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Apple Bread & Bar Review 3/5

Today’s Bar: White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bar (also by Clif Bar)

Package Goodies: High in Calcium, Folic Acid, AND Antioxidants. 70% Organic, Entirely Natural (again, this means nothing…in some cases, things that are allowed by the FDA to be listed as “Natural Flavor” are more toxic than some “Artificial Flavor”). 6g Fiber, 3g Protein, Low Glycemic. Ingredient List: LunaPro (Soy Rice Crisp [Soy Protein Isolate, Organic Rice Flour], Organic Toasted Oats, Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour, Organic Flaxmeal), Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Coating (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Palm Kernel Oil, Organic Soy Flour, Organic Soy Lecithin, Organic Vanilla), Organic Macadamia Nuts, Inulin (Chicory Extract), Organic Macadamia Nut Butter, Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Oat Syrup Solids, Organic Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors. Very similar list of ingredients as yesterday’s bar. Chock full of nutrients and good-for-you stuff. The Verdict: Was this actually nutritious? Because it tasted like dessert! White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are one of my favorites, so I knew I had to try this flavor bar. So delicious! I really liked the texture of the puffed rice type bar, with the layer of white chocolate on the bottom (and swirled across the top!). Sometimes I need a more fruity snack, but this is perfect for that chocolate/sweet craving I get some days. I had a Luna Bar with Matt the other day at the gym…I think it was something with peanut butter. It was equally as satisfying. I can see why these are getting such rave reviews across the blogs! I will definitely be stocking up on these anytime I see them on sale!! I have noticed with both yesterday’s Clif Energy Bar and this Luna Bar, that I am completely a sucker for nice packaging. Pretty colors, interesting designs, feel-good statements about the product philosophy…this stuff absolutely works on me. (I think it’s interesting that the Clif Bar company has an entire bar spawned off of it devoted to natural energy for women…this seems a bit sketchy, but I’m still a sucker, so I’ll buy into it for now) I’m a marketing team’s dream. Does it affect whether I enjoy actually eating it?? I’m not sure…probably a little, but I also know that I’ve had bars in hideous packaging that I’ve loved, and bars in really cute, promising packaging that have been horrible. Either way, yum for Luna Bar! There are a bunch of flavors, so I can’t wait to try more!

Even though I was really busy on Monday night, I managed to make some yummy apple bread for breakfast the next day! It’s from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and it was super easy! We doubled this batch because we had a giant pile of apples leftover in the fridge that weren’t good enough for eating out of hand, but perfect for shredding into some bread!

Apple Bread

• 1.5 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 cups finely shredded, peeled apple
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted (I didn’t toast them because I was lazy…it was 100% fine)

1. Grease your loaf pan (I used about 6 mini loaf pans for my double batch) and set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg.  Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
2. In another medium bowl combine egg, sugar, apple, and oil.  Add apple mixture all at once to flour mixture.  Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).  Fold in nuts.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes (our oven is wonky and vacillates in temperature a lot, but all my mini-loaves baking at once took about this long to cook…I’d recommend checking on them at 30 minutes or so, just to make sure you don’t burn them!) or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Wrap and store overnight before slicing (HA! This did NOT happen.)

I’m really glad I took the time out of editing to make this. It was really easy and everyone here, at my work, and at Matt’s work loved it!  Fruit breads like this (very similar to bananananana bread) are so easy because there is no special folding or sifting or straining or anything to do….mix the dry, mix the wet, throw ‘em together and you’re good to go! I grew up with Shed’s Spread Country Crock spread, and it is the PERFECT smooth flavor for this kind of bread, even though we go for regular butter most other times.

If you’re not a big baker, this is a good kind of baked good to start with (probably why I love it so much!).  Now, back to editing!! Tomorrow, guest post on Dori’s blog!

Me & Food

A Bacon Wrapped Life (previously Lady in Pink)

What started as an outlet for random rambling and general blogging (and a fun surprise from a wonderful boyfriend!) has become primarily a venue for even more enjoyment of food, with a bit of my random life excitement popping in–thus the name change.

Contrary to the beliefs of many friends, I don’t always cook with bacon, cheese, or other random sources of fat (although these are all delicious and often considered!).  I appreciate my increasing ability to cook with lots of different veggies, leave meat out all together sometimes, create healthier versions of old recipes and just generally bring health and wellness intomy life.

All that being said, I love to indulge, to succumb to temptation, to provide temptation, to jump into a giant hypothetical vat of whipped cream and absolutely gorge myself…OK, so this is where all those previously-mentioned misconceptions come from.  Along with my indulging, I also love to exaggerate. 🙂 If I had to identify my “food philosophy,” it would be this: Food makes me happy and I want to use food to make you happy!  I am enthralled not only by the flavors, textures, scents and other sensations of food, but also by the science, history, sociology, psychology of food. Food is a key part of every aspect of life, and in times when more and more people have harmful relationships with the source of nourishment and life and can no longer take enjoyment in the act of eating, I think it is extremely important to recognize and remember the vital role that food plays in our lives.

Indulgence is also not such a stable relationship either, and part of my challenge as a cook and a consumer is to work this indulgence into an overall healthy approach to eating.  My boyfriend, Matt, and I work on this issue together and I am so grateful that we have each other for support and the mental and emotional nourishment that supplements the physical nourishment we get from our food.  We both LOVE to eat, and luckily we both hate mushrooms…it works out nicely.

I recently finished my MA in English, so I’m also just getting past my college mentality towards food–fit in whatever you can, whenever you have time.  I’m currently working as an undergraduate admissions advisor at a small, private, naturual health sciences university.  I love student affairs and am excited to be at this early stage of my professional career with lots of hopeful options down the road.  In this job, I have had the opportunity to expand my advising experience and work with a huge variety of students so far, but I have also been exposed to a community of physicians, students and other faculty/staff members who are very involved in the field of natural health.  This hugely affects my perspective on food at this point in time; in a very short time I have absorbed a ton of amazing information and ideas about whole foods nutrition and overall wellness with an all-vegetarian cafeteria at my fingertips.  When I am at work, it’s very easy for me to push my own boundaries in terms of food knowledge and comfort-levels–something I also plan to be encouraged to do through this blog.  I have been in this job for about 6 months now and I can’t wait to see what else I’ll learn from this healthy community while I’m here!

COMPLETE CHANGE OF TOPIC: Another key thing about my life is my wonderfully adorable dog, Santana.  She’s a beagle-chihuahua mix who was a graduation present from my roommate when we finished our undergraduate work.  Santana moved with me from KY to central NY, and while I was in graduate school she helped me get through the rough patch of readjusting, making new friends in a completely different program and school and dealing with a crazy crazy grad student schedule…sometimes I’d be home all day reading and writing, sometimes I’d be gone from 8am until 2am the following morning and she was as flexible as a puppy could be–and always excited to see me when I got home! I was questioning my choices a lot and finding it hard to make time for relaxation and enjoyable activities, not to mention eating right and generally watching out for my health.  I can’t really explain how vital Santana was to getting through those 2 years.  She moved to Seattle with Matt and me and the three months before she got here were brutal (while I was here early doing some job-hunting).  She is a trouble-maker, and I sort of love her for it.  She fits us, and we love her so much we let her start her own blog. Originally this was Matt’s idea, but yeah, I am that kind of puppy mom…deal with it and just enjoy how adorable she is.  The blog does a great job of portraying her very anthropomorphized personality!  Ok, I’m done raving about her for now, but I figured it was important to me and thus to the blog. I may even include some puppy-friendly recipes at times!

There’s a lot more “about me” that I could ramble about; as an English student, one of my biggest flaws was editing things down!  This blog will likely change as my life continues to shift, but my goal is to be constantly encouraged by the presence of the blog world to continue my quest for healthiness in my happily bacon-wrapped life.

One last important note: I love lists! Love them! If it can be said in a list, say it in a list! Here’s a summary about me and my food, in list form:

• A lot of the recipes I use or create are chock-full of indulgence.
• Every once in a while I have the energy to try to clean up around the edges and make something on the fancy side.
• More and more I celebrate new veggie options and other healthy additions to my food life.
• Always I want a delicious and enjoyable experience in the kitchen and at the table–if I don’t like it, I don’t cook it.
• Exception to the note above: If I really like you, I’ll cook whatever you want! Maybe not that extreme, but I love to feed the people I care about, and the act of cooking for them is just as important as eating the finished product. 

I am excited to dive into the wonderful blogging community and hope that you can find some yummy recipes and fun randomness along the way.  I love feedback and new ideas, so bring on the comments! And the bacon!

When life gives you a free box of cake mix…

QFC sent us a coupon for a free box of cake mix! Apparently this is one of our frequently-purchased products? I think we have maybe bought 1 box of cake mix since Matt moved to Seattle almost 2 years ago.
Whatever their reasoning, we got a free box of Devil’s Food Reduced Sugar cake mix! This weekend I decided to finally pull it out and turn it into treats for a game night at a friend’s place. I am not a huge baker and get really frustrated when baked goods don’t turn out correctly (I can fix a stir fry or the seasoning on a roast if something is off…if a cake goes bad, I just throw up my hands), so random urges for sweets and free cake mixes are the rare causes of Mallory Baking Time.

I prefer cupcakes for non-birthday needs…the slicing and serving of a cake is a headache sometimes, and a cupcake can just pick up and go, without all the baggage of plate, fork, blah blah blah that a regular slice of cake brings along.

Cupcakes it is!

I made 12 regular-sized cupcakes in my silicone cupcake pan (have I used this before?? I can’t really remember…)

I put the rest of the batter into two mini-cupcake tins. One regular metal and one silicone. I noticed that both were by the same company even though I got them at completely different times, places, and they are clearly different materials and slightly different sizes! Interesting!

I figured I’d experiment and see exactly how the silicone bakeware affected my cupcakes. I have used the silicone stuff several times before, but more for non-cake type things (quiche, cheesecake, frozen treats, etc.).

(Also, I’d like to throw in a mini-review for Crisco Spray with Flour…this is AMAZING! My cupcakes slid right out of both the silicone and the regular pan with no paper cupcake liners!!)

Not sure if it was my unevenly heated oven or just the silicone, but the large cupcakes had a very noticeable hump on one side…these would be perfect for decorating as monsters or something for a kid’s birthday party!

 

The two trays of mini-cupcakes went in together and while the silicone tray created similarly-humped miniatures, the regular tray was gorgeous and adorably rounded! I am eager to figure out what makes the difference between the two materials. I bet Alton Brown would have some input!

Look how perfectly rounded the ones in the metal pan are!!! These two trays cooked in the oven at the exact same time!

The humped and the non-humped both tasted delicious and I covered them with a cream cheese frosting that was deliciously lemony (and mostly covered the freakish look of the silicone-baked cupcakes).

 

 

We had originally bought this can of Rainbow Chip frosting which has been my favorite since I was tiny…I love the candies inside the frosting, and will tell you in great detail how this is NOT the same as Funfetti frosting! But we had cream cheese and I wanted to put my tiny hand mixer to the test (I may have killed the $4 Goodwill mixer, but the frosting was worth it). This was my first time making cream cheese frosting (from this Cooking Light recipe), but Matt loved it!

 

I have plans to turn this into a cherry cream cheese frosting in the future, but it will have to wait until our next free cake mix!       

In cupcake-related news, one of my favorite cakey treats mixes cake and ice cream.  Warm brownie sundaes, baked alaska, cake and ice cream…I’m guessing this stems from lots of birthday parties as a kid?  I’ve also been test-driving some lactose free milk because of a hunch that I’m developing a slight lactose intolerance (mostly when I chug giant glasses of milk or have a big bowl of cereal, ice cream or other dairy deliciousness).  So how exciting when I found Turtle Mountain’s soy and coconut milk-based goodies at the blog, Heather Eats Almond Butter. Check it out for a coconut milk product giveaway and other healthy food fun!

Schvester interview!

Yay for boyfriends with fun sisters!  Dori interviewed me for a bloggy thing! She also interviewed Santana…I suggest you read that one…it’s very insightful into the mind of an adorable puppy.  Here are Dori’s questions to me:

• You’re trapped on the same island as me and my three foods, but you’re on the other side, where food is abundant. However, it’s boring. Luckily, you were allowed to take 3 books with you. What books would you take?

1. Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife. Did you see this one coming?? I initially read this because my aunt had it and I was stuck at her house for a couple weeks…I read it in one day. It is unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to anyone who has read this and not loved it. The storyline plays to my romantic side and the idea of fated love versus constructed love and the consequences of believing in either is something that really appeals to me. The characters that Niffenegger creates, especially in Henry and Clare, are not particularly “good” people in the sense that fictional characters sometimes embody…they have major flaws, participate in not-so-nice activities, and are extremely rough around the edges, to say the least. And yet, you love them. The first time I read it, I was absolutely absorbed. The second time, I knew where it was going and that only made it better…I could more fully appreciate details, dialogue and confusing scenarios of Henry’s time traveling, and cried just as much towards the end of the novel. Amazing.

2. William Shakespeare, Hamlet. My absolute favorite Shakespeare (probably because my favorite high school teacher loved it). I’ve read it many times, have several copies, and memorized a sonnet or two in high school (only bits remain). If I could bring it as a set and only count it as one book, I’d also bring John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius, also recommended to me by Mrs. Miller, my AP English teacher. A prequel of sorts to Hamlet, this is Updike’s imagining of the love affair of Hamlet’s mother and uncle…I love stuff like this and I really enjoyed the combination of these two together. So we’ll just pretend that’s one book 🙂

3. Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning. I would need a book of poetry, and I decided on this one simply because it has this poem, my favorite:

Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes

(I would include the text here, but wordpress is annoying and I don’t have my computer with Live Writer on it)

• On this island, you are allowed to bring one photograph. What picture would you bring and why?

This one:

It makes me smile. A lot.

• You escaped from the island and are back in the Seattles. It is the last day of the world and you can go to any restaurant in Seattle. Where would you go and what would you order (it must be an item currently on their menu)?

Sooo tough. I think I’d have to say Red Mill‘s Double Bacon Deluxe with Cheese. There are probably a TON of places I could go and get an expensive fancy meal or something, but Red Mill is so amazing that they sometimes run out of beef because people love it so much!! When you order, you can see the grill in the back, and a stack of bacon ready to go on burgers, at least two feet tall. I’ve tried some other sandwiches there, but the burgers that come with the special Red Mill sauce are the best…Matt likes the Bleu Cheese burger (blech). I’d also need fries, onion rings, and a root beer!

(I stole this picture from their website…here is where I give them whatever credit they need to get for that to be OK)

• What is your favorite meal to cook? What is your least favorite?

After lots and lots of thought about this, I decided my most favorite to cook (right now, anyway) is Stir Fry! We do this at least every other week and I love it for a few reasons: a) I can use veggies from our CSA or others we find at the grocery store and I really enjoy the chopping and combining of vegetables. One of the most satisfying things for me is a nice pile of almost perfectly sliced or diced produce! b) It gives me a reason to order extra rice when we go out to dinner…leftover rice makes better fried rice…it has a little more starch and cold rice will have a nicer texture when it’s fried. c) I can play with the ingredients and make a completely different dish from one week to the next (one of my favorite things about cooking)– different veggies, add some peanuts (or a little peanut butter to change the sauce!), switch out the rice for noodles and make lo mein…so many possibilities. d) I get a huge amount of satisfaction from lining all my ingredients up, chopped, mixed, ready to go in the sizzling hot pan (I need a new wok!!)…and once everything is chopped the entire meal will come together in less than 15 minutes!

I’ve also been thinking lots about my least favorite meal to cook…I don’t think I have one. If I don’t like to cook something, I don’t make it. Period. If I am craving something I don’t enjoy cooking (or don’t feel like cooking right then), we make something else or go out. Cooking for me is really about enjoying the act of it. Ironically, considering my most favorite meal to cook, I do HATE cooking rice itself. I need a rice cooker…desperately. We’ve taken to using boil-in-a-bag four minute rice…I follow recipes, instructions on packages, cook books, the internet, everything I can find…my rice either overcooks, burns, turns to mush, doesn’t absorb any water and stays completely uncooked…something inevitably goes wrong and the rice is practically inedible. This is the case mostly for the times when I am just making plain, basic, straightforward rice. If it’s in a casserole or something like that, I can make it work usually. It’s horrible…it frustrates me to no end, and I just can’t figure out. So I’ve sort of given up on it for now. Once we have a kitchen with room for a rice-cooker, that is definitely on my kitchen list!

• What is your favorite ingredient? What makes it so special?

Matt and I had to have a conversation about what actually counts as an ingredient.

Matt took “ingredient” to mean something more specific: spices, seasonings, flour, etc. If this is the case, I’d say cumin. My favorite spice by far. Strong and smoky, but it blends nicely with other flavors. I use it a lot….probably way too much.

I took a very broad view and said, of course, BACON! Bacon has been getting a lot of hype lately with bacon-flavored salt, bacon lollipops, and other crazy novelties. Bacon is amazing. I don’t need to put bacon salt on everything or have it in every meal or anything like that. I do have two cookbooks, both gifts from my friend Bob, that focus on bacon (the fact that he has given me these is really indicative of the roots of our friendship). Everything Tastes Better With Bacon (if you like bacon, you should buy this cookbook simply for the photographs) and Seduced by Bacon. Amazing. I know that when I’m cooking a dish that includes bacon, I can count on that bacon to bring an amazing, rounded, satisfying flavor to the party. If I’m making bacon as a side, I know that I need to hide it from Matt. V and I used to talk about which dishes were becoming my “signatures”…ones that I could make practically in my sleep and that were my fail-safe, go-to dishes for a potluck or a last-minute dinner get together. One of the first on this list was Green Beans with Bacon, which started with a generous amount of bacon, chopped and cooked down to crispy bits, leaving some grease in which to caramelize some sweet onions. The onions met up with garlic and fresh green beans and a bit of broth to simmer until the green beans were cooked through. With a little salt and black pepper at the end and the crunchy bacon thrown back on top, this is simple and delicious. The first time I put it together, it was spur of the moment and without a recipe…I was ridiculously pleased. I’ve also made it for vegetarians, cooking the bacon separately from the onions and green beans (cooked in veggie stock of course). Bacon fans topped theirs with bacon. Given the choice, I use the bacon drippings to cook the onions because it just brings way more flavor to the overall dish, but green beans, onion and garlic have a lot going on by themselves, so it works either way.

• What is your idea of a perfect weekend afternoon when you have NOTHING that needs to get done and are free to spend it however you like?

Easy: Matt + Puppy + Couch + Chinese + Pajamas + NY Times Crossword/Netflix 🙂

______________________________________________________

The rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” If a few people want interviews, I will randomly pick one.

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

…..
I had planned to include some food pictures from dinner last night, but those will have to wait because we’re off to the gym to get a tour (even though Matt is already a member) and switch over to a joint membership so we can play racquetball and other fun things on a regular basis together!! My hope is to get into a routine of going to the gym and wandering around Pike Place every weekend (especially once the weather actually starts to get nice for real).  Ideally, the 2nd day of the weekend would include taking Santana to the off-leash park and walking around Green Lake! Fun! I can’t wait for Spring/Summer!

Things I have recently loved and some food experiments

Some mini-reviews of recent things that have made me smile:

• The Lion King – we had tickets on February 14th to see The Lion King (musical) at the Paramount in Seattle.  I’m a pretty huge fan of Disney cartoons in general, and an even bigger fan of musicals.  Growing up in a tiny tiny town in Central NY and going to school in the middle of Kentucky didn’t really lend themselves to a lot of musical theater experience along the way…some, but not a lot.  Broadway Across America is a spectacular program that takes Broadway shows across the country.  I’m not sure how they do in other cities, but the ones we’ve seen here in Seattle so far have been so wonderful.  We’ve seen Avenue Q, The Color Purple and The Lion King so far.  We have season tickets through the year which include August Osage County, Fiddler on the Roof, Frost/Nixon, and Wicked!  We’ve missed a few that have been in the city because of scheduling and money and a variety of other random things (including our inability to remember half of things that make us say “Oooh! We have to do that!”).  Anyway, we had tickets a while ago, and when Matt’s mom and sister planned to visit, we jumped on the opportunity and got some extra seats for them…we had a delicious dinner ahead of time and the show was SPECTACULAR! The staging completely blew me away (I’m not saying anything new about The Lion King here), and I thought the particular group of performers worked well together.  Plus, the Paramount Theater is unbelievably gorgeous and we always love when we get to shows there.  Of the musicals I’ve seen so far, this one is definitely the one I’d recommend if you could only make it to one show ever.  I would also strongly recommend shows at the Paramount for anyone living in or visiting the Seattle area!

• Pumpkin Butter – everytime we get to one of the Seattle markets, I manage to get at least two samples of pumpkin butter and yet haven’t gotten around to buying any yet (I have an annoying habit of forgetting to bring cash when we head to a market).  I’m not sure who it is that brings this particular pumpkin butter to our markets, but it is the smoothest, most satisfying bit of sweetness I have found yet…if we’re planning a trip to the market, I’m usually craving the little wooden stick dipped in pumpkin butter on the way there! When Dori was here, she brought me some Bauman’s Pumpkin Butter–made by a Pennsylvania Dutch family, with no sugar added! So now I have my own pumpkin butter at home!! It is not quite the same as the kind I always sample downtown, but it is extremely tasty and as Dori has noted in her review of Chobani yogurt, it is delicious in vanilla yogurt! I haven’t tried Chobani yet, as it’s not in my store, but even in cheap vanilla yogurt from Safeway, it was heavenly.  I am trying to come up with lots of ways to use the pumpkin butter, since I don’t want it to go bad, and I don’t think we eat enough yogurt to go through our tiny jar just as a mix-in.  If I come up with anything spectacular, I will definitely post some pictures/recipes!

• Weeds – My brother would be highly disappointed: we’re cancelling our cable.  Basically, it is ridiculously expensive, and we really only watch a few shows on a super-regular basis.  Since Matt got us a subscription to Netflix for our anniversary a few months ago (which comes with Instant streaming of tons of movies and tv shows on the computer or his XBox), we have been getting completely addicted to TV shows; we’re both very satisfied by starting and finishing an entire season of a show in order.  We’ve gone through almost 3 seasons of Law and Order: SVU, every available episode of 30 Rock and The Office, and some random cartoons from our childhoods.  Plus, we’ve enjoyed some documentaries we probably would never have watched otherwise: The Business of Being Born, Man on Wire, a scrabble documentary that I can’t remember the name of, and we have a ton more on our list! Needless to say, we spend more time with Netflix than we do with cable, so out it goes.  Anyway, we just started watching the Showtime series, Weeds.  We’re four or five episodes into the first season and this is one of the most adorable and funny shows I’ve watched lately…Matt says it always “keeps you on your heels”…I told him that’s not an actual phrase, but I got his meaning, and I agree.  It switches from hilarious, to poignant, to cathartic really quickly and creates this fictional world that deals really well with a lot of issues in the “real world”.  Granted, we’re only a few episodes in, but even if it gets horrible from here on out, it’s definitely worth watching the first few just to see what they did with it!! If it turns nauseating, I will update the blog and rescind my love for the series as a whole!  In addition, the theme song, “Little Boxes” (and the music they use overall) is completely wonderful and lifts my spirits when I am grumpy or stressed.

• Externships from Auburn University’s vet school – one of my absolutely best, most wonderful, closest, amazing friends is probably coming to visit!!! She is just starting her clinical work in vet school at Auburn University in Alabama and she gets an externship where she can choose the location and try out some new places…apparently Seattle has some wonderful vet thing that she wants to get into, so she will hopefully be here for 2 weeks in August (a gorgeous time to visit the city!).  I am ridiculously excited about this and know that she is too…not only about visiting, but also about being to this point in her education…she has been working towards this for SO long and spent her time at UK making the most of every pre-vet/development/educational/professional opportunity she could find (hell, she did foal watching Friday nights from 7pm-7am during the entire Spring semester for the entire time we were there…and she doesn’t even like horses!!). I am crazy proud of her and couldn’t be more excited to celebrate and show her Seattle!

We’ve done some food experimenting lately.  A few highlights:

One of Matt’s favorite things to get at the MS cafeteria is Major Grey’s chicken.  An Indian dish with mangos and spice and yumminess! I’ve never had it, but he got the recipe from a coworker who had figured it out, and we put it together.  Matt was extremely pleased with it and I completely loved it…it was similar to a mango chicken that we had made a while ago using a Cooking Light recipe as a starting point and switching it up a bit (this one used mango chutney and the previous one used fresh mango and included cashews), and we topped it with fried green onions.  Over rice, this was ridiculously satisfying.  We tried to make a chickpea/spinach side dish to go with it, but the recipe we used just didn’t turn out the way we expected, so it was a dinner full of chicken and rice…nothing to really complain about there! 🙂

I keep telling myself I want to use the crockpot more often, because when I do, it really has amazing results.  This was a baked potato soup that I just sort of threw together with some potatoes that I had left from a CSA box one week.  I cooked potatoes, a bit of broth, sauteed onions, and some herbs and spices in the crock pot all day while we were at work.  When I got home, I used the stick blender to puree the mix (leaving some chunks of potatoes) and then added a can of corn and some sliced green onions (I think I also had to add a little more liquid to thin it out just a bit).  Topped it with cheese and bacon (duh) and made some cheesy toast squares to go with it.  Unbelievably delicious and filling.

This one was completely new for us.  We had gotten parsnips in our CSA box two weeks ago and I had never eaten or cooked with them before.  They look like strange white-ish carrots and have a really similar smell and taste (a bit sweeter/stronger).  We also had potatoes left, so I basically made mashed/whipped potatoes and parsnips–I think it turned out to be a 1:1 ratio of the two, blended with the stick blender to get them smooth, with some butter and milk or cream (I don’t remember which we had on hand).  I had thawed out a gigantic chicken breast that we had in the freezer and was just planning on doing a pan fry or bake, with some kind of sauce and a side vegetable, but Matt said “How about a casserole!?”, so we went with that and completely did it off the cuff.  1 chopped chicken breast, 1 can of rinsed green beans, 1 can of slightly drained petite diced tomatoes, 1 can of condensed cheddar cheese soup, and a little milk to thin it out enough to mix.  All of that went into a greased casserole dish and I topped it with a mix of seasoned breadcrumbs and some shredded cheddar we had on hand.  The tomatoes were a great addition because they cut through the creaminess of the cheese with some acidity.  The casserole came out a bit soupier than I would normally want a casserole, but when we put it with the parsnip potato mash, the two came together to form this really smooth, satisfying bite of food that was almost like a thick, creamy stew.  This was the epitome of a cold-weather comfort food (I should take this to Food Network’s Ultimate Recipe Showdown with Guy! A show that I have only seen a few times…it’s ridiculously fun to watch!).  And Kudos to Matt for suggesting a casserole! With a boneless chicken breast (especially one that has been frozen), a straight bake, broil, pan fry  or whatever would not have been as satisfying.  Baked in the oven in chunks with a casserole, it really works and I think you’re probably going to get the most satisfaction from the white meat this way.

Another reason I am super pumped for V to come visit is that she is one of my most favorite people to cook for!! We lived together in KY for two years and in that time we definitely learned a lot of each other’s quirks.  She is a super fussy eater in some ways and while that might be annoying for someone who loves to do most of the cooking, it actually was pretty wonderful, because it helped me become a better and more flexible cook.  She is pretty much hesitant to eat leftovers, so I have become adept at planning a week’s meals so that I can make something one night and then turn it into a completely different dish a few nights later.  The thing I love the most: when I’d make something she loved for dinner, it would be crazy obvious from her reaction…like a little kid eating ice cream, her face would light up and she’d look euphorically happy in her chair with her plate of dinner! Then (also like a kid with ice cream), she would ask for her favorites over and over again…this makes me SO happy! Don’t get me wrong, Matt does this too, but he is a bit less fussy and I get more excited about cooking with him and teaching him his way around the kitchen.  With V, she was the first person I lived with and cooked for on a regular basis for a long period of time, and it meant the world to me then to have someone so excited for a meal I made! (I also used to put her good grades up on the fridge and fret over her when she was sick;  she dealt with me having mini-meltdowns over my thesis and being away from home; we both did a lot of listening to the other about major family crises…so there is no denying that we got attached)  Aaaanyway, I think this is really indicative of why I love to cook and to feed people…I like to experiment, try new things, create recipes, whatever…but most of all I like to see the people I’m feeding completely satisfied by what I’ve made for them.  Blogging about the stuff we’ve made is really just another outlet for expressing the satisfaction I get from cooking, eating and feeding!