Turkey Tears

Today was one of those days.

I know I should be like, “Hell yeah, Scotland!” But, I am very broke. Grad students aren’t really rolling in the Benjamins, or whatever. I also have two conferences next week, which cost money. So, anyway. I was trying to pay for a hotel online today, my credit card wouldn’t work, and I started crying. I’m on my period, too. I am a woman and all.

Anyway, it ended well. I paid for a hotel at Clemson University for a conference and one night at a Bed and Breakfast in Edinburgh.  I am studying abroad in Dundee, Scotland, but since I’m arriving  a whole day early, I thought I’d spend it at a Scottish Bed and Breakfast in the city of Edinburgh and really live it up. It only cost 40 pounds for 1 night. I thought that was a bargain. The guest house is called Aonach Mor and its deep in the city, so score.  I rock. I am a woman and all.

I’m writing this after two glasses of wine.

Anyway, Lars and I cooked, which is the purpose of this blog and all; turkey burgers and roasted red potatoes. It is hard to find a good turkey burger recipe, and I think condiments are especially important in turkey burger building. I found a recipe on Cooking Light for Quick-and-Easy Turkey Burgers. The recipe uses teriyaki sauce and cajun seasoning so it’s pretty flavorful and it was surprisingly juicy. We put it between two slices of the Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Sourdough. I topped mine with Trader Joe’s Gouda Cheese (I know, so much TJ lately). To roast the red potatoes, I just covered them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I ate all this with boxed wine (see crying above).

And all, I’m glad to be back and I’m trying to be a good blogger. Sorry if I don’t respond quickly to emails or posts. And I LOVE READING YOUR BLOGS, but I may not be able to read them as much as I want. That saddens me. So, just know I’m trying. And thanks for your patience. You all rock. I toast to you.

Good night!

When Life Gives You Lemons

I have been missing from the blog world lately, but I’ve been missing from the real world too. Life has been rough, boring, and stressful. So, I’ve been keeping to myself. To make matters worse, Lars is on the job market. He and I will be living states apart for four years. Then when I finish my PhD, we have to figure out how we can work at the same university. Or one of us has to drop everything and follow the other. It is complicated and annoying. He has been traveling a lot for campus visits, so I have gotten the taste of being alone and I hate it.

Complicated.

Lemons are not complicated, though. That is why I like them. I love how many things you can make with one lemon. For example, I made two Cooking Light dishes recently. They both rocked.

First, I made Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca. It is more beautiful on the Cooking Light site, but only because I couldn’t find fresh whole sage leaves. I had to use the dry sage stuff, but found it was still delicious. The chicken was wrapped in prosciutto, which Lars is a fan of. I was a big fan of the lemony sauce. I recommend serving it with a whole wheat long pasta; it soaks up the juices.

The same lemon I used for dinner made some delicious Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies. I loved these cookies. LOVED.

What is your favorite thing to do with a lemon?

Well, I have to read more articles. Have a great Monday!

I cannot vacation.

Apparently, I don’t know how to vacation. Without all the demands of school, I don’t know what to do with myself. I know I shouldn’t complain, but I am programmed to produce each day. So, I need to chill the F out. I just saw Black Swan and I think the lesson is: chill out or you will go crazy. I don’t want to go crazy and certainly not Black Swan crazy. Girl, please.

One thing that could keep me from being academic during vacation is baking. Since our family eats the same thing each Christmas, I thought I’d bake something new. I found a recipe for Apple Kuchen on Cooking Light. My pictures suck, but the dish was good. The cake had a nutty (I used pecans instead of walnuts), cream cheese taste. The apples were covered with cinnamon and apricot preserves. Yum.

Well I’m going to force myself to do nothing.

I finally cooked: Spaghetti and Meatballs

I have finally cooked a meal from scratch, folks. It took five hours and a burnt finger, but it was brilliant. Honestly, it was the best meal I have ever cooked.

It all began at 3 PM. I prepared Marinara Magnifica from Cooking Light. This took a good 3 hours to simmer. Let me tell you: this sauce is fantastic. It was chunky. It had wine in it. Need I say more? It had a fabulous smoky taste to it, which I attribute to the cast iron dutch oven. You know what goes well with freaking spaghetti? Meatballs, holler yo.

So, I have never liked meatballs. I grew up calling them “meatloaf balls.” I just never, ever liked them. When browsing Smitten Kitchen, I came across a recipe for Baked Chicken Meatballs. These meatballs have so much going on: parsley, Canadian bacon, milk-soaked bread (we used the Virgina Savory bread from Great Harvest), onion, and tomato paste (in them and brushed on top of them). These meatballs have turned over a new leaf for me. Meatballs are delicious.  Lars almost lost his shit for these meatballs.

 

The meal was even more awesome, because I got to drink the leftover wine in my mini wine glass.

Lunch tomorrow is going to be leftover paradise. Shit, that is a great cooking show title.

I miss you, all.

Pizza Thursday Gets Deep

Summer is ending. Wah wah, fo sho. I start a summer seminar of sorts on Monday. It lasts a week and it is basically a prep course for teaching first-year composition. Then school starts the following Monday. I am not ready to take graduate courses or to teach freshmen, but I cannot really hit pause. I must suck it up.

Sometimes I eat my emotions. To make sure I don’t eat an entire order of cheesestix from the local pizza joint, I try to have fun with cooking at home and within limits. Well, I was very excited to find a recipe for Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza on Cooking Light‘s site. This is the start of a new tradition. Lars and I have decided to dedicate Thursday evenings to our favorite food: pizza. Each Thursday we will have pizza and most likely try out a new recipe. I hope you like pizza, readers.

What was interesting about this pizza was that it was made in a cast iron skillet. Even though we had problems with the dough, everything turned out fantastic. The recipe calls for mushrooms and Italian turkey sausage, but we used neither. We did use pepperoni. This could easily be a vegetarian dish, especially if jam-packed with veggies. The crust was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. The sauce was pretty fantastic, too. There may not be enough cheese for some, but my favorite part of pizza is the crust and sauce anyway. Did you know that I actually took the cheese off of my pizza until about high school? I don’t know why I preferred pizza cheeseless. Anyway, this was a real treat!

Bad Picture, Good Pizza.

For dessert I finally had a whole wheat snickerdoodle cookie with Double-Churned Yogurt Blends vanilla ice cream. This ice cream rocks, first off. Secondly, snickerdoodles and ice cream are a great pairing.

If you could invent an ice cream flavor. What would it be? Mine would be derby pie ice cream, of course.

Potatoes and Popeye

Saturday was a whirlwind! I woke up early and headed to Great Harvest Bread Company, because I was in a sandwich mood. Luckily they were selling my favorite bread today: Popeye. Popeye is a bread with spinach, sweet red peppers, and Parmesan cheese (which you can see melted in little nooks throughout the bread). For lunch, Lars and I used it for sandwiches along with: sliced tomato, garlic cheddar cheese, and turkey. Yum! I ate mine with sliced apple and pickle.

After lunch we saw Inception. Go see it. It is like watching an action film on crack. When we came home to make dinner, we realized some dark clouds. Dark clouds that turned to lighting, high speed winds, and hail. While we hid in the bathroom, my dinner cooked in the oven: Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Onions from Cooking Light.

These sweet potatoes were so easy to make and so tender. The seasoning complemented it well without covering up the awesome taste of sweet potatoes. This is how you make sweet potatoes, not the crap I had Friday! I recommend maybe cooking them longer to brown them more (if you are into that kind of thing). Sorry the picture is dark because of the storm!

I actually recycled the leftovers to make hash for breakfast this morning. I recommend adding Canadian bacon, too (ours was expired)!

Time to catch up on your blogs and watch Lars make Indian for dinner (pictures and recipe to come).

How’s your weekend going? What is your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes?

Chained to the Oven

I woke up at 7AM hoping to work out. My throat was sore and my lower back was aching. The workout would have to wait! So, I went to my safe place: the kitchen. I made Lars and I Oven-Puffed Pancakes (kinda like Dutch Babies or German Pancakes) from Cooking Light. They didn’t turn out as puffy as planned, but they still rocked my pjs (which I am still wearing).

I slathered my pancake with strawberry jam. I also had apple slices, which ate I while baking. Only two survived for the picture.

Next was Operation Peanut Butter Cookie. We are meeting our friends in Bloomington, IL (because it is halfway between us) for dinner. Since they run a frugal living site (thriftshoppin.com), I thought I’d bring homemade dessert to them. I didn’t have to buy any ingredients. So frugal, right? Now I can afford wine at dinner. I asked what their favorite cookie was and they answered, “Peanut Butter!” I found a great recipe on a site I trust, Smitten Kitchen, for Peanut Butter Cookies. I picked these because they used both chocolate and peanut butter chips. This is the best peanut butter cookie I’ve had. Go me. Well, go Smitten Kitchen for rocking it out. I’ve been doing the “Surprise Me” search option on her site all day. There is some great stuff I’ll be trying soon.

Before I devoured it!

I am feeling much better, but I have to rush to get everything done. Lars and I are going to clean a bit, play some soccer, get ready, and hit the road. I’ll make sure to take a lot of foodie (and not so foodie) pictures.

Soccer and Enchiladas

Hello everyone! Last night Lars and I had a wonderful evening and it was surely a pick-me-up. We made Speedy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas from Cooking Light. These were super quick, which was good because we were trying to watch the British football film The Damned United .  These are not the most glamorous photos, but Lars and I enjoyed every bite. I recommend topping them sour cream. I just happen to hate sour cream. I know, weird.

I also recommend watching this film (it was on Netflix).

Lars made a homemade and imaginative Nutella and Peanut Butter “empanada” with leftover pie crust. I ate mine with ice cream.

Well, I have a an impossible list of tasks to complete today. Better get started!