Next Time, Throw In Some Kimchi

I like to cook but I don't like to cook for other people. I don't handle rejection very well; what if they don't like it? That's a reflection of me on that plate! I only have a handful of dish I feel comfortable serving, most of which are desserts.

My cheesecake is sure to please, no doubt about it. If you like cheesecake, you will love my cheesecake. You will, it's a given. Hell, even if you don't like cheesecake you will still like my cheesecake. I hate cheesecake but I really like mine.

I digress...

My mom is not a good cook so, by comparison, she thinks I'm Julia Child. Whenever she plans on a party she always asks me to cook something, you know, since I'm so good. It's nerve racking, the pressure! I am definitely not good enough to cater anyone's party. Recently she asked me to make something for her Fourth of July party so I made pasta salad.


With ingredients like toasted almonds, roasted red bell peppers, grilled asparagus, chickpeas, fresh mozzarella and basil, etc it was fresh and healthy in a bowl. Lovely. Looks nice too, right? It tasted good, I liked it, but I knew it would bomb at my mom's party. The taste was too subtle; I didn't use any dressing because who needs dressing when you have fresh tomatoes and red onions? All you need is a little bit of olive oil, right?

So, the salad didn't go over too well but that's okay, I liked it. I guess I could've made it a bit more popular by adding in some meat (bacon maybe?) or just drowning it all in Italian dressing. Lesson learned, know your audience.

Way off topic and about a month too late but...

Michael and I saw fireworks on the night of the 4th. It's been well over a decade since I saw a large firework display and it was nice. I couldn't get that Katy Perry song out of my head though; damn you Katy Perry!

First World Problems

The HEAT! Oh good golly the HEAT!!!

For the past few days the temperature and humidity have hovered somewhere around the INSANE level. We finally got some rain yesterday and it's cooled down to where it's now a comfortable mid 90's. Yay.

Work hasn't been quite as stress free as I would have liked. I don't think it'll ever be stress free or anything other than stressful. It'll get better sure, situations will improve, yes. But, that's the thing, as soon as you improve things they put you in another broken situation because, well, I mean, you can fix things and that's what they do with people who can fix things. And, if you can't fix it, then they scoot you out. But hey, at least my commute has improved. I thought this would free up more time for me to sleep, but no, no it hasn't. I am still quite sleep deprived.

Internet has been HORRIBLE. Who ever said Verizon is better than Comcast lied. For the past two weeks or so we kept losing our internet connection. We thought we solved it by moving our cordless phone because, did you know that you should not put your cordless phone within 10 feet of your wifi router? Well, I didn't, but I do now! That helped, a lot, but it's still be very unreliable. As a matter of fact, I should be wrapping this up because we can drop connection any second now.

Still here? That's amazing. Thank goodness for smart phones or this past two weeks would have been pretty difficult.

So basically, I haven't been the happiest camper the last few days. I have, however, been the sleepiest, laziest, slightly crankiest camper. But, today is the start of my mini vacation! Yay!!!

And, at least there's still one awesome thing about summer:


On a bad, bad day I can eat an entire plate of fried zucchinis and find peace.

Farm to Fork

Farm to Fork starts July 21st!

Basically, from July 21st to the 31st, a few local restaurants have agreed to offer a special menu where they utilize no less than 70% of ingredients from local farms in Loudoun County. Spiffy? Yes! Michael wonders why they don't do this year round, I kind of wonder that as well...

I've been looking forward to Farm to Fork since I found out about it in June and I thought it was pretty awesome that it fell on my Birthday Week. I had plans of taking some days off and treating myself to a gastronomical magic trip of fresh, local cuisines created by talented people. After looking at the menus... I don't think that's going to happen.

More than half of the participating restaurants have menus where entrees average around $30. At one of the restaurants the cheapest item was $36 vegetable curry. A $30 entree isn't an unheard of price for a nice dinner out but I can't exactly go gallivanting around the wine vineyards of Western Loudoun County feasting on expensive food all week. Poo. Oh well. I think I'll pick one nice "fancy" place and spend rest of the week visiting the more affordable options. Yay local economy, right?

Goodbye Stress, Kind Of...

Two more days.

Just two more days until I can go back to my normal job. My normal job with my normal commute. A job where things are stable and I don't have to come to work and wonder, "Gee, who will I have to let go today?"

I will miss the people, of course. One great thing about my field is that you get to know a lot of really weird people, a lot of really bad people, but a lot of really awesome and inspiring people as well. I will miss the sweet, sweet end of the month bonus (I will miss it a lot, actually) and the seemingly endless overtime. Good bye extra income, I wish I appreciated you a lot more, sniff sniff. I will miss the... No, that's about it, I'll miss the people and the extra income and that's about it.

I guess I'll miss the experience. I complain a lot about how I'm always the one to be cleaning up a situation and after working my butt off, putting myself in un-ideal situations, and making tough decisions, and being the bad guy- after all that I end up walking away and moving on to the exact same thing. Same story, different walls. Why can't I be the one walking into an easy situation. Why can't I be the one that someone says, "Welcome to our company! Here is your new store. There's nothing wrong with it! Just maintain it!"

Truth be told, if that was the situation I would be very bored. That was the situation two years back and I left it to take on one of the most broken store in the entire company... an hour away. I didn't enjoy it and I wasn't as successful at it as I would have liked, but I enjoyed the challenge, the experience, and the sense of accomplishment. Recently my boss and I were talking about how nice it will be once Problem X,Y, and Z is fixed and everything will be so much more easier. "Yeah, but let's be honest. Once things start being easy we'll both be onto something else because we'll be bored." We laughed, because it's true.

So, temporary position with a hellish commute. Thanks for the past four months. Geez, I can't believe it's been FOUR MONTHS!!! I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm not done with you, because, of course, as I approach the finish line something has to go wrong. I have a feeling I'll be back to that location more than I would like, but it's okay. It'll be different because the burden won't be on me.

Bye!

Arugula Salad Pizza

First cauliflower, then chickpeas and now arugula! I've been trying a lot of new ingredients recently. Though I love food I am not a very adventurous eater. I'm willing to try a lot of things if it's free but if I'm paying for it I want to make sure I'll like it. I made arugula salad pizza recently because it's a pretty safe recipe. I've had arugula before in a salad mix but (before) I couldn't tell you which leafy green was arugula. However, I've never had a salad and thought, "Ewe, something in here is pretty gross" so I figured arugula was safe. Besides, it's pizza; it's hard to mess up a pizza.


It turns out that arugula is that skinny green thing that tastes bitter in your salad. I liked the pizza but Michael thought it was too bitter.

This recipe calls for shredded mozzarella cheese but I strongly urge you to use sliced fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella adds this lovely warm smooth and awesomeness that you just don't get from shredded.

Arugula Salad Pizza
Serves: 4

2 Tbsp olive oil
10 oz button mushrooms, sliced
salt
1 lb. pizza dough
8 oz part skim mozzarella, shredded
4 cups baby arugula
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 475. Warm 1 TBSP oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and saute until mushrooms release their liquid and are lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl.

Press and stretch dough evenly to cover a 15 inch round perforated pizza pan. Scatter mushrooms over dough; sprinkle cheese on top. Bake until underside is golden and cheese is bubbling, about 15 minutes.

Toss arugula with remaining 1 TBSP olive oil, lemon juice and .5 tsp. salt. Arrange greens on top of pizza. Scatter tomatoes over greens. Return pizza to oven to wilt arugula, 2 to 3 minutes. Slice and serve.

Couscous with Chicken, Chickpeas and Apricot

Until recently I've never had chickpeas before. Oh I've had hummus many times, but never chickpeas. I don't know, they never looked that appetizing. Discovering that cauliflower are not disgusting gave me the courage to try new things so I decided to make Couscous with Chicken, Chickpeas, and Apricots.


If you're looking for the apricots, don't bother, they're not there. I'm not a fan of dried fruits and I felt like it was an added cost that didn't really need to be there.

Speaking of costs, hey, did you know that chickpeas are also called garbanzo beans and they're super cheap... and very delicious! Well, okay, I wouldn't say delicious but totally non-offensive and mildly pleasant. They're a neutral tasting source of protein so I can understand why they're so popular. You can throw them in any salad or soup or pasta to make it more filling.

I made my salad thing with a grilled chicken marinated in some lemon sauce thing because I was afraid that without the apricot the whole thing would turn out too bland. The marinating the chicken was a nice touch but it would've tasted just fine with plain chicken. If you find it a bland you can always throw in a some lemon zest.

Couscous with Chicken, Chickpeas and Apricot
Serves 4

1.5 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup couscous
salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cups shredded cooked boneless, skinless chicken
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas drained and rinsed
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
3 scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped
8 cups chopped romaine or mixed salad greens

In a medium saucepan, bring broth to boil. Stir in couscous and 1/2 tsp salt; cover and remove from heat. Let stand until couscous is tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, fluff with a fork and let cool slightly.

Whisk together oil, lemon juice and cumin. Pour over couscous and toss to coat. Stir in chicken, chickpeas, almonds, apricots and scallions. Season with salt and serve over lettuce.

Our House is Going to Be So Tacky!

I've wanted a cross stitched artwork for some time now. I think a nice sampler, for example, would look pretty awesome on my wall. It's not really a matter of talent because cross stitching is pretty easy, but a matter of time. You can find some nice ones in antique stores quite often but they'll usually run you around $30 to $70 dollars. That's a lot for me to pay for something that I know I can make on my own.

Recently I was at the Hope's Treasure Thrift Store in Countryside (formerly known as the Good Shepard Alliance Thrift) and saw these:


I was beyond thrilled! They reminded me of the set that I saw at the Leesburg Court of Shoppe for a stupidly high price.

In this set we have... Hmmm... Not too sure... Jack Splat?


Speaking of Jack, we also have Jack Be Nimble.


I almost didn't get it because the frame was snapped in half and the cloth is stained but I got the dude to knock a dollar off the final price.

Moving on to the fairy tales we have Little Red Riding Hood.


And my favorite, Pinocchio!


I got them for $3.50 each (except for the broken one which was $2). I'm not a hundred percent sure where they will go. I think I'll put them in our "library" once we get the book cases in place.

I was pretty happy with my purchases but Michael wasn't too pleased. "Augh, our house is going to be so tacky" he said. You say "tacky" I say "kitschy".

Coconut-Curry Beef

I grew up eating Japanese instant curry which is some potent stuff. It stains your utensils, smells up your entire house, and tastes... strong. I wasn't really a fan of the stuff. It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered curry can be subtle and very delicious. Recently I tried a recipe for Coconut-Curry Beef and both Michael and I fell in love with the dish.


Goes great with rice, of course, but also great to eat with naan (Trader Joe has the best). It uses the slow cooker which makes this a very easy dish to prepare but the hours of waiting becomes excruciating once the smell starts to fill the air! Oh, when eating, be sure to pierce the tomatoes first other wise if you bite into it lava hot tomato gut will burst inside your mouth.

Coconut-Curry Beef
Yields: 6 (more like 4, actually)

2 TBSP vegetable oil
2 lbs beef chuck roast cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt
2 large onions,each cut into 8 wedges
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 TBSP finely chopped fresh ginger (I just used ground since I already had that in my pantry)
1 12-oz can light coconut milk
2 TBSP packed light brown sugar
1 TBSP curry powder
1 tsp cayenne
1 pint cherry tomatoes

In a large skillet, warm oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle beef with salt and brown on all sides, in batches if necessary, about 8 minutes total. Transfer to slow cooker along with onions, garlic and ginger.

Whisk together coconut milk, brown sugar, curry powder and cayenne and pour over meat. Cover and cook on low until meat is fork-tender, 4 to 5 hours. Stir in cherry tomatoes and let them warm and soften in stew for 15 minutes. Adjust seasonings and serve.

NEED!!! No Really, it's Definitely a Need.

I'm upset and disturbed by how little we've managed to save recently. I've been working, miserably, for some time now just to rack up over time and a big bonus but it still seems like we haven't really saved much. And the fact that I say "seems" as if I'm not sure, proves that I don't have a tight reign on my finances like I should.

There's whole bunch of reason why we haven't been saving as much as we'd like but that's in the past. I need to focus on the future! We still need new floors, we still need more furniture (like a new mattress) and I would really like a new dishwasher. We need to save, save, save and save, which will become harder now that July is finally here and very soon good bye temporary position, which means goodbye over time and goodbye bonus.

I want to start trimming fat and live much more modestly and stop buying things that we don't absolutely need. Of course, as soon as I make that resolution, I see this:


!!! Oh my !!!

The ever elusive fuchsia Mackenzies!!! Cole Haan makes a line of women's cap toes called Mackenzies. So far I have three and I love them to bits. Every time I wear them people stop me to ask where I got my shoes (especially the chambray ones). The fuchsia pair was exclusive to SoHo and by the time I heard of them only one single size 8 was left in the entire company. I cried. Well, not really, but I was devastated.

And now they are available on-line and I couldn't be more thrilled except... the smallest size available is a size 6 and I'm a size 5. Oh, I'm still thinking of getting them but I don't know that I want to spend that much money on a pair of shoes that will definitely be too big. I don't even know if I'll be able to wear them. Maybe in winter with the thickest of thick socks? Maybe I can Frankenstein it with heel grips and tongue pads and insoles?

Maybe I shouldn't be spending money on an ill fitting shoes?... Sigh.