Turkey dinner

When turkeys are $5 for 10 pounds, who can resist?




And now the fun begins - turkey sandwiches, turkey enchiladas, turkey stock . . .

Hot Eats

Blogger is acting funny, so this is in no particular order.


Split pea soup - Italian style. First you saute diced portabello mushroom in a little olive oil. Remove the mushroom and saute onion, carrots, and celery. Add bay leaf and the split peas and cook for not 20 minutes (according to the package) or 1 hour (according to Bittman) but THREE HOURS. GAh. Why do legumes hate me???
Sorry. At the end of cooking stir in parsley, parmesan cheese, and the reserved mushrooms. Delicious.


Hot wings and crudites with blue cheese dip. Mmmmm.


I made applesauce (below) and then used it in this applesauce spice cake. With cardamom and honey, this cake turned out spicy and moist.


Sour Cherry Pie with cherries from Iowa - extra sour.

Lamb stew with leaks, carrots, and parsnips.



Applesauce from scratch.

One Great Weekend

I had a perfect weekend:

Friday morning - sleep till 10, then 30 minutes of running, shower.
Friday day - straighten up spare bedroom, temporarily decorate lower bath, sweep, mop, dishes, laundry, make applesauce.
Friday night - CPK pizza, excellent movie (see previous post), chat with friends over tea and a vanilla steamer in Belmar, watch Battlestar Galactica, play Scrabble until 1 am

Saturday morning - sleep until 9:30, play tennis, get dressed, leftover pizza lunch.
Saturday day - visit whole foods for bulk spices, eat yummy samples, get smelly blue cheese, buy Guitar Hero II for Ben (but then play just as much as him).
Saturday night - shop at Mod Livin (if anyone needs present ideas for me, ANYTHING from this store will do [such as this, this, or this])**, dinner at Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant, browse the new Tattered Cover, another excellent movie, Marie Antoinette.

Sunday morning - snow, church.
Sunday day - grilled cheddar sandwiches with pea soup for lunch, bake applesauce spice cake.
Sunday night - make lasagne, crudites with blue cheese dip, friends come over for Scrabble and Fox Sunday comedies.

Who could ask for anything more?

**Mod Livin' seems very expensive by looking at their website, and it is, because you are paying for designer goods. But the store was also filled with vintage items, clothing, and more affordable misc. items for the home.

Little did he know

I sincerely recommend you see Stranger Than Fiction.


This was a great comedy. The jokes were clever, and at times subtle, and never pointed out. I hate when comedies make a point of every joke and/or laughable scene. My favorite example of this is the dinner Harold eats at Dave's home. Look at their plates. Not once do the characters glance at the food in a pointed fashion. Love it. Speaking of characters, fantastic cast - all around. Emma Thompson was engaging, kooky, and a little scary all at once. Brian says he heard she was channeling Peter O'Toole for the role. Whatever she did, it worked. Will Ferrell was delicate and honest. For once you didn't feel like you were watching "Will Ferrell." The supporting cast were just as delightful, including Tony Hale and the Sonic commercial guys . Towards the end of the movie you start to think that there's no way this can end in a satisfactory way. But then it does. The graphics, cinematography, story, everything about this movie was lovely and fun.

Sealed and Healed

I bet you're dying for an update on my pumpkin incident, right? Right? No? Well too bad, because I'm at work trying to gather ppt slides into a final report. That means they have to be converted to Word files, and despite Microsoft's insistence that their programs work together seamlessly, the auto-conversion creates HUGE (like, 150 MB) word files. My computer processor maxes out whe I try to reformat these great honkers. I've frozen the program three times in the two hours I've been at it. Saving the documents take several minutes to process. Thus, I have time to blish some blurry camera phone photos of my finger.

Surprisingly, it has pretty much healed from the intrusion. I had several days of pussiness, tenderness, and swelling. But now it's only mildly swollen and virtually painless, even if I bump it. I can type, hold a pencil, and shampoo my hair with ease.



In other news House is back on Fox after the baseball hiatus. Yea! Between House, South Park, Battlestar, and another show I'm too embarassed to mention, Fall TV has been good.

I think my file saved, so I better get back to it.

Costumes

The Rancher and the Wili

Saul Tigh (and if you don't know who that is, start watching Battlestar Galactica)

The 60s skater and Emilio Estevez from Young Guns

Neil Diamond Phillips

Creepy and Big Wig

A full length shot of my fire hazard of a costume

Share my pain

So last night Brian comes over to carve pumpkins with us. Fun, right? Well, about four strokes around the stem, and my finger slips and jams into the rind. In a flash I see the side of my nail lifted outside of it's cozy skin. I dash to the sink and run it under cold water. At first I thought I cut it, given my track record. No, the pumpkin rind rammed up my nail all the way back to the bed.




Did I mention it went all the way to the bed? Such SEARING PAIN I have not known.

Ben and Brian took turns operating with a needle, and they got some of the bits out that were closer to the edge. But I was crying from the intense pain of having NEEDLES POKING UNDER MY FINGERNAIL. I finally had to ask them to give up, squirt some antibacterial ointment on it and try to ignore the throbbing and swollen heat it was now producing.


But dog gone it, I was going to carve that confounded pumpkin! (Me on left, Ben's on right).



Today it was definitely swollen, red, and more tender than last night (abused finger on the right).


After much soaking in peroxide and numbing with benzocaine and ice, I pried out all of the pumpkin. These last three chunks are probably about half of what was in there in total. All that white space on the nail is where I had to root around, and it's now detached.

But I feel much better now that the pumpkin is out. I just have to make sure if it starts looking infected that I get better treatment.

We had a steady trickle of trick or treaters tonight. With my finger relieved I was able to make the lamb stew for dinner as planned (simmering now), and put on ghoul make-up for the kids. Ben is watching Monster Squad with Brian (I'm so glad he's not participating in all of the marathon this year), then he's coming home for dinner and to watch Shaun of the Dead with me. Yea!

Creepy Treats

Halloween is upon us. A holiday that combines fall cooking, creative gorey goodies, and heavy eye make-up; it's definitely a favorite time of year for me. I hosted a small party last night in celebration. More pictures to come later (including a few glimpses of the house, decorating still in progress).

See how many candy bars you can identify (answers at the end of the post). The winning guest only got 6 out of 10 correct! I guess I made it harder than was necessary.


Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with cream cheese frosting.

Deviled Eggs (made by request at 11:30 last night I might add)









Mystery Candy Bar Contest Answers:




1. Nut Roll
2. 100 Grand
3. Snickers Cruncher
4. Heath
5. Mounds
6. Wonka Bar
7. Twix
8. O Henry
9. Reeses' Fast Break
10. Hershey's S'mores

 

Getting settled

It's starting to feel like a home. I still have that unnerving sense that I'm lost when the lights are off at night, but at least the house is functional.


Molly loves the stairs as much as I imagined.

She chases toys from the top floor to the basement. I shuttle them back upstairs about 5 times a day, and that's on a work day.

The stairs help her access sweaters put in otherwise inconvenient places.

(I realize that the number of cat pictures I post is ridiculous. You don't want to know how many I take and don't blish).

She and Ben have slap fights from the top steps every night. They're doing again right now.
(I dig Ben's hair flip in this picture)

She also learned to play fetch with her toys, but she's usually only in the mood right after I go to bed, and right after I feed her in the morning (when I have the least energy). She's lost weight and is definitely building more muscle.


Have I mentioned how great my oven light is???

Finally a good seasonal meal. Roasted garlic rosemary pork loin (I'm putting leftovers into a baked sandwich loaf tonight) with yellow and purple fingerling potatoes and sweet acorn squash.

We got dumped with slushy wet snow today. Perfect night for hot baked food and more Battlestar Galactica on DVD.

Blue

What do you do after a long day at work? Paint the house! I put one of two colors on the walls of the living room. I'm not sold on this blue yet. It's darker in person, but just as bright. After I put the complimentary color up, I hope it will look better.

Snow everywhere except my car

Glorious glorious carport! What joy I have experienced this morning, to come outside where there is one or two inches of snow everywhere, but my car is clean and dry. There is not even frost to scrape!

I'm really disappointed in my cooking habits since the move. Meaning the cooking doesn't exist. I've made a little of this and that, but mostly we go out a lot. There's always an excuse - I got back from dance class late and don't have the energy to cook. I spent the whole day cleaning the old apartment, let's celebrate! We're going to the ballet, we already planned to go out to Indian food! Ben's sick, so there's no reason to cook for one. It's snowy and cold, let's go out for pizza. And on and on. I think it's partly because I'm tired, partly because I haven't done meal planning, and partly because the kitchen is disorganized and doesn't flow well.

The ballet, by the way, was fantastic. I had not seen Giselle live before. For those of you who don't know the story, or have only seen clips on that one episode of Angel: Giselle is a peasant girl who loves to dance, but has a weak heart (literally). She has an admirier, Hilarion, who is a bit of a prick. She prefers her lover, Loys, who is actually a nobleman named Albrecht. She and Loys become engaged, Hilarion reveals that Loys is a fake, and in fact Albecht is also engaged to a noblewoman. Giselle freaks out and dies from shock and grief. In the second act, Giselle has become a Wili - "vampiric ghosts of betrothed girls who have died before their wedding day." Hilarion visits her grave, the wilis catch him and make him dance to death. Albrecht visits her grave and the wilis make him dance. Giselle pleads for the wilis to spare him, they refuse. He dances until dawn, when the wilis must retreat, and his life is saved. Giselle returns to her grave.

Here's a video clip from another company. The first variation it shows it my favorite, those traveling changements are incredible!

The sets and costumes were really impressive. A couple dancers were having an off night, but overall it was a crisp performance. I was a little disappointed that Maria Mosina was playing Giselle. She's ok, but she played the lead in every performance we saw last season. They have other great dancers who I would like to see featured. They rotate the part of Giselle between three dancers, and Maria just happened to be scheduled for the time we saw it. She's always paired with Igor Vassine, who is pretty good, but our favorite male dancer is Kubo Koichi, and he's too short of Maria, so we haven't seen him in a lead yet either. (Link to dancer bios) Oh well, it was still a lively, engaging show. And I love any excuse to put on a stockings and heels.

I know what you're wondering

But Rachel, how is your cat doing? Well, I'll tell you - in multimedia! Oh, scratch that, umm, singular media. . . pictures. . .

She totally digs my new down comforter and duvet.
(btw Mom: see what I mean? What color do you do walls when this is the focus of the room?)

She also digs the cover I sewed for her cat bed (even though in this picture she's making the same face she makes while using her litter box, trust me, she loves it.)

Oh! I'm so confused! There's boxes everywhere and I can't find my food. Woes me! And get that camera out of my face.

Look, a squirrel! I feel a primal urge I haven't felt since I found that moth three weeks ago. I think I'll run up and down the stairs some more!

 

Old and New Cooking

Old Apartment cooking: Lettuce wraps - these were so good! I found a recipe supposedly copying a certain appetizer at a certain restaurant. I made a couple changes (ground turkey instead of minced chicken, button mushrooms instead of shiitake, and added carrots) and it turned out great! I should definately keep this recipe on hand for later.

The tree in the parking lot had these gorgeous apples.

I decided to try an apple crisp recipe. The "topping" (if you can called two tablespoons of brown sugar a topping) didn't really cook. So I used my blowtorch!! The cinnamon sparked when I blazed it (kind of scary).

These were supposed to be bars you can eat out of hand. They were far too gooey, in fact, the center didn't cook while the edges were dry. I have that problem with bar cookies a lot. I should get this pan.

Stuffed zucchini and pork sandwich. Blah.

Pasta with two sauces and standard green beans. Blah. (Getting close to moving, can you tell?)

A sudden spurt of energy led me to pizza!

The one on the left has steak, carmalized onions, cheddar, and garlic on marinara. The one on the right has a pesto base with sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and garlic.

Sweet Potato Soup. Ingredients: sweet potato, sage (thanks mom!), butter, chicken stock, salt and pepper.

Simmer all day, stir in cheese, you're done. I also made wheat bread with sage.




New House!! It took me several days, but I finally cooked in the kitchen. This is my first dinner (not counting the mac and cheese from a box). I improvised with food on hand (hadn't gone grocery shopping yet) and used a recipe I found online as a base. It's acorn squash, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, and garbanzo bean stew with Indian curry.

After shopping I made - sandwiches! I know, real ambitious of me, huh? But they were quite tasty: bacon, gouda, and butter lettuce with grainy mustard and horseradish. I picked up the requisite gallon of cider at the store. The neighborhood king soopers was fairly impressive.

And tonight's dinner: rosemary pork tenderloin, sweet roasted acorn squash, sweet and sour braised cabbage, and you'll notice my prized roasted garlic nestled on the right. I have a whole head of it, baby. I just brought a batch of brownies with butterscotch chips out of the oven.

It's starting to feel like home.