Hungry? We were!

Confession time: I've been known to spend a minute or two every so often browsing the Pinterest homepage. And before you judge me, let me tell you that the food ideas on there are absolutely genius! So if you've never been, go there! Speaking of food, Heather and I thought we would bring you a mostly food-related blog this week.

On Saturday we went to Hendersonville to a gun range to do some target shooting. Not surprisingly, the place was totally packed including a waiting list for the range. So we just looked around and moved on. After a little craft shopping, we went to see the Bourne Legacy. Our rating? We gave it a solid B+. I'd give the first three movies between A- and solid A(+)s. Do they even give A+s in school anymore? This fourth one was a big foggy in plot and character development. At the end of the movie, I still didn't feel totally motivated to root for the lead character. There were a few fundamental elements in the plot that were not clearly explained, and a couple action sequences were drawn out far too long. That said, the essential components of an action movie were definitely in place and it was entertaining! Certainly well worth the $5.50 matinee price per ticket we paid! After the movie, we grabbed dinner at Olive Garden. With a $25 gift card, we spent $11 on dinner. If you don't have a calculator handy, that's $22 for dinner and a movie out on the town! You're a cheap date honey. WHAT'S THAT??? I thought she was hard of hearing so I was like, "YOU'RE A CHEAP DATE HONEY!!"  Haha, Love that Sonic commercial! :)  Yesterday and today were spent mostly at home, and mostly baking and/or watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Parks & Recreation. Solid lazy weekend!

Yesterday we made an apple pie with our first attempt at caramel sauce, and today I made a small batch of beef jerky. These things, along with a viewing of Julie and Julia at home yesterday, have put me squarely in a foodcentric state of mind for this blog post. So without further ado, here are some pics of a few of our latest kitchen creations! As always, you can see each picture in higher resolution by clicking on them. Enjoy!


Salami, spinach, and other things all wrapped up in pizza dough

General Tso's chicken and cauliflower

Margarita pizza with garden fresh basil

My first attempt at making caramel! What a great process this is! I've always known that caramel is made by simply heating up sugar, but it is a really neat thing to see!

Here's the caramel in an intermediate state. There were still a few chunks in there but of course it all melts down to pure deliciousness. Unfortunately, I think I had my heat too high because the caramel started to smoke a bit too early (when the last chunk had just melted) and it quickly started to darken. What I ended up with was a rich amber colored caramel sauce that had a slight burnt taste to it. But hey, not bad for a first attempt! Next time I'll go with lower heat and I think I'll end up with something really delicious.

Lastly, here are a few shots of the beef jerky! If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to share my recipe and a few tricks I've discovered after making this a few times!