Paella Night...Ole!

One of my favorite special occasion dishes is paella. My mom and I usually make it together, and when I was living in Spain, I either had it out or made it with my uncle. I don't even know if I've ever made one alone now that I think about it! Anyway, we were having our friends Dan and Nora over before life becomes really busy for them and they welcome their first baby in early May. We planned to do a Sequence night awhile ago and just got around to it this weekend. Given our unusually lovely spring weather, I wanted to make something on the grill and decided a paella would be perfect for the occasion. Hearty and delicious, yet even better made on the grill, allowing us to enjoy our bit of nice weather.

Pancetta and Asparagus Fritatta

I was in charge of the majority of Easter brunch this year since I was off the hook for making much of our Easter dinner the night before. As was the request last year as well, I made my grandma's ricotta cheese pancakes. Someday I might feel generous and give you all that recipe. And remember to take pictures...that day has not come. I did, however, manage to remember to take a couple of shots of our frittata. I started off thinking to make this lovely quiche, care of the talented Sacha over at Eating In or Out. But I thought better of it after the pancake request and the fact that we already had a lot of carb and fat deliciousness happening with the pancakes. 

Ganache-Filled Cupcakes

Last week was not only St. Patrick's Day, but also one of my best friend's birthdays. Since my husband and I officially became a couple more-or-less on St. Patty's Day (7 years ago!), we didn't always get to celebrate with her. The festivities would also almost always fall on the night before the Shamrock Run, an annual run in downtown Portland that I had done for 7 years. This year, I decided to skip the race since it was the day after St. Patty's Day and I wanted to be there for the party. My friends have an ideal house for a party and there was plenty of Jameson to go around. I wanted to make something fun and delicious to go along with the party's obvious theme. I found this recipe for a so-called "Irish Carbomb" cupcake recipe on Pinterest (follow me!) and thought they would be perfect for the party. I ended up going back to the original Smitten Kitchen recipe and ended up following that one as I couldn't tell what the "adaptation" from the original recipe was and I trust the Smitten Kitchen recipes a little more, having some experience with her recipes.

Updates

It's been well over a month since I updated the blog. I have been cooking and I've thought about blogging, but for the few readers I have who don't know what's been happening in my life, I'll provide a quick update.

Homemade Bagels

Next on my list of baking goals was the bagel. I'm a big fan of bagels and after our bagel experience in NYC, I couldn't satisfy my bagel craving with pretty much anything in Portland. Kettleman Bagels are pretty good, but I just heard they were bought by Noah's, so there goes that option.

Weekend Breakfast: Eggs Benedict

Yes, this is really what I made for breakfast on Sunday

And no, I didn't just order eggs benedict to go from Sanborn's down the street and pass it off as my own.

Superbowl Snacks

Pretzels cooling on the rack...it took all the strength we had to not bite right into them

Here it is days past the Superbowl and I am just getting to this post. I think we're still depressed.