Fruit smoothie

Sometimes I get totally sick of planning meals. Sometimes I crave fruit like nobody's business. Today, these two things happened simultaneously, and this amazing fruit smoothie was born! I pretty much chucked in anything that sounded good:

an apple
an orange
a banana (or maybe two???)
half a pineapple
about 3/4 cup GF steel cut oats (that's right - OATS!)

I was worried that it would be really liquid-y, but it was actually perfect. I think the bananas helped thicken it, and the oats gave it some depth and density. It filled almost 3 glasses, and I drank them all - YUM!!!

To be taken seriously, this fruit smoothie had to be served in a
Wonder Woman glass!

New Year's Cooking / Freezing Fest

M and I spent the first weekend of 2011 together celebrating and cooking dinners that we divided up to freeze and eat over the next few weeks. This was a pretty big production...choosing recipes, going to the grocery store, cooking, dividing, freezing...it took all day, but it was totally worth it! M even used pictures to document my freezer filling up as we cooked more and more.

M made something in the crock pot that was basically like the insides of a chicken pot pie without the crust. Served with warm biscuits - what's not to love about that?!

I was a chopping ninja for the sweet potato soup I made.

This picture isn't great...but the food was! This was coconut soup with Indonesian chicken (chicken rubbed with a bunch of amazing spices).

Ever the organizer, M kept us on track...

I had to start the sweet potato soup in a skillet, then I finished it in a pot.

My freezer the way I love to see it - nice and FULL!

First food of 2011

After gorging ourselves on giant burritos last night, you'd think we wouldn't be all that hungry the next day! My stomach must've stretched, because I was super hungry! For our first breakfast of the new year, I made an egg scramble with onions, ham, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, and cheese! I don't think I'd ever tire of eating eggs...EVER! :)

I will never tire of eggs...! Nice to meet you, 2011!

New Year's Eve Cornucopia

M and C came over to celebrate New Year's Eve/Day and to have a cooking & freezing fest. Is there any better way than completely immersing oneself in food to ring in the new year? I don't think so! :)
We started our culinary adventures on New Year's Eve with some chicken burritos, chips & queso dip, a veggie tray, and pigs in a blanket! It was amazing! I made the burritos from a "recipe" (more like a technique) I learned from my friend CD in grad school. Roast some fresh garlic in a little bit of butter or oil, add some onions, add salsa and honey mustard and heat, then add cooked & shredded chicken, stir, and allow it to simmer for a few minutes. Delish! Put that chicken on a burrito with some sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and Spanish rice on the side and YUMMY! Good eatin'! :)

So good...and so good for us!

Office holiday potluck

I am very fortunate to work with people who appreciate food as much as I do - and they also happen to be very good at sharing! :) In the past, we've gone out to lunch as an office to celebrate the holidays, but this year we decided to have a staff potluck, so we each made something and brought it in and had a family-style lunch.* Here's how it all turned out!

I made a Midwestern holiday favorite: corn casserole. It mystifies non-Midwesterners because it's very hard to describe!

Karen brought several types of crackers and myriad things to eat with / spread on them. This was classic cheddar.

A Frobig family favorite: cream cheese with pepper jelly - YUM!

What's a holiday party without a mini cheese ball and some olive patè??

Damion('s wife) made an amazing sweet potato chick pea chowder.

Samantha brought cranberry pear cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

Samantha gave us each a little jar of homemade blueberry jelly made from blueberries she picked herself - so sweet!

*This was especially appropriate since we are very much like a dysfunctional family.

Ethel's first job

So...I finally got around to using Ethel for the first time (that sounds really funny...), and she did a GREAT job! We made carrot cake together. :) For this special event, I made some videos of her in action. Here she is mixing the wet cake ingredients with the dry:

And here she is mixing the cream cheese frosting:

By the way...I've discovered that the longer she mixes the frosting, the creamier it gets! I know this seems really intuitive, but I honestly hadn't even thought about it until this time (I've made this cake at least 20 times...). I suppose there is probably a window of time after which the frosting becomes super rigid or something, but I haven't found the other end of that (yet)! :)

Kettle

I always thought tea kettles were for little old ladies. Then, I lived with J Word (who kind of is a little old lady) for awhile and got really into things like hot tea and using a tea kettle to boil water for oatmeal and instant soup mix. :) Last year, when we parted ways, she took her fancy Paul Revere tea kettle, but in an unexpected twist of fate, she gave me a "housewarming present" (yep, that's exactly what she called it) which was the exact same tea kettle (she's known to have 2 or 3 of things...it's a vintage/yard-saling/hoarding thing)!

So, I took that Paul Revere housewarming tea kettle to my new place, and it never did quite fit in here. It sat on the stove and just looked totally out of place. It made my kitchen look like our old kitchen, that was NOT ok. And, as if this wasn't enough, I never even used the damn thing. No, actually, that's not true. I used it a few times - mostly to heat water for tea when I was sick, but that was really the only thing I ever used it for. So - I decided to sell it at Kim & Jen's fabulous amazing driveway/sidewalk sale this summer. Yay! I think I got $10 for it, I can't remember. The point is that I sold it (thanks, J Word), and then of course every time I turned around I was in desperate need of a tea kettle.

Enough finally became enough, and I hunted around ebay for a nice tea kettle (a youthful one, for a vivacious 30-something, not a cast iron Paul Revere tea kettle for an octogenarian!). I found this cool Kitt Amore (never hear of 'em before this) number, and I fell in love! I paid $19.99 for it, and it came to me all the way from Chicago. It arrived tonight, and I couldn't be happier! I can't wait to have tea!