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!

It’s been a crazy week

Wow. I really wasn’t expecting the first week of school to be so crazy. That, combined with the fact our house is going on the market this week, has kept me insanely busy.

Lots of cleaning and reading, in addition to very little interesting cooking hasn’t inspired any blog posts, but I’ll try anyway.

Last weekend I went to visit my family for an extended family reunion. It was nice to see everyone, especially my brother Matt who was on leave from the army.We finally got a photo of my family all together. My mom has been trying to get one of all of us for over a year now.

Monday, my first day of school was a full day and I didn’t feel much like cooking so I dug into the freezer for some black bean burgers and homemade bagel buns. Brent made some cabbage-carrot slaw and we had some corn on the cob as well.

We had some realtor meetings along with some other boring meals throughout the week, but tonight I finally actually prepared something that took more than 5 minutes. I made Spinach and Artichoke Tortellini Casserole, which Brent and I both thoroughly enjoyed. It included a lot of my favorite ingredients.

Before baking:

I made a few minor changes to the recipe: 2% milk in place of cream, veggie broth in place of the chicken broth, and I was out of breadcrumbs so I just sprinkled a bit of Parm on the top. I would say the recipe made closer to 6 servings, rather than the 4 indicated. I put the casserole into two small baking pans, baked one and froze the other.

Served, along with some roasted green beans:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’m going to watch some Gossip Girl and relax. Hopefully it won’t take me another 10 days to post!

Tuscan White Bean Stew

Hey folks. Like I said, the cookery here has been pretty boring as of late. I’ve been cooking of course, but mostly repeats and slap togethers. I have tried a few new recipes though, one of which was this Tuscan White Bean Soup from the Mayo Clinic Cookbook. I love this cookbook, and the website.

Brent described the soup as, “Well the broth is delicious.” He’s not a huge bean soup fan, but this was a tasty one. I promptly froze most of it of course.

In other non-food related, canine news… look at this ridiculous photo of Larry on the couch. He just loves to be tucked in laying on the couch with us.

So lame, I know.

Also, I’ve been kind of a spaz the past few days. Brent and I have been planning to move when I graduate, but we’ve recently decided to go ahead and list our house for sale now in preparation. Yikes! We have a few realtors coming to the house tomorrow to check out our home and get some opinions on list price and improvements. It feels kind of weird to be judged on our home and I’m a bit nervous. In the mean time I’ve been cleaning like crazy. And school starts on Monday. it’s going to be a busy few days.

My Rarefied Hobby

Oops. I kind of left you all hanging for Day 4, huh? Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much. I don’t really have pictures from Day 4 anyway. It was an afternoon Cubs game followed by some beer and me crashing early because we had a flight to catch the next morning. Nothing was overly spectacular or memorable about that day, except that it was freaking hot and our seats for the game were in the sun and I thought I was being boiled alive.

Let’s speed up to present day, shall we? Last week was kind of a bust as far as blogging goes. Brent was out of town on business Tuesday through Friday and cooking for myself has never really inspired me, so I mostly ate pasta with marinara and some salads. Brent had plans this weekend to spend time in Chicago with some friends, so when his flight landed Friday morning and he was preparing to leave again, I figured I had had enough of being alone and I went with him and hung out at my parents’ house for the weekend. Again, pretty uninteresting as far as blogging goes.

This week I’ve been cleaning and cooking up a storm in preparation for the start of the semester on Monday. My freezer is stocked and my house is much cleaner than normal but when Brent got home tonight I was physically and mentally exhausted and in no mood to cook more. Brent suggested we go to a new pizza place that just opened near our house. We’ve been waiting for 800 Degrees to open since we first saw the “Coming Soon” signs.

We split a Misto Salad and their signature pizza with Italian Sausage and Ricotta. The food was excellent. The atmosphere was not. It was more “Chuck E Cheese”-like inside than I was expecting — lots of screaming kids and a big birthday party going on. We decided to move to the outdoor seating area and I was much happier. I was starving so ignore the huge bite taken from the pizza slice.

The salad was impressive and the pizza was tasty. There were a lot of other pizza combinations I’d like to try, so I’m sure we’ll be going back.

Brent likes to make fun of my “old-timey hobby” of cooking from scratch and when he tells people I make all our bread, they’re generally pretty surprised. He was telling me about this article by Michael Pollan, which includes an interview with Harry Belzer, a food-marketing researcher. Brent told me as I was making pierogies from scratch last night that so few people do what I was doing that they could not even track the percentage. From Pollan’s article:

I kept asking him what his research had to say about the prevalence of the activity I referred to as “real scratch cooking,” but he wouldn’t touch the term. Why? Apparently the activity has become so rarefied as to elude his tools of measurement.

I don’t think of cooking the way I do as too much out of the ordinary, but considering I know no one in my real life who does the same I guess I can believe it is.

Colorado Recap Day 3

Saturday we decided to go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. Brent and I waited until Saturday to do this because Jon showed interest in coming with us and we didn’t want him to have to miss work. The downfall of waiting until the weekend was how crazy packed the park was. Parking was insane.

I won’t be doing much commentary on the photos. I mean, what do you really need to say about one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I absolutely loved Saturday’s hike. We ended up doing the Lumpy Ridge trail leading to Gem Lake. It was a difficult trail, very steep in places and with serious rocks, but it was an awesome view (and killer workout).

The view looking up from the trailhead.

Mid-way up.

Jon checking out the view. Brent and I like to tease Jon for looking like a hippy, which is hilarious to us because Jon is one of the most conservative 22 year olds I know.

Gem Lake. It was gorgeous and it really amazed me that there was this tiny hidden lake at the top of a huge mountain.

We refueled with a picnic lunch composed of quinoa salad, hummus, veggies and crackers, apples and water.

Like I said, beautiful. Brent claimed if we lived here, we’d be in the mountains nearly every weekend. Totally accurate.

Jon, looking tiny among the giant rocks.

So sweaty and tired.

After we were done climbing mountains, we chugged a crap ton of water and then needed to find more food. On our way through Boulder, we stopped at Snarf’s, which is apparently very popular with the locals and college students. Best. Sandwich. Ever. Clearly I should have gotten a photo or two but I was crazy with hunger and it did not even occur to me. It was awesome.

We got back to Jon’s apartment, showered, and then set off for Saturday night’s activity: CUBS baseball. I love the Cubs and we planned the timing of this trip to coincide with the Cubs visiting the Rockies.

This was Jon’s first major league baseball game, and I think it may be his last. I’ve never seen a dude less interested in sports. After watching the Cubs beat the Rockies, we went back home… and crashed.

Colorado Recap Day 2

Friday was jam-packed. We woke up early again, had some breakfast, packed a lunch and set off toward Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the Gods state park. We spent a few hours there, hiking about 5 miles worth of trails. Everything was gorgeous.

Nothing like a giant rock formation to make you realize how small you really are, huh?

It was so much hotter and more desert-like than I was expecting. We even saw cacti growing.

I thought this particular rock formation looked kind of like a caveman’s head. Maybe the heat was making me delirious.

It is explicitly stated that you should not attempt to climb the rocks. I never had much respect for authority — anytime I came to the rocks I felt compelled to climb, which wasn’t that difficult.

I was much less graceful on the way down. I referred to this particular move as “scuttling.”

Brent, in front of the “Siamese Twins.” He’s a stud, and he knows it.

After all of this hard (and sweaty!) work on the trails, we decided we were in need of (what else) a beer! We popped into Trinity Brewing Company, which we passed on the way to the park. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I immediately fell in love with this place. Tons of local beer on tap and a delicious sounding menu.

I wish I had been hungrier because I would have loved to try the Vegan Buffalo Wings or Tempeh Sliders. Everything on the menu sounded amazing.We ended up just ordering a round of beers and some Belgian Fries.

Ohmigod the fries!! I nearly died. Ah-May-Zing! They were thin and crispy and served with the tangiest, most intense beer mustard ever. I thought things couldn’t be any better and THEN… we tried the homemade ketchup! I actually embarrassed myself by telling the waitress (very inarticulately) how much I loved the ketchup. Brent and I kept trying to figure out what was in it. It was sweet but with spices too. After careful consideration, and a lot of licking it off my fingers, I’m pretty sure there was cloves in it.

Brent and I both really enjoyed our visit to Trinity and I wanted to tell anyone who would listen about this life-changing ketchup. To fully make you understand how in love with this condiment I was, I should explain I hate ketchup. We are probably the only people I know who have absolutely no ketchup in our fridge. It’s just not my thing, but now I want to make my own.

After the excitement of the afternoon, I didn’t think we’d end up doing anything exciting on Friday night, but after some internet browsing, we decided to go out for dinner and drinks at Jonesy’s EatBar. My food blogging skills were not up to par on this occasion because I didn’t get a picture of any of our food. Jon, Brent and I shared a split order of french fries, which Jonesy’s is famous for. We had half Macaroni & Cheese fries and half Truffle fries. The Mac & Cheese fries were pretty average. Nothing amazing. The truffle fries were the single best food I remember eating. Ever. In my life. Totally replaced the afternoon’s ketchup experience as “The best food Eva!” I also tried the Ahi Tuna Sliders, which were decent, but who could care about tuna sliders after those fries?

And of course there was beer, all of it brewed in Colorado.

Round 1:

I had some Left Hand Juju Ginger Brew, Jon had some Great Divide Samurai Rice Ale (he minored in Japanese and is obsessed with all things Japan), and Brent had some Bristols Red Rocket Pale Ale. All were enjoyed by their respective drinkers.

Round 2:

Mine was Bristols Laughing Lab Scottish Style Ale, Jon had Odell 90 Shilling Ale, and Brent had Oskar Blues Old Chub Scottish Style Ale. Mine was decent, but I really loved the Old Chub.We also played a lot of Uno while at Jonesy’s, but we left after 2 rounds of drinks because the waitress was giving us the vibe that we were not cool enough to be there.

So we took off, went back to Jon’s and I crashed hard. Sorry for the super long post, but it was a super long day. See you later for Day 3!

Colorado Recap Day 1

I’m finally back on Indiana soil (Boo!!) after the best vacation ever, or at least the best in recent memory. We had such a good time and I took way too many pictures so I thought I’d break up the recap into four parts. My family has friends near Denver, so I spent a lot of summer vacations there growing up, but Brent had never been so I was excited to show him how gorgeous it is.

By the time we arrived and got back to Jon’s apartment at 10pm Wednesday night, I crashed hard, so our first day was Thursday. I was up and ready to go by 6:45 thanks to the time change and east-facing window I slept next to. Brent and I headed out for a 4 mile run, which was way more scenic than our normal running routes. That is my favorite part about Colorado — all the running and biking paths. It’s the most pedestrian friendly state I’ve ever been to.

After our run, we went grocery shopping! Because we had access to Jon’s kitchen, I wanted to cook at least half of our meals, and I really wanted a reason to go to Whole Foods. After groceries, we drove around waiting for Jon to get off work and ended up exploring some of downtown Denver. All of this was just passing time until the real highlight of the day: BEER!

My absolute favorite beer is Fat Tire Amber Ale by the New Belgium Brewing Company, so when we decided to visit Jon, I begged Brent to drive the hour+ to Fort Collins to visit the brewery. I love their beer and I love their employee-owned, slow-growth, sustainable philosophy. We had a tour on Thursday afternoon at 4pm.

We drank lots of beer and learned the history of the company and well as some of their guiding principles. Then we drank more beer. (the beer drinking was one of the themes of this vacation).

Jon looks a little boozy in this photo, but this is actually the first tasting beer of the afternoon.

I was a bad touree because I kind of zoned out during some of the technical stuff, like what goes on in these three huge mixers.

Hideous photo, I know. There was a huge twirly slide near the end of the tour. Of course I felt compelled to go down. I slid much faster than I expected and felt quite woozy after the fact. Luckily Brent was able to capture the moment.

The selection of beers in the tasting room. We tried all of them but my favorite by far was the Dandelion Ale, which uses dandelion greens to get the bitterness traditionally imparted by hops. I was so in love with this beer, I bought a growler to take home with us.

We hung out in the tasting room for a while and then finally headed home, beer in hand. The brewery tour was so much fun, and I was so excited to try some of their smaller batch brews which aren’t available near us. The rest of day one was spent drinking some of our purchases, making some spaghetti with marinara, and then crashing hard at the end of the night (another theme of the vacation).

Birthday Breakfast

Hey guys. I’m 24 today! That’s still “early twenties,” right? Brent and I are headed to Denver today! We’re staying with his brother Jon, and while we’re there we have lots of fun stuff planned, so expect an exciting recap.

To get my day started right, Brent and I headed out for a run this morning, followed by me doing some hip-opening flow yoga. Afterward I made myself a delicious birthday breakfast of french toast! I used some cinnamon honey whole wheat bread I made. It was this recipe with a swirl of cinnamon in it. For the syrup, I cooked blueberries and water with a bit of agave until the berries burst and the mix was a pourable consistency. Loved it!

All together with coffee. Have I mentioned agave is now the only coffee sweetener I’ll use? I love it. And I just ran out! Better restock. Does the picture look clearer to you? I got a new camera for my birthday and I’ve been playing around with it. Of course the first photo I took with it was of Larry and Lucy.

The flash on this thing is so bright! I definitely need to learn all the settings and play around some more. That’s all for now. We’ve got to finish getting ready to leave!

Kathryn and Jesse Get Hitched

Like I said earlier, we had a blast this weekend! Ross, Tessa, Kathryn and I have been friends since freshman year of college and spent the 2-3 years after that as roommates. For nearly 7 years they’ve been my second family. I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends. This weekend was an awesome celebration of Kathryn and Jesse’s wedding and it was the first time all of us have been back at the University of Illinois in nearly 2 years. The ceremony was on the main quad of the campus, with the reception at the union. The after party continued at Murphy’s, which was one of our old haunts. (Fun Fact: I worked as a bartender there during school).

"Backstage" -- Kathryn getting ready!

Umm... just more confirmation I have no rhythm and am always willing to make a fool of myself

Kathryn and Ross

Tessa and Greg

The Monroes

Two of my favorite guys

Ross and I

Brent and Greg... both are almost as funny as they think they are

Me and the Bride

The girls

The happy couple

We had so much fun, I can’t wait to do it again! Now we just need another wedding…. I’m looking at you, Ross.

Happy Birthday Brent!

Wow! It’s been such a fun, exhausting weekend! We went back to our alma mater for a wedding. It was a long drive both ways and a late night. At midnight last night when it turned August 2nd, we toasted not only the bride and groom, but also my husband Brent who turned 28 today! For Brent’s birthday I told him to pick whatever he wanted for dinner and I would make it for him. His choice: fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.

Though I’m not well-known for my ability to fry things, I tackled the project with enthusiasm, covering myself in egg and flour in the process. Here’s a lovely photo of my giving myself the dreaded “club hand” from all the double-dipping.

The chicken came out really well, and the birthday boy seemed very grateful and happy.

Dinner was tasty. I love mashed potatoes and I haven’t had them in a long time. Delicious. I made a lot of food because we’re planning on eating leftovers for the next two days until Wednesday (my birthday!!!) when we leave for Denver.

Not exactly “Well-balanced,” but delicious nonetheless. I’ll have a fun wedding post up later.