I feel as if its been forever since I had an opportunity to cook and to write. Two weeks ago I was at a training class in Dana Point and although the view was beautiful I didn't think you would all be enthralled by my detailed account of how to make microwave popcorn in a hotel room. And last week I had one of those weeks where you just get your ass handed to you at work...no other way to describe it...75 hours in 6 days and truth be told I just didn't have a lot of time to cook. So this weekend has lent me the opportunity to catch up with my kitchen, other peoples kitchens and my blog.

This weekend has lent me some new opportunities and experiences. I catered my first Poker Party...making slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad. However, it was strange not to be able to taste my food...so here are the recipes but I can't vouch for them other than to say I did receive some positive text messages from some inebriated connoisseurs. I actually did try a bite of the potato salad and it was really good, but it hadn't had a chance to chill yet.

The pulled pork is super easy and perfect for this rainy weather as you just throw everything in the crock pot and it can be done as quickly as 3-4 hours or as long as 7-8 hours depending on whether you decide to cook it on low or high. And the potato salad is definitely a truly traditional potato salad recipe. Love the hard boiled eggs and sweet relish.

I also had the opportunity to send a text message that said,"sorry I destroyed your kitchen." My good friend had a white kitchen until I volunteered to come over and make Tomato Vodka Soup and exploded the blender not once, not twice but I think a total of 3 times so that everything within a 4 ft radius was covered in soup....myself included.



However, the soup was really good. You saute sun dried tomatoes in chicken broth while you cook the vegetables in olive oil. Infusing the chicken broth with the tomato flavor was a really great and easy way to add additional flavor. The vegetables are then deglazed with vodka...I don't know if it matters what type of vodka but I used vodka from the Netherlands. Then you add crushed tomatoes, the sun dried tomato broth and some additional chicken broth and cook the mixture for approximately 15 minutes. Then the fun and entertainment started with the blender (I should have taken a pic of her kitchen). Finally, add the cream giving the soup a smooth texture. Overall, this soup has great flavor and we didn't over blend the soup mixture so it still had some texture from the vegetables which was nice. I also have to say that the recipe calls for dipping the rim of the bowl in a spice mixture of celery salt, garlic powder and paprika and we opted to just sprinkle the spices on the top of the soup and it was really good and added some nice additional flavor. 

I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is in 4 days. I do have to say I am thankful for the fact that I am not cooking the whole meal this year just because I feel like my schedule is non-stop. However, I do have the very overwhelming responsibility of providing the stuffing. And of course I can't do traditional Stove Top stuffing that would just be so way too easy so I am going to try and make Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing...that adventure to follow

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy great food, time with friends and family and reflection on what you are thankful for. I know this has been a hard year for a lot of people and I can honestly say that I will be happy when 2011 is behind us however I still have so many things to be thankful for such as:

1. Amazing friends and family
2. Health
3. A great job at a time when so many people do not have the means to support themselves
4. Sense of humor
5. Good wine

Cheers and Happy Turkey Day!