Boy, today was a busy day.
Did chili.
Made the chicken salad for Curried Chicken Salad in Naan. That will be lunches this week, along with Grilled Ham, Cheese & Tomato sandwiches (which I think I'll actually do on tortillas). And turkey instead of ham. So not that much like that recipe at all, lol. But that's how I roll, baby.
Also mixed up the stuff for an artichoke dip for my nephew's birthday party on Saturday. That went in to the freezer, I'll pull it out to defrost later in the week and throw it in to the little crockpot to keep it warm on Saturday. But as I often do when I'm prepping food to bring to a party, I think I made waaay too much.
Also did some garlic confit and tomato confit. I want the garlic oil to make pita chips to go with the dip on Saturday, and I'll probably use the tomatoes in my sandwiches this week. Really, the romas at the market just looked so good I just wanted to buy them, again.
Got the kitchen cleaned, and the laundry is going.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
I think there is a wormhole in my pantry....
Dude. Seriously.
The agenda for today was to make chili, given the unseasonable cold and the depletion of my reserves of chili in the freezer. And I figured I'd get the bonus of using up some of the many cans of tomato soup and beans that I'd seen when I did a re-org recently. Got the beef and onions done, and went to find the beans and tomato soup from the pantry.
One can of beans. One can of tomato soup.
I *know* I'd seen more.
And also, while I was looking, there was a bottle of Dijonaise right up front/on top of everything. When I cooked brats last week, I spent ten minutes moving/looking for that bleepin' bottle and could not find it. It was not there last week.
Stupid pantry wormhole. Sigh.
So, it was off to the market, and I did have a couple other things I wanted to pick up. No biggie.
Decided to go to the "other" produce mart I hit sometimes. Great produce, great deli, lots of ethnic items. But man, I hate the people who shop there. It seems like every person in the store at any given time thinks that they are THE most important person in the world. It starts in the parking lot. People parking in the fire lane, non-handicapped people parked in the handicapped spaces, Hummers taking up two or three spaces... it's a nightmare. And then you walk in, and people are rude and it's just not enjoyable.
But I did make it out alive, with a giggle at two dudes in chef gear who were raiding the sections of fresh herbs.
Home, and the chili is cooking away in the crockpot, so I can take it easy this afternoon. Was thinking of going over to Trader Joes... but I'm feeling lazy. And I'd like to catch up on the two episodes of The Riches that are waiting on the Tivo. Or I might just continue to watch the Top Chef marathon.
The agenda for today was to make chili, given the unseasonable cold and the depletion of my reserves of chili in the freezer. And I figured I'd get the bonus of using up some of the many cans of tomato soup and beans that I'd seen when I did a re-org recently. Got the beef and onions done, and went to find the beans and tomato soup from the pantry.
One can of beans. One can of tomato soup.
I *know* I'd seen more.
And also, while I was looking, there was a bottle of Dijonaise right up front/on top of everything. When I cooked brats last week, I spent ten minutes moving/looking for that bleepin' bottle and could not find it. It was not there last week.
Stupid pantry wormhole. Sigh.
So, it was off to the market, and I did have a couple other things I wanted to pick up. No biggie.
Decided to go to the "other" produce mart I hit sometimes. Great produce, great deli, lots of ethnic items. But man, I hate the people who shop there. It seems like every person in the store at any given time thinks that they are THE most important person in the world. It starts in the parking lot. People parking in the fire lane, non-handicapped people parked in the handicapped spaces, Hummers taking up two or three spaces... it's a nightmare. And then you walk in, and people are rude and it's just not enjoyable.
But I did make it out alive, with a giggle at two dudes in chef gear who were raiding the sections of fresh herbs.
Home, and the chili is cooking away in the crockpot, so I can take it easy this afternoon. Was thinking of going over to Trader Joes... but I'm feeling lazy. And I'd like to catch up on the two episodes of The Riches that are waiting on the Tivo. Or I might just continue to watch the Top Chef marathon.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Randomosity
Been meaning to say something.... was very sad to read about the passing of Dan Savage's mom last week. I've been reading him for years, spoken to him via email after reading his book "The Kid" when my brother and sister in law were in the throws of the adoption process.... just a great guy. Funny, insightful... and I've been a fan long enough to know how big of an influence his mom has been. And I know how much it sucks to loose the parent you're the most like. My heart goes out to him. Hopefully right now he's in a bar of the sout' side somewhere with his family getting very, very drunk and remembering hilarious stories about his mom.
Pulled together a pretty nice dinner tonight.... but you get a rant before you get the details! One of the things that irks me the most about Rachel Ray is that the cooking is so rushed. It's yet another show that seems to stress what a chore cooking can be, and isn't it great to burger-fy your meals so you can be out of the kitchen in 30 minutes (and... I'm a fairly skilled person in the kitchen, and any of her recipes has always taken me at least 45 minutes... I'm just sayin'....). Sometimes it's nice to spend some leisurely time in the kitchen. Not being rushed, just giving the cooking process the time it needs to do its lovely magic.
Sometime last year at the end of tomato season, I found myself with a couple of very beautiful tomatoes on hand, ready to go south, and a couple extra cups of heavy cream on hand. What to do? I tossed the cream and some garlic confit in a small pot, put it on the simmer burner on low, and let it go for about an hour and a half. Then I added the flesh from my wonderful summer tomatoes, and we had a lovely tomato-cream pasta sauce for dinner.
I've done it a few times since, and as long as you give it about an hour and are around to stir it every five minutes or so, you are rewarded with a wonderful sauce that a lot of Italian eateries can't compare to.
This week, the roma tomatoes at the produce mart were looking really good, so I bought several. Ok, about three to four pounds worth. We had some with the tacos/nachos last night, but tonight, as soon as the cream (oh wait, I used half & half tonight... not quite as good but still very tasty) came to a simmer, I threw in the whole tomatoes (with the bottom scored) for a minute, then peeled/seeded/chopped them and threw them in. I started cooking at 6pm, and dinner was ready by 7pm. I was not rushed, I spent my time dealing with the tomatoes, peeling some shrimp, getting my pasta water to a boil... and it all came together, but none of it rushed. And it was a zillion and a half times better than any sauce fromajar. Who needs a recipe when you have decent ingredients? The only thing that might have made it better was figuring out how to work bacon in there.....
Work.... ugh. Yeah. There is an industry standard program for producing "print" manuals, and we don't use it at my place. We use a program that has not been updated in ten years. Some people are fanatical about it, but I have yet to be convinced. It's not nearly as feature-rich as the industry-standard tool at this point in time (hello! Program has not been updated in TEN YEARS!) and I've just had a lot of problems with it crashing. It's even more crash-happy than the industry standard program, which can be a little crash happy sometimes, but there are at least ways to fix it. Anyway... today, the program crashed on me, and took an entire chapter of the book I was working on with it. Poof. GONE. No where to be seen. Not in the recovery file. Not in the auto-saved "backup". Gone gone gone. A day of work down the drain, since luckily I don't really trust the program and I at least make a PDF of my work at the end of the day, so I at least had the text I needed. Sigh. Man, I do not like this program. I really, really want to go back to the industry-standard program we used at the last job.
Hopefully a quiet weekend ahead... looks like my bro is getting sprung from the hospital tomorrow or Saturday, so I'll be happy to leave him alone and let him get some rest over the weekend.
Is it Friday yet???
Pulled together a pretty nice dinner tonight.... but you get a rant before you get the details! One of the things that irks me the most about Rachel Ray is that the cooking is so rushed. It's yet another show that seems to stress what a chore cooking can be, and isn't it great to burger-fy your meals so you can be out of the kitchen in 30 minutes (and... I'm a fairly skilled person in the kitchen, and any of her recipes has always taken me at least 45 minutes... I'm just sayin'....). Sometimes it's nice to spend some leisurely time in the kitchen. Not being rushed, just giving the cooking process the time it needs to do its lovely magic.
Sometime last year at the end of tomato season, I found myself with a couple of very beautiful tomatoes on hand, ready to go south, and a couple extra cups of heavy cream on hand. What to do? I tossed the cream and some garlic confit in a small pot, put it on the simmer burner on low, and let it go for about an hour and a half. Then I added the flesh from my wonderful summer tomatoes, and we had a lovely tomato-cream pasta sauce for dinner.
I've done it a few times since, and as long as you give it about an hour and are around to stir it every five minutes or so, you are rewarded with a wonderful sauce that a lot of Italian eateries can't compare to.
This week, the roma tomatoes at the produce mart were looking really good, so I bought several. Ok, about three to four pounds worth. We had some with the tacos/nachos last night, but tonight, as soon as the cream (oh wait, I used half & half tonight... not quite as good but still very tasty) came to a simmer, I threw in the whole tomatoes (with the bottom scored) for a minute, then peeled/seeded/chopped them and threw them in. I started cooking at 6pm, and dinner was ready by 7pm. I was not rushed, I spent my time dealing with the tomatoes, peeling some shrimp, getting my pasta water to a boil... and it all came together, but none of it rushed. And it was a zillion and a half times better than any sauce fromajar. Who needs a recipe when you have decent ingredients? The only thing that might have made it better was figuring out how to work bacon in there.....
Work.... ugh. Yeah. There is an industry standard program for producing "print" manuals, and we don't use it at my place. We use a program that has not been updated in ten years. Some people are fanatical about it, but I have yet to be convinced. It's not nearly as feature-rich as the industry-standard tool at this point in time (hello! Program has not been updated in TEN YEARS!) and I've just had a lot of problems with it crashing. It's even more crash-happy than the industry standard program, which can be a little crash happy sometimes, but there are at least ways to fix it. Anyway... today, the program crashed on me, and took an entire chapter of the book I was working on with it. Poof. GONE. No where to be seen. Not in the recovery file. Not in the auto-saved "backup". Gone gone gone. A day of work down the drain, since luckily I don't really trust the program and I at least make a PDF of my work at the end of the day, so I at least had the text I needed. Sigh. Man, I do not like this program. I really, really want to go back to the industry-standard program we used at the last job.
Hopefully a quiet weekend ahead... looks like my bro is getting sprung from the hospital tomorrow or Saturday, so I'll be happy to leave him alone and let him get some rest over the weekend.
Is it Friday yet???
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Happy Hump Day!
So, yesterday I got to work early so I could leave a little early to go down and visit my brother in the hospital.
My brother has had problems with non-cancerous polyps in his colon since he was a teenager. About five years ago, at his yearly checkup, his doctor said he could start doing screenings every 5 years rather than every year.
When he went to his screening this year, they found a group of polyps that they couldn't remove in outpatient services... he needed surgery. GREAT.
My brother lives about an hour/hour and a half south from where I live. I work about twenty minutes north from where I live. I figured it'd likely take about and hour and a half or two hours on the expressway to get there.
Yeah.
Didn't know they had one of the roads I planned on taking down to a SINGLE lane at one point. They mentioned the jam on the news radio, but didn't point out it was because the road was closed down to a SINGLE LANE. Had they said that, I'd have taken a different way.
It was also raining, which only added to the woes. It took about three hours to get to the hospital by my brother's house.
Also, after that long in the car, I really, really, REALLY had to use a bathroom. Figured I'd stop at the first fast food place I passed after I got off the expressway. Which, of course, meant all the fast food places were on the other side of the road. I finally pulled over at a gas station.
Visit was ok... brother was doing well but as expected (gooped up on pain meds and cranky). He's still not getting enough quality rest/sleep or eating well, so it looks like he might be there for a few more days, perhaps in to the weekend.
After I was there for about an hour he was getting sleepy, so I decided to make my exit. It seemed like a good time, the rain looked like it was stopping. Ha. Got on the road, and I could hear the updates on the news radio about how I was pretty much stuck right under a big storm cloud the entire time. At least there were no traffic jams, but it was still a slow go.
And of course... by the time I got off the road, I needed to find a bathroom again. Ended up turning in to the first fast food place I passed, an Arbys, used the facilities and got myself a healthy order of cheese sticks to have as a lovely 10pm dinner with a beer at home.
Hubby didn't get home until about 10:30... he'd gone to a book signing of one of his favorite authors. At least he stopped and got California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (and grumble... he didn't even like it!).
Tonight was fish tacos for me, and nachos for the hubby for dinner. Easy enough.
I really, really need to take inventory of my freezers and start using stuff up. I thought I had frozen pork chops, but I cannot for the life of me find them. I did, however, find at least five pounds of shrimp. Ooops. Yeah. Really need to start clearing out some stuff.
Not sure what I am going to do for dinner tomorrow. Shrimp, I guess?
My brother has had problems with non-cancerous polyps in his colon since he was a teenager. About five years ago, at his yearly checkup, his doctor said he could start doing screenings every 5 years rather than every year.
When he went to his screening this year, they found a group of polyps that they couldn't remove in outpatient services... he needed surgery. GREAT.
My brother lives about an hour/hour and a half south from where I live. I work about twenty minutes north from where I live. I figured it'd likely take about and hour and a half or two hours on the expressway to get there.
Yeah.
Didn't know they had one of the roads I planned on taking down to a SINGLE lane at one point. They mentioned the jam on the news radio, but didn't point out it was because the road was closed down to a SINGLE LANE. Had they said that, I'd have taken a different way.
It was also raining, which only added to the woes. It took about three hours to get to the hospital by my brother's house.
Also, after that long in the car, I really, really, REALLY had to use a bathroom. Figured I'd stop at the first fast food place I passed after I got off the expressway. Which, of course, meant all the fast food places were on the other side of the road. I finally pulled over at a gas station.
Visit was ok... brother was doing well but as expected (gooped up on pain meds and cranky). He's still not getting enough quality rest/sleep or eating well, so it looks like he might be there for a few more days, perhaps in to the weekend.
After I was there for about an hour he was getting sleepy, so I decided to make my exit. It seemed like a good time, the rain looked like it was stopping. Ha. Got on the road, and I could hear the updates on the news radio about how I was pretty much stuck right under a big storm cloud the entire time. At least there were no traffic jams, but it was still a slow go.
And of course... by the time I got off the road, I needed to find a bathroom again. Ended up turning in to the first fast food place I passed, an Arbys, used the facilities and got myself a healthy order of cheese sticks to have as a lovely 10pm dinner with a beer at home.
Hubby didn't get home until about 10:30... he'd gone to a book signing of one of his favorite authors. At least he stopped and got California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (and grumble... he didn't even like it!).
Tonight was fish tacos for me, and nachos for the hubby for dinner. Easy enough.
I really, really need to take inventory of my freezers and start using stuff up. I thought I had frozen pork chops, but I cannot for the life of me find them. I did, however, find at least five pounds of shrimp. Ooops. Yeah. Really need to start clearing out some stuff.
Not sure what I am going to do for dinner tomorrow. Shrimp, I guess?
Monday, April 7, 2008
The diet blahs....
Yeah.... currently in a bit of a diet funk.
Since Vegas, the scale has. not. budged. And it's frustrating. I should be exercising right now, but I'm not. And that is not a good sign.
I've been here before... I know what I need to do... start planning everything out better, including planning. More than just planning the week's dinners... planning ALL my food to the point of making sure meals are more balanced.
Also, I'm really getting sick of eating out lunches. Thought it would be fun... a nice treat.... to make it a point to head out to lunch every day. Yes, it has been nice to make it a point to get out of the office, but frankly I'm getting darned tired of the food. One problem is that the lunch room at work is not nearly as big as it needs to be for our building, so it's hard to even get a seat around lunchtime. There are quite a few people at work that actually take their lunch to their car to eat, seats are always so scarce. I might need to start looking in to getting down there early, around 11am or so, so I can actually get in my OWN food. I donno. Still thinking about it. But in any case, this "no food at the desk" thing is just insane. Like, close to "deal breaking" insane. Bleh.
Doesn't help that I've been a walking kitchen disaster the past few days.... there is an episode where Homer is trying to make breakfast for Mr. Burns, his boss, and every thing he tries to make catches on fire. Including pouring milk on cereal. I was about that talented yesterday. Didn't toast enough panko for all the veal cutlets (last night it was veal parm for dinner). Forgot to sauce the cutlets before coating them with cheese. Forgot to get mozzarella at the grocery store (luckily I had some cheese). Tonight was a new recipe, chicken fried skirt steaks, and the hubby liked them but I guess I am just not a fan skirt steak. I ended up eating two slices of sage derby cheese and a peanut butter cup for dinner. Healthy!
And I have some ground beef in the fridge that I should cook up tonight. Not going to be home tomorrow night, my bro had some surgery today and the plan is to go visit him tomorrow, which means I won't be home until late.
Blah.
Since Vegas, the scale has. not. budged. And it's frustrating. I should be exercising right now, but I'm not. And that is not a good sign.
I've been here before... I know what I need to do... start planning everything out better, including planning. More than just planning the week's dinners... planning ALL my food to the point of making sure meals are more balanced.
Also, I'm really getting sick of eating out lunches. Thought it would be fun... a nice treat.... to make it a point to head out to lunch every day. Yes, it has been nice to make it a point to get out of the office, but frankly I'm getting darned tired of the food. One problem is that the lunch room at work is not nearly as big as it needs to be for our building, so it's hard to even get a seat around lunchtime. There are quite a few people at work that actually take their lunch to their car to eat, seats are always so scarce. I might need to start looking in to getting down there early, around 11am or so, so I can actually get in my OWN food. I donno. Still thinking about it. But in any case, this "no food at the desk" thing is just insane. Like, close to "deal breaking" insane. Bleh.
Doesn't help that I've been a walking kitchen disaster the past few days.... there is an episode where Homer is trying to make breakfast for Mr. Burns, his boss, and every thing he tries to make catches on fire. Including pouring milk on cereal. I was about that talented yesterday. Didn't toast enough panko for all the veal cutlets (last night it was veal parm for dinner). Forgot to sauce the cutlets before coating them with cheese. Forgot to get mozzarella at the grocery store (luckily I had some cheese). Tonight was a new recipe, chicken fried skirt steaks, and the hubby liked them but I guess I am just not a fan skirt steak. I ended up eating two slices of sage derby cheese and a peanut butter cup for dinner. Healthy!
And I have some ground beef in the fridge that I should cook up tonight. Not going to be home tomorrow night, my bro had some surgery today and the plan is to go visit him tomorrow, which means I won't be home until late.
Blah.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Shut up! Shut up! Bloody vikings.
Spam... Spam... Spam... Spam......
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
No, this is not just a recreation of one of the funniest comedy sketches ever.... tonight's menu featured Spam.
The hubby and I both have a weakness for Spam. Some slices, fried up nicely... half your daily suggested intake of sodium and some potted meat goodness all in one swoop. And tasty porky goodness never hurts anything.
Tonight was fried eggs, some Spam, Crisp Potato Hash Browns, and toast. Good stuff.
Really, it was all brought on by the fact they now sell Spam in "single slice" packets (think the tuna fish pouches) that I just HAD to try out. One reason we don't have Spam as much as we like (but probably as little as we SHOULD) is I just utterly suck at trying to slice the stuff outta the can. It's been several years since I even tried, and part of the problem may have been the Ginsu knives I had at the time. But man, the pouch things ROCK. Tear open a pouch, ooze out the meat, and ready to rock.
Why is Spam considered so evil anyway? I know a lot of people consider it trashy food, and maybe I do also, but is it so bad? Is it the name? Would it be better if it was just called "ham terrine"?? Is a slice of Spam served with some eggs, potatoes and toast any worse of a meal than boxed mac & cheese served with frozen chicken strips and ranch dressing? I think the times have changed. There are FAR bigger culinary crimes out there nowadays.
As for me... my love of Spam is renewed. And now I have to try and find some good Spam fried rice recipes since we have always wanted to try it, and the potted meat is a LOT cheaper than a trip to Hawaii to see how they do it right....
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
No, this is not just a recreation of one of the funniest comedy sketches ever.... tonight's menu featured Spam.
The hubby and I both have a weakness for Spam. Some slices, fried up nicely... half your daily suggested intake of sodium and some potted meat goodness all in one swoop. And tasty porky goodness never hurts anything.
Tonight was fried eggs, some Spam, Crisp Potato Hash Browns, and toast. Good stuff.
Really, it was all brought on by the fact they now sell Spam in "single slice" packets (think the tuna fish pouches) that I just HAD to try out. One reason we don't have Spam as much as we like (but probably as little as we SHOULD) is I just utterly suck at trying to slice the stuff outta the can. It's been several years since I even tried, and part of the problem may have been the Ginsu knives I had at the time. But man, the pouch things ROCK. Tear open a pouch, ooze out the meat, and ready to rock.
Why is Spam considered so evil anyway? I know a lot of people consider it trashy food, and maybe I do also, but is it so bad? Is it the name? Would it be better if it was just called "ham terrine"?? Is a slice of Spam served with some eggs, potatoes and toast any worse of a meal than boxed mac & cheese served with frozen chicken strips and ranch dressing? I think the times have changed. There are FAR bigger culinary crimes out there nowadays.
As for me... my love of Spam is renewed. And now I have to try and find some good Spam fried rice recipes since we have always wanted to try it, and the potted meat is a LOT cheaper than a trip to Hawaii to see how they do it right....
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Three years ago today...
... was my last "official" day as a single gal.
And I didn't even know it.
We were in Vegas... hubby had a trade show and I tagged along for the ride. On Friday (April 1st) we took a big trip out to the Neon Museum for a private tour, and we had a cab driver who told all the stories of the pranks his family pulls for April Fool's Day, and he was really trying to convince us that we should get married and then get divorced the same night to pull a prank on our own families.
That wasn't going to happen.
We'd always talked about getting married in Vegas... I do not have the poofy white dress bride gene and a big wedding held little charm for me. I figured we'd just be scoping things out to plan a future trip for the actual nuptuals. But I did bring a white dress with me "just in case".
On Saturday morning, April 2nd, we woke up and did the buffet thing and went back to our room. The now-hubby looked at me and said, "Well, do you want to do it now, or come back another time?" Me: "Huh?" Him: "We've done the buffet and everything else Vegas, want to get married?" Me: "Sure!"
He went out to get a decent shirt (all he brought were polos and tee shirts) and I headed off to find some shoes to go with the white dress (the dress was $5 off Ebay, the shoes cost me $120 but are still my favorite brand of heels to this day) and we went downtown, and then got married at a seedy little chapel in a strip mall. It was great.
We'd been together for... quick math in head... 11 years by that point. We knew it was going to happen and it would happen when it happened, and that was the moment. The families were more relieved/excited that we FINALLY did it than upset we did it without them. But it is what we wanted... our relationship is the two of us, and the marriage was the two of us (and a car salesman-like preacher).
Couldn't be happier, still.
And I didn't even know it.
We were in Vegas... hubby had a trade show and I tagged along for the ride. On Friday (April 1st) we took a big trip out to the Neon Museum for a private tour, and we had a cab driver who told all the stories of the pranks his family pulls for April Fool's Day, and he was really trying to convince us that we should get married and then get divorced the same night to pull a prank on our own families.
That wasn't going to happen.
We'd always talked about getting married in Vegas... I do not have the poofy white dress bride gene and a big wedding held little charm for me. I figured we'd just be scoping things out to plan a future trip for the actual nuptuals. But I did bring a white dress with me "just in case".
On Saturday morning, April 2nd, we woke up and did the buffet thing and went back to our room. The now-hubby looked at me and said, "Well, do you want to do it now, or come back another time?" Me: "Huh?" Him: "We've done the buffet and everything else Vegas, want to get married?" Me: "Sure!"
He went out to get a decent shirt (all he brought were polos and tee shirts) and I headed off to find some shoes to go with the white dress (the dress was $5 off Ebay, the shoes cost me $120 but are still my favorite brand of heels to this day) and we went downtown, and then got married at a seedy little chapel in a strip mall. It was great.
We'd been together for... quick math in head... 11 years by that point. We knew it was going to happen and it would happen when it happened, and that was the moment. The families were more relieved/excited that we FINALLY did it than upset we did it without them. But it is what we wanted... our relationship is the two of us, and the marriage was the two of us (and a car salesman-like preacher).
Couldn't be happier, still.
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