My Fancy Tuna

2011-08-01T22:03:00.005-04:00

Just call me Bobby (Bobina?) Flay because I am now a GRILL MASTER! Well, not really, but I did the majority of Monday's dinner on the grill pretty much on my own (my dad had to make sure I didn't blow myself up...)! I decided on a BBQ theme, but I picked recipes that were a little outside the norm for typical barbecue food: Carolina BBQ chicken (mustard based sauce), Smokey Baked Beans and grilled squash. This menu ended up being a little more time consuming than I originally thought (one day I will learn to read and comprehend recipes before I start cooking), but I thought the meal turned out nice. It was definitely aesthetically pleasing, which is something I strive for when making a meal, but it turned out to be a pretty involved meal that took longer to create than I had anticipated. I guess we can't all be Rachael Ray (which my mom pointed out twice to me while I was making dinner).....

Separately, the chicken and beans were a snap to make. My dad suggested baking the chicken before grilling it so it wouldn't burn on the grill, which I thought was a nice idea. I marinated it in the BBQ sauce, then baked it at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes, then plopped it on the grill, just to get those awesome grill marks (basting occasionally). The direct heat from the grill really helped caramelize the sauce, as opposed to the oven which can kind of end up steaming the chicken and never giving the sauce a chance to stick. The beans were kind of a dump and mix deal and they ended up tasting slightly sweet from the tomato sauce, but ultimately they tasted lighter than typical baked beans.

On Tuesday, I continued my winning streak with some delicious salmon burgers. One of my mom's specialties is actually salmon patties, but I think my burgers were different enough to say that I didn't steal her thunder. The recipe called for pureeing 1/4 of the salmon, which made the inside of the burgers creamy and light. I decided to add diced celery for a bit of crunch and freshness, which Lara and Mom didn't like (picky picky). I also made tartar sauce (I'm in love with it now, seriously. That olive oil mayo is amazing!) for some tang and sweet potato fries (frozen bag - I was too lazy to make real ones).

And finally, on Wednesday, I decided to make meatball subs; I even made the marinara sauce myself, although you could certainly use store bought. I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe for mini meatball sliders, but obviously it's easy to make them regular sized. The only change I would make is adding more seasoning to the meat; while the marinara sauce was flavorful, the inside of the meatballs was straight ground chuck. Next time I'll use half Panko and half Italian seasoned breadcrumbs and maybe some Italian Seasoning. Other than that, the subs were excellent! I was really surprised by how easy the marinara sauce was - I suppose canned tomatoes really help the process, but if Giada approves, then who am I to say otherwise?

It was nice to finally cook elaborate meals after a summer of lazy pesto quesadillas, leftovers and PB&J English muffins. Even though I'll be cooking for one this year, hopefully I'll be able to figure out a way to continue cooking like this frequently throughout the school year. Ugh, school. 8 more days of freedom.

2011-07-26T19:43:00.002-04:00

From the summer after kindergarten to the summer before my senior year in high school, I spent the majority of my time swimming. Each morning my mom drove my sister and I to the pool for swim practice. Mine was always earlier, at nine, while Lara's was at ten. While I loved swimming, I hated practice until I was in high school and swam at a summer league team closer to home. A huge part of the reason was the cold water - I procrastinated as long as I could before jumping into the cold pool. I mean, who could blame me....I was eight years old and probably 3 to 4 inches taller than most of my friends, not to mention extremely skinny. I also hated practice because at that particular pool, I was one of the few who didn't swim all year, making me slower than everyone else. Trust me, I held my own against the other 8 year olds that dedicated their young lives and souls to Dynamo Swim Club and Swim Atlanta, but it was still disheartening to be the last in line at practice and have annoying team members grab my toes because I was swimming too slow.

Geeze, I forgot how annoying that was....it's like an 8 year old's version of tail gating.

Anyways, basically swimming was all about the stupid colored ribbons we received after each swim meet. Blue for first, red for second, white for third, yellow/gold for fourth, green for fifth, and so on, up until the rainbow colored participation ribbon.

I hated the rainbow ribbons.

Fortunately, I usually found white, yellow, green and maroon ribbons in my folder, which was disappointing, but I loved the special occasions when I'd find a blue ribbon in my folder. My disappointment was also eased by the traditional Dunkin Donuts doughnut hole bounty we received on Fridays. So basically, my love for swimming until I was 13 was highly related to my love for colored ribbons...and doughnut holes.

When I was 13, I switched to a more laid back, less competitive swim team that was closer to home. I knew more of the people on the team from school and I ended up making a lot of new friends as well. I didn't compare myself to my teammates as much as I did on my old team, which made the summers more enjoyable. I started appreciating swimming as a competitive sport and as a team sport. During the meets, my friends and I would various poker games, eat junk food (swim meet food was the best - giant pickles, sour straws, ring pops, blow pops, baby bottle pops...the green variety, of course, and pizza), and just hang out. By then, swimming was less about the silly colored ribbons and more about bettering my own times, spending time with my friends, and swimming!

Although summer league took up a lot of my free time during the summers, I still miss it sometimes. This summer I started swimming at a ginormous outdoor pool on campus instead of the indoor pool in the gym, and man, what a difference it makes! Swimming indoors was kind of blah, much like running on a treadmill....no atmosphere, just mindless movement. When I swim outside, I can marvel at the gorgeous water - I love seeing sunlight reflect in pool water. A few other requirements this pool met include:

1. Clean, as in minimal floating debris (bugs, leaves, hair, etc) and clear, crisp water. There's nothing worse than getting hair caught on your fingers while swimming freestyle.

2. Cold water. There's nothing worse than swimming in a luke warm pool.

3. Not overrun by the public. This pool is huge, like three pools side by side, so the kiddies can have their play area while the lap swimmers can have their own lanes. There's nothing worse than sharing a lane with someone (see toe grabbing, above).

As you can see, being a water rat has made me very picky about my pools. Anyways, I guess the point of this post is just about sharing some love for a sport that has stayed with me my entire life. Sure, I've had my ups and downs with swimming, but it's the one sport I feel I'm naturally good at (although I never really felt inclined to hone it through club swimming) and have truly enjoyed. Swimming outside, for me, makes it fun and not forced - that's what activity is all about, right? It's amazingly calming and therapeutic to swim outside in the sun - this is corny, but a pool in the sun is one of my favorite sites to see.

On a side note, I hope to start posting more food oriented posts again soon, but I think I'm going to start including more non-related posts like this one and the Harry Potter post. Updates probably won't be regular - I'm trying to blog when I feel like it instead of feeling obligated to update and having it feel like homework. I'll be baaaaaaaaaack!

2011-07-15T20:04:00.003-04:00

I know everyone who is connected to me on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or in person is sick to death of hearing me (and everyone else) talk about Harry Potter, but after not writing on this blog for almost 2 months, I finally have some writing inspiration, so I'm going to go with it....even if it is Harry Potter.

For 13 years, or since I was 8, I have always been subconsciously waiting for either a Harry Potter book or movie. When the books came to an end, of course I was sad (I had that melodramatic, terrible empty feeling when I finished book 7 - like I had no purpose in life or something...I know), but I had no idea what was coming next, so I was more excited to read them instead of feeling sad for the end. After watching the last movie this morning, I feel that same sense of emptiness, but there's also a sense of finality. Except for Harry Potter World and Pottermore, there is nothing left. Seeing the end on the screen was, well, kind of heartbreaking. I cried like a baby. Not just at the end, but throughout the entire movie (Alan Rickman, you slay me). I knew how the movie would end, and of course I was excited to see how it would be represented on the screen, but I had such a bittersweet feeling going into that movie and I've been in a weird funk all day ("Leaving Hogwarts" has been on repeat in my head ALL DAY. Playing the same ending song from the first movie at the end of the last one was an excellent and tear inducing decision).

I know it sounds stupid, but Harry Potter is THE thing of my childhood. I know there is much more to myself than my love of Harry Potter, but being a HP fan will always be one of the many ways I define myself. I will always remember rereading the books every Christmas break and summer break (yeah, I've lost count), I will always remember the anticipation of waiting in line at a bookstore to buy the latest book and trying to keep myself from reading it too quickly, I will always remember "Hedwig's Theme," I will always remember being SO excited to see the first movie with my friend, Grace. I remember when I received the first Harry Potter book - my grandparents gave it to me at a county swim meet. Honestly, it took me a few tries to get through it, but once I did, I was hooked. My parents/grandparents gave me the next two books for Christmas, then I bought the LAST copy in Borders of the fourth book before reading the entire thing during a car ride to Florida. I remember my sister and I each buying our own copy of the fifth book; I remember trying so hard not to read more than one chapter of the sixth book on the way home from the mall. I remember feeling weepy in the checkout line as I read the scar-shaped book dedication in the seventh book.

Harry Potter is something I want to pass on to my kids (if I ever have any). On the surface, Harry Potter may be about wizards and magic, but underneath, there are SO many universal themes that, in my opinion, make the books and movies timeless. Again, I know they're just books and movies, but they have such a special place in my heart and it's amazing that so many people feel the same way. I can't think of any other book series that has such a dedicated following. I am so glad that I am a part of the Harry Potter generation and I am forever grateful that Grandmommie and Pop Pop gave me the book with the funny looking wizard on the cover that summer 13 years ago.

Mischief managed.

2011-05-26T08:32:00.003-04:00

Lately I've been reminiscing hardcore about our trip to Disney World last year - I'm DYING to go back!

Yeah, I know...I'm 21 and out of all the places I've been to, Disney World is the one that sticks with me. I'm such a little kid. What can I say? I miss the food, the sites, the rides and the atmosphere...only a Disney freak like my sister and I would know the feeling I'm talking about when I say atmosphere. We've been pondering the Disney College Program lately - it would be SO awesome to apply for the Fall 2012 semester. I'm too chicken to do things like that on my own, but with Lara (sort of) by my side, it would be a blast! Has anyone done the Disney College Program? TELL ME!

Since I miss Disney so much, I decided to recreate a meal we had there - The Brown Derby's Cobb Salad! It wasn't exactly like Disney's in that I didn't feel like cutting the lettuce into itty bitty shreds and I also didn't make the dressing (I used Thousand Island instead). The entire process was kind of lengthy and tedious - I browned two salt/pepper/Ranch dressing mix covered chicken breasts, hard boiled three eggs, fried 7 slices of bacon and cut some avocados and tomatoes. Definitely not a quick fix meal, in my opinion. It sure turned out nice, though! A huge part of a Cobb Salad, in my opinion, is the presentation. I love the individual strips of bacon, poultry, tomatoes, avocados, etc. Even though the texture wasn't exactly the same as the one we had at Disney (that shredded lettuce was so weird!), it tasted nice and definitely took me back. Then Lara and I watched Tangled to further delve into our Disney nostalgia. Goooood times.

I would post the recipe for all of you, but the recipe card I got from The Brown Derby explicitly states not to reproduce, and who am I to disobey the House of Mouse? The recipe is posted on the Disney website, though, which can be found through a quick Google search!

On a completely different note, I finally read The Lovely Bones - wow, what an amazing book! I bet it's going to be a book kids read in high school English classes in a decade or two. Now I'm reading Jane Eyre (again), but I have a few books on hold at the library that I'm excited to read. Have any of ya'll read anything good lately? I'm always on the look out for good books to read, especially during the summer!

2011-05-21T08:14:00.004-04:00

On Friday night, my little sister graduated from high school.

I feel so old....imagine how my mom must feel! I kid!

I saw at least half of the people I graduated with three years ago (THREE YEARS?!), as well as some teachers I had seven or eight years ago! So weird.

Anyways, with graduation comes graduation parties, which also means FOOD! My mom decided on a sandwich bar with an assortment of side dishes and desserts. Unfortunately I didn't get to make much, only cake pops and boxed brownies. I was hoping Lara would let me make red velvet cake pops, with her going to UGA and all, but she insisted on funfetti. My dad made his delicious salsa, which he does not add garlic to, which made me decide never to add garlic to my salsa/pico de gallo again. Raw garlic = bad breath for days. We also had some seven layer dip and an assortment of other foods (like an awesome fruit bowl - watermelon, strawberries, grapes and cantaloupe - hellooo summer!). My favorite part of the party was seeing all of my family in one place; I know that probably sounds incredibly corny, but it's not very often that I get to see relatives from my mom's side and my dad's at the same time! I love hanging out and catching up with everyone, especially while eating good food. I also love hunkering down with my almost-cousin (not technically my cousin, but might as well be) and my sister to play Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Tennis and Kirby Air Ride on the Gamecube for a couple of hours.

I guess you could call this week family dinners week because I had another fun, family-esque dinner on Tuesday night with Kathy, Chris and Adam. Instead of going out to eat like we usually do, we decided to cook jambalaya (along with roasted okra and corn) at Chris's house! It was really fun to go grocery shopping together then cook our meal together as well, but the best part was sitting around Chris's table to eat...it totally felt like a real family meal! I don't really have any recipes since we took a pretty fat shortcut by buying Zataran's rice mix and just adding sausage, although I'm happy to report that I turned Chris, Adam and Kathy onto the joys of roasted okra!

Sorry for the poor picture quality, it's a phone picture!

That's about all I have going on right now! Sorry for the lack of interesting posts lately - I'm really trying to enjoy my month off while I can. I'm super excited to be home for the entire week, but maybe I'll make something interesting? Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as well!

PS - If you're a fan of Jane Eyre, you should totally check out the movie! It was definitely better than I thought it would be, probably almost as good of an adaptation as Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice!

2011-05-17T15:23:00.002-04:00

It's always a bummer when you set out to make a dinner you're really excited about, but then it turns out less than perfect. This happens to me when I'm in a hurry or feeling lazy, the former of which was the case last night. I decided at 6:00 to make shrimp tacos and crispy portobello mushroom fries, both from How Sweet Eats even though I had to be at the movie theater a little before 7:00 to see Bridesmaids.

Can I digress here for a minute to say how HILARIOUS that movie was? I don't want to overly build it up, but I honestly thought it was much funnier than The Hangover. It has a perfect blend of gross/raunchy humor, snarky humor and character development. GO SEE IT!

So anyways, my horrible time management skills caused me to rush through every phase of this dinner - the prep, the cooking and the eating. When I cook/bake, I like to take my time and really enjoy what I'm doing...I guess I'm like my dad in that way, who tediously chops vegetables into equal size pieces when he cooks. However, instead of lovingly dredging my shrimp in seasoned flour, I was flying around our 1 square foot kitchen like a mad woman trying to cook dinner in 20 minutes.

The pictures certainly look pretty enough, but sadly my shrimp were less than crispy (definitely did not give them enough time to fry on each side) and while the mushroom fries were crunchy, they were powdery from the excess flour and a little bland from a lack of seasoning. The texture of the fries was definitely interesting - they were crunchy from the panko, but the inside was light and airy, almost like a rice cake. I will make them again, but next time I'll add more smoked paprika and salt and reduce the flour.

The shrimp had great flavor (hello, cumin and chili powder, the most heavenly spice duo ever), but sadly was soggy instead of crispy.

Soggy shrimp. Gross. At least the picture looks nice, right?

The pico de gallo I made on Sunday saved my sad tacos; even though I forgot to buy fresh tomatoes (only I would forget to buy tomatoes after planning to make pico de gallo for the week) and had to use canned, it still turned out really well! I used to hate pico de gallo because of the strong onion/cilantro flavors and the chunkiness of it. Ironically those are the two reasons I love it now - it's amazing how my tastes have changed since high school.

Basic Pico de Gallo
I wasn't really following a recipe when I did this, although I think it's similar to most basic recipes; makes 1-1.5 cups

- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 jalepeno, seeded and diced
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- pinch of salt

Drain the can of diced tomatoes, then roughly chop them into smaller chunks. Carefully dice the onion, garlic and jalepeno into equal size pieces, just like Poppa Reed.
Just kidding. A rough dice is fine, obviously.
Roughly chop the cilantro, then add the spices. Mix everything together, then enjoy with tortilla chips or on top of soggy shrimp.

I'm also going to include the recipe for the mushroom fries, just because they're so interesting.

Crispy Mushroom Portobello Fries
by Jessica at How Sweet Eats; serves 4

- 4 portobello mushroom caps, sliced
- 2 egg whites
- 1.5 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup flour (next time I might use 2 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp paprika (I might make it 1 or 1.5 tsp next time)
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, for drizzling (I didn't do this...I used good ol' fashioned ketchup)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a wire rack on a cookie sheet.

Mix the flour, breadcrumbs, panko, salt, pepper and paprika into a shallow bowl. Mix well. In another shallow bowl, lightly beat 2 egg whites. Dip the mushroom slices into the egg whites, then toss in the bread crumb mixture, pressing the crumbs onto the mushroom to help the crumbs stick.

Lay the mushrooms on the wire rack and spray each with cooking spray or oil before baking in the oven for 7 minutes. After the first side bakes, flip the fries and spray again with oil, then bake for another seven minutes.

I just realized that I didn't do that last step. Rushing does not pay!

And now I'm off to go make jambalaya with Chris, Adam and Kathy!

2011-05-09T20:32:00.003-04:00

I SURVIVED! Yes indeedy, I made it through this monster of a semester! It's not quite over as I have yet to see my grades for half of my classes, but that's beside the point...summer is here!

Yeah, yeah, I have to take two classes in June and July, but hopefully they'll be significantly less time consuming than my classes this past semester.

ANYWAYS, enough school talk because something way more important happened since the last time I posted - I turned 21! Now I can legally enjoy my crazy nights watching movies with Lara and staying up until 11.

I party hard, ya'll.

Sarcasm aside, I did go to Walker's in Athens with Adam and Kathy to have a beer, a Left Hand Milk Stout to be precise. I don't know fancy things about beer, but it was dark. And it wasn't half bad, although if I had to choose I'd probably still pick a glass of milk or a sweet tea. Anyways, it was slightly thrilling to show the bartender my ID; I probably looked like an giddy idiot, like most just-turned-21 year olds.

I also used my legality to buy my mom a six pack of beer for Mother's Day, just because I could. Nothing says Mother's Day like 55 calorie Bud Light.

Speaking of beer, tonight I decided to break out of my pesto + tuna quesadilla rut and make a notorious bar dish dinner - nachos! I decided to get a little creative (ie I had no chicken or beef) and decided to make buffalo salmon nachos! I'm sure some of you are wrinkling your nose in disgust, but it was actually really good! Lots of delicious buffalo flavor along with creamy black beans, salty olives and gooey pepperjack/mozzarella cheese!

Buffalo Salmon Nachos
Serves 2

- 1 can of salmon
- 20-30 tortilla chips, depending on your appetite (I was hungry and couldn't even finish 15!)
- 3 tbsp buffalo sauce
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tsp Ranch dressing mix
- 1/3 cup black olives
- 1/3 cup black beans
- 1/4 cup grated pepperjack cheese
- 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Arrange the chips on the parchment paper so that they overlap slightly. Scatter the olives and black beans on the chips. In a separate bowl, mix together the salmon, buffalo sauce and the white vinegar (I don't know why I added the white vinegar to be honest, but it didn't hurt anything). Distribute the salmon in small chunks over all of the chips, then sprinkle the two cheeses over the top.

Put the nachos in the oven for 10-15 minutes, then broil the nachos until the cheese browns slightly.

Try it and tell me it's not good - after all, who can resist buffalo sauce AND nachos - just think, with these you're getting fiber from the beans and some omega-3's from the salmon!

Also, has anyone read The Hunger Games trilogy? I just finished the last one today and I'm not sure how I feel about them....the plot was good, but Katniss was a little too self-loathing for me and I couldn't help but think of the Bella/Edward/Jacob triangle when reading about Katniss/Peeta/Gale, although Katniss and Peeta are MUCH more believable (and less corny) characters than Edward and Bella (barf).

2011-04-22T23:15:00.004-04:00

Howdy! Sorry for being MIA....I had 2 tests and 2 lab reports last week, so I basically went stress crazy. Good times, right?

No.

At least the week is over, though, and the end of the semester is near! Unfortunately I have to get through 4 finals first, but whatever. Although the majority of last week stunk, I had a blast during my Quantity Foods lab practical where we came up with a theme and menu for an event with 30+ invitees! We chose Halloween in April (a la Christmas in December), complete with Scrambled Brains, Sausage Fingers and Toes, Eye Ball Salad, Ghost Toast, Hags Hash and cake pops! Since they were so easy to make, I wholeheartedly recommended that we make them as goody-bag treats for our guests. I also made 35 servings of French toast the morning of the event and helped make mini Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins! The room looked great, the food tasted amazing and my group really came together as a team, which is always rewarding. So cheers to reliable group members!

I don't have any food pictures for this post (I didn't cook this week due to the excessive amount of studying I had to do....), so instead I'll leave you with 7 random facts about myself since I was tagged with the Versatile Blogger award by Hannah! I don't think I'll tag anyone else since most people that comment on my blog have already done it, but just know that I think ya'll are amazing!

1. I've had 3 severe celebrity obsessions/crushes over the course of my almost 21 years of existence: Leonardo DiCaprio in 2nd grade, Orlando Bloom in 8th grade and Rob Pattinson during my freshman year of college. I know creepy random facts that I probably shouldn't know about all of these people - did you know that Orlando Bloom's first car was a VW Golf? Creepy, right?

2. I'm extremely inflexible - I can't touch my toes or fully bend over. I also can't do a cartwheel. It's sad.

3. My mom and I used to have to stretch out my jeans after she washed them by playing tug-of-war just so they would be long enough for me. Thank goodness stores make longer jeans now.

4. I hate scary movies, mostly just the ones with dead children or creepy, vengeful ghosts. I can handle the stuff that can actually happen (go figure), but I am TERRIFIED of movies like The Grudge or The Ring. Demonic horror scares me too, like that freaky Emily Rose movie. *shudder*

5. I am currently obsessed with internet memes. Some are kind of stupid, but ones like hipster Disney, 60's Spiderman, and Me Gusta crack me up!

6. Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley is one of my all time favorite movies. Yes, I've seen the one with Colin Firth, but I like Joe Wright's version WAY better. Lara and I have half of the lines memorized.

7. I tripped up the stairs in 11th grade and fell on my nose. I don't know if I broke it or not, but I had two black eyes and my Pre-Cal teacher reported me to the nurse for possible domestic abuse.

Before I go, I highly recommend that all of you go watch Tangled (I dare you not to become extremely infatuated with Zachary Levi as Flynn) and then go listen to the new Decemberists CD. It's awesome and reminds me of transcendental poetry...you know, Walt Whitman? It has that wide open American wilderness feel to it (as opposed to their previous CD which was kind of Romantic sounding back on it...I miss literature classes now). But yeah, go do that. I'm off to read The Hunger Games - gotta get ahead of the game before the movie comes out!

2011-04-08T21:50:00.002-04:00

How is it already April?! Geeze, it seems like the older you get, the faster time flies...and I'm only 20!!! AHH! Anyways, at least summer is almost here, even though I have to take two classes this summer (Chem 2 and Biology - ew). I signed up for my classes this week - next semester won't be quite as interesting as this semester, but it's all leading up to the cool classes I'll take as a (fifth year) senior, so I'll take it! Next fall I will be taking Food Sanitation and Safety, Organic Chemistry (EEEK!), Food Service Procurement and Financial Management, and Food and Nutrition Education Methods. It's actually not that many hours, but my schedule is so out of whack with my missing science prerequisites that I'm really taking all that I can! I also signed up for my practicum (AKA internship) for summer 2012 - yes, I signed up a year in advance. I'm pretty sure the coordinator thought I was a weirdo, but it's first come first serve and apparently it's crucial to have clinical experience before applying to the big ADA internship after graduation, so I wanted to make sure to get a spot in a hospital!

Anyways, it was a big week in my Quantity Foods lab! This past week we had a fun activity to wind down from our stint in the dining halls - garnishing! We had an hour to use any vegetable or fruit in the lab kitchen to create a garnish to be judged by my professor's two sons. My lab partner and I ended up making an "Under the Sea" type deal, complete with banana octopi, tomato and kale fish, a pineapple turtle and a pineapple Spongebob!

I was really surprised by the creativity oozing out of me at 7:30 AM - I suppose it finally exploded out of some unknown orifice in the right side of my brain after being stifled by chemistry and math for so long.

So anyways, we'll find out the winner of that little contest next week. In two weeks we'll have our practical, or "The Big Event," which is my professor's euphemism of choice. Basically my entire lab (2o girls and like, 2 guys) have to put together a themed breakfast for all of the big-wigs in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. We chose Halloween in April as our theme (Disney was a close second), complete with Scrambled Brains (eggs), Hags Hash (hashbrowns), O+ (punch), Ghost Toast (Ghost shaped French toast), Sausage Fingers, Mummy Wraps (bacon), Witch's Brew (coffee) and Eyeball Salad (fruit salad made up of melon-balled watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries and grapes). We also decided to make trick or treat bags for the guests to have as the leave, but instead of candy, we're going to put cake pops inside of the bags!
Cake Pops: Baked cake that has been crumbled and mixed with frosting, then rolled into balls and dipped into candy coating.

Who comes up with this stuff?

Anyways, someone had to volunteer to test out the process of cake pop making to see how feasible it would be to make for "The Big Event," so of course I volunteered - after all, the ingredients were free! Shelley and I made them yesterday afternoon, and while it was a little time consuming, the steps were a breeze! All you do is bake a cake (box mix is fine - I was given Butter Pecan cake mix), then let it cool completely. After the cake cools, crumble it, then mix in 3/4 a can of icing and roll the cake into 1.5 inch balls. Stick the balls into the freezer for 15 minutes and melt candy coating in the microwave. Once the cake balls have set, dip the tips of the sucker sticks into the candy coating, then poke the sticks into the cake balls. Dip the cake balls into the candy coating, then put the cake pop cake-side down onto parchment paper (alternatively, you could stick the sucker stick into a styrofoam block so the cake pop stays round). The candy coating hardens on its own, so leave them in at room temperature!

The cake pops tasted amazing (of course), but my favorite part was the texture contrast between the coating and the soft, cakey inside! The candy coating wasn't crunchy, but it definitely had a firm shell that was fun to bite into before tasting the creamy cake/frosting concoction inside! I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make red velvet cake pops for Lara's graduation party since the red cake and the dark, dark chocolate shell will match her college's colors...since she's going to UGA!!!!!!! I'm so excited, mainly because we'll have the same breaks, but I'm also so proud of her for taking the first step towards achieving her dream of working for the likes of Square Enix or Disney!

2011-03-30T21:19:00.001-04:00

Sunflower Butter - have you tried it? If not, get your booty to Trader Joe's or some other fancy schmancy grocery store (I actually think Kroger has it in their "natural" section) and get some for yourself! It tastes like sunflower seeds, but not at all raw tasting like I thought it would. It's sweet, but has a slight smokey aftertaste to it. Plus, it's totally drippy, perfect for drizzling over, oh, I don't know, ANYTHING! So now, once again, I have two (or three) too many jars of peanut/almond/sunflower seed butter in my life.

Four jars is a little excessive, right? Nah, didn't think so either.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed my guest post on Chelsey's blog. It felt nice to write/type that "journey," although I realized after reading it (and seeing some grammatical/syntax errors - *shudder*) that I never really explained what I want to do as an RD. Honestly, I'd love to do anything in the nutrition field (in regards to interacting with people - I definitely don't want to do research or the like), but specifically I'd love to work with college students at a college health center. I feel like so many students get the wrong idea about nutrition and healthy living - many live in a world of partying, yo-yo dieting, eating disorders, protein powder, excessive exercise, overeating, etc. and I'd love to help them sort through all of that and find balance. So yeah, that's what I'm working towards, specifically!

And thank you to everyone who has left me a comment or who left a comment on Chelsey's site...or even just reading the post and/or visiting my site!

Anywho, these past couple of weeks have been somewhat boring on the food front, but one night last night I decided to break out of my "slapped together" food rut and fix something new for a change. I let schoolwork get in between me and the hobbies I love WAY too often - it's a drag. But yeah, I ended up making chickpea burgers with cilantro hummus! And let me tell you, it was a glorious revival for my tastebuds after eating Morning Star veggie burgers, frozen salmon filets and tortilla pizzas for a week. I even got to use my "new" food processor (thanks, Grandmommie!). That machine is a lifesaver! It made the cooking process (and the cleaning process) a snap! I think I pureed the chickpea mixture a little too much, though - there were no chickpea chunks in the burger, which I kind of missed.

I also used the food processor to make my pesto! I made it off the top of my head, but with Kath's recipe in mind.

Cilantro Pesto
makes 6 tbsp servings (I think...obviously I don't pay attention to this kind of stuff...)

- 1 bunch cilantro leaves (I cut off the stems)
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, depending on how much you like
- pinch of kosher salt
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice
- small handful of walnuts

If you have a food processor (it's aaaamazing!), just dump all of your ingredients in that handy machine and let 'er rip until it's nice and smooth! Add more oil/lemon juice if needed. Obviously I kind of eye balled everything, whoops. The cilantro flavor was present, but not overbearing like it can be on it's own. The garlic and salt really balanced out the flavors, while the walnuts made it hearty! However, the best part is the vibrant green color! It was a nice contrast to the cream colored chickpea burgers.

Excuse the poor quality picture. I didn't have any buns/pita bread, so I made do with a tortilla folded in half. I also topped it with plain yogurt, which was excellent with the pesto.

So, moral of the story: if you're in a food rut, try out the pesto and these burgers!

2011-03-28T17:58:00.001-04:00

Hello, all! I just wanted to direct ya'll over to Clean Eating Chelsey's blog - around 6 PM Central Time there will be a guest post by yours truly!

2011-03-16T18:19:00.008-04:00

Going away to college is a funny thing. A lot of times I'll come home and notice small changes like a new kitchen decoration, leftovers of a new dinner that I've never tried, an entirely new back porch....but none of these changes bother me. I like new kitchen decor, I don't discriminate when it comes to leftovers (none are safe from my "I'm home for the weekend, so I'll just stand in front of the fridge with a fork and eat leftovers" wrath), and a new deck means no more splinters! The only changes at home that bother me are the ones I see in our cat, Hope. Over the past two years, I have noticed these expected, but still annoying, changes in her behavior:

1. Demands wet food twice a day, upon waking and at approximately 3:00 in the afternoon.
2. Begs for food, as in sits beside someone on the floor during dinner and just STARES. If it's something like bacon or fish, she'll meow, but the staring is sort of creepy.
3. Circles anyone with a crinkly bag like a vulture. Hope has an affinity for any sort of salty, bagged chip type food; no matter how many times you push her off the couch, she never stops climbing over you until she sees you toss the empty bag in the trash.

Those are all fairly normal cat behaviors, I suppose. However, the other two changes are pretentious kitty behavior that baffle me to no end.

4. She has to be fed two different flavors of wet food each day, as in Mixed Grill in the morning and Sea Captain's Choice at night....no more Classic Pate twice a day.
5. Hope is now OBSESSED with kitty treats. Who knew there were treats for cats?! Hope's new past-time is sitting in front of the pantry, waiting for an innocent passerby to walk towards the pantry. The second someone steps into her invisible kitty parameter, she'll start meowing like crazy, hoping for a treat. Usually she gets what she wants.

Readers, this is a public service announcement, courtesy of My Fancy Tuna: DO NOT FEED YOUR CAT KITTY TREATS!

In other news, my spring break is completely wonderous! I've basically done nothing at all.

I LOVE IT!

I think I wear myself down so much when school is in session that by the time a break comes, all I want to do is be a recluse and watch movies with Lara. And bake banana bread muffins, which I did on Sunday (delicious!)

I've also become mildly obsessed with pesto over the past couple of weeks. Kayla made an awesome dinner with pesto, pre-packaged cheese tortellini, and broccoli a few weeks ago and I decided to recreate it tonight for dinner. Instead of tortellini, though, I used frozen ravioli - yum! The entire dinner came together in fifteen minutes. Eat it, Rachael Ray!

Pesto Ravioli with Broccoli
From Food Network Magazine's "50 Things to do with Pesto" booklet, serves 6-8

- 2 1 lb bags of frozen ravioli (I used beef, but the beef sort of freaks me out if I think about it too much, so use cheese if you're not a fan of mystery meat)
- 1/2 ish cups of your favorite pesto (or more to taste)
- 1 bag of frozen broccoli
- Parmesan/mozzarella cheese, for toppings

Obviously this was not the fanciest dinner ever, but it was tasty! Just boil your ravioli according to the package instructions, then drain, reserving about 1/4 cup pasta water. Stir in the cooked (read: microwaved) broccoli and pesto, then top with some mozzarella and/or Parmesan cheese. Done and done! No pictures, but just try it if you're caught in a dinner rush!

And now I'm off to finish baking these cookies (Lovin' In the Oven, thanks!) for my mom to take to work tomorrow using my new cooking stone that I got for Christmas - it really does make a difference to the way these cookies are baking! Perfectly crispy around the corners, soft and chewy in the middle! The stone also made them shinier; they always told us in my Food Principles lab that cookie sheets were much better for baking than the jelly roll pans I use (the heat is more evenly distributed), and after seeing the difference tonight, I have to agree.

2011-03-11T21:18:00.004-05:00

Psssst. It's spring break! That means no school, which means that I have ample time to do all of my spring break homework (there is no rest for the weary when it comes to Chemistry) AND write a few blog posts! I also seem to be the only person from UGA not going somewhere cool over break, like Shelley, who is going to New York, or Kayla, who is going to HARRY POTTER WORLD (I ooze jealousy), which means I have no excuse to not update! I've missed updating SO much (I've also missed receiving notifications about new comments in my inbox...), but as I've said before, this semester is CRAZY! But honestly, even though the craziness makes me emotionally unstable sometimes, it's all worth it - I want to be an RD THAT badly! At the start of the semester, Chemistry and Precal were totally kicking my butt, but this past week, I OWNED quantum numbers and logarithms, so hopefully Chemistry, Precal and I can come to some sort of mutual understanding for the rest of the semester.

It would just be better that way.

My food classes, on the other hand, are going swimmingly! In my Quantity Foods lab I've flipped burgers during the night shift, which reminded me of my days back at Bruster's during the summer evening slams (8 to 10 o'clock every night!), except instead of cringing at people ordering Cotton Candy Explosion and Pistachio ice cream, I was cringing at people ordering grilled chicken and American cheese sandwiches. I mean, come on - grilled chicken and cheese? Ew. I've also worked in the baking area (kind of boring since most of it is frozen, although it was cool to see the big stand up mixer in action) and the salad bar (I'm craving tuna salad now). My Food and the Consumer class has been VERY informative and totally interesting - it's one of my favorite classes that I've taken at UGA! I'll probably dedicate another post to some of the stuff we've learned, but here's a teaser: do you think high fructose corn syrup is "less healthy" than brown rice syrup?

How's that for dinner conversation?

Anyways, I've saved up a delicious, fun recipe to share with everyone for my triumphant return to the blogosphere: Greek Nachos! A few weeks ago we had a nacho party at our apartment for the Oscars - why nachos, you ask? I loved the juxtaposition between the polished, fancy Oscars and the humble, lax feeling of nachos. What can I say, my inner English major was leaking.

I'm just kidding. I was actually just craving nachos like crazy and decided that nachos would be fun to eat while watching the Oscars. And indeed it was fun! Although there was somewhat of a shortage of nachos (only Shelley and I made some), it was still really fun! Shelley made buffalo chicken nachos, while I made Greek nachos, as found in those handy little "50 ways..." booklets that come in every Food Network Magazine. They were super easy to make, didn't need to bake, and were completely gobbled up during the second half of the Oscars! A warning: these measurements are very loose - it's easy to alter depending on the number of people you have.

Greek Nachos
serves a crowd of hungry movie buffs

- pita chips, scoop tortilla chips, regular tortilla chips
- 1 container of your favorite hummus (I used roasted red pepper)
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1 container feta cheese
- sliced black olives
- oregano
- 1-2 tomatoes, diced
- tzatziki sauce: 1 peeled and seeded cucumber, diced; 1 6 oz container plain Greek yogurt; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1-2 tsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp olive oil - mix all of it together!

Lay out your tortilla/pita chips on a platter. Spoon a teaspoon or two of tzatziki sauce onto each chip, then sprinkle the onions, olives, tomatoes and feta onto each chip. Top the nachos with a teaspoon of hummus and a sprinkle of oregano. Now you're eating Greek!

These nachos are colorful (purple onions, orange feta, red tomatoes, black olives!), taste fresh and are packed with flavor. At least, that's what everyone at the Oscar party said, but I wholeheartedly agree. I used tortilla scoops instead of pita chips, which probably ended up being the better - they held the tomatoes, olives, onions, etc. perfectly during the transition from platter to mouth.

2011-02-16T17:07:00.002-05:00

Hello, all! Let me give you a recap of my life since the last time I posted...

1. Chemistry
2. Math
3. Using a tilt skillet and an industrial convection oven to make enough Tortilla Egg Casserole for 25+ people
4. My first lab in the dining hall - props to food service workers, seriously. I made 4 loaves worth of french toast, a billion pounds of beef for beef fajitas, operated fryers (not scary), half way cleaned a griddle (scary), and sauteed veggies. From 7 to 10 in the morning.
5. I broke my toe....by stubbing it on on the edge of an arm chair. Cool.

Unfortunately, I don't have any fun food things to talk about - this semester is probably going to end up being a pseudo hiatus for me. I'll check back in when I can, but until the summer is here, I don't think I'm going to be great at doing weekly posts.

2011-02-06T00:20:00.004-05:00

Confession: I love reading my Blogger stats. It's everything I wish I could do with Facebook (and Myspace back in the day). Well, I guess it would be cool to see EXACTLY who looked at my blog, but for right now the search keywords that lead people to my blog is good enough. The most popular keyword? Ellie Krieger Chickpea Ragu. Seriously, it's on there every time I check (which is kind of a lot). I made that dish around this time last year and it was absolutely delicious, so go check it out.

Does it seem like I've fallen off the face of the earth? To me it does - I'm SWAMPED with homework and projects! Unfortunately blogging and baking have taken the back seat, but at least I have roommate dinners to keep me cooking, even if it's only once a week. I also have all of the wonderful restaurants of Athens to get my mind off trivial school matters like stochiometry and on important things like the perfect sweet potato fry.

Sweet potato fries > stochiometry. And parabolas. There's some math for ya.

Anyways, I had THE BEST sweet potato fries at a cool restaurant called Trapeze Pub. I went there a few weeks ago with Kathy, Adam and Chris with the intention of getting the Vegetarian Reuben (sauerkraut calls to me), but after Adam declared he wanted a hamburger, I suddenly got an intense, dire craving for a burger (apparently, so did everyone else - we all ended up changing our orders to burgers). And what goes better with a burger than fries?

Nothing. One could argue tater tots, but in my humble opinion, tater tots are a more suitable companion to hot dogs.

So yes, I payed an extra 3 bucks for a side of sweet potato fries (WHAT?!), but boy, they were worth it! They were sprinkled with cinnamon and were more tender than crunchy. I find that when sweet potato fries are crunchy, you can't really taste the sweet potato flavor. Trapeze must know this, too, because it almost seemed like their fries were baked - they were cut into pretty thick wedges and were slightly crunchy on the outside, but creamy on the inside.

The burgers were just as delicious - juicy, flavorful and tender. This picture doesn't really do it justice (obviously I forgot to turn off the flash), but it was one of the best burgers I've had in a while. I mean, Graze has amazing burgers, but if you want a big, classic burger, try Trapeze Pub. The atmosphere is great - kind of small, but it has a great "pub-ish" feel to it and they had a BAZILLION different kinds of beers, if you're into that kinda thing.

I also made a second trip to Five Star Day - it was really cold that day, so I ordered a bowl of Chicken n Dumplings and a side of fried green tomatoes. So Southern, right? Other than that, I've literally been at school, work, lab, or holed up in my room studying/doing homework. Bleh. This week is going to be another long one, but at least we have a fun Market Basket project in my Quantity Foods lab - every group was assigned some food items and a list of equipment to use to make a dish with their food items for the entire lab. My group got eggs, sausage and tortillas (so hard, right?), so we're making a Mexican Tortilla bake. Hopefully I'll get to use the big tilt skillet to brown the sausage. Downside? We have to be there at 6:30 in the morning. Awesome.

2011-01-22T07:44:00.007-05:00

Epic Meal Time: Four Loko Chili - LOL! (Do not watch if you find meat consumption disgusting) I love this series of YouTube videos - the main guy is absolutely hilarious!

I do not condone the consumption of the alcoholic chemical called Four Loko, but that video is pretty funny. All of their videos are, actually. They're like the live version of This is Why You're Fat.

Goooooood times.

Anyways, I have another week of school under my belt, with a Monday of "wintery mix" on the horizon. My classes for the most part are interesting. I can't wait to start working in my assigned dining hall for lab, even if I have to be there at 7 AM. I also really love my Food and the Consumer class - some say it's boring, but I think all of the food legislation and food label history is sort of fascinating. We learned that the DV percentages on food labels are actually wrong - they are based on RDA's made in the 70's!!!! Take sodium, for instance. In the 70's, you supposedly needed 2400 mg of sodium a day, which makes the %DV on labels lower than they should be, since now we know that you really don't need more than 1500 mg! Call me dumb, but I had no idea!

NERD ALERT!

In other news, I made some truly tasty turkey hummus burgers for my roommate dinner last week. The hummus (I used roasted red pepper) made the burgers really tender and gave them TONS of flavor. Food Network Magazine recommended serving the burgers in mini pitas (which I found at Trader Joe's), along with a tasty cucumber feta topping, which was creamy, crisp and tart all at the same time. It was quite the Mediterranean meal! With all of the different hummus flavors out there, you could easily change the flavor of your burgers each time you make them (because you'll definitely want to make them more than once!).

Turkey-Hummus Sliders
By Miriam Garron, Food Network Magazine, serves 5-6

- 1.5 lb ground turkey breast (I used 1 lb)
- 1 cup hummus (I used about 3/4 a cup)
- 1 English cucumber, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for the skillet
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup dried feta cheese
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (didn't use)
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- mini pita pockets
- 2-3 plum tomatoes

Dice up the cucumber, then mix it with the feta, mint, olive oil, red wine vinegar and some salt and pepper. Cover it, then refrigerate.

Next, mix the ground turkey with 1/3 cup hummus, coriander and some salt and pepper. I put it in the fridge for a half an hour to make it easier to handle, but if you don't have time, just wet your hands with some water, then form either 5 or 6 regular sized patties, or 12ish sliders, which is how they're served in FN magazine. Heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, then cook the patties for 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through and crusty.

Cut the pita pockets open about 3/4 of the way, then add a few tomato slices, a burger, some of the cucumber feta mixture and more hummus. Red onion slices would have been nice as well - I thought about caramelizing some for a topping, but I didn't have enough time.

Serve with sweet potato fries. Or regular fries. Or parsnip fries, which apparently are a hit amongst a lot of food bloggers.

Another fun fact: I made the burgers in my cast iron skillet, which I FINALLY seasoned last weekend. Sad fact: The burgers left charred bits on the bottom, so instead of looking up the proper way to clean a CI skillet, I just went ahead and scrubbed the skillet with an unsoapy soft sponge, which took off some of the oil layer I made last weekend. I'm not sure why I did this - I know you aren't supposed to scrub CI skillets with anything.

So, anyone want to give me some tips for cleaning burnt food off of a cast iron skillet??

I also made a fun, easy dessert/snack bar this week to take to work this past week. Alexi actually made them first after reading a similar recipe in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. All you do is melt some white chocolate, then stir in some kind of flaky cereal along with dried fruit! Alexi just did Uncle Sam's (essentially fiber flakes) with the chocolate, but I wanted to add some color and tart flavor so I added in some dried cranberries as well (cranberries and white chocolate are a more heavenly combo than bacon and Four Loko....just sayin', Epic Meal Guy). I stuck with the Uncle Sam's cereal because it was one of those times where it's easy to make a dessert more nutritious without compromising the flavor - you don't want the cereal to overpower the white chocolate or the cranberries, so choose something kind of plain (Uncle Sam's is about as plain as it gets - it tastes like card board alone), so why not pick something a little healthier than corn flakes?

And there you have it - a tasty dessert that keeps you regular!

On one last note, I'm sure many of you have heard about the new Lara Bar flavor that's hit the blogging market recently, right? You know, BLUEBERRY MUFFIN?!

Well, Lara Bar was nice enough to send me a few bars to try (I didn't even ask!) and review. I am a huge fan of Lara Bars and this new flavor did not disappoint; I have long felt that they were missing some kind of blueberry flavor from their extensive repertoire of bar flavors, so I was excited to try it. The bar is slightly sweet with a natural, yummy tasting blueberry flavor. I loved that they used a mild flavored nut like cashews to let the blueberry flavor shine through. While it doesn't beat my favorite flavor (PB&J), it has definitely given Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough a run for its money!

Next up: Athens restaurant review!

2011-01-16T19:19:00.005-05:00

After a fabulous two day school week (thanks, weird GA blizzard!), I am once again back in the comfort of my own home. The two day week was pretty nice, partially due to the delayed starting times (11 on Thursday, 10 on Friday). I haven't been to Chemistry yet (it's at 9:30 on Tues/Thur - thanks snow!), but my Food and the Consumer (focuses on current events in nutrition and how it affects consumers) and Quantity Foods classes seem really interesting (I'll be working at a campus dining hall for my QF labs). Pre-Cal doesn't seem all that bad (yet) either - my teacher is nice and seems eager to help us in any way he can.

I know this because I put him to the test after the second day of class - I haven't done any "Standard Circle Equations" in about five years, so I'm a little rusty in the math department.

Anyways, this weekend has been pretty fun. On Saturday I went to the library (bookstores and libraries are my idea of a good time) and checked out a few books, two of which were cookbooks. One was an Everyday Living by Martha Stewart cookbook. It was filled with gorgeous pictures and simple, yet wholesome recipes. The other cookbook I checked out was authored by a dietitian. The intro seemed pleasant enough - you can eat the foods you crave, but be healthy, too.

Sounds reasonable, right? I thought so too, until I browsed through the recipes. Every single "sweet" recipe, whether it was a breakfast smoothie or cookie, was made with Splenda. No sugar, just Splenda. I'm sorry, but Splenda cookies do NOT sound like my idea of a crave-worthy food. I know Splenda is technically safe for consumption (this is all slightly hypocritical for me to rant about, seeing as I put a packet of Splenda in my coffee every morning, but starting today, I am going to ween myself off of it!!!!), but to use it as a substitute for sugar in desserts, let alone breakfast foods (and even coleslaw) is, in my opinion, the wrong way to go about satisfying your cravings. Sure, cookies aren't the most nutritious things out there, but treating yourself to the REAL foods you're craving is good for your emotional and mental well-being. Do yourself a favor and use real sugar - humans have been using it for thousands of years with no terrible side effects (as long as you're doing it in moderation).

Anyways, yesterday I went and saw Beauty and the Beast at the Fox Theater yesterday with my mom and sister. It was totally amazing! The costumes and sets were a little sub-par in my opinion, but the songs and characters were spot on...except for Lumiere, who took the French accent a little too far (he was also a little too pervy...). Gaston was definitely my favorite character - he was such a ham! Lara and I got extremely nostalgic during the beautiful tinkling opening music, as well as during "Belle" and "Beauty and the Beast."

Before we saw the epitome of our childhood on stage, we ate at a cool restaurant called Murphy's, located in the Virgina Highlands, which is easily one of the coolest areas in Atlanta. It's filled with cute houses, quirky shops and fun, unique restaurants. Murphy's had an excellent brunch menu filled with all kinds of yummy breakfast dishes. I was tempted by the steel cut oats, malted waffles and the smoked salmon bagel. In the end I went with the smoked salmon - the salty capers and buttery salmon are treats I rarely enjoy.

Lara chose the Crab Cake sandwich

and my mom ordered french toast with cinnamon honey butter (yum!) and syrup.

All three meals were really excellent and I especially loved the citrus hint of my delicious smoked salmon. We were also treated to a free bread basket of sorts filled with muffins (lots of delicious brown sugar and grated carrot) and what I think were drop biscuits. The muffins were tender, yet slightly chewy and perfectly sweet. I liked the biscuits the best, though; they were buttery and crumbly with a hint of sweetness. They had a little something extra, but I can't put my finger on what it was...

Anyways, I would go to Murphy's again in a heartbeat - they had great music (classic rock/soft rock) with a classy, yet relaxed atmosphere and enthusiastic, attentive waiters.

All in all, it was an excellent three day weekend. Now I must mentally prepare for four days of school - ick! After all of these short weeks, a regular week of school next week is going to kill me!

2011-01-11T21:44:00.006-05:00

I know, I've been slacking in the posting department. So much for updating more often in 2011...

And I haven't even started school yet. Tomorrow I will be celebrating my third snow day of 2011. In case you didn't know, the SE US was annihilated by intense snow and ice. Well, to me it's intense - I haven't seen this much snow (I'm talking a whopping 3-5 inches) since my freshman year. Getting snowed in at a poorly insulated, 30+ year old dorm is no fun. Getting snowed in at my comfy home with my family is much, much better.

These snow days have been completely awesome. I know a lot of people around here are probably developing severe cases of cabin fever (the entire north half of Georgia basically cannot drive anywhere due to the road conditions), but I love being able to be at home for a bit longer before starting school. Lara and I tried to slide down our driveway (didn't work), my mom and I made a lame 2D snowman, and I pegged my dad with a snowball.

And I shoveled my driveway.

And I did my first Chemistry pre-lab. I just couldn't contain myself. I learned two things: 1. The Chemistry people really are out to get you and 2. It's a good thing I did a little bit of significant figure/conversion work last week.

Anywho, other than this intense snowpocalypse, I have nothing interesting to report. I haven't been cooking lately, simply because I am a little tired of trying to cater to my family's varying taste and texture preferences. I am excited to start cooking for Shelley and Kayla again, even if it means cooking on a half size stove...at least they aren't picky! I've already got some ideas lined up, like curried lentil soup (it would involve my new stick blender!).

2011-01-05T15:25:00.004-05:00

Today Lara had plans to invite some friends over for her birthday (which was January 1st - kinda cool, right?), so I decided to teach myself some Chemistry basics from Chemistry Essentials for Dummies and a Cliffnotes Chemistry workbook. It's been a blast! I forgot how much I love Chemistry!

Not.

I suffered from a brief, internal combustion in my brain, then set to work on relearning significant figures and metric conversions. It may sound dorky and stupid to subject myself to the horrors of Chemistry before class starts next Monday, but essentially I have never taken Chemistry. In high school, my teacher was about to retire, so we watched videos once or twice a week during which he, along with half of the class (including myself...) fell asleep. When we weren't watching videos, I depended on Shelley and Catie to teach me everything, which was great at the time, but now...not so much. So yeah, it's partially my fault for not having much of a Chemistry background, but regardless, I DO NOT want to walk into class and be completely lost on the bare basic (which we're probably expected to have down pat), so I'm reviewing a little early. And reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (which is SO good, but I always have trouble keeping all of the Swedish last names straight). And updating this blog. And making EXCELLENT sweet potato chips with my super new Food Network Cheftoku knife and trying prosciutto for the first time (a revelation! I made a quesadilla with pear slices, provolone cheese, prosciutto, and a drizzle of honey) and updating My Fancy Tuna.

Lots of distractions, but I still feel moderately productive.

Anyways, I don't have any new recipes to post since we still have New Year's recipes out the whazoo. We also have a few leftovers of recipe duds that I made last week - Red Beans and Rice from a Southern Living cookbook and Chicken Tetrazzini from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't get pasta. Aside from ravioli, I just don't crave pasta. Ever. I mean, spaghetti and lasagna are awesome, but it all seems to taste the same. I'm probably speaking Italian blasphemy, but whatever. I followed the tetrazzini recipe to a T (except for my addition of frozen peas for a pop of green), but it was still blah. My dad and I ended up dowsing it in roasted red pepper vinaigrette. I know Camille shares my lack of enthusiasm for pasta...does anyone else? Or do you have any tips to jazz up the typical Italian flavors?

However, I do have an Atlanta restaurant review - Mary Mac's! My aunt called it "an institution" and said that I needed to go there at least once during my life, which is why we ate there after exploring Georgia State's campus last week (Lara is considering it for college - eek!).

Mary Mac's definitely upholds Southern tradition through its food and decor. The cornbread muffins were excellent, as were the collards (although I think I like Five Star Day's better). My entree, Salmon Croquettes, were the star of my meal. They were HUGE, perfectly crispy on the outside and tender inside. Some salmon croquettes/patties (I think croquettes sounds nicer than patties, which is what my mom calls them) are really oily tasting, but these tasted really fresh, which was in part due to the minced red peppers. The croquettes came with amazing tartar sauce as well - briny and smooth. I would choose Five Star Day over Mary Mac's any day (I love the blend of comfort food and "hippie" food, as well as the Athens atmosphere), but it was definitely a delicious meal!

And now I must continue on in my quest to learn the basics of Chemistry. Or read about Lisbeth Salander. Either way, wish me luck!

2010-12-30T23:02:00.004-05:00

And just like that, Christmas was over. Five days ago. All of the decorations are boxed up for another year (sadness), our tree has been dismantled and thrown into the compost pile (after standing alone in a de-decorated living room for two days), and the only Christmas leftovers that remain are a few dried out pecan sandies that no one seems to like (I guess I know what not to make next year...).

Obviously I'm a little sad about Christmas being over. It's a hard time for me, which is why I haven't updated in a week. I needed time to let my soul recover from the swift transition from "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" to "OH MY GOD I HAVE TO PAY $1000 DOLLARS FOR TEXT BOOKS THIS SEMESTER!@$!@$!@#%#@^% (although after further inspection, I discovered that my textbook bill will most likely be significantly less, thank goodness)."

It's okay, though. Christmas is special because it only happens two months out of the year (let's face it, while Thanksgiving is totally awesome, I am completely in Christmas mode after Halloween is over). I ate my Christmas eve lasagna, my Christmas morning Krispy Kreme doughnut, my Christmas evening Yorkshire pudding and my day after Christmas clam chowder (don't ask, it's a weird tradition). I also have many awesome memories and great gifts to help ease my pain. I received seven (yes, seven) cookbooks, two jars of peanut/almond butter, three kitchen gadgets, a stick blender and a stone cookie sheet.

I have officially pigeon-holed myself into a specific gift category. If you can't think of something to get me, just toss me the latest kitchen gadget or a cookbook and everything will be hunky dory! Seriously though, I loved all seven of my wonderful cookbooks and everything else I received (thanks family and friends).

And now that Christmas is over, here is a transitional recipe to help you move from rich, yummy Christmas food to easy, every day eating once again (this probably does not qualify as a lame New Year's weight loss recipe, though...whoops!).

PW's BBQ Meatballs
Serves 4

For the meatballs:

- 1 lb ground beef
- 3/4 cups oats (I whirled mine through the mini food processor - I knew my mom and Lara wouldn't appreciate rolled oats in their meat)
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tbsp finely minced onion (I used dried minced onion)
- Salt and pepper

Cooking the meatballs:

- All purpose flour (enough to lightly coat all of the meatballs)
- 2ish tbsp canola oil

For the sauce:

- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp vinegar
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire
- 4 tbsp minced onion (again, I used dried minced onion)
- 2ish drops hot sauce

Begin by sending the oats through a food processor just to make them smaller and less detectable. Next, combine the oats with the milk, salt, pepper and onion. Add the meat then mix until combined (don't over mix, though, or the meat will become tough). Form the meat into small (1-1.5 inch meatballs) and place on a sheet pan in the freezer for five to ten minutes. This will help the meatballs stay together when you brown them.

While the meatballs are cooling, mix all of the sauce ingredients into a small bowl. The sauce is REALLY tasty, but I thought it tasted more like a typical meatloaf sauce and not really BBQ-ish. Perhaps I should have added some brown sugar?

Anyways, heat up the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Pour some flour into a shallow bowl, then roll the meatballs in the flour to lightly coat them. Place them into the pan and brown each side (don't worry about cooking them through, though). Once all of the meatballs are browned, place them in a large (9x13) baking dish and spoon some of the sauce over each meatball.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. I served these with homemade mashed potatoes and baked beans and they were oh so good! They were flavorful and tender thanks to the sauce, which like I said above, was more like a meatloaf sauce. These meatballs were actually more like meatloaf balls, now that I think about it... Either way, they were actually kind of fun to make and really easy. Everyone in my family liked them and I think you could change up the sauce recipe to make Asian meatballs, Southwestern meatballs, Italian meatballs, etc.

See ya in 2011!

PS - Jen, I made Oatmeal Raisin, Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate chip, Pecan Sandies and Snickerdoodles. The Flourless PB and Chocolate chip cookies were really easy and tasty, but I think you should try making PW's Rum Cake. My aunt made it for Christmas and it was amazing!

2010-12-22T17:51:00.003-05:00

I have baked four different kinds of cookies, one batch of BBQ meatballs, a pot of homemade mashed potatoes, and TWO CANS of baked beans in the past 24 hours. Excluding the cans of baked beans, that's a lot of cooking/baking. It's also been really fun (aside from the minor pout fest I threw last night after I deemed my snickerdoodles unworthy). Can you believe how far I've come in the YEAR that I've been writing My Fancy Tuna??

Yes, you heard me. A year. I have been blogging for a year. A YEAR!!! I NEVER expected to last this long at blogging. I guess it's because I really like food and I really like writing about it (I HATE writing about pretty much anything else for extended periods of time).

I figured for My Fancy Tuna's 1st birthday, I'd list 15 super things that have happened since I started food blogging. And no, not all of them are food related.

1. I finally accepted the fact that journalism wasn't my passion, and changed my major to Dietetics.
2. I took Art History. This is notable because it was REALLY interesting and completely new to me - I felt slightly cultured after I finished that class.
3. I saw Muse live! It was completely awesome!
4. Travis Willingham came to AWA and it was awesome! Well, his screaming fan girls were annoying, but it was cool to see him in person.
5. I started reading KERF, ELR, CNC, PW, and TONS of other great food/healthy living blogs...and I've watched them all grow, too!
6. DISNEY WORLD!!! It was definitely the best vacation I've ever been on, even though it was my second time there!
7. Food Principles - an entire class devoted to how cooking and baking work, and an AWESOME lab full of cooking/baking and tasting!!
8. I read a lot of great books this yea - Her Fearful Symmetry, Water for Elephants, Harry Potter (for the billionth time...)
9. Went to the huge apple festival in Elijay with fun friends.
10. Experienced Trader Joe's and tried their divine peanut butter filled pretzels.
11. Saw Stars live - equally, if not more awesome, than Muse.
12. Received my own Kitchen Aid stand up mixer from my aunt, uncle and cousin! Thanks a million!!
13. Explored foodie Athens with three great friends from work - I really enjoy working at the library because of them!
14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 - 'nuff said.
15. Had another spankin' year at the apartment with Kayla, Shelley and Alexi!

So there ya have it. 15 awesome things from this year! And thanks to all of you who have read this weird, sometimes corny blog of mine. I can't promise anything crazy like more frequent posts (I'm taking three chemistry classes over year 2 of My Fancy Tuna, after all), but I can promise my internet presence for another year!

2010-12-20T15:18:00.005-05:00

AHHH Christmas is SO close!! Like, four and a half days away close!! My mom teases me a lot for feeling this way, but I always start to get just a tiny bit sad when it gets close to Christmas because that means it's almost over! I love this season and I hate to see it go - I remember I actually cried one year after opening Christmas presents because I was so sad that Christmas was ending.

Dramatic, much?

Anyways, one very special part of Christmas for me is eating my grandma's delicious, sugary candied pecans. They're just one of those quintessential Christmas treats that I look forward to every year. After making Divinities in my food lab this year, I asked my grandma if I could help her make the pecans this year. I thought it would be hard since some candy recipes are kind of finicky, but the pecans were totally easy to make!

Gamma's Candied Pecans

- 5 cups halved pecans
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp vanilla

Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Pour the sugar and honey into a big, heavy bottomed pot. Once the water comes to a boil, pour half a cup of it into the pot and begin to stir the mixture. Turn the heat under the pot to medium heat and let the mixture come to a boil.

Most people might use a candy thermometer to figure out when the mixture is ready, but my grandma does the old fashioned way - dripping the sugar mixture into a cup of water to see if it forms a "soft ball" at the bottom. Basically, you just use a spoon to drop a tiny bit of the mixture into some water, and if the mixture immediately sinks to the bottom and forms a round "ball" shape, then you're set! Once it gets to that stage, turn off the heat, then add the vanilla and mix. Finally, add the pecans and stir continuously to coat them until the sugar mixture starts to cool and turns white. It will start getting really hard to stir at the end, fyi!

While I have my delicious sugar coated pecans, other people have a little something called fruitcake. I grew up thinking the stuff was absolutely disgusting. I mean, every Christmas movie and cartoon makes fun of it as if it's anthrax or something. I had not even SEEN a real fruitcake until yesterday, when my other grandma offered me some after we went out to lunch for her and my grandpa's 55th wedding anniversary.

I tried the fruitcake. And I liked it. (Also, I had veal. Again. In the form of meatloaf. It makes me feel like a terrible, cruel person...sort of.)

It's absolutely delightful! It tastes almost exactly like a LARA bar, except with an extra punch of gummy sweetness from the candied fruit. I can see why so many don't like it, but if you're a fan of dried fruit and lots of fun textures, go try some fruitcake, pronto.

And finally, here is the other recipe I promised. It's nothing special, just a fun oatmeal recipe. Just so you know, my oatmeal obsession has waned substantially.

Butter Pecan Oatmeal

- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/3 cup water, plus more during cooking
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 small, ripe banana
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 handful of chopped pecans
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp brown sugar (more to taste)

Add the oats, milk and 1/3 cup of water to a boil. Slice the banana into relatively thin slices, reserving five or six to put on top. Stir the mixture to break up the banana slices. Add the cinnamon and the vanilla and stir again.

In a small pan, melt the butter then add the chopped pecans and the reserved banana slices. After a few minutes, flip the banana slices and stir the pecans, then sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar over the mixture. Take the pan off the heat.

By now your oats should be bubbling, so start stirring constantly to help the bananas blend into the mixture. I always find that my oats start to get a little gummy, so I add more water (you could do milk, too) to pump up the volume. Once your oats are cooked to the consistency you like (it should take at least five minutes), add the other teaspoon of brown sugar and mix.

Pour the oats into a bowl and top with the pecans and browned banana slices. EAT UP!

I really like this combo - the browned bananas make it look fancy and the pecans add a nice texture and a great nutty, buttery flavor. Like I said, it's nothing special, but it's a nice way to jazz up your typical bowl of oatmeal.

2010-12-15T20:05:00.004-05:00

Well lookie here! I've emerged from my hermit hole only two days after my last post! I've done more cooking, reading (helloooo Harry Potter!), and baking over the past two days than I have since Thanksgiving!

It's glooooorious! Just like this video...

I love this song and I love A Goofy Movie.

Anyways, I already have three recipes to share with you guys. Two are winners and the other one is, well, it needs a little work or something. Today's post is one of the winners.

Yesterday I had a major baking itch and decided to utilize the plethora of nuts that have accumulated in our pantry. My victim? Almonds. I decided to make Almond Biscotti from the Joy of Baking, but decided to add some chocolate chips and instant coffee powder to jazz them up. It was a good decision. The chocolate chips gave the biscotti an extra dimension of flavor and gave them gorgeous specks of rich chocolate. I was a little disappointed that the coffee powder didn't really come through, though. Next time I'll add more than a teaspoon, but I guess the coffee is only there to enhance the chocolate flavor anyways.

The recipe is really easy, especially since it's a traditional biscotti recipe, meaning there's no butter or oil in them. I used to think biscotti were so hard only because they were baked twice, but now that I have Food Principles under my belt (I'm really obnoxious about that class, aren't I?), I know another reason they're hard and crunchy is because no fat = no tenderness. But the whole point of biscotti is to dip it into coffee/tea/milk and feel sophisticated while doing it, so it doesn't really matter that they're hard.

So here's the recipe. And definitely don't skip out on toasting the almonds - it really does give them a lot of flavor.

Almond Biscotti (with chocolate chips)
Courtesy of The Joy of Baking, makes 14-16 biscotti

- 1 cup whole almonds, toasted then chopped
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2 cups white AP flour
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't have any, so obviously I omitted this)
- 1 tsp instant coffee powder (I didn't taste it - try 1 tbsp?)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and toast your almonds for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they start to smell delicious and fragrant.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. In a bowl (obviously) beat the eggs and extracts together.

In another bowl (stand up mixers are heavenly!), mix the sugar, flour, salt, coffee granules, and baking powder together until combined. Then slowly add the egg mixture. After adding in half of the egg mixture, start pouring the almonds and chocolate chips into the mix as well. Make sure everything is incorporated, but don't over mix!

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease it very lightly with cooking spray. Plop the dough onto the baking sheet and pat (not roll) into a 12-14 inch long, 3/4 of an inch wide log. That's what The Joy of Baking said to do, but I thought it was weird to make the log that skinny, so I patted it into a two inch(ish) wide log and called it a day. The dough didn't spread that much and my biscotti still looked like, well, biscotti. Let the log bake for 30-40 minutes, or until it's firm to the touch.

After baking the log, let it cool for at least ten minutes on a wire cookie rack. Once it's cool, use a sharp knife to cut the log into 16 1/2-1 inch biscotti. The Joy of Baking said I would get 28 biscotti out of the log, but I only got 16. Oh well. Anyways, place the biscotti back on the cookie sheet and bake for ten more minutes on one side, then flip and bake the other side for another ten minutes. Let them cool, then chow down! Just a side note: the biscotti were softer (not overly soft, just not quite as crunchy) the second day.

Yay baking! I'll share my other two recipes on my next post! In the meantime, go watch A Goofy Movie. Seriously. It's one of the most under-appreciated Disney movies.

2010-12-13T19:44:00.006-05:00

Woah. Where have I been these past TWO weeks?! I think this is the longest I've gone without posting in the (almost) year (!!!) I've been blogging!

Mostly I've been studying/writing my butt off for finals. While it was nice to relax and do nothing but eat over Thanksgiving for a change, it kind of kicked me in the rear when I got back to school with a mountain of papers to write and food-type things to study. For once, though, I enjoyed the stuff I was studying. I mean, studying is icky overall, but I kind of liked studying cow and pork wholesale/retail cuts. I also liked telling people that I was studying cow/pork cuts - I think it made them jealous. Adam and Chris said that Food Principles was going to make me a great homemaker one day.

Whatever. I can (theoretically) tell you where a cut of meat came from just by looking at the bone.

Speaking of Adam and Chris, we ventured out to Keba for another episode in our Athens-eats saga. Keba is an upscale fast-food type restaurant that serves kebaps, the Turkish version of a Greek gyro. I'm not sure what makes it Turkish, but it was pretty tasty all the same! You can either get a wrap or European bread (get the European bread!) and then you pick your meat filling. Behind the counter you can see a HUGE loin (possibly - I couldn't see the bone to tell you for sure what cut of meat it was) roasting on a turn pole. I'm assuming they use one of those long knives to shave off thin, flavorful slices of meat. Then you pick your toppings (typical vegetables) and then you pick your sauce. They have a wide variety of flavors - roasted red pepper, chipotle, curry, black olive, etc. I'm almost 95% positive that they are just mayo blended with whatever seasoning, but hey, whatever works!

I decided on European bread with beef, all the vegetables and black olive sauce. Excellent, excellent choice. I currently have a love affair going on with black olives, so that sauce really hit the spot. I also ordered a side of fries with the curry sauce. It tasted curry-ish, but let it be known that curry doesn't really go with fries. Adam's roasted red pepper sauce tasted nice with the fries, but personally, I'm kind of a ketchup girl when it comes to fries. I wasn't too impressed with Keba's fries, though. They were too potato-y and didn't have enough salt. I'd rather have a brown bag of Five Guys Fries or some McDonald's fries...YUM!

Overall, Keba is nice, but it's definitely the definition of man food. The sandwiches are really tasty, but other than the finely shaved meat, there's nothing obnoxiously special about the food.

Also on my posting agenda? CHRISTMAS!!

I LOVE this time of year. Unfortunately I feel like I've missed the first half of it due to school and stress, but I plan on taking in every bit of Christmas over the next two weeks! My house has been decorated for two weeks already and we put our tree up the weekend before last. I love all of the glowing lights and Christmas decor!!

I love our tree. Usually I make it into a competition to see who can pick the best tree first...although I have excellent tree picking skills (even when they're tied up), my dad still won. Oh well.

I love my Mickey and Spongebob ornaments.

I made this in the fourth grade. Everyone thinks it's ugly but me.

Hope is so stinkin' cute. She meows too much, though.

My grandma gives Lara, my cousin and me chocolate advent calenders every Christmas. Lara and I race to see who can find the day's number first. Lara usually wins.

Quite possibly my favorite Christmas decoration.

Sorry about the lack of recipes in this post. I haven't had time to make anything blog-worthy lately, but Kayla did make a delicious butternut squash soup! Perfect for these cold Georgia days....

In all fairness, today was 14 degrees with a windchill factor of 6 degrees or something obnoxious like that.

2010-11-30T12:24:00.006-05:00

Thanksgiving break is such a tease. I love it before and while it happens, but when it's all said and done I start to wish we had just gone to class all week. I'm sure many of you are in the same boat as me, but I have SO much work to do over the next week and a half!! My goal is to still give myself time to appreciate the gloriousity of the Christmas season while I'm studying/working my hiney off, but that goal is starting to look a little lofty.

I did achieve one goal in the past week, though - I finally had my Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. Two, in fact. They were absolutely glorious. Perhaps it was because I helped with the cooking so much, but this year I found myself savoring the leftovers even more than usual, especially the dressing.

Funny story: My dad somehow forgot about a pan of dressing he put in the oven while we were eating, just to get it out of the way. The next morning, I thought it was weird that we only had a small-ish square left and began looking for the rest of the dressing. I looked in the outside fridge, all inside the kitchen fridge, then felt compelled to check the oven. Yep, we left it in the oven all night. The oven wasn't on or anything, but pork and eggy bread at room temperature for 12 hours is bacteria city.

I probably still would have eaten it, had my dad not said to throw it out. It was one of the saddest things I've ever had to do. Until next year, delicious dressing....

Anyways, the sandwich. There were actually two versions. One with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce and one with turkey, cranberry sauce and a little green bean casserole. And before you start shaking your head in disgust at using green bean casserole in a sandwich, just think about it...with all of the cream of mushroom, green bean casserole actually makes an excellent glue to keep the bread stuck to the turkey. And it tastes pretty good, too. Stuffing seems to be the more popular ingredient, though, so here's a picture.

See how the bread is falling off the stuffing? The green bean casserole would have prevented that atrocity. If only I had thought of it sooner... But yeah, something about poultry and fruit spread really floats my boat. Like today, I had leftover turkey in a wrap with pumpkin butter, cream cheese and slice pear. Amazing. Go try it.

And yes, that's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the background. I reread the series every Christmas, and it's absolutely glorious!

Also try turkey in a salad, possibly with pomegranate seeds. Those tasty little seeds are a delicious new discovery for me - I love how they burst when you bite down, releasing sweet yummy juice. Getting to the seeds, as I discovered, is a little tricky. Cutting and seeding a pomegranate is kind of like breaking into an egg sac, or performing an autopsy on an alien life form. Gross, right? It actually wasn't that messy or even that hard, just very time consuming. I basically just followed this tutorial on Fashion Meets Food.

Just cut a square off the top and four slits down the sides and slowly peel off the layers, popping off the seeds as you go.

And blue is written on the side because I got it from a girl at work, who got it from her plant science class. But look at the inside....I had no idea what to expect once I got past that first layer - I was surprised to see so many pockets of seeds!

Oh well. I have the seeds now, which are perfect for topping salads, for putting in cookies , or for straight snacking!

And now it's homework time. Godspeed to all the other student bloggies out there - we're going to need it!

2010-11-25T19:15:00.008-05:00

Ah, Thanksgiving. Such a glorious time! In the past, I didn't really dig Thanksgiving. My young taste buds weren't crazy about sweet potatoes, dressing, pecan/pumpkin pie, or cranberry anything.

Thank goodness they've matured because Thanksgiving food is the bomb! And I love the family time! We spent a good portion of the meal discussing the various animals we had hit with our cars over the years (chipmunk, raccoon, deer, and even a squirrel that got caught around an axel - don't ask), among other things. I hadn't seen any of my dad's side of the family since Labor Day and over that time span, my cousin grew even more! I'm freakishly tall for a girl (5'11") and was taller than my cousin until two or three years ago...first he finally reached my height, then he was a smidge taller, and then today he was almost a whole head taller than me! I have to say, though, it was kind of nice not being the tallest cousin; plus, it makes for good picture posing.

Prior to college, I also didn't have any interest in the cooking part of Thanksgiving. When the food bug finally hit, I began my Thanksgiving cooking with making our typical green bean casserole.

Sheridan Green Bean Casserole (aka, probably the casserole on the back of Campbell Cream of Mushroom Soup Can...)
Serves...A lot. Between 8-10.

- 6 cans French cut green beans
- 3 cans cream of mushroom soup (this is my dad's rule...I could use two and be okay)
- 1 tablespoon garlic, split into 3 teaspoons)
- 3 shakes Italian seasoning
- Fried onion thingies, enough to coat the top of the casserole

Preheat oven to 375. In a casserole dish, pour two cans of green beans with one can of mushroom for the first layer. Mix together, along with a teaspoon of garlic and a shake of Italian seasoning. Repeat twice, then bake for 20 minutes. Top with however much fried onion you want, then bake again for 5 to 10 minutes. Easy, right? It's really simple and nothing fancy, but I couldn't imagine Thanksgiving without it. I felt really sophisticated and handy after making it my freshman year.

For Thanksgiving my junior year, I made the green bean casserole again, but this time I also helped my dad make his awesome dressing. I diced onions and celery, sauteed them, and browned the sausage. None of this was anything new, as I had already been making dinner for Kayla and Shelley at the apartment, but it still felt really cool to cook with my dad and say that I was responsible for more of the Thanksgiving feast.

Dad's Dressing
Serves a lot. Probably between 10-12.

- 1 pie pan of cornbread, crumbled (hey, use my mom's cornbread recipe!)
- 1 lb spicy sausage
- 2 cups Pepperidge Farm breadcrumbs
- 2 cups diced onion
- 1.5 cups diced celery
- 2 eggs
- 1 can low sodium chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp dry sage

Dice some onion and celery into small pieces, then saute in a pan with 1 tbsp olive oil until translucent and soft. Dump the celery and onion in a large mixing bowl, then brown the sausage in the same pan, breaking it up into small chunks. Once browned, take out the sausage with a slotted spoon and place on a plate lined with paper towels to catch the grease. Crumble the cornbread into the same mixing bowl, then add the two cups of bread crumbs. Once the sausage has cooled, add that in, along with two eggs, the chicken broth and the spices. Mix all of it together and press into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

My dad's dressing is probably my favorite part of Thanksgiving. It's like his Hoppin' John black bean chowder that he makes on New Year's - it's his specialty and I'm glad that he shares it with me. Although, I wouldn't say no to trying out some apple/butternut squash dressing along side his usual stuffing one day....

This year I really upped my game in the food prep department. Yesterday I made two pecan pies, helped my dad majorly with the dressing, made the green bean casserole, and also tried something new: homemade cranberry conserve, courtesy of Barefoot Contessa.

Let me tell you guys something - Ina Garten is my lady. If the rugged, outdoorsy side of me loves Pioneer Woman, then the refined, "good quality" ingredient side of me loves Ina Garten and all of her Hamptons/butter glory. She just oozes classiness. When I saw her make her cranberry conserve, I feel in love with it's deep, vibrant pink color and it's variety of textures. I was sure no one would really eat it (after all, we served the canned stuff every year prior to this one), but I didn't care. I was too proud of how beautiful it was.

Is it weird that I say food is beautiful? I mean, how can you not call this beautiful?

Look at the gorgeous color and all of the different textures!! It was sweet, yet slightly tart as well as thick, but juicy and perfectly chunky. Best of all, it was really easy!

Barefoot Contessa's Cranberry Conserves
Makes about 2 cups.

- 1 16 oz bag of cranberries
- 1.75 cups of sugar
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- Juice and zest of one orange
- 1 cup water
- 1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
- 1/4 cup of raisins

Pour the cranberries, water and sugar into a saucepan and heat over medium-low for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the skins on the cranberries start to split. Add the chopped apple, the zest, and lemon/orange juice to the pan. Continue to stir occasionally over medium low heat for another 15-20 minutes. By this time some of the cranberries will have burst, the apples will have turned pink and soft, and the mixture will begin to foam. Take the pan off of the heat, stir in the raisins, then let cool. Store in the fridge until serving time!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my grandparents and my aunt dug the cranberry sauce! It was perfect over a dinner roll and I can't wait to have it on a turkey sandwich tomorrow. Would it be weird to say that one of the reasons I made it was so that I could have a turkey/cranberry sauce sandwich the day after Thanksgiving? Because that's seriously one of the reasons I made it.

Today I wrapped up my cooking spree by making one of my first blog recipes: Spiced Nuts!

Here are some of the other eats from today (but definitely not all of them!)

Turkey. Duh.

This picture doesn't do them justice (at all), but up close is my grandma's sweet potato casserole (with brown sugar pecan topping) and her homemade mac n' cheese in the back.

I hope all of you had a glorious, food filled Thanksgiving with lots of laughs and family time. Thank goodness I managed to avoid an overfilled stomach; instead, I'm just incredibly sleepy! And for some reason I've decided to join my mom in some Black Friday shopping tomorrow (my first time ever!), so if any of ya'll are braving that mess, good luck!

2010-11-21T19:49:00.006-05:00

I love being home. It seems like most people my age dislike being home for extended periods of time (which used to make me self-conscious), but I love being able to hang out with my sister in my "What What" (as in, What What in the Butt - I know you've seen that YouTube video) high school tennis sweatpants. I also love being able to talk to my mom face to face and getting cooking help from my dad.

Another thing I like about being home? A full size oven.

HALLELUJAH!

It's just SO liberating to cook on a full size stove with huge counter tops. I decided to celebrate the occasion by making Mexico Joes (Mexican sloppy joes) for dinner, along with some sweet potato fries.

On a side note, I think I officially converted my dad into a sweet potato fry lover! Mwahaha!

I also decided to celebrate the fall season with pumpkin bread! After watching the throwdown between Bobby Flay and The Pioneer Woman, I had a major baking itch. Although Bobby's entire Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe looked AMAZING, I wasn't feeling up to buying another can of pumpkin, yada yada.

So I just made the pumpkin bread and nixed the pudding part. For now, anyways...this bread is WAY too good not to include in some sort of scrumptious bread pudding someday. Seriously, it's the best bread I've ever made...not that I've made a ton of quick breads over the past year, but whatever. Who would have thought that Bobby Flay, grilling/meat champ, would make an awesome pumpkin bread recipe?!

Perhaps I'm too naive.

Anyways, the only alteration I made was adding walnuts. I love the extra crunch in the bread. My favorite part is the thick crust - at first I thought it was burnt, but upon further inspection (aka scarfing two slices), I discovered that it was just crunchy, sweet, delicious goodness. The combination of spices make this bread - cinnamon, allspice, cloves and nutmeg. Cloves and allspice spell HORRIBLE by themselves (in my opinion), but somehow they taste complex and rich inside the bread. It's probably the sugar. So yeah, go make this bread!

Edit: I just looked at the recipe again and realized I forgot the 2/3 cup water....I wonder what that did to the bread? Perhaps it would have been lighter/fluffier? Who knows? I sure didn't miss it..

Next on the agenda? HARRY POTTER.

It was SO awesome. And it was SUCH an awesome midnight showing! Can you believe that I, the Harry Potter fanatic, have never been to a midnight showing?! Blasphemy, I tell you! HP midnight showings are much more entertaining than Twilight midnight showings (yes, I went to Twilight and New Moon at midnight. Whatever. It's worth it to listen to the squeals and freak outs in the audience). I saw two skits before the showing and TONS of costumes; I felt like I was at a convention! This is going to sound EXTREMELY lame, but I felt this weird nerd-kinship with all of the people there...I mean, we are the HP generation!!

Anyways, the movie was definitely different than the first six movies with the whole "on the road" plotline and no Hogwarts, but the acting was seriously excellent. I mean, they're not master actors or anything, but they've come SO far since the first HP, especially Emma Watson.

I have a girl crush on Emma Watson. There, I said it. I think she is incredibly classy, intelligent and extremely well dressed. Did you know that there are only FOUR degrees of separation between Emma Watson and me? I am friends with Chris, who is friends with a girl who is friends with a guy that goes to Brown and knows Emma Watson. Awesome, right?

That aside, here's a list of my likes and dislikes of HP7 Pt. 1.

Likes:
1. The way Hedwig died - At first I thought they were going to skip out on Hedwig dying, which really irritated me (it's sad, but it had to happen), but I loved the way Hedwig swooped in to save Harry before getting killed.
2. The beginning in Hermoine's house - It was touching to see that from Hermoine's perspective
3. The corny dancing scene - I love Daniel Radcliffe. His dancing was totally out of character, but it shows how fun he is in real life.
4. The graveyard scene - I cried.
5. Emma Watson's wardrobe - 'Nuff said.
6. The lack of CGI - It really annoyed me to see entire CGI environments in the first few HP movies. CGI skies = bad.

Dislikes:
1. Leaving the Dursley's - I really wanted to see the interaction between Harry, Dudley and Petunia.
2. The evil Harry/Hermoine make out scene - It was just awkward.
3. Lastly, I wish they had done more with Kreacher - I really missed seeing his transformation from grumpy to sweet.

But those are just nit-picky things. Overall, the movie was great, and I can't wait to see part 2, although I'm 100% positive I'm going to lose it at least tree times during the movie.

Hopefully I'll update again before Thanksgiving, but if not, have a great one!

2010-11-16T07:47:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time, I lived in a freshman dorm at UGA. Called Boggs.

Yes, Boggs.

And it was one of the best experiences of my life. I mean, I'd never live there again (the shower heads came up to my shoulder and I don't really like sliding off a bed every morning), but I made some AMAZING friends that year. Thank goodness for the Olympics, though, or I probably never would have met many of them. And Facebook. Facebook worked wonders that summer before Boggs.

Anyways, I was friendly with most everyone in the dorm, but I had a group of solid friends that I ate dinner with most nights of the week. Although I still get to dine with Shelley and Kayla every night, I (actually all three of us) missed our group dinners...so we decided to have a dinner party!

It was a blast! And everyone made delicious food! I made kale, except I made it WAY too early, so it turned pretty ugly by the time Chelsea, Kerry and Emma arrived. I was embarrassed. I suffer from cooking anxiety sometimes.

Kayla made some great turkey burgers based off of an Emeril recipe. Kayla is awesome at just whipping delicious dinners off the top of her head...I'm kind of jealous.

Kerry made SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE! My heart sang as I ate it's caramelized brown sugar topping goodness.

And unpictured were Shelley's garlic cheese biscuits and Chelsea's risotto. Yum! After we ate, we had fun with Kerry's fancy Nikon. Here's the most presentable looking of the bunch:

And here is a picture that explains my relationship with sweet potato casserole:

So good.

And while I'm on the topic of nostalgia, have any of you seen the new Winnie the Pooh trailer? I was a fan when I was a kid, but I HATED the sequels they made when I was in middle school and high school. They seemed so uninspired.

But this new Pooh movie looks so good. Seriously, my eyes started watering while watching the trailer - the combo of nostalgia and Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" made me emotional.

This new Pooh movie seems full of heart, which I attribute to John Lasseter's involvement. That man is a GENIUS!

And one final note for today.

Harry Potter. Three days. OMG! I am going to cry. It's the beginning of the end of a huge chapter of my life. That sounds melodramatic, but I'm being serious.

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." - Harry, HP1

2010-11-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

Hey, look what I can do!

http://mynmi.net/student/sarasheridan/music/jukeboxproject.swf

I have no shame.

2010-11-09T07:42:00.006-05:00

I feel I should let everyone know that my posts are going to be kind of...sporadic for the next month. November = exam time crunch in college world, and while my two exams aren't going to be bad (hellooo lifespan nutrition and food principles), I have two massive English projects due over the next month. They're pushing my brain and creativity to the limit! AHHH!

Anyways, more than a few weeks ago I found myself without concrete plans for an away football game. This year, I have (not) been trying to show more school spirit, so I decided to call up the work folk to see if they wanted to go out to eat, perhaps in a place with a TV so we could pretend to watch the game.

If my grandmother was reading this, she would probably shake her head and say, "Ohhh, Say-ra." In my defense, I did watch the GA/FLA game, and I did show emotion in favor of UGA a few times.

Anyways, we (by we I mean I - I'm always in charge of picking out the restaurant. It's a heavy burden) decided on Pauley's Crepes. I've never had a crepe, except in food lab, and it was cold and soggy. Bleh! I was excited for Pauly's, though. All I kept picturing was a beautimous crepe full of Nutella and strawberries.

So when we got to Pauley's, we were kind of surprised to see E! News and a baseball game on TV instead of the GA game. Oh well. I spent some of the evening defending the scholastic value of my food principles class and lab (Adam said it sounded like a bullsh*t class, but then he admitted that he only said that because he was jealous...mwahahaha!), while the other half was spent eating delicious crepes! With Thanksgiving in mind, I ordered a crepe with turkey, lettuce, cheese, tomato and cranberry sauce. It sounds gross, I'm sure, but it was AWESOME. And the crepes are ginormous!

The turkey was thick and meaty, the crepe was slightly eggy and thick, and the cranberry sauce was the perfect touch. And look at the presentation! And Pauley's has so many varieties, too! It's kind of like Graze (the burger place) - you can go back over and over again and never have the same thing twice! Adam got the Asian chicken crepe, while Kathy got a vegetarian crepe. Both were excellent. We decided we had to get a dessert crepe, and after some deliberation, we decided on the classic Nutella and strawberry crepe.

A beautiful sight, no?

Clearly we hated it. We hated it so much that we wiped up the remaining chocolate sauce with our fingers. Obnoxious.

So yeah, Pauley's was a great success and I had a great time (not) watching the game. GO UGA!

But really, I was bummed when UGA lost to FLA.

Anyways, you all know that Athens recently got a Trader Joe's, and that I was slightly disappointed by it. Well, I decided to try grocery shopping there as a fun experiment. My appreciation for Trader Joe's has grown loads - they have excellent produce at reasonable prices and they have certain items (cough, sea salt almond butter and pumpkin butter, cough) that most grocery stores don't have. I also have to give them props for their PB filled pretzels and for their Vanilla Almond Cluster cereal.

It's like their version of Honey Bunches of Oats (or whatever it's called) and the clusters are HUGE! Last year, when Shelley, Kayla and I split groceries, I would always pick the clusters out of Kayla's Honey Bunches of Oats. I couldn't help myself! While clusters of any size are rare in HBoO, huge clusters are abundant in TJ's version. In fact, the cluster/corn flake ratio is insanely in favor of the clusters...look at the size of them!!

So yeah, go buy this if you're a clusters fan!

2010-11-02T22:57:00.005-04:00

Last week, The Pioneer Woman and her Tasty Kitchen gave me two wonderous recipes, one for dinner and one for a delicious fall-flavored shortbread bar. I also ODed on fudge and chocolate covered pretzels in the crystallization food lab and watched The Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas with my sister, Lara. And on Saturday, I bought two decidedly "fashionable" outfits at the mall over the weekend. After feeling extremely fashion inadequate next to Chris (who is, no offense Chris, pretty metro) every day at work, I decided it was time to update my lazy jeans, t-shirt and sneakers wardrobe.

I discovered layers, people. And "rugged" looking boots. And more layers.

Anyways, the two recipes. I guess I could post the recipes directly on here, but honestly, I'm feeling a little lazy, so I'm just going to provide the links. Step by step instructions with pictures and PW's witty interjections make for interesting reading.

I really need to come up with my own original recipe for something. Sigh.

Anyways, you should make PW's Chicken Cacciatore for dinner this week. It has lots of vegetable chopping, which is fun and relaxing (come on, you know it is!) and it's uber easy. Just make sure to coat the chicken with flour, then brown it in some butter, okay? It tastes better that way. I did disobey PW and skip the chicken skin, but to be honest, raw chicken skin freaks me out...it's so gross looking! Also, add Italian seasoning, my secret ingredient to EVERYTHING. It's deeeelicious! Here's a picture of my finished product:

We (the roommates and I) thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Serve it with egg noodles, as PW suggests and eat the vegetables cold, straight out of the tupperware throughout the week. It's goooood.

Does anyone else have a problem with eating cold leftovers in front of the open fridge? It's a bad habit I'm trying to kick, but so far I haven't been successful....I ate a few bites of last night's leftover Mexican after lunch.

Okay, so after you make the Chicken Cacciatore, make some Pumpkin Shortbread Squares from Tasty Kitchen. The icing is thick and pumpkin-y, with a hint of cinnamon and brown sugar. Instead of caramel sauce, I just dropped candy corns on top after baking (I was feeling really Halloween-y...and lazy. Caramel sauce, like yeast and deep frying, is something that intimidates me). Now that Halloween is over, I guess you could use....cranberries? I'm not sure how great that would taste. Also, try to use light brown sugar - I used dark and my squares didn't have vibrant orange icing like the picture on Tasty Kitchen. Another also - I would suggest cutting down the flour in the icing just a teensy bit. I don't know if I did something wrong, but the icing kind of gummed up as it was cooling...it was still good, but I wish it had turned out creamier. Here's my attempt at an "artistic" picture:

And a food porn-like close up:

Oh yeah, I WENT TO TRADER JOE'S TONIGHT!!!! It was super cool to finally visit, but I was kind of disappointed....it seemed half of the store was expensive packaged cookies and boxes of chocolate covered XXXX. The frozen seafood was reasonably priced, as was the organic, range-free chicken, so I might go back for that kind of stuff. TJ's also has pumpkin butter, and once I finish up one of my four jars of nut butter, I will definitely be buying some sea salt almond butter. The only purchases I made tonight were PB filled pretzels and pumpkin butter. Yay budgeting!

AND, I'm doing this on my Facebook, so I'll do it here, too. In honor of the last HP movie (pt. 1), I'm going to post a HP quote on every post from now until the movie comes out (this probably means I'll only post like, three quotes here but whatever).

"Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground."- Dumbledore, HP1

2010-10-29T09:25:00.002-04:00

Even though the weather in Georgia is NOT fall-ish at all (yesterday was a beautiful, muggy day with overcast skies and 80 degree temperatures), I have still been enjoying the FOOD that comes with fall, like delicious canned pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash, pears, tailgate eats, etc. My favorite fall food (well, one of my favorites) is chili, and the white turkey chili I made last week was thick and chunky, and also contained two of my new favorite vegetables: butternut squash and kale.

I kind of combined Kath's Butternut Squash and Kale Soup with Giada's White Bean and Chicken Chili. One day I will make my own chili...or my own recipe for that matter, but right now, combining two recipes is creative enough for me. I don't really know if I can call it something different....I'm a little paranoid about giving credit for recipes right now because we just talked about blog credibility in my Writing for the Web class yesterday.

Whatever.

White Bean Chili with Butternut Squash and Kale
combines Kath and Giada's recipes..., serves 8

- 2 cans chicken broth
- 2 cans cannellini beans, drained
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 can hominy, drained
- 1/2 of a large butternut squash, chopped into bite sized cubes
- 1 bunch kale, torn into bite size pieces
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 2 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- dash of cayenne
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons flour

I made this into a crockpot chili - I'm a busy college student, after all. Plus the squash gets super tender and the chili flavors really meld together after hanging out in the crockpot all day.

The night before, brown your ground turkey, cut up your squash and onion, and lay out all of your canned ingredients and spices.

The next morning, dump the turkey, squash, onions, liquid, and spices into the crockpot and turn on low. I suppose you could add the flour to the pot at the beginning, but I let it cook for an hour, then ladled out some of the warm liquid into a cup and whisked in the flour, THEN added it back into the crock pot.

Before you serve the chili, rip up the kale leaves into bite sized pieces, then stuff them into the crock pot and stir so they start to wilt. Then eat!!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture until after we ate, which meant no pretty squash to include in the picture. And it's in a tupperware. And at this point, the kale had lost its vibrancy. It looked way more appealing than this, trust me.

I love good old-fashioned ground beef and kidney bean chili, but this chili is a nice change in flavors and colors. You still have the delicious, thick and chunky texture, but instead of deep red beans and brown meat, you get the gorgeous orange butternut squash and the deep green kale. I love how chewy the kale is - it gives an extra bite to the chili. Like all chili, this tastes lovely with a generous dollop of sour cream on top.

What's your favorite fall meal?

2010-10-27T20:41:00.008-04:00

This month has been a month of freebies! Last week I came home from food lab to two HUGE packages, both containing food and all for me!!

But I did share. That's the kind of person I am.

Anyways, one package contained a Food Buzz sample of two loaves of Nature's Pride OvenClassics bread - one oatmeal, one honey wheat. I'll write a full review later, but I've tried the oatmeal bread both toasted and fresh and overall I like it! It's a little soft for my palate (I really like a chewy, textured bread full of different grains), but unlike most whole grain breads, it doesn't have a sweet hint to it, which means it tastes good with turkey, roast beef and hummus!

The other package was full of raw nut butters from Artisana (not Food Buzz related)! You know, I guess it's weird that I think a box full of different nut butters is really exciting, but whatever...to each their own. Some people like getting clothes in the mail. I like getting food. So anyways, inside the box I found a small jar of raw almond butter, a huge jar of cashini butter and a box full of nut butter packets like coconut butter, walnut butter, pecan butter, raw cacao butter, etc.

What did I think?

Well, I haven't tried all of them, but I'm not a HUGE fan of any of them so far. I've tried the almond butter, cashini butter, pecan butter and walnut butter. I did really like the pecan butter and I'm digging the walnut (perhaps because I've never had anything like them before?), but the almond butter was just too....raw. I guess I like some extra salt and sugar with my nut butters.

Does it make you uncomfortable to read nut butters, by the way? I kind of feel weird typing it, only because someone has pointed out how weird/suggestive "nut butter" sounds...

Anyways, I like salt and sugar with my...nut butter. The almond butter has grown on me, though (it will never trump Barney Butter, though!), but Alexi has been plowing through it! She's much more tolerant of unseasoned, raw things (low sodium cottage cheese, anyone?)...she's a better person for it.

And the cashini butter? Bleh! Completely tasteless. It was like that bottled glue second grade teachers use...all goopy and bleh. I will find a use for it though...since it's part tahini, I'm thinking about using it to make hummus. I'll let you know how that goes.

Okay, and one final review. Illy Issimo iced coffee drinks! My roommates and I PLOWED through the three boxes. Kayla especially loved them. The general consensus was that cappuccino was the best, but they were all very tasty. The caffe flavor was strong and slightly bitter, but in a refreshing way, if that makes sense. I also liked that it was smaller - the can was cute. The cappuccino was closest to a typical Starbucks mocha frappuccino, just smaller. The drink was very smooth and creamy, but didn't leave a gross film on my tongue like Starbucks does sometimes. The latte macchiato was good, but it was pretty much a milked down cappuccino. It was my least favorite. Overall the drinks were a fun treat, but I don't think I'd ever buy them myself on a regular basis. They're kind of pricey and I'm on a budget! Thanks for the samples, Illy Issimo! PS - I never got to try this, but I'd love to use a cappuccino drink to make a tasty banana coffee milkshake. Someone try it and tell me how it is!

On a different note, you guys know how I LURVE my food lab, right? Well, I thought I'd share the joy and post some pictures from the Batters and Doughs II lab! I finally plucked up the courage and whipped out my camera to take pictures....and yes, some people did ask me why, but they seemed genuinely interested when I said that it was for my food blog. Perhaps I'll do it again tomorrow during the Crystallization (ie candy) lab...

Okay, this lab was full of yeast breads as well as some chemically leavened products like chocolate pound cake, and some non-leavened cakes like regular pound cake. I made chocolate pound cake. I never realized that you really have to cream the butter and sugar together for ten minutes...and that's with a stand up mixer! How did people make pound cake in the olden days?!

I also got to shape some yeast dough and top it with goodies. Before the proofer, my dough was shaped like an S. When it came out of the proofer, it looked like this. Kind of like a slug. This is after we baked it (I put parmesan and poppy seeds on mine), but the shape was pretty much the same.

It was SO GOOD! Yeast bread is the bomb. But the yeast was like...living. It kinda weird me out. Yeast should NOT be this intimidating.

I also tasted some neopolitan cake. Pretty, but nothing too special.

We also had, like, six different varieties of shortened plain cake (conventional mixing method, muffin method, half the leavener, with honey, yada yada). The point of this was to compare textures. Here's one variety made with honey. Honey made the cake darken more, but it was super crumbly and didn't rise as much since it's a heavy liquid.

And finally, the BEST plate of the day. Cinnamon rolls, pizza, and s'mores brownies. HEAVEN. The pizza was so flavorful...my first yeast experiment will definitely be pizza dough. Hold me to that. The brownies were fudgy and super chocolatey. The cinnamon rolls, while not as good as PW's, were an excellent alternative.

So yeah, basically I cook something, then eat a bunch of stuff, write what it looks, smells, feels, and tastes like, then I wash dishes. Yay lab! But really, it's not quite as breezy as that last sentence makes it sound...it's mostly that easy because I enjoy it so much! I've found that it's so easy to study and really internalize it when you actually enjoy the stuff you're learning!

Okay, off to bed for me. This wacky storm system is wreaking havoc on my sinuses (it feels like a sumo wrestler is sitting on my face).

2010-10-24T00:20:00.004-04:00

My Food Principles class has turned me into such a nerd. I'm pretty sure I've made this statement before, but tonight really sealed the deal.

Woohoo, story time!

Okay, so Kayla was making cookies and mentioned that she didn't use one recipe because it called for cream of tartar. After making a beeline for the spice tupperware in the pantry and pulling out the cream of tartar, I asked Kayla if the recipe called for baking soda or baking powder. Answer = baking soda. I immediately started spouting off that it made sense for said recipe to use cream of tartar since baking soda needs an acid to create CO2 to leaven the cookies. Baking powder already has the acid incorporated.

Is leaven a word?

Anyways, I felt really excited about knowing the complex baking science behind cream of tartar (please, go ahead and snort in disbelief).

Kayla proceeded to use Country Crock whipped butter spread as the fat source for the cookies. After mixing the flour with the creamed butter and sugar, we were all a little confused as to why the batter was so soupy...the directions said to roll the cookies into balls before baking, after all. Then I remembered that whipped spread has a higher water content than stick butter, and that melting it before creaming probably made it even more watery. Before I could stop myself, I started explaining this to Kayla and Shelley, again, feeling excited for knowing the answer to the, uh, "cookie batter mystery," but at the same time feeling a very nerdy and a little annoying.

I mean really, it has to be annoying to listen to me word vomit about the main protein in milk, etc.

Shelley then asked what cream of tartar was for, "in English, please." In true Hermoine Granger fashion (see, nerdy! that was seriously the first reference that popped into my head), I recited that cream of tartar was used as an acidic partner to baking soda, and was also used in meringues, etc. since it increases the whipping ability of egg whites.

Again, I lamely felt super excited about knowing all of this.

Seriously, I try to hold it in, it being the dire urge to word vomit everything I've learned in Food Principles, stream of conscious style. Most of the time I let if fly anyways. It's like a mini ego boost to my intelligence.

So, along with being an expert on Harry Potter and Disney/PIXAR, watching Spongebob, and studying for tests at least one week ahead of time, I can now add food science to my list of nerd-isms.

What makes you nerdy?

Also, who has seen the Willow Smith video? That is one FIERCE nine year old!!

Giveaway Winners!!

2010-10-22T16:59:00.002-04:00

The two winners of my Fresh Express giveaway are Jen at Twenty-Something and Starving, and Brlracincwgrl at Bits & Pieces of Me!! Email me at goodygumdrops427@gmail.com with your addresses and I'll have your coupons mailed out soon!!!

Food Buzz Fresh Express Recipe!

2010-10-21T07:40:00.004-04:00

Here's a quick morning post for ya! A quick salad recipe that doubles as an entry for the Foodbuzz Fresh Express contest!

Last night I used my handy dandy bag of Fresh Express Mixed Spring Greens to create a quick and delicious side salad for my leftover steak and twice baked potato (and blueberry bagel....).

It's not as fancy as some Fresh Express entries (ie, Ashley's at Edible Perspective - her's is AWESOME), but it's accessible and cheap for college kids like myself.

First, portion yourself a generous portion of salad mix. And can I just say how much I love the Spring Mix? The greens are colorful, tender, and have lovely shapes!

At this point, I would have added some sort of cheese, like blue (bleu?) or feta, but since I'm on a budget, I can't afford fancy cheeses. Instead, I have Kraft Mexican blend.

That would not have made a pretty salad.

Next, add a generous amount of chopped black olives. Olives are delicious, and everyone should learn to like them.

Then add some halved purple grapes, because green ones are too sour. Plus the sweet grapes balance out the salty olives, and vice versa.

Finally, mix a teaspoon of olive oil, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon of honey, and a pinch of salt and pepper and mix! This is your delicious salad dressing! It's sweet, but slightly tart from the vinegar. It pairs perfectly with the sweet grapes, and again, balances out the salty olives. And the imaginary cheese. Thanks, Kath, for a yummy dressing!!

And don't forget, ENTER MY FRESH EXPRESS GIVEAWAY!!! By midnight tonight!!

I just remembered that the Foodbuzz contest ended last night. I'm so forgetful. Sigh, at least you all have a delicious salad to try, if you so desire....

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!!!

2010-10-17T21:57:00.008-04:00

Three big things for this post.

1. I had my first, truly excellent steak dinner, which included my first experience with twice baked potatoes...but more on that later.

2. I am OFFICIALLY double majoring in Dietetics and Consumer Foods. I'll be in college an extra year and I'll also be slogging through three semesters of Chemistry (and other sciences), but it will be worth it in the end, I think. Dietetics/nutrition is the first specific field I've truly been passionate about since starting college. Before that, I always hovered around journalism and English, both of which were kind of safety blankets for me - familiar and manageable. I love reading and I'm a decent writer (even though I hate writing papers), but I could never picture myself doing anything specific with a degree in Journalism. It's the exact opposite for Dietetics; even though I'm terrible at science, I'm willing to put up with stressful semesters because I can really see myself in some sort of Dietetics position. Here's to another 2.5 years at UGA!

3. I AM HOSTING MY FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!!

Remember those 12 Fresh Express coupons I received last week? Well, I've decided to be generous and share the wealth! Actually, a rep. from Fresh Express emailed me and so nicely reminded me that I was allowed to share the coupons with my readers. I felt really selfish, to be honest - it never occurred to me to host a giveaway until that email.

So embarrassing.

Anyways, I'm going to give two lucky readers three Fresh Express Salad Mix coupons each. All you have to do is:

1. Leave me a comment and name your favorite Disney movie (this kind of stuff interests me, all right?)
2. Post about the giveaway on your blog and link back to me (heh heh)

The deadline is Thursday, October 21st at MIDNIGHT!! I'll have a roommate pick out two random numbers to select the winners.

I have a paralyzing fear that no one will enter the contest - DON'T LET THIS FEAR BECOME A REALITY!!!

So yeah, awesome steak dinner. I have never been a huge fan of steak. Before today, most steaks I ate were tough, dry and BLEH. Given the choice, I would have picked salmon or even a burger over a fat steak. Today, however, the steak gods were watching over me. We used fancy fat steaks that my mom found at the commissary (military grocery store) and my dad (read, my mom) made sure not to overcook the steaks this time.

The result was a tender, juicy, perfectly marinated piece of steak. It sort of melted in my mouth, so to speak. There were a few hints of pink on the inside, but the outside had a delicious, slightly charred crust.

Perhaps it was the hint of pink, but for some reason I was especially aware that I was eating a dead cow tonight.....

....but not enough to make me want to go vegetarian. Kudos to you readers that are vegetarian/vegan, though :-)

Also, apparently my sister's cat, Hope, was really into the steaks tonight. She sat by my dad's chair throughout the entire meal.

Hope is kind of weird - she LOVES chips, or anything in a crinkly bag. She's all over you the minute you open a chip bag. She especially loves Cheetos, specifically the orange residue it leaves on your fingers.

We also had twice baked potatoes. Personally, I think they would have been more attractive had we twice baked them in the oven, but my dad said it was a waste of energy.

Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices. Today was the day to make a sacrifice.

So yeah, we microwaved the potatoes and although they didn't brown or anything, they were still really good. If we do these again, I really want to add chives/green onions, sliced olives and sauteed, diced onion. YUM.

Basic Twice Baked Potatoes
Serves between 6 and 12

- 6 small to medium sized potatoes
- 1/3 - 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/3 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp seasoning salt
- 2 tbsp bacon (...we used bacon bits. Don't hate.)

This is easy, and I'm sure everyone knows how to do a twice baked potato, but whatever. First, bake your potatoes. 3 ten minute cycles in the microwave, or 1 hour in a 400 degree oven. Be sure to poke the potatoes with a fork so they don't explode or anything like that. Next, let the potatoes cool for a bit (those suckers get HOT), then slice each potato in half. Take a spoon and gently scoop out most of the potato, but make sure to leave a little so the skin doesn't fall apart. Mash the potatoes, sour cream, bacon, butter and cheese together in a mixing bowl until they reach your desired consistency. Ours were pretty smooth, but I think a chunkier mix would have been good.

(Side note: I am suddenly envisioning a Southwestern twice baked potato - black beans, salsa, sour cream, pepper jack cheese, perhaps some chili powder - YUM.)

After mixing the filling, refill the empty skins with the filling, then microwave for another three to four minutes or pop in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Top with salsa, if you want (it's good!).

So don't forget - ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!!

2010-10-11T21:50:00.006-04:00

Man, my dinner tonight was supposed to be so awesome! My plan = basil herb couscous, turnip greens and sweet potato gnocchi.

Tonight, I learned that I could never be on Iron Chef. I am NOT great at multi-tasking in the kitchen. Sigh.

I also learned that, as much as I may want to, I will never LOVE gnocchi. Well, maybe one day I'll eat some at a fancy Italian restaurant or something and like them, but I was not impressed any of the three times I tried them. They're just so...bland. Like pasta.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of pasta. It's so boring. I like rice better!

Anyways, the dinner prep started smoothly enough - I baked my potatoes last night so I would only have to mix and cook today. I followed Kath's recipe and added some salt, pepper, cinnamon and an egg to the potatoes, then added 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour. Next, I separated the dough into four chunks, rolled each chunk out into a skinny snake shape, then cut them into little nubs. Finally I threw them into a pot of boiling water, then threw them into an ice bath, THEN threw them into a pan full of butter and rosemary.

Sounds smooth, right?

Well, I actually spilled a good chunk of the gnocchi onto our animal hair covered kitchen floor, so those went into the trash. Then the second batch of gnocchi started sticking to the pan, so I added even MORE butter (butter makes the world go 'round), along with more rosemary and salt. In the mean time, I hastily brought about 1 cup of water to a boil in another pot, then threw in a bag of pre-chopped turnip greens, along with a guzzle of chicken broth, some salt, pepper and garlic. Except when I say "some" salt, I mean a huge waterfall of kosher salt because I apparently felt like tipping half of the box into the pot. The turnip greens were actually the best part of the meal, in my opinion. I just topped them with a few dots of sirrachi and went to town! If only I had some black eyed peas...

Why is New Year's so far away?

Anyways, the couscous was alright, but I'm pretty sure I overcooked it. I bought Israeli couscous this time to see if Shelley would like that texture better (she did, yay!), but it was so gooey and starchy...not at all like the couscous I know and love. It was more like...gooey rice.

Oh well. Now I know I'm not crazy for gnocchi and that Israeli couscous requires constant supervision.

And I didn't take any pictures. Sorry!

Foodbuzz made up for my sorry dinner, though - I received TWO packages from them this past week! First I received a fat package full of illy issimo iced coffee - caffe, cappuccino, and latte macchiatto. I have only tried the caffe, but so far these iced coffee drinks get a big thumbs up from me! The caffe was strong, but not bitter and had a hint of sweetness - usually I douse my coffee in milk and sugar, so if I liked this coffee drink, so can you! Kayla really liked the caffe flavor, too.

Foodbuzz also sent me TWELVE coupons for free Fresh Express salad bags! WAHOO!! Now I need to come up with a cool salad to post on here using Fresh Express....something fall-ish...

And speaking of fall, I went to an apple festival yesterday, and a pumpkin patch! It was really hot, but it was so much fun to do something so fall-ish! The apple festival had some cool craft stuff, but honestly, it was all about the free samples and food booths for me. I am a HUGE sucker for homemade jams, jellies, relishes, and salsas. There was also homemade fudge. Mmm...

I had some AWESOME sweet potato souffle spread, as well as some tasty apple salsa. I stuck with "boring" apple butter - I couldn't pass it up! Lunch was pretty sub par. I got super excited when I saw a Louisiana food booth with JAMBALAYA (favorite dish EVER), but it was really disappointing. It was only a few fatty pork pieces and some boring (but fluffy) rice. Booo.

Lunch was semi redeemed by a delicious caramel apple, though.

Other highlights from the weekend include: 1.5 delicious hamburgers on Saturday, along with a very surprising win by UGA against Tennessee. The game was super hot, but I enjoyed it for the most part, probably because I haven't been to any so far this year.

Whoops.

I'm not the biggest football fan ever. It always disappoints my grandmother when I answer "Uhh...nope" to her question "Did you watch the game yesterday?" The response is always the same: "....Ohhh, Sara..."

And in Food Lab (Eggs and Egg Cookery) I had Creme Brulee for the first time. My life was forever changed. I also had a delicious jelly roll, chocolate souffle, angel food cake and powdered egg. That last one was gross.

2010-10-05T23:03:00.001-04:00

It's finally time. Time for a BIG, FAT Pure Bar review!

First off, the people at Pure Bar were REALLY prompt about getting back to me about samples AND mailing them to me - I think it all happened over the course of two weeks! It was a pleasant surprise.

Second, Pure Bars have GREAT stats. All of them are between 180-200 calories, have a nice amount of fiber (3 grams) and are packed with raw fruit and nuts! I'd say they're a nice comparison to LARA bars, just slightly grittier and a little bigger. Actually, I think the texture is closer to a Clif bar, but I felt like I was eating a LARA bar since the first ingredient for each bar is (organic) dates. I'm not too picky about organic/vegan/vegetarian labels on food, but Pure bars fall under all three of those categories (as well as kosher), so if you're into that sort of thing, go try these bars! Now I'll list out the six flavors from favorite to least favorite...

1. Trail Mix.

One of the best flavors I've had out of all the different bars I've snacked on recently. I LOVED the cacao nibs and the chunks of dried apple. The cool thing about this flavor is that it actually has as many ingredients as real trail mix has - cashews, raisins, apples, sunflower seeds, dates, chocolate, etc! It was just a perfect mix of flavors - sour apple, sweet dates, slightly bitter cacao nibs, nutty cashews - YUM!!!!

2. Wild Blueberry.

I love blueberry cobbler, and this bar tasted like...blueberry cobbler! I loved the gritty texture of the bar and the big chunks of blueberries I tasted in every bite. This was the flavor I was most eager to try and it definitely did not disappoint!

3. Apple Cinnamon.

Uh, this was apple pie in bar form. Lots of apple chunks and tons of walnuts = heaven. I was kind of wary about this flavor - apple flavor things tend to make me nauseous (ie: apple juice - ick). This bar had the perfect balance of sweetness from the dates, tartness from the apples and spicy, warm cinnamon. It was kind of like those delicious 99 cent apple pies from McDonalds - the filling part, anyway.

4. Chocolate Brownie. You guys know how I hate that weird, raw chocolate flavor in so many raw/organic bars. I have to admit, the flavor was kind of there, but it was much better than the Brownie Clif bar and the Chocolate Coconut bar. I don't know...overall, I'd just rather eat a REAL brownie instead of a healthy bar flavored like a brownie. I also wish it had the delicious cacao nibs in it - those were such a delightful surprise in the Trail Mix bar.

5. Cranberry Orange. I don't really like fruit flavored bars, so I wasn't really into this bar. It was a lot better that I thought it would be, but I'm not really a fan of orange anything and cranberries are my least favorite dried fruit. It was still a really good bar considering all of that, though. I loved how big the cranberry chunks were and the mix of almonds and walnuts.

6. Cherry Cashew. I hate dried cherries. Hate them. They are too tart and they usually make me SUPER nauseous. I bit a corner off, hated it and gave the rest to Alexi, who loved it. This isn't anything on Pure bar, I just don't like dried cherries.

So there you have it - overall, I loved Pure bars. I wish they were at Kroger - I've only seen them at Earthfare, and they're usually pretty pricey. But yeah, go try some Pure bars (TRAIL MIX!!).

PS - I guess it would have been nice of me to post pictures of the ACTUAL bar instead of the wrappers, but they were too tasty to remember to do that.

2010-10-03T13:13:00.012-04:00

First of all....

Yes, I am the proud owner of Barney Butter. And yes, it lives up to all of its food blog hype. Barney Butter is exquisitely smooth, almond-y, and has a perfect consistency. While I loved Maranatha AB for it's grittiness, it's nice to have silky smooth almond butter that spreads easily on bread. Yum! I can't say it will be a regular part of my shopping list (the small jar was $5...on sale), but it will be a lovely treat every once in a while!

I keep saying I'll post more often so I won't have such monster length posts, but alas, I never get around to posting during the week, so once again, this is going to be another MONSTER post. I'll organize this by days....

Sunday: It was rainy and glorious. The weather is FINALLY starting to cool down to the upper 70's. I spent my day doing homework (duh), baking and going out to eat with work friends. What did I bake, you ask? I made DELICIOUS "Pumpkin" Banana Walnut Bread. Pumpkin is in quotation marks because I actually used frozen butternut squash puree, which ended up being a perfect substitute for pumpkin. I used this recipe; the only additions I made were about 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts and a sprinkling of raw oats on the top of the dough before baking. If I make it again, I might increase the sugar a wee bit - it wasn't quite enough for my taste. It smelled heavenly as it was baking and everyone at work loved it.

That night, I met Adam, Chris and Kathy at a tapas restaurant called Casa Mia. It was great to finally get to go out to eat with them again, and this restaurant was perfect for sharing and tasting each others' dishes. I ordered Avocado Chicken Salad Arepas, which are grilled corn pockets stuffed with delicious, creamy avocado chicken salad.

I also had a side of mashed sweet potatoes. The actual arepas were alright, kind of chewy and bland. The chicken salad and mashed sweet potatoes were awesome, though. Adam ordered a sampler plate full of empanadas, ceviche (cured tilapia), chorizo (SO GOOD!), and fried yucca. Speaking of fried yucca, I'm pretty sure those were our appetizer (either that or fried plantain chips), along with a tasty dipping sauce. It was even more addictive than your typical chips and salsa appetizer. Anyways, Kathy ordered a really unique dish: Latin Sushi Rolls.

These rolls were fried plantains stuffed with chicken and drizzled with avocado sauce. The plantains were fluffy and creamy, which was an excellent texture contrast to the meaty chicken. Chris ordered a steak quesadilla; it was nothing out of the ordinary, but still really tasty!

Monday: I literally took a page out of Rachel Ray's book (magazine) and made Paprika Chicken Thighs with Spinach and Egg Noodles.

Paprika Chicken Thighs with Spinach and Egg Noodles
Courtesy of Everyday with Rachel Ray, Serves 4 (The noodles probably serve 5-6, depending on how much spinach you make..)

- 1/2 lb extra-wide egg noodles
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1.5 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (my chicken thighs were big, so I just made one for each person, which meant more sauce for each thigh)
- Olive oil, salt, pepper
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 2 bunches spinach (or half a bag of baby spinach)

First, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the egg noodles. Cook according to package directions. Start heating up 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet. In the mean time, mix the paprika, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and 1/4 cup of the pasta water in a small bowl. Once your skillet is hot, add the chicken thighs, seasoning each side with salt and pepper. Cook until one side is brown (5-7 minutes), then flip the thighs. Baste the browned side with the paprika sauce, then flip again after five minutes and baste the other side. Continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through. I used pretty much all of the sauce, which prevented the chicken from getting a pretty glaze, but they had tons of flavor, so whatever. Once your egg noodles are done, heat up another skillet, pour 1 tbsp of oil in, and saute the chopped onion for 5 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. After the onions start to brown, add the garlic, then the spinach in batches until all the leaves have wilted. Serve the spinach on top of the noodles with one chicken thigh.

The paprika sauce was EXCELLENT; it was kind of a cross between BBQ sauce and steak sauce, if that makes sense. This was actually the first time I knowingly ate chicken thighs, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Chicken thighs are much more flavorful than chicken breasts and are slightly juicier. It's easy to cut the fat off the thighs before cooking them, so I imagine their nutrition stats are about the same as breasts. The spinach and egg noodles were nothing revolutionary, but nothing beats buttery egg noodles and garlicky spinach.

Tuesday: WE HAVE A YOFORIA!!!!! And it's awesome. They are so sneaky though, making their cups the size of freakin' quart containers. I was very aware of their money making schemes, though, and was skimpy with the yogurt (Cookies and Cream + Peanut Butter) and toppings (granola, Cap'n Crunch, chocolate chips, graham cracker, Reese's)...perhaps too skimpy - my bowl clocked in at $2.55. Now I know how much I can get away with, though.

Wednesday: Blah.

Thursday: Milk and Cheese food lab. I heard rumblings of lactose-induced stomach aches, so I came prepared with proper medicine. The food was delicious, my Welsh Rarebit (British cheese sauce) turned out beautifully, and my stomach was fine. I think people in earlier labs failed to stick to small portions, especially with the nine cheese cubes we had to try - I mean, I know what sharp cheddar tastes like, so why wolf down three different varieties when I can instead nibble a corner and skip a stomach ache? So yeah, I stuck with smaller cheese portions, except the Brie cheese. Creamy, delicious, bacteria ripened cheese heaven.

Friday: We had a Jersey Jungle party. It was pretty fun, but a lot of people went home this weekend so it was kind of small.

Saturday. Homework. Then I had chili at Shelley's house (so delicious - chili speaks to my heart) and then we (Shelley, Kerry and I) were off to the Stars concert in Atlanta!!!!!! Stars is an indie pop band that's been around for ten years; I've been listening to them since senior year of high school. Their music is so unique and has an eerie quality to it, but it's so awesome. It was definitely the best concert I've ever been to, even better than the Muse concert. I mean, I LOVE Muse, but they were kind of impersonal (they didn't talk to the audience at all). Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing concert and they can definitely put on an awesome show, but Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan sang with such raw emotion!! Torquil was DRENCHED in sweat two songs in from jumping around, while Amy had such a stage presence, similar to Jenny Lewis. They sang ALL of my favorite songs (Ageless Beauty, Your Ex-Lover is Dead, Take Me to the Riot, Wasted Daylight, Dead Hearts) and sang a 10+ song encore because they loved the audience's spirit so much! They threw out roses to the audience throughout the show (Kerry caught one!) and had awesome lights and effects. Both singers sounded great (especially Millan during Ageless Beauty - I wasn't sure she would be able to pull it off live). So awesome.

Set, preshow. Those angel statue banners are so creepy, but they match their new CD so well...

Bubbles!!

Well, that's the end for this weeks edition of monster fancy tuna food post. Oh, and I found canned pumpkin (!!!) at Kroger, so I'm going to have some DELICIOUS pumpkin oats this week!!

PS - I want to win this giveaway!!

2010-09-25T14:38:00.007-04:00

I saw Kirsten Dunst last night.

And Jenny Lewis. And her singing (boy)friend, Johnny.

I ate a delicious fried egg sandwich (with cheese) at 1:30 in the morning...

...along with some delicious wedge fries dipped in feta cheese dip (I THINK it's just ranch dressing and feta cheese pureed together).

Yep, last night was a long, but fun night. My friend, Kerry, has a birthday on Sunday so last night we went to see Jenny and Johnny at the 40 Watt. I'll admit that my old lady body cycle kicked in around 11:00, meaning my back started to hurt from standing and all of the sudden I felt a huuuuuge wave of sleepiness, but I still had a blast. Jenny Lewis is AWESOME live - she was also in the band Rilo Kiley, if that's familiar to anyone. Anyways, she had such a feisty attitude when she sang and could totally pull of that signature (for lack of a better word) yodel that she has in many of her songs. The weirdest part was seeing Kirsten Dunst...Jenny called up a slew of people to the stage during her encore ("Acid Tongue") and Kirsten Dunst was one of them! She must be dating Jenny's drummer....

Needless to say, I was stupidly starstruck.

After the concert, everyone was kind of hungry, so we walked to The Grill.

The Grill is a retro diner looking place that serves breakfast from 12 AM (score for me!) to 12 PM and also has some really unique sandwiches and burgers. I'm pretty sure their main demographic is your typical drunken college student wandering around the downtown area during the early morning hours of the weekend. Yes, that pretty much describes me, except for one key detail - I wasn't drunk! Hooray sobriety! My underage sobriety cost me 2 extra dollars to get into the concert, by the way. Rip off!! Anyways, I think The Grill's most popular menu item is the crinkle fry wedge platter with feta cheese dressing, and rightly so! I'm not a huge fan of wedge fries (too much potato, not enough fried potato skin), so if I'm going to eat fat fries, I need lots of ketchup or a REALLY good dipping sauce.

Feta cheese dip is REALLY good dipping sauce.

It's creamy, rich and slightly tangy from the feta. I could eat it with a spoon, seriously. Thank you, Matt, for giving me the rest of your delicious dip and fries. I actually ordered the fried egg sandwich with cheese. It wasn't anything special, honestly, but it tasted good at 1:30 in the morning. The rest of the menu looked really good though - I'd love to go there again and try some of their unique sounding burger and sandwich combos. And to eat more feta cheese dressing. The atmosphere was really cool, too. Lots of 50's diner-type stuff with oldies playing ("Wouldn't it be Nice" by The Beach Boys, anyone?). It's also pretty cheap - always a plus in my book.

Before the concert, I whipped up a delicious couscous bowl, courtesy of....MY FOOD LAB MANUAL! Exciting, right? My manual is CHOCK FULL of great recipes, plus all of the handy scientific information (ex: acid makes vegetables firm, bases make them mushy). I added a few extra ingredients, though, just to make it a one bowl dinner kind of deal.

Spiced Couscous
serves 1

- 1/3 cup dry couscous
- 2-3 oz. shredded rotisserie chicken
- 1 small zucchini, chopped
- 3 tbsp chopped almonds
- 3 tbsp raisins
- 3 chopped olives
- 1/4 - 1/2 (to taste) each: cumin, paprika, chile powder, garlic powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tsp olive oil

Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil. Add in the spices, some salt and the dry couscous. Stir once, cover the pot, then take it off the heat and let stand for five minutes. In the mean time, heat up the oil in a pan. Add the zucchini, plus some salt. Let the zucchini sit for two minutes so it starts to brown on one side, then stir so the other side browns. Add the diced/shredded chicken to the pan, along with the almonds. Add the olives and raisins to the couscous, then take a fork and fluff the couscous so it doesn't stick to the pot. Once the chicken is heated through and the zucchini is browned (you still want it to be crunchy), add the mixture to the couscous, then stir to mix everything together.

And there you have it - a one bowl dinner that's easy, delicious, and includes your starches, vegetables and protein. It also has a buttload of different textures, which is my favorite part - fluffy, soft couscous, crisp zucchini, crunchy almonds and squishy raisins/olives. Yum.

I also tried out acorn squash (again). This time it turned out MUCH better. I decided to cut the squash in half-moon shapes, like Kath, and then bake it. I topped the wedges with a light smear of butter, a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Then I popped the suckers in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, then flipped and let bake for another 10. This time, the squash was perfectly soft, not stringy and very sweet! I really liked the skin, but I know it's super fiberous, so I only tried a piece and peeled the rest of the skin off.

And now I'm off to take a nap, because old lady Sara is still worn out from last night. I'll leave you with this parting thought: mashed banana + mashed sweet potato + brown sugar = AMAZING. Seriously, go try it. I saw it in this month's Everyday with Rachel Ray and it was divine. I can't believe I'd never thought of it.

Also, I finally finished all of my PURE bars, so expect a full review of those soon!

2010-09-18T19:47:00.005-04:00

Do you have any "dirty" secrets? Maybe an interest/hobby that you don't necessarily hide from people, but keep on the down-low for the most part?

Mine is anime.

I'm not really embarrassed about it, per say, although I was during high school and my freshman year. You can read more about that here.

Anyways, I enjoy anime. I also enjoy going to anime conventions and I chose to go to the mac daddy of Georgia "cons," Anime Weekend Atlanta, instead of going to the UGA/Arkansas home game.

That says A LOT about me and my interests. Actually, I find cons and college football games to be very similar. Read about that here.

But yeah, I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta today with my sister. No, we did not wear costumes, AKA "cosplay." We did, however, do some hard core people watching. We also went to a panel hosted by Travis Willingham, a pretty big voice actor (for those of you that know anime, he is Mustang in Full Metal Alchemist) - he's totally hilarious, but it ended up getting annoying towards the end because of the obnoxious fan questions (IE "WILL YOU GIVE ME A HUG?!"). We also toured the GINORMOUS Dealers' Room, where all of the anime paraphernalia you could ever want is sold. One booth was dedicated to Japanese junk food, which of course sparked my interest. I ended up getting these bun things with chocolate mousse in the middle.

It reminded me of these chocolate cornet things on an anime I watch, so I was pretty excited to try it. Unfortunately, it was basically a Hawaiian roll with semi-gross chocolate goo on the inside. Bummer.

I only have one picture costume; it was definitely one of the funniest/most creative, in my opinion. The other costumes ranged between awesome and really elaborate, to ill-fitting and downright indecent. Sometimes I think they need to enforce some kind of dress code for the girls; it's honestly kind of gross sometimes. Anyways, here's the picture - it's Link from the Super Nintendo Zelda and the dude w/ the controller.

Not much else went on this week; I was studying for two tests and writing my Digital Literacy Narrative for my English class. Food lab was really cool this week, though. I was assigned Baked Cheese Grits and regular, old-fashioned grits. The baked cheese grits were totally delicious and super easy to make. The end result was smooth, creamy, cheesy grits hiding underneath a deliciously crunchy and slighty browned cheese crust. I also had to evaluate what seemed like every kind of rice and grain imaginable. Unfortunately, they were all pretty cold from sitting out in the classroom and were only seasoned with salt. The old-fashioned oats were gummy and congealed, while the wheat berries tasted slimy and fermented. Definitely not what I was used to eating. The recipe portion, however, was much better. I tried millet for the first time (awesome), some savory quinoa casserole, barley pilaf, risotto, vegetable paella, POLENTA (which actually wasn't that awesome, but I think it was because the chunks were too thin), homemade pasta and some baked goods like bran muffins and oatmeal raisin cookies. Needless to say, I left lab REALLY stuffed.

I'm also slowly working my way through a sample box of PURE bars that I received a couple of weeks ago. So far I'm really impressed, but I think I'm going to do a massive review once I try all of the flavors. Has anyone else tried PURE bars?

That's it for me - what fun stuff have ya'll done this weekend?

2010-09-13T23:02:00.003-04:00

I'm pining hardcore for fall. It seems like every blog post I've read recently has focused on fall weather, changing leaves, cooler weather, winter squash, PUMPKIN (as in pumpkin oats, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin lattes), and the like. It doesn't help that I keep seeing Halloween candy and decor in every store I visit. I'm even starting to crave coffee in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, I live in Georgia. It will be in the 80's until late October.

For me, fall means the start of the 3 month long holiday season, good food, unique flavors, crisp air and warm colors. Fall also means the start of college football.

Oh, college football.

I've never been into college football even though it's HUGE in the south, especially at UGA. Although I've been quite the party pooper about it in the past, I've weirdly felt kind of nostalgic for it this year. I haven't been to a game yet (and I'm missing the home game against Arkansas this weekend), but I'm actually looking forward to attending a few games this year. I think it also helps that football games always mean good food. I had the breakfast tailgate over Labor Day weekend and last weekend I went to Kerry's to watch UGA vs. USC...and to eat lots of food.

BBQ, specifically. Along with other foods of the golden brown variety.

I try to eat healthfully most of the time, but I've come to accept that eating healthy means indulging on really great "junk" food on the weekends. Plus, it's this kind of food that's making me enjoy football way more than I have in the past.

Callie made BBQ (sorry for the bad pictures - lighting is always an issue)

and some rocking Spinach dip (she said she used vegetable soup mix - never heard of that before, but it was DELICIOUS)

Melissa made AWESOME mac n' cheese. Not the nasty Easy Mac stuff, but FO' REAL baked mac n' cheese

Someone made Gameday Poppers - Kind of like scones/biscuits with pepperoni bits

And I made cornbread! I was going to make a vegetable, but what fun are those on gamedays?

I used my mom's recipe and it turned out perfectly! Crumbly, but moist, sweet, but kind of salty. I love cornbread.

My Mom's Cornbread

- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 4 tsp baking powder

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder) together in one bowl, and the wet (sugar, milk, eggs, oil) in another. Add the dry ingredients into the wet in three batches, stirring until just combined.

Apparently my dad always over stirs the cornbread batter. Shame on you, Dad.

Grease an 8x8 baking dish (with butter, duh) and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

This cornbread is especially tasty as a side to soup. We usually have it with vegetable soup. And it's the cornbread my dad uses in his Thanksgiving stuffing.

(Oh, Thanksgiving. Where are you?)

So, UGA ended up losing to USC. But I ate mac n' cheese, BBQ and cornbread. And lemon-less lemon squares (Jamie), brownies (Kerry) and peanut butter cookies (Chelsea).

It was a successful Saturday in Athens for me.

2010-09-10T20:08:00.006-04:00

This week was scary. And it wasn't even a full week. I spent three out of the four school days on campus from at least 8:30 - 5:00.

School is a full time job. Well, school and shifting heavy books. The British have HEAVY books. Chris and I have been shifting stupid Parliamentary Records for the past THREE weeks!

Needless to say, my arms are getting a work out.

So is my brain.

Luckily I've had some good eats to get me through the week. I made Bombay Sloppy Joe's from Aarti Party. I just want to pinch Aarti's cheeks - she's so darn cute! And her food is totally amazing. The Sloppy Joe's were super, but they weren't really picture-worthy. I'm no Food Network magazine food artist.

I tried the Chocolate Brownie LARA bar, which was good, but I still like Cookie Dough the best. The Brownie flavor didn't have that nasty, raw cocoa taste that Clif bars have, which was great. Raw cocoa = BLEH!

I also had the Cherry Pie LARA bar. Gross. I hate dried cherries, so I was pretty grossed out by the flavor of the bar. In my defense, I thought I was buying a PB&J LARA bar....sad surprise when I bit into it at work. And I swear, this is my last bar review for a while. Hopefully.

But I had a Pecan Pie LARA bar today. It was good - sweet, nutty, typical LARA bar texture....but it tasted nothing like pecan pie. Now I have an unsatisfied craving for pecan pie, but 2 months until Thanksgiving. Sadness.

You know what else is sad? Cooking blunders in Food Principles Lab. This week was Starches and Cereals I, which unfortunately is much less exciting than it sounds. Next week we're making millet, homemade pasta, quinoa, etc., but this week was all about the scientific food effects of the different starches.

I ate a lot of gravy and tapioca. Luckily, I enjoy tapioca.

Anyways, I was assigned chocolate pudding - homemade, instant, and canned. Canned pudding = dump into a bowl. Check. Instant pudding = mix powder with 2 cups of milk. Mix, then pour in a bowl. Check.

Homemade pudding requires some milk scalding, chocolate melting, and lots of thickening. My milk scalded, my chocolate melted, but my pudding did not thicken. No one knows why. It's a food lab mystery. Luckily we don't get points taken off for failed recipe attempts, but it was kind of depressing to see everyone look disgustedly at my soupy chocolate pudding.

Fortunately, I'm still capable of making some delicious chocolate chip cookies AND taking (if I do say so myself) fabulous pictures of them. Well, fabulous for a cheapo digital camera. And there's also the abundance of natural light to consider.

These chocolate chip cookies may look ordinary, but they actually had a special twist. What's the twist, you ask?

Vanilla pudding mix. That stuff made the cookies soft (but not cakey) and they held their shape wonderfully. I found the recipe on Lovin' From the Oven. Go check this blog out, seriously. She's like Joy the Baker, except my age and the recipes are much more accessible.

This is probably one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes. They were a hit at my parents' Labor Day shindig. Be sure to mix the chocolate chips with a little bit of flour, though; it helps them rise to the surface, which makes the cookies super attractive.

I'm also capable of making delicious PW-ified French Toast. I've made and tried "healthified" French Toast bakes in the past. They're gross. They're egg-y, bland and soggy.

The Pioneer Woman knows what's up, though. She knows you need lots of butter, lots of sugar and real eggs to make delicious, casseroled French Toast. It was so good. PW makes the best cinnamon rolls and now I can honestly say that she makes the best French Toast. And I think the other breakfast tailgaters agreed with me. Just look at this beauty:

The bread was soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, no sogginess in site. Cinnamon and sugar permeated the entire dish - I could have easily eaten it without a gallon of maple syrup....but that wouldn't be fun. It's also super easy to make - make it at night and bake it in the morning!

Here's the recipe:

French Toast Bake, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman
Serves 10-12

- French Style Bread, something crusty
- 8 whole eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (I just added extra milk)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- Sprinkling of cinnamon (I like a lot of cinnamon...)

- 1/2 cups AP flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

Grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter. It just tastes better, people. Tear your bread into chunks, or chop it into cubes. PW likes the rustic look of torn pieces, and so do I. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together. Pour the mixture over the bread evenly. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt together. Chunk in the butter pieces and use a fork or a pastry cutter to work through the mixture until it resembles little pebbles. Put the mixture in a ziplock bag and stick in the fridge.

In the morning, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread the sugar/butter mixture evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes or up to an hour, depending on how crunchy you like the bread. I cut the oven off at 45 minutes, but kept the dish in the oven for another 15 or 20. Cover with maple syrup. This is not an option.

Sorry about the sporadic updating - I think I'll try to do more short posts instead of these massive ones!

And here's a parting picture of Max:

2010-09-05T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well, I thought I was going to switch over to Wordpress, but now I'm not sure - I don't really like the themes and I can't figure out how to show updates from the multitude of blogs I'm following...so for now, I'm sticking with Blogger. Just FYI.

Aaaanyways, I have a crap ton of stuff to talk about: bar reviews, Banh Mi subs, a new restaurant, French Toast Bake, Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies, Food Principles lab....

My life is SOO eventful outside of food, right?

First off, another Gnu Bar review, specifically the Espresso Chip Bar. After the not so great Banana Walnut Bar (again, I don't like banana flavored anything - not really a reflection on the bar's texture or chew, etc.), I was ready to try a flavor I knew I would like. The Espresso Chip bar did not disappoint. I'd say it was a pretty close comparison to the Mochawalla Odwalla bar, except Gnu bars are 100% natural and have a TON more fiber than Odwalla bars. The espresso flavor was spot on and the chocolate chips were a nice touch.

Next, one of the new, coveted LARA bars: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

So. Good.

Seriously, the way to eat the LARA bars with chocolate chips is to let it hang out in your bookbag for half of the day and let it get semi-melty. Well, only the chocolate gets melty; the rest of the bar stays, well, bar-ish. I must have looked like a grinning idiot as I enjoyed my bar while booking it up the "biology hill" to my nutrition class. The chocolate chips MAKE this bar, while the dates provide a perfect sweet base.

Gimme another.

I also tried the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip LARA bar.

I was surprised to find that I liked this bar a little less than the "plain" chocolate chip. I mean, don't get me wrong, this bar is the bomb, but if I HAD to choose between the two, I'd ditch the PBCC bar in a second. It had a nice, natural peanuty flavor with well-dispersed bursts (tongue twister, heh heh) of (melty) chocolate chips. Yuuuuuum.

I must seem like a bar junkie. I collect them like a kid collects Pokemon cards. Except a kid would never eat a holographic Charizard card. Chocolate Chip LARA bars = Holographic Charizard.

So, along with a crap ton of new bars, I also ventured into the world of homemade Vietnamese food, specifically Banh Mi subs, aka the delicious subs from Just Pho that own the small, Asian food loving part of my soul. I'd like to say that my attempt at Banh Mi subs were just as delicious as the subs at Just Pho, but then I'd be lying. I guess I'm just not quite cultured enough to recreate those delicious subs.

It's okay, though...they were still pretty good. I think the meatballs I made were too small - they just couldn't hold their own against the super crusty bread. I've had this recipe sitting in my inbox since last spring - my friend's mom is totally cultured and can whip up delicious Banh Mi subs no problem. Hannah's parents actually treated me to my first Vietnamese meal back in the 11th grade.

I'd like to say that I was just as open to foreign food back then as I am now, but that would be a fat lie. Foreign foods to my eleventh grade self included Chinese food from the mall, Chinese food frozen in a take out box, and Moe's. That Vietnamese place blew my mind back when I was sixteen - I didn't know what to do with myself. I don't even remember what I ate, which is a shame because that Vietnamese place was pretty (for lack of a better word) legit.

So anyways, the subs were good, but not great. I really liked the slaw (which included daikon...tasted like a radish) as a sandwich topper and cilantro really tied the whole sub together. I'll definitely have to get different bread next time, or at least try not toasting it - the stiff bread had a hard time keeping all of the filling together. I eventually had to eat my sub with a fork, which was a real travesty, in my opinion. I also had the pleasure of smelling fish sauce for the first time whilst making the meatballs.

Gross. Ugh. It was like essence de concentrated fish tank. Luckily the meatballs didn't retain that odor. Anyways, here's the recipe. It's actually really quick to make once you let everything hang out in the fridge for an hour or two...and I'm pretty sure the recipe originally came from Bon Appetit magazine.

Banh Mi Subs, courtesy Bon Appetit Magazine
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
HOT CHILI MAYO
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (such as sriracha)

MEATBALLS
1 pound ground pork (I used turkey. I thought the meatballs were still really flavorful, but go with what you like)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (such as sriracha)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

SANDWICHES
2 cups coarsely grated carrots
2 cups coarsely grated peeled daikon
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
4 10-inch-long individual baguettes or four 10-inch-long pieces French-bread baguette (cut from 2 baguettes)
Thinly sliced jalapeño chiles (Left these out)
16 large fresh cilantro sprigs

Julienne the carrot and daikon, then mix with the rice vinegar, sugar, salt and oil. Let the slaw hang out in the fridge for an hour so all the flavors can marry. Next mix the ground meat, garlic, green onion, fish sauce, siriachi, salt, pepper, cornstarch and sugar together in a bowl. Mix together - I used my (clean) hands because I'm cool like that. Let the meat mixture sit for an hour in the fridge so it's easy to roll into balls.

1 hour later...

Heat up some oil in 2 pans over medium high heat. Start rolling the meat mixture into 1 inch balls. Place the meatballs in the oil and let them brown on each side, making sure they cook all the way through. Mix together the mayo/siriachi mixture, then put your subs in a 350 degree oven to toast. Or you could not toast your bread - Shelley had a much easier time eating her sandwich with non-toasted bread, but I just really like the toasted bread flavor. And don't forget to chop that cilantro!! Once your bread is done toasting and your meatballs are cooked, get ready to assemble!!

Spread the mayo mixture on both sides of the sandwich, then top with four meatballs and a nice serving of the slaw, topped with some cilantro. Squish the sandwich together and give it your best Guy Fieri bite!

The sandwiches looked really pretty, even if they only tasted okay.

And I just had to include a picture of the delicious tomato dish that Alexi made for dinner one night...

I'm pretty sure it was a hollowed out tomato filled with corn, onions and egg. It was from Everyday Food (or whatever it's called).

Oh yeah, and in my food lab, I pretty much tried every vegetable known to man. It was awesome. New vegetables included: acorn squash (SO GOOD!!!!), turnips, beets (gross), kohlrabi, and I even tried spaghetti squash again! It definitely wasn't as gross as I thought it was two years ago, but it's still not my favorite squash. My Spinach Parmesan Pie turned out great. It was pretty much like an upside down quiche, but I was proud of myself for doing some mad multitasking in the kitchen.

This post is getting pretty lengthy, so I'll give a Labor Day weekend recap some other time! Have a super three day weekend!

PS - go to http://sjs427.myweb.uga.edu - I MADE IT WITH DREAMWEAVER!!!! EAT IT, CSS/HTML!

2010-08-29T21:29:00.004-04:00

It feels like an eternity since I've updated! Not too much has gone on 'round these parts. I successfully completed my first cooking food lab. Even though I only pressure cooked and microwaved carrots, I still had TONS of fun! My lab instructor even told me that I hold the knife and chop correctly!

I suppose that's a lame thing to be proud of, but whatever. I thrive on praise in the school setting. I'm one of THOSE students.

I also might possibly be one of those students who switches her major halfway through college, resulting in a couple extra years of schooling. Schooling meaning two years worth of chemistry and biology.

Ugh. You know how I said my brain was like a glass of spilled milk when working with CSS? Well, I can't even begin to describe what my brain looks like when around math/science. It implodes, that's what it does. I just can't stop imagining myself as a dietitian! If I end up switching, it will be a HUGE thing for me - usually I like to stick with stuff I am familiar with and understand. The dietetics major will be a bodacious unknown for me, but I think in the end it will be worth it!

Uh, anyways, now that I've shared my life's story...

Anyways, back to my food lab. I tried a few new dishes that were FANTASTIC, like rhubarb crumble, sauteed bananas and curried fruit bake. Rhubarb crumble is like peach cobbler on crack. It was more tart than peach cobbler, but the sweet, decadent oatmeal topping made it ballin! Plus, our lab instructors put out some vanilla ice cream (which we didn't have to evaluate, score!) to eat alongside the crumble. The sauteed bananas were probably a lot like bananas foster - just melt the butter in a saute pan, add sliced banana (cut long ways) and top with brown sugar. The sugar formed a deliciously crunchy crust that made the banana like heaven. Seriously. The curried fruit bake was interesting, but definitely good. I never would have thought to put curry with a fruit dessert. The rich, yellow color of the sauce was the best part, in my opinion.

My assignment for this week's lab is much more exciting - Spinach Parmesan Pie and Cucumber and Bean Sprout Salad. Nothing too complicated, but both sound tasty!

In other news, I went to the Taste of Loganville on Friday. Apparently it's the new wave of high school fundraisers - pretty much all of the high school's sports teams worked the event. I'm not really sure what I was expecting out of this...perhaps a bigger variety of restaurants in a street festival setting?

Wrong. So wrong.

It was in my high school's cafeteria. There were 12 restaurants, including Chili's, Bojangles, Papa Johns and Texas Roadhouse. Okay, I'm being a little snobby here, but I was expecting a little more...oomph. And okay, it IS Loganville. We're not exactly a bustling, hip city. Regardless, I still tried some awesome food and was even reunited with Bruster's. Basically we were given 6 blue tickets for food and a red one for a drink. Trade a ticket for a food item. Easy as pie!

This was a Walnut Cranberry Pecan Salad from Doc Green's (or Chey's, I always get them mixed up). It looks really pretty, right? Well, it tasted super bland. The goat cheese was tasty, but other than that, this salad was entirely forgettable.

Red beans and rice, N. Carolina BBQ, and a teeny tiny super cute biscuit from Claude's Off the Bayou (LOL at the name). This was superb, seriously. Apparently N. Carolina BBQ is tomato based, while GA BBQ is vinegar based. I guess I'm a BBQ novice because I didn't know the sauce varied from state to state. Either way, the BBQ was really delicious and the pork was very tender, except for the crunchy skin pieces - yum!

After a mediocre plate of Chinese food and some delicious Cuban sandwich samples from Ray's Cuban Grill, I decided it was time for dessert. I decided on this DIVINE piece of caramel cake from Sweet Aromas. Oh my gosh, I want to take a bath in the icing. It had a slight crust with a creamy, pillowy, sweet underside. The cake was tender, but was really a vehicle for the icing. I know I said I want to take a bath in the peanut sauce from Just Pho, but that's only when I'm in a savory mood. When I want sweet, give me this icing.

BRUSTER'S!!!! I miss working there a lot sometimes. They didn't bring my favorite flavor (chocolate raspberry truffle), so I "settled" on double chocolate chunk. It was so good that I didn't take a picture of it until I was almost done.

Yeah, I wanted a hot dog after eating cake and ice cream. My dad gave me one of his tickets, so I decided to increase the size of my already large food baby and "buy" half a slaw dog. Topped with mustard, ketchup and lots of sauerkraut. Did you know that I love sauerkraut? I think I've expressed my love for it in a previous post. Anyways, a hot dog is a hot dog. But I do love sauerkraut!

Oh, and I was tagged by Chelsey! So, seven random things about myself......

1. I hate wearing jewelry. It just gets on my nerves.
2. I watched Titanic for the first time two years ago. I thought it was terrible.
3. I broke my leg by falling down the stairs when I was two.
4. Keira Knightley is my favorite actress...I think she's so classy!
5. Anchorman is one of my favorite movies. I love that kind of humor.
6. I watch cartoons more than "real" shows. Spongebob is my favorite.
7. I am an anime fan. And I still play Pokemon on my Gameboy DS. No shame.

And I tag: Shelley, Camille, Sarah, Chelsea and Molly! GO FOR IT!!

Also, I'm using this in my roomie dinner this week. Scary, right?

2010-08-24T23:10:00.003-04:00

Pho (pronounced like fo, like "fo' sho!") finally happened. After almost two months of saying, "Oh yeah, let's get pho this weekend!" only to have someone suddenly go to PCB (whoops) or not have enough money or, well, whatever, WE FINALLY ATE PHO! We didn't go to Kathy's hometown like we originally planned because Chris came down with a cold, so Kathy, Adam and I met at a restaurant in Athens called Just Pho. I won't lie, it doesn't have much atmosphere at all - it's in a shopping center next to a shut down Rite Aid and a Little Caesar's. When you taste the food, though, none of that matters. The place was really hopping when we went, which kind of surprised me - who knew so many freshmen liked pho??

Anyways, Adam and I ordered pho while Kathy (who used to work at Just Pho and therefore is a pho pro) ordered the Vietnamese Sub. While I LOVED the pho, I feel like I need to admit that I actually liked the sub better. The bread was crunchy, the BBQ pork was tender and flavorful, the mayo sauce was creamy and the vegetables were crisp. When I go to Just Pho again, I'm definitely ordering the sub.

The pho, on the other hand, was a HUGE bowl filled to the brim with broth and chock full of long rice noodles, tender eye round and slice Vietnamese meatballs, thinly sliced onions and scallions, along with my additions of mung bean sprouts, cilantro and jalepenos. I also added some siriachi sauce for a spicy kick.

Um, and this bowl of delicious soup was so big that I couldn't finish it.

I am disappointed in myself.

In restaurants I am the PRESIDENT of the clean plate club - I have to get my money's worth! Thankfully, Adam and Kathy helped me finish off the bowl, while Adam and I helped Kathy finish her spring rolls and sub. Adam was definitely the food champion of the night. So impressive. He even ate the peanut sauce that came with the spring rolls (which was so awesome, by the way - I could take a bath in that sauce, seriously). He just stuck is finger right in and totally cleaned the bowl! And while I'm on the subject of the spring rolls - as Tina would say, HOLY YUM!

The only spring rolls I ever ate prior to Just Pho were tiny and deep fried with gunk for filling. Don't get me wrong, those spring rolls are divine along side greasy Panda (a fast food delicacy, in my opinion), but I've decided that nothing beats a REAL spring roll. For me, it was all about the texture - the roll itself didn't have a ton of flavor. The rice paper was chewy, the bean sprouts were crunchy and the shrimp and pork were tender. And although the roll itself is kind of bland, the sauce MAKES the roll - it's a perfect combination. The spring roll is a vehicle for the peanut sauce (which, according to Kathy, is simply peanut butter and hoisin sauce mixed, followed by a tiny bit of water, then mixed again). Spring rolls are also quite possibly one of the prettiest appetizers out there, what, with the vibrant colors from the pink shrimp and green lettuce. Sigh, I was in foodie heaven - so many new eating experiences in one meal!

And now moving to something completely unrelated to food - SCHOOL! Nothing much there, just learning (very slowly learning, I might add) HTML, CSS and Dreamweaver.

They're blowing my mind, people. I get the individual codes, but when I try to go about combining it all together, my mind combusts. It's like that episode of Spongebob where Patrick's thought bubble is a glass of spilled milk.

My mind on CSS = a glass of spilled milk. My mind on food = top form.

Which is why I made S'mores Brownies today after seeing Kait make some a few weeks ago. I decided to go the easy route, though, and use box brownie mix and simply poke in shards of graham cracker and fat marshmallows.

Well, they didn't turn out to be the prettiest brownies ever, but I can't call them a blunder because they were still delicious.

The marshmallows did turn caramel-y in the edge brownies which made them really chewy/stick to your teeth, but overall the brownies were awesome. Unfortunately I didn't wait long enough for them to cool either (brownies are my ALL TIME favorite dessert, people. I have NO restraint/patience when it comes to brownies), so they looked even uglier after I tried cutting them.

Whatever. Brownies rule. Always.

So I gave the ugly ones to my roommates and I'm taking the more attractive middle pieces to work tomorrow. Next time I make these I think I'll make the brownie part from scratch using the recipe on Joy the Baker's site. Before that, however, I'm going to make the Caramel Sea Salt Brownies on Everyday Musings.

Drool x 100000000000000000.

Okay kids, I need to go learn about some pre-conception nutrition now. Girls, get your folate and iron! Boys, get your zinc!

That is all.

2010-08-21T23:41:00.006-04:00

Oh, school. You keep me from blogging. And you keep me exhausted. Luckily, part of my Writing for the Web grade is regularly updating a personal blog, so now I have extra incentive to update more than once a week.

Here's a quick recap of the week:

- Body Pump > Body Attack. Too bad Free Week is over. Oh well, my buns and thighs probably need a break from squatting and lunging to Bon Jovi and Black Eyed Peas.

- Roomie dinners are in full swing, except that we're all on different schedules so it's hard for us to eat together. On Tuesday, Alexi made an awesome black bean enchilada bake. Wednesday was turkey burgers, sweet potato fries and salad by Kayla and Shelley made Moroccan tilapia and veggies on Thursday. YUUUUM!

- Food Principles is BALLIN! Holy crap, I can't wait to cook every week in lab, then stuff my face with all of the dishes my classmates and I make. Next week is Fruits and Veggies I. While others make trite things like fried apple pie, rhubarb crumble, and key lime sorbet, I will be making more challenging dishes like...microwaved vs. pressure cooked carrots. Perhaps I'll get something more exciting next week.

- Writing for the Web sounds like it's going to be a really applicable class, but I'm kind of nervous about the writing assignments already. I'm going for a minor in English, but I hate writing (except for blogging). I just like to read books and discuss!

- I received my first batch of free samples to review, courtesy of Gnu Bars!

Coming home to a box of free food is totally awesome, FYI. They sent me two of each flavor: Banana Walnut, Chocolate Brownie, Cinnamon Raisin, Espresso Chip, Lemon Ginger, Orange Cranberry and Peanut Butter. I shared some bars with Alexi, Shelley, Kayla and Adam just to get some extra opinions. The nutritional stats for these bars are awesome - all natural, 130/140 calories for a really good sized bar, TONS of fiber (50% of your daily intake!), and low sugar. I tried a bite of Alexi's Chocolate Brownie and I was REALLY pleased - no weird cocoa powder taste like Clif bars. The bars are kind of dry compared to others I've had, but not in a nasty way and they have the perfect amount of chew. My first Gnu bar was the Banana Walnut flavor and although I liked the texture, I couldn't really get into the flavor. I've never been a fan of banana flavored foods - only real bananas for me (and homemade banana bread/muffins).

And now for some random Saturday pictures:

OIAJ for breakfast!!!! Alexi gave me her almost empty peanut butter jar - I told her to try OIAJ for herself, but in the end she decided she couldn't handle the deliciousness that is OIAJ. Topped with some homemade PB granola.

My mom came to Athens today to help me move in a mini fridge (a full fridge is too small for four people, apparently), as well as pick out a new printer, among other things. We ate lunch at Five Points Deli, which turned out to be really awesome! There are tons of different sandwich choices, along with homemade goods like chicken pot pie and butternut squash soup. I decided on Lemon Curry Chicken Salad on some delicious, chewy wheat bread. The chicken salad had a nice curry kick that was balanced out by the lemon. My favorite part = huge chunks of walnut. Yum.

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE Hobby Lobby. They have really cute seasonal decorations at great prices. Mom and I perused the Christmas section, which literally made me tear up a bit. I love Christmas. It literally warms my heart thinking about it.

These beauties are my non slip shoes for my Food Principles lab. Word has it that they'll protect my abnormally large feet from falling knives and scalding grits.

And here is my (blurry) lab coat with the lovely UGA arches. Have to represent my school while microwaving those carrots!

Tomorrow is another busy day - I'm traveling to Kathy's hometown with Adam and Chris to try Korean BBQ or Pho. FINALLY! Smell ya later!

2010-08-16T19:12:00.004-04:00

Let's get real here. Pizza is glorious. It's perfect for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. Pizza = endless possibilities. I could probably eat different kinds of pizza for the rest of my life and be content. Well, not really, but you get what I mean.

Do you know what else is divine and almost as versatile as pizza? Tacos. Breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, people. Seriously.

So what do you think happens when you combine pizza AND tacos? TACO PIZZA, aka the best back to school dinner EVER. Crunchy, seasoned crust, chicken with tons of seasoning, crunchy bell peppers and topped with creamy sour cream - what's not to love?! I also made a Mexican spinach salad to go along with the pizza. It was super easy and the dressing was really unique (to me) and delicious! It was a hit with all of my roommates, too, but really, who wouldn't love taco pizza? The secret to making this pizza top notch is to season the crust and pre-bake it before adding the chicken, salsa, cheese, etc. I found the recipe in this month's Food Network Magazine. It kills me when I find ingenious recipes like this - taco pizza seems so obvious!

Whatever. I've been developing a delicious breakfast pizza in my mind since last night. I don't know about ya'll, but whenever I can't fall asleep I always start thinking of what I want for breakfast the next morning and I'm usually out within the next five minutes. Is that weird?

Okay, anyways, here is the recipe for Taco Pizza!

Taco Pizza, courtesy of Aaron McCargo, Jr.
Serves 8

Taco Seasoning

- 2 Tbsp onion powder (I only used 1)
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 Tsp dried oregano
- 1 Tsp cayenne pepper (I only used 1/2 tsp)
- 1 Tsp Cumin (Mine was a heaping tsp - I LOVE cumin!)
- Salt and pepper

For Pizza

- 1 tube of thin crust pizza dough
- 1/4 cup olive oil (I only used 3 Tbsp)
- 1 lb chicken (I only used one breast)
- Flour, for dustinig
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (I only used about 1/2-2/3 cup of Mexican style shredded cheese)
- 1 avocado (optional - DO IT!)
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 1/3 bell pepper, diced
- 2/3 - 3/4 cup salsa (I eye balled it...you don't want to overload the pizza)
- Sour cream, for serving
- Cilantro, for serving

This recipe (for me at least) requires a lot of multi-tasking. First, preheat the oven to whatever temperature the pizza crust directions give - for me, it was 400 degrees. Next, chop your onion and bell pepper. Then mix together your taco seasoning. Start heating oil in a saute pan. While that's heating up, dice the chicken breast, dump the chicken in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of oil and half of the taco seasoning. Mix well to coat the chicken. Let that marinate for about ten minutes. In the meantime, sprinkle some flour onto a baking sheet and roll out your pizza dough. Spread 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the pizza and sprinkle the rest of the seasoning on the pizza in an even layer. Seasoning the crust is CRUCIAL. DON'T FORGET IT!
Pop it in the oven to pre-bake for about five minutes.

Next, dump your spice covered chicken into the pan and let it sizzle for awhile without stirring to create a DELICIOUS spice crust. Seriously, don't touch it for like, four minutes. It's worth it. After four or five minutes, flip the chicken pieces over and let them sizzle for another three-ish minutes until cooked through.

After your crust is done pre-baking, take the sheet out of the oven and spread on the salsa. By this time my chicken was done cooking, so I added that on next. Then came the onion and bell pepper and finally the cheese. Pop the pizza back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes.

While the pizza is baking, chop up an avocado. Also, you can make a delightful Mexican Spinach Salad!

I made a few alterations:

- 4 good sized handfuls of spinach. I had a mega bag, but I didn't use all of it.
- 1/2 can black beans
- 1/2 can corn kernels
- 1 roma tomato, chopped
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 1/3 bell pepper, diced

For the dressing:

- 1/4 cup olive oil (I probably used less...I just eye balled it)
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegarr
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder

Mix the dressing components together. Mix the salad components together. Pour dressing over salad and toss. Easy and delicious. The apple cider vinegar gave the dressing a really unique taste, especially combined with the cumin and chili powder.

So, after making the salad, the pizza should be done. Cut the pizza in half long wise, then cut each half into four pieces to make eight (YAY MATH!). Serve with avocado slices and huge dollops of sour cream.

I don't have a good picture of the salad, so you'll have to use your imagination.

School went well, although I was half an hour late to work because of bus overloads. Needless to say, I was pretty frazzled (and sweaty) this morning, but my friends at work put me in a great mood, especially Chris who so generously picked me up after I was unable to get on TWO different buses. Today's classes were Web Design and Nutrition for the Lifespan. Both seem interesting, but pretty easy. My test load is actually a lot lighter this semester, so hopefully that will take off some of the stress I put on myself. Tomorrow I have Food Principles, Writing for the Web, and Intro to Nutrition Studies. I just found out that for my Food Principles lab I have to buy a lab coat, non-slip shoes, and a name tag. And I have to wear my hair in a net.

Awesome.

2010-08-15T20:18:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates - I haven't really been cooking/baking anything spectacular lately, mostly because I'm back on a budget and I'm trying to figure out how to balance all of my food NEEDS with my foodie WANTS.

I don't think the fact that school starts tomorrow has really sunk in yet. I still feel like summer started two weeks ago. I'm also having a hard time realizing that I'm a JUNIOR in college. A JUNIOR, PEOPLE! I do not feel grown up enough or mature enough to bounce into the "real world" in two years. I keep having mini panic attacks just thinking about the classes I need to fit into my last three (!!) semesters of school. I feel like I have taken the college experience for granted and that really scares me, seeing as I only have two years left. AHHHHH!!!!!

Okay, weird rant over. I'll tell you guys how I spent my last Sunday of summer.

7:45 - Woke up, fixed oatmeal. Realized that lack of pumpkin butter = lack of sweetness.
7:45 - 9:00 - Watched Spongebob, read blogs, ate said oatmeal.
9:00 - 9:30 - Talked to mother, made myself look presentable (somewhat) for Walmart. I'm classy like that.
9:45 - 11:00 - Moseyed around Walmart with Alexi like cool kids. Relished in the fact that Walmart is pretty dead on Sunday mornings. Realized how much cheaper Walmart is than Kroger. Decided to switch over to Walmart for a while, until I get fed up with their poor quality produce.
11:00 - 12:00 - Drove home, watched Alexi make DELICIOUS Honey Bunches of Oats rice crispy treats. Secret ingredient = cinnamon. Crack at it's finest. Cooked rice for lunch.
12:00 - 1:00 - Prepared lunch, courtesy of Yes, I Want Cake. Added in tuna and siriachi sauce. Also found out from Alexi that I bought the mercury filled tuna. I knew 78 cents was too good to be true.
1:00 - 4:00 - Read blogs, surfed the web, stared On the Road, dozed (not because the book was boring), washed clothes, mentally prepared for Body Attack class.
4:00 - 5:00 - Got to gym very early to save spot in Body Attack class, since it's free week at the school's gym. Became very intimidated when I saw the strobe lights, disco ball, clothes coordinated/perky instructors, smoke machine and spectators.
5:00 - 6:00 - Was annihilated by former cheerleaders. Re-discovered the extent of my terrible rhythm and lack of aerobic coordination. Sweated buckets. Realized that Body Attack is probably not my thing. Looking forward to Body Pump, though.
6:00 - 7:00 - Ate turkey, egg, rice, hummus and cheese wrap for dinner, along with a glass of milk. Soothed my soul after being defeated by perky, coordinated girls. I'm jealous of their coordination, if you can't tell.
7:00 - 9:00 - Read blogs, packed bookbag, freaked myself out about classes, became very tired.
9:00 - 11:00 - Will be watching the Next Food Network Star finale and the premiere of Great Food Truck Race, assuming that I can stay away. Probably eat some more. Being defeated by Body Attack has made me ravenous.
11:00 - Fall asleep to thoughts of class the next day...

Well, wasn't that exciting!? I promise I'll have a (hopefully) delicious new recipe tomorrow, maybe two. I volunteered to cook tomorrow for our first roommate dinner of the school year - something to look forward to, I suppose. SCHOOL = DOOM.

2010-08-10T09:17:00.006-04:00

I officially survived my first Panama City Beach trip! It was fun, but I'm super exhausted - I definitely live the lifestyle of an old woman compared to my friends, as in regularly going to bed before 12 and waking up before 8. On the trip, however, my internal body clock woke me up at 8 even though I had only gone to sleep four or five hours earlier! Madness, I tell you! This trip was also my first time back at the beach in over six years. The beach was nice, but unfortunately August must be the month of seaweed because the ocean was chock full of tiny chunks of green ick that had a nasty habit of getting stuck in your bathing suit.

I don't have any delicious dining experiences to report, but I do have a crap ton of bar reviews.

Cashew Cookie Lara Bar

I actually liked this flavor better than Peanut Butter cookie - the cashew flavor wasn't as overwhelming as the raw peanut flavor, so I was able to pick up on the sweetness of the dates. The bar was also much less greasy than the bars with peanuts in it, which was especially good for a beach side snack.

Chocolate Coconut Chew Lara Bar

This is probably my least favorite Lara Bar out of the five flavors I've tried. I'm not a huge fan of coconut and I'm beginning to discover that for some reason I don't really like the taste of unsweetened cocoa powder either. It almost has a gritty taste (I know that's more of a texture, but that's the only word I can think of to describe what I'm tasting). Overall it wasn't terrible, but this flavor wouldn't be my first choice.

Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar - Okay, I've finally decided that I'm not into Clif bars much at all. I love the flavors, especially this one (Blueberry Crisp is still my favorite, though), but the texture is just too gritty for my taste. I love the minimal ingredients on Lara bars, but with Clif bars, I just taste gritty sugar. Like I said, the flavors are good, but overall I feel like I'm eating a mystery bar hiding under an organic label.

Chocolate Almond Fudge Clif Bar

Like the Chocolate Brownie bar, this bar was very chocolate-y, but it was also gritty and I didn't like the intense cocoa powder flavor and after taste. I guess I like chocolate in it's solid, over-sweetened form? The almonds were a nice touch to this bar, but overall I didn't really enjoy it.

In other news, school starts on MONDAY! Geeze, it feels like I just finished studying for exams and relishing in the relaxation of summer!! I feel like I'm the only one completely dreading school - most bloggers seem to be excited for the routine that school brings! I will be excited to have something to keep me busy during the day, but I wish I didn't have homework and studying to do once I finished class for the day. I'm also excited about roomie dinners starting up again, as well as the countdown for fall, although in GA fall weather doesn't really arrive until November. I'm going to miss the summer fruit, the free time to read and watch movies, and most of all the free time to come home whenever I please. Call me a homebody, but my favorite place to be is home with my family. At least I have some interesting classes that will hopefully make me look forward to class more.

- Food Principles
- Nutrition for the Lifespan
- Writing for the Web
- Web Design
- Introduction to Nutrition Science

I have to say, this summer was probably one of the most eventful and fun summers I've had in a while. Here's a list:
- I started a new job at the library and made three new friends
- I started exploring the food side of Athens by dining at seven local restaurants. We are going to continue to dine out around Athens, even if we only get a chance to once a month.
- I read a TON of books, probably around 20 or so. My favorites were Water for Elephants, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Castmember Confidential (I just finished it - it's about a guy's experience as a photographer at Disney World. It's pretty surprising, but I think his experiences with weird Disney employees is more of a rarity than commonality), and a few others that I can't remember at the moment.
- I went to Disney World (best vacation EVER), Savannah, Charleston, and Panama City Beach - so much fun!
- I was able to live in Athens and at home - best of both worlds!
- I baked a lot of tasty treats for work, like Blueberry Coffee Cake, Cinnamon Muffins, Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Scones, etc.
- I managed to NOT read through the Harry Potter series for the first ever. Ever since I got the first three books a billion years ago, I ALWAYS re-read the series every summer and Christmas. Seriously. I've lost count of how many times I've read the HP series. I honestly never get sick of them (except maybe the first, just a little), but at the beginning of the summer, I made the decision to only re-read the series at Christmas so I could read new books during the summer. Right now I REALLY want to start reading the series, but now that school is about to start, I'd never have time to get through the entire series.

I have a lot of goals for myself this school year. I want to relax and dial down the stress I put on myself to study constantly. I want to enjoy more time with my roommates and be more spontaneous. I want to explore more of Athens by going to more restaurants and the Farmer's Market. I also want to volunteer at the animal shelter and the co-op. I want to cook more interesting and challenging foods. Most of all, I want to become a better writer - sometimes I feel like my writing is really slopping and juvenile, mainly because I'm always rushing to type my thoughts before I forget them. Hopefully my two web classes will help me clean up my writing and help me discover my own writing voice.

So, this post was a little on the serious side...hopefully I'll have some food stuff to talk about next time! What are some of your favorite summer memories? What are your goals for this school year or post summer months?

PS - I just read that Emma Watson is in the running to play Lisbeth in A Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, which is why she cut her hair. I love Emma Watson, but I'm a little wary about seeing her possibly play Lisbeth. I'm not sure she could pull off Lisbeth's quiet intensity. I still think Mia Wasikowski should play her, but whatever.

PS again - Does anyone have any advice for contacting companies about samples? I've contacted a few and have received replies, but I really don't know how to go about asking for free samples. And what kinds of companies should I pick...any recommendations?

2010-08-04T15:20:00.006-04:00

Okay, so we all love doughnuts, right? Krispy Kreme is my doughnut (or donut? I never know...) of choice on Christmas morning (along with bacon, my mom's sausage roll-ups, sugared pecans and Hershey Kiss peanut butter cookies, but that's a story for another day. Oh Christmas, I need you). For every day doughnuts, I prefer Dunkin' Donuts - I adore their chocolate frosted and blueberry beauties. And sadly, that's about as far as my doughnut expertise stretched, at least before Tuesday. I had never had a non-mass produced doughnut.

It's a total travesty, actually.

On Tuesday, however, that all changed. Forever. FOR-EV-URRRRRR!

My co-workers and I were treated to a little departmental office party on Tuesday morning. I jokingly wished for doughnuts, thinking of the delicious Dunkin' Donut varieties. Little did I know that we were actually going to be treated with "homemade" doughnuts from a cute bakery in Athens called Ike and Jane's!! When our supervisor opened the two doughnut boxes, my jaw probably dropped - it was like the Holy Grail of doughnuts! There were so many delicious varieties that I thought only existed on Food Network shows! There were maple doughnuts, blueberry doughnuts, red velvet with chocolate icing doughnuts, Snickers doughnuts and my personal favorite, CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH DOUGHNUTS! It was so beautiful. I even took a picture for you guys.

Obviously I picked that doughnut. It was lightest, fluffiest doughnut I had ever had the pleasure to eat. The icing was just thick enough, the cinnamon toast crunch was abundant and crunchy...oh man, it was TOTAL BLISS. Adam and I also split a maple doughnut that was delicious, but in my opinion did not hold a candle to the cinnamon toast crunch. I also had a bite of Adam's blueberry doughnut, which was SO much better than the blueberry glazed kind from Dunkin' Donuts. There was no stale chew, just soft, fluffy and slightly spongy doughnut. Do those textures match? That's what I felt when I chewed, so whatever. I will never look at Dunkin Donuts the same way again - there is NO comparison.

So Alexi and Bella (her dog) are almost settled in our apartment - so exciting!

Meet Bella!

Alexi actually decided to make some banana nut bread last night (which I have yet to try) and is making some meatloaf for dinner! MEATLOAF CRUNCH X 2!!! The recipe she uses is actually one she made up herself.

Alexi's Meatloaf
Serves 6-8

- 1.5 lb ground beef
- 3/4 cup ground oats
- 1 egg
- 1 package dry onion soup mix
- 1 whole shredded green pepper (or carrots)
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 3/4 cup ketchup (plus more for topping)

Preheat oven to 400.

Ground the oats in a food processor, then mix all ingredients together and pack into a loaf pan. Top with ketchup. Bake for 45 minutes.

This meatloaf was SO delicious! I have some serious meatloaf decisions to make between my mom's, Shelley's and Alexi's! What I liked best about Alexi's was the texture and the extra oomph of flavor that the pepper and dry soup mix added to the meatloaf. It was kind of like new age meatloaf, while my mom's and Shelley's is more old school. I heart meatloaf. So much.

Also, I tried my first fresh fig, courtesy of Chris. This week we fixed our own pizzas at Chris's swanky apartment instead of dining out in Athens. It was really fun - I love having great friends at work that I can hang out with outside of the library. Anyways, the fig was actually really good! I was afraid that it would end up being disappointing, much like the dates I tried a while back. The fresh fig tasted a lot like a dried fig - same seedy inside, but much less chewy (obviously) since it's fresh!

And now I'm off to pack! Kayla and her boyfriend invited Shelley and me to accompany them to a surprise Panama City Beach trip that Justin's mom gave them for Justin's graduation present - fun!! I might skip out on food pictures...it would probably look pretty weird to their other friends.

2010-07-31T22:47:00.009-04:00

After my weekly dinner with the other library kids was canceled, I was pretty sure I would have nothing interesting to talk about until Alexi moved in on Tuesday. Fortunately, the food gods smiled upon me today and blessed me with 3 very over ripe bananas, a medium sized cup of pumpkin spice frozen yogurt, a new jar of nut butter, and MEATLOAF!

Half of this couldn't have happened without the help of the new oven at my house.

[Cue heavenly, ethereal singing]

It's one of those fancy schmancy convection ovens with the ceramic flat top stove.

I don't like the flat top stove. I dirtied it up during my first time cooking on it this morning (bad oatmeal!), which resulted in my mom frantically scrubbing the eye with 409 cleaner for 10 minutes to no avail. My dad ended up buying some fancy oven cleaner in a teeny bottle, but do any of ya'll have tips for cleaning flat top stoves??

Anyways, I used said over ripe bananas to make banana muffins!

I found the recipe on Annie's Eats, except I didn't do the crumb part because it was 10:00 at night and I was feeling kind of lazy. Instead, I added a sprinkling of oats and sugar which aesthetically gave the muffins a little somethin'. They were super easy to make - mash bananas, add sugar, egg and melted butter. In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda/powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix the wet into the dry, taking care not to overmix, which, by the way, I did NOT do this time!

[Cue heavenly, ethereal singing]

My secret? Stir with a wooden spoon, not a whisk. You all are probably like, "DUH SARA, GEEZE," but all I have to say is pish posh - I have moist, delicious banana muffins.

And since you all are DYING to know, I topped my muffin with a nice schmear of Peanut Butter Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams, which I also ate on a piece of toast after dinner. What did I think, you ask? It's totally yummy and addicting by itself, but I think it is infinitely better with toast, muffins, bananas, etc. The chocolate-y goodness is enhanced that way, in my opinion. On the flip side, White Chocolate Wonderland, while delicious on top of oatmeal and PB&J toast, is much better alone, on top of your index finger.

The pumpkin spice frozen yogurt came as a sweet reward after a fat shopping trip, where I scored MAJOR deals at Old Navy. I bought 7 or 8 shirts for $55 bucks! I also bought this year's gameday dress. Does anyone else find the whole "Let's wear pretty dresses to a football game in 100+ degree sunny weather while we all get totally drunk" really, well, stupid? I've embraced it, obviously, but it's still kind of a weird tradition, in my opinion. Anyways, the pumpkin spice yogurt was good, but in all honesty wasn't worth the five bucks (my mom's five bucks, not mine, mind you). The granola topping was sub-par and the pumpkin spice flavor didn't mesh that well with the tangy-ness of the yogurt. Overall it was still good...when is frozen yogurt NOT good??

What are your favorite food court eats? After they closed down my beloved Buddha Express, I started eating food from this place called the Farmer's Basket. They have questionable chicken, but the side veggies are all Southern classics - think roast potatoes, black eyed peas, squash, etc. It's really good!

And finally, the meatloaf. Did anyone watch The Amanda Show back in the day? Whenever someone says meatloaf, I start singing that weird "MEATLOAF, MEATLOAF, GOTTA HAVE SOME MEATLOAF CRUNCH" song in my head. Sometimes I sing it out loud too, usually to Shelley and/or Kayla. Anywho, my mom is going to use our working oven to make a tasty meatloaf dinner. Meatloaf used to repulse me, but now it speaks to my nostalgic side. How do you feel about meatloaf? I'll have to re-evaluate after I eat my mom's tomorrow, but as of right now, Shelley is the meatloaf queen.

2010-07-28T20:54:00.005-04:00

Are there some foods that you really just don't understand? Food that just tastes blah and you don't know why it exists at all?

For me (since I know you all are SO curious), this would be canned/frozen corn kernels, Kraft Easy Mac, Kid Cuisines, Kix cereal, white bread, Velveeta Cheese, cheapo frozen pizzas, and Rice a Roni. I'm sorry if I offended any one. I know Kix might be near and dear to many, along with the Easy Mac.

On the flip side, are there some foods/dishes that are just so right that you don't know what to do with yourself when you eat them? Food that makes you wonder what kind of life you had before you tasted it?

For me (since I know you all are even MORE curious), this includes many things. Some that stick out are nut butters (with or without banana and/or chocolate), oatmeal, JAMBALAYA, awesomely amazing pizza, smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers (I wasn't truly living until I tried that heaven-sent combo in Charleston earlier this month), and brownies.

Also in this category = shrimp and grits.

Bless my soul, how did I not know about this delicious, yumtastic meal until earlier this year???? How can you not like the combination of creamy, savory grits with flavorful shrimp (ahem, Mom...)?!

I've made this once before, but this time I just threw everything together. Sometimes life works out better that way. That's why I love cooking - you can throw stuff together and if you have a base knowledge of what works well together, usually the end product will at least be pretty decent!

Tonight I just sauteed some onion with garlic and Cajun seasoning, added 1 large diced tomato, cooked two servings of grits, roasted some okra, and added the shrimp last minute, along with more Cajun, Chile and cayenne pepper. Add in some salad (with olives and cottage cheese - hello, lovers) and sweet, juicy watermelon and you have yourself an excellent summer dinner!

My dining partners tonight were Alexi and her dog, Bella. Alexi is actually our new roommate and is moving in next week! I'm so excited - she shares my passion for Food Network (TRIPLE D!!), cooking/baking, trying new foods, etc. Plus it will be fun to have another person around. Bella is huge and adorable, think Great Dane + large hound dog. Add in Kayla's cat, Max, and you have yourself a happenin' apartment!

Earlier this week I made some Lemon/Lemon Blueberry Muffins - they were good, but I think I tupperware-ed them too early because the next day they were pretty chewy. Perhaps I overmixed (again)?? Or maybe it was the ingredients...here's the recipe:

Lemon Muffins
Google search, serves 12

- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 eggs
- 1 (8 ounce) carton low-fat lemon yogurt

The only thing I changed was the egg part - I used 1 egg and 1 egg white...I didn't want to use up two of Kayla's eggs.

I also added blueberries to half of the muffins, just for kicks and giggles (and a pop of blue color). The lemon flavor was definitely there, but I think the muffins could have been sweeter. I also made a lemon sugar glaze which made them a little sweeter, but overall I was kind of disappointed with the texture.

Everyone at work seemed to enjoy them, but then again who doesn't like free food at work? I owe my co-workers and supervisors big time - they boost my baking ego so much. Perhaps I'm too critical of my baking - I have severe anxiety about feeding people food I cook/bake sometimes. Anyone else have that problem??

At least they were pretty, right?

And now I'm off to read The Girl Who Played With Fire - SO. GOOD.

2010-07-25T20:15:00.007-04:00

Jersey Shore. Real Housewives of New Jersey. Teen Mom. Etc.

Last year I refused to watch these shows. I thought they were completely stupid and not worth my time. Unfortunately, my roommates and most of my friends watched these shows, so while they laughed and enjoyed themselves, I holed up in my room and studied or something incredibly cool like that.

When all of these shows came back with second seasons, however, I decided to pull my head out of my butt. Basically, I realized that if you can't beat them, then join them.

I'm glad I did, even if it makes me a raving hypocrite. It's nice to be able to enjoy something with my roommates, even if it is over shows with whacko mommies going through midlife crises, etc. These shows are not meant to be picked a part for their intelligence...these shows are mindless entertainment and meant to be hilarious. Plus, I'm pretty sure I prevented my head from going farther up my butt than it is already. It tends to happen if you're an English major/minor.

Uh, no offense to any readers that are English majors or minors. You know what I mean, though - once you start taking college English classes, you start analyzing anything and everything you watch/read.

So anyways, I've been catching up on the life and time of Snookie, as well as trying to keep myself from throwing my head through a wall when I listen to Danielle and Ashely fight on RHNJ.

Anyone else watch these shows or have any "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stories?

On a more intellectual note, I finished The Grapes of Wrath. From what I understand, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's most liked book, but I think I like East of Eden better. I related the characters and themes of East of Eden better, although the ending of The Grapes of Wrath was pretty gnarly.

[Side note: The UbyKotex commercials are weird, but totally awesome.]

It was interesting to read the kinds of meals the Joads ate...lots of fried dough and fried potatoes. And biscuits. Call me weird, but I think it would be cool to go back to the late 1800's/early 1900's and eat a blue collar breakfast. Yum, grease.

For now, though, I'll stick with one of my comfort foods - black beans and rice.

(Sneaky way to transition into food, right?)

Oh, be still my heart. At home, my mom made black beans and rice pretty much every month. Just black beans, white rise and spicy sausage. And some spices. Its simplicity is part of it's charm and deliciousness, in my opinion. For some reason, I never made it at the apartment until last week, though. It wasn't nearly as delicious as my mom's (no sausage), but it was still super satisfying and tasty. I made it to go with Latin baked chicken, which I found in a Cooking Light magazine. It was really easy to make, except for the fact that I bought a whole can of chilies in adobe sauce, but only used 1/4 of the can. Now I have lots of chilies.

Anyways, here's the recipe:

Latin Baked Chicken
Taken from Cooking Light magazine, Serves 2

- 1 chicken breast
- 1 can chipotle chile in adobe sauce
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, honey and chile in a bowl. Add the chicken breast and let marinate for ten minutes.

Put the chicken in a broiler pan or baking dish for 15 minutes. In the meantime, blend the marinade until smooth, then bring to a boil in a sauce pan and cook for three minutes. After the 15 minutes, brush the chicken with the cooked marinade then bake for another 10 minutes. Brush the chicken with the remaining sauce and bake for ANOTHER 10 minutes or until fully cooked.

Sorry about the picture quality...it looked prettier in person, I promise!

The chicken turned out very moist and flavorful - the marinade was so delicious! It was spicy, but the honey made it slightly sweet as well and the chipotle chile added an excellent kick of flavor. The only problem I had was that the marinade wasn't totally smooth - I kept tasting chile seeds. I need to invest in a better food processor. The baking process was also a little annoying. I was really hungry and I hated having to take the chicken in and out, in and out, IN AND OUT of the oven for forty minutes.

The end result was worth it though, in my opinion. I actually stabbed the chicken with a fork a few times while it was marinating, hoping that it would help the chicken soak up more flavor and moisture. I think it worked. Plus it was fun to stab the chicken.

So tell me some of your favorite comfort foods. Actually, tell me what you think makes a comfort food...comfortable? You know what I mean. I think my grandma's cheese eggs would also fall under the category of my favorite comfort foods, but I can't really pick out what a comfort food really is, ya know?

2010-07-21T18:05:00.005-04:00

Today on My Fancy Tuna: BLUNDERS A PLENTY!

Is that how you spell a plenty? Or is it aplenty? Or a'plenty?

Whatever. Anyways, my blunders vs. winners score is 2-1 this week. Blunders are a blow to my ego when they happen, but afterward (like five minutes) I can usually laugh at my mistakes/stupidity.

Except for the one time I bought REAL deli turkey at Kroger during one of our first roommate grocery trips last year and how majorly expensive sliced turkey is for three people. I was a grump the rest of the day. Now I can laugh at this, but at the time it was serious business.

But I digress..

Blunder numero uno = (nonexistent) Vietnamese food adventures. My coworkers and I were supposed to dine on delicious Pho for our weekly Athens adventure, but were sorely disappointed to discover that Just Pho is closed on Mondays.

[Side Note: Do Athens restaurants have a case of the Mondays or something? Just Pho is definitely not the only Athens restaurant that is closed on Mondays. Weird.]

We decided to relocate to Mirko, which is just down the street from Just Pho. Mirko is cool Italian restaurant that may or may not be indigenous to Athens. Normally I wouldn't suggest an Italian restaurant (I find most Italian restaurants kind of boring), but I ate at Mirko once before with my roommates and we all loved it! It has a really cool, laid back atmosphere but the service is incredible! Everyone is served complimentary bread and cannelini bean/olive oil/rosemary dip before the meal. Mirko also has a lot of cool appetizers like prosciutto and cantaloupe salad, but the coolest part is the way you can mix and match your entree. Basically you pick the type of pasta/ravioli you want, then you pick a sauce to go on top. Mirko has lots of unusual pasta shapes, like trecce, along with orthodox choices like penne. The sauces range from your basic tomato basil sauce to crab meat sauce. And while other restaurants slack on Mondays, Mirko kicks it up a notch by offering "Free Pasta Monday," where you buy a sauce and a drink and get your pasta free! Score for cheap, delicious dinners.

Maybe I'll change the blunder-winner score to 2-2. Seems fair.

Anyways, I chose the trecce pasta to go with the garlic shrimp and zucchini in white wine sauce. It was so fresh, light and delicious! My only complaint is that the dish was kinda skimpy on the shrimp, but for $6, I can't complain too much.

After dinner, Adam and I introduced Kathy and Chris to the majesty that is Earthfare. I think they were a little overwhelmed by its awesomeness, but I, being an Earthfare pro (HAHA), proceeded to buy some almond milk and fresh peanut butter from the bulk section. Nothing like having four jars of nut butter open at the same time.

So, overall, the night wasn't a TOTAL loss, but I was really looking forward to trying some Pho.

Blunder #2 = blackberry cobbler. How does one mess up blackberry cobbler, you ask? Well, you see, I have this tendency to skim over directions and promptly forget what I just read. This is especially problematic when trying to figure out how to "make" self-rising flour.

Basically, I needed a cups worth of baking soda/powder, but added two cups worth. I originally set out to make individual cobblers in a muffin tin, but obviously those plans were foiled by my poor reading comprehension. The result of this was burnt cobbler dough on the bottom of the oven. Yum.

I proceeded to dump the filling from the muffin tins into an 8x8 baking dish, along with the second half of the dough and the remainder of my blackberries (probably a cup's worth), then I sprinkled the top with a tablespoon of sugar and baked it for 50 minutes at 350. This recipe (courtesy of The Pioneer Woman) made a different cobbler than I usually eat, but it was still pretty tasty, all things considered. I'm pretty sure the dough part is the same kind of dough that makes funnel cake - delicious! The blackberries held their shape, but dissolve when you bite into them.

Cobbler always looks pretty to me - berries and stone fruit bake beautifully and add colorful vibrancy to desserts.

I think I'll save my non-blunder dinner for my next post. This one is looking a little lengthy. Tell me about a recent blunder of yours, cooking or not. I need to feel adequate again.

2010-07-15T21:54:00.009-04:00

Sooo this post is going to be pretty light on food - I didn't really eat/create anything interesting since my last post. Sad, right? Although, I DID have Panda Express, which, in my opinion, is QUALITY fast food. I LIVE for their low mien and am a huge fan of the mushroom chicken. Any other Panda lovers out there? Most people I know think it's disgusting, which I do NOT understand, but hey, to each their own, right (for example, I think Choo Choo's is GROSS)?

The only other mentionable food creation from this weekend is the granola I made twenty minutes ago. Usually I make it plain, but lately I've been adding various nuts and dried fruit to it, which makes it taste extra spectacular.

Hi, my name is Sara, and I'm a granola addict.

This granola contains chopped dates, raisins, sunflower seeds and chopped walnuts, along with some brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup. I baked it at 275 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10, then increased the temperature to 300 for the last thirty minutes. Superb granola, if I do say so myself.

I don't know about you guys, but I love surveys. Did ya'll post surveys on bulletins during the days of Myspace? Man, so narcissistic, but so addicting.

[SIDE NOTE: Brownies + Chocolate pudding = ...I can't even think of a word to describe the amazingly awesome chocolate-ness of it. Thanks for the inspiration, Jenny!]

Anywho, Shelley (my awesome roommate) tagged me, meaning I get to share meaningless information about myself with all you good folk! I'm also supposed to come up with my own 8 questions and tag 8 more people. Normally I'm too lazy to do this kind of thing, but my boredom outweighs my laziness tonight, so here we go!

1. What is your all time favorite TV show?
Well, if we're not counting the cartoons, then probably The Office. Although The OC was REALLY awesome back in the day...

Oh, and Gilmore Girls is great, too.

2. What show reminds you of your childhood?
The Brady Bunch. I always used to watch it on Nick at Night after Rugrats. Also: Legends of the Hidden Temple, Double Dare, Clarissa Explains it All, Global Guts, Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina the Teenage Witch

3. If you could be on a show, which one would it be?
GILMORE GIRLS.

4. Which character from any show would you choose to be your best friend?
Jim. Then our friendship would blossom into love.

5. Which character from any show would you choose to be your significant other?
Jim. And secretly, Harvey from Sabrina.

6. Which tv character do you feel like you relate to and why?
Rory - We're pretty similar, personality wise. Also, probably Ren from Even Stevens, except I'm a little less high strung.

7. If you could pick one show to make a movie, which one would you choose?
Oh, I'm definitely not a fan of TV show movies....I'd like to see The Hills: The Movie. It would be SO awesomely bad.

8. What, in your opinion, is the worst tv show ever made?
Degrassi. Lara is watching it right now and it is SO terrible. And The City. At least The Hills was the first out of the two...

Okay, so now my 8 questions:

1. Who was your first celebrity crush/obsession?
2. What was your favorite lunch to take to school when you were little?
3. What cartoons did you watch as a kid?
4. What was the grossest thing you ate as a kid?
5. What was your favorite Disney movie when you were little?
6. What was your best Halloween costume?
7. What was your favorite cereal back in the day?
Apparently I can't count. Here's question 8. Did you have a special beanie baby in your life when you were little?

I tag: Vicky, Steph, Molly, Sarah, Jenn, Megan, Camille, and Chelsey.

Now I'm going to awkwardly transition to the results of something totally ambitious and seemingly impossible that my sister and I did (out of boredom) on Friday - ALL of the PIXAR movies ranked from worst to best.

Yep. We are THAT into Disney/PIXAR. At first we tried to rank them outright, but then decided to use a point system. We gave points between 1 (worst) and 10 (best) for five categories: story, humor, warm fuzzies, characters, and scenery. Why scenery? Well, Lara and I are kind of into scenery porn in movies. Ultimate scenery porn movies are Howl's Moving Castle and Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley version, always). So anyways, we assigned points and then totaled them - here are the results!

9. Cars
8. The Incredibles
7. A Bug's Life
6. Toy Story
5. (Tie) Monster's Inc. and Ratatouille
4. Toy Story 2
3. (Tie) WALL-E and Toy Story 3
2. Finding Nemo
1. UP

By no means do we hate any of these movies...well, except for Cars. We feel that PIXAR dropped the ball on that one.

Anyways, I was a little surprised by the results. I'm a HUGE fan of A Bug's Life, but according to our point system, it was pretty mediocre in all five categories. I think that UP is the perfect winner, though. It has an amazing story (an old guy with a flying house and a rag-tag team made up of a chubby boy scout, talking dog and a weirdo bird), lots of humor (Kevin. And Dug.), LOTS of warm fuzzies (one of two PIXAR movies to make me cry), very memorable characters, and TONS of scenery porn.

Overall, I think this list is pretty accurate for Lara and me - what do you guys think??

Well, that's enough rambling from me...looking forward to some Vietnamese tomorrow!

2010-07-14T17:23:00.008-04:00

First, I'm on a mission to win me some BARNEY BUTTER!!! A Teenage Gourmet is hosting a Barney Butter giveaway, and one of the ways to win is to mention her site on a blog post, so viola! Blog shout out, check!

I hope I win. I REALLY want to win. I am a food brandwhore, so it is VITAL that I try Barney Butter, pronto. So send me some good vibes!

In other news, I figured out a way to make tempeh delicious! It was definitely a bad decision to judge tempeh after only eating it raw. After trying it raw (by itself and in a sandwich), I decided that tempeh wasn't worth my time and promptly shoved it to the back of the fridge. This past weekend, however, I had a hankering for something crunchy and Panko-encrusted and decided to give tempeh another whirl. I came up with this recipe myself, I'm proud to say. I mean, I'm sure someone's done it before, but that's not important. What IS important is that I didn't look this up on the internet AND it made tempeh taste delicious.

This lovely recipe was influenced (in a big way) by the Walnut Rosemary Oven Fried Chicken I had last week. I like to call it "Buffalo Tempeh."

....

Real original, right? Whatever, even if this recipe is totally non-revolutionary, I definitely figured out how tempeh can taste "meaty," almost in a chicken-y way. So, if you need some Panko crunch and fermented soy in your life, here's how to make Buffalo Tempeh fingers.

Buffalo Tempeh Fingers
Serves 1, Taken from...MAH BRAIN

- 1/2 block of tempeh, cut in half (hamburger style - I can't think of another way to describe it), then cut each half into three strips
- 1/3 cup milk
- Splash of vinegar
- 2 tablespoons buffalo sauce, plus another tablespoon for dipping sauce
- 1/3 cup Panko
- Mozzarella cheese or Pepper Jack Cheese, for sprinkling
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt

Preheat your oven to 375.

Pour milk into a bowl, then mix with the splash of vinegar to make buttermilk (so handy!), then mix in two tablespoons of buffalo sauce (like Frank's - yum). In another bowl, pour the 1/3 cup of Panko.

Before commencing the tempeh dunking, put a baking rack on top of a baking sheet. This will make for some CRUNCHY tempeh fingers.

Take one tempeh strip and coat it thoroughly with the milk mixture, then roll the strip around in the Panko crumbs and put it on the wire rack. Repeat with the remaining tempeh fingers. After all of the fingers are coated in delicious buffalo and Panko goodness, bake them for 20 minutes. During the last two minutes of baking, coat some (or all) of the fingers in a sprinkling of cheese. It doesn't really make much of a difference taste-wise, but honestly, it's cheese. It's always welcome, whether you can taste it or not.

To make the dunking sauce, just mix the yogurt and the tablespoon of buffalo sauce together. Add more sauce if you think it's lacking in flavor.

Dunk the fingers in the sauce. Revel in the deliciousness of Panko and fermented soy.

In all honesty, I would never pick these over chicken fingers, but I definitely enjoyed them. Baking them in Panko helped hide the weird raw flavor I don't like, which allowed the unique texture of tempeh shine. The sauce was just a way to add more buffalo flavor - obviously I'm addicted to buffalo sauce.

Transitioning to a restaurant review......

Our local restaurant destination this week was The Grit, which has a 100% vegetarian menu. I was really excited to FINALLY eat at The Grit - it was one of the first local restaurants I heard about during my freshman year. The Grit pretty much embodies a stereotypical hippy/college restaurant - from grungy looking employees (no offense intended...I thought they looked cool) to the random decorations (like a model of the Titanic over the doorway and a random Jesus painting behind the counter). All of these factors give The Grit a really cool vibe, though - I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the company and the food. The menu is pretty daunting - there are SO many choices! I couldn't decide between something ethnic or a Grit staple. In the end, I chose The Golden Bowl - sauteed tofu and veggies over brown rice and topped with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

Sorry for the terrible picture quality - the lighting was obviously pretty low.

Anyways, the tofu's texture was total perfection! It had a crunchy crust and a nice chew. The soy sauce gave it delicious flavor and the nutritional yeast was a great topping. Nutritional yeast really does have a cheesy flavor. It's also pretty cool that it's full of B vitamins, including (if fortified) B-12. I don't really have any reason to buy any for myself, but I've always wanted to try it. The little onion strips also added a lot of yummy oomph to my Golden Bowl - it's amazing to me that a year ago I HATED onions.

The dish as a whole was super delicious - the only "complaint" I have is the lack of vegetables in my bowl. There was tons of tofu, though, so I left The Grit full and satisfied. Adam ate a Mediterranean sampler of sorts (pita, falafel, hummus, and tabbouleh) and Chris attempted to eat the Mondo Burrito. Both dishes were excellent, in case you were wondering.

We are thinking Vietnamese next week. Kathy will be back from her 2 week road trip, so she'll be able to guide us through the mysteries of a Vietnamese menu. Exciting!

2010-07-12T16:57:00.007-04:00

Say hello to my new addiction:

I am fully aware that these have the nutritional value of air, but that's healthier than copious handfuls of BBQ Lays, so I feel better about myself when I eat them. Chips, I've decided, are my Achilles heel when it comes to junk food. Put them in front of me and I will DEVOUR them.

By the way, the copious handfuls of BBQ Lays is a true story - I enjoyed those handfuls alongside a delicious, campfire-cooked bratwurst. And the delicious, campfire-cooked bratwurst was topped with a bodacious amount of sauerkraut and mustard. So. Good.

Apparently Kayla and I were the only sophisticated campers out of the bunch - the others were repulsed by the sauerkraut and proceeded to eat naked brats. Their loss, right?

And no camping trip can be complete without a s'more (or three, if you're cool like me (which no one else was - I am the s'mores CHAMP)). Stupid pictures are also appreciated:

Camping also gave me a convenient opportunity to try some new bars. First up = Kashi Pumpkin Pie bar.

I liked this bar, but I have to admit, the spices were very strong. It had a very intense cinnamon and nutmeg flavor that could easily be overbearing if you're, oh I don't know, carsick from reading Shape magazine during a ride up a mountain. It's a pretty small bar, too. I think I would have rather had more bar and less "icing," to be honest. Overall, I'd give this bar a B+.

Next, Kashi's Dark Mocha Almond:

I LOVE this bar. The mocha flavor is just intense enough and there are lots of chocolate chips. The almonds give a nice crunch and some substance to the bar. These bars are longer than the pumpkin pie ones, but they still don't pack a HUGE punch when trying to quiet a growling stomach. These bars are definitely more filling than the Quaker Chewy bars - it's a shame they're 2 bucks more a box, though. Dark Mocha Almond bars get an A+.

Bar number three = Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter CLIF bar

This bar was very tasty - it's probably my second favorite, behind Blueberry Crisp. I'm still on the fence with CLIF bars overall, though. Sometimes they taste kind of fake - I'd like to know if they're actually healthy or if it's just junk hiding under an "organic" stamp. Anyways, junk or not, this bar was really filling - I had it as part of my camper's breakfast and it easily helped hold me over until lunch. Overall, an A-.

And finally, the Chocolate Brownie CLIF bar.

Meh. This bar tasted chocolate-y, but had a weird, gritty texture that I didn't really like. It tasted a lot better after heating it in the microwave for 8 seconds, but honestly, I'd rather just have a real brownie. If I had to choose between a CLIF bar and a LARA bar, I'd pick the LARA bar any day of the week, unless it was like, tropical fruit flavor or something. I love the ingredient lists on LARA bars along with the fact that they taste real. Overall, a B.

WOOHOO bar reviews! Are you a barwhore like me? Which brand/flavor is your favorite??

In other news, I started (finally) Grapes of Wrath. I LOVE the way John Steinbeck writes - he creates such powerful imagery with his descriptions and he seems incredibly inspired by landscapes and nature in the West (obviously). East of Eden is one of my favorite books, so I have high hopes for Grapes of Wrath.

Well, I'm off to eat at The Grit. Next post will be a restaurant review and recipe for making tempeh delicious...and here's the kicker - I MADE IT UP MYSELF! Ego boost for Sara!

2010-07-09T14:04:00.007-04:00

Well howdy, ya'll! Man, three posts in a week...weird, right? I guess I've been pretty productive on the food front this week, so I have more to talk about than usual.

First, however, I need to get something off my chest...a rant, if you will.

I CANNOT STAND Ashley Greene. Kayla has heard this rant three plus times, but now I feel compelled to share it with the blog world. Ashley Greene's only claim to fame is playing Alice in Twilight. Physically, I think she fits the role well - perky and annoying with a slight pixie look about her.

I hate it.

You know stuff that just grates on your nerves for no reason? Well, Ashley Greene just grinds my gears. I see pictures of her EVERYWHERE now and the more interviews I see/read, the more I think she's just going to be a passing phase; once Twilight ends, so will her career, more or less. She might be a Jennifer Love Hewitt type, actually. Plus, I think she's kind of a famewhore. Maybe (probably) I'm being overly harsh, but it makes me feel refreshed getting this rant off my chest. So thanks for reading.

Ahem, anyways...

I made this dish for myself on Monday night.

Channa Masala by Jenna at Eat, Live, Run.

It was GOOD. Except I didn't have chickpeas, which is are pretty big part of the original recipe, but I think lentils did the job nicely. Also, I didn't have ground coriander, so in a moment of extreme stupidity, I threw in a tsp of coriander pods. This resulted in random bursts of intense, unwelcome coriander flavor during the meal and lunch the next day. Ew. I also didn't have garam marsala (it seems to me now that I didn't have half of what this recipe called for), so I just added in extra cumin, tumeric and ginger, along with some cinnamon and nutmeg. And finally, I only had Italian style stewed tomatoes, as opposed to plain, diced tomatoes. I think affected the taste somewhat, but not in a bad way. I mean, I was already missing chickpeas, garam masala and coriander, so whatever. I did, however, have a real lemon!! Amazing!

Jenna gives step by step pictures and instructions, so I won't post them on here. I will say that this dish was flavorful and spicy, but not hot-spicy...just lots of different spices! Definitely make sure you pince the tomato paste as Jenna says - the flavor REALLY intensifies in the most glorious way possible. I served it over brown rice, which was a good choice on my part. Yum. Coincidentally, this was my first time eating lentils. They're pretty much like small beans, taste-wise. They have an obnoxious amount of fiber (and I mean A LOT) and they're really easy to cook as well. I used green lentils, but I'm curious to taste red lentils - do they taste any different??

[Random Side Note: HARRY POTTER WEEKENDS ON ABC FAMILY ARE THE BEST KINDS OF WEEKENDS!!]

So anywho, the other tasty meal I made consisted of adorable fingerling potatoes and some oven-fried chicken. And frozen microwave vegetables. Don't judge me - they're convenient and cheap.

So, for the fingerling potatoes, all I did was saute them in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and FRESH rosemary (thanks, Kayla!) for about 10 minutes until they were nice and saturated with the oil and seasonings. Then I roasted them in a 425 oven for 10 minutes! The skins became super crispy while the insides became tender and delicious. YUM! Such a nice change from regular potatoes.

The real star of my delicious dinner, however, was the oven fried chicken. I found the recipe in a Cooking Light magazine and decided to give a whirl since I actually had walnuts and rosemary (like how I tied in the potatoes to the chicken? I amaze myself sometimes. Not really.)

Walnut and Rosemary Oven Fried Chicken
Taken from Cooking Light, my version serves 1

- 1/4 cup buttermilk (or 1/4 cup milk with a splash of vinegar)
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 chicken breast
- 1/3 cup panko
- 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 2 tbsp fake, powdered parmesan cheese
- 3/4 tsp minced rosemary
- salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425.

First, mix the milk and mustard in a bowl, then add the chicken. Make sure to coat it well.

Meanwhile, toast the panko and the walnuts in a dry pan for three minutes. Then add the cheese, salt and pepper, then dredge the chicken in the panko/nut mixture. Discard the milk/mustard mix.

Next, put a wire rack on a large baking sheet. This helped my chicken crisp up SO well, FYI. Just plop the chicken on top of the rack and both sides are able to get deliciously crispy! Bake the chicken for 13-18 minutes, depending on the size of your breast. I had to bake mine for 18 because it was a HUGE piece of chicken.

This is one of THE best chicken recipes I've ever made, seriously. The panko has so much flavor and the walnuts give the chicken a nice crunch. The rosemary adds the perfect hint of Christmas-y goodness (I could smell-taste Christmas trees, ya know?). The chicken was also perfect with the potatoes. Excellent dinner, if I do say so myself, especially while watching Cool hand Luke.

Well, my next post should contain quite a few product reviews - two different CLIF bar flavors and two Kashi bar flavors. I'm also going to frolic in the wild tomorrow night with Kayla and some of her friends from back home, which should be fun. Rumor has it that we're eating brats and s'mores. Delicious.

PS - I'm feeling especially evil now for randomly ranting about Ashley Greene, but I just can't bring myself to delete it...

2010-07-07T22:37:00.008-04:00

Confession: I get THE biggest ego boost from watching my coworkers gobble up my baked goods. I love how I can bake ANYTHING I want and know that people at work will eat it - it's the simple pleasures in life, people.

And the best part is, they think I'm just being extremely generous or whatever, but really I bake for selfish reasons...it's the best boredom buster! Plus they're really doing me a favor, because more times than not, most of the stuff I bake would just sit around the apartment and mold over (like last few slices of blueberry coffee cake from last week - pity).

It's turning into a once a week thing, these baking adventures of mine. This week's baked good was Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies. It's quite a mouthful to say, right? After throwing out one batch of applesauce, margarine and brown sugar that refused to cream, I decided to nix the fat substitutions this time...with cookies, you need the butter. Trust me on this.

I did use whole wheat flour instead of white, though, only because I was too lazy to dig the white flour out of the cabinet. It's kind of a mess, you see. This resulted in more of a mini-scone instead of a cookie, which I kind of dug (as well as everyone at work...the 30 cookies I brought were scarfed in a matter of five hours between 6 people!). The scone part was not too sweet at all, but with the multitude of craisins and white chocolate chunks, it was no big loss. They were also easy on the eyes - I mean, all baked goods are beautiful (except maybe lowfat brownies, you know, the ones that look dry and cakey...ugh), but these were especially pretty.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate "Mini Scone" Cookies
Taken from an Ocean Spray Magazine ad (LOL), serves 24-30 (depending on cookie size)

- 2/3 cups butter
- 2/3 cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 cups old fashioned oats
- 1/5 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 6 oz. Craisins bag
- 2/3 cup white chocolate chunks.

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and brown sugar together, then add eggs, one at a time. Make sure you incorporate the eggs well. In a separate bowl, mix together the salt, flour, oats and baking soda, then slowly mix into the wet ingredients in three batches. Next, stir in cranberries and white chocolate. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, then roll tablespoon+ size balls of dough in your palm and place on the cookie sheet. The cookies don't really spread because of the whole wheat flour + oats (I think), so make sure you flatten the cookies out once they're on the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then cool on a cooling rack.

In other news, I ate a heavenly bison burger at a cool build-your-own burger place called Graze last night! There are 18 different patties to choose from (alligator, grass fed beef, falafel, black bean, duck, WILD BOAR (?!), etc.) and even more toppings. I love customization, so this place was heaven. I gotta say, I haven't had a burger with red meat in a while (I find red meat to be kind of boring sometimes, plus I always seem to find something more interesting to eat outside of the burger/steak field), so this burger was like a reawakening for my soul - the soul that eats juicy, delicious red meat.

Sorry vegetarians/vegans/whoever else that might have offended. I just can't describe how beautiful it was for me to eat a delicious burger again. I felt like I was reunited with a part of my soul.

Basically you choose your patty, then your toppings, possibly a side, then eat! So simple! I chose bison + pepper jack cheese (my love), sprouts (weird, I know, but I really wanted sprouts in my life), sauteed mushrooms and onions, and pickles. Because what's a burger without pickles? And mustard. For my side, I considered the fruit bowl, but I haven't had a full serving of fries in so long that I just decided to go whole hog (bison?) and order sweet potato fries.

Wonderful decision on my part.

The fries were yummy, but in all honesty, I think I like baked sweet potato fries better than fried. But I will always like regular french fries the less healthy way - deep fried and salted. The burger, however, was DIVINE. My topping choices were excellent, but the star was definitely the bison. It was so juicy and meaty and...YUM. I want another.

This is easily a place you can go to again and again - to me all of the different combos would keep it from seeming repetitive! They also had a nice build-your-own salad menu. Aesthetically, Graze was nothing out of the ordinary - colorful walls, nice bathrooms (this is important to me), and pretty spacious. I can't wait to go back again - I'm thinking boar. I mean really, it would be cool to be like, "YO, I ATE WILD BOAR LAST NIGHT."

Two more things.

First, I saw Eclipse today. I go into these movies expecting to laugh hysterically at all of the corniness, but Eclipse was just plain terrible. I genuinely think that Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are decent actors, but they have NOTHING to work with in these movies. Eclipse consisted of constipated expressions, brain-melting, mushy "discussions" about love, and freaky gold contacts. I was too bored to laugh, too freaked out by the contacts, and too baffled at how the makeup artists managed to make Rob Pattinson that ugly. The only thing I can say for any of these movies is that the soundtracks are all awesome. Oh, and read this. My opinion of the movies and books sunk to a new level.

And finally, I finished Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguru. It was just made into a movie starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan (SO AWESOME), so I felt I needed to read the book before seeing the movie. It was SO good! Ishiguro definitely has a unique writing style which took me a bit to get used to, but I can see why he's won so many writing awards. The book is set in a post WWII G. Britain, kind of a dystopia novel. It's about clones who grow up at a boarding school called Hailsham and prepare themselves to be donors. Basically their sole purpose is to be a source of organs for regular humans.

Whew, long post. Hopefully not too long...right?

2010-07-05T20:38:00.006-04:00

So...Savannah and Charleston. Two beautiful cities that SHOULD be foodie heavens, right?

Wrong. At least when said foodie likes "hip," local, unique restaurants with cool sandwiches, salads, etc, while her family likes more mainstream fare. I'm not hating on my family's palates by any means, but I was a little disappointed by the food part of our trip. I even picked out restaurants beforehand that I thought would appeal to everyone. I did this for two reasons:

1. I'm a menu freak. I like to look at menus ahead of time and usually I have a pretty good idea of what I want to order before I step foot in the restaurant. For me, looking up a menu online is like opening your Christmas presents early. Not that I've done that or anything (seriously!)...but I think the general feeling is the same.
2. I don't know about other families, but with mine, choosing a place to eat on the fly is THE biggest vacation buzz killer. In my family, no one likes making a decision, so we stand around on the sidewalk, picking at our fingernails until someone gets fed up enough to finally shout out a decision. I wanted to avoid this at all costs.

I failed on both accounts. Whoops.

We didn't go to ONE place I had picked out, which is honestly whatever, but this unfortunately led to some disappointing eats.

Exhibit A: Mellow Mushroom for lunch in Savannah on Friday. I have nothing against Mellow Mushroom, but it's a chain! I wanted to eat somewhere indigenous to Savannah!
Exhibit B: Bernie's Raw Bar or Irish Pub...something to that effect. This place was GROSS. The burger place I wanted to try had closed early for the 4th, so we picked the first place we passed on River St. Why did we do this? I ended up getting a club sandwich and a side of cabbage in liquid mayo (supposedly coleslaw). The club was icky - fake deli meat, yucky white Texas toast...bleh. I sound like a food prima donna here, but it was seriously blah. The only thing I can say for Bernie's is that they gave my mom a seriously divine tomato slice on her hamburger.

Other Savannah eats included: Wild Wings (Dad's wing fix), Sam Snead's Tavern (Ahi Tuna Salad - my first tuna steak. Pretty good, but the salad was really overdressed. I like salmon better), and Tubby's. Tubby's was actually a really cool restaurant, but we ate there during brunch time so the menu was a little limited, seafood wise.

The one memorable foodie moment of Savannah was a visit to one of those cool self-serve frozen yogurt shops. I got peanut butter yogurt and topped it with mini chocolate chips, cinnamon toast crunch, blueberries and a few blackberries. A culinary work of art, right? It was so good that I didn't remember to take a picture of it until halfway through it's annihilation.

Savannah was gorgeous. I loved all of the mini parks in each block and there was SO much history throughout the city! The trees in Savannah were my favorite part - the Spanish moss was so pretty (but apparently filled with chiggers. Don't take the moss home, folks). SCAD was also really cool, but the tour around the college and city made me realize how much I love UGA and Athens. I can't see myself anywhere else!

On Saturday, we drove up to Charleston for the day. SO gorgeous. There were TONS of cafes, bakeries and cool places to shop. I think Charleston is the city of baked goods. And praline pecans. I have NEVER had so many free samples of pralines in my life. And I worked at Bruster's for 2 years.

Anyways, the first place we went to was Baked. Olivia talked about it on her blog and I made a special point to find it, like any creepy blogger should. My mom, sister and I picked out a Deep Chocolate Brownie and a Baked bar to share.

Confession: I've NEVER had a real, homemade brownie before...only the boxed kind. Those are all well and good, but HOLY CRAP, the brownie from Baked was heaven. I think I died a little inside after each bite. I finally learned what a fudgy brownie was like, as opposed to a cakey brownie. I mean, look at this masterpiece!

It GLISTENED. It was like Edward Cullen's abs in the sunlight.

..........

Perhaps that was not the best simile to use to describe a brownie, depending on your feelings for Twilight. Anyways, the Baked bar was equally delicious. It had a mysterious, addicting, luscious creamy filling that took the bar to the next level.

A beauty, right? Except my thumb looks like some kind of gross flesh slug. Bad angle.

Confession#2: I also tracked down Cupcake. I couldn't help myself! Olivia made it sound so cute! Cupcake was definitely cute and smelled divine. I didn't get anything since I was filled up with brownie and mysterious Baked bar cream, but it was cool to see the shop.

We ate lunch at East Bay St. Meeting House. I'm not sure where this place stands compared to the rest of the restaurants/cafes in Charleston, but it was my favorite "on the fly" choice. The cafe was small, but since the weather was nice (I mean REALLY nice...the weather was great the entire weekend) the doors were left open to let in the breeze. I ordered a smoked salmon panini with capers and cream cheese.

Can I just say that smoked salmon and capers were made for each other? The salmon was buttery (not butter-buttery, smooth and yummy buttery) and the capers had a perfect briney bite. And when is cream cheese ever wrong? (Never) The bread was uber crunchy, which was good and bad...bad because it cut the roof of my mouth (like Cap'n Crunch does...you remember, right?).

Aside from the food, however, I had fun on the trip. Savannah and Charleston are beautiful cities with so much history and atmosphere...hopefully I'll get to visit again soon!

And I'll leave you with this flattering shot of my dad...he was looking at Ft. Sumter.

2010-06-30T17:51:00.009-04:00

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but this weekend, I am embarking on a short trip to two (in my opinion) foodie promised lands: Savannah and Charleston. The main reason we are going is to tour SCAD with Lara.

Ho Hum. College tours, been there, done that. What I am REALLY excited about is the different restaurants and shops we'll visit! I already know that one dinner will be dedicated to my dad's intense obsession with hot wings. Said dinner will take place at Wild Wings and will entail a couple of hours of watching my dad eat copious amounts of hot wings with the hottest sauce available. And by hottest, I mean HOTTEST - At our local Beef o'Brady's, my dad is always given wings with a sauce that was banned from the menu after one guy stupidly rubbed some in his eye and had to go to the hospital.

Yeah...

I'm going to research restaurants in both cities after this post, but does anyone have any recommendations?? I saw an article about a pie shop (oh my, pie!!) in Southern Living called Carolina Cider Company - perhaps I will indulge my pie cravings there.

In other news, I am now a Featured Blogger on Food Buzz! I finally bit the bullet and sent in my contract earlier today - I can't wait to see what comes out of it!

And now another local restaurant review! I should come up with some kind of catchy name for this review series...Eating Athens or something. Except cooler and not as corny.

Anyways, we ventured to a place called Taqueria del Sol, which turned out to be across the street (basically) from Big City Bread...who knew?

Not me, obviously.

One thing I learned from dining here is to not judge a restaurant by its online menu. Taqueria del Sol has a VERY small menu - only a few taco variations, some enchilada variations, 3 stews, some sides and 3 weekly specials. It became apparent very quickly after our first couple of bites, however, that this small menu was all Taqueria del Sol really needed to be an awesome restaurant.

I can't say much for the atmosphere inside (not that it was bad..it was just kind of plain), but Taqueria del Sol has a great outside eating area encased in one of those plastic cover-thingies. We could finally enjoy a meal outside, in the middle of Athens, without being viciously attacked by swarms of flies. HALLELUJAH!

My wonderful meal included: 2 tacos, a side of jalapeno coleslaw, and some (vegetarian?) refried beans. The tacos here are pretty small, which means if you have any self respecting appetite you'll need to order at least two. This is definitely to your advantage, though - it allows you to try more of their delicious taco options! I ordered the Memphis (smoked pork, the slaw, and tequila BBQ sauce) and the Brisket (shredded beef brisket with pico de gallo), all for the low price of $4.40 (not including side orders)! The tacos were completely fantastic. The brisket was melt-in-your-mouth tender; they actually gave me so much that I felt my jaw pop as I tried to bite off a hunk of taco. My favorite out of the two, however, was by far the pork taco. The BBQ sauce was to die for and I loved the accompanying crunch of the slaw.

Speaking of the slaw, I have to say I was a little disappointed by it. By no means was it bad coleslaw, but I definitely didn't taste the jalapeno (or any unique flavor) in it. The refried beans were very meaty for being vegetarian and I could definitely taste the cumin - YUM! I tried bits of everyone's food, but Chris's meal stood out the most: brisket enchilada with lemon cream sauce. I actually didn't try the enchilada, only the sauce....and I gotta say, I didn't like it. I guess it's hard to judge the meal as a whole since I didn't eat the enchilada as well, but I could not understand how the lemon sauce would mix with a BEEF BRISKET ENCHILADA! It tasted like something that should have been on top of a custard! Whatever, Chris ended up ordering another enchilada after finishing his first one, so I guess that means it's good.

Finally, the recipe!!

On Monday I felt intensely compelled to create a delicious dinner for Kayla and myself. I'm sure most of you college kids can relate when I say that the ingredients I already have in my fridge/pantry dictate my recipe choices, right? Some weeks this makes for a sad, stupid looking dinner, like that weird, cracked out potato omelet I made last week. This week, however, I surprisingly had everything to make Curry Peanut Noodles!! Actually, this isn't that amazing to be able to make on a whim, as long as you have red curry paste. It's a pretty quick meal and can easily be amped up with some extra vegetables (like asparagus) and some added protein (like chicken).

Peanut Curry Noodles
Adapted from Food Network Magazine, serves 4-5

- 12 oz. whole wheat spaghetti (I used 1 bundle of soba noodles)
- 2/3 cup crunch peanut butter (Don't use smooth! Embrace the peanuts! Having said that, I only had about 1/2 a cup of chunky peanut butter, so that's all I used)
- 1-2 tbsp red curry paste
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
- juice from 1 lime, plus more for serving (lime in a bottle, anyone?)
- 1/3 cup cilantro leaves (I don't own cilantro, unfortunately)
- 2 scallions (nope..)
- 1 cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, roughly grated
- Red pepper flakes, for serving
And I added 1 chicken breast (pan grilled, seasoned with salt, pepper and curry powder) and a bunch of asparagus (sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles according to package directions.

In the meantime, heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil. Once the pan is hot, lay the chicken breast down and season the exposed side with some salt and pepper, plus a few dashes of curry powder. After about 4-5 minutes, flip the chicken and season the other side. After another 5 minutes, check the chicken to make sure it is fully cooked - if it is, remove the chicken and let it rest. If not, let it cook a little bit longer.

Wash your pan (or use another) and then saute your asparagus in a teaspoon of oil with salt and pepper for 8ish minutes. But first, cut your asparagus into thirds. Bite size pieces, people. You still want it to be crunchy, but I like to see the black "grill" marks on the asparagus.

Cut your cucumber in half, then scoop out the seeds. Cut the cucumber into thin strips. Next, grate a huge carrot. Make sure to get plenty of carrot shavings on the floor, like me. It'll give you something to do later. Stupid carrot/grater.

Finally, cut your chicken into cubes.

Combine the peanut butter, curry paste, rice wine vinegar, 1/2 cup of water, salt, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro in a food processor and blend together.

Toss the (drained) noodles, chicken, asparagus, carrots, and cucumber in a large bowl. Pour the sauce over the top and add red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and/or more lime juice. Whatever your taste buds call for, basically. Mix together and serve.

Looking back, I realized I made a few mistakes while making this dish:
1. I should have used spaghetti - I think it's sturdier than soba noodles. Or maybe I should have immediately drained the soba noodles after they boiled for five minutes. They just seemed very limp.
2. I realized that the recipe is called COLD Curry Peanut Noodles. Therefore I should have served this cold.

I should read more often.

3. Next time I will reserve some pasta water - I think the sauce could have used it.
4. Always have cilantro. Always.

Aside from these errors, however, the dish was really good! I wasn't sure how the curry paste and peanut butter would taste together, but I was surprised by the depth of flavor the combination created! I'm glad I found some of the paste in the depths of our fridge, though - for a second I considered subbing Siriachi sauce. BAD, BAD idea. That would have been, well, disgusting. The dish as a whole looked pretty ugly, I'm not going to lie. I think the dish would have looked better had I added pasta water and not over cooked the noodles. And cilantro would have totally made this dish. I mean, it was very tasty without it, but cilantro would have kicked it up to another level.

I have to praise myself for the asparagus addition. The asparagus added even more color and a nice crunch. Plus, isn't asparagus a gift that keeps on giving, if you know what I mean?

Sorry, I have a gross sense of humor sometimes.

2010-06-28T19:02:00.005-04:00

Whew, it's only Monday and I've already tried out two new recipes! I know I said in a recent post that I LUUURRVE cooking for myself, but overall, I like cooking for others more. This is not because I'm a generous and giving soul who loves to show love for others through cooking; it's because I can cook MORE - bigger dishes, side dishes, etc. I can actually use recipes from my Food Network magazines!

Deep down, though, I'm sure it's at least partially because I love to feed my friends and family. Maybe.

Anyways, last night I decided to bake Ellie Krieger's Blueberry Coffee Cake. I love using her recipes mainly because I'm more likely to have a cup of plain yogurt hidden in the depths of our packed fridge over a cup of butter. I made sure to do two things this time:

1. Sufficiently cream the butter and sugar.
2. Not over-mix the batter. I have a paranoia about undermixed dough, but after making THE densest muffins a few weeks ago, I have a new paranoia: over-mixed dough. Ew.

This coffee cake is definitely breakfast worthy - the batter doesn't have much sugar, but it has just enough to make this cake an indulgent start to your day. Pair it with coffee (duh), a glass of milk, and a banana and you have yourself a delicious breakfast.

Blueberry Coffee Cake
Taken from Ellie Krieger, serves 12

- Cooking spray
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or regular whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
- 1 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen and thawed

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x8 baking dish with the cooking spray.

Cream the butter, oil, and brown sugar. Make sure to cream the mixture very well - it should look kind of fluffy. Mix in the vanilla and the cup of yogurt.

In a separate bowl, mix the two flours, baking soda and salt together. I actually added a few dashes of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg into this mixture, just for kicks and giggles. I don't know if it made that much of a difference, but it was my attempt at spontaneous baking.

In another bowl (lots of dishes to wash, right?), mix the cinnamon, granulated sugar, and walnuts together.

In 3 batches, incorporate the flour mix into the butter mixture. DO NOT OVER-MIX! Resist the temptation. It's hard, I know.

Spread half of the batter into the baking dish. It will take a little finagling (Finagling? What am I, 80?). After spreading the batter, sprinkle the nut mixture over the batter, then scatter the blueberries. Ellie told me to only sprinkle half of the nut mixture at this point, but I ignored her and used it all at this point. I didn't really want nuts on the top of the cake. Spread the last half of the batter over the nuts and berries, then sprinkle some cinnamon and granulated sugar over the top.

Bake the cake for 30 - 40 minutes. Let the cake cool, then cut into 12 rectangle/squares. Then find ways to "accidentally" break off corners of each piece as you put them away in a tupperware to take to work the next day. Then eat said corners. Yum.

I think yogurt makes cakes super moist and delicious, which is exactly what this cake was, in my opinion. The blueberries stayed in tact and provided a nice pop of color and flavor. I actually liked the nuts - I'm glad I chopped them pretty finely, though (think the size of LARA bar nuts). One day I will learn to be patient and wait for my baked things to cool completely before trying to transfer them...I had lots of pieces with no bottoms. Oh well, more nibbles for me!

The other recipe I tried = Curry Peanut Noodles from Food Network magazine. I think I'll talk about it next time though - this post is already pretty lengthy. I will go ahead and say that this was an AWESOME dish. So delicious.

And now to report on some of the new products I bought at Earthfare.

First, the oatmeal. I LOVED the flax. I also loved the thickness - it was borderline cakey by the time I was done cooking it. The only problem I had was the fiber content - 25% of my daily fiber intake. That's a BIIIIG fiber jump. It was a little much for my stomach.

Was that TMI? Sorry. Just giving a forewarning.

Uh, anyways, Justin's Maple Almond Butter was amazing. So creamy and delicious. But really Justin, why are you so expensive??

The tempeh was...interesting. I definitely didn't like it alone/raw. It tasted too processed and soy-ish. I ate some more today on a sandwich with jam and cheese - much better. It has an odd texture, meaty but not. I think I will like tempeh best after pan frying it with soy sauce or something. Tempeh definitely won't be a pantry staple for me, but every once and a while it will be nice.

And finally, I (well, my mom) bought some White Chocolate Peanut Butter Company PB. It was only $3.50 at Walmart (compared to $4.50 at Kroger, and higher everywhere else), so I couldn't resist.

I'm so glad I didn't resist. HOLY CRAP, it is by far THE best nut butter I've ever had. EVER. EV-ER. I liked it so much that I decided to take a Myspace-era picture with the jar.

OVER N' OUT!