So we're back from San Diego where we spent a joyful weekend celebrating the marriage of my best friend Michelle to another of my good friends from college, catching up with old friends and family, eating wonderful food, and enjoying some balmy SoCal weather.

Because Michelle is my best friend and knows me extremely well, she gave me a lovely cookbook gift for helping her with some silly wedding stuff. She's the one who began my Nigella obsession in the first place by giving me How To Eat a few years ago for my birthday. I had never read a cookbook before that fit so perfectly with how I think about and approach food, how I want to cook for my family, and how I want to feed my children someday. I don't think I've ever cooked a bad Nigella recipe, and I'm constantly returning to her books to experiment, tweak, and explore. I've been wanting Nigella Bites for a while, and as we drove up from San Diego yesterday, I devoured the entire book, marking off a week's worth of recipes to try.

I drove straight to the Whole Foods when we got home and last night I made "Double Potato and Halloumi Bake" which is just roasted veggies with some halloumi (greek cheese) melted on top at the very end. You'd think this wouldn't be anything special, since it's just a potato, a sweet potato, an onion, a bit of garlic, a red pepper, and a yellow pepper tossed with oil and pepper, roasted, and then sprinkled with cheese and broiled for about 5 minutes. But this is exactly why I adore Nigella's recipes: it's gorgeously colored, the flavors work perfectly together (the peppers don't overpower, which they have a tendency to do), took all of 20 seconds to prepare, and is going on permanent rotation in my kitchen. M loved it too...always a good sign.

The only thing was that I couldn't find Halloumi (I thought I'd seen it at WF last week, but I could have seen it elsewhere). We substituted Kasseri instead, and it was good, but I'd like to try the original recipe. Eh...it's just an excuse to head over to Berkeley this weekend and stop at The Cheeseboard.