Christmas is Nearly Here

This past weekend Brent and I drove to the Chicago area to drop off some pies for my mother and visit my college friends. I spent the few days before we left making a huge mess in the kitchen preparing Christmas gifts. I made the pies for my mother: pumpkin eggnog, caramel apple, and cherry. I made all the pies and then froze and wrapped them for my mom. She’s going to thaw and bake them for the family Christmas party over the weekend.

I also made some candied nuts (I forgot to get a picture and I ate most of the leftovers ), peppermint bark, and truffles!

The bark was super simple and I thought it would make a nice addition to the gift boxes. I just really like how festive it looks.

The truffles I made were Chocolate Truffles from the Barefoot Contessa and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Truffles.

The truffles were fun for me to make because they were something new, but they turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected. The truffle mixtures were easy to make: Heat all the ingredients and then cool, but the rolling was difficult. If the mix was too warm, it melted all over and was impossible to shape and if it was too cool, it chipped and broke and wouldn’t get into shape. I got them all done, but it definitely took more time than I originally intended.

I wanted to make a larger variety of truffle flavors, but after my shaping difficulty, I figured two kinds were enough. The gifts were enjoyed by their recipients. My father loved the peppermint bark, my mother loved the candied nuts, and my friends Tessa and Greg enjoyed the truffles.

I have to make another pie today for Christmas with the in-laws tomorrow, but other than that I’ve just been lounging around enjoying my break. I did finally get a haircut. I’m notoriously bad at getting my haircut. I frequently go nearly a year without doing it. Yesterday’s cut was my first since February. Here’s a before & after:

Food Catch-Up

I’ve been cooking, but not posting about it. Here are some reviews of recent meals. Last week I made Bok Choy and Rice Noodle Soup with Turkey Meatballs. Sounds good right? And the picture in the cookbook was pretty convincing too. The ingredients smelled wonderful and I was convinced it would be one of the best meals I’ve made at home. Ehhh, not so much.

It didn’t taste bad. It just didn’t really taste like anything. I liked the idea of making the turkey meatballs with some tofu as well, but those just feel completely apart. They definitely needed some type of binder. It was definitely a disappointment. I can’t really recommend it. They can’t all be the best meal ever, I guess.

Earlier this week I made a Tuna Casserole from Rachael Ray. I rarely make tuna casserole and this one sounded like it could be a winner – lots of spinach and no cream of whatever soup. The only change I made to the recipe was to use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.

The recipe made a ton, but I decided I might as well make the whole thing and hope the leftovers would be good. It came out pretty well. While I was making it, I told Brent it looked more like spinach casserole. I loved the combo of the tuna, creamy cannellini beans and tuna. And anytime I can throw this much veg into a single dish, I’m pretty happy.

Brent commented that he could do without the beans, but I really liked them. We’ve eaten the leftovers, which were pretty good as well. I think I would definitely make this recipe again.

Today was my last day of clinical for the semester, so afterwards my clinical group had a potluck (so much food!!) and finally got a group photo after putting in a full day.

Only two more days of school! I’m already making lists of things to clean and things to cook over break! Can’t wait!

Getting into the Holiday Spirit

I had my Med-Surg Nursing final this morning, and most people might assume I spent the weekend studiously reviewing, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I drove to Chicago and drank wine and baked cookies with the women of my family, as we do every year. I appreciate traditions like this so much more as an adult. I’ve realized not every family is as close as ours, and how lucky I am to have mine. Of course, when I was a teenager, I hated my mother for “forcing” me to go to things like this, which is how my sister currently feels. I hope she had fun anyway.

As usual with my family, sometimes words can’t adequately describe the events, so this will probably just be a picture-heavy post.

Mom and Me

Sarah just found out some people don't love fatimins (fried dough coated in powdered sugar)

The fatimins out of the fryer and ready to be coated

Cousin Amy coating the fatimins

Aunt Kathy, after mom got a littl frisky with the flour

Umm... mom with the rolling pin. Not sure what else to say.

After a long 12 hours of baking

After the "adults" passed out for the evening, Sarah and I made sugar cookies

Although we were impressed with our decorating skills, the actual cookies were rock hard and inedible

And after all that cookie-baking and family bonding, I’m definitely in the holiday spirit. All that stands between me and holiday break is a final head to toe assessment and one more final. Woo! I’m already looking forward to holiday parties and spending time with friends! We also booked a trip to Seattle in January! We’re spending a few days in Seattle and taking a day trip to Portland as part of our “Where do we want to live next?” quest. Any suggestions? Where should we go? What should we eat?

This week, along with finishing school, I’ll be making truffles and baking pies for the family Christmas party. Be back soon with real food!

It’s Cold Outside

With the recent influx of below freezing temperatures and my accompanying seasonal cold, I’ve been wanting nothing more than to curl up on the couch next to the fireplace with something warm (and carby) to eat. This past week, I made use of the Thanksgiving leftovers and made some Turkey Noodle Soup for Brent and I to enjoy while riding out our colds.

Maybe it was the sickness talking, but I thought this soup was amazing. It was just onions, carrots, celery, parsley, shredded turkey and egg noodles with some stock made from the turkey. We ate this for like 5 days straight.

Last night, craving another warm meal, I made Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits from Veganomicon. A million others have made this too, so you should probably be able to find one who has posted the recipe.

This took a bit of time, but it was really simple to make and we got quite a few meals out of it. At first I thought, “Yeah this is a decent meal. Comforting but nothing out of this world.” But it was one of those times where I just kept eating and eating and really enjoying it. Brent and I both went back for seconds (which I deeply regretted because I was uncomfortably full for the rest of the night, and we both enjoyed leftovers for lunch today.

Full disclosure: I unveganized the recipe to use what I had on hand: butter in place of the shortening and fat free milk in place of the soy milk.

I definitely think I’d make this dish again. It was a perfect meal for our first snowfall of the year. I can’t believe it’s already the second week in December! This coming saturday is cookie-baking day! and the week after that is my finals week. I’m looking forward to some down time over the holidays.

And finally, here are the winners of the Alouette giveaway:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5	7	11	2

Timestamp: 2009-12-07 20:57:59 UTC

So that would be: Mara, 3carnations, Hannah, and chau chu. Send me your address theidleloaf@gmail.com and I’ll send out your coupons!

Alouette Cheese Giveaway!

I’ve got a great giveaway for you all. The nice people from Alouette cheese contacted me to ask if I was interested in sampling some of their products, including their new Sweet & Spicy Pepper Medley flavor. I was so excited about this offer — I love cheese! I received coupons in the mail for free products, including Baby Brie, Spreadable Cheese, and Cheese Crumbles.

I have 4 sets of coupons to giveaway. Each winner will receive one of each of the three product coupons!! To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me a story about your favorite food. The Contest ends Sunday December 6 at midnight eastern time.

A fellow cheese-loving blogger, Kelly from the Pink Apron gave me a Beautiful Blogger Award, which is one of the nicest things anyone has done for me lately. Receiving the award means I’m supposed to share seven things about myself. Now, I’m pretty tired and my brain tends to be fried all the time, so I can’t guarantee these will be new or interesting, but here goes:

1. I have an addictive personality. My husband will tell you this is an understatement. It is most apparent in my TV watching – I will watch hours, literally days worth of Law & Order at a time.
2. I’m very sensitive to drugs – especially caffeine. The people at Starbucks accidentally thought I said “double-shot” once and I was so jazzed up I was almost physically ill in the car. 2 weeks ago I drank 20oz of coffee and felt high for 2 full days.
3. I’m desperate to move. Interesting, considering last year I claimed I belong in the midwest. Oh well, I’m sure it won’t be the last time I speak too soon. Unfortunately no one seems to want to buy our house.
4. It really annoys me when Brent is sick…. bodes well for my future in nursing doesn’t it?
5. When I get homesick, I sometimes make tuna casserole (the old-school kind with cream of whatever soup) or listen to Carole King’s Tapestry album, both things that remind me of my mom. I don’t even like tuna casserole that much.
6. I’m a creature of routine. Rarely does a Thursday night pass without me watching Grey’s anatomy with a glass of red wine in hand. The routine and familiarity probably relax me more than the actual wine.
7. I have to get up at 5am every Tuesday. Not a morning person.

Unfortunately, due to my preoccupation with school, I’m not so up on my blog-reading, so I’ll just pass the award on to everyone rather than naming specific bloggers.

GOOD LUCK WITH THE CONTEST!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

I had a wonderful (and much needed!) Thanksgiving break. We hosted my mom, dad, brother, and sister along with Brent’s parents for Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve hosted holidays before, and usually I make all the dinner, but buy the pies from a store. For shame, I know. This year I was determined to make a truly from-scratch dinner, complete with homemade pies.

I had Wednesday off from school so I spent all day baking and doing other prep work for the meal. I’ll share the final products with you at the end of this post. We had to have dinner before dessert.

My family drove in Thursday morning, so I needed to have something available for them to munch on soon after they arrived because we weren’t scheduled to eat until late afternoon. Along with some chips and crackers, I made a simple appetizer of Cranberry Brie. I scooped about 1/3 cup of homemade cranberry sauce (cranberries, orange juice and sugar boiled together) onto an 8oz wheel of brie and baked at 350 for 10 minutes.

I enjoyed it, although I’m a fan of anything cranberry related. My dad liked it as well. My mom refused to eat it and my younger sister claimed she hates cheese (who is this girl?).

Meanwhile the turkey was in the oven. We had a huge one this year and we had some serious problems getting it all cooked, but it turned out well in the end. Brent found a recipe that he wanted me to use this year: Twin Oaks Roast Turkey with Anchovies. Anchovies! You better believe I had to hide that little secret ingredient from my mother. She’s very suspicious when I do the cooking, and when my brother Matt called to say hello to everyone, I heard her complaining about “all that seasoning” that I put on the turkey. Little did she know, haha. She managed to eat it without any complaints though.

I didn’t get a picture of each dish, but here’s my plate: Clockwise from top – mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives, roast turkey with cranberry sauce, green beans and walnuts with lemon vinaigrette, Caesar salad with homemade dressing, Sausage and Herb Stuffing from the Barefoot Contessa (I added an additional 1/2 cup of fresh sage, rosemary and thyme).

I thought everything turned out wonderful. The stuffing and mashed potatoes seemed to be especially popular. My family didn’t love the green beans because they found them “too crunchy” and not cooked enough, but I enjoyed them.

For dessert I wanted to do the traditional apple and pumpkin pies, but with a slight twist, so I made Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie and Pumpkin Eggnog Pie. I used this all butter flaky pie dough recipe from Smitten Kitchen for the crusts. I don’t have a pastry cutter, so I used my Kitchen Aid mixer (even though Deb says not to) and mine still turned out flaky and perfect. My kitchen was a MESS by Wednesday evening!

I made the apple pie first. I followed the recipe exactly, except for the “caramel ice cream topping.” For that I just made a homemade caramel sauce on the stove top using heavy cream, butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract.

Brent’s comments on the pie: “This is really good, but I wish you made the whole pie out of topping.” There are actually apples under there, I promise. Up next was the pumpkin eggnog pie. This was super simple. Mix the filling and dump it in the pie shell. Bake.

I loved this pumpkin pie! (I also happen to be a huge eggnog fan). I would definitely say the pies were the hit of the meal. My mother (who may be a bit difficult to please) could not stop talking about how much she loved the apple pie and the pumpkin was equally popular. I would recommend either or both if you’re looking for a holiday pie.

I’m feeling a bit exhausted now (my family will do that to you), but come back tomorrow for an exciting giveaway involving my one of my favorite food groups: Cheese!

Date Night

Earlier this week Brent suggested we make Saturday night “date night” and he was going to cook for us. I was shocked because I didn’t realize date night was in his vocabulary, and I was also surprised Brent was willing to do something so nice, given my complete craziness as of late. Occasionally I catch myself acting crazy and realize how hard I must be to live with sometimes. Only 3 more weeks or so in the semester!

Anyway, back to dinner. Brent used our “fancy meals” cookbook to come up with some meal ideas. He decided on a “simple” soup and salad combo.

First up we had Frisee Salad with Baked Goat Cheese and Bacon. Goat cheese… on bread!! This salad course was all kinds of amazing. A wonderful pick by Brent. The man knows what I like.

The goat cheese was a necessary and delicious addition for cutting the tartness of the vinegary dressing. The bread was an artisan Bread dough baguette I made this morning. The only change Brent made to the recipe was to use canola oil in place of walnut oil because (his words), “walnut oil is balls expensive.” I support that decision. Salad was delicious regardless.

The second course was equally, if not more delicious. Brent and I tend to enjoy a lot of the same foods, but I think he’s more adventurous than I am when it comes to cooking. He often picks out recipes that I might not pick, assuming they may not turn out well if I made them at home. I’m glad he choose this Portuguese Clam and Chorizo Stew.

For the stew, Brent made a few substitutions. Fort Wayne isn’t a super foodie-friendly town, so we had to make due with what Brent could find:

• In place of smoked chorizo, he used some type of Boar’s Head spicy Italian sausage with paprika in it.
• He couldn’t find 4 dozen little neck clams, so he used half fresh clams, half canned clams.
• In place of piquillo peppers, he used roasted red peppers with a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Everything was wonderful, and I greatly appreciated Brent’s suggestion for date night. Now we’re resting on the couch watching some Netflix movies.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Soup, Salad and Cupcakes

I promised myself I would cook more meals at home, and I’m definitely trying to keep my word. I’ve noticed my meals are getting a lot simpler now, but I’m actually appreciating them way more. My dinners for the past two nights have been quick, simple and super satisfying.

A few months ago I discovered that I love Greek salad, and have been making variations using the basic ingredients. I was craving a Greek salad when I was doing some grocery shopping this week so I added it to the menu for Monday night. It was delicious. I just used homemade red wine vinaigrette for the dressing, and I made a couple of artisan bread rolls for Brent and I because in my mind, a salad feels more like a “meal” if it has a piece of bread with it.

Tuesday night dinners are hard for me. I have clinical from 6:30-4:30, and when I finally arrive home I’m exhausted, kind of cranky, and STARVING. I was craving some comfort food (and red wine!) big time so I went with an old standby: tomato soup and grilled cheese.

For the soup I sautéed half a yellow onion, three cloves of garlic, salt, black pepper, thyme, marjoram, and red pepper flakes in a tablespoon of oil. When the onions were soft I added in a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes and half a cup of veggie broth, brought to a boil and simmered about 15 minutes. At this point I tasted and noticed it was a bit acidic for my taste so I added a teaspoon of sugar, and simmered another 5 minutes. I transferred the soup to a blender and blended until smooth. While the soup was simmering, I baked some flat artisan bread, sliced it in half, added some swiss cheese to each piece and broiled until melty.

This meal took half an hour to make and I cannot express how comforting it was to eat. I enjoyed every bite and then promptly passed out on the couch. Classy, I know.

One last thing I wanted to mention was that last night I made cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of one of my classmates. When I asked her what she wanted, all she requested was lots of chocolate. Always happy to comply, I made some basic chocolate cupcakes and chocolate buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. After working at clinical all day followed by a math/dosage competency, these were much appreciated at our post-conference today!

I’m off to work on a careplan! I can’t believe how quickly time is passing. I am in shock that Thanksgiving is pretty much two weeks away. Guess I better start planning that too!

Already November

I can’t believe it’s already November! I’ve already decided that 2009 is going down as the fastest moving year of my life. We have less than two months left of the year — and only 3 weeks until I host Thanksgiving. Yikes.

I’ve made a few things I wanted to share with you all, including Pan Bagnat and Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, but ummm… I just never bothered taking pictures of them before devouring them. Oops. Both were delicious and I have witnesses who will agree with me on that. Both were served to my friends when they came to visit this weekend. I don’t have a lot of pictures from the weekend, but here’s a funny one of Greg and Larry.

Sometime last week I wasn’t feeling that well and in an effort to avoid dragging myself to the grocery store I made this peanut butter noodle dish. Soba noodles, broccoli, shredded carrots and this peanut sauce, minus the cilantro.

I thought it was really delicious and so ridiculously simple. I’m definitely going to try to remember this for the next time I want a quick pantry meal.

Tonight, after a weekend involving candy, cupcakes and alcohol, I just wanted something simple and healthy for dinner. I baked some of my frozen Jamaican Veggie Patties and sauteed some broccoli with garlic. I was hoping for the best with the veggie patties. They had been frozen for nearly 6 months, but I wrapped them really well and they showed no signs of freezer burn. I put them straight into the oven frozen and baked for 50 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they came out. Still flaky and delicious.

It’s only 8:30 but I have to start getting ready for bed — a lovely 6am clinical awaits me tomorrow. I’m trying to cook more the month of November, so hopefully I’ll have more to post on the blog in the future.

Blogging is a Wonderful Tool for Procrastination

Nope. Things haven’t gotten less busy around here. In fact time is flying quicker than ever. I can’t believe I’m hosting Thanksgiving in a month! We’ve eaten pretty well the past week, mostly due to Brent’s help on a few occasions.

Sometime in the midst of last week, I threw together this pasta dish using Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Pappardelle (LOVE this pasta), a can of artichoke hearts, olive oil, lemon juice and Parmesan cheese. Tasty, and more importantly, super quick. In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I think Brent came up with the idea for this dish, but since it turned out well, I’m willing to take the credit.

Another dish from last week, that I can take absolutely no credit for is this soba-tofu noodle dish. Brent makes very good Asian dishes and as mentioned previously, he makes good tofu. This had carrots, red bell pepper, scallions, tofu, soba noodles and some sauce created using the Asian condiment shelf in our refrigerator.

I should wrap this up because I only gave myself 15 study-free minutes to blog, but I wanted to mention Brent ran his first race today! We ran the River City Rat Race 10K this afternoon, and Brent very nicely ran with me for the first 5 miles with me at my usual slow pace until I told him to go fast the last 1.2 miles. He finished about 3 minutes ahead of me.

Tall, isn’t he? He enjoyed it, so I think we’ll probably do some more races together in the future.

Halloween is next weekend and my friends are coming to the Fort!!! I have to get studying now so I’ll be worry-free when they get here!