The night I conquered burger making

I was on a no-red-meat and no-ground-meat kick for a while.  I just couldn't get past the idea of chewing on a steak or a burger (be it ground beef, turkey, or chicken).  Last week, that passed and I bought a steak and it was good. (*enter holy music*)

As I wrote yesterday, I've been reading This Week's Menu and recently printed out a whole bunch of recipes I want to try.  When the hubby asked if we had a plan for dinner, I realized - yes, we did!  This Week's Menu to the rescue!

So after work, I stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up ground beef, whole wheat buns, bacon, and potatoes.  I already had at home everything else necessary for Cheeseburgers with Oven Fries and Corn with Bacon and Shallots.  Just typing that out has made me start to drool, it sounds so damn good (probably also because I woke up late this morning and did not have time to pack lunch so I just have fruit for lunch today).

Confession: making burgers makes me nervous. If I bite into a burger that is more than the palest pink or, god forbid, actually red (*shudder*), I will gag and will not be able to continue eating dinner.  So I fear under-cooking burgers but, of course, I also fear OVER-cooking them since a dry, hockey puck of a burger is just as gross as a bloody one (to me). However, I will now admit - dinner turned out GREAT!  I have never made a better burger and even the fries turned out good (I kind of suck at making potatoes, too, which is shameful in my family).  Even the hubby commented on how juicy and tasty the burgers were.  Score! The secret to my success (i.e. the recipes I borrowed):

For the burgers: I took 1 lb of ground beef (I used 80/20 because it was the cheapest) and mixed it with about 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce, 1t of onion powder, and one egg.  I formed it into four patties and cooked them for five minutes on each side and then one minute more as I added American cheese and let it melt.  (Note: I cooked them in a skillet and DID NOT touch them the whole time they cooked, except to flip them.  DO NOT touch burgers and definitely NEVER press them down, okay?  Okay.  Burgers may intimidate me, but I know that much.  No pressing.)

For the fries: I took 4 russet potatoes (four because that's what came in the bag - I probably would have just used two if I could have bought them individually - hubby will eat the leftovers anyway).  I sliced them into steak fry shape, poured some olive oil (regular) in a lidded bowl, sprinkled some salt and pepper in it, added the fries to the bowl, drizzled more olive oil and salt and pepper on top, put the lid on, and shook gently to coat all the fries.  I then laid them out, single file, on a baking sheet and baked them for 20 minutes, flipped them, and then 20 minutes more.

For the corn: I doubled Andrea's recipe for this since it was all the corn we had left and I knew hubby would (once again) enjoy the leftovers.  So, I took 8 slices of bacon (they were very thin), chopped them up, and cooked them until they were crispy, then laid the bacon out on a paper-towel-covered plate to drain.  I wiped out the pan, leaving some bacon fat, and then added the shallots, cooking them until they were soft.  Add the corn, cook until starting to brown.  Then add the bacon, mix it all up, remove to bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.

Ta-da (and, yes, I swirl my ketchup).  But, seriously, MAKE this dinner if this is your kind of food.  It wasn't difficult and it was super yummy.  I would love to try to make the burgers on a grill sometime (um, when we get one). Tonight the hubby and I are going out to dinner and then to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!  (Have I mentioned my Harry Potter fixation?  Have I?  I have?  Okay, good, just want to make sure.)  So we're off the hook for home cooking tonight, but I think some more TWM meals might be in store for future evenings... stay tuned!

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - links edition

For this week's 7 Quick Tuesday Takes, I want to highlight some sites that I have recently stumbled across in my web browsings and am now totally in love with and addicted to.

1. Tumblr
What is Tumblr?  It's another social networking site, sort of.  It's kind of like a mix between Wordpress and Twitter.  It functions like Twitter in that you post a list of things which can be random and only related by the fact that you posted them.  You can have your blog feed in; you can link to Twitter, post pictures, links, anything.  How it functions for me is that it lets me post nifty or interesting things I find that I don't want to clog up Wordpress or Twitter with (even though I'm having Tumblr feed to Twitter, hm).  So far I'm enjoying it; we'll see where it goes.

2. The Sartorialist
Simply stunning fashion photography.  It's inspirational to me that there are people out there really trying to, as I see it, make themselves into art.  If we were food, they'd be five star cuisine and I'd be Wendy's.  Must work on this.

3. The Daily Puppy
Every day brings a new photo of an utterly adorable puppy that I want to take home and just hug until I fall asleep.  Seriously cute stuff (way cuter than Cute Overload, even).

4. This Week's Menu
This blog features the details and photos of the writer's (Andrea) meal plan for the week.  The photos are always beautiful and the food sounds totally scrumptious.  I envy the people who make a serious, full-week meal plan on a regular basis.  Must adopt that life skill.  (The first post on the page as of this blog entry is for Shells and White Cheddar with Fresh Corn, Thyme and Burst Tomatoes.  Excuse me while I lick my monitor.)

5. Pajamas and Coffee
This writer and mother of four is totally hilarious - AND she named her blog after two of my very favorite things in life.  (One day when I am at a loss for blog topics, I will post about my obsession with pajamas.)  Just go to her About Me Page (amusingly titled, "Who are you? Who? Who?") and read the descriptions of the "players" in her blog (i.e. her family members) to get a glimpse into her humor.  I haven't gone back and read old posts yet, but I will be at some point soon.

6. Mighty Girl
Yes, another Mommy Blogger (found her through Momversation) - but she and her blog are so much more than that, actually.  The whole picture is that she's Mighty Maggie - and she has the Mighty Closet, a great number of things to say, and the Mighty Life List (kind of like a 101 in 1001/bucket list) - which has recently been picked up and sponsored by Intel, no kidding!  Lucky gal!  Her pictures are great; her clothes are great; her ideas are interesting - what more could you want from a blog?

7. Food & Fizz
People submit their food and beverage photos to this site, then the site owners choose the best and post them daily.  They have a really helpful food tag cloud that lets readers find the posts that interest them or you could just click "Randomize" and see what you get.  It's an adventure every time! So I hope this was helpful and interesting and that you find at least one new site to read, explore, and possibly follow.

Note: I view all of these blogs (and many, many more) by using Google Reader.  No, Google is not paying me or forcing me or even encouraging me to point you their way (but, boy, wouldn't that be great to be paid by Google?).  Still, I highly, highly suggest that you get yourself logged in to Google Reader and use it to manage all the blogs you read. The bonus is that every day when you wake up, you get to log in to your Google Reader and see who's posted new blog entries.  It's like a little list of presents waiting for you, every day!  (Seriously, that is how it feels.  It's wonderful.)

Happy reading!

The wonderful Friday that was

This Friday began my "summer hours" at work, meaning I have Fridays off (but work slightly longer hours during the week).  If this first Friday off was any indication of how great these days are going to be, it is going to be a great summer.

1. I actually slept in late; I didn't get out of bed until 9:30!  That's insane for me.  I'm up at 7am every day and usually can't sleep past 8am, maybe 8:30am on the weekends.

2. I lazed around, drank coffee, ate a yummy Hungry Girl* breakfast, sat around reading blogs and watching Food Network.

3. Rebecca Woolf posted not one but TWO blog posts today!  One on her site and one on her Babble blog.  A great day, indeed.

4. I cleaned the bathroom AND the kitchen.  Why is this great?  Because they were gross, that's why, and I can't think straight when my living space is messy.  I need to get my husband to feel the same way, somehow.

5. I got to babysit my nephew, TJ.  My sister had a doctor's appointment so I went over a bit early, spent an hour with the two of them, then watched him for an hour, and then spent another hour with them.  He is SO adorable and sweet and entertaining, but also SO Jekyll and Hyde: happy laughing one minute, and screaming tantrum the next.  He's almost 16 months old and already knows 40+ words, so perhaps the terrible twos are making their way early as well.  Regardless, I could still spend all day with him (although my sister and I had an interesting conversation about how neither of us could be stay-at-home moms and totally revere those who are, but those are thoughts for another time).

6. I took my previous "chicken and salsa" slow cooker recipe, substituted pork chops for chicken, and ended up with super yummy salsa pulled pork, which I then put on nacho chips and sprinkled with cheese.  Mmm.  I also made a tomato/avocado salsa that my husband and I are obsessed with lately (courtesy of Cooking Light).

7. I only needed half a lime for the salsa, so the other half got squeezed into a glass and I enjoyed a super refreshing homemade limeade.  Mmmm, so good.

I only hope next Friday can live up to this one.

*The Hungry Girl Easiest Egg Breakfast Ever

7 Quick Thursday Takes

So, okay, I usually do 7 Takes on Tuesday (because I'm an alliteration addict) but this has been an odd week, mainly due to events at work that are far too boring to even bother getting into. 

So onto the seven:

1. I have to do some in-class presentations next week and absolutely LOVE that the presentations are now narrated wmv files instead of Powerpoint slides that I have to narrate.  Basically, I get to go into the class, hit play, and smile.  I don't mind giving presentations (I do it all the time, plus I teach) but these tend to be a bit dry and happen either first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening, so it's nice to have it be a passive activity.  (I'm lazy, whatever.)

2. Last night the hubby, his brother, and I had dinner at Bobby's Burger Palace, Bobby Flay's sort-of-fast-food restaurant.  It was super, super good.  The burger I had isn't on the menu because it's the monthly special: the Mulberry Street Burger, which will sound familiar to you if you watch The Next Food Network Star because it was the winning burger in a recent challenge.  It has mozzarella and basil on it (and other stuff I forget).  It was sooooo very yummy.

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the film) comes out next week but IMAX doesn't have it scheduled until July 29th.  WHAT???  I think I might actually go see it in the local (non-IMAX) theater this weekend and then go see it again when the IMAX one is out - because I am that obsessed.  (Did I mention my grad thesis was on Harry Potter?  Yeah.  It's a way of life.)

4. I have another internet idol (idol #1 being Rebecca Woolf of Girl's Gone Child, of course).  I love Slices of Life because it is exactly what it promises - a slice of this woman's life.  Every day she posts a picture of what she's wearing, where the pieces are from, what she has packed for lunch, and what the plan for dinner is.   For many of us, I believe that really is one of the largest "slices" of our life.  Sure, based on feelings, our spouses and children and families and friends are far more important, but life is just as much about the daily in-and-out details and sometimes making those wardrobe and food decisions are just as taxing and annoying as an overwrought conversation.  I love the idea and wish I thought of it first so I could make a "Slice of Life" page on this blog.  Darn.  I never have the good ideas first.

5. I hate when people thank me for speedy email replies when it took me more than an hour to respond.  Why are there still such low expectations for email?  Are you really amazed that you emailed me yesterday at 3pm and I responded at 10am today?  I actually felt bad about how long it took me to reply.

6. I never mentioned visiting my best friend's new daughter, Madison.

Her dad, Mike, has been one of my best friends since I was 20 (so almost 14 years now, crazy to think about) and was my "Man of Honor" at my wedding.  When I got to their house, he was out walking the dog so I hugged his wife (who is also my good friend, of course) and squee'd over Madison.  When he walked in the house, though, I burst into tears and said, "Damn.  I knew I was going to cry when I saw you."  It was just so emotionally moving to see this friend I grew up with (because, really, we grow up in our 20s) as a father now.  It was so wonderful and I can't wait to be a part of Madison's life as she grows up.

7. I want to write a book.  Is that crazy to think I can do that between my two jobs, grad school, housework, and future family raising responsibilities?  Probably - but I still want to do it.

I have off on Fridays for the summer, so today is my Thursday-pseudo-Friday.  Hurrah!  What's better than a few extra minutes of shut-eye on a Friday morning?

W & C

Today's post is brought to you by the letters W (WANT!) and C (mmm... CHEESE!)...

These cheese knives are new on Delight.com and, as "Today's Delight", it's only $20 for the rest of the day.  Augh!  Want!  I suck at remembering what knife to use for what cheese.  I think this set is useful AND super cute and a great conversation piece, as well.  What could be better? Oh, I know - free cheese to sample the knives with.  Mmm cheese. Oh yeah, I gained 2/5 of a pound this week.  Thank you cheese... and bread.  Gotta work harder this week. My workplace is about a zillion degrees today, though, so I believe I've lost at least double that amount in sweat today.  Hurrah!

*This post is filed under "life" because cheese is life.  Mmm cheese.

Day 3 of the pouch test runs a bit off the rails

Yesterday was Day 3 of the 5 Day Pouch Test and so I was supposed to be restricted to soft proteins (eggs, fish, etc).  I did well all day, knowing that there would be an exception made that evening when I went to a "taste of the town" event.  I was going to try and stick to the plan, but not beat myself up if I didn't.

So here's how it went: for $5, we each purchased 5 samples of foods.  You got a card that they punched each time you visited a restaurant (punched as in punched a hole through - wouldn't dieting be so much easier if someone punched you every time you went to a restaurant?).  The wine tasting was an additional $10 so I opted against it.  I can bring a bottle home for less.

Restaurant 1: General Tso's chicken (spicy!!!) ... with rice, gah - and white, to boot.  This was very tasty and very spicy for me (I don't have a high spice tolerance).  I tried not to eat too much of the rice, but I did eat some.  I didn't finish the whole sample, though.

Restaurant 2: Didn't know what the choices were until I got up to the table after waiting in one of the longer lines around.  Long line = assumed it'd be good.  The choices were: pasta, rice balls, potato croquettes.  Eep!  Of course the line was long; we're a nation of white carb freaks.  I went with the rice balls, only eating one of the two they gave me (it was the size of a golfball).  Oh, and it was taaaastteeeee.

Restaurant 3: Vegan chili.  YUM YUM.  Definitely going to have more of that.

Restaurant 4: Half of a chicken empanada.  Okay, so the fried outside dough part wasn't on-plan, but it was really, really delicious.  I haven't been to that restaurant before but definitely plan to go back.

Restaurant 5: Vegan pancakes (same place I got the vegan chili).  And again - YUM YUM.  I would have never guessed they were vegan; they tasted just like their regular pancakes.  I ate three silver dollar sized ones with some sugar-free syrup.  Okay, totally off-plan but, hey, they were vegan. 

So, okay, I'm eating milk and eggs every day this week, so that doesn't count for much but it made me feel better at the time.  I don't think they were too bad. I went home, totally full and not in need of an official dinner.  I did get hungry around 10pm, though, which has been happening every night and is frustrating, especially when my husband also gets hungry around that time and opts to eat a large bowl of Spaghettios.  The funny thing was, though, that I didn't want his Spaghettios.  I wanted something (probably chips and salsa) but not the Spaghettios.  I'm missing my crunchy carbs more than anything, I think.  If he had been eating a panini, all might have been lost.

Today I can eat firm protein, like ground meat and seafood.  However, I'm allergic to shellfish and don't like ground meat lately, so I'm going to stay on the Day 3 plan and stick with soft protein.  Tonight for dinner, I believe we'll have some fish.  Tomorrow I can have firm proteins: chicken, pork, steak, etc., so I think some pork chops are on the menu for tomorrow.

So, yeah, today is Day 4 and all is going well so far.  I thought when I got to this part I'd be like, "THANK GOD tomorrow is Day 5!  I can't wait to be done with this crazy crapola!"  But I don't feel that way at all.  This feels like something I could continue to do, which I think might just be how it's supposed to feel.

A fork, a fork, my diet for a fork.

One of the things I remember from early post-op life was that I missed eating with a fork.  For a couple weeks, I just drank liquids or used a spoon to eat soft boiled eggs or Jello.  Oddly, I don't remember what the first thing I ate with a fork was (maybe scrambled eggs?); it was clearly more important to me that I was actually using a fork.  It was one of those steps towards feeling normal again and not like some freak who just had her stomach stapled.

Today is Day 3 of the 5 Day Pouch Test and I'm almost scared to admit that it's going better than I expected it to.  It feels cheesy, but I really do feel more in control and am honestly surprised by how NOT hungry I am, especially today.  Yesterday was just like Monday - I was limited to liquids and soup and the only things I ate that were slightly off-plan was a yogurt in the morning and some cheese in the evening (I put shredded cheese on the soup I had for dinner). 

What's interesting to me about this is that, clearly, cheese is a concern and something I will have to be vigilant about.  I already knew I loved cheese, but to feel like I can't go without it indicates something a bit bigger (and not just my tush).  I am happy to report that the cheese intake was minimal; just enough to quiet the cheese monster. I ate so little today compared to what I would have ordinarily eaten in a normal day, yet I don't feel physically or mentally hungry. 

I had a slight altercation of sorts with a coworker today (verbally and via email) and my first thought was, "That's it, I need a snack!" but before the thought was even fully out of my head, I had reigned it in and thought, "That's ridiculous.  I'm not hungry and I can't let that asshole force me into eating when I'm not hungry."

For breakfast today I had two hard-boiled eggs mixed up with some salsa.  Then after half an hour I had a coffee/protein shake.  Then I waited another half an hour before drinking my water, treating the morning protein shake as if it were a piece of food, letting it rest in my stomach and keep me full.  For lunch I had a Parmesan tuna patty and another hard-boiled egg. Tonight might prove to be challenging, however.  The hubby, some friends, and I are going to a "Taste of the Town" event where we'll walk up and down the main street in town and sample "bite-sized portions" of the restaurants' best dishes.  For $5 you get five tastings and there's also a wine sampling.

I am going to allow myself $5 of sampling and am going to try to stick to samples that at least somewhat fit into my plan for today.  That means no sampling of bread or pasta and trying to find soft proteins instead.  Even though vegetables aren't on the plan this week, they'll also do since they're better than bread and pasta.  It's going to be difficult, but not impossible.  I feel really in control so now it's time to see how in control I can be when faced with a barrage of food.  Oh, and I'm going to allow myself to sample wine.  Not sample wine?  I'm on a diet, not crazy.

Slow cooker salsa chicken

I love doing anything with the slow cooker because it's like magic.  You throw stuff in your cauldron pot and in a matter of hours (hopefully) have something really tasty.  Being all things salsa obsessed, I was intrigued when I read a post from someone who threw chicken and salsa in a crock pot and used that as a base for a meal.  Sign me up!

So, into the slow cooker went: 3 chicken breasts (halved), one jar of salsa (organic), and a whole bunch of spices, whatever smelled like it would go well with the salsa flavor (approximately: 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp chipotle chili pepper, 1/4 regular chili pepper ... um... maybe one other spice).  I cooked it on high for four hours and then low for two.  Next time I'd probably just put it on low for the whole time because the chicken came out a little dryer than I'd like.

When that was almost ready, I set out a table of fixings: flour tortillas, white rice, lettuce, tomato, corn, and cheddar/jack cheese.  The chicken was super easy to shred and worked really well that way.  I think it would also work really well in tortillas or a casserole in that shredded form (I had never shredded chicken before - I know, I know).  Sometimes I'll also serve black beans, but wasn't in the mood this time, and I forgot the sour cream because I hate the stuff and never think to get any at the store.  I put salsa on my tacos/burritos. It was so tasty that there are no pictures, alas.  We all just ate up and I had the leftovers for lunch today (BEST part of Mexican dinner: anticipating the leftovers the next day).  I have to go grocery shopping this evening and will most definitely be picking up supplies to make this all over again, maybe even tomorrow.  Yum, yum, gimme some... more.

Nanananana... bread.

My nephew (age 15 months) says "nana" for banana... of course, he also calls one of his grandmothers "Nana"... so is he calling her bananas (i.e. crazy)?  I guess only time will tell.

I love bananas; I could eat one every day.  However, the hubby doesn't eat them so when I buy a bunch, I always end up with one or two bananas going brown.  This, however, isn't terrible because then I can make - dun dun da dun! - banana bread! 

So last night I set out to make (who else's?) Smitten Kitchen's Jacked-Up Banana Bread.  Except mine turned out to be more like low-jack banana bread - but still yummy. So I got all my stuff ready (note: those are not something gross - they're just REALLY brown bananas):

This was the first time I was going to use my mini-loaf pan so I was super excited about that.  (Those of you who know me IRL can expect a mini-loaf of something yummers for the holidays.  I have two of these so I can get EIGHT mini-loaves going at a time - rock on.)  And, yes, that is the cheap vanilla I'm using.  I'm trying to use it up in recipes where the vanilla isn't the star so its quality isn't of utmost importance (I bought it in a crunch one day for emergency vanilla use). So I got to mashing and mixing and just loved how the scoops of brown sugar kept a sand-castle-like appearance as I added them to the mix:

I also love that the recipe insists that you use a wooden spoon.  I don't know enough about the science of baking to know why you should use a wooden spoon for this, but it makes it feel extra special that it's required (although I would have used one anyway just because I love them and they mix really well).

However, here is where the banana bread went from jacked-up to low-jack.  I was opting out of the bourbon (I'm not a fan of alcohol in baked goods most of the time - I just don't enjoy the taste) and then also realized that I did not have nutmeg OR clove on hand!  What?  Ugh!  What happened to all of my baking supplies??  I could have sworn I had both spices on hand.  I swear, I am usually ready for any baking situation.  So, alas, my banana bread was going to be single spice instead of triple spice.  I figured it would still be good, though, so I soldiered on.

Aren't they cute?  So teeny!  I forced myself to let them cool before I sliced into one.  The hubby hates both bananas AND cinnamon (*gasp* - I know, right?) so these are aaaaaall mine.  Yum yum.  Except that my sister-in-law's eyes lit up when I mentioned this the other day, so I'm giving one mini-loaf to her.  The other one will be fully devoured by the end of today and I really don't need to be eating two whole mini-loaves myself in the span of two days (which is exactly what would happen).

I really love to bake - and I'm really beginning to love cooking now, too - I just wish I had more occasion to do so.  Money is always an issue, but I'm contemplating making a significant change in my diet in order to eat less meat.  I don't think I could ever be a vegan because the idea of giving up cheese makes me want to just quit life, but I have a lot of issues with the contemporary diet, its affect on human health, and how the industrial farming complex in this country works, so it's something I'm pondering.  I would love to get the hubby on board, but that won't happen so this is going to take a lot of resolve, something I've never exactly been full of when it comes to food.  More thoughts on this to come, I'm sure. But for now, back to nibbling on the banana bread.

Any day is a good day for pesto

My brother-in-law and his wife recently moved into a new house and decided to have a few folks over for a backyard barbeque yesterday (is there anything better in June?).  They were providing all the main food and we just had to bring a side, so I decided to try making Smitten Kitchen's pesto potato salad with green beans. I didn't have time to hit up a nice farmer's market so I had to get packaged green beans and basil (no fresh ones at the supermarket, alas).

I already toasted the pine nuts (and forgot to take a pic during the toasting):

I set our biggest pot on the stove and got the fire going:

I proceeded to chop up the green beans:

The water came to a boil pretty quickly, which was a surprise (that pot takes foreeeever to come to a rolling boil) so I dumped the quartered potatoes in.  Of course, this caused the boiling water to splash out and splash me.  Thankfully I didn't get hurt.  I set the time for 10 minutes and went to go do something else.  At the five minute mark, I went back to check and realized the water wasn't boiling. Yeah, that big water splash before?  It put out the fire so just the gas was running.  Ooops!  When I told the hubby, he said, "Oh, so that's why you've been so whacked out tonight."  (Excuse you, I was not whacked out.  No more than normal.) 

So I turned the fire back on and reset the timer and kept an eye on the potatoes because now the cook time was going to be a real guessing game. The potatoes and green beans cooked well, though, so then I set them to cool and made the pesto (LOVE fresh made pesto - I cannot fathom buying pesto):

I was worried that it wouldn't be enough pesto - it seemed so little, but it worked out fine.  The recipe says to put the potatoes and green beans in a bowl and toss them with the pesto, vinegar, and pine nuts.  However, I prefer to toss my food separately from the bowl I'm going to serve it in, so I returned the potatoes and green beans to the cooking pot (which was completely cooled down):

The one special ingredient that this recipe called for was a mild vinegar, like a white balsamic.  I've never worked with this before but was very excited to try it.  I bought a bottle (for $30!) at Williams-Sonoma.

It was so pretty, like a little wine bottle:

So I tossed the potatoes and green beans with the pesto, the balsamic, and the toasted pine nuts. 

Yum yum:

We came home with a lot left over, so I'm not sure how everyone felt about it.  No one said anything good or bad.  I thought it could use a bit more flavor - more basil and definitely more garlic... and something else.  I don't know what, though.  I have to figure it out.  I will enjoy taking the leftovers for lunch this week, though.

I might just lick my computer.

Have you seen The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery?  It's a site dedicated to recipes with, you guessed it, chocolate and peanut butter.  Oh holy yum.

I have only had a chance to skim a teeny, tiny amount of the site but the drool on my desk is becoming a problem so I'm going to have to go put on a bib and then come back.

Yum, yum, give me some (more!)

From the 101 in 1001 list: 5. Learn five new healthy dinner recipes. (1/5)

Wednesday night's "Are we really going to try and have a baby?" conversation occurred over one of the yummiest homemade dinners I have had in quite a while.  One of my coworkers recently subscribed to Cooking Light and lets me peruse her issues once they come in (the cost of buying magazines really adds up).  Well, the most recent article included that yummy strawberry cake that I made into cupcakes as well as a recipe for Chicken Scaloppine with Sugar Snap Peas, Asparagus, and Lemon Salad. 

The recipe is super simple and you'll only need to buy a few things for it: chicken, sugar snap peas, asparagus, and one lemon.  You probably have everything else around (chicken broth, butter, olive oil, white wine, salt, pepper). I left the recipe and the chicken broth it calls for on the counter and gave the hubby instructions to get the dinner started while I finished up at work and then stopped at the liquor store on the way home to pick up the wine  (it needs white and I only had red and blush at home). 

I was a bit nervous about the dinner since it's a lot of vegetables and no carb/starch side.  The hubby does enjoy some healthy foods but also has a weakness for some really disastrously bad-for-you foods. However, everything about this dinner was perfect.  The chicken was utterly delicious, as were the vegetables.  I am happy that both the hubby and I enjoy steamed asparagus because now it can join our regular vegetable repertoire and will go on the list of foods we will most definitely be feeding our kids because they will watch us enjoy it.  We both gobbled up this whole dinner (although we did make a smaller portion since it was just the two of us).

Even if you do not enjoy asparagus, I would strongly recommend trying this recipe.  The lemon and olive oil dressing on the chilled steamed vegetables is scrumptious, I promise.  I definitely plan on having this dinner at least several more times throughout the summer.

This food is bangin'... or is that you?

I love finding new recipes and I rarely make the same thing more than once, partly because I love to try new things but mostly because I don't remember what I've made.  (The hubby will often say, "We should have that chicken/steak/XYZ you made with the ABC that one time" and I will have no recollection of ever having cooked that meal.)  So I spend a lot of time doing recipe drive-by web surfing; that is, I don't spend a lot of time on food blogs or sites searching for things.  I just tend to browse quickly and print out what really leaps out at me.  Then I obsess over it until I get a chance to make it.  Then I quickly forget that I made it.

Today, though, through Serious Eats, I was directed to a site I have now subscribed to because I am intrigued by it: Cook To Bang - Recipes To Get You Laid.  I have to say, the whole "Cook to Bang" part of the title makes me squint and squirm as I am not really comfortable with that kind of verbiage (and it does have a misogynistic element to it that I find disconcerting), but the food looks intriguing.  I've definitely seen better pictures of food (some of this food sounds really appetizing but looks less so), but anyone who thinks garlic mashed potatoes count as an aphrodisiac is cool by me.  Serve me garlic and I will love you.

New things, including magic pancakes

The most recent issue of Cooking Light has a really great strawberry layer cake recipe in it that I wanted to make for Mother's Day.  The problem was that I wanted to try some of it to make sure it turned out okay AND I wanted to give some to my parents while bringing most of it to the hubby's parents' house.  Sure, it can be really cute to wrap up an individual cake slice for someone, but that wasn't my goal this time around.  "Oh, hi, yes, I brought you 3/4 of a cake because I also wanted to give some to someone else." 

So, instead, I decided to make the cake as cupcakes.  They turned out quite delicious, but I think I made two key errors: 1) I did not let the butter reach room temperature and 2) I over beat the batter (I always over beat the batter, darn it - trying to work on that).  Because of this, they collapsed a little and weren't as fluffy as I'd like.  They were still delicious, though.  (Note: I substituted 1 tsp. vanilla for the Grand Marnier that the recipe calls for.  I really wanted the strawberry taste to stand out and not be in conflict with any orange tones.)

So, the cake recipe calls for 1 cup of reduced-fat buttermilk and since I can only ever find buttermilk in quarts, I had 3 cups left over.  I woke up Sunday morning wondering what I should do with it since 1 - neither the hubby nor I drink buttermilk and 2 - we're going to Florida on Friday for four days and I really didn't want it sitting around.  And then it hit me: Buttermilk pancakes!  Yum! Ordinarily, I don't/can't really eat pancakes.  I certainly never order them when we eat out because it just won't end well.  Pancakes are high in carbs and low on protein, which is not a good combination for me.  Plus, it's extremely rare to find a restaurant with sugar-free syrup.  Regular syrup - even good, organic syrup - does a number on me because the sugar content is so high, and what good are pancakes without syrup? However, if I was making pancakes at home, I could use my own sugar-free syrup and also eat something else to go with them (cheese, fruit) to balance out the supreme carb-ness. 

And ironically, since it was Mother's Day, I was able to use two great appliances that are recent gifts from our mothers.  The hubby's mother gave us an electric griddle a little while back and my parents just gave us a microwave this weekend (as a gift for our six month anniversary, which is this upcoming Friday, aww).  I used the microwave to melt the butter and the griddle to make the pancakes. I'd never made pancakes from scratch before, so I was a bit nervous, but they turned out to be really delicious! 

For once, I tried a Smitten Kitchen recipe and didn't royally screw it up!  Her skills are so more advanced than mine; I can't even properly whip egg whites yet - but I'll get there.  For Sunday, I made her Buttermilk Pancakes, but sans blueberries since 1) I didn't have any, 2) the hubby doesn't like them, and 3) they would have upped the sugar level (yes, even natural sugar can become too much of a good thing).  They were perfect, though - golden on the outside, crispy around the edges, and fluffy in the middle.  Mmm, it is seriously going to be way too tempting to make those more often.  And, somehow, they didn't upset my sugar level.  How is that possible?  They're magic, that's how.

Looking forward to company

Last night I did laundry at my parents' house and, as usual, was watching the Food Network (my mother's favorite channel).  Ina Garten was making her "company pot roast" and I thought, "Wow, I didn't realize pot roast was totally something I could make."  Then it stuck in my head all night. 

So today, I am making it and having some friends over for dinner before the boys go out to see a band play at a local bar.  The girls are going to stay in and watch La Vie en Rose, oooh. Having people over always stresses me out a little because I always think, "I could have cooked that better" or "I could have cleaned more" or "Why did I choose that piece of furniture/object/blanket/whatever?"  Having people over makes me question everything about where/how I live.  Yes, I am that insecure.  But it's getting easier and I think I get so nervous/insecure because I haven't done too much of this.  The more you do something, the less nerve-wracking it is.

Our landlord sent someone over to take care of the yard today.  There was a LOT of debris in the yard (pine needles, leaves, twigs, branches, etc) and the grass was getting tall, so it was perfect timing.  Next up, we have to see what kind of shape the barbecue grill in the backyard is in and then it's time to take these hosting skills outside for some enjoyable summer nights.