Eating, the willy garden final harvest, more eating, a couple recipes and a restaurant review

Here's what we've been doing this week:
Eating.
Ok, there have been other things, but most of the good stuff revolves around the food we enjoyed.
The other night when I threw a bunch of onions and garlic into a pot to saute for soup, I drew in a BIG deep breath and smelled. "Mmmmm," I said, "who knew I'd grow up to be a pretty decent cook?" and without skipping a beat, Aaron replied, "I did. I could tell it was in you."
Cute right? I love him. He added that he never could have married someone that didn't love food as much as he did...he'd never truly be satisfied. Well. I'm happy to know that my love of food meets Aaron's expectations. We're eating up a storm of goodness right now.
For my fellow Foodie readers, I share:

A Note from the chef (chefess? I really should learn Spanish. I love the idea of masculine and feminine words): Y'all might want to loosen up your jeans a bit before reading this. Success in the Willy Kitchen is about to get real.

1) Thanks to our crazy surplus of jalapenos (we picked 4 lbs before the frost) we'll be snacking on baked Jalapeno Poppers this week. I wonder if I could make a bunch of these and freeze them.

2) We harvested every last green tomato off the bushes and they are sloooowly turning red in brown paper bags on my counter top. It's a pain to wait, but so worth it because I've been mass producing batches of Roasted Tomato Basil Soup. So far, we're eating it as fast as I can make it, but I plan to freeze some of the next batch. This is hands down the best soup I have ever eaten. Ever.
And I made it from scratch
from ingredients that I grew
and that makes me very happy :)

3) Pesto! We love pesto up in here. It's colorful, it's delicious, and thanks to our bountiful basil plants it's practically free...and I am all about free eats.

4) Butternut Squash Soup. I am sad to say that we only managed to harvest 4 butternut squash from the crop I planted before the frost, and I don't know if there will be any more since it is going to get cold soon. The tiny acorn and spaghetti squash were so promising, too. Stupid winter. The plants aren't totally dead, but they don't look fantastic anymore. Next year, I will try to remember to plant our fall squash 2 or 3 weeks earlier so we can enjoy a better autumn harvest. But since we have squash, we are making this soup weekly and it is a big hit with everyone who tries it.

5) Emily's Apple Blackberry Pie. Yum. My homemade pies are never as tasty or as pretty as Emily's are, but it's still pretty delicious and super Autumny. The recipe isn't mine to share, but if you stop by this week, I'll feed you a slice and buy your friendship, cuz yeah...it's that good. Kasey must have had the same brain today, because she dropped off an apple galette this evening. Winning!

6) Brownies from scratch. Yeah, I've never done that before. In the Willy House, brownie's usually come from a box or my friends. The other night, I had a major brownie emergency (read: there weren't any in our house) and I made these:

Baker's Chocolate Brownies
4 squares unsweetened Baker's chocolate
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) of butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts

{1} Heat oven to 350* (325* for a glass pan)
{2} Melt chocolate and butter in a large glass bowl in the microwave (about 2 minutes). Stir until chocolate is completely melted
{3} Stir sugar into chocolate. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix.
{4} Stir in flour and nuts
{5} Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch pan
{6} Bake 30-35 minutes
{7} Eat
{8} Eat
{9} Eat
{10} Repeat steps 7-9

7) Zucchini Wrapped Pork with pesto sauce1 small zucchini cut lengthwise into 8 thin slices
1 pork tenderloin cut crosswise into 4 equal portions
olive oil
1/3 prepared basil pesto (no shortage of that around here!)
leafy greens or asparagus (optional)
fresh lemon (optional)

{1} preheat oven to 450*
{2} line baking pan with foil
{3} wrap each tenderloin with two zucchini slices. Place in pan and brush with olive oil. season with salt and pepper and squirt of fresh squeezed lemon juice
{4} roast, uncovered, 18-20 min for 12oz tenderloin or 25-30 min for 16oz tenderloin or until meat is 160*
{5} spoon pesto over each tenderloin just before serving.

Sounds yummy, right? Can't wait.

8) Chicken Drummies

(I don't take good food photos. you can say it. I'm aware.)

ingredients:
-chicken drumsticks (I love these because they are sooo cheap. Aaron does not love these because he doesn't like picking the meat off the bone. The result is that I don't make them very often...but when I do, I remember how good they are!)

-a couple eggs

-shake parmesan cheese (yeah, the crappy stuff for your pizza that you get in a green can that lasts forever.)

-bread crumbs (here is where you can get creative. You can use the store bought Italian bread crumbs and call it good. You can use smashed Ritz crackers. You can make your own crumbs by toasting the heels from a loaf of wheat bread and smashing them in a Ziploc baggie. This time, I used 2 slices of bread (toast, make into crumbs) and 2 large hand fulls of those Red Pepper chips they have at Sam's Club that are 40% pepper (and are totally addicting---thanks a lot, Tia!) smashed to smithereens.

Directions:
{1} in a gallon bag, mix 1 part shake cheese to 2 parts bread crumbs (or whatever you choose to use for crumbs)
{2} beat eggs in a bowl. Dip chicken into eggs, then into the crumbs then BACK into the eggs and into the crumbs again. THIS is an important step to get the perfect crumby coverage and crunchity crusty coating.
{3} place chicken in single layer in a foil lined baking dish
{4} cover and bake at 350* for 45 minutes. Remove cover after 30 minutes.
{5} we like these with el cheapo 99 cents a box Au Gratin potatoes or instant stuffing (shown above).

and now a couple restaurant reviews:
9) Travola Trattoria -this is a newish restaurant in downtown Bentonville that we tried out for our date night last weekend. It has the same owners as Table Mesa (one of our faves) so we knew the food wouldn't disappoint, but I have to say, the atmosphere was awful. Rather than sitting in a cozy Italian restaurant, we felt like we were in a bomb diner slash IKEA cafe slash what had once been a sushi bar. Lots of bamboo and Asian influences, everything was clean and modular like an IKEA, and we were seated in sterile booths, rather than at a linen covered table.
The food? Excellent.
We ate:
Yummy focaccia bread: not much...we were each served one slice of the "we only serve free bread because this is Italian cuisine and that's what we're expected to do", but it was excellent, and I so prefer a small amount of something wonderful over a huge basket of crap that you eat only because it is there and you are hungry.
chicken in lemon sauce: this was fabulous. I need to find a recipe. It reminded me of the lemony sauce chicken from Bucca di Beppo but the chef actually listened when I said, "easy on the capers". It was also loaded with artichoke hearts which were perfect and now I can't imagine a good lemon sauce without them.
a basic pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. The crust was thick and doughy and delicious, which we appreciated, since most of our local pizza favorites serve thin crust to perfection. We were stoked to have a pier 39 style thick crust pizza served to us. It was really good.
We skipped dessert and shared a bag of hot fresh tiny donuts at the movie theater where Aaron was one of 3 males in a packed showing of Footloose (it should be noted that the movie was Aaron's choice). It was a good remake and we totally loved it.
Restaurant Summary: Great food. Get takeout next time. It was too confusing for my brain to eat such a delicious meal, but feel like I was sitting in Hibachi Grill or Hollabong Gardens.

10) Table Mesa is one our favorite dinner spots, so we went there for our date on Saturday night before going to stake conference. We love eating here. The food is always excellent and the service is fast. The atmosphere is nice but not "kid friendly" (which is the main reason we don't take the kids there--it's definitely a date spot). We used to branch out and try new things and they are always good, but none of them top our favorites, the pork flautas with cream sauce, Spanish rice, and black beans. Mmmmmm. We always share an order of sweet potato fries with caramel sauce that are only ONE. DOLLAR. I can't even describe how happy that makes my inner (outer) cheapskate, and an order of fresh guac (their homemade chips and fried plantains are great). I also love their key lime tres leches cake. "It's so good I wanna take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant."

Wow.
Am I still talking about food?
Are you still reading this?
Know what's sad? I'm not even done. I have more to talk about and more yummy food links to share, so come back another day and we'll finish our convo.
Are you starving?
I am.
I need more pie...