Dinner and The Bachelor

Considering I've been eating crap over the weekend (what do you mean Goldfish crackers and a can of olives isn't a meal?), I figured I should cook dinner tonight. So after work I drove over to the running store to return the ouch-inducing shoes and raced home so I can prepare dinner before The Bachelor started. Didn't quite make it, but I was able to sit down and eat for the last half of it.....and I'm watching it now as I type! I must multi-task!

So on the menu tonight was the lemon-olive chicken, recipe courtesy of Real Simple and presented by Half Assed Kitchen. The first time I saw this blog, by the way, I laughed out loud. I especially love the description: "Eh...it's edible." So here are the pictures protraying the recipe.

I must chop all the veggies beforehand, especially the shallots. I really need to invest in those onion goggles! Tears galore! Can't you just picture me rocking those sexy things?

Fry up those little buggers! I just read that the onions have these enzymes that, in a multi-step reaction, eventually produce sulfuric acid in your eyes! No wonder they, along with my throat, were in agony! Read about it!

A shot of the browned chicken. The coating had cumin in it, so I was drooling the whole time I was cooking! It was all I could do not to bite a chunk of the chicken with it looking so pretty and smelling so delish right there!

Throw the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for a while. We're almost there!

Time to eat! Can you tell I eat on the coffee table in front of the TV? Did you also catch the Turbo Jam in the corner of that picture?

This was really good, even though I accidentally bought cilantro instead of flat leaf parsley. Don't ask me why, but the last couple times I meant to grab parsley, I've made this mistake!

cilantro

flat leaf parsley

Am I crazy? Do they not look similar?

Oh my, I'm so excited for next week's Bachelor. They're going to Seattle!! If you saw the preview, those sea planes were a constant in my last two years living there. I had a view of Lake Union from my lab and watched those sea planes take off all throughout the day. I could hear them from my apt. less than a mile away. Oh, homesick!

OK, nevermind...on to tonight's show. I've been rooting for Melissa, although she initially annoyed the crap out of me. I don't know why, maybe I was in a bad mood when I watched the first episode? I know she is Jason's type and she's soooo cute. And....bouncy. And appearance-wise, she kind of reminds me of Deanna. Shannon creeps me out. She's psycho! Megan is kinda tough girl bitchy and while I couldn't stand her before, I warmed up to her on this episode. Too bad she's off, though. Stephanie is really sweet, but she looks way older than her age and I don't see any chemistry between her and Jason. Nikki is beautiful and I've been feeling so bad for her because she's so walled off. I guess I can just relate to her because I'm so shy and if I were in her shoes, I totally wouldn't be aggressively going after Jason. That's just not me! So she's off as well. Naomi reminds me of Eva Mendes (I think it's the lips) and I don't like Eva Mendes much. So that's my two cents. Who's your favorite? We're getting down to the wire here!

Two more days until Jon comes home!

Well, I think so anyways. He should be home either Sunday or Monday, but that depends on when he leaves Kuwait. I haven't heard from him in a while so I'm going crazy wondering when he's getting on that plane! The house is clean for the most part. I just need to vacuum, sweep, and mop and clean off the bar counter that likes to collect weeks of mail and random things that don't find their way back to their homes. I still need to bake his welcome home cake--I never got to do a test run in the yellow ribbon cake pan that I bought, so I'm a little nervous about how it will go. Keep your fingers crossed for me! 

I'm stressing out about work, though. As things usually go, I have a lot of stuff to do before I take this time off. I have one day left and I'm off for 2-3 weeks! My boss is relying on me to take care of some stuff, as our grant is up for renewal and we need more data for the proposal. It really isn't my fault that it isn't done by now. There are several things we had to wait for and we basically have to just let nature run its course first. I really feel bad leaving things unfinished for others to pick up and take care of while I'm gone. But I really don't want to worry about all this anymore. Vacation mode on!

I plan to do a lot of baking while Jon is home. I want to spoil him, and just show him that his wife really is good in the kitchen! I didn't spend that much time cooking or baking while he was home because my daily commute was 75 miles one way....so I didn't get home until about 7 every night. On nights I chose to work out, it was later. The last thing I wanted to do when I got home after a 1.5 hour drive was cook! So when he left I was determined to become a better wife, cleaning more often and spending more time in the kitchen, and what do you know...I actually enjoy it!

For dinner tonight, I made something quick. I haven't cooked since Sunday, so I really wanted to. I didn't get to the commissary this week so I had to make do with what I had on hand (boo...no potatoes). I happened to have some spaghetti squash sitting around so I chopped that baby in half lengthwise and roasted it in the 375F oven for 40 minutes (30 would have been good enough, but I got distracted). When it comes out, let it cool, remove the seeds and junk in the middle and take a fork to the flesh. It's like magic, all the spaghetti-like pieces of squash you collect in your bowl! Just add a little butter and salt--yum! If you haven't tried this type of squash, I definitely recommend it! It's super easy and can be a substitute for rice, potatoes, or pasta. 

Anyways, for the chicken I just heated a little butter and oil in a pan and fried up some shallots, onions, and garlic. I added some chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper, and some baby carrots. The magic ingredient: white wine. I swear by this! White wine is definitely my favorite ingredient to add to any random dish! Some chicken stock also went into this and was allowed to cook until the chicken was done. Well, I actually forgot about this too, as I was scooping out my squash and attempting to caramelize sugar in the oven for my creme brulee I made last night (no picture, sorry!). As a result, the liquid boiled off too much and my onions carmelized, but it didn't taste bad!

Well, it's off to bed. I have a presentation tomorrow and have to get up early to get food for people. I baked dark chocolate madeleines but I should get something healthier as well. Can't wait for this to be over!

Rain and cupcake-making fun

It's 67 degrees out right now.....and we have a nice steady rain falling right now. I love it! I don't think I've seen sub 70 weather since April! I had to make a quick run to Target to buy a b-day card for my mom. The drive was uneventful but the lightning put on quite a show and the wind (and garbage) was blowing, although it was nothing compared to what force coastal Texas will be feeling tomorrow (pray for them!) When I came out of the store, it was a full-fledged rain storm. Unbelievably, there were still people running/walking around Reid Park at a quarter to 10! But don't you just love the sound of rain falling outside your window while you are tucked away all cozy in your house? It makes it better that my body is just exhausted from my cardio kickboxing class at Davis Monthan AFB. It's the perfect kind of tired, where you feel like you've worked really hard so you deserve to sit around for the rest of the night....with the rain falling steadily outside (drip drip splat splat). I hope it lasts so I can fall asleep to it. 

On a completely different subject, I made some cupcakes last night so that I could practice my rose-making skills. I had some left over frosting from my last cake decorating class and we are baking our final cakes tomorrow for Saturday morning's class, so I figured I should practice. The frosting was a little dry, last I checked, so I added more shortening to it (yuck!) but I think I added too much because it wasn't as stiff as it was supposed to be and I had a hard time making the roses. Well I guess they turned out for the most part, except a lot of them looked more like carnations than roses. I took a close up picture of the best rose I did. I'm pretty proud! I can only get better! Oh and look at Sammy coveting those cupcakes! Sorry, mutt. No Kahlua cupcakes for you. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs! Well, he did get a lick of frosting in the end.

I'm in the blogging mood right now

Lucky readers! I've been neglecting my blog for so long, I have a lot to catch up on! I'll try to keep it organized here, hence the second post tonight. 

I didn't have the chance to mention that I've been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels for three weeks now. I'm enrolled in the first course of the series and will "graduate" next weekend! I've learned how to work with basic buttercream, making those cutesy shapes you see on any grocery store cake. A couple things I learned are that there are proper angles to make these shapes and you have to watch the pressure with which you push the icing out of the pastry bag. I'm proud to say that I now know how to make the famous Wilton rose! I'll be practicing that this week with a batch of cupcakes and my leftover icing from my last class (co-workers are going to get a treat!) We voted on not making a cake for the last class just so we could focus more on the rose, but the week before I made a cake, which conveniently went to my neighbors' daughter who was celebrating her 5th birthday!

This cake is just decorated with a lot of stars and dots...that's it! It looks really complicated, but it was super easy. I can't wait to get to the more challenging shapes! I've already signed up for the second course, where we learn more flowers and fun borders. With the 50% off promotion they have going on right now plus the $5.00 off coupon my cake decorating instructor gave me, the class only totaled $12.50! September is a good time to sign up for any of Michaels cake decorating classes, because no matter where you are, it is 50% off! I promise you, I will make it up to wedding cakes. In fact, I was looking at the cake at the wedding I attended the past weekend and I totally could have decorated it! Just a series of dots and shells.....so simple!

As an aside, I really really want to attend pastry school. Baking is a very new hobby to me, and had it not been for this deployment, I might not have discovered this new passion of mine. It sometimes trumps knitting--especially at these times when my poor wrists and forearms can't take any more (ouch!) It all started out with me wanting to take better care of my husband when he got home. We spend little time together, and the times we do share together, I just want to spoil him. And all us women know that the quickest way to a man's heart is his stomach! Good thing mine loves sweet, decadent desserts! I've been pretty obsessed with baking lately (look at my frequently read blogs!), sometimes baking goodies for my lab mates twice in one week. We have weekly lab meetings and last Friday was my turn. Usually the person presenting brings in something small for the others to munch on whilst listening to them drone on and on about dry science. Usually I just stop by the store and pick up something on the way, but this time I baked some blueberry muffins and coffee banana muffins--they were much appreciated (sorry, no pics!) I love trying out new recipes, although I still don't have to confidence to experiment that much yet. But the more challenging the recipe the better! It all makes the end product that much more worth it! 

Well, as impractical as it may seem, I hope to eventually make it to pastry school. I've done a little research and it looks like it's going to be really expensive (the Art Institute of Seattle charges about $50,000 for an AA or $16,000 for a diploma!) I know I need to lean on a more practical, solid job, like nursing, but I'm halfway tempted to ditch those previous aspirations and go for these new ones. 

Update on recent knitting projects

Summer is definitely on its way here in Tucson. Yesterday it hit 91 degrees and it doesn't look like it's turning around anytime soon. Here's our 7-day courtesy of KGUN 9 here.

So it may not make much sense that despite the heat, those knitting needles continue to click away. But I finished a cardigan a few weeks ago that I didn't get around to posting about because I'm so lazy to take pictures. It's just so hard to take pictures of yourself! But here she is

I got the pretty buttons at Leandro Fabrics here in Tucson. I'm really happy with it! I used the Silky Tweed yarn that I got from Kiwi back last winter. The pattern, for anybody who's interested, is Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I modified the pattern a lot because following it, I was swimming in that thing! I like my clothes to hug my curves. Too bad it's too warm here to wear it now!

And since I've been really mopey lately, I've forced myself to start another project: the Leaf T-shirt by Melissa Lynn (Knitting School Dropout). I'm knitting this one up in a funky colored cotton yarn--more tolerable for these warm spring days we've been having lately. Here's my progress thus far

I hope I get her done before we hit the triple digits here, because from then on it's nothing but little tank-tops for this girl!

I have been feeling a lot better lately (finally!) I've been hanging out with my neighbor lately--she has two adorable daughters that make me yearn for kids even more now! We spent all of Saturday together and had lots of fun. We even made it to the Tucson International Mariachi Conference! Very beautiful music I must say. So getting out has been good for me. I've also been coping by getting back to my baking and cooking....my co-workers are indulging along with me! The deliciousness from just last week alone:

One-a-day Banana Bars

Greek Tomato Patties

And my Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Those 3 pounds I lost over last month? I see them finding a way back onto this body pretty quickly if this keeps up!