food food food

it's funny the things that you start to miss when they aren't so readily available for you... since i have been living in Peru I have had that thought strike me.. lets just say a few times. and for me its usually those things that i never even really liked - or thought i liked - or gave much care to it's existence for that matter, until one day i realized i wasn't surrounded by it... and suddenly i wanted it. the other stuff  (that i did care existed) i think i knew i wasn't going to be able to have once I moved here.. and I prepared myself for it. i remember how much my mom would laugh at me when i went home for Christmas the past couple years, because well.. I love grocery stores. And we could have (probably did) spent an hour getting things that should have only taken 10 minutes. Because what else can you do when you go into a Kroger's (a well stocked Kroger's) but stand in each isle for at least 10 minutes just gawking at... everything. look at that! hey did you know they made this?! hey look at what's ready made in this box... just.. add.. water. by the end of it all i caught myself saying hey i could make that, for a lot cheaper too.. and without all those words you can't pronounce in the ingredients. that's what i've learned about things that i have missed about being readily available, i've made them myself.. and had more fun doing it. 
i'm currently trying to figure out why i started to miss eggnog. eggnog.. i don't know if i ever even drank it but one year in college when a friend made me try it. but this year... when its not sitting on each grocery shelf i pass.. quite out of nowhere i developed a craving for it. and i'm currently looking for a recipe so i can make it myself. although i'm a little nervous about it since you use eggs... any suggestions are very welcome!


speaking of food.... we've been i think i saved up a lot of cooking energy all that time that Julton's grandma was here, and cooking lunch everyday... and I've started sending Julton's lunch with him to work... since I found out that he was ordering his lunch from the restaurant all the others there order from.. but he didn't like it/wasn't eating it. new plan: get up early (for me) to make it... but its actually working out well, i don't like mornings but i like to cook so the cooking is slowly turning my mornings around :)

 i found a website that i really like for peruvian dishes... yanuq they have everything! although its in spanish so if you want to make something let me know and i will help! i used it for this lomo saltado recipe. but.. it doesnt usually come with broccoli, and i would never put broccoli in jultons lomo saltado, that was my dish, the broccoli in his plate would just return in the same box i sent it in anyway... its basically stirfried onions/pepper/meat/tomato on rice with fries. yum. oh, and i dont want to forget to mention pineapple water, which is what is pictured there also. jultons grandma taught me to make it... well... she didn't go into detail.. we had several conversations over the measurements (i'm beginning to think all grandmas are that way...!) and i nervously tried it out. you boil the pineapple... skin? then strain it and add sugar. 

 shrimp and grits! another thing i strangely had a craving for... although i never ate it much in the states. i used this recipe. but actually i added mushrooms.. i'm not sure if that's against the rules in making shrimp and grits, but if it is, i probably wont do it again anyway because i think it changed the flavor too much. but.. julton was a fan! he was a little weary about the grits though. he had to have everything separated... which i'm pretty sure means he just set himself up not to like them to begin with. after we ate he said.. you know.. i loved, loved the food.. but you know what would maybe make it better? fried potatoes!!! i couldnt help but laugh... of course adding another starch to a starch would make the starch taste better!  (ps i definitely saw that one coming... as i was cooking it i was already considering if i should make some rice or potatoes too...) and you can see in that picture... we got our oven! i am beyond exited about it... since we've been married we've been cooking with the top of a stove, never an oven. the first stove we had it didnt work, then when we moved jultons family gave us the stovetop... actually a lot of families here only have the top portion. i'm not even going to tell you how long the list is of things i have been wanting to make since we decided to get one. i have been... waiting! the only tricky thing about is that the oven dial doesn't have degrees.. in F or C it just says high and low. so i've got some figuring out to do on that part.. but.. we have an oven!!!!

and... surprisingly.... one of the first things i made with that oven was... meatloaf. i can't even remember the last time i ate meatloaf.. its had to have been years. and then a few more years. but when i was trying to think of something from home that julton would like... this was at the top of my list. and it was a winner.