infinite zest

I tried sushi, and didn't hate it!

2012-01-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here's my attempt at a wrap up.

Still sucking at using my cookbooks.
I feel like I'm in a cooking rut...again
I go back to full-time next Wednesday.
Hunter LOVES going outside.
We tried out a new-to-us place last week - it's a sushi/tapas bar. For a self-professed sushi hater like me, this was awesome; but then I discovered that if you take the cucumber out of a spicy tuna roll, and substitute it with avocado, I don't hate sushi! Sam is beside himself, as this means he get sushi much more often.

That's all I've got.

Progress?

2012-01-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

So, before I went on the rant about the Tebow and how much I despise CenturyLink, I had talked about some of my cooking goals. I'm going to attempt to hold myself accountable, so here's how I'm doing so far:

I froze my sourdough starter. Older windows + granite countertops + Glass jar + temperatures outside below 10 deg F = dead starter. So I'm going to start that over again, and make sure that I keep the starter in a warmer place.
I've been really good about trying some of the recipes I have pinned on the Pinterest. I've decided to edit the pin once I've made the dish, because apparently everyone can see your pins, so some things have been repinned by random people.
I've been using more recipes out of my recipe binder things. yay!
I'd give myself a B on typing up recipes.
Probably a D on higher difficulty recipes.
Big fat F on using my cookbooks more. Although to be fair I think I have a fair amount of recipes in the binder that are actually in a cookbook too. I know this is true of most of the stuff I have clipped from Cook's Illustrated.

So, one goal that I didn't mention. Menu Planning. I seriously need to get on that. I don't think I've ever followed a plan for a whole week, but I know it's pretty awesome on the nights that I do, because I don't have to worry about what I'm making.

How are you doing with goals for the new year?

Because I'm Feeling Ranty

2012-01-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

and no one reads this anyways. Here is a list of things that currently piss me off:

CenturyLink. Hands down the worst customer service I have experienced. EVER. That's saying quite a bit. I once had to cajole Compaq into admitting their product was defective. Talk about pulling teeth.
The Pioneer Woman. She may be the "everyday housewife's" go to but, seriously, learn how to make a goddamned roux. Also, butter does not make everything better. Her recipes are shit, unless you need a bazillion pictures of chopping onions and garlic. I used to read her site, but NONE of her recipes ever worked. Why is she famous? I just saw a preview of her show, and her voice is as obnoxious as her lack of decent cooking skills. I could teach the cat to cut an onion like she does, but he prefers eating butter.
Centurylink. Again. Seriously, screw those guys.
That picture that is a mashup of Tim Tebow praying vs the Muslims praying, and asking why Tebow is wrong. I'll break it down:

The Muslims are praying towards Mecca at their place of worship. No one (should ever) get on someone for praying/etc at their place of worship.
Tim Tebow is making a show of his religion at his place of work. Last time I checked the NFL is not a religious organization.
Comparing the two is like (to sound utterly cliche) comparing apples to oranges.
People who love the Tebow would be super irate if a player of another religion
(Muslim/no religion/Jewish) made a show of their faith

So pretty much, everything pisses me off at the moment. Especially those asshacks at CenturyLink.

Before I get a bunch of angry comments about the Tebow rant, let me get one thing clear; I am an athiest. I am not a militant athiest. I firmly believe that everyone has the right to observe their religion (or lack thereof). I am not going to be the person who sues the government because our currency says "in God we trust." I respect people with religion and the people that believe that I respect the most are the folk who don't feel as if they have to make a production out of their faith. For what it's worth, I was raised Protestant. Feel free to call me an awful person for my lack of faith but know this: I refuse to look down on a person for their faith, unless they are militant in their beliefs (as in, everyone needs to believe in what I believe in). To each their own.

2012 Plans

2011-12-31T06:17:00.000-08:00

Assuming the Mayans weren't right, and the world doesn't end this year, I've got some things that I'd like to do in 2012. Not necessarily resolutions, per say, because I can't go through with a resolution to save my life, but accomplishments!

Here's a 2011 recap:

Got a new job
Sam got a new job
Bought a house

Not all that exciting, I know. Without further ado, here's a list of house-related things I'd like to do in 2012:

Replace all the damned outlets in the house. (This is already in progress, and proving to be more difficult then I thought)
Same for the light switches.
Swap out bathroom light fixtures. Currently they're fluorescent lighting.
Replace baseboards in the house
Build raised beds in the backyard
Pay someone to replace windows.
New gutters (woo exciting)

Kitchen related items:

Project where you put sliding drawers underneath the cabinetry. This
Get better at cooking with legumes.
Whittle down my recipes - I think one of my binders is thereabouts of 10 lbs now.

Sub-goal: make one recipe from the magazine files, a cookbook AND internet bookmarks a week. So, three new recipes.

Sub-sub goal: keep this all organized and type the recipes up in a timely fashion

Organize, print and bind the recipes I have typed up.
Make an awesome sourdough starter.
Try at least one higher-difficulty recipe a week.

Well, that should keep me busy. What are your goals for this year? And yes, I have other goals that I'm not putting on the internets. Some things stay private.

Oh, one more big goal: get Hunter a friend! (of the non-human variety)

House and all that Jazz

2011-12-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

So, we bought a house. Here are some pictures. The house is a tri-level with a basement.

This is the entry way, as seen from the front door.

Entryway/kitchen, as seen from the upper level.

Where the entryway leads up to the bedrooms/office, and down to the TV area and eventually the basement

Kitchen/dining room, from the top of the stairs.

Office (upstairs)

Guest bedroom (upstairs)

Master bedroom (excuse the unmade bed)

Living room (downstairs)

Craft/Beer room.

Gym (basement)

So there you go. With the exception of a few rooms (bathrooms, laundry room, paper product storage room, and the pantry), here's the house. The light is a bit crappy, but oh well. Oh, and the backyard is covered in snow. Nothing fun to see there.

Sam, Hunter and I are are beyond excited to finally have a place we can call our own.

News.

2011-12-02T08:12:00.001-08:00

So, the news that I alluded to in my previous post (you know, that one about a month ago?), was that S and I were under contract to purchase our first home. I may not be a religious gal, but I am a superstitious one, so I didn't want to go about saying we had a place when there were still so many unknowns. Total side note: as an engineer, unknowns freak me out.

Well, I can say with absolute certainty (since I'm typing this from the new house), THAT WE OWN A HOME. Hunter did slightly better with this move, but he still scared the living hell out of us by disappearing for a good 12 hours when we had movers coming over. We still have no idea where in the hell that cat hid. Don't worry though, he casually sauntered out from his hiding spot around dinnertime. At least he's predictable.

I'll be posting a bit about the house for the next while, with all the painting, and the new projects (and somewhat failures, ahem, fridge-tastrophe). Bear with me, I'll get to pictures when we have things unpacked a little bit.

November

2011-11-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

I'm obviously pretty bad at updating this blog. I could just post random things that I bookmark and think are neat, but what's the fun in that (That is also why I have a pinterest account. Let me know if you want one)? Or, I could post pictures of the cat, but really, even I know that no one is interested in seeing a bunch of pictures of how "regal" Hunter has gotten. (hint: Henry VIII regal, timeframe: last wife)

Anyways, there are some exciting things coming up that I don't want to talk about because I am superstitious about jinxing things, but once I get absolute confirmation, I'll ramble about it.

Z

(oh, if anyone wants more cat pictures, I've got a ton of them, including one where Hunter is Jabba-the-Hutt-ing with a Princess Leia pez dispenser. Yes I staged this. So?)

2011-10-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today, the OSU beavers took down the USC Trojans. Yay.

I Don't Feel Like Cooking Dinner

2011-10-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in a cooking rut. I shouldn't be - the weather is (FINALLY) changing (goodbye 80 degree days, hello cooler weather!), and fall is my favorite season. It's finally cool enough, without spending my entire paycheck on air conditioning, to start baking and making soups and the like. I don't know why, but I just can't get into it right now for some reason. Sure, I have some random things that I've cooked that were good (panko french toast), and some things that were awful (portobello peach sandwiches with avocado), but I just can't get motivated to get back into the kitchen. This means that more often than not, I default to the "easy" dinners - the ones I don't have to think about when I throw them together. So I guess I'm asking for some new ideas - difficulty no pork, shellfish, and well, everyone knows my odd obsession with trying to make everything from scratch. I'm also curious - what are some of your "easy" dinners. Here are mine:

Annie's Mac and Cheese w/chicken or turkey sausage

Salmon burgers (I make myself a veggie burger) w/ sweet potato fries

Turkey burgers (with random spice mixes thrown in) w/sweet potato fries

Pacific Organics Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Grilled Cheese (dinner tonight!)

Smoked salmon green-leaf salad

Pasta with Pesto sauce (I've recently resigned myself to the fact that it's cheaper to buy pesto at costco than make it myself)

Menu Planning?

2011-09-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

This post brought to you by Dayquil. Not as in a sponsored post, as in I consumed some Dayquil and have an urge to operate heavy machinery irresponsibly.

There are several websites that do a "Menu Plan Monday" feature, and some that go over the meals that the author had the previous week , and I really get a kick out of seeing what other people post about what they eat for the week - it's a peek into someone else's life (aside from all of the oversharing people do on the faceyspace). I'm not known for being the most traditional of gals (see that whole shacking up and adopting a kitten before being hitched thing), but I do believe that one of the best ways to show affection (and to blow off steam - who doesn't want to chop the hell out of some veggies after someone's been an ass at work) to your loved ones is to cook for them.

So, I've always shopped the sales at the grocery stores, and loosely "planned" around that, but I've been trying to attempt to write out a plan, and stick to it. The only hitch that I keep coming up on is that Sam objects to "Pizza" for dinner every night. Apparently he has standards. Anyone else do the meal planning thing? Any tips?

I've also been trying out this whole couponing thing, and I'm actually having some success with it. I managed to score 2 cases of Clif Builder Bars (Sam's favorite) at Whole Foods for over 50% off, using their secret case discount, and by snagging eleventeen of the Whole Deals booklets, which have lots of coupons and are good through October 31. I also have managed to build a pretty good stockpile of goods that the local animal shelter, and the local women's shelter can use at little to no cost to me. After watching Extreme Couponing, and seeing the gluttonous ways of the people on that show, it feels pretty good to know that you can help other people out, instead of being the people who hoard shitloads of stuff.

I digress (and blame the rambling on the Dayquil, which I have a coupon for, BRING IT COLD SEASON).

Here's a random picture of Hunter battling a snake, and a recipe for pizza sauce that makes me happy. I'm a sauce type of person when it comes to pizza, so finally making one at home that tastes the way I wanted it to makes me all sorts of happy. Maybe I will put pizza on the menu every night this week. Dayquil!

Pizza Sauce

1 (14.5 oz.) can tomato sauce

3 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (or 1 tsp. dried basil)

1 tsp. dried oregano

0.5 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. dried marjoram

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

0.5 tsp red pepper flakes

splash of red wine

1 tsp. sugar

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until bubbles begin to rise (and pop) at the surface. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for another 15 minutes.

August

2011-08-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

August in Colorado compared to August in Newport are two completely different experiences. In Newport, August meant tourist season was almost over. You could drive on 101 or 20 without getting stuck behind a RV or a group of tourists going 15 mph to stare at the ocean. Everything was back to normal.

In Boulder, 'normal' is the complete opposite. August brings back all the college kids. You can't set foot in the Target or the Costco; there are lines of parents in various states of an anxiety attack with their kids buying a metric shit ton of top ramen, hot pockets, mini-fridges and shower sandals. Even the local grocery store turns into an absolute zoo. Frat kids discussing the virtues of one flavor of jello over another for jello shots (total aside: I once overheard the frat kids talking about which flavor of jello would be best for a slip and slide. I still don't understand why anyone would think that would be a good idea, but maybe I'm just old). In the latter portion of the month, if you're lucky, you can catch a walk of shame at the grocery store, the person who hasn't yet been home buying whatever they think will help out their hangover.

August also brings Hatch Green Chiles, and if you know a New Mexican, you know that chiles are serious business, and the question "Red or Green?" isn't referring to anything to do with Christmas. People who aren't from New Mexico (me) just don't understand it, much like I will never understand the prevalence of Macaroni and Cheese as a side dish, or Sweet Tea (blech) in the South. It has to do with where we were brought up, I suppose.

Our local grocery store has Hatch Chiles, so I bought about a pound and a half to roast and freeze for the upcoming year, because, again, if you shack up with a New Mexican (as I do), you know that green chiles can be put on almost anything, and green chiles from a can just aren't good enough most times. I learned one thing from this experience: Buy the roasted chiles from the grocery store. More often than not, the hatch chiles you get that aren't roasted don't have much "meat" to them, and are very easy to over roast.

I gave in and purchased roasted chiles from the grocery store, chopped them all up, and froze them in an ice cube tray, for handy-dandy use later in the year. My ice cube tray will never be the same. Chile Ice cubes, anyone?

Today

2011-08-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

To say that I haven't been paying any attention to my corner of the internet is an understatement, to say the least. In the time that I've been not writing an entry, this happened:

Today marks one year that Sam and I have been in Colorado. It may not be all sunshine (although it is sunny here, ALL THE TIME), unicorns and rainbows, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm lucky to have a gentleman caller that convinced me to leave what I knew and charge out for the unknown. I'm pretty resistant to change of any sort, and I don't do well with feeling like I'm not in control of things, but I'm glad we ventured out here. I miss everyone at the mill (with very obvious exceptions), but Colorado is finally starting to feel like home.

Enough with the sentimental shit.

What we've (the royal We, of course) have been up to:

Sam took a work trip to Germany, came back with awesome soccer scarves and a 1.0 L glass boot.
While Sam was in Germany, I drove down to New Mexico to pick up Jane (HI!) to bring her back to Boulder and force her to watch My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and the Next Food Network Star with me. I even got to meet a friendly New Mexico State Trooper who pulled me over! New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment. Oh, and Hatch Chiles. Jane and I have picked out my 200 pound wedding dress. I think Hunter might have to be dressed as the "mini-bride" though, as I have no siblings, and well, we took his balls.
Hunter finally overshot his landing on the bannister, and flew towards the TV. The look on his face was priceless, as was the embarrassment hiding that ensued.
After sufficiently putting Jane into a reality TV coma (which may or may not have involved the "mean tweets" episode of RHONY) and sending her back to the land of chiles, Mr. Zimmer came into town! Mr. Zimmer was saddened at my tiny grill, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation. I <3 Mr. Zimmer, oh, and my shiny new grill.
Sam finally got home! From what I understand, jet lag is a bitch.
Hunter caught a gigantic grasshopper, and proceeded to play with it, and finally eat it, while Sam and I watched, mesmerized.
Oh yeah, and we have hops.

Gardening

2011-05-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

Without fail, every spring I get an itch to plant a garden, and start driving Sam nuts with my inane chatter about what I should plant. Sam always reminds me that we have a limited area to plant in, but I never let that deter me: come hell or high water I am determined to have my vegetable garden.

More often than not, what I tried to grow was an absolute failure: some plants won't grow well in containers (which is what I was working with), and other plants just wouldn't grow in our little corner of the coast (I'm looking at YOU,basil, tomatoes and peppers). I had some triumphs: my rosemary plant was fantastic (I still miss it, I left it with a friend when we moved), I could always count on chives coming back, and I had figured out how to grow onions and sugar snap peas.

When we arrived in Colorado, with all of my planters in tow, I immediately ~~forced~~, nicely asked Sam if he would buy me a new rosemary and thyme plant. He bought them for me at the market, and I promptly killed them. Who knew that you actually had to water plants? In Oregon, I watered our plants once or twice a year, and NEVER had to worry about them freezing. This whole having "seasons" thing has taken some getting used to.

This year, we're planting more then we have before in hopes of having a fairly decent yield. I've got radishes, lettuce, onions, broccoli, New Mexican chiles, tomatoes, and HOPS! Sam bought some rhizomes this year, and the first one that we got has taken off! It'll only be a matter of time before our neighbors get irritated at the beer-smelling vine growing up the side of our place.

Now for a boatload of photos:

Hops!

Hunter!

Spring Break

2011-03-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

All of the students are on Spring Break at the university I work at, and campus has been silent. When I get off the bus and walk across campus to my office, I see maybe one other person, when I used to see hundreds. There isn't the tempting smell of bacon coming from one of the residence halls, which is good, because of one these days I swear I will break down and go in there and order a plate of it. When I leave, the bus isn't crowded, and I haven't encountered a hammered undergrad in almost a week. (High point: St. Patrick's day - shorter guy, red hair, dressed as a leprechan, literally being dragged across campus at 5 PM.) It's been very nice - all of the spring bulbs are starting to come up, the squirrels are getting more active (I keep trying to catch one for Hunter, but I think the squirrels are onto my game), and the weather has been gorgeous. Colorado is entirely different from Oregon, and in more ways than relative humidity. I've found that in Western Washington/ Oregon, for the most part, it's green year round - Spring really kind of sneaks up on you. You first notice it in when the cherry trees bloom in the Quad, but it doesn't fully hit you that it's spring until then. Here in Colorado, if you look closely, you can see the grass starting to green a bit, and the weather is starting to warm up. We've been trying to grill more now that it's nice out.

Grilled Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Adapted from Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals 2

2 tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 large lemon, juiced

2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce

2 tbs. olive oil

2 medium to large Portobello mushroom caps

Salt and pepper to taste

3 large plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, stripped from the stem and finely chopped

Mozzarella cheese to top, sliced

Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl or plastic bag. Coat mushroom caps evenly in marinade and let sit for 30 minutes.
Place caps on the grill cap side up (gill side up) and season with salt and pepper, light grill and set to “medium-high” cook caps for 4-6 minutes on each side.
Combine tomatoes and rosemary, drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper.
Turn mushrooms cap side down and fill with tomato mixture, and cover with mozzarella slices, heat until cheese melts.

Martha's Turkey Burgers

2011-03-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

I actually took a picture of one of our dinners. Don't I deserve a gold star?

Turkey burgers are one of our dinner standbys. When everything gets busy, and/or we don't feel like putting a big effort into making something, turkey burgers always work. I probably have about 4 variations that I use as a standby, and another 10 recipes to try out! I buy the ground turkey at Costco (it's usually the cheapest), and then transfer it all into freezer bags in one pound increments, which is the perfect amount for Sam and I to have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Turkey burgers get a pretty bad rap, but it seems like the opinion of them is changing. Turkey (as well as ground chicken, which I've never used) is a pretty blank slate, so you can really flavor it in whatever way you're leaning. Will it taste like a hamburger? No, because it's not beef, and you shouldn't expect it to. If you do, you'll be disappointed every single time. Kind of like thinking that a veggie burger is going to taste like a McDonald's Cheeseburger (side note: mmm, cheezburger). It won't. Ever. Even if you fry your veggie burger in bacon fat, which in my opinion defeats the purpose.

Martha's Turkey Burgers

From Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

1 lb. ground turkey

0.5 c. grated gruyere or swiss cheese (Swiss is the cheaper option)

4 green onions, thinly sliced

0.3 c. bread crumbs

0.25 c. dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, minced or put through a press

Pinch of salt and pepper

4 Hamburger buns

whatever toppings make you happy; lettuce, pickles, cheese, etc

Heat a grill or a grill pan (if you are making these inside), medium-high or high, depending on how touchy your grill or stovetop burners are. In a bowl, gently mix together all ingredients except for hamburger buns, for obvious reasons. Just mix everything together until combined. If you overwork the ground turkey, it can change the texture a little bit, and not in a good way.
Divide the mixture into 4 equal-sized patties. Make a slight indentation with your thumb in the top of the patties. This prevents the burger from ending up "domed," which for me, always results in the ketchup sliding to the outer edges of the burger.
Lightly oil your grill, or grill pan. (pro tip: don't spray PAM on a hot grill. This equals fire. I speak from experience) Place patties on your cook, cook for 2-3 minutes per side, until well seared, then either reduce heat (on your grill pan) or move the burgers to a cooler part of the grill (usually the perimeter), and cook for another 5-10 minutes per side. Towards the end, if you want cheese, put it on the burgers, and serve when melted.

Note: light of the earthquake, resulting tsunami in Japan, and now the multitude of failures at the nuclear facility, I've hesitated to post my inane drivel about my every day life. Seems a bit inconsequential in the light of things. I hope that the scientists and engineers at the stricken nuclear facility can get the reactors cooled and under control to avoid further injury to an already crippled nation.

Kiwi Sorbet

2011-03-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Things have been a bit different around here for the past couple of months. Sam picked up some Goddesses, and Hunter got into the tiger blood (again), and I started a new job. So far, the job seems like it has potential, but I've always found that the first couple of months are never really representative of how a job will be - there's the learning curve associated, the training etc, and this job has been no different. My new position is definitely a change from my last - the pace isn't as fast (no one needs anything yesterday), and the culture is totally different (wait, you couldn't change your own light bulbs at your last job?), but I'm starting to really like it, without going into too many details which would be so boring (or awesome) to most people that your body would explode.

Having a new job has meant shifting the balance of my free time a bit, and I'll be the first to admit that while I was a real (pretend) housewife of Boulder County, I really let my time management skills slide. I mean, I was home for a good 6 months before I started work. I think I managed to post on here once? Twice? Sorry, I was too into watching Judge Judy and Maury to be bothered with coming up with coherent sentences, and watching Hunter learn that not only are squirrels not your friend, but they may be tasty as well.

Where am I going with this ramble and a half? I'm going to make an attempt to post more often. There may or may not be pictures, because I always forget to take them, but I'll post the recipes, and maybe one day update with pictures. Hell, we all know I won't do that. I'll get distracted by Hunter, or another shiny new cookbook.

So, onto the recipe:

Kiwi Sorbet

(total side note, it took me 5 minutes to find the cookbook I got this recipe from. Maybe I have too many cookbooks? Ah, no. you can never have too many cookbooks.)

From Martha Stewart's Cooking School

4 c. chopped kiwi (thereabouts of 16 kiwis)

0.5 c. water

1 tbs. lime juice

1.25 c. simple syrup (3 c. water + 3 c. sugar + heat + winning = simple syrup)

Puree chopped kiwi and water in a food processor. Using a mesh strainer, strain pulp and seeds out. Add a little bit of the strained seeds back into the puree to make it pretty. (But not so many seeds that they're overpowering.)
Combine puree, simple syrup and lime juice in a bowl. Wash an egg off (a whole egg, mind you), dry it, and put it into the bowl. If a quarter-sized area of the egg floats above the puree, you're good. If not, add more simple syrup until you get the egg to float properly. Remove egg, cover mixture and refrigerate or freeze until thoroughly chilled.
Process according to your ice cream maker manufacturer's instructions. Once frozen-ish, transfer to a container and freeze overnight.

Merry Whatever, and Happy New Year

2010-12-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

Photo from here

Christmas completely snuck up on me this year, I (gasp) still have yet to send out gifts. I"ll just maintain that it's nice to get gifts in January...when no one is expecting them...right? As I told anyone who asked (and many who didn't), I'm pretty sure I spent all my holiday cheer planning our first whole family/Colorado Thanksgiving.

That's not to say we didn't celebrate Christmas this year, it was just on a smaller scale, and very relaxing. We went down to New Mexico (my folks were basking it up on a cruise), and I got to see the luminarias in White Rock, and even eat a Chileworks Burrito (Chileworks is serious business. Sam came back with 4 of them, thanks to his wonderful mom (hi!)) which promptly made my face melt.

The latter half of 2010 has been a bit rocky for us, and I"m excited (and hopeful) that 2011 will be a little less stressful. Without further ado, here are some things that I'd like to accomplish in 2011:

Get a job. I know I've been at home too long when I start to notice how some people on the Maury show say "Murray" instead of "Maury" Also, having an income would be pretty awesome. I could buy lots of pancetta that way.
Organize my recipe file. I have three accordian folders that probably weigh as much as the cat with recipes that I've clipped out of magazines. (Maybe if I had main ingredients, such as chicken, sorted into Whole, Breasts and Thighs, I wouldn't have to spend half an hour tracking down a recipe.)
Make at least 2 recipes from the file a month.
Make at least 2 recipes from all of the website bookmarks I have a month
Use every cookbook in my bookshelf once.
Mail out the late weddings gifts (Hi Aldis & San, Shayna & Justin), AND the late Holiday Gifts. (Hi everyone else!) (Note: How awesome is it that I'm late on the gifts for two weddings, Hanukkah, AND Christmas? That's talent!)
Mail shit out on time.
Write a letter/send a card to someone once a month.
Go fishing.
~~Steal someone's boyfriend by cooking them chicken tettrazini~~ - shit, sorry, I have Maury on right now. How ridiculous is that? Um, #10, well, huh. I guess I'm out of goals. Wait! Finish Mason & Dixon!

Well, that's all I've got for now. Hunter says his #1 and only goal is to figure out how to open the food tupperware. He already accomplished the goal of making the auto feeder give him food whenever he wants.

I hope everyone who reads this (all 3 of you) has a happy, healthy and safe New Year and a bitchin 2011.

-Kim, Sam and Hunter

How many have you read?

2010-11-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

Now for an entirely unrelated to cooking post:

I LOVE to read. Almost as much as I love cooking. (I will take a moment to state that I don't particularly care for the Harry Potter or the Twilights) When I was in the fourth grade, I started working my way through my parents bookshelves, much to the consternation/wonder of my teacher, Dr. Tensmeyer. (He was worried I was reading inappropriate material for my age.) I lucked out when I found another guy who loved to read as much as I do. As a matter of fact, one of the first non-work related conversations that S and I had was me grilling him about his bookshelf. Bookshelves are serious business to me, and all I'll say about his bookshelf is that is continues to make me happy to this day.

There's a BBC Book list Meme-internety thing going around with a list of 100 books, and from what I understand, the BBC says that on average, people have only read 6 of the books on the list. I've seen a couple of friends post this on the facebook, and a few of the blogs I follow have put this up, so I figured what the hell, I'll have a go at it too.

Titles in bold are books I've read. Titles in italics are books I've started, but not finished.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read some, but not others...
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - This is what I'm currently reading
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (one day I will tackle this one)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So, I've read 53 of the books on the list, read 4 of the books partially, and have at least 10 more of the books on the list on my bookshelf currently. Neat!

Thanksgiving Recap

2010-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Our first family Thanksgiving was a total success (if I do say so myself). Traveling went well, no one got the pat down at the airport, and BOISE STATE LOST (!!!). I can't imagine having a better Thanksgiving, surrounded by family.

I didn't take many pictures, other than the one at the head of the post, because I was hustling and bustling about. Joan took an ordinary grocery store bouquet and turned it into a beautiful centerpiece. She seriously has an eye for this stuff, whereas I don't. I did most of the prep in the weeks and days beforehand, but left some last minute things (such as making rolls, etc) for the day of, so I would be busy. There is one picture I would have LOVED to have - at one point Sam and I were debating turkey and oven rack placement, and apparently we looked hilarious - I had on one normal oven mitt, and an oven mit in the shape of a lobster claw, and was gesticulating wildly.

I like to challenge myself by making things from scratch - often making something from scatch can be done more cheaply then buying the processed version, and you can control levels of salt/fat/whatever, which is pretty important to me. This Thanksgiving, I made ALMOST everything from scratch - the two exceptions were the pumpkin pie - I used canned pumpkin, and the guest-requested cool whip. I made a somewhat traditional green bean casserole, making the sauce instead of using the canned soup, and it was a big hit.

Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole

From The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever

1 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed

2.5 tbs. butter or margarine

0.5 lb. baby portobella mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbs. flour

0.75 c. chicken broth

1 tbs. dry sherry

0.5 c. heavy cream

salt, pepper

1 slice whole grain bread

Preheat oven to 425 F. Coat a 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
Cook the green beans in salted water for about 3 minutes - you want them to be crisp and bright green. Drain beans, and shock in ice water to stop cooking. Drain again and transfer to the casserole dish.
Melt 1.5 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and add mushrooms and garlic. Saute for about 6 minutes (adjusting heat if necessary) until the mushrooms are softened, but retain some of the moisture. Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute. Stirring constantly, mix in chicken broth, sherry and cream. Allow to come to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste, add sauce to green beans in casserole.
If you're making this dish ahead, after the last step, you can cover the casserole and refrigerate it for a day).
Break the bread into pieces and pulse in a food processor until it's crumb-y. Add remaining butter and pulse again until blended.
Sprinkle crumbs over the beans. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes until the casserole is bubbly and the crumbs are browned.

A few notes:

I totally spaced the bread crumb part. Didn't realize there were supposed to be a topping on this until I re-read the recipe after starting this post. Obviously it didn't make much of a difference.
As I only have one oven (when we get a house, it was unanimously agreed upon by all parties present that I NEED to have the dual oven setup), and the turkey's roasting temperature trumped every other dish, I actually ended up baking this dish for about an hour at 325.
I obviously don't pay proper attention to ingredients at times - I used full grown portobellas. Using the baby ones (or even button mushrooms) would have been better - everyone would have gotten smaller slices, instead of the larger pieces.
One could throw the french fried onions, or fry up some shallots for the topping instead of the bread crumbs, I opted not to, as I was hell bent on making almost everything from scratch.

TMinus 1 Week

2010-11-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is in one week! This year the families will be descending on Colorado for the very first joint Thanksgiving. I am currently alternating between excitement and hyperventilation. Is the menu OK? Crap, I still have to make the pie crusts! AM I MAKING ENOUGH FOOD? I think I've got the appetizers pretty much dialed in (I've got my priorities straight, right?), but there's still tons to do!

Here is my to-do list for the next week, up to the day of Thanksgiving: (and in no particular order)
Make Dinner Rolls (decide on recipe), freeze rolls
Make herb-oil infusion for under turkey skin (Tuesday)
Pick up Turkey (Tuesday)
Make Hummus
Cut up vegetables for veggie platter
Make Roasted Red Pepper Crostini
Finish grocery list
    Go to Grocery Store
Decide on stuffing recipe
Make pie crust (and freeze)
Launder sheets and comforters
Press napkins
Polish Silver
Make cranberry sauce (Probably Tuesday)
Make pizza Sauce (for pizza bar on Friday)
Make pizza dough (and freeze)
Give Hunter a Spa Day (clip nails and brush)
Vacuum house
Clean bathrooms
Launder all bathroom rugs

Wow. this list is a lot longer then I thought it would be.   I need to get cracking!

What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving this year?

Odds and ends

2010-11-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

*I'll be swearing quite a bit in this post. I've edited the f-bombs, but it's still obvious what I'm saying. Apologies in advance, I suppose.

One would think that being "funemployed" (credit to Heather for the term), I would be constantly posting about all of the fantastic things I've been making. This hasn't been the case. Being at home has made me complacent, and I haven't really been experimenting that much.

The adjustment from Oregon to Colorado has been hard on me. Genetically, I'm prone to some depression, and it's reared it's ugly head since moving here. To say I've been in a bit of a rut is putting it lightly. The entire move and the events leading up to it were a total clusterf-ck.

When Sam gave his notice, our (former) place of work came up with a "deal" to keep me around for an additional 2-3 months in order to train my replacement. Part of this "deal" was that the company I worked for would be paying for my living expenses - rent, etc, and covering one round-trip airline ticket a month to Boulder to see Sam until my pre-determined end date (November 1st or 2nd).

Here is a lesson to anyone who reads this: if the company you work for makes you any form of an unorthodox offer to keep you around, GET IT IN WRITING.

My company was supposed to find me a furnished place to live (that would allow Hunter) after the moving truck came and we moved the majority of our belongings down to Colorado. They didn't.

I came up with an alternate proposal - I'd stay where Sam and I had been living, all the company needed to do was rent furniture for me.

I prepared an estimate for management as to the monthly rent a center fees. They balked, and all the sudden, this wasn't a local issue any longer, it went straight to Atlanta (corporate). Atlanta wouldn't give an answer. This was four days before the moving truck was supposed to arrive.

Two days later, we received the notification from the moving company that they would be arriving in 48 hours. The company I worked for still had no answers for me.

One day later, still no answers. In my opinion, this is a pretty shitty way for a company to treat an employee who came in on weekends, and went above and beyond their job description because their department had two grown men that acted like goddamned children, and was payed less then everyone else. It was literally two sane people running a department that is integral to that site's success (Hi Brian!)

That Friday, I walked into the office and gave my notice. As in, "well, you haven't held up your end of the deal, so I will be leaving with Sam on Monday. By the way, as I have to pack up the rest of my house in the next 24 hours, I'll be leaving by 9 AM."

lesson learned, get shit in writing. Large companies are only out to f--k the people that work for them and my former employer is NO exception.

Anyways, this has been quite a bit of a ramble, but I needed to vent a little bit, I suppose.

I'll probably ramble a bit more about thing that have been on my mind, so be prepared (name that Disney movie!)

Kegerator Makeover

2010-09-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned this before, but Sam brews his own beer. A couple of years ago he decided that it was time to upgrade from a single kegerator to a double kegerator (pictured above). Sam found a mini fridge, and converted it to a double kegerator, complete with a tower and two taps. Of course, one could purchase a kegerator, with all of the fixings already put on it, but that wouldn't be all that fun now would it?

So, other then adding in a drip pan, and rotating out tap handles (pictured above is Rogue's Yellow Snow Ale, and a tap handle make from a deer horn), and making some bottle cap magnets, we hadn't really done much with the kegerator itself. With the big move over, and the house put together, Sam mentioned he thought it would be awesome to turn the front of the kegerator into a chalkboard.

This past Monday after returning from a wedding (Congrats Aldis and Sandra!), Sam and I decided that it was time to get crafty. We ran out to Home Depot, picked up some Rustoleum Chalk Paint and the recommended primer, and off we went. We did two coats of primer on the front of the fridge, and three coats of the chalk paint to be sure that everything was covered. Rustoluem recommends that before writing on the paint, after it's dried for three days, covering the entire surface with chalk, then erasing it all to create a chalk layer (second picture).

The results? Pretty damned awesome, if I do say so myself. I believe the total cost for our kegerator makeover was about $35, and now we have chalk paint and primer for other projects. Sam's suggested that I paint the top of the chest freezer, and write what I have hoarded in there on the top. I'll think about it....

(Ta da!)

hunter has nowhere to hide.

2010-08-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

So, today marks a week that we have been without our belongings, and I will cover that in a post entirely related to it once we get all of our stuff. I'll even bring up company names, maybe write an angry open letter to them. instead, here's a MS paint version of how I've been feeling this week:

Moving is Fun!

2010-08-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sam and I have recently given up beach living for a life in the mountains. To me, this means that instead of being at sea level where my sinuses don't bleed, I am now a bazillion (or 5,215) feet up in the sky, where at the moment, my sinuses DO bleed. That's right, we are now in Boulder, Colorado. Oh wait, it's Denver that's the mile high city, right? Oh well.

We arrived in Boulder on Tuesday, with Hunter in tow. Hunter was relatively calm during the ride, thanks entirely to the Feliway Spray that San so graciously let me us. Hunter hates cars, and normally spends his time in them howling or trying frantically to figure out how in the hell to get out of the car. Normally this includes vaulting himself at closed windows. Right, I should probably stay on track here. We got the keys to our new place on Wednesday, and are now sitting in a mostly empty house waiting for our furniture to arrive. The moving company seems to be telling us that our stuff will either get here on Sunday, or next Wednesday, and this changes based on who you talk to at what time of the day, so in short, we have no idea where our stuff is (Portland is my best guess) or when it will get here (Anyone want to start a pool? Prize is, well, crap, I'm unemployed now, so there is no prize).

So, I didn't have the foresight to cart any of my pots and pans with me, which means that I have no cooking implements. This is driving me nuts. I also packed up the cookbook that is going to help me adjust to baking at high altitudes, so I can't start reading up to attempt to avoid the disasters that come along when you're used to cooking at sea level.

So, stay tuned I guess. Once we get our stuff, I'll be posting more, because really, what else do I have to do other than job hunt, bake, and watch daytime tv?

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2010-06-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been a very bad blogger. I think it's been several months since I last updated. In my defense, many of the things that I wanted to talk about, I couldn't post on the internet for everyone and their brother to see.

First update: Sam and I are doing P90X. The instructor guy, Tony, drives me nuts with his thinly veiled sexual harassment of the women on the workout video, but hey! You can mute him, so you don't have to listen to him hit on Dreya one.more.time. This means that we've been making an attempt (great on Sam's part, not so great on my part) at following the diet, which includes protein overload. I think the first week we did P90X I had a breakdown because Sam didn't want me to make muffins for breakfasts at work like I normally do. I won't lie - it was ugly.

Second update: Some folk may know this already, but Sam has put in his notice at work, and we'll be embarking on a major life change in the next coming months. That's all I'll say right now. Oh, and I'm pretty stoked that CU is joining the Pac-10.

Nothing like a slew (is 2 updates really a slew? Thoughts?) of updates to get me back into subjecting the internets to my ramblings.

One thing that Sam has been eating a lot of lately is Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with pita chips. Hummus has a ton of protein, which is great to have after a workout. Or so that Tony guy tells me. I personally just want to have a cocktail and attack a bag of chips. Perhaps I'm not getting this whole high protein diet thing...

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 14.5-oz. can low sodium chickpeas, drained and rinsed (sometimes labeled as garbanzo beans) (about 1.5 c. of beans)

1/3 c. + 2 tsp. tahini (or, a heaping 1/3 c.)

3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

1 -2 large cloves roasted garlic (skins removed, to taste)

1 roasted red pepper

2.25 tsp. cumin or paprika

Juice of 1/2 a lemon, plus more to taste

Salt and pepper

Combine chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, roasted red peppers oil and garlic in food processor, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Combine until desired consistency. Add a little water if the hummus is too thick.
Taste and adjust seasoning, adding in cumin/paprika, salt/pepper, or lemon juice to suit your tastes.