Not long ago we raided our friend Jen's recipe book for one that drives both husbands crazy during the non pumpkin season and last weekend decided that one good dish deserves another. Now this one wasn't nearly as famous as the pumpkin pie bars were but when you've got a hankering for shrimp, butter and a big delicious mess this is the one to turn to. If you can think of something better than a buttery shrimpy mess to top off a wildly busy and productive weekend we'd like to know about it! Why was our weekend wild, busy and productive you ask? We're glad that you did! If you remember waaaay back when we started, we go super excited about finally putting grass in the front yard (and no longer looking like the biggest hillbillies on the block). Well now we're only a few days away from being that

Last month Eric's parents went on vacation, right around the time their fruit trees ripened. They left about a day or two before the first fruits came into their own. Actually, this happens every year, why vacations in this family have always happened around the time the fruit ripens we'll never know, but you can plan a harvest by his parents vacation calender. This year they went chasing an eclipse in the South Pacific, (something Eric's dad Pat has always dreamed of seeing with his own eyes and finally saw one this time, after getting rained on twice before) and we raided the back yard with buckets and fruit pickers. Later, when we were hearing all about the trip Pat mentioned that it was really peculiar that all the fruit was gone. We told them that it was delicious. Charisse ate some straight up, we tossed some into this dish

This was probably the most beautiful pasta we have made so far. With amazingly fresh vegetables in the stores right now we want to incorporate them into every dish we make. Zucchini is Charisse's absolute favorite vegetable and pasta is her favorite food, so any time we can combine the two, Charisse is a happy happy girl. The only problem with having a favorite food that is healthy for your, inexpensive and easy to cook is that you end up cooking it a couple of times a week and after awhile sauteed zucchini gets boring. This is where a couple of kitchen gadgets come in handy. Somehow, cutting your veggies differently (julienne for example) creates an entirely new texture and gives the same old veggies a new kick. We decided on some beautiful thick zucchini ribbons to serve with our shrimp and pasta. If you have a potato peeler in

Last Saturday was Charisse's day to cook us a date night dinner. In our plan, we had all afternoon to chop, mince, slice and create a romantic three course meal for two.Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well. Our good friend had a baby shower that morning and after all the fun and games Charisse didn't get home until 6:30pm and was completely exhausted and coming off a sugar high from all the cake and baby shaped jello (yes, a baby shaped jello mold....it was a bit scary!). So instead of mincing, chopping, and slicing, Charisse ended up horizontal on the couch debating whether or not to order a pizza for dinner. Unfortunately we can't  blog about Pizza Guys (our favorite pizza place in San Jose, and no, its not a paid link!) so she gathered all her strength and dragged herself to the kitchen. We diced and sliced going