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!

Hello Blogworld, I’m Back! (for now)

I don’t know about you all, but October has been absolutely insane for me. Although from the looks of things, I should probably adjust to the fact things are going to stay that way. We’ve finally started clinical practice in my nursing program, and that’s very exciting for me. It’s why I went to nursing school in the first place, but it’s also extremely terrifying the first time you actually have to work with a patient, or even more terrifying… the first time you have to give an injection!

So I’ve just been a big bundle of nerves, pounding away at school work every night and trying to keep my house respectable-looking for prospective buyers in the process. We’ve been eating as decently as I could have hoped, given my lack of time, energy and motivation for anything other than textbooks and studying. Unfortunately nothing we’ve eaten has been exciting, or even new. We’ve eaten frozen pasta dishes, frozen black bean burgers, the occasional homemade frozen burrito and become regulars at our new favorite pizza place.

However, tonight (after a marathon study session at the library) I made something new to us. With my brain as frazzled as it is, I’ve been relying more than ever on cooking magazines and RecipeZaar for recipe ideas. Tonight’s dinner came from the latter and involved one of my favorite foods: Cheese! I made Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin. I figured if all I wanted was cheese, I may as well hide some vegetables in there too!

I started off with a salad of the last bag of lettuce mix from our CSA (sniff, sniff) and added some cucumbers, carrots and grapes and some homemade red wine vinaigrette.

After that big bowl of veggies, I felt ready to indulge in some of the cheesy goodness about the come out of the oven! The gratin was extremely easy to make and took less than 45 minutes total.

Overall, I would say the gratin was a hit. Brent enjoyed it (with a little additional salt and black pepper) and of course I love anything melty and cheesy. I think I’ll definitely make it again, maybe double the batch and freeze some as well.

Now I’m enjoying some wine, planning next week’s menu and grocery list, and getting ready for a Law & Order marathon. I’m looking to try some new meal ideas. Is there anything you’ve had recently that falls into the super delicious and super quick to make category?

Cookies Make Everything Better… except our laptop

I’ve been making some new friends in nursing school, which of course is a good thing, but that inevitably leads to “sharing things” about yourself. And most people, including my own husband and family, think really “loving to cook from scratch and then writing a blog about the stuff you make” is a bit of an oddball hobby. I get that. I really do, which is why I always expect a healthy amount of skepticism in response. My new friends did not let me down. I’ve gotten quite a bit of “Really? That’s amazing. I could never do that,” and “How do you have the time to do all that?”

More recently, I’ve started receiving requests like, “So do you make banana bread?” and “Can you make some cookies for our study group on Saturday?” While driving myself crazy studying for two huge exams and psyching myself up for a half-marathon, I could think of no better distraction than making cookies for said study group. My friends in the study group were in favor of sugar cookies or snickerdoodles, and cinnamon always reminds me of fall so I went with snickerdoodles. I used this recipe and added an additional teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough itself.

These cookies were freakishly amazing. That, combined with the stress-eating brought about by my exams, was a dangerous combination. I gave as many away as possible… to classmates, neighbors, and of course the husband. Brent, who is normally not a cookie fan, seemed to love these.

The were crackled and crisp on the outside, but so chewy on the inside. I hate crumbly cookies, and greasy cookies, but these were just that perfect level of “these must have come from a real bakery” chewiness. I can’t wait to make them again, but this time I think I’ll try to freeze some of the dough.

Speaking of my husband, look what I just caught him doing:

Yes, that is Brent surrounded by parts of one of our laptops. The monitor has been awful and unviewable for quite some time now. The problem started when it was under warranty but Brent didn’t really care enough to take it in to get fixed. However, for some reason, after some of this…

… he decided he would “investigate” the problem. Brent wanted me to inform you all that he can do this sort of thing because he’s “an embedded software engineer,” whatever that means.

The computer is now unusable and Brent is scheming ways to raise money to buy a new one. However, he “cleaned the kitchen” so I “can’t be mad at him.” This is the problem with my husband: He’s just smart enough to be dangerous.

Fort-4-Fitness Half Marathon

This morning I did something I’ve always wanted to do, but often doubted my own ability to do. I (very slowly) ran a half marathon!! I’m no expert at race recaps, and frankly my mind was so frazzled I don’t remember much before the race. Brent, loving, supportive husband that he is, got up at 5:30am and drove with me to downtown Fort Wayne. We checked out where the finish would be (in the middle of Fort Wayne’s professional baseball stadium) before heading down to the starting line.

It was so early, and so dark, and I was so incredibly nervous. I knew my training was lacking, and I actually doubted whether I would be able to finish the entire distance.

Sporting my bib number and my timing chip. Still super super nervous.

Once I got into my corral at the starting line, my nerves kicked into overdrive and I got the same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I get while climbing up to the top of a steep drop on a rollercoaster.

One the race started, I moved with the masses, very slowly, toward the actual starting line. Away we go!

This recap has a positive ending, but it was a rough road to get there. I was feeling rough kind of from the get go and it definitely got worse as I went on.

I will say the first five miles were easiest. I knew I would be slow, but I was pretty happy with my time of under an hour at the 5 mile mark. I was still feeling sluggish and miserable, but I began to think I’d be able to finish. I was walking through all the water stations, on advice from Hal Higdon and because my legs were thanking me for it.

Miles 6-8 sucked. Hard. No other way to say it. My knees hurt; my hips hurt; and my attitude was pretty poor. My thought process went something like this:

God Vic, this sucks. What made you think you could do this? Shit I think there’s still another mile and half until the next water station. At least I’m not one of those poor people in line for the porta-potty. Man this sucks. Oh geez, look at this old guy power walking past me. How embarrassing. Why are these course marshalls telling me I’m almost done?! I’m nowhere near done!

After mile 8 I was just surprised to still be moving. Seriously I did not even run more than 8 miles in my training for this race. I wasn’t lying when I said my training fell apart.

Once I hit mile 10, my attitude improved slightly. My legs hated me by that point, but walking through those stations was nearly as hard as jogging, so I figured I may as well keep jogging. The last 5K my new thought process was:

Why are these people stopping to walk? Don’t they know we have less than 3 miles left? Oh thank god now we only have 2 miles left. No point in stopping now. I can do this. I am totally doing this!!

The mile between 12 and 13 was pretty brutal. It felt like the single longest mile of my life. I was convinced they had misplaced a mile marker or something. I was so desperate to be done, I started tearing up. The way the race was set up, you run into the stadium and around the warning track and finish on the middle of the field. Once I got into the stadium I was smiling and holding back tears. I finally saw Brent cheering for me!

I gave it everything I had the last 0.1 mile. I even passed a few people the last minute or two.

I felt so hot and a bit dizzy and faint when I finished. I walked around in a daze while someone put a medal around my neck and cut off the timing chip. I was definitely shedding tears at this point, especially once I realized my dead legs had to carry me up stairs to get out of the stadium.

I got to Brent and the first words out of my mouth were, “Did you see me pass that guy at the end?” followed by “I just want to sit down and cry a little.”

I finished with a little over a 12 minute mile pace, and I was so happy about it. I run slow to begin, always have, always will, but that combined with my lack of running the past few weeks made me worry I wouldn’t even be able to finish under 3 hours. I kept telling Brent how proud of myself I was. I also called my mom and dad. I figured after watching me struggle with cross country and track all through junior high and high school they’d be proud I finished, and of course they were.

I wish I could have relaxed the rest of the day, but I have two huge exams hanging over my head one Monday and Tuesday so I had to get to work. I’m so glad I got the chance to run this race though, and I’m really looking forward to running the 10K with Brent in October!

Congrats to everyone who ran races today, and good luck to those with races tomorrow!!

Just Checking In

Not a whole lot going on here, just the usual studying and eating whatever I can make in less than 15 minutes. School’s going well, and we’ve been eating dinner at home most nights so I guess I can’t complain. I would post more. I have a bit of extra time most evenings, but I just don’t have anything blog-worthy to post about. Most of my meals have been throw togethers, or some repeat out of the freezer. The latest example being this black bean burrito I froze earlier in the summer and these green beans and purple beans from our CSA that I roasted in the oven. On the table in 20 minutes total.

In other news, I believe I mentioned before that I will be running a half marathon this Saturday. Well, my level of preparedness for that event is definitely not what I would call 100%. I’m feeling like I was definitely a bit too ambitious planning this race my first month of nursing school. My last month or so of training was pretty pitiful, but alas. I’m still excited about running it and I will do my best and just be proud of myself for finishing.

Although the half marathon is still looming, I signed up for another race already! This one is a more manageable 10K, and the best part is that Brent is running it with me! It will be at the end of October, the weekend before Halloween. Speaking of Halloween, I love it! And I’m so excited because my friends are coming to the Fort again this year so we can make fools of ourselves once again! So I guess that’s what I’m most looking to right now. How about you?

Eggplant Meatballs

I’m so happy to be finally posting. Not only am I posting, but I actually have something new and interesting to post about. When I started the blog, I just wanted a way to share all the fun and interesting recipes I tried as I was finally getting comfortable in my kitchen. Life of course as gotten in the way and lately I’ve been making the same old stuff over and over again, just thrilled to make anything at all.

However, I had a chance last Sunday to make something new. In fact, I was determined to make something new. And something with eggplant. My father in law has a huge garden, and every time we see him I end up getting a 5 gallon bucket full of produce. 2 weeks ago it was full of zucchini, butternut squash and eggplant. I think I’ve mentioned before that Brent is not the biggest fan of eggplant, but I wasn’t willing to let it go to waste. I considered some eggplant Parm, but I wanted something new, so I turned to Recipezaar.

After looking at the eggplant recipes, I decided to make Eggplant Meatballs, mostly because they just sounded so… out there, you know? I love weird sounding food. Brent of course, seemed dubious, but I had faith. They were somewhat time consuming to make, and I was a bit wary, but they actually turned out really well!

So maybe they’re not so gorgeous to look at, but they were pretty tasty. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think anyone would actually think these were made of meat, but they were savory and went really well with marinara sauce. It was nice to bulk up my spaghetti, and best of all, Brent liked them! The man who does not care for eggplant said he would definitely eat it again in this form.

Because of the time involved, I think I would make a double batch next time and try freezing some of these “meatballs” for later use.

I also took some dog photos. Everytime we have a showing on our house, we have to leave with the dogs for like an hour, so I like to take them to this small dog park in our old apartment complex. They seem to enjoy it.

Asian Noodles with Shiitakes and Cashews

I’ve mentioned my love of soba noodles on the blog before, right? I’m sure I have. They’re one of my favorite ingredients to plan a meal around and I haven’t had them in quite a while, so last week at the grocery store I made sure to pick up a few packages of them.

I’ve made quite a few soba recipes, but I think last night’s dinner was a new one, though I can’t take credit for it. I made this recipe from Shape magazine. I thought it was very light and refreshing, not to mention super simple to make.

Brent was a big fan of this meal as well. He just asked me if I was blogging (I guess it’s a rarity these days) about “that soba noodle thing.” I told him yes and he replied “oh yeah, that was blog-worthy.” So I would definitely classify this as a make again recipe.

We’ve got 2 showings of the house tomorrow, so dinner will be coming from the freezer. I think it’ll be some tortellini casserole. Not sure there will be anymore “blog-worthy” meals this week.

For your mid-week viewing pleasure, here’s a photo of Larry with the pillow we gave him. He doesn’t know if he’s allowed to lay on it, so he lays behind and sort of under it.

Doesn’t he look pitiful?

Culinary Pride

Today was one of my proudest days in my kitchen. I finally made my own sushi! Those who know me are aware of my alarming obsession with sushi. I can eat it until I’m stuffed, and then I’ll request it again the following day. I’ve gone out for sushi twice in twelve hours before. Like I said, it’s a little alarming.

Obviously making my own sushi is something that has occurred to me before. I even tried it once before, sometime last year. It did not go well. Our rice was more wet than sticky and it was generally a big flop. I love going out to our favorite Japanese restaurant, so I didn’t feel compelled to try again right away, but I finally figured it was time to try again this weekend. Thank goodness I did!

The sushi rice recipe I used was from Alton Brown. Whenever I have an issue with a specific recipe or technique, I usually try to find an AB recipe for it and try that. It worked wonderfully and once it cooled, I immediately began rolling. It took me a few rolls to get the hang of it, but once I did I went crazy! It was actually incredibly easy to make, once I got the rice correct.

I first made an avocado roll and a cucumber roll as my “practice” rolls. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t charged at that point, so no pictures. They weren’t very attractive anyway. Once I got my technique down, I made my dinner rolls.

So delicious! First, I made a simple California roll with imitation crab, avocado, carrot, and cucumber, with a bit of wasabi and sesame seeds wrapped up in there.

My other roll was a recreation of my favorite roll from Sushi Station. The Paradise Roll contains tempura shrimp, toasted coconut and avocado. Could there be a more perfect combination of ingredients? I don’t think so. This was a dead ringer for the one from the restaurant.

I was just so proud of myself, I couldn’t stop smiling. I can finally make sushi! I’m probably going to go on a sushi bender now. I want to make some for lunches. I think it’ll be a nice addition to the rotation.

Do you like sushi? What’s your favorite roll?

Roasted Ratatouille Pasta

This has been another busy week, but my first few exams are over, the house is officially on the market, and my weekend started 5 hours ago so I’m feeling pretty calm right now. I also actually cooked dinner. It’s a shame how unusual that’s becoming.

Tonight my main focus was using up the large quantity of vegetables my father in law brought over on Sunday. We had around 5lbs. of tomatoes, a few eggplants and some zucchini. I decided to oven roast everything and throw it on top of some pasta. The tomatoes went in first, quartered and drizzled with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. They cooked at 350 for about an hour and a half. Next I threw in a pan of cubed zucchini and eggplant, again with olive oil, salt and pepper. I cooked that at 400 for 30 minutes, but during the last 10 minutes I also tossed in some sliced mushrooms I had in the fridge.

Once all of it was done roasting, I smashed up the tomatoes a bit and tossed with some cooked pasta. I sprinkled everything with some fresh basil and Parmesan.

I thought this was really good. The veggies probably didn’t even need any pasta, and it reminded me quite a bit of ratatouille (thus, the post title). I love meals made in the oven. This took 2 hours or so to prepare but all of it inactive so it was super simple. Thank goodness I used up those veggies because we brought home another bag full last night from our CSA.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!