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

Leave it and love yourself

Pouch test bonus: I lost 4.4lbs last week, yay! This puts me 1/3 of the way toward my first short term goal: to lose the approximately 15 lbs I've put on since autumn.  Nine pounds to go and then I'll set a new short term goal.  I totally believe it's helpful and great to celebrate small milestones along the way.

So what now?  Well, I'm continuing with a modified version of the plan.  I think I'm going to keep eating mainly light soups on Mondays and Tuesdays as a way to get me on track for the week.  For today I've made Hungry Girl's V10 soup (like V8 but way more veggies and lighter).  I'm already feeling a bit of snack anxiety (as in I don't have something to snack on, some crunchy little things to nibble throughout the day) but I know that that's one of my major problems and something I'm going to constantly battle, and if some super veggie soup is what's going to get me through today, then that's it.  I did put a 100 calorie pack of almonds in my bag, though, in case I'm not full enough from the soup and get lightheaded and can't concentrate at work.

The (my) relationship with food is so complicated that I just purely hate it (the relationship) sometimes.  There's an interesting article in The Daily Beast today about Disinhibited-Eating Disorder, which they describe as:

As a group, disinhibited eaters are people who are unusually tied into the world around them and, when it comes to food, are more vulnerable to the everyday temptations of the high-fat, high-calorie goodies that surround us than those lucky folks to whom a full table is just a full table . . . For these people, more than other folks, learning how to deal with our toxic food environment makes a world of difference. And by this, I mean learning how to comfortably control it rather than engage in futile battles of willpower with it. If you’re someone who tends to eat just because there is food for the taking, even if you’re not the least bit hungry, read on.

Seriously?  This is SO normal for me that I had to read it several times because I was looking for the part that stood out as the problem.  Obviously I know what the problem is, but what I mean is that it's like reading the definition for schizophrenia and going, "Oh, hearing voices - yeah, that's a big sign of bad things going on."  I read this and went, "Oh.  Right.  Um, that's just daily life." Their solution: surround yourself with a personal microenvironment that decreases opportunities for disinhibition and creates a hunger-free, more-satisfied metabolism. This is exactly what I'm trying to do.  Of course, we all have to live in the real world and work to control ourselves when out in the buffet that is that real world, but a huge part of my life is home and work - two places I do have some (although not total) control over. They go on to suggest six rules for helping keep control (I highly suggest reading the article).

As I mentioned before, my good friend My Right To Dream recently underwent gastric sleeve surgery, a type of weight loss surgery (a bit different from the gastric bypass I had) and she's having a hard time with the first week of recovery, which is significantly physically painful sometimes.  As she talks about it, I remember those times - but when asked before, I couldn't recall much of it because the mental workings of breaking up and reuniting with food was so much bigger for me.  Going into the surgery, I had no idea that I had eating issues.  I feel dumb about that now, but I just really didn't know. I don't need to be a size 10 (though a 12 would be nice).  I don't need compliments on how I look or what a good job I'm doing losing weight (from people who just see any diet as a good thing because they've been conditioned - I do appreciate the comments from the people who know how hard and what a complicated process it is).  I don't want to turn heads.  I'm not a fan of attention, really.  I just want to be happy with me.

Last night I watched the first four episodes of My So-Called Life with Delightfully Sweet.  The show was my first "Things I Miss Friday" item and I can barely describe just how influential it was and still is on me.  For me, that show is magical and I would give anything to have that same team create a new show today.  The closing voice-over of the fourth episode (which I also quoted in that first Things I Miss Friday) speaks to me today just as much as it did when I was 19:

Sometimes it seems like we're all living in some kind of prison. And the crime is how much we hate ourselves. It's good to get really dressed up once in a while. And admit the truth: that when you really look closely? People are so strange and so complicated that they're actually... beautiful. Possibly even me.

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.

Purpose - it's the fire under your ass.

Purpose. It's that little flame that lights a fire under your ass. Ha! Purpose. It keeps you going strong like a car with a full tank of gas. Everyone else has a purpose, so what's mine?

(Any Avenue Q fans out there?  Luuurve that show.) My dear friend Amy over at My Right To Dream is having gastric sleeve surgery today, which is a form of weight loss surgery (wls).  As I've mentioned before, I had gastric bypass surgery and, a year and a half later, corrective plastic surgery to remove loose skin (abdominoplasty) and complete a breast reduction/lift (most wls patients bemoan the loss of their boobs - nope, not me - I still had DDs, even after losing over a hundred pounds, lucky me). As can be expected with any major surgery, especially a life-changing one that someone is undergoing by choice, Amy is incredibly nervous and a bit scared.  WLS involves such a roller coaster of emotions - joy at being approved, depression and guilt and sadness and anger about needing the surgery in the first place, fear of failure, fear of success (because it changes everything in your life), and so much more.

I was at my lowest weight in September 2005, following my plastic surgery.  In the nearly four years since then, I have gained about 18 pounds per year, which I shouldn't have to point out is NOT GOOD.  Really not good.  Not good for anyone, but especially not good if you've had WLS.  This means you are defeating the surgery and "the tool" (i.e. the stomach pouch).  I got a scope done early last year to see if I had stretched out my pouch and it turned out that my pouch was perfect BUT that my stoma (the opening between my pouch and my intestines) had stretched and so food moved really quickly from my pouch into my intestines, leaving me hungry more quickly than it should.  In a fully working pouch, the food sits in there for a long time so you feel full for a while.  Immediately post-op, the stoma is the size of a pencil eraser.  I don't know how big mine is now, but it's definitely not small and apparently I would be eligible for stoma revision surgery, but that would involve doctors and bills and insurance approvals, blah blah blah.  I can't afford a dime of it right now if it's not covered 100%, so I haven't followed up on it. 

Instead, I'm going to work on this on my own. Amy's surgery today has lit a fire under my ass.  I was supposed to be a good example.  I was supposed to be a success story.  I was not supposed to become a raging snack addict.  I was not supposed to regain OVER SEVENTY POUNDS.  I'm not supposed to feel sad that my husband met me at my thinnest and most athletic and now has to live with a wife who continually gains weight, which makes her unhappy.  He continues to support me at any size and does not/would not care if I stayed my current size for life, but my unhappiness upsets and concerns him.

I spent over an hour on the phone with Amy yesterday, trying to calm her fears and reassure her that this will be wonderful.  One of the main points I wanted to make was that everything she'll go through is valid; all of her feelings and emotions and reactions are valid.  If she's mad that her husband can eat half a pizza and not care, that's fair.  It's not fair that some of us have to work better at maintaining a healthy lifestyle than others and it's fair to say that.  All's fair in food and weight.  I was told that it was "stupid" to miss food or pigging out and that people with food addictions had the real problems and that anyone who cried over missing food was laughable - so I cried in secret and became ashamed.  I know this is a part of my current food issues.

After my plastic surgery, my mother bought me a bracelet to commemorate the occasion (my apologies for the cheesy camera phone pic):

The idea was that the engraved dates are my birthday and my rebirthdays.  My WLS and plastics dates were my rebirth.  It was almost like a do-over.  I got to be me again (or, really, for the first time) - the me that I thought I could be but felt I couldn't be because of my weight. I haven't been able to wear the bracelet for a long time because I was ashamed of no longer meeting the criteria that the bracelet represented.  When I took it out today, it was tarnished because I haven't worn it or even touched it for so long.  So I buffed and polished it and put it on my wrist.  There are spots of tarnish I couldn't buff out, but that's okay.  I have spots of tarnish I will never buff out. 

This bracelet represents my goal.  I need to get back to the me of those rebirthdays.  I will continue to wear the bracelet as a reminder of what I am trying to achieve for myself. So today I have started the 5 Day Pouch Test.  So far today I had a coffee protein shake for breakfast (minus the cocoa because I didn't have any at home), a yogurt (which is off-plan but I didn't want it to go to waste), and am about to dig into some lentil and barley soup for lunch.. which I will also have as a snack... and as dinner... and repeat tomorrow.  So far I'm feeling okay, though.  No snacking anxiety yet (although that always tends to come later in the day) and really not any hunger pangs, surprisingly.  They suggest you cut caffeine, but can have one cup if cutting it completely will throw you into withdrawal, so I put one cup of coffee in my shake this morning.  There was no way I was going without coffee.  But other than that, I have just been sip-sip-sipping my water and I'm even going back to the "no drinking 30 minutes before or after meals" post-op rule.  If one of my problems is an open stoma that lets food slide through easily, then I need to make sure I don't make my meals into a slurry that leaves me hungry soon thereafter.  Not drinking while I eat is really difficult for me, and will be since I made my soup really spicy (I didn't have all of the spices the recipe called for so I just winged it and I think I over chili peppered it).  I'm also trying to eat more mindfully - slowly, thinking about what I'm eating.  My whole life, I've read while I ate and now I often watch TV and/or read online while I eat, so I'm not paying attention to how much I eat or how it tastes or, probably, when I'm full.  I've been living in fear of food and I can't do it any longer. So my purpose is to help Amy succeed and to drag myself back on the road to success.  My failures can be some of her keys to success.  I can take all that I've learned and help my dear friend avoid the same mistakes.  My failure will not be for nothing.  I can help her and I can help myself not do it all again.

I don't know how I know, but I'm gonna find my purpose. I don't know where I'm gonna look, but I'm gonna find my purpose.

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.

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.

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.

The best breakfast out of leftovers

I needed tacos yesterday.  NEEDED.  We've been scrounging together lunches and dinners, stretching money.  My body and spirit had finally had it yesterday, though, and I needed a real meal - something with a multitude of colors, some actual meat, and vegetables.  The answer?  Soft tacos.  The best part, though?  Using the leftovers in breakfast the next day.

I heat up a multigrain tortilla in the skillet, flipping to heat thoroughly.  Set aside on plate.  Scramble two eggs with a little bit of milk.  When cooked through, put eggs on tortilla.  Cover with your favorite taco toppings; I added cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, and salsa.

I eat it with a knife and fork because I always over-stuff my tacos.  I like to refer to this as huevos rancheros, but they're not quite since there are no peppers or onions.  They really can be whatever you want them to be, though - you can even add taco meat if you like meat with your breakfast.

Adventures in Baking

One of the best parts of having our own place is that I have my own kitchen again - not that my mother ever stopped me from doing anything in the kitchen that I wanted, but I really enjoy having the whole space to myself and puttering around, making things, and feeling free to fail with no one watching.  I get very nervous when someone watches me cook or bake.

Last Friday, as a pre-Valentine's Day thing, I made a whole dinner and dessert for the hubby.  I started with the dessert - Martha Stewart's chocolate cherry crumb bars:

The problem?  I didn't like them that much.  The hubby said he did, but he ate one and the rest sat in a container on our countertop until I threw them out last night - so I'm guessing he wasn't a big fan.  I was bummed.

Last night, I decided to make Martha Stewart's chewy chocolate chip cookies for the hubby.  He and I spent all day yesterday helping his brother move.  I carried a lot of boxes and small things while the two of them carried all the huge stuff (sofas, tables, etc).  I was tired at the end, but the hubby was beat so I figured he deserved a treat.  I decided to make these because we're always debating the merits of crispy vs. chewy chocolate chip cookies (me=fan of crispy, crunchy; him=fan of chewy).

The only problem this time?  I forgot to put the brown sugar in the cookies.  le sigh  So they turned out white white white and bland.  He says they're edible but we'll see.  I do not think they are edible at all.

So I am even more nervous about my other baking venture from last night: Smitten Kitchen's Whole Lemon Tart.  I have never made a tart before; in fact, I didn't even own a tart pan so I bought one just for this recipe!  You know, no pressure.

Well, the great unshrinkable sweet tart shell seems to have turned out great.  It smelled great coming out of the oven and looked perfect - and the little crumb that fell off tasted great (*grin*).  So, if nothing else, I know I have a great tart shell recipe.

I overfilled the tart because I missed the note on the recipe saying to leave 1/4" room at the top - oops.  So while baking, it spilled over the edges of the tart and onto the silpat - but it was easy to clean because yay silpat!  But the tart looks promising:

Right now it's chilling in the refrigerator - I'm hoping it firms up a bit more and is really dense when I bring it over to my parents' house later.  Before doing so, I'm going to sprinkle confectioner's sugar over the top.  I really, really hope it tastes good because I really enjoyed baking it.

After all that stress, though, I decided to go for something I hoped would be as simple as it seemed: Delightfully Sweet's German Pancakes.  Neither the hubby nor I are huge pancake fans, but these looked so good that I was dying to try them.  I really enjoy thin pancakes (like crepes) so these looked like the type I'd like.  The bonus fun part is that they look funny when baking up - like a pancake bowl:

They quickly deflate, though (so I made sure to show the hubby how cool they looked pre-deflation).  I promptly buttered and syruped up the pancake and made sure to take one last picture before devouring:

Okay, so my camera and picture-taking technique don't quite match up to Delightfully Sweet's, but that's okay - the pancakes still tasted very yummy - both the hubby and I totally enjoyed them.  That plus my blueberry coffee has made for a great start to the day.

This afternoon/evening the hubby and I are taking our laundry, the lemon tart, and the pupper to my parents' house for dinner and the Oscars.  I LOVE the Oscars red carpet pre-show stuff; I will watch it all from start to finish!  The E! pre-show starts at 2pm EST so I better start getting ready!

Oreo cookies

I'll be upfront - the subject line is misleading.  Yes, this post is about Oreo and cookies... but not "Oreo cookies" per se, as you would expect.  I have a really cute shih-tzu named Oreo:

Oreo can be a bit picky sometimes.  She doesn't like most dog treats, especially crunchy cookies.  She's a big fan of Pupperoni and table food.  I don't actually feed her wet dog food - just dry kibbles to supplement any table food we give her (avoiding all the stuff dogs aren't supposed to eat, of course).  For Christmas, I baked a zillion cookies for everyone (to supplement the non-gift giving).  For the people with dogs, I also baked dog cookies flavored with chicken bouillion.  Oreo, usually the non-crunchy cookie fan, LOVED them so I resolved to bake her more cookies.  So, last night, after baking a "Better Than S*x Cake" for my brother-in-law's birthday, my husband and I set out to bake some peanut butter cookies for Oreo. I put together all the ingredients and set my husband to work kneeding the dough and cutting out all the little cookies (the cookie cutter hurts my hand after a while):

Oreo patiently waiting for the cookies to cool

So there's another item off my 101 in 1001 list, but I know it won't be the last time I bake cookies for Oreo.  These dog cookies are really easy to make and it feels good knowing exactly what goes into what I feed Oreo.

Oreo's Favorite Cookies

2 1/2 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

6 tbsp butter (room temperature)

1 egg

1/2 cup cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all the ingredients together (by hand) and kneed until the dough is consistent throughout.  Roll out and cut with cookie cutters.  Bake for 30 minutes; allow to cool.

In other 101 in 1001 news, the 26 Things people have thrown me for a loop!  Last year they posted their theme in May so I assumed it'd be roughly the same this year.  Nope - they've posted the list now!  So I have the rest of the month to get those 26 pictures ready to post on their site February 1.  Eep!

I'm still trying to figure out my Flickr account.  The photo organization goals will be a bit challenging, but I'll get there and it'll pay off hugely in the long-term.  I have a lifetime of photos ahead of me; I should figure out some way to keep track of them so I don't lose them.  To me, the thing about digital photos is that they're so easy to lose.  Photos printed from film might gather in boxes and boxes in the basement or attic, but at least they're always there to sift through.  You can't sift through an emptied recycle bin.

And, as I type, my Tivo is recording Miracle on 34th Street and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I love having a to-do list/major project.  I can't live without some kind of imposed direction.