An Ambitious Sunday.

Though ungodly busy with school and an attempt to balance my other non-school related interests, I still have time to cook on Sundays. This is something that will not give. Today was our most ambitious menu to date, and left me feeling tired but satisfied. The menu was as follows:

Appetizer:
Chevre and Baguette
Baba Ganoush

Drink:
Hungarian Bull's Blood Wine

Main Course:
Seasoned Salmon
Apple Chicken Sausages

Side Dishes:
Apple Butternut Squash Risotto with Caramelized Onions
Toasted Squash Seeds with Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
Raw Veggie Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Dessert:
Zucchini Bread
Apple Berry Medley topped with Pecan Oat Crunch

Really, who eats this way? My motto in life, I've come to realize is: Simple? No thanks.

Carmelized Onion Flatbread

After a long and stressful day of classes, I find that having something yummy around really soothes my soul. This was just what I needed. Caramelizing onions is one of those things that takes forever, but the results are well worth it. This is simply a piece of Tandori Naan, topped with melted Gruyere cheese and then smothered with peppery caramelized onions. It was amazing. These little things keep me sane in such stressful times as these!

Egri Bikaver

Yesterday afternoon I went shopping with my parents at the local Trader Joe's. It was up to me to pick out the red wine, since it is still hot outside, I seem to be the only one in my house drinking it. I decided to look for some Hungarian wine, on the off chance that a store in Albuquerque, New Mexico would have some. Sure enough, on the bottom shelf, tucked in a corner, I came across Bull's Blood wine from Eger. I jumped around elatedly (in my mind at least) at having found a Hungarian wine that I had even heard of! I had read a little blurb about its rich history in my Eyewitness travel book.

The story goes like this: In the 16th century when the Magyars were holding off the Turks (like everyone else at the time) they drank copious amounts of this wine, and rumor spread amongst the Turks that they had added Bull's blood to the wine to keep them fierce and strong.

Great story. Tonight, being Sunday and unofficial wine night, I opened up our first bottle of Hungarian wine, and it is so delicious. I kept the cork to make a necklace out of. My family all tried it as well, and hot weather or not, the Bull's Blood rests sleepily in all of our bellies tonight.

Sweet Nothings

Apparently last night I was saying Hungarian phrases in my sleep. A half asleep John repeated them back to me. I think I can remember it if I think hard enough. There's nothing quite like sleepy Hungarian phrases muttered in the middle of the night.

New Painting

Wow, blogging has been a little slow lately...I blame the nine classes that I'm taking. I'm unfortunately not taking Advanced Painting like I had wanted to, so I am filling up my free time with this new painting I started a few days ago. I drew a beautiful sketch so I actually transferred it the proper way (with a grid). So here she is. I just put on the first layer of grisaille (gray underpainting) which will eventually be glazed over with colors to create a more rich and realistic surface. I think I love her.