Shrimp Bruschetta

One of my favorites because it's so delicious and super easy to make. 

Just saute garlic and onions in a 1:1 mix of butter and olive oil, add shrimp, diced tomatoes, and a dash of red pepper flakes. You can sprinkle some salt and pepper on too if you like.

Then brush olive oil on both sides of some sourdough slices and toast them in the oven. Or, melt some butter in a pan, coat both sides of the bread and cook until the bread is crisp.

Top with shrimp mix and feel guilty about eating 10 more at 11pm after your guests have left. That was my Friday night. How was yours?

Ham and Cheese Waffles

Otherwise known as heaven on earth. I don't even like waffles that much, but this savory meets sweet syrupy buttery delightfulness is why I'm not looking forward to next week's enormous photo shoot. Thanks NBC. Every woman wants to be part of a huge photo campaign 6 weeks after giving birth. My timing is so, so awesome. 

So if you look up and see my ham and cheddar cheeks on a billboard for our new investigative unit, have mercy on the new mom who had no idea until 2 weeks ago that her station wanted to promote the bejesus out of the new team. Under normal circumstances, this would be awesome news. Job security! You can't fire me. I'm on a bus! But when you're still the size of a bus, there's really nothing to do but go for broke. And have just one more bite of ham and cheddar goodness.

I wouldn't change anything about the recipe. Just don't get carried away beating the egg whites and getting them too fluffy or the waffles will turn out a little too airy and crispy instead of chewy and crispy. And I could do without the salt because the ham is salty enough. Add a pat of butter and some thick maple syrup and this is a meal fit for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. Or all of the above. Super easy to make and impressive enough to serve to your mother in law who is visiting this weekend. See you soon M!

Blow Up

Do you remember the last time your significant other went BANANAZ?

I do! 

It was Sunday. I was generously making him a turkey sandwich with the delicious leftovers from White Grandma's house. All was good in the world.

Until he felt the bread. 

"Are you serious? Vicky! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!?!?!"

"Come here. Feel this. FEEL this."

But I didn't need to go there. Or feel that. I knew exactly what I did. It wasn't on par with killing a small adorable animal. But apparently darn close. 

I dared to use the piece of bread that's closet to the heel. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW I GREW UP.

You use the heel of the bread to keep the next piece fresh. So it's fine to use that piece in a sandwich.

"No. No. NO it isn't! You always use the last piece AND the piece next to it. FEEL THIS. You've now wasted two pieces of bread!"

Actually, you have. When I'm done with a loaf of bread, all that remains are those two end pieces. Not the the end pieces and an extra piece. If you just eat that first piece every time, it doesn't have time to get stale. Right?

"NO. That is ALL WRONG. I can't BELIEVE YOU USED THAT PIECE. YOU ARE WRONG. SO wrong. Why would you do that? I can't believe you did that." *Scraping bits of turkey off the offensive piece of bread*

"Why Vicky? WHY? Why would you do that?"

He puts mayonnaise on another piece of bread, throws the devil piece away and says, "You should blog about that. You are WRONG So wrong."

So I put it to you: eat the first slice every time? Or use the heel and the first slice as buffers?

After the breadcrumbs settled we had a good belly laugh. I was like, "Dude, you totally lost it over a piece of bread."

I guess I'm a lucky wife if that's what puts my husband over the top.

Avocado Balls

If your husband dangled these in front of you first thing in the morning after coming home from a 24 hour shift, you know what you'd say? "YUM!"

I mean, the medical booty, the brownish greenish stain oozing through the pores of the fabric, the hint of round edibles underneath. That screams "appetizing!" and "can't wait to taste THAT!"

Turns out, they were tiny avocados of the "Mexicola Grande" variety. According to Specialty Produce, and read aloud to me by The Good Doctor after a Google search, "Avocado varieties are identified as being either Type A or Type B. Mexicola Grande is an A variety. Type A varieties have flowers that open as females in the morning and close in the afternoon. The following afternoon the flowers open as a male. The male sheds its pollen and closes a few hours later, never to open again."

Did you hear that men? Never to open again. Be grateful you're not a Type A avocado flower.

One of The Good Doctor's colleagues has a tree with thousands and thousands of these tiny gems ready to be dropped into a medical booty and shared with lucky families such as ours.

P.S. Apparently they are not easy to peel, even with a potato peeler. Hence the bits of avocado skin under The Good Doctor's thumb nail. But he cleans up nicely if there are any hand modeling agents out there. Look at that smooth, milky white skin and those slender fingers!

Iced Coffee

Must try this recipe. Have just recently started dropping in on The Pioneer Woman blog, but her recipe for iced coffee--and the incredible photos that show you how to do it, are so mouth-watering. Going caffeine free due to baby but may just mix up a batch of decaf just to try her recipe. The Vietnamese version for sure.

Coffee lovers: I present to you: Perfect Iced Coffee, a photographic recipe. And bonus points if you bring me a glass.