June 8, 2013 by Andrea

Week’s End

Normally I remember to take pictures of food when I cook. Normally this usually involves Bob chuckling at me and at least one cat running in the opposite direction. This time, however, I was so hungry by the time I got dinner done on Friday, I just sat down and ate. And if you can’t tell from the picture above,

It was very, very good.

I did a version of a Greek chicken salad. Barley cooked in veggie broth (about 1/2 cup uncooked), cucumber (3 very small pickling ones, chopped), one beefsteak tomato, a bit of red onion, feta cheese and shredded chicken that I cooked in veggie broth and covered. To that I added a dressing of white balsamic vinegar, juice and zest of a half a lemon, three cloves of garlic, thyme, basil and pepper with olive oil. Needless to say, neither Bob nor I were willing to leave leftovers.

I also had a project this weekend. I’ve been wanting to paint the inside of the house for a while. We thought we had a color, but Bob was concerned with how dark it might make the house, so we went back to the drawing board. We settled on Swiss Coffee for the wall and Chocolate Coco for the trim. We think. So I decided to do a test.

The kitchen island is a great test space. Large enough to see, but not next to anything incase it turns out horribly. So we picked up some paint and I taped everything off and started painting.

Right next to the old color you can tell the difference. Once the whole wall was done, it is a litte harder to see.

After the first coat of the trim, I was nervous

The brown was not as dark as I thought it would be and I just wasn’t sure. After a second coat of paint and removing the tape …

I really like it. There is something about the chocolate that reminds me of grandmom’s house in Philly. Specifically the stairs in that house. I think the light wall and dark trim has an old fashioned feel to it, which I really like. So the plan is to live with it for a week and if we still love it next weekend we get the rest of the paint and I go to town painting the house.

It would also be helpful if I could get Leia to stop sniffing the paint. I almost got a picture but that cat is a true member of the family and HATES having her picture taken.

On a more serious note, we came through the tropical storm just fine. There was lots of rain, wind and a few tornadoes near work, but overall nothing to worry about. It is summer in south Florida so we kind of expect this stuff.

June 4, 2013 by Andrea

Brief Update

I realized that I had not updated since the big cook out. Bob and I happily ate leftovers for a week as I try to get everything together for the last few weeks of work. You would think it would be relatively calm this time of year, but it is busy and hectic making sure everything is in order before files get transferred to new schools, students know where they stand with credits, classes are picked and then changed for next year etc. And since every other school is doing the exact same thing, the program that I would use to do most of this is slower than beating the eggs to 160 degrees over a double boiler. Seriously – seven minutes today to get to the page I needed for one kid.

I found a surprisingly good wine. I think these are from the same winery – Lady in White and Lady in Red. Not expensive in the least, and good with dinner wine. I liked both very much, but I have to say, there is something about the bottles that I just love.

Tigger has been a fussy baby again. He goes through these phases where he throws up his food, so I search for a new food. We are on bag five (or six, I lost count) of new food. I’m trying to find stuff that is good for them – limit the by-product and gluten meal – but the majority of those foods he won’t eat. Most of these, none of them would eat. Gracie was getting skinnier and Tigger was just down right cranky. So I went with a more middle of the road choice:

Good old Purina. They all swooped in and ate this morning. Maybe Tigger will let me sleep now. Probably not, but at least Gracie won’t loose any more weight. Poor thing is already really, really skinny.

No picture, but I did find an awesome yoga place near me. They changed the schedule for summer, so I can actually make class Monday and Thursday. They also started a Saturday am class so I’m super excited. Two classes in and I think I can already feel my blood pressure drop. Super relaxed atmosphere and the class is a lot like the one I use to take in Jersey. Now if I can just get my balance back.

Gratuitous dog picture. But Jessie is so cute and still I have to get a pet picture in.

Happy almost summer!

May 27, 2013 by Andrea

Memorial Day Cookout

I love a good excuse to spend an entire day in the kitchen. To me, there is something about chopping, peeling, grating and cooking all day. No time pressure, no worries, just a nice relaxing day to cook. So I invited a few people over for Memorial Day and used it as my excuse to cook.

I started with chicken and ribs. Orange and thyme marinated chicken and cider braised ribs.

The chicken was a total experiment. Zest and juice of two oranges, thyme from the garden, three chopped cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Marinade for twenty four hours. The pork was simple and tasted oh so good …

Apple cider, soy sauce and brown sugar. Marinade overnight then braised in a 250 degree oven for about four hours – turning once. They come out juicy and falling off the bone.

Add some home made BBQ sauce and grill – they were the star of lunch.

The chicken was good, but not nearly as good as the ribs.

Now lunch would not be complete with just the chicken and ribs. So we also had my no mayo coleslaw

cucumber and tomato salad with a white balsamic and dill vinaigrette

potatoes (which I forgot to take a picture of) and a quinoa tabbouleh – a total experiment and not bad. It looked really pretty though.

I also added some pineapple and watermelon from the farmers market. The pineapple was amazing; the watermelon not so great. But it sure looked pretty.

No meal would be complete without dessert. And as much as I hate making it, I did make the fabulous French Silk Pie.

I know I’ve made and posted this one before but really when you start with

and

and mix it for a LONG time to come up with that pie … Well, it is worth posting again. Although whoever decided that it takes “7-10 minutes” to get eggs to 160 degrees over a double boiler while mixing with an electric mixer was insane. Try 23 minutes. But the pie is so worth it.
And since I can’t do dessert half way and it is the beginning of summer, I had to go with berry shortcake.

Vegan scones, macerated strawberries and blueberries (maple syrup, sugar and vanilla) and whipped cream. Yes, real, homemade whipped cream. Ohh … It is almost as good as the pie.

The picture at the top is the lizard one of the cats brought in. I thought it had gone back outside, but apparently it went up in the pantry and sat near my vanilla. I almost had a heart attack but Bob saved the day – I think he was afraid I may not move it myself and then all the desserts would not get made.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

May 25, 2013 by Andrea

I Actually Cooked This Week

Three day weekend! Can I just say how excited I am about this? Nine days left with students and a three day weekend. (Yes, for those that don’t know, teachers and school personnel are as excited about the kids getting out for a summer as the kids are. Probably more. It is not that we don’t love them, but we don’t want them around for a while by this point in the year.)

On to cooking. I started the week with a salad. I felt the need for more greens and something healthier. Part weather, part yoga and part the large amounts of take out over the last two months had my body screaming for veggies. So … Mixed green salad with yellow tomatoes, orange peppers, cucumber and topped with a little steak that I marinated in sriracha sauce, honey, sesame seed and sesame oil. Pan fried and the left over, non used marinade on top as a dressing. Bob got meat, I got salad and we were both happy.

I also made what I am referring to as international fajitas. Soy and garlic marinaded chicken with a Caribbean pepper blend (very hot) in a Mexican tortilla, with Videla onions, orange pepper and finished with an Italian cheese blend. Had this with a Californian red wine. I actually really liked this. It worked well, and the flavors were balanced.

I also tried a new brownie recipe this week.

They look so good, but they didn’t really work. Not sweet enough, not chewy enough, and they didn’t have the great brownie taste/feel. Oh well.

We are grilling out Monday, and I have the menu planned. Heck, what else was I going o o sitting in a room for five hours watching one kid take a test? I planned an entire meal, wrote out the shopping list and mentally went through the cabinets to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

May 19, 2013 by Andrea

Winding Down

You would think that by May school would be easy. Calm with everyone anticipating the summer and kids preparing for finals. But no, we are still doing state testing – going into week six or seven – and trying to make sure kids are doing what they should, and not doing what they should not do. Sounds simple enough, but most days I think everyone has lost their minds, or I’ve lost mine. R a combination of both. No wonder we’ve been making do with quick, simple meals or take out.

I did find a fantastic wine.

. I asked the very nice gentleman for a recommendation for a good after wok wine. He didn’t hesitate and pulled this Cotes du Rhone. Normally I’m not a Cotes kind of girl, but this was fabulous. Light, fresh, crisp but not acidic, great “mouth feel.” (Now I feel like a wine snob … And I’m ok with that.) It was perfect with dinner one Friday evening and for sipping after walking Jessie one Saturday afternoon.

I was going to bake Bob a birthday cake last week and try my hand at buttercream icing. But we ran into a problem. No. I wasn’t missing ingredients, the house didn’t explode, nor did I fall asleep before baking. We had a leak in the kitchen.

The drain in the sink was apparently leaking for at least a few days as we had a minor flood under the sink. By the time we got to the hardware store, started, went back to the store for more parts and got it fixed, I wasn’t baking. I did manage to make the beer bread experiments before heading to Val and Bill’s for the weekend

I used a White wheat, Guinness, a Lambic and the New Castle as the control. All were a hit and there was no clear winner as everyone had a different favorite. I think I liked the white wheat best. It’s amazing what three cups of self rising flour, half a cup of sugar and a bottle of beer can create. (Baked at 375 for 55 minutes)

Oh … And Bob had his own geeky project this week.

yep – remote camera. We may have to talk a out the one inside.

Hope everyone is having a great spring.

May 7, 2013 by Andrea

Zucchini & Tomato Fritters

I’ve been wanting to make the zucchini and tomato fritters I found in my vegan cookbook for a while. Even for omnivores, the Veganomicon cookbook is incredible. I’ve gotten biscotti, cakes, side dishes, etc out of there and so long as I “forget” to mention that they are vegan everyone loves them. The zucchini and tomato fritters were something I stumbled across, they sounded great, so I tried them – slightly altered as usual, but it worked.

I had some fresh zucchini and two beautiful tomatoes left, so I decided on this dish. I grated the zucchini and peeled the tomatoes then chopped them. No precision here, just used what I had.

The base was a little harder. I took one package of firm tofu, drain it and chopped it up. Into the food processor it went with three cloves of garlic, about a quarter cup almonds, a hand full of panko breadcrumbs, the juice of half a lemon, some fresh herbs from the garden (in this case dill, oregano and mint) and salt, pepper, tomato paste. The pepper was a hot blend Bob likes.

I figured a little heat would make up for the tofu. Once this was blended

I folded in the zucchini and the tomatoes. Because I forgot I was working late Monday, the mixture sat in the fridge, covered, for two days, but it was it was fine.

Today I heated a frying pan, added olive oil and fried tablespoons of the mixture that I coated in more panko. They are delicate, but if you just leave them and only flip once, they seem to come out ok.

I made these with panko crusted chicken with the same pepper blend since I just wasn’t 100% certain about them.

Bob really liked them and asked me to make them again and I have to say, I was happy with them – lots of flavor and a good texture with the tomato chunks and the crunch of the breadcrumbs. It was a really great side that I could turn into a main dish pretty easily.

All in all a success and not too bad for a Tuesday night!

May 5, 2013 by Andrea

Beer Bread

There are so many things wrong with the concept of Beer Bread that it is so right. I asked Bob to get me a bottle of beer for baking. He initially looked horrified, as though I was asking for one of his fancy Belgium beers to destroy. But, once I explained the concept of beer bread (to a man who is severely limiting grains, making my go-to cooking dishes non-starters) he was suddenly ok with me using beer for baking. Just not his really good Belgium beer.

So … Three cups self rising flour, one 12oz bottle of beer (I used Newcastle Brown Ale as it is the only beer I know other then Guinness, which I thought was too dark for bread), a half cup sugar. Mix, pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 375 for 55 minutes. If you want to get fancy, add a pat or two of butter the last few minutes of baking.

After seeing Iron Man 3 (quite entertaining actually) we came home and tried the bread. Bob pronounced it “phenomenal” and moaned as he ate it. I took that as a good sign and went with it. I will say I thought there was a slight bitter taste on the back end of the bread, but both Bob and John (who joined us for Iron Man) assured me there was none. I still think there is, but the bread is surprisingly good.

Bob has even agreed to gather a few different types of beer, a lambic, Guinness, a wheat ale and maybe one other so I can make a few loaves and we can experiment with which ones we like best. He is, apparently willing to indulge in grains when they contain beer. But for now, we have one loaf of beer bread … half eaten already. I’m thinking French toast or a grilled cheese sandwich since the bread was particularly good with cheese.

May 3, 2013 by Andrea

Unexpected

I’m pretty sure I cooked more this week than I did all of April. It felt good, but all made me look forward to work slowing down a little more so I can get back to experimenting.

I started out simple. Hamburgers with a great little salad. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, fresh cucumbers and an amazing goat cheese. The cheese is Midnight Moon from the same cheese maker that does my Lamb Chopper and Bob’s Humboldt Fog. Once we figured that out we knew why it was so good.

Next was the honey ginger chicken. It was pretty good but I really needed to marinade the chicken. Making it as a sauce only gave it a good flavor, but very little depth.

Now today’s experiment …. Unexpectedly delightful. I wanted something lighter but still filling. I had pork out, and I wanted to use the leek I picked up last week. So … I found a recipe for a pork pie and totally changed it.

I used boneless pork chops, cut up into cubes. I got a nice brown crust on those, then added the leeks and carrots to the pan. Once those cooked down a little, I added veggie stock, apple juice, tomato paste, thyme, pepper, salt and cornstarch dissolved in water. I let the cook on the stove for about 15 minutes then transferred it to a pie pan and covered it with phyllo dough. I then baked it at 400 for 30 minutes and then let it sit for ten. The result didn’t look pretty

but wow did it taste good. Bob and I ended up eating the entire thing. Rich flavor, a nice sauce, but not a heavy dish at all. And it looked better on the plate than in the pie dish.

We also got some new wine. Bob discovered woot wine and this is our second order. They do a different selection every day and the one that came today looked interesting.

Six bottles of reds, but two are a 1996. Not sure if that is a good year or not. But we will soon see.

Zucchini and tomato fritters are on for this weekend. I finally found the right tofu to make them!

April 29, 2013 by Andrea

Little Things

Little things make a difference. We hear it all the time and generally think, “mmhmm. Right.” We don’t believe it in general until something little does make a difference.

The last few weeks at work have been hard. Nerve shredding hard. I don’t think I cooked most of April and I actually started not having a drink, or only having one, at night just to make sure I still could. Could not have one, and could stop at one. I went to bed tired, I woke up tired, I felt like any little thing would make me snap and I constantly wanted to cry. I kept thinking the gods had more faith in my ability to handle stuff than I actually could. And Wednesday of last week almost broke me. But, as I FINALLY got back into my office about 4pm (I left it before 9) there was a beautiful bunch of Lilies on my desk. I was terribly confused until I read the card -Bob sent me flowers just to make my day better. For those of you who don’t know Bob well, this is unusual. As in he told me on one of our first dates that he doesn’t do cards or flowers. In the six years we have been together this is the only time he as ever given me flowers. I sat on the floor in my office and cried. But somehow the day, the week and the month just got a little easier to deal with. It didn’t make anything go away. I still had to deal with everything, but my nerves didn’t feel frayed for the first time in three weeks. The woman who has the office next to mine came in and asked what was wrong (She has never seen me cry). I just showed her the card and pointed to the flowers. She told me to, “Damn it, now I love your husband too and I don’t like anyone right now.” A little thing made a huge difference.

The cats have been having a fantastic time in the tree lately. The tree is their little thing to brighten their day. The poor birds are a not finding it as amusing as the cats, but they did build a nest in a tree with three cats in the yard.

Tigger and Gracie haven’t let Leia in the tree very much, but she still finds ways to enjoy it. Tigger has gotten out further on the branch than I expected for a cat his size, but so far the nest is fine.

On Saturday I introduced Bob to the Toasted Mango. This is a breakfast/brunch place near Mom and Dad. The food it fantastic …. and it looks pretty too!

Apricot stuffed French Toast and Berry Topped Waffle. Yum.

I’m hoping to cook a little more in the coming weeks. I started today with BBQ beef sandwich and Asian Slaw.

Not bad, but not as creative as I would like. Look for zucchini and tomato fritters and honey ginger chicken this week.

April 21, 2013 by Andrea

Animals

Somehow, whenever state testing season rolls around, I think ever test publisher and legislator who thinks these things are a good idea and actually measure what students know and teachers have taught should be forced to spend a year in a middle school. Or a high school but middle schoolers aren’t as good at hiding their anxiety and talk to you about how worried they are. So I have spent the last two weeks gathering materials, easing anxieties, reading scripts and watching students take tests for multiple hours a day. Two weeks in and we are not even close to the end. And my regular job still has to get done, so by the time I get home, I’m exhausted (try watching someone do something for a few hours and do nothing else but watch them, no email, no phone, no Internet, no book, nothing …. See how totally brain dead and exhausted you are) and my nerves are frayed almost to breaking. So there hasn’t been a whole lot of cooking recently, and Bob has been totally wonderful about ordering in or going out. I feel guilty but when you can’t think straight and can’t stand much more, cooking just isn’t realistic. This weekend I did manage to make omelettes with the eggs from the veggie patch.

But even that is closing for the summer so now I have to find a new source of cage free eggs.

With all of this going on, the animals are still a source of joy for me. They have been spending a lot of time in the tree lately, something I was thrilled with, but a little confused by. All three of the babies have been going up there or circling the base of the tree for a few weeks now.

I didn’t get a good picture of Leia there – she jumps down and runs over as soon as she sees me every Ike I try to catch her. But what has gotten the kittens so interested in the tree all of the sudden? Surely the birds can’t be dumb enough to build a nest there … or can they?

Yep, they did. One nest on a branch that the cats can get to. They were smart enough to build it out, but Gracie might be able to get to it given the right motivation. At least I will be entertained as I drink my coffee or wine on the back patio for a while.

One more full week of testing then we start the End of Course Exams so only two to three days a week until Memorial Day weekend. So no food posts for another week or so, but I hope to come up with some really creative things once this is all over.

Sixteen Paws

The random adventures of Andi, Bob, and four furry creatures