoroughly enjoyed cooking on it.  He had prepared some quinoa earlier in the rice cooker so that was going to be our side dish. He had just sautéed some chillies and garlic and thrown that into the rice cooker with the quinoa. We have been eating a lot of quinoa instead of the mountains of rice we usually consume.

 

It was all very yummy and great that I didn’t have to cook! He even cleaned up. So even though we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day I still got that as a gift…. And really what more could I want besides love & lamb!

Making Muffins out of Over Ripe Bananas

J. and I had a pretty lazy Sunday… we were in the kitchen making ourselves some crepes for breakfast and I noticed that a few of our bananas were looking a little worse for wear… Banana Muffin time!!!

A few years ago my mother discovered (I have no idea where she got them from) a bunch of recipes from the Australian Institute of Sport for low fat (or at least reduced fat) muffins! I love a good muffin and they are so often terribly bad for you so I have loved having this group of recipes. Plus they are really easy recipes to make.

So Sunday was banana muffin time.

In a large bowl I sifted 1½ cups of self-raising flour and 1 cup of wholemeal self-raising flour. If you don’t have wholemeal flour you can just use regular self-rasing for the entire amount. Next I stirred in ¾ cup of brown sugar. This was a little difficult because our brown sugar was really hard and didn’t stir through so well. I figured it didn’t matter so much because it would melt down in the oven.

I made a well in the centre of the dry ingredient and put them aside, set the oven for 350°F and started on the wet ingredients. In a small bowl I melted 2 tablespoons of margarine and then added to it my 2 very ripe bananas and mashed all of this together. I added to this 1 cup of skim milk, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. I mixed this together well and then poured it into the dry ingredients.

Make sure you gently stir the ingredients together – there is no need to beat or whip it together. When it was completely combined I spooned the mixture into my greased muffin pans. I filled each up about 2 thirds of the way. And then into the oven they went for 20 minutes.

When they came out of the oven I let them sit for a few minutes in the pan to cool before tipping them out. We ate some straight away and they were so delicious. The great thing is this recipe makes about 16 muffins so J. and I had them for a snack at work every day this week! Yummy, delicious, and not too bad for you… Gotta love that!

Never-Ending Tasting Menu

First let me apologize for my absence. I haven’t been well and have not been up to sitting down and writing when I get home from work. I hope I am back to normal and be posting regularly again from now on.

Back to food!

J. and I still have so much food to write about from our time back in Australia. I thought I would share one of the meals we had at a great Asian restaurant in Melbourne while we were there.

For Christmas we were lucky enough to get a $100 gift card for Red Spice Road, a very cool, very delicious Asian restaurant in one of the gorgeous laneways in Melbourne. For those of you who don’t know Melbourne, it is filled with small laneways that have some of the best food, coffee and nightlife the city has to offer, well really, Australia has to offer. Whenever in Melbourne, time must be taken to wander these laneways and see what has changed, discover new places and visit old favorites.

J. had never been to this restaurant before so we decided to go all out and get the $75 per person tasting menu… why not when we had the gift card! We mistakenly thought that we needed to pick a few of the items from the huge tasting menu to have, however it turned out that we got enough of everything on the menu for two… Oh dear!

The first trio of dishes were little nibblies or starters. Just a bite of each for us. But those bites were magnificent! First up was Betel Leaf with Chicken, Crab, Coconut, Chilli & Kaffir Lime. I usually find things wrapped in betel leaf to bitter but this was just perfect. The chilli & lime fought against the bitterness and the sweet crab and coconut just tied it all together. The next bite was Watermelon topped with Sticky Pork, Peanut and Prawn Relish. As weird and unusual as this sounds it was probably my favorite thing of the night. I don’t actually know how to describe this accurately but it was a burst of sweet, savory flavor in your mouth. I could have eaten 12 of them but we only got 1 each.

The last dish in this first trio was an Oyster with Chilli Jam, Lime Juice and Crispy Shallots. Now Iam not sure if I have ever expressed the love J. and I have for oysters on the blog before… but we seriously have an obsession with them. I think we would have been happy to eat the oysters and nothing else if we could have had 3 dozen of them! These were the perfect bite, but sadly just one bite each.

A few sips of wine and a little chatter later the next trio of dishes arrived. These would be the appetizers. First was the Beef, Rice Noodle, Herb, Pickled Carrot, Cucumber and Shallot Salad, seriously spicy and delicious. There is something so refreshing about this kind of salad!

In this trio we also had Crispy Tofu with Mushrooms, Wombok, Bamboo, Green Onion and Masterstock and Twice Cooked Lamb Ribs with a Tamarind and Coconut Relish. Both of these were completely amazing. The lamb ribs, well the meat just fell off the bone and then the tofu dish was unbelievably delicious. J. even enjoyed the tofu.

I was getting full, really full by this stage and the main dishes were still to come! I thought they would be small but they were huge and this trio had my favorite dish from this restaurant in it so I had to find room to eat!

The final trio… could we do it??

First was the Raw Kingfish, Green Tomato, Asian Celery, Green Chilli and Coriander Salad, light and perfectly cooked… we managed to squeeze all of this in. J. was a trooper and pushed through the pain. Also in the trio was a Duck Red Curry with Pineapple and Sweet Potato. This was a creamy, spicy curry with just the right hint of sweetness. If I hadn’t already had 7 other dishes I could have dived into this!

The last dish was the dish that I come to Red Spice Road for… Pork Belly with Apple Slaw, Chilli Caramel and Black Vinegar. What do I have to say really… the name says it all. Crispy pork belly with chilli and vinegar – PERFECTION!

We were full… 9 dishes of food… I know it was a tasting menu but those servings were not small… And then there was still the dessert. I didn’t know if we could do it but the waiter promised us it was light and refreshing…Pandan Cream with Puffed Wild Rice, Peanut Praline and Coconut. Well, the waiter was right. It was fresh, light and delicious. The best thing to finish off our feast.

It was a long meal… 3 hours. It was a delicious meal and it was a big meal! We were both so impressed and happy with our dinner. We didn’t really need to eat for a few days after but of course we were on holidays so that didn’t happen.

So if you ever find yourself wandering around Melbourne’s laneways definitely check out Red Spice Road!

Green Goo – Spectacular Failure

When I was still living and working in Australia I worked next door to a cute, little cafe that made the most delicious broccoli soup. I know, it doesn’t sound appetizing at all. It was incredibly delicious though and I had managed to recreate this soup in my Melbourne kitchen sometime last year… my recreation was delicious… but I never wrote the recipe down!

I recently convince J. that it was delicious and he should let me make it since we were trying to get back to eating healthy after our time in Australia. Also just after we arrived home in Phoenix, Arizona went through it’s coldest week of whether in nearly 30 years… so soup was called for! Now J. hates broccoli so the fact that he said ok, was only because I told him I would make it super spicy for him. If only I had remembered the recipe.

In my large soup pot (that J. stole from his mum) I heated up about 2 tablespoons of olive and I added 2 large onions that I had diced, 6 cloves of garlic finely chopped and about 15 thai chillies… Yes, 15! We had had a batch of these chillies that were really mild and we needed that many just to get a little heat and since I promised super spicy I went with 15… What a mistake!

Once they had softened I added in 5 potatoes and 3 large heads of broccoli. I just covered it with chicken stock and let is simmer away for an hour. I used my stick blend to smooth it all out and I served…. Now I am not sure why I just told you the recipe because this was terrible!!! It was ridiculously spicy yet bland all at the same time.

J. ate it happily (though he poured 1/2 a bottle of sriracha into each bowl). I couldn’t eat it after the 3rd time… it got far too hot and it just tasted it horrible! I love spicy but this was unbearable…I don’t know what I did differently to the last time but it was spectacularly bad.This soup was just a green goo… we added fresh spring onions and tomato to it just before we ate it and I still couldn’t stomach it. There was so much that J. had to eat it for over a week!! I ate sandwiches…

J. kept telling me it was ok and he liked it… gotta love him! It was however a failure… probably the worst I have had in a while so I just had to share… NO MORE BROCCOLI SOUP FOR ME!

Dad’s Herb & Garlic BBQ Lamb

A few weeks before we jetted off to Australia, J and I did our own version of marinated grilled lamb. It was delicious, I was pretty happy with it. However, we also requested for our trip home that my Dad make us his herb & garlic barbeque lamb. Even though ours was good it didn’t come close to what his is like.

That first Sunday we were home Dad whipped this up to go with our Wombok Salad.

First thing first. You need to be able to get a de-boned butterflied leg of lamb. If your local supermarket does that for you great! Otherwise you might need to find a specialty butcher shop (not something we have a lot of here in AZ). This recipe uses a 2kg piece of lamb.

In a bowl 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly, 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper, 2 tablespoons of wholegrain mustard, 3/4 cup dry white wine and 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary leaves. Mix this together well. Then, in a shallow dish lie the lamb out as flat as you can and pour the marinade over the top. Cover this and then you refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours… I always like to do this overnight.

Dad cooks his on the BBQ, and I think this is why his tasted better than ours, which we cooked inside on a grill pan… The BBQ just makes everything taste better.

After marinating for a few hours/nights, remove the lamb from the marinade. You can use the marinade as a sauce later so put it into a shallow pan and set aside. Place the lamb flat on the pre-heated BBQ over low heat, sprinkle with salt – we use around 2 teaspoons of salt. Cover the top of the lamb with foil if you aren’t cooking it in a covered BBQ.

Cook for 15 minutes and then turn and cook for another 15. You can cook more or less depending on how you like your lamb cooked. This comes out a medium – medium rare. After the 30 minutes cooking time brush the lamb all over with mint jelly. Cook for another 3 minutes on each side. This should get the lamb nice and brown with a thin crust. Remove from the BBQ and rest.

Meanwhile, inside… add ¼ cup of chicken stock to the leftover marinade and slowly bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 5 mins. Slice the lamb and then drizzle the sauce over the top.

Now I am sure it is obvious how much we love this. I won’t go on and on and on… I will the photos and the recipe speak for themselves… But you do have to love some Aussie lamb on the BBQ!

A Meal Worth of Salad with a Side of Bugs

Now that I am working I am finding less time to blog so I am still filling you all in on the wonderful food we ate in Australia back in December and early January. I am hoping I will get into a better blogging routine once I am used to working again! In the mean time I wanted to share a great salad we ate Christmas Eve in Australia.

This salad is a meal on its own but we were lucky enough to have it with some delicious Moreton Bay Bugs. These are a type of crayfish found in Queensland. They are one of my favorite types of seafood and something we traditionally have at Christmas time. We eat these plain… they don’t need to be boiled in spices or anything just cooked simply, cut down the middle and this time we served them with a mango chili mayonnaise. (Recipe for the mayonnaise to follow later).

Back to the salad.

In a large (and I mean LARGE!) salad bowl put a mixture of salad leaves. You can choose any kind you like, we did a mix of my parents’ home grown lettuce. Drain around 270 grams of semi dried tomatoes, make sure you keep the oil though because this becomes part of the dressing. Add the tomatoes to the salad leaves.

Next, slice up 1 bunch of asparagus into about 1 inch lengths. Blanch these for a few minutes, but make sure they are still crunchy. Set them aside to cool.

Add to the salad bowl ¼ cup of pine nuts and 1 thinly sliced red onion. Finally add in the cooled asparagus and toss all the ingredients together.

Now the thing that makes this salad more like an entire meal is the topping. On top of the tossed ingredients the deliciousness is layered. First, pan fry 6 large slices of prosciutto. Break these up when cooked and layer them over the salad. The shave large pieces of fresh parmesan cheese over the top of the prosciutto and salad. I like to use a vegetable peeler to get the big chunky shavings of parmesan. Now, I know some people don’t like parmesan so you could use pecorino or even a mild cheese like swiss over the top.

The final part of this salad is the dressing, quite possibly the simplest dressing ever. In a bottle mix the drained oil from the tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Shake this well and then drizzle over the salad.

Serve and eat… It is such a delicious, hearty salad and I could eat it as a meal all by itself. The bugs were just an awesomely delicious bonus. The saltiness of the prosciutto and cheese with the crunchiness of the pine nuts is so yummy! The bugs dipped in the mayonnaise on the side was a perfect warm summer’s day lunch!

Quick & Delicious Summer Salad

I am a big fan of salad during the summer. When we were home in Australia Mum brought out some of my favorites. The one I want to share today was made the first Sunday we were home and some friends were coming up from Brisbane for lunch.

This is what I refer to as a Wombok Salad but it is probably more accurately called, Oriental Fried Noodle Salad . Sometimes I add roast chicken or pork to it but this day we had it as an accompaniment to Dad’s grilled lamb.

Now be careful… this is so easy you might just get it wrong!

Finely slice half of one large Wombok (or Chinese cabbage) until it is just above the base. The leaves around the base can get quite thick and bitter so I use a little but not all of that thicker part. Put all of this into a large salad bowl.

Then put 100 grams slivered almonds into a fry pan and gently brown them. I was kidding about the whole be careful because it’s so simple but the number of times I have got distracted and burnt my almonds is unbelievable. When browned just take these off the heat and let them cool.

Meanwhile, chop up 6 green onions (spring onions), these don’t have to be too fine but don’t do giant chunks either. I usually cut them around ¼ of an inch long. When cut throw these into the salad bowl with the wombok.

Next up is to make the dressing. In a bottle put ¼ cup of white vinegar, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and ½ a cup of olive oil. Close the bottle and shake furiously!

Just before you are ready to serve throw in 1 small packet of fried noodles, the almonds and then pour the dressing over the top. Gently mix everything together and it is ready to serve.

I love this salad… It is one J likes too which is always good. I could eat this without anything else for lunch anytime. It was great however with Dad’s lamb… so delicious. This was just the start of the feast my parents put on for us when we were home!

P.S. Check out the salad bowl we used in the photo… very cool!