Cowboy Caviar

I love that football season is here again. It's definitely more fun when Travis and I are able to watch games on TV, but here in Okinawa the games are usually on at odd hours.... like 2 am. Besides, we don't have a satellite dish or cable subscription- the monthly fee wasn't worth getting 5 American channels and 10 Japanese ones. Just didn't make sense, ya know? So we catch highlights on the military network at our respective jobs and live vicariously through friends on Facebook. We're both looking forward to next year when we'll move back to the States and can maybe get to a mid-season game or two!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't really have much of a sweet tooth... I'm more of a salty, crunchy person, though every now and then a well done chocolate chip cookie is worth every granule of sugar and butter inside! There is an upcoming "Dinner in the Barracks" for some of tho Marines who work with Travis and live in the barracks... since they usually eat whatever the mess hall is serving that day, the craving for home cooked foods can be pretty intense. The wives of the squadron, including me, like to play mother hen and take care of them,

World's Best Lasagna

Here-ye, here-ye -- friends and fellow pasta lovers!

Behold, the last lasagna recipe you will ever need!

I have declared, for the official record of my household and, well, for the rest of my natural cooking life that this lasagna is by far the best one I've tried yet.

Ice Cream Monkey Bread

This bread is crack. I mean it- it's literally addictive. My friend Kim made this the first time I had it, and if I didn't like her so much I would think she were trying to sabotage my life with this bread. I was introduced to monkey bread a few years ago when Travis and I first met and his mom made it for one of my visits, and I instantly fell in love.... with the bread. Oh with Travis too, I guess!

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of this surprisingly delicious dish. I have a good excuse, I promise: I fed my coworkers. My overworked, under-appreciated, exhausted coworkers. The enlisted corpsmen live in dorm style barracks and have little to no facilities to cook food on their own, so they are forced to choke down whatever the hospital's cafeteria has to offer (Hospital food = bad. Military chow hall food = bad. Combine those and that's what they eat daily) or take a taxi out into town since most don't have cars and pay a lot more money to eat local cuisines. I feel for them, I do. I remember missing certain foods when I was a freshman in college and having no money but being completely sick of the cafeteria food. The other option was the 7-11 style store, which sold frozen dinners and junk food, which also gets old extremely fast.