A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Daring Bakers: Do you like your buns cinnamon-y or sticky?

Personally, I like my rolls with all of the above AND with a pat of real butter melted on top.

The Daring Bakers project this month was Breakfast rolls to be made either as cinnamon buns or sticky rolls.  As I made them I thought I preferred cinnamon rolls, although I did substitute cardomom for most of the cinnamon since my husband dispises cinnamon but loves the other.  But when I got to the end of the recipes and the golden brown rolls came out of the oven smelling all "come eat me!" I weakened and made caramel for the top instead of poured fondant icing.  But then what's a sin-amon sticky bun without a generous hat of real butter melting down into the crevices?  Yeah, not quite complete. That's what I say too.

To take a peek at all the Daring Bakers project results this month, click HERE(DARING BAKERS).

For complete recipe, click BELOW.

Meals in Thyme: Pulled Pork

We sampled our first meal from Meals in Thyme and really enjoyed it. This was the easiest of the recipes I made the other night. What I loved best about it is the inspiration it's given me.  Of course I know how to make pulled pork but we usually order it out.  It never occurred to me to throw a pork butt in the crockpot and slow cook it all day while I'm at work. Oops.  :-)  I won't be at work all day or evening anymore, it will be all night! So okay, it will be throw it into the crockpot all day while I'm finishing my novel! YEEEEEESSSSS!!!

Although, just to be clear, they didn't send me home with a pork roast. For my half dinners for two, they sent me home with FOUR thick juicy pork chops and the salsa to roast them in, along with a homemade BBQ sauce that was all four taste flavors:  sweet, sour, hot, savory.  It  was very good.

It was very good and you have to take it from me in context. I'm no stranger to home-made BBQ sauce. When I was a kid we were poor and my mom was a fabulous cook.  We couldn't afford all the premade stuff that I take for granted now: ketchup, mayo, tartar sauce, BBQ sauce, salad dressings, pancake syrups, you know, all those things that hit the grocery bill at $3.00 a pop. She made it all on the fly and it was very good. Of course, as a kid I didn't appreciate it, but I do now.

Actually, I forgot to tell you guys something.  My sister met me over at the Meals in Thyme location that night to pick up my Fashion Bug card to go get my niece's homecoming dress.  Jordan, who is uber cool, announced three days before the game/dance that "Oh by the way, Mom, I was nominated for homecoming queen."  Okay.  So my sister promptly freaked out since it was almost but not quite payday and I volunteered to surrender my charge card.  (I'll post a pic at the end.)

So when my sister looked at the set up and I explained what I was doing she said "Isn't this what Mom used to do on the weekends?"  Which she did. She would put meals together just like we were doing, along the Robin Miller on Food Network frame of mind, on the weekends and then not have to worry about dinner every day during the school/work week.  Suzanne said "Man, she could have made fortune with this idea!"  Yep. Sigh. It's all about who does it in the commercial way that makes all the difference.

Now for Jordan's dress. She also bought a big silver bracelet and a hot pink medallion necklace to go with this and she's planning to wear her hair down long instead of pulled back in a pony tail:

Dinners in the Freezer: Meals in Thyme

Ever heard of Meals in Thyme? I hadn't either until they came to Springfield. I'd heard of the concept, though.  You pay for a package meal service where you customize recipes for your family at the venue, pack it all up at the end of the session in your cooler, and then store everything in your freezer ready to go for truly fast food that's healthy. Great concept.  Auntie Miranda and I wondered if it was great in action.

Guess what? It is.

I came home with six meals for Gene, Linda, and I, AND a full pie, all for $80.00. Gene and I could easily spend that at a nice dinner for the two of us if we had cocktails and dessert. Let's see...on the table is a BBQ Chicken pizza, the peanut butter pie with chocolate sauce, pork tenderloin with apple ginger sauce, pork chops with pear and white wine sauce, pulled pork sandwiches (I must have been hungry for pork when I placed my order), crab cakes with corn relish and roumelade, and something else I can't remember...

Located at 3522 S. National (next door to Schultz & Dooley's, Meals in Thyme is right down the street from where I live and work. Not only is it convenient, the meal prep was easy, the recipes looked yummy, the portions were generous and the ingredients were quality: fresh minced garlic and ginger, lean thick juicy cuts of meat, fresh veggies, and whole grained rice and breads.

You know what the best part is?  NO CLEAN UP!  Holy hell, it was worth the money for that alone.

Even Chains Do it Right Sometimes

Right down the street from us is a Pasta House. Sure, it's just another chain Italian restaurant with mostly the same old same old menu items but I like it.  The managers and waiters are friendly and treat you like you're family.  In particular, Chris the general manager, knows me by name after having hosted my respiratory school graduation party and TJ, one of the waitresses, and I always chat about this and that: my job, her grandkids.  I like the whole "Norm!" atmosphere and the food is decent.  Often when I was in school, I drop in for a takeout order to take home in lieu of cooking.

Last night was no exception.  I had a notebook with me in the car so while I waited for my order, I had an appetizer and a drink and scratched out a poem.  The appetizers on the menu are decent but predictable:  ravioli, mozzarella sticks, fried portabellos, etc.  A new one had been added this time: fried artichoke hearts. That sounded good to me so I gave it a try. I'm not sure what I expected but what I got was much more than I would have guessed:  the artichoke hearts were handbattered in a very light crispy bread crumb mix that left the lemony artichokes as the star and the home-made aoli side sauce pinged with lemon zest and fresh parsley. Crunchy, lemony, creamy.  A great combo.

Like I said, even the chains do it right once in a while.  I highly recommend this dish the next time you visit your local Pasta House.

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes

Little knee update:  the surgeon buried a needle full of cortisone up to the hub in each of my knees on Tuesday and by that night, aside from shaking and sweating, I was starting to feel better.  Wednesday night was awesome. I felt like my old self again and several people at work made comments about it being the first night in months that I wasn't limping, was smiling at the end of the shift, and wasn't pale and miserable looking.  But you know, I've been in so much pain for so long that I couldn't believe that it might be true.  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for my knees to go back to the horrible place.  Thursday wasn't bad and tonight, my third full evening of work wasn't bad either. I did start to ache about 8pm but a half an hour after taking a couple of Tylenol it wasn't bad at all!

I feel so relieved and blessed and overwhelmed. All week long I've felt anxious and off-center, like I'm missing something. Oh. Yeah. Pain.

So anyway, my knees aren't perfect and never will be again but I can live with this. Thanks for listening to me complain for the last how-many-ever months.  It's so nice to have my old self back.

Oh, and by the way, I'm nine days out from going part time and having much more time to cook, blog, write...sigh...can't wait!

Wednesdays are my Favorite Day of the Week

Auntie Miranda, Ann, and I have a standing first Wednesday of the month lunch date to stay in touch and we usually end up at our favorite restaurant Fire & Ice in the Oasis Hotel on north Glenstone. We've never had anything but great food and the room is so pretty we all love going there.  That's the restaurant where we were excited to find David Leong's son Wing Yee executive cheffing and using his father's cashew and sweet/sour chicken recipes as the Wednesday special.

We've all settled into our favorites.  Aunt Miranda and the roasted Chicken with lemon tarragon sauce:

Ann loves the cashew chicken:

And I'm partial to the Phad Thai:

Wonderful food and friends. What could make a better Wednesday?

Two for the Price of One

Had a couple of experiments last week.  One we'll give a "C" to with a handwritten note of "possibilities" and the second one was at least a "B+".

   

First, the context. As you all know by now from my ranting and raving: my knee still hurts. As a matter of fact, not only does the surgery knee still ache and throb and downright hurt on nights I work and put those 6-10 miles on hospital tile floors on it, I've been hobbling on it for so many months now that I've trashed the OTHER knee. Wow. I'm so excited. So now they hurt equally bad.  Having whined that, my point is that on my days off I can't afford to spend a lot of time on my own tile floors. I try to not stand or walk for long stretches to give my knees a break because I only get every other weekend off that puts two days in a row, the rest of the time I typically work three on with one day off in between stretches. I know I've said this before but I'm really not a wuss and I do have a relatively high pain tolerance level.  I know most of the world works five days on and I used to too in the hotel business but I was sitting behind a desk or in the same office for most of the day. Now, as an RT, I'm ALL OVER the hospital. Even when I'm in the units I'm still putting miles on my knee so that's why it's so important to have days off to recover.

That brings me to my next little announcement that I hope will be a good thing. Everyone keep your fingers cross and think good thoughts for me, okay?  As of October 1, I'm going to nights but because of the differential in pay I'll be able to bust back to part time and then just pick up a few shifts here and there as my knees get better.  What that translates to is more like five 12-hour shifts a pay period instead of five 8-hour shifts a week.  I'm not naturally a night owl but as I've been working evenings for a while now I find that I stay up later and later so I'm hoping the transition will be a fairly easy one.

Now, back to the food.  So, in keeping with knees as they are right now, I have to have things quck and easy in the kitchen.  I've been wanting to make something I vaguely remember my mom making as a kid that she called "meat pockets", sort of a homemade version of "lean pockets" or whatever those are called.  Those worked out fairly well. Gene said they were "on the dull side", which, considering the source means they were really boring! But seasonings can be fixed. The second experiment was what to do with the 2 cups left of the meat mixture we didn't eat and how to make dinner out of that in the most efficient manner?  I added it to potato soup. That's the one that turned out well.  Gene normally passes on potato soup, as much as he likes potatoes, because it's boring to him without any meat.  Problem solved.

I don't have formal recipes but I'll tell you how I did both and what I'll do better next time:

Platinum on your Wedding Cake anyone?

A Japanese jeweler teamed up with a pastry chef to display 15 million yen ($130,302) in platinum baubles.  I think it's pretty cool, very unique at least.

A Quick "Thank You" and "Miss You"

To everyone who reads my blog and also to those who comment, I just wanted to say "Thank you!" I so appreciate knowing you're out there and your support.  To all those blogs I used to read and comment on almost every day, just wanted to say a quick "Miss you!".  The last couple of months have just been so busy for me with going back to work and having Gene's sister living with us that I'm not always right on top of comments coming or able to blog graze the way I'd love to.  Not that I'm complaining. I just wanted to take this chance to say "Hi!"  I'm up in the wee hours of the morning this morning, having woken up and not been able to go back to sleep right away and decided to roll through a few blogs while my head settles back down and that just makes me realize how much I miss everyone.  It's like having great neighbors that you can only wave Hi to from the car as you're barreling down the street.

I'm Going to be Really Bad Here...

I'm trying not to be hateful.  Okay, I'm not trying very hard.  I stumbled across this photo on the net and I don't even remember what the context was but I have to confess I was overcome with envy and a sense of superiority.  I've heard a few friends talk about this phenomenon but here's some photographic proof.

Do you see what I'm talking about?

Look at this kitchen: expensive countertops, commercial style stove, great tile work, good knives, expensive platter from either Pampered Chef or Pfaltzgraff not sure which, and yet, this person obviously doesn't cook.  I mean come on.  The cake is obviously out of a box, Betty Crocker canned frosting, and Easy Cheese-type decorating frosting--is that really the best this person can do?  What is it with people who don't cook who demand gourmet kitchens? 

I realize it's a status symbol even to people who despise cooking, but I admit I'm very jealous and feeling very food snobbish.  Most of us (who don't have this) would kill to have a kitchen this nice to be able to conjure up more and better and more challenging meals. Can you imagine having the kind of counter and storage space that this kitchen must have?

This lady should have gone to a bakery. Sure, at least the cake is sort of homemade but I gotta wonder if there's a special kind of cancer that comes from eating icing out of a can. 

There. I confessed.  I'm completely jealous.