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.

Crazy Lady/Kitchen Lady

I am having one of those weeks where you work hard, then look around, and feel as if you got nothing accomplished. The final days of summer of whipping past me. I have to start class soon at a new school. I have to teach soon. I have no idea what I’m teaching these poor freshmen. One student already emailed me asking what textbook we are using. I don’t freaking know. I don’t even know what day it is.

Anyway, it has been a complicated week, but a fun one. I am starting to love the place and it is slowly coming together. I love our neighborhood and my English colleagues. I just hope I can get everything settled with the house before the school workload hits me like a ton of bricks.

Although I have been a crazy lady, I have also been a kitchen lady. I wanted to share some recipes from the past few days.

Amorelli with Spinach, Garbanzo Beans, and Feta

Adapted from Cooking Light

Just mix these delicious ingredients together, and then feel free to top with freshly ground pepper. It makes 12 servings, which means lunch for the rest of the week for me. Holler!

• 8 cups coarsely chopped spinach
• 8 cups hot cooked amorelli
• 1 cup crumbed low fat feta cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 (19-ounce) cans garbanzo beans
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed

This pasta is what 5th-grade-Ashley would call “tight.”

A perfect summer pasta. It tastes great cold, also.

You know what else tastes great hot and cold? Blondies. I found a recipe for Blondies, infinitely adaptable on Smitten Kitchen. I tried these in two ways and created Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies, and my favorite: Chocolate, Banana, and Pecan Blondies.

Ashley’s Blondies Adventure

• 8 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix butter and brown sugar, then egg, then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in additions (see below).
4. Pour in pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack, then cut away.

Additions

Chocolate Peanut Butter Blondies: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, 1/2 cup semi-sweet chips, 1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Chocolate, Banana, and Pecan Blondies: 1/2 cup toasted pecans, 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana); feel free to add more chocolate chips

Best Chocolate Chips EVER!

The banana added a great texture to the blondies.

Lastly, Lars and I finally tried the Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix I won from Tamara @ The Amateur Nutritionist. Thanks again, Tamara! Lars and I brushed it with olive oil, topped it with fresh mozzarella and baked it. Then when out of the oven, we topped it with salt, pepper, and basil. Delicious. Lars and I finished this baby off.  I don’t follow a gluten free diet, but I would definitely buy this crust again! It was easy to make, too. And this week, I need easy.

Okay party people, I must go. I NEED to catch up on y’all’s blogs. Hopefully I get internet at the new place soon. I’m going bonkers.

A Good Food Day

Ever had a good food day? Like everything just hit the spot? You are eating just the right amount and every bite tastes awesome? That was my day.

I started off the day with a blogger staple: oatmeal. I mixed in pecans (from Green Valley, Arizona, holler at my G-Ma!), strawberries, and brown sugar. I ate this while watching Pretty Little Liars on Hulu. I’m not afraid to say it, but that show rocks.

I took Bob’s Red Mill corn muffins out of the freezer (I had saved them from earlier) for lunch. They tasted better than I remember. I slathered them with strawberry jam. I also had an apple and sliced carrots.

After lunch Lars and I ran some errands. We got to take another tour of our new apartment for next year. I love the place! It has so much windows; I’m a fan of natural lighting. I’ll post pictures once we move in and get settled.

The highlight of my day was the chocolate I received in the mail from Hannah over at Wayfaring Chocolate. Thanks Hannah! It was wonderful. Hannah sent Dark Chocolate with Strawberry and Sichuan Pepper (made by the The Curious Chocolatier). The pepper added a gingerbread-type taste. I loved it. Loved it. I couldn’t wait to eat it, so I brought in the car on the way to our new apartment.

Cute package, right?

Lars and I had pizza for dinner. We used panini grilled flatbread again. I topped mine with olive oil, sliced roma tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, diced prosciutto, fresh basil, and oregano. I popped it in the toaster oven, and then enjoyed!

Up close.

Our new apartment is next to a Great Harvest Bread Company, so of course we stopped by. I bought a Blackberry Fruit Bar for Lars and I to split for dessert following dinner. It got a little damaged in my purse, but it was still the best fruit bar I have ever had. They used shredded coconut in the streusel, which added a nice sweetness without overpowering the natural sweetness of the blackberries. I also appreciated the amount of fruit they actually used. I’ll buy this all the time after the move.

What is the best treat you’ve had lately? The chocolate and fruit bar made for an awesome food day!

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?

Local Food Finds

Hello friends. What a relaxing, yet unproductive day. Anna from Newly Wed Newly Veg informed me of this eatery in town: Jane’s Gourmet Deli. So, when Lars came home, I took him out to lunch. Anna was right; it was so delicious.

We walked in and I instantly fell in love, because it had a wall full of wine. It had such a cute gourmet food and wine shop! Lars and I decided to eat outside. I apologize for the pictures, we sat on a shady patio.

I ordered the Panini Rustica which was a hot sandwich with mozzarella, tomato, spring greens, and pesto. I was allowed two sides, so I chose a side salad and a chocolate crinkle cookie. The salad dressing list was great; I chose the Cabernet Sauvignon Vinaigrette. Um, a wine salad dressing? Yes, please. I was nice enough to share my cookie with Lars.

Lars ordered the Tuna Melt Panini with a side of potato salad and Creamy Chickpea soup. The soup was surely the highlight, it tasted like queso. I helped him eat that, because I am so nice.

After lunch, I decided to read at Starbucks. I got a grande iced coffee and a dried apple snack pack.

Then, I went to the Farmers Market! I bought some blueberries (from Delphi, IN and home of my grandma) for breakfast smoothies tomorrow, and grape tomatoes for our pasta tonight! Yippee for keeping it local!

I’m currently watching The Bachelorette. I love this drama!

What is your favorite Farmers Market find EVER?

Birthday, Part 2: Drink, drink, drink…

Thanks for all the supportive comments about my cake! I love y’all.

Since today is my birthday, my family took me out to dinner to my favorite restaurant in Broad Ripple (Indianapolis): Ambrosia. It is a really great Italian restaurant. Anyway, as you may have read before: I drink at family dinners. And, I drank some wine. So, I may be writing this post a bit tipsy, but I’m not the first. My dad starting talking about politics, my sister realized she had made out with the waiter, and my mom kept talking…drink…drink…drink.

We started off with some bruschetta. I wasn’t drunk yet, but I was having issues with my flash. So, we’ll pass on that worthless picture.

Shabam! Welcome to the best pasta dish ever! I ordered this penne pasta tossed with olive oil, roasted chicken, artichokes, capers, basil, and sun dried tomatoes. After every bite I moaned. My family gave the usual perplexed glances…drink…drink….drink….

This is the best pasta I have ever had. No joke. I may say this next week, but it was good.

I better get off wordpress before I start confessing things…like I just had a piece of awesome cake…my cake!

Have a great night ladies!

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.

Graduation Munchies and Dinner

Thanks for all the nice comments about our dog, Wilson. He is cute and I am so glad to see him . I am taking him for a walk later!

When I got home I had to run straight to graduation. I grabbed some snacks to keep me satisfied for a graduation for over 500 people. My mom has a huge snack bowl, so I grabbed these delights. This would be my lunch.

The graduation was as exciting as they can be. Afterwards the whole family went to a local restaurant chain in Indiana: Arnie’s. I decided to have a 7-inch thin crust pizza with light cheese, tomatoes, and grilled chicken. It was simple, but tasty. It was also the perfect amount. To get through another politically-charged family dinner, I also had a beer.

Tonight I will be relaxing in front of the television, and later getting frozen yogurt with my mom and sister. I’ll be back with some pictures of dessert .

I love pizza (and burgers) on the weekend. What is your favorite weekend food?

Pizza Break

Lars and I were getting hungry during our intense Mad Men marathon, so we decided to make a pizza.

Lars made a beautiful tomato sauce with garlic (in the bag) and basil.

The crust was good. We found it in the organic aisle of the grocery store. We would have made it from scratch, but it is our vacation. It had herbs and cheese on top.

We topped it with Lars’s sauce, mozzarella, and more basil.

Ugh I need a haircut! My bangs are gone! Anyway, the pizza was great!

The Mad Men marathon is going strong. I love the fashion. They smoke and drink A LOT though, so I doubt their character’s teeth would be that white in reality.

We decided to take a spontaneous trip to Indianapolis for our favorite Mexican food. I’m excited to share pictures from that meal .

Have you ever taken a spontaneous trip? For food?