Such a wonderful

When I heard about Alyssa and Faith’s brilliant Food Blogger Cookbook Swap, I knew I had to take part. I am a cookbook fiend – no better bedtime reading than a fresh, brand-spankin’-new-to-me cookbook. I’m weird.

The premise is this: Send a gently used cookbook from your collection – perhaps one that’s collecting a bit of dust – to another food blogger that also signed up for the swap. And you’ll receive one, too! I was totally in.

I sent a candy-making cookbook called Sugarbaby to Adriana of Great Food 360. And then my cookbook arrived. Yay! The multi-talented Rose of Avocado Bravado sent me a lush, oversized Turkish cuisine cookbook that she picked up during her travels in Istanbul a couple of years ago. Lucky me!

The section of vegetarian recipe contained mouthwatering choice after mouthwatering choice, but ultimately I settled upon a recipe for Potatoes Baked with Tomatoes and Feta.


I’m an olive nut, so it was important for me to double the amount of olives called for in the recipe, and then add “olives” to the title. Olives are one of life’s little pleasures. Especially kalamata olives. Come to mama, dear olives.

Ahem.

You know, it’s occurred to me recently that I really haven’t created many sides for this blog, and I need to change that. After all, substantial sides are a staple in our mixed-diet kitchen. They work as the main act for me, and as a side dish for my carnivorous guy. (Meanwhile, the picky toddler sits in her booster seat munching on bacon, but that’s a story for another day money lender interest.)

Anyway, these Potatoes Baked with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta are certainly a main-dish-worthy side. A mix of diced tomatoes, red onions, and spices blanket Baby Yukon Gold potatoes and kalamata olives. Crumble some feta cheese over the top, and then bake to perfection
  

Mimi’s Cafe has some great breakfast options, and one of my favorites is their “Sparking Strawberry” beverage. It’s only strawberry lemonade mixed with sparkling champagne, but I always looked forward to it whenever we were up early enough to go to breakfast. I never put much thought into making it at home – it was just a special treat for when were able to go out.

Then a few months ago, Mimi’s Cafe quietly closed half of their locations, including the one that was a 5 minute drive from our house. I was heartbroken and more than a little butthurt, since this particular Mimi’s was in a great location, had friendly servers, and was always packed for breakfast. It’s not like they were struggling 4g lte.

But despite how much of a bummer it was, there did end up being a silver lining. It finally gave me the motivation I needed to make my favorite drink at home, and probably for a faction of what I paid for it at the restaurant.

Originally I thought the difficult part would be to hunt down a good (and reasonably priced) sparkling champagne. As luck would have it, BevMo had plenty of Freixenet Cordon Negro in stock, which is same brand used by Mimi’s Cafe. They even had the same individual-sized bottles (187ml) for $4.99 a piece Chinese Business Studies.

The next step was picking out a strawberry lemonade recipe. I wanted something that would guarantee a lot of flavor and felt this one from the Food Network would be a good starting point. Bonus points that the original recipe calls for sparkling water, which I just replaced with the sparkling champagne Web Attack.