hawaiian style peanut butter blossoms

picked up a couple of bags of macadamia nut kisses on my last visit to hawaii and baked these, oh so yummy!

yummy homemade granola bars

my bff t gave me this cookbook for my birthday last year. this is the first recipe i made from this book and they are delicious! i've also made this as a granola which is especially tasty with soy milk or greek yogurt.

my love affair with vietnamese food

i would like to personally thank my friend jf for introducing me to this wonderful cuisine 10+ years ago. i seriously could eat vietnamese food everyday for the rest of my life, ask my DH. i was very fortunate living in diverse cities and being able to have whatever my palette craved for. the closest vietnamese restaurants is in baton rouge (60 miles) or new orleans (135 miles). everytime we travel a vietnamese restaurant is the first thing i look up. don't get me wrong, i'm very fortunate living here in cajun country with all the mouth-watering cajun cuisine. so the next best thing is making it at home. thank goodness we have a asian market where i can get a lot of my ingredients. i enjoy all the hot, sweet, sour, salty goodness that vietnamese food has to offer. funny how all the dishes look the same but served 3 different ways. reminds me of mexican food: taco, burrito, tostada. basically the same ingredients but served 3 different ways.

'Ole' Bento!

Today I have some leftovers from last nights supper. I made Pork Enchiladas but since it's R's fave I left it for his lunch today.

First tier: Pork Carnitas (used in enchiladas) and Mexican Rice and a bottle of Tomatillo Sauce

Second tier: Fresh Roasted Beets (from Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton Rouge) and Sweeeeeet Roasted Yellow Peppers from our garden

Secret compartment (under lid): Three Mango Cream Sandwich Cookies

I start a 6-week knitting class tonight. D is going to teach us to knit socks, I'm excited! The class is from 6-8pm so I brought this for my snack. Butter Crackers, Pepper jack Cheese and Grapes.

Abigail at Bento Yum inquired about my Herb Lime Rice and the Eggplant recipe. I found this recipe at Chowhound and modified it with our herbs that we grow in our garden. Not only did I use Cilantro, I added Italian Flat Parsley, Basil and Mint. Very fragrant. As for the Eggplant I just sliced, drizzled olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper and put em' on the grill. Easy-Peasy! I find roasting any vegetable moves it up to another dimension. I roasted Green Beans awhile back and my stepsons B and M really enjoyed them this way which is hard to believe because they would not even touch them before.

'Olé!', in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, used to express excited approval, for example at sporting events. Possibly derived from Arabic w-Allāh = "by Allah!", carried over from medieval Muslim rule in Spain.