Allie Oop's Photo Blog

Finally after months of waiting it had warmed up enough (about 32 degrees) and we could fire up the grill for a taste of summer! Perfect dinner of grilled cheeseburgers and Cantaloupe!

Story of this whole trip to follow

My sister and I stopped by this place called Pockets, after she picked me up from the train.  We had planned on making chicken wings but it was too late to marinate and get them all ready so we decided to make them for lunch the next day. This place was really good, and apparently very popular with the Chicago PD.  There were 3 tables of them when we walked in and 2 more undercover cops came in after us!

Spinach-Pear Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

*2 Bosc pears, cored and thinly sliced
*1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
*3 tablespoons water
*2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 5 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
* 1½ teaspoons stone-ground mustard
* ¾ teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
* ¼ cup (1 ounce) shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Combine pear slices and spinach in a large bowl. Combine water and the next 6 ingredients (through pepper), stirring with a whisk. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad, and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with cheese.

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner so I volunteered my friends version of burritos. She makes them with a tortilla, beans, cheese, peppers and salsa. This version I made was basically a taco baked for a few minutes. We put hamburger, cheese, salsa, and lettuce. Rolled it up and baked it in the oven for a few minutes.

My boyfriend and I frequently go to Ruby Tuesday’s. He loves the salad bar and their mini hamburgers. This time I decided to mix it up a bit and get a REAL hamburger. I had the bacon cheese burger. It was pretty good, although not perfect. The amount of bacon and cheese on one side of the burger was twice that of the other, which made my 2nd half of the burger quite boring.

Ingredients:
2 slices of Sara Lee Honey Wheat
Margarine/Butter
Pesto
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions
1. Melt butter in a nonstick pan over low heat.

2. Butter one of two slices of bread, then add a slice of your favorite cheese. Assemble.

3. Put the slice of bread that is buttered, butter side down on the pan, add the cheese. Apply pesto to the other slice of bread, cover the cheese with the pesto side.

4. Turn temperature up to medium. Check every few minutes to make sure the heat isn’t too high and causing the underside of the sandwich to burn.

5. When the underside of the sandwich is golden brown and the cheese is melting out the sides, turn over the sandwich and brown the other side over medium heat.

6. Slice diagonally, and enjoy!

Acorn Squash

Recipe:

Cut Squash in half. Put in a microwave safe pan cut sides down, put in a little water. Microwave covered for 10-12 minutes. Flip over and put a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of Brown Sugar in each half.
Sprinkle with Nutmeg.

Enjoy!

Unlike alot of people my group of friends in Madison are my friends from high school. It’s hard to explain but we weren’t exactly good friends till highschool ended and I was accepted into their group. I hung out with one of these girls, “B”, in 8th grade when I moved here, and another one, “E”, I went on a trip to New York with that same year, but we weren’t friends exactly. E and I became friends when I was on Yearbook our senior year of Highschool, when I was taking pictures of the Gymnastics team for the spread I was working on. At that point I had no idea we’d become friends. L and I met through one of our other friends K. We had study hall together and would goof off on online forums. She changed how I viewed cyberspace. K was in many of my classes from freshman year through senior year. Our senior year, I was invited to K’s house for a Pre-prom party. I bonded with these girls that night over burgers, brats, boys, and my first viewing of Top Gun.

Four years later we graduated from college. Every summer we hung out together, at the union or just watching movies and eating brownies at someone’s house. The past 3 years since College graduation, E has lived out west and now returned home, K has gotten married and moved out east, B has now gotten married and soon with move to South Dakota, and tomorrow L leaves for Texas.

This fondue dinner was a celebration of many different things, marriage, birthdays, moving on, and life.