Ani is a super-duper cook, and she got it from her momma (but also her dad).
You probably know that my mom, Rhonda, is one of the best cooks/bakeresses on the planet. She is most known for her bbq chicken pizza, fajitas, and baking far too many cakes for any one party. Her math goes something like… 20 people are coming to the party, the moon is crossing paths with jupiter, people probably want seconds, they’re each carrying seven sacks with seven cats and… 5. I should make 5 cakes! This over enthusaitic calculating has led to the official classification of leftover cake as a breakfast food in the Sittig house. Like I was saying, Ani’s cooking is aways tastetastic, like mom’s.
Now, I said Ani gained cooking skills from her Pops too. Although he’s less likely to roll his skills out for house guests, he’s actually a great cook! He’s never met a grain he doesn’t want cook up into a surprisingly delicious meal. The main cooking habit Ani has inherited from her Father is the habit of never cooking the same thing twice. Ani reads tonso food blogs, so she always has a new recipe to try! and, I’ll happily be her guinea pig any day.
So, what did Ani cook up during my most recent stay? I’m glad you asked.
Cobb Salad. See above. Ani served it salad bar style with homemade dressing. She’s a pro at making salad dressings, many many kinds.
Twice Baked Potatoes. Stuffed with bacon and spinach and cheese and mushrooms (only for the crazies that like that sort of thing). Yum! They were eaten too fast to photograph. Also, there was salad topped with oranges, avocados, cilantro and homemade vinaigrette (this was a modified mom recipe). Mmmm.
Chicken Tacos. Ani just whipped up some late night tacos with a recipe that was supposed to make them taste like taco bell tacos (thanks internet), but it turns out they were way better. Also, devoured without documentation.
Nectarine Coffee Cake. At the point when most folks would be ready to kick-out and/or strangle their 5-day-old house guest, Ani-pants got up early to throw together a really delicious coffee cake (and Brian made coffee).
One last culinary skill that Ani has mastered, is the ability to order just the right things for a family style meal at any restaurant. (She’ll even take into account my strange food aversions and/or preferences of the day, and order accordingly). The great advantage to eating family style is that you get to try more dishes. While this makes pretty normal sense at say a chinese restaurant, where family style eating is pretty much the norm, Ani can make it happen anywhere! Yes, she, Brian and I will split a burrito, and enchiladada and nachos at a Mexican restaurant. You get to try so much many more things that way! On this trip Ani put her dinner curating skills to good use at an Indian dinner at Indus, and a Thai lunch in their new neighborhood, where she chose these three, delishes dishes:
Sooo goood!
