This is What I Cooked Last Night- Shrimp Risotto and Rosemary Bread

I just felt like baking a little yesterday.  Usually I'm not the biggest baking fan, but sometimes you need some crusty homemade bread.  Since we are completely being taken over by my rosemary, I decided on this herby bread recipe from Pioneer Woman (isn't she the BEST?!).  There is something pretty amazing watching this

go from this

to this

to this crusty delicious knot of awesome.  This bread is cooked in a pot so it 'blooms' into this beautiful hunk.

This recipe for shrimp risotto is DELICIOUS!! Granted, I'd never made risotto before so I'm just assuming.  Plus, I trust Epicurious the same way I trust Wikipedia- implicitly! :-)  I doubled it because generally when a recipe yields 2 servings it is not nearly enough for my husband and I (and the Peeps eats what we eat so he needed some too!), but doubled to 4 I have a LOT left over.  

I use frozen shrimp, thawed because it's almost always cheaper and it is the same thing that is in the 'fresh case' (Yes, it is...don't you watch Dateline?).  And I always use homemade chicken stock.  If you don't, can I just plead with you to start?  It's pretty much the easiest thing in the world to keep on hand and it makes a HUGE HUGE difference in everything.  

Also, I don't cook with wine so I generally sub 1/2 and 1/2 with chicken stock and cider vinegar.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe to a T and it rocked! 

YUMMMMMMMM.  And that bread was so good that I'm eating it for breakfast right now with a swipe of blackberry jelly.

Baylor Says...

We were on a plane traveling to Virginia for Christmas this past December when Baylor, of course, became the star of row 24.  As we were waiting our turn to leave he was entertaining everyone around him with what we call his party tricks.  We ran through the usual and then we asked him "Baylor, where is your heart?" and he patted his chest.  Awwwwwwwww, said the crowd.  "Baylor, who is in your heart?" "Jesus in my heart!" AWWWWWWWWW!!!  The crowd is gushing to each other, a few wiping little tears (maybe I imagined that) away.  Then as we leave our seat to make our way down the aisle and everyone is saying goodbye to Baylor, he turns and waves enthusiastically saying "Peace out homies!"  Wow.