The Lipstick Journal: Cooking With Love

I love good food!!!! One of my favorite pass times is to seek out new diners, dives, local joints, pubs and any where that serves good food and ale (okay I am more of a Martini/Cosmo girl but it sounds good anyway).... So with regret, I must say, my new city, Richmond, VA is a little short on the GOOD EATS!!! Me and the love of my life have traveled up and down the cobbled, colonial streets in search of trendy, romantic, or fun spots to get our bellies full and have been greeted with poor customer service, less than lacking ambiance, and worst of all bland, tasteless food!!!

I am originally from Atlanta, GA and Chris, my sweetheart is from Philadelphia, and I just have to toot the horns of both our beloved cities because we have been completely spoiled on the foody experience!!!

I mean we love going out and eating great food, so what are our options here? Well Chris, God bless him, suggested that we spend more time cooking and eating at home. Now, I love to eat, but my babes must be blinded by love, because this Go-Getter Girl does not know her way around a kitchen....#sigh... Okay, off to the store to find a cook book.

Chris and I have begun our research into the fine art of cooking and so far, this seems completely doable. Today we start our journey into domestic bliss. Armed with a great recipe for Ratatouille Mackerel, we struck out on our journey.

Good food starts with love and fresh ingredients. Cut up the vegetables right, sautee to perfection and voila, GOOD FOOD, GOOD MEAT, GOOD GOD, LETS EAT!!! We decided that if we were going to do this, we might as well do it right so we started our journey at the 17th Street Farmers Market, in Richmond. We spent time checking out the vendors' selections and also got in some quality time perusing a local Cigar and Wine shop in the area. We even met a few nice people while we were out.

Back at the house, we whipped out and wiped up the shiny new kitchen tools and set out to prepare a beautiful meal. Fresh vegetables are so freaking sexy!

I'm sure by now you are asking "What the heck is Ratatouille Mackerel??" Popping my collar, let me tell you what I have learned. :-) Ratatouille is a traditional French dish using onions, tomatoes, courgettes and often aubergine. (Hunhhhh...courgettes? aubergine?, don't worry we substitued them with red onions, yellow, orange and red peppers and garlic.) Ratatouille is a very versatile dish to which many other veggies can be added. We also subbed the Red Snapper for the Mackeral. So are you ready to see the outcome?!!!! Check out the images below. Just so you know, my Love gave it the stamp of approval and me a BIG OL' Kiss!! Imagine that, we cooked a beautiful meal together and you could actually taste the love in the finished product. Click on the following link for the recipe for Ratatouille Mackerel. http://www.101healthyeasyfoodrecipes.com/healthy-easy-seafood-recipes/ratatouille-mackerel-recipe.php