Recipes this week

By far, the gem of the week this week was the Autumn Kale Slaw Salad recipe from the Kitchn.  The peanut dressing with the crushed red pepper made it feel almost a bit Thai-ish, but very filling and satisfying.

Other highlights from this week include squash pasties, also adapted from the Kitchn, which have been on my list to make for a couple of weeks now.  I had thought they were going to be ‘harder’ than they were on a weeknight – these were actually really easy and relatively no fuss (as no fuss as rolling dough can be), very healthy, and warmed up really well for lunch the next day. Mine actually did look pretty much exactly like the photos too.

 

 

 

 

 

Those two were by far my favorites.  We had a lot of CSA broccoli to use up this week, which resulted in broccoli soup and broccoli with baked potatoes.  The mushroom leek risotto was also really good, but I wish I had broth on hand to add some depth to the flavor – I just used water.  It turned out good, but I think it could have been better.  And all in all, as far as risotto recipes go, that was didn’t need a lot of babysitting which was nice.

My adaptations of all the recipes can be found in this PDF:  Recipes 20091118

(112). Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Well, the week has started.  Weekends never seem to be long enough, and this one was no exception despite my hunny being gone.  There is just something about getting up and having to go in to work….  though, I don’t know if this is a byproduct of getting older or what, but I always used to think that it would be *great* to not have to work.  Now, I’m not so sure – I think I may go stir crazy if I just had all day every day in the house.  Work this morning was pretty exciting actually, I got my new work laptop.  Fun!  (Yep, I am a dork.)  And this week is quasi cool because I’m working remotely in the afternoons and only spending the mornings in the office.   It’s still a good 6 hours in office every day, but still – not too shabby.   Pinot and I got a walk in right at sunset tonight, which was pretty.

With that said, the weekdays are sort of weird because I’m so used to Nick coming home at a certain time, and even though I know he’s out of town, I still subconsciously get excited when the clock starts getting closer to that hour.  Have to remind myself this week that I won’t be hearing his foot on the doorstep.  :/

Tonight, in an attempt to avoid the realization, I preoccupied myself with baking.  A fall favorite – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread.  When I was in college, I made this with a full bag of normal sized chocolate chips – tonight I used a half bag of the minis and it was more than enough (ha – thinking back to this bread in college, it was mostly chocolate with a bit of pumpkin melted in!)  I have been all about making a big loaf into 4 mini loaves lately, and I used that method with this recipe tonight.  Four mini-loaves in an attempt to not eat the entire thing myself in one sitting.   Pairing with a nice cold glass of soy milk was wonderful tonight, but it would have been perfect if the boy had been home to share it.  (Not much sugar in there sweets, I promise!  With any luck, some will be waiting for you when you get back.  Maybe.    )

 

As a random side note, I saw someone on facebook posting an item or two a day from now until thanksgiving of things that they are thankful for.  Today – I am thankful for my immediate family.  My wonderful husband, who can make me laugh even at myself despite how stubborn I can be.  The sweet little kitten who is obsessed with the ‘bird’ that lives in our closet.  And the brown eyed pup, who wants nothing more than to be by our sides.

(103). Go Big Red!

"Nebraska's Prince Amukamara (21) intercepts a pass intended for Oklahoma's Adron Tennell in the first half of their NCAA college football game in Lincoln, Neb., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009." (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Tonight, the Huskers beat the Sooners for the first time since I’ve been a Huskers fan.  Woohoo!  Go big red!  It was a great game – 4 hours too just about!

Otherwise, it was great to be at home today.  Originally had lots of tentative things we *could* have done, but in the end, we got up sort of early, did some stuff around the house, went for a good 7 mile run and walked another 2 back to our car.  I did a lot of cooking today, making enough food for breakfast/lunch/dinner today AND lunch/dinner tomorrow ahead of time, while Nick has been working on finalizing a creative project we’ll add to the site soon.

As far as the recipes – the Cauliflower Omlette this morning was really tasty with the feta and used up the rest of the huge head we got from the CSA this past week; the quinoa salad for lunch was the first time I’d used this grain and the verdict was that it was pretty darned good and pretty cute to boot.  Tempeh ruebins for dinner – wow.  Sauerkraut always gets my vote.  We had them with baked sweet potato fries.  And, in the interest of adding ’snack food’ to the house, this cucumber radish raika that was made this afternoon is REALLY good.  Can’t wait to dig into it good, on everything from leftover quinoa salad to just as a bread dipper.  Mmmmm…  I stuck the recipe for the braised cauliflower pasta in there too even though it’s from a few days ago – the tag team of cauliflower dishes used up the head pretty well.

Recipes 20091107

(99). Exciting day (ha)

Cashew certainly has the right idea today- what I wouldn’t give to have taken a cat nap on my computer this afternoon!

 

Instead, Pinot and I had an exciting run around the neighborhood and close to home. Actually started online window shopping for the holidays while dinner was in the oven- twice baked potatoes take awhile! These pictured are Nicks- mine are sans pepperoni; both have a mixture of white and sweet potatoes with random veggies (celery, onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip, and spinach).

On that note- I for one am going to try to get to sleep early tonight!

 

 

(98). Productive Monday

Today was a great day for tying up loose ends.  Not in terms of housework unfortunately, but in terms of other stuff.  For example:

• Pinot had her follow up vet exam yet again, and the ear infection is *finally* gone!  Woo hoo!  She got the first dose of the doggie flu shot too.
• Got the remaining original picture files from the Munich trip today.  Keyword tagged people, approximate geo-tagged, and rolled in to existing folders.  Created a webpage for ALL of the original prints that will be unveiled later this week….to those in the circle.
• Booked a hotel for New Orleans – this was the cheapest, best rated, close to the French Quarter AND close to the start line giving a discount for people signed up for one of the races, and I wanted to book it early to make sure there were rooms available.  done!
• Figured out our plans for Thanksgiving/weekend.  Now I just need to convince Nick that he wants to do a Turkey Trot with me on Thanksgiving morning.
• Confirmed the Christmas plans with all the key players and everyone is on board.
• Finished and ordered a fun surprise.  Stay tuned.

The housework did live to see another day, but at least we had a really yummy dinner to go along with the season finale of Greek tonight courtesy of this  Onion Custard Pie Recipe.  I have no idea what the difference between this “custard pie” and a “quiche” is, but I do know that this recipe was pretty darned good.  I’ve started making a batch of pie crusts and freezing the dough so it’s ready to go at a moments notice on nights like this, when the urge for something with a crust arises.  I’d like to think that I made the recipe a bit lighter by skipping the 1/2 and 1/2 and subbing skim milk, but the butter probably counteracted any of that.  This took a bit to make, between the parallel (onions cooking/pre-baking crust) followed by the actual oven time, but the result was quite tasty and filling.  Considering how much Nick was wandering around the house before dinner complaining that he had to tighten his belt to forget the hunger pains, one serving and the boy was filled.

Bonus points to those of you that got the Troll 2 reference. 

Recipes from this week

Lots of winging it this week, which turned out well and actually gave us lots of leftovers.  Funny how excited I get about leftovers nowadays – used to hate them, now I’m excited that weekend lunch is taken care of

With the throwing stuff in a pan this week, not many ‘dinner’ recipes for this week – but the recipe file (Recipes This Week) has recipes for the chili and bean dip we had with pumpkin carving, the pumpkin whoopie pies that Mehul & Liz brought over, and all the components of the Ghost cupcakes made this evening.

(95). Getting my Minges Fix & Halloween Baking

I’m very all or nothing when it comes to a lot of things.  Exercise is one of those things, and with the ramping up of the running, I’ve been back to working out 6 or 7 days a week.  Which is great – overall I fell a lot better when I’m doing that (somehow I lose all motivation with moderation of 3-4 workouts a week) – but I’m finding that it’s taking a bit to adjust and I’m really tired in the mornings.  To the point where yet again today, I slept in till 6:30.  Must start getting up a bit earlier once again.  Maybe that can be the goal for next week.

Anyway, I was really looking forward to getting out of work today because Melanie and I had plans for lunch and a dog walk in Bethesda this afternoon.  The rain held out this week (we’ve had to postpone twice now due to the rain and Snowy’s stitches which can’t get wet), so this was the first time since we got back from our trip that Mel & I had a chance to just hang out.  It was a great afternoon!  Even with the chill in the air, the walk was all festively autumn, and lunch at Cosi never disappoints.

Got home, power nap – and baking for tomorrow nights festivities.  Wasn’t really sure what to make, but then I saw this post and thought these Ghost Cupcakes were adorable – and was thus inspired to make them at home.  (Added bonus – I’ve never made fondant before, and with the hot tip that marshmallow fondant is much better than regular, found a recipe and was able to try that at home!)  My cupcakes turned out pretty cute – I couldn’t find gumdrops as the ghost base so I used Halloween Peeps which worked out pretty well.  I think I probably should have made the ghost eyes a bit bigger, but all in all, no complaints – AND I’m really excited to try out the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake!

Tonight, Nick and I are rocking the scary movies for Halloween  – starting with Killer Klowns from Outer Space, which I’ve actually never seen before.  Totally excited

(92). Dreary Tuesday – With a Twist

Started out as the same ol’ Tuesday.  Dreary, drizzly.  I slept in till 6:30 (gasp!) which meant that it took a good hour to get to work, and it took a good 1.5 hours to get home.  Lots of dreary time on the road today.   Pinot is not big on going outside for walks when it’s more than dribbling, so we didn’t go to far this afternoon, and she turns into a gremlin when wet.  You’d never know it by this picture, but right after this docile dog photo shoot, she was running around the living room wrestling with the towel.

Typical Tuesday run, indoors – I have to say that I’m really enjoying re-watching Buffy episodes while on the treadmill.  I have to wonder – with the current vampire ‘thing’ going on, would Buffy be more popular if it was airing now for the first time?

Food find for the week – Trader Joe’s sausage-less Italian soy sausage.  (Woot, veg 9 days and counting!)  Tonight, I crumbled that into a pasta sauce mixture with carrots, green onions, a purple bell pepper, garlic (lots of garlic!), basil, walnuts and organic tomato sauce.  A douse of Riesling in the pan too.  All in all, turned out pretty well – we topped it with goat cheese and served it with whole wheat penne.  Once again, I’m looking forward to lunch tomorrow!

The highlight – highlight – of the evening was watching the movie Zombie Strippers with Nick.  This movie had it all.  Humor.  Strippers.  Gore.  Moments where I turned from the screen only to watch Nick make a face and then say “yeah you wouldn’t have wanted to have seen that part.”  (He always looks slightly amused during the really gory parts.  Gotta love that sense of humor!)  Usually I get caught up in the goriness of Halloween movies, but this one, set in Nebraska (who wouldn’t love a zombie stripper movie set in Nebraska?!) – had me chuckling to the end, and watching the commentary.

(91) What a beautiful fall day

Today, well – getting up was a case of the Mondays, but once I was actually out of bed, I managed to get all of last nights dishes loaded up into the dishwasher and the dining room re-assembled and back to normal.  I love, love, love coming home to a clean house rather than coming home and knowing a lot of chores await.  I was excited for Nick to wake up and find all of that stuff done too!

After work today, Pinot and I set off to Lake Needwood for a bit of a fall hike.  She didn’t get too long of a walk yesterday, with Nick’s and my run in the morning and all her playtime with CJ last night, so getting her something out of the normal routine (i.e. walks around the neighborhood) was in order.  Nick and I ran the hiker/biker trail that begins up by Lake Needwood yesterday, and today I knew to go armed with the camera for some great fall foliage shots, today with the intent of heading around the lake.

Lake Needwood is one of those places around DC that we didn’t discover right away, but now that we know it’s there – (a) it’s amazing how far away from the city you can feel walking around and (b) hooray to it being actually really close to our house!  It pays to live in the boondocks.  Ha ha ha.  Actually, I’m starting to think that I wouldn’t mind owning a house over that way, if we end up here for good.  Providing that I can start telecommuting a couple a times a week, I’m getting too old for the Gaithersburg-Fairfax commute.

And so, today we bring you a selection of 5 photos – your choice on which one is the picture of the day.    With the exception of the photo of Pinot and I, these are all iPhone shots!  It’s not saying much for your point and shoot camera if the iPhone is taking better pictures on a day like today.  (Nope, I didn’t bring the good camera.  Maybe there is another leaf peeping excursion in my future?!)

As a side note on fall foliage, isn’t this xkcd comic the best?

Got home and started on dinner.  I think I was chopping for a good hour or so, but it was well worth it because I think this may be the best soup that I’ve ever made from scratch.  (Gingered Squash Soup ) If you have a lot of veggies laying around the house, this soup – with my modifications anyway – comes highly recommended!

(90). We don’t have internet

Which is odd, because ssh works but http and FTP do not.

We did have a great 6 mile run together this morning – something about 60 degree weather, a path that is lined by trees of every color and not-out-of-breath conversation that make me feel like I could run and run and run!

Our Sunday was otherwise low key and wonderful – my reward for running was a bit of time to complete the samari sodoku in the paper this week.  Got my cook on for a bit for a wine inspired dinner menu (Cheese Filled Dates, Reisling Onion Soup, Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto, Pear & Walnut Salad, Cheese Course & Individual Orange Butter Cakes).  Yep, the 3 wines that we purchased yesterday were bought to accompany the menu, which left the four of us in a food and wine inspired coma better fit for a Saturday than a Sunday, but hey, who’s complaining?

Nick has been spending almost all of his ’spare’ time funneling creativity into the trip blog, which is *almost* ready for launch.  It is looking great so far – stay tuned!