Fine China
The Husband and I decided not to register for fancy dishes when we got married last year, but if we had, we totally would have gotten these.
Teeth
I just chipped my tooth. AGAIN.
This is so annoying.
The backstory: I fell on my face once in college and broke off half of my right front tooth. I couldn't find a dentist would treat me for like three days... I think this happened on a Thursday night or early Friday morning (1am-ish) and apparently dentists don't work on Fridays. Or weekends. So I finally found a dentist who would fix my tooth and I went in for a "temporary cap" that was supposed to hold me over until I could go home to Colorado and have my usual dentist put on a better-looking, more permanent cap.
I had that cap for five years.
Whoops!
So, finally, a few months before the wedding, I decided to get a better one. The "temporary" fix didn't really match my other teeth and I wanted to have pretty teeth for my wedding photos. (Important lesson here: photoshop is cheaper than dental work, and apparently much longer lasting)
I got a fancy new color-matched cap in a procedure that took over an hour and involved grinding off the old cap with what looked like a Dremel tool and then building up a new one. It was not the most fun I've ever had. But still, I was excited to have a new tooth.
"Yay," I thought. "I have finally stopped procrastinating and going around with a crappy "temporary" tooth and now I am a responsible adult whose teeth are all the same color! I am awesome."
I had my new tooth for only about three months when I chipped it... by biting my lip. Yes. Apparently I have the hardest lips known to man. Iron Lips. The chip was relatively small, but I was pissed... that tooth cost a lot and took forever, and I'd had my "temp" tooth for FIVE YEARS with no problems. Ugh.
I asked the dentist how much it would cost to fix, but apparently they can't just patch the chip, they'd have to... you guessed it... grind off the whole tooth and start over again. Maybe I wasn't clear before, but I really really didn't like the grinding. Also, The Husband needs $3000 in dental work, so our co-pays for all that have pretty much tapped out the dental budget. Oh well. It's a tiny chip. I'll live with it.
But today, I chipped it again! Biting my... cuticle. Yes. My cuticles are also rock hard. You wish you had cuticles like these... they are ripped. And my tooth was no match for them.
Perhaps the moral of this story is that I need to stop biting myself, or perhaps the moral of this story is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
This is so annoying.
The backstory: I fell on my face once in college and broke off half of my right front tooth. I couldn't find a dentist would treat me for like three days... I think this happened on a Thursday night or early Friday morning (1am-ish) and apparently dentists don't work on Fridays. Or weekends. So I finally found a dentist who would fix my tooth and I went in for a "temporary cap" that was supposed to hold me over until I could go home to Colorado and have my usual dentist put on a better-looking, more permanent cap.
I had that cap for five years.
Whoops!
So, finally, a few months before the wedding, I decided to get a better one. The "temporary" fix didn't really match my other teeth and I wanted to have pretty teeth for my wedding photos. (Important lesson here: photoshop is cheaper than dental work, and apparently much longer lasting)
I got a fancy new color-matched cap in a procedure that took over an hour and involved grinding off the old cap with what looked like a Dremel tool and then building up a new one. It was not the most fun I've ever had. But still, I was excited to have a new tooth.
"Yay," I thought. "I have finally stopped procrastinating and going around with a crappy "temporary" tooth and now I am a responsible adult whose teeth are all the same color! I am awesome."
I had my new tooth for only about three months when I chipped it... by biting my lip. Yes. Apparently I have the hardest lips known to man. Iron Lips. The chip was relatively small, but I was pissed... that tooth cost a lot and took forever, and I'd had my "temp" tooth for FIVE YEARS with no problems. Ugh.
I asked the dentist how much it would cost to fix, but apparently they can't just patch the chip, they'd have to... you guessed it... grind off the whole tooth and start over again. Maybe I wasn't clear before, but I really really didn't like the grinding. Also, The Husband needs $3000 in dental work, so our co-pays for all that have pretty much tapped out the dental budget. Oh well. It's a tiny chip. I'll live with it.
But today, I chipped it again! Biting my... cuticle. Yes. My cuticles are also rock hard. You wish you had cuticles like these... they are ripped. And my tooth was no match for them.
Perhaps the moral of this story is that I need to stop biting myself, or perhaps the moral of this story is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Summer Spinach Salad
This is the world's easiest salad, and I love it in all its simplicity. I have tried sprucing it up and adding all kinds of things to it, but its really best with just three ingredients.
Spinach Strawberry Salad
Nouns:
1 bag fresh Spinach leaves, rinsed and dried
1/2 lb strawberries, washed, stemmed and sliced
Poppyseed Dressing- as much as you want!
Verbs:
Really? Do you not know what to do at this point?
Spinach Strawberry Salad
Nouns:
1 bag fresh Spinach leaves, rinsed and dried
1/2 lb strawberries, washed, stemmed and sliced
Poppyseed Dressing- as much as you want!
Verbs:
Really? Do you not know what to do at this point?
In the Kitchen
I got home late this evening, so we ate leftovers while I'm broiling chicken for use in salad and candying some pecans for us to munch on during Glee! We'll have the pecan/gouda crudites that Spencer loves so much, and perhaps some popcorn, and hopefully I'll be able to get the kitchen cleaned up and the salads made so we have lunch and tomorrow's dinner already taken care of.
In other exciting news, (on a very low scale of "exciting") I'm going to try baking some bread this weekend with my friend Sarah (not to be confused with my friend Sara). I am thinking that I will do traditional knead bread this weekend, and then perhaps join the fad of 5-minutes-a-day bread. We don't spend too much on bread, really, but it would be great to have fresh, whole wheat deliciousness in the house all the time for samiches and snacks. If I could make sourdough, the The Husband would love me forever! I mean, love me MORE forever.
I've never been much of a baker, because that requires one to follow the rules and color inside the lines and not randomly add stuff that sounds good. So, I will have to really apply myself to this whole recipe thing.
I've never been much of a baker, because that requires one to follow the rules and color inside the lines and not randomly add stuff that sounds good. So, I will have to really apply myself to this whole recipe thing.
Meal Plan update
Tonight we ate the fettuccine, but I'm not posting a recipe because I'm not thrilled with my cream sauce. I need to do some research and mess with it a bit. Still, homemade noodles + cream + cheese is pretty much a solid win even if the sauce isn't 100% perfect.
So, I am going to grab 4 chicken breasts out of the freezer tonight and pop them in the fridge to defrost/marinate all day tomorrow. Then, when I get home tomorrow night, I'll broil those up and use two on the spinach salad and two in the chicken salad. Except for chopping things for the chicken salad, we'll then be set until Thursday. Whew!
Meal Plan for this week
Well, this week it is going to be a challenge to come in on budget, because we'll have to buy a lot of protein, but the Husband had several special requests, and since all we ate last week was chicken broth, I thought he deserved some good food.
What we already have that we're making good use of: potatoes, lentils, fresh spinach, frozen chicken thighs, carrots, onions, celery, homemade noodles, cream, tomato paste, tomatoes, spices. This meal plan has six meals, because it includes tonight's dinner.
1. Lentil and Potato soup
2. Chicken Makhni in the Crockpot, cumin carrots on the side
3. Chicken Salad Sandwiches
4. Spinach and Strawberry salad with balsamic glazed chicken
5. Thai Coconut Curry Soup
6. Fettuccine Alfredo, side salad
The big expensive things we'll have to buy will be chicken breasts and ground chicken, the curry paste for the curry soup, and the strawberries. I'll serve the fettuccine vegetarian for our veggie meal, and the spinach salad will be our main course salad (I don't count the chicken salad sandwiches).
We wasted some food last week, which I HATE, but what with being sick it was sort of unavoidable. I am trying to use as much as humanly possible from last week so nothing else spoils. Thanks, all!
What we already have that we're making good use of: potatoes, lentils, fresh spinach, frozen chicken thighs, carrots, onions, celery, homemade noodles, cream, tomato paste, tomatoes, spices. This meal plan has six meals, because it includes tonight's dinner.
1. Lentil and Potato soup
2. Chicken Makhni in the Crockpot, cumin carrots on the side
3. Chicken Salad Sandwiches
4. Spinach and Strawberry salad with balsamic glazed chicken
5. Thai Coconut Curry Soup
6. Fettuccine Alfredo, side salad
The big expensive things we'll have to buy will be chicken breasts and ground chicken, the curry paste for the curry soup, and the strawberries. I'll serve the fettuccine vegetarian for our veggie meal, and the spinach salad will be our main course salad (I don't count the chicken salad sandwiches).
We wasted some food last week, which I HATE, but what with being sick it was sort of unavoidable. I am trying to use as much as humanly possible from last week so nothing else spoils. Thanks, all!
Chicken Tajine in the Crockpot
I have made a "Moroccan" Chicken recipe in the crockpot for ages, but it's pretty hit and miss... sometimes awesome, sometimes less so, and too finicky in terms of timing. So, I tried a different recipe today, but since it's a weekend day and I'm home, I did a quick version of it taking only four hours, so I don't know how it would hold up all day. But, it's delicious! SO GOOD.
Crockpot Chicken Tajine
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp orange juice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1.5-2 onions, thinly sliced
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cups couscous, prepared
1/4 cup slivered almonds, for garnish
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
Verbs-
If you have the time, brown the chicken thighs in a pan. But if not, don't worry. Throw the thighs, onions, apricots, cranberries and carrots in the crock. Mix all the remaining ingredients except the couscous and almonds together in a bowl. Pour over the ingredients in the crock. Cook on high 4 hours. Serve over the couscous garnished with almonds. YUM.
Parameters
I have had a revelation. Or something. I decided to give myself a better framework for my meal planning and for this blog, to give some shape to what I'm doing here. Knowing me, the framework won't restrict me much; I'm a coloring outside the lines kind of girl.
So, what will this framework look like? Well, as I've explained on here before, our meal planning already has some basic rules, and so essentially I'm just adding a little to them and deciding to live by them and write by them for a few months. I am not necessarily recommending them to others... there are hopefully going to be some good recipes, some tips and tricks, and some funny bits that might help you, but we are planning meals for our preferences, our budget and our time constraints, so our plans might not make much sense for others.
In any case, here are the rules:
1. The meal plan must include 5 dinners
2. One vegetarian meal per week
3. One main course salad per week
4. No mammals (just because I don't eat them, no other reason)
5. Only crockpot meals can take longer than 45 minutes to prepare (since I commute and get home late in the evenings)
6. The whole meal plan should cost less than $40, except special occasions
7. I will post the meal plan on Sunday and try to give recipes reviews and updates throughout the week.
Generally, we try to spend about $200-$250/month on groceries. The $40/week for dinners gives us $10/week to play with for breakfasts and lunches and beverages... not much, but doable if dinner leftovers can double as lunches and if you don't buy much soda or alcohol. Wish me luck!
So, what will this framework look like? Well, as I've explained on here before, our meal planning already has some basic rules, and so essentially I'm just adding a little to them and deciding to live by them and write by them for a few months. I am not necessarily recommending them to others... there are hopefully going to be some good recipes, some tips and tricks, and some funny bits that might help you, but we are planning meals for our preferences, our budget and our time constraints, so our plans might not make much sense for others.
In any case, here are the rules:
1. The meal plan must include 5 dinners
2. One vegetarian meal per week
3. One main course salad per week
4. No mammals (just because I don't eat them, no other reason)
5. Only crockpot meals can take longer than 45 minutes to prepare (since I commute and get home late in the evenings)
6. The whole meal plan should cost less than $40, except special occasions
7. I will post the meal plan on Sunday and try to give recipes reviews and updates throughout the week.
Generally, we try to spend about $200-$250/month on groceries. The $40/week for dinners gives us $10/week to play with for breakfasts and lunches and beverages... not much, but doable if dinner leftovers can double as lunches and if you don't buy much soda or alcohol. Wish me luck!
In sickness and in health
Well, this week our meal plan has gone all to heck because the husband and I were both super sick for a few days and eating nothing but broth.
Today we were back to health and I tried to make the barley salad I'd planned for earlier in the week, but I made the mistake of asking the husband how he preferred it. Essentially, the husband has a hard time imagining what new food combinations or preparations will be like, the same way I have a hard time looking at a piece of furniture and estimating whether it'll fit in a room. So, I tried to describe a barley salad, you know, like a pasta salad with barley instead of noodles. It'll have bits of fresh veggies, nuts and a zesty vinaigrette. yummer! But, he wasn't really imagining it, and so I asked if he'd rather have it hot instead, so it would be more familiar, like a rice dish I occasionally make. And then he could wrap his mind around it. Tadaa!
Tadaaa... it wasn't very good. It would have been better with raw veggies, not cooked, and served cold with a really really peppy dressing, instead of warm with a drizzle of balsamic. It was blah. It was kind of texturally questionable, what with the squishy cooked veggies and all. It did not get better with cheese sprinkled on it. It was generally not good. Sigh.
So, next time I need to just follow-through with my plan, because 99% of the time the husband loves what I make even if he can't imagine it beforehand.
Today we were back to health and I tried to make the barley salad I'd planned for earlier in the week, but I made the mistake of asking the husband how he preferred it. Essentially, the husband has a hard time imagining what new food combinations or preparations will be like, the same way I have a hard time looking at a piece of furniture and estimating whether it'll fit in a room. So, I tried to describe a barley salad, you know, like a pasta salad with barley instead of noodles. It'll have bits of fresh veggies, nuts and a zesty vinaigrette. yummer! But, he wasn't really imagining it, and so I asked if he'd rather have it hot instead, so it would be more familiar, like a rice dish I occasionally make. And then he could wrap his mind around it. Tadaa!
Tadaaa... it wasn't very good. It would have been better with raw veggies, not cooked, and served cold with a really really peppy dressing, instead of warm with a drizzle of balsamic. It was blah. It was kind of texturally questionable, what with the squishy cooked veggies and all. It did not get better with cheese sprinkled on it. It was generally not good. Sigh.
So, next time I need to just follow-through with my plan, because 99% of the time the husband loves what I make even if he can't imagine it beforehand.
Broccoli and Ham Quiche with Potato Crust
I had turkey ham leftover from last week's ham and noodles, so this week's meal plan included a quiche! Delish. It is hard to find commercial pie crusts without lard in them sometimes, and I'm not a baker, so I don't make my own. Thus, I use a potato crust. It goes thusly:
Quiche
Nouns:
2 potatoes, thinly sliced
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cheddar, grated
1 cup steamed broccoli florets
3/4 cup cubed ham
1 small onion, diced
pinch of nutmeg
Verbs:
Preheat an oven to 350. Grease a pie tin, and spread the thin slices of potato along the bottom and sides, overlapping edges so the entire area is covered. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then remove and let cool. Fill the tin with broccoli, ham, onion and cheese. Whip the eggs together, add the milk and nutmeg. Pour the egg mixture over the filling in the pie tin. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Yummm!
Quiche
Nouns:
2 potatoes, thinly sliced
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cheddar, grated
1 cup steamed broccoli florets
3/4 cup cubed ham
1 small onion, diced
pinch of nutmeg
Verbs:
Preheat an oven to 350. Grease a pie tin, and spread the thin slices of potato along the bottom and sides, overlapping edges so the entire area is covered. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then remove and let cool. Fill the tin with broccoli, ham, onion and cheese. Whip the eggs together, add the milk and nutmeg. Pour the egg mixture over the filling in the pie tin. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Yummm!
Lentil Loaf!
This week, as our vegetarian meal, I made a lentil loaf, which is like a meatloaf, but with lentils instead of meat. Duh. Anyway, so I looked at a bunch of recipes online, and they all had the same basic theme, so I figured, "hey, I'll just throw this together the way I would a meatloaf, and we'll be in business!"
It turned out... okay. I think it needed to cook longer and have less liquid, because it didn't quite set. It was a bit mushy. However, it was still good, and with some tweaking, could be awesome. I served it with mashed potatoes and gravy and corn. Yummm.
Lentil Loaf
Nouns:
2 cups lentils, cooked and drained (I do mine in the crockpot with bay leaves and a veggie boullion cube in the cooking water)
1 onion, diced
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
splash worchestershire sauce
Ketchup
1/2 green pepper, diced
Verbs:
Preheat oven to 300. Mush up the lentils with a fork. Mix the lentils, egg, onion, worchestershire sauce, pepper, and breadcrumbs. Add a few squirts of ketchup. Spread the mixture into a greased loaf pan. Smear the top with ketchup. Bake for an hour. It tastes like... lentils! And meatloaf! But mostly lentils.
It turned out... okay. I think it needed to cook longer and have less liquid, because it didn't quite set. It was a bit mushy. However, it was still good, and with some tweaking, could be awesome. I served it with mashed potatoes and gravy and corn. Yummm.
Lentil Loaf
Nouns:
2 cups lentils, cooked and drained (I do mine in the crockpot with bay leaves and a veggie boullion cube in the cooking water)
1 onion, diced
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
splash worchestershire sauce
Ketchup
1/2 green pepper, diced
Verbs:
Preheat oven to 300. Mush up the lentils with a fork. Mix the lentils, egg, onion, worchestershire sauce, pepper, and breadcrumbs. Add a few squirts of ketchup. Spread the mixture into a greased loaf pan. Smear the top with ketchup. Bake for an hour. It tastes like... lentils! And meatloaf! But mostly lentils.
Pineapple Thai Fried Rice
I made this for the first time tonight, and it turned out really well! Yummm. It's based on The Husband's favorite dish for our local Thai takeout place, and though my version isn't as good as theirs, it's pretty easy to make and it's really darn good.
Pineapple Thai Fried Rice
Nouns-
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1/2 cup cashews
1/3 cup raisins (or currants or craisins)
4 cups cooked rice, a day old
sesame oil
vegetable oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch scallions, chopped and separated (one pile for the white part, one pile for the green part)
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1 red chili, diced
1-2 eggs, beaten
1-2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup peas
cilantro
Optional-
cooked medium shrimp, thawed (about 5 shrimp per person)
Verbs-
Add a little oil to the rice and break up the rice with your fingers in a large bowl. Try to separate the grains. Heat a few teaspoons of vegetable oil and one teaspoon of sesame oil in wok or large frying pan over medium to medium/high heat. Add the white part of the scallions, garlic and chili. Fry for a minute or so. Add the shrimp if you are using them. Stir fry for another minute or two. With a spatula, move the shrimp, scallions, chili and garlic to the outer edges of the pan, leaving an open space in the middle. Add the egg and stir as though scrambling. Mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, curry powder, five spice powder and sugar together. Once egg is cooked through, stir all the ingredients back together in the pan, then add the soy sauce mixture. Add the rice, stirring very gently... try lifting the rice from the bottom of the pan with the spatula and turning it over. Now, add the pineapple, peas, raisins, cashews and the green part of the scallions. Stir gently to combine. Rice should make some "cracking " sounds as it fries. Once the last ingredients are heated through, garnish with cilantro and lime, and serve.
YUMM!
Nouns-
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1/2 cup cashews
1/3 cup raisins (or currants or craisins)
4 cups cooked rice, a day old
sesame oil
vegetable oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch scallions, chopped and separated (one pile for the white part, one pile for the green part)
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1 red chili, diced
1-2 eggs, beaten
1-2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup peas
cilantro
Optional-
cooked medium shrimp, thawed (about 5 shrimp per person)
Verbs-
Add a little oil to the rice and break up the rice with your fingers in a large bowl. Try to separate the grains. Heat a few teaspoons of vegetable oil and one teaspoon of sesame oil in wok or large frying pan over medium to medium/high heat. Add the white part of the scallions, garlic and chili. Fry for a minute or so. Add the shrimp if you are using them. Stir fry for another minute or two. With a spatula, move the shrimp, scallions, chili and garlic to the outer edges of the pan, leaving an open space in the middle. Add the egg and stir as though scrambling. Mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, curry powder, five spice powder and sugar together. Once egg is cooked through, stir all the ingredients back together in the pan, then add the soy sauce mixture. Add the rice, stirring very gently... try lifting the rice from the bottom of the pan with the spatula and turning it over. Now, add the pineapple, peas, raisins, cashews and the green part of the scallions. Stir gently to combine. Rice should make some "cracking " sounds as it fries. Once the last ingredients are heated through, garnish with cilantro and lime, and serve.
YUMM!
Generation Gap.... or Nutjob Paranoia? You be the judge!
So, I was a seminar on Friday having to do with criminal law, and a lovely geneticist from the crime lab was giving a presentation about DNA, during which I learned several important things: 1. Everything on CSI is completely impossible; 2. some otherwise smart people in my profession are incredibly confused about biology.
After the DNA lady had talked for about 45 minutes about DNA 101,giving us the basics of DNA testing, sampling, profiles, comparisons and procedures, she had a question and answer session. During the session, a man raised his hand and asked, in utter seriousness, whether anyone could test our DNA remotely. Thinking that he was asking whether her lab could do tests at a crime scene, rather than in the lab, she talked about microchip scanners being developed that are currently several years from viability. But, frustrated, the man clarified:
"Can they get our DNA from far away? You know, can someone get your DNA with a camera? Or something? Can they get your profile with a scanner, from across the room or across the street? Can they?You know?"
UM, NO.
Aside from the fact that your DNA is inside the nucleus inside each cell inside your body, and aside from the fact that it is microscopic and unbelievably complex, and aside from the fact that the idea is just patently ridiculous and impossible, why would anyone bother to develop a technology that could take a picture of your DNA from far away, when you leave bits of your DNA everywhere you go? Why would you need a super-spy gadget to see into someone's nuclei? Just wait for them to blow their nose! Or spit out some gum! Or toss a soda can! Or, get warrant for a cheek swab. Or do any of the things we just listened to a 45 minute lecture about!
I was sitting with another 20-something at this event, and we gave each other a "didn't we learn this in freshman bio in high school?" look, and rolled our eyes.
Sooo... you be the judge. Was this guy just confused because DNA is a largely unknown entity to baby boomers, or is he a crazy conspiracy theorist?
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