Bad Blogger

It has been less than 2 months and I have already turned into a bad blogger.  It has been like 1.5 weeks since I last posted and I am so very sorry.  It seems that I have been rather preoccupied lately though I cannot really put my finger on why.  I am only blogging now because my poor Devin is in bed with a migraine and I have hit a wall with my code that hopefully Howard can get me through tomorrow.  Basically, I just haven't been blogging, and there is no good excuse.  

I have so so much to catch you up on.  Today I am going to talk a bit about what has been going on and share a stuffed artichoke recipe.  I have a back log of recipes to share (including 3 types of cookies (one of which are the best cookies I have ever made), chicken noodle soup, some pizza (homemade dough and all), those incredible Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars that I talked about on my Pumpkin Obsession post as well as some homemade brownies).  I don't know if I will get this all in before Thanksgiving but I am going to try.  My time home for Thanksgiving will give me a whole new set of things to blog about.

So first off, I was contacted by one of the schools that I applied to!!!  The head of the department emailed me to set-up a brief phone conversation for us to discuss the university/position, my interest and possibly set-up an on-campus interview.  I am thrilled!!  I will be talking to him on Monday afternoon.   I am not super nervous (yet) surprisingly.  I am good on the phone, I think.  I will be more nervous in person.  I will let you know how it goes though!  (I think I am going to leave school names out of my blog for the time being.  I guess I don't want to get anyone too excited (including myself) only to not get an interview or have a bad one.)  I want to share the last line of the email which made me smile:

"Thanks for your help with this arrangement, thanks for your interest in our position, and thanks for having a file that is interesting enough to encourage us to make further contact!"

Turns out that I am interesting!  Woot, woot!!

Last week was so super busy for Devin.  He had his Percussion Ensemble with Duquense and it was amazing as always!  Here are a couple pics:

I hope that everyone can make his Spring concert as that will likely be his last one.  I will share the date once it is scheduled.

I am finally super excited for Thanksgiving (read Christmas)!  We are going home Tuesday night and I have something planned pretty much every second of every day until we get back on Sunday.  I will have lots to share next week, I am sure.  I will tell you right now that I am so scared to bring Janey to my in-laws.  It is an old, huge house and she is going to break everything and get in so much trouble.  I am worried she is going to fall off the upstairs banister and believe it or not, Janey usually does not land on her feet.  I am pretty sure she can, she is just too lazy.   Deeley LOVES my in-laws house.  It is like her paradise.  Hopefully she will teach Janey the ropes and have some time to be alone away from Janey which she never gets here.

Ok, I think that is all from me for now.  Here is the artichoke recipe:

I have made these artichokes a few times, and I sort of follow this recipe from Rachael Ray, but somehow mine always look way better than hers.  Hmm?

Here they are before the magic:

I start by removing some of the bottom leaves and cutting off most of the stem.  You want to cut the stem short and straight so that the artichokes will be able to stand up in the dish later.  Then you put them in boiling water with some lemon juice for about 20 minutes. Next remove them from the water and put them upside down so that they can drain and cool.

While this is happening, make the stuffing.  Heat up some olive oil.  Now, I want to tell you that I have made this stuffing with and without anchovies.  I really do not like anchovies, but I am telling you, you really should try them in this recipe.  They just add the perfect amount of saltiness and tang.

I realized for the first time when taking this picture that I bought anchovies rolled around capers.  No biggy.  I just removed the capers and threw 10 anchovies in the hot pan.  Warning: oil splattered everywhere.

Sorry it is sort of blurry.  The oil was getting all over me.

You pretty much cook the anchovies until they dissolve into tiny tiny brown bits.  It almost ends up looking like brown butter.  

Then you add in some garlic and cook for a minute (be careful not to burn it) and follow that up with a bunch of bread crumbs.  Work the breadcrumbs into the oil/garlic mixture until they are completely coated (you may need more oil).  Then cook until they are lightly browned.  Add in parsley and lots of black pepper.  Remove the breadcrumbs from the heat and add in some (lots of) parmesan.

While the breadcrumbs are browning, take time to clean the choke out of your artichokes.  Spread them open a bit (be careful, the leaves can be super sharp, in fact when I bought them, the cashier at whole foods warned the bagger (very loudly) that I had artichokes, I guess so she wouldn't stab herself like he did) and then scoop out the middle leaves/choke.  The choke is the fiberous/hairy part.  It is not really necessary to scoop it out if you don't want to, but just make sure that no one eats it.

Before:

After:

Then you want to stuff the artichokes.  I start in the middle and just work the stuffing into all the leaves going outward.  I always always overstuff.  This is not just about artichokes, I overstuff everything.  Tacos, sandwiches, bags, etc, you get it.  I guess I feel like it is better to have a bit more than you might need than not have enough.  Things also however tend to be messier when you have more than you need.  Oh well.  These artichokes are messy no matter what you do. 

Once the artichokes are stuffed, drizzle with olive oil and put some water in the bottom of the dish.  If the artichokes got really cool, cover the dish with foil and put it in the oven until they are heated through.  Then remove the foil and let the breadcrumbs brown some more.  I usually skip the foil part because the artichokes are still warm when I stuff them.  

After the magic, but before the consumption:

Enjoy!

Before I go, this is apparently Winter Janey.  I don't know where her two undercoats are, it is a little pathetic (this is our first winter with her):

She doesn't even come close to comparing to Winter Deeley (WD 3.0) who never disappoints:

Yea, that is her beard stuck in her mouth because her fur is so long that it gets caught.

So Long!

Scrumptious…Salad??

Yep, Scrumptious (Souvlaki) Salad! 

If you know anything about Devin, you know that he is a brilliant musician and teacher…and that he strongly dislikes vegetables.  He will eat them when they are placed in front of him, but he would really never voluntarily eat them (unless perhaps he has momentarily lost his mind).  This makes cooking vegetarian meals rather challenging.   I know he will eat a plate of veggies, but I would rather make something that he will also enjoy.

This salad (while it has chicken on it) is one of Devin’s absolute favorite dinners, which is unheard of.  I know my mother-in-law is probably shocked to hear that not only does Devin eat this salad, but he loves it!  It is all about the dressing.  And partially the feta.

So the dressing is definitely the star.  It is delicious.  

Here is the recipe I follow:

Souvlaki Dressing

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (good) extra virgin olive oil

5 tbsp red wine vinegar

(juice from) 1/2 a lemon

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

lots of fresh cracked black pepper

I tend to put everything in an old olive (penn mac) container and mix it up.  I leave the dressing on the counter because when you put it in the refrigerator, the olive oil begins to solidify.  I think it is fine for a couple days out on the counter, but I doubt it will last that long.  See the pictures below for assembly:

Oil and Vinegar

Fresh Squeezed Lemon

Dried Thyme and Oregano

Lots of Black Pepper

Shake Shake Shake

Next, I cut two boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips. I put them in a large freezer bag (for easy clean up) and pour about 1/3 of the dressing on them.  Make sure all of the chicken is covered, throw it in the fridge and forget about it (for a few hours or a day).

I put whatever I have on hand in my salad.  For this salad, I had some mixed greens, romaine, cucumber, celery, chickpeas, carrots and kalamata olives.  I think that the must haves for it to be souvlaki are the romaine and olives.

Oh and without question lots of tasty tasty feta.  I used to dislike feta up until about 5 years ago.  Now, I cannot get enough of it.  It is my go to cheese.  Yum!

When ready, preheat the grill or a grill pan for the chicken. 

It is my understanding that a souvlaki salad also must come with pita.  I put the pita in foil and throw it on the grill with the chicken.  It sort of steams it and makes it soft and warm come eating time.  

I let the chicken get nice and browned on the grill (over high heat) until it looks like this:

Note:  If you can see in the corner of the above picture, the salad dressing tends to leak out once you shake it up for the first time to put on the chicken.  I recommend putting the container on a plate to avoid oil getting all over your counter.

It is up to you whether you want to dress the whole salad at once or just pour dressing on each individual salad.  All I know is that Devin likes extra dressing on the side to dip his salad pita into.

Silly Girls!

So Long!

Mmm Pumpkin

A couple things to blog about today.

First off.  I have all of my application material done!  I have to mail in two applications but besides that I am finished!  This is a good and a bad feeling.  Of course it is good that it is done and now it is in their hands to make the next move.  It is bad, because, well, it is done and I cannot take it back.  I am full of second guessing; “what if I shouldn’t have put that” or “I wish I had said this” or “I hope they get what I meant by that”, etc.  But like I said, what’s done is done.  Either they will like what I submitted, or they won’t.  Nothing I can do about it now.  Hopefully my references will also win them over (wink, wink Howard).

I am getting more and more excited for the holidays.  After my last post I was pretty depressed about it, but in talking to my family, I just cannot wait to go home and see everyone!  Also, the Christmas stuff out in the stores (you may say too early, I say exactly right) is helping to put me in the spirit.  I already bought a few gifts (Liv) and I am looking forward to shopping with my Step-mom (and Liv) over Thanksgiving.  There are also a few other things I am looking forward to over Thanksgiving, which I unfortunately cannot share just yet.  Basically it involves chicken wings. 

I have a couple recipes to share.  My facebook status on Friday read “the house smells like pumpkin…and it is not because of a candle.”  That’s right.  More pumpkin!  Sadly, I think it might be the last (aside from making the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars one last time).  I am not at all sick of it, but Devin is.  I don’t think I can get him to eat much more and it is not healthy for me to eat all of it.  So here is quite possibly the last of it (this year).  Nutella Cheesecake Pumpkin Muffins.  Yuuuuup!  Ah---May---Zing!  They are this delicious, moist pumpkin muffin with this incredible delectably sinful nutella/cream cheese combo in the middle.  They are very easy to make, although I messed it up a bit.

1.  Make sure your cream cheese really is room temperature.  Mine was still a little too cold so when I hand mixed it (you should probably use an electric mixer) with the nutella and egg, and it would not become entirely smooth, resulting in little cream cheese balls.  It really wasn’t a big deal taste or texture wise but they are definitely in there. 

Devin has this uncanny way of asking me about a mistake in my cooking/baking without realizing he is asking about a mistake and that it will most likely upset me.  He has a nose for picking out the flaws without knowing that they are flaws.  For example: “are these little cheesecake balls in here.”  And I always have to reply something like “yes it was a mistake, they are not supposed to be there, I know! Gosh!”  Then he doesn’t bring it up again.

2.  The directions say to put 2 tablespoons of pumpkin batter in the bottom of each cupcake, followed by 1 tablespoon of nutella cheesecake topped of with 2 more tablespoons of pumpkin batter.  I think my tablespoon is too big, or I just went a little heavy on the first two tablespoons of pumpkin batter.  It filled the cupcake two much and then I only had enough batter to put 1.25 tablespoons of pumpkin batter on the top of each.  This caused the bottom of the cupcake to be all pumpkin and the nutella to be just under the muffin top.  It still tastes great, don’t get me wrong, but I think I would have preferred the nutella mixture a little bit lower in the muffin.  I have a bad habit of not taking pictures while I am baking.  Sorry about that.  I will try to take more next time.

You can see the cheesecake balls.  Totally supposed to be there.

Devin asked me if I could make a whole muffin out of the nutella cheesecake.  Believe me, I also wish that that was possible.

Sunday night I made a Vegetable Ragu.  I liked it a lot.  Devin said that he would have liked it better if it didn’t have all of the vegetables in it.  I said “Oh you mean like spaghetti” and he said “exactly.”

I halved the recipe.

I started off by cooking some red and yellow onion (what I had in the fridge).  Removed it.

Then I cooked some crimini mushrooms.  This was a suggested addition to the recipe.  I love mushrooms, especially criminis and especially in red sauce.  When I used to go to Jacobis for dinner, I would always order angel hair pasta with red sauce and mushrooms.  Plus when you don’t eat meat, mushrooms add a sort of heartiness to a dish.  Removed it.

Then I cooked a small squash.  Removed it.

And some zucchini. 

Added everything back in.

Plus some grated carrot and a bunch of garlic.

The liquids to be used were a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce and some red wine.  Thank you Dave for buying this delicious wine when you visited and not finishing (and not being able to get it past the TSA).

I also added in some dried basil, parsley and oregano.  I did not have any Italian Seasoning on hand.  Oh and some salt and lots of pepper.  And a little sugar (oh honey honey).

The sauce simmered for about an hour.  Reduced a little bit.  It smelled like my mother-in-laws pizza sauce which had my mouth watering.  I added in some parmesan and then it looked like this:

I made some garlic bread.  I just split open a couple Mancini’s rolls, spread on some softened butter then sprinkled with garlic powder and dried parsley.  

They went into a 450 degree oven for about 5 minutes, or until browned.

Here is the finished ensemble:

Ok, before I go, there are two drinks that I need to discuss with you.

Here is the first:

Ocean Spray Sparkling Cranberry.  This stuff is terrific.  It tastes just like Clearly Canadian.  Did anyone else ever drink Clearly Canadian?  Oh my God, I used to get it all the time.  I loved loved loved the raspberry flavor.  This cranberry sparkling water is delicious!!

Next:

Yeah, Coconut Milk Egg Nog.  I first read a bit about this on a different food blog that I read.  I was very uncertain about it.  I had never had coconut milk before and I couldn’t get past my first sip of coconut water.  This stuff is surprisingly amazing.  It tastes exactly like egg nog and then you are left with a little coconut flavor at the finish.  I think that you should try it.  There is apparently also a Mint Chocolate one that Whole Foods did not have for some reason that I cannot possibly understand.  Maybe next week.  Hopefully next week.

It is not always easy to get a picture of the girls together.

Here is Deeley passed out on the kitty tree:

Here is Janey passed out on me:

So Long!