Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Serious eats and Smitten Kitchen.

Greece or Thailand. I did Thailand the summer before I started my PhD and luckily the boss let me out for two weeks to explore Greece last summer. Both foodie-worthy and a great treat to yourself before immersing yourself in school.

my first encounter with a cookbook was in girl scouts, when we assembled our own made of all the girl's recipe. I contributed apple crisp, but to my horror, one girl's recipe was for bologna cups... bologna put in muffin cups with an egg, then bake. That sounded wretched then and and still sounds just as awful now.

Funny you should ask, I just tried them for the first time this past Monday. I wanted some fresh sweet corn ravioli. I used wonton wrappers as well.

The filling was sweet corn sauteed with red pepper and roasted poblano, that was then pulsed in the food processor, and then mixed with some monterey jack cheese. I folded them so they ended up more like tortellini and just gently boiled them until they floated, probably only a few minutes. I then carefully lifted them out and put them on waxed paper spaced out a bit so they could dry a little. My sauce was a bit more corn, butter, chicken stock and some sliced up amazing mango jalapeno chicken sausage we had lying about. I popped the ravioli/tortellinis back in the sauce at then end. It was really good and the raviolis weren't too watery at all. The wonton skins do end up thinner than your traditional pasta but it didn't bother me in the slightest. I
I have another half of the package of wonton skins to make more summery ravioli... maybe fresh peas, mint and ricotta, or tomato confit and goat cheese. Hope this helps.

We stayed at a hotel in Santorini that was built around a 400 year old wine cave and got to do a wine tasting of Greek wines with their sommelier. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. Absolutely amazing. I still have a bottle of Nyktheri I need to drink soon. It will be nice to see Greek wines get some more credit in the future.

A Culver's ButterBurger... I'm from Wisconsin, so of course, that has to be it. With cheese, please. I didn't eat red meat for ever and ever, but this won me back.

Eating sliced tomatoes right out of the garden with my dad.... sprinkled with a bit of sugar. That's a whole summer squeezed into one bite.

Risotto made with tomatoes and sausage but with a ton of chopped fresh spinach folded in at the end. The spinach wilts and is amazing.

Roasted Veggies and Orzo is always good, and if we need the protein we throw in some pre-cooked chicken sausage but its great without it!

On days that end in Y
Happiness is found in a meal with some

Meat
Yet only one type will do

Preferably crispy
Invariably heavenly
Ginormous heaps of bacon!

Short ribs braised on a long cold Sunday

Gotta love my home state, & give a shout out to WI cheese curds. Oh and Goia Burrata