Dayton, OH: Day 1

Lars is moving to Dayton, OH. This weekend we’re looking for an apartment for him. I’m not having fun, because I want him to stay in Indiana with me. Woe is me and such.

We headed to Dayton on Friday and stopped in Indianapolis for a quick lunch: Patachou. Patachou is a chain in the Indianapolis area that suggests its a “student union for adults.” I don’t know what that entirely means. My college union has people passed out on couches and a copy center, but whatever Patachou…I like your food. You may be familiar with their main restaurant: Petit Chou. I usually get the croissant French Toast, which is awesome. I mean, come on: it’s buttery, flaky, and comes with candied pecans. Hol to the ler. I decided to be one of those ladies and get a salad. You see this “effort” to eat healthier? Well, it is there. I ordered the Chinese Chicken Salad. I ordered it because it has cabbage. I love some cabbage–not steamed–but cut up in salads or shredded on my carne asada tacos. Anyway, the salad had romaine lettuce, salad, steamed chicken, fried won tons (not so healthy, but work with me here), carrots, green onions, and ginger vinaigrette. This salad was awesome, because the chicken was shredded and worked through the entire salad and not just two stupid grilled slices sitting on top. I thought that was the ballerest salad move in the nation. Go, Patachou. I’ll visit your student union again, because I always do. (I only ate half the salad, because I was overwhelmed, but all the wontons of course).

Lars was paying and said I could get a cookie. So, I got a cookie. I ordered their spiced pecan shortbread and ate it during the car ride. It was buttery, flaky, and pecany. A delicious substitute to my favorite French Toast.

Lars and I reached Dayton and spent the evening apartment hunting, which went so-so. For dinner, we stopped at Figlio Wood Fired Pizza. I made my own pizza, because I’m picky. I asked for tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, roasted garlic, sun-dried  tomatoes, and prosciutto. It was okay and this is why. The sauce was good and sun-dried tomatoes had a nice sweetness. The crust was okay, but not that “fired.” The proscuitto was cut up too small. When I order meat, I order meat, lady. And, lastly… do not put spoonfuls of roasted garlic on the pizza. I got an unwelcome surprises in my mouth.  I ate most of it because I was famished, but I rather get take out next time. Sorry, Figlio.

Well, I’m off to start Day 2 of Dayton! Hope your weekends are going well.

Paranormal Activity

Have you ever seen the show Ghost Adventures on The Travel Channel? Well you should, because it is hilarious. Zak from the Jersey Shore (I actually don’t know where he is originally from, but work with me here) and his crew travel the nation and pick fights with evil spirits. I’m not joking. He yells at them and asks them to come and get him. Sometimes he yells to the dead that did not know a word of English  while alive, in English. Do non-English speakers get English language proficiency skills when they become a ghost? Here is your bed sheet, Mr. Ghost, and your Rosetta Stone. Plus, their “science” is funny. They had an episode where they used this stupid machine that could “catch spirits.” It looked like a machine from Chucky Cheese.

Anyway. Here is a clip if you are interested.

I mean look at these guys. So funny.

So, I’ve been watching a marathon of this. Even though I watch it because I think it is hilarious, I think it is a horrible idea to watch it when you live in an old home. Let me explain…

The other night Lars had a meeting. I was watching some crappy reality television and grading on the couch. I kept hearing this door creaking. Finally, I decided to go investigate. The attic door had opened on its own! I understand this may have been nothing, but our attic is scary–torture chamber scary–with secret doors and stuff. So, I ran out of the house and wouldn’t go back in until Lars got home. Overreact much?

Since my house is spooky, I decided to create a spooky meal: Dracula’s Revenge from Cooking Light. I’m not joking; that is the name. Dracula’s Revenge is a baked penne dish with sausage and garlic. It calls for a sweet turkey sausage, but we used Spicy, because Dracula is a little wimp and we don’t care for threats of revenge. Bring it. We also used whole wheat penne instead.

Sorry the pictures blows. We cooked at night, because you cannot cook/eat Dracula's Revenge in the daylight. Right?

Maybe the attic monster wanted to mess with me, because the dish didn’t turn out as great as I wanted. Lars loved it.

The recipe calls for 2 garlic bulbs. You roast them for an hour and squeeze the juices out, which is fun. It is like popping a zit. To much information, I know. But, accurate information.

The dish needs work. I mean…maybe I screwed up? I haven’t been on my cooking game lately. I’ve been reading so much my eyes hurt. Lars ate it, though. Boy, did he eat it. Overall, I think it needed more garlic. “Yeah, that is right Dracula! Come get me! Yeah! Come on!”

Pasta by Lars

Lars made pasta for dinner and it was the best yet! I found chili pepper spaghetti from Target in his cabinet and demanded (nicely) we use it sometime during my visit.

Lars’s Extravaganza in my Mouth Pasta (modified from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything)

• 1 package Chili Pepper Spaghetti (Archer Farms)
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed and pulled apart
• 1/4 white onion, diced
• 3 medium slices of prosciutto, diced
• 1 can whole, peeled tomatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• about 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried basil
• salt and pepper (fresh ground) to taste

Directions

1. Pour olive oil in cast iron skillet or cast iron dutch oven on medium heat.
2. Sauté onion, garlic, and prosciutto in skillet until garlic is browned and onion is translucent (Lars had to cover the skillet with a lid for a few minutes to speed the process).
3. Bring approximately 2 quarts of water to a boil (let it come to a boil as you proceed with making the sauce)
4. Remove lid from can of tomatoes and gouge the tomatoes with a knife or crush them with your hands. Remove approximately 1/2 of a cup of the tomato juice from the can (unless you want your sauce more watery).
5. Pour tomatoes and juice into skillet with sautéed ingredients.
6. Raise heat to medium-high on the skillet until the mixture becomes more like a sauce. Bittman suggests 10 minutes, Lars’s usually takes closer to 15.
7. While the sauce heats, salt the boiling water and prepare in the pasta. Follow the directions on the package. Time everything so that the pasta is done before the sauce-  even if the sauce is a bit thicker than you would like it (see next step)
8. (KEY) As soon as the pasta is finished, get it into the sauce in the skillet or dutch even before it cools. You can strain most of the water and then add the pasta and the leftover water to the sauce, as Lars did, or you could probably transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the skillet using tongs. This is the point at which it would be an advantage to have used a skillet large enough to accommodate both the sauce and the pasta. Lars did not, but it still turned out great.
9. Serve with fresh Parmesan!

Now, the pasta did not necessarily have a distinct chili pepper taste (they did have a slight kick). Although, they were the best spaghetti noodles we have ever had. Thanks, Target. Keep on, keepin’ on.

While Lars cooked, I baked. I wasn’t as successful. Lars and I are meeting our friends halfway from both our locations tomorrow for dinner. I wanted to bake them something, but I’ll try again tomorrow.

In summary, I made two different cookies from Cooking Light:

Cookie 1: Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Brownies (pictured left). I recommend not making these. The end.

Cookie 2: Pecan Bar Cookies (pictured right). The recipe recommended baking in a cast iron skillet in the oven (to make bars), but I baked them as cookies at 350 for 8 minutes. These cookies were good. They tasted like autumn, pancakes, and homemade goodness. Lars ate a lot of them.

Time to watch Sunshine Cleaning with Lars. I have a busy day making peanut butter cookies (as they requested) tomorrow. I’m excited about our mini-food road trip later in the day, though. Pictures to come.

Cleaning-Inspired Cooking

I was so out of it today, again. Then I realized I have been out of it this entire summer, because I haven’t been drinking my morning coffee. Hm, good to know.

For lunch I kept it simple. I sautéed one sliced chicken sausage link in olive oil. It was a delicious Spinach, Fontina, and Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe’s. I ate it alongside the Mediterranean CousCous from the Schwann’s man. It was a light, yet filling lunch.

After being all emo for half the day, I finally had coffee. I made half a package of the Starbucks Via Iced. I got a new cup! Well, Carrie from TV and Dinners bought it first, but I loved it too much. I spotted it at Target! Carrie has great cup-taste!

I am moving in early August and I have the daunting task of using all the food in my fridge and cabinets before then. I have a lot of flour and oats, so I made some delicious oatmeal cookies!

I used a great recipe from Whole Grain Gourmet for Healthy Oatmeal Cookies. The recipe uses honey instead of sugar, and molasses. If you like molasses, you will love these. They are darker than the average oatmeal cookie because of the molasses. She also recommended (and I didn’t notice until later) adding more oats. It is your call. I added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. They are not overpoweringly sweet. I like them!

Oh, and she had a great tip. Spray the measuring cup before you pour the honey, so that the honey pours out of it more easily.

For dinner, I climbed around the cupboards again.

I found a huge 28 oz can of whole tomatoes. Among the many things Andy Warhol and I have in common, the biggest thing is our love for tomato soup. I’ve always bought canned soup, but never again. After researching recipes online and seeing how easy it was, I decided to just make-up my own recipe. I was mostly inspired by Cooking Light. The soup was very good for the first time. I will play around with it more to perfect it.

Tomato and Basil Soup

• 1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup of organic free range chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh copped basil
• a sprinkling of dry basil (I was worried I wouldn’t have enough basil)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp olive oil

I opened the can and stabbed the crap out of the tomatoes and put it aside. I sautéed the minced garlic in the olive oil for about 30 seconds on medium heat. I then added the tomatoes, broth, salt, pepper, and dried basil and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes. Then I mixed in the fresh basil. I put the mixture into the blinder and pureed it until smooth. Then it was ready.

I served it with an adaptation of my mother’s easy bread stick recipe.

Whole Wheat Breads Sticks

• 1/2 package of Trader Joe’s Refrigerated Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
• butter
• garlic powder or salt
• grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 425. I rolled out the dough into a circle (as if I was about to make pizza) after I let it do it’s rising/whatever thing (while I worked on the soup).  I baked it for 10 minutes. I immediately but the baked dough on a baking rack. I microwaved some butter for about 30 seconds, and then stirred in some garlic powder. I brushed it onto the dough (while it was still hot). I then immediately sprinkled the grated Parmesan on to the bread. After it cooled, I sliced it into strips.

Yum, yum. What a day of kitchen adventures. I’m actually having fun cleaning out my kitchen before the move. It is surprisingly inpsiring!

I have a date with the Lifetime movie My Stepson, My Lover starring Rachel Ward. You don’t know who Rachel Ward is? Um, The Thorn Birds: only the best mini-series ever!

Do you have any entertainment-related (music, movies, tv, etc.) guilty pleasures?

Has anyone been watching Top Chef?

1. I hate that one girl that tried to get school children drunk. She has a face I’d like to punch.

2. Stop complaining Top Chef contestants! My Top Chef would know how to make a damn pie! The punch-face girl (see #1) was like “I hope it is okay for not being a pastry chef” and the guest judge said “So what? My grandma isn’t a pastry chef and she knows how to make a pie.” Snap!

A Sweet and Savory Change of Plans

I am so out of it this morning. I was going to make smoothies, but Lars told me not to wake his roommate. So, I’m having an Italian-inspired egg scramble with honey on a corn muffin. Then, I’ll have a smoothie for lunch. Ahhh, everything is out of place!

My Italian-inpsired Egg Scramble consisted of:

• 1 Trader Joe’s Garlic Chicken Sausage Link (leftover from pasta last night)
• garlic clove minced
• a made-up amount of Egg Beaters
• fresh basil
• part skim shredded mozzarella cheese

I also enjoyed my breakfast with half a package of prepared Iced Via Coffee.  Wait until lunch Miss Cup, you will be filled with smoothie goodness.

I was thinking bloggers. Do you have a pottery-painting place where you live? It would be fun to do a pottery exchange. You know, I paint something and you paint something, and then we exchange via mail. And, pottery places have a lot of kitchen-oriented pottery items. Hmm, I have random thoughts in the morning.

Also, it is July. Huh? This summer needs to slow down. But, it is here and we might as well learn something new. For the history of July check out this blog post on dictionary.com.

After lunch I’m heading to my parents’ house to ride my bike! It is stuck there until I officially move. Boo. I miss it. All I do is think about the places I can bike to. Then, I’m heading back to Ohio to finish my thesis, do some packing, and get things in order.

What is your favorite SAVORY breakfast dish?

Pasta and Virgins

Do you like pasta? Wow, so do I! I’m no pasta virgin, fo sho!

Lars and I prepared a pasta dish inspired by Cooking Light. We basically mixed the following ingredients together.

• 3 sliced-links of Trader Joe’s Garlic Chicken Sausage
• 4 cups of whole wheat cooked penne pasta
• 4 cups-ish of grape tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp of capers
• 1/3 cup sliced fresh basil
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 3/4 tsp salt

It was a refreshing summer combo. Lars also recommends adding balsamic vinegar for an extra kick! I might add artichoke hearts next time!

This pasta paired well with my Charles Shaw Merlot from Trader Joe’s. Always keeping it classy with the 3-Buck Chuck. Kathy Griffin’s mother would be proud!

Lars and I will spend the rest of the evening watching Netflix (mostly MST3K), while he grades and I blog/read. My book on the history of virginity is BALLER. It is interesting to see how much medieval diseases were linked to virginity, when it was actually malnutrition. Maybe I’ll explain further in another post.

What is your go-to pasta ingredient?

Lars Guest Blog 1: Pizza and Ice Cream

This post is pretty epic. Feel free to just scan for the pictures.

Hi! This is Lars, Ashley’s boyfriend. I’m guest blogging about our dinner tonight, which was flatbread pizzas and ice cream with homemade chocolate whipped cream. I really appreciate Ashley giving me the opportunity to write here. Her only request was that I keep the tone of the post within the spirit of the blog she’s begun.

Ashley suggested that I begin by posting a picture of myself that showed me as scholarly, yet playful. I think this one I think best fits that description:

Thinking, Playfully

To the food!

After reading our friend Anna’s post about having fresh pizza, and after watching that episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy with Butch the artist, Ashley was excited to make flatbread pizza. We set out to our local Marsh (the store, not the wetland) to get the ingredients.

We were tired- Ashley’s been sick, and I had just worked out for the first time since February. We wandered aimlessly in the bread section. We couldn’t find much at first, but after walking three laps around one of the bread displays, Ashley pointed to a flatbread that was literally right in front of my dumb head. I had actually been staring at without realizing it was what we were looking for. It was this-

Flatbread! Not just for dour-looking peasants like the one on this package.

Flat enough to be flatbread, but fluffy enough to be more substantial than that “Flatout” bread, which is more like a tortilla.

We got the bread, some plum tomatoes, a head of garlic, and I had the deli slice a quarter pound of pepperoni. I also remembered that I had whipping cream in the fridge, which meant we had to buy some ice cream to go with it. What else could we do?

The other ingredients we would use for the pizza would be olive oil, fresh basil, and low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese.  I have a basil plant at home (Basel the basil plant, Mark II- I killed the first one; not to be confused with Ashley’s disco-themed Bazzle basil plant), I have Sargento mozzarella from a recent plane crash of an attempt at the South Beach Diet, and I knew I had Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil at home.

I name “Sargento” and “Filippo Berio” because when I express concern over the time that Ashley spends on her blog, she assures me that one day soon the brands she mentions will rain down free products on us like locusts in the bible. Like delicious locusts. She doesn’t really say that, but I dreamed it last night.

Cooking

We began with the bread, naked as jaybirds.

We didn't grill them, they came like this.

Ashley quartered the plum tomatoes like they were (simile omitted).

Ashley's immaculately-chopped plum tomatoes

I heated garlic with dried basil and oregano in my cast iron skillet on low-medium to get some of the flavors to mingle. It worked ok- here’s what it looked like on the bread.

Then Ashley added the chopped basil,

sprinkled the mozzarella,

and added the tomatoes. We put it in my (notoriously low-powered) toaster oven on Medium, and actually had to put it in for 1 1/2 toaster cycles (turning it in-between).  Here’s what it looked like when it was nearly completed:

And here’s what it looked like plated:

I topped my pizza with two slices of pepperoni, each of which I had torn in half, and some fresh minced garlic. Mine looked like this:

The meal was so good we literally sat in a sort of afterglow, not talking for a few minutes. It was partially from being tired, but the food had a lot to do with it- the meal had only taken about fifteen minutes to put together (you could easily do it in five if you’re willing to go a little simpler or prep some of the ingredients ahead of time), and the bread was really perfect. The puffiness of the flatbread gave it substance and the crisped, golden-brown crust had a delicious bite.

After our food coma had ended, I suggested we make the dessert. I had whipped cream in the fridge from last week, when Phase 1 of my South Beach Diet ended with me deciding never to go on the South Beach diet again. I then bought food that is bad for me and sped away from the store cackling, as I recall.

I’ve had good luck starting whipped cream by putting my KitchenAid mixing bowl and the whisk attachment in the freezer, so I did that for about a half hour. After it came out, I looked for recipes online.

Having made whipped cream before I decided I wanted a recipe that included the 1/4 cup of sugar, the vanilla extract, and chocolate powder to make chocolate whipped cream. I couldn’t find it, though, so I just went from memory.

I began the whisk on low-medium (4 on my mixer) so that I could gradually add the sugar. I’m not even sure if that matters, but I did it. Ever since I spent six hours trying unsuccessfully to make my egg whites into meringue, I treat my mixer and the things it does with cautious respect.

I gradually added the sugar, which was actually between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup. I used all the whipped cream I had in the carton, which was 1 pint, and it’s supposed to be 1/4 cup sugar for 1 cup whipping cream, but I didn’t want to add the full 1/2 cup sugar.

Anyway, I couldn’t find a blog that told me how much powdered cocoa (Hershey’s unsweetened) to add, and to I just added by teaspoons until it looked right. I ended up using 6 teaspoons, which made me feel dumb. So do yourself a favor and add 2 tablespoons, of course, if you do it.

We ended up with a whipped cream that was relatively light in chocolate color and taste.

Ashley took a crepe that we had made last night, two small scoops of ice cream, and a dollop (love saying that) of chocolate whipped cream, with just a sprinkle of cinnamon. She said the cinnamon worked really well with the chocolate, and when I tasted it, I agreed.

I just had a massive bowl of ice cream and whipped cream.

Look like too much? It was. After another food coma I wrote this. Sorry for the lateness of the post.

Tomorrow we go to the farmer’s market! Exciting things to come.

Oh-! and before I forget, Ashley forgot to post this yesterday. There was a tornado warning yesterday and the sky went totally yellow after it passed. Check it out-

Weird, right? I didn’t edit that photo at all. Everything went sepia, like The Element of Crime. I’ve seen that before, where I grew up (also in tornado alley), but I never get used to it.

Goodbye for now!

P.S. Thank you for supporting Ashley. I am very proud of her. And if you have an “in” with any of the food brands, please make it rain.

Boxcar Burgers

Did you ever read The Boxcar Children when you were little? They had to cook using the very little that they had. Well, welcome to Boxcar Burgers. Lars and I had to use my mother’s kitchen. My mother is a good cook, but did not have all the tools we needed to complete our burgers. We made this without a cutting board! BUT they were a success!

We used a recipe for Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Burgers from Eating Well magazine. I call them pizza burgers. We could not find Foccacia bread at Trader Joe’s or my local supermarket, so we had to settle for whole wheat buns. Also, my local grocery store did not have basil leaves. So meet Bazzle the basil plant.

That is right folks, I am now a farmer. Lars was in charge of the marinara  sauce (he used his own recipe instead of Eating Well’s) and I was in charge of the turkey burgers.

Ahh! One of them opened up during grilling!

When the turkey burgers were ready, we put them on a half-slice of the wheat bun, and then topped all that with the sauce.

The burger is under there somewhere.

The mozzarella (and basil) oozed out. Again, it tasted like a pizza. Yum.

Since I was serving a picky eater, I wanted to soften the blow with a glass of wine. By the way, she (my sister) loved the burger but prefers marinara sauce to have the consistency of ketchup.

This wine was…from Indiana. It was okay. It tasted better the more I drank, though .

Dear Indiana,

Stick to corn.

Love, Ashley

Overall, a great meal. Though when cleaning, the garbage disposal got leftovers all over my white shirt. Boo.