New Meal Monday

Well, our new meal for Monday was quite the flop. We tried spicing up some Salmon with some basic ingredients …. salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Then we broiled it. But it didn't turn out very well at all. It was a bit too crispy on the top and didn't have nice flavor, except on the top, where it was too crispy to really enjoy. A dissapointment. We did, however, make really good zucchini, a recipe I always enjoy.

Next Monday, we'll be on hiatus, since we'll be in the Big Easy, hanging with our good buddy, Dan.

New Meal Monday Delay

Well, due to completely unforseeable circumstances, making a new meal yesterday was not possible. I will reveal the source of this delay at a later time. But this is just a notice to say that we will be making and posting a new meal this evening. I'm thinking about this.

The DMV

Urgh. So I went to the DMV this morning. Back in 2001 when I got my driver's license renewed because I turned 21, it was a simple little process. You waited in one line, dealt with one person and had your shiny new license by the time you left.

Not anymore. Oh no. Now you stand in no less than 4 lines, deal with 4 people (possibly more) and have to wait for your license to come in the mail (10-15 days). A whole hour of my Friday wasted. And I don't even have my new licsese. Continue reading “The DMV”

Toiletries of the Goddesses

When I was at Anthropologie a couple of weekends ago, I bought some apple cider milk bath that was on clearance. I've used it twice now and all I've got to say is … YUM. This stuff smells sooooo good and it makes just the right amount of bubbles. And after your bath, you come out smelling slightly of apples. It's not overpowering or gross … just a bit appley. A perfect bath.

While at the afore-mentioned store I also picked up a small bottle of Sugar Cookie Perfume that was also on clearance. It's been very nice to spray a teensy bit of it on my wrists and neck every morning and then I smell nice alll day long.

What are your favorite indulgences?

Sole with Lemon Butter Sauce

from: Everyday Food Jan 2005

Ingredients
8 sole fillets, 3-4 oz each
16 very thin lemon slices
1/2 C dry white wine
juice of 1 lemon (3 T)
coarse salt
3 T cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions
Place wine in a large lidded skillet. Fold each sole fillet in thirds. Arrange in skillet; season with salt and pepper. Lay two overlapping lemon slices on each piece of fish. Bring wine to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; simmer gently until fish is opaque throughout, 3-5 min. Add lemon jice; remove from heat. Whisk in butter until smooth. Season with slat; strain, if desired. Serve with fish; garnish with fresh herbs and pper, if desired.

Nutritional Info (1/4 recipe(
287 calories; 11 g fat; 38 g protein; 5.6 g carbs; 2 g fiber

Spicy Corn and Peppers

from: Good Eats

Ingredients
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
Topping:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.
Remember to save leftovers for fried Macaroni and Cheese.

from: 127

Ingredients
3 slices bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons butter, divided
16 white mushrooms, medium in size, wiped with damp cloth to clean, thinly sliced
1 cup frozen pearl onions, defrosted and drained
Salt and pepper
2 pounds lean sirloin, 1-inch thick, trimmed and cubed into 1 inch pieces
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup burgundy wine
1 1/2 cups store bought beef stock
Bouquet of 3 or 4 sprigs each sage and fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string

Herb Egg Noodles:
12 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, 2 handfuls
12 blades fresh chives, snipped or finely chopped

Directions
Heat a large deep skillet with a heavy bottom and a lid over medium high heat. Add bacon to the pan and brown. Remove crisp bacon bits with slotted spoon. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to the pan and melt into bacon drippings. Add mushrooms to the pan and turn to coat evenly with butter and bacon drippings. Season the mushroom slices with salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes and add onions to the pan. Continue cooking onions and mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes longer, then transfer to a plate and return pan to the heat. Add remaining butter to the pan and melt it, then add meat to very hot pan and brown evenly on all sides, keeping the meat moving. Add flour to browned meat in the pan and cook the flour 2 minutes. Add wine to the pan slowly while stirring. When the wine comes up to a bubble and you have scraped up the pan drippings, add the stock and bouquet of fresh sage and thyme sprigs to the pot. Cover the pan. When the liquid boils, reduce heat to medium. Cook covered 5 minutes, remove lid and add mushrooms, onions and bacon back to the pot. Simmer with the cover off until sauce thickens a bit. Adjust seasoning and remove herb bouquet.

Toss hot egg noodles with butter and herbs. Place a bed of noodles in a shallow bowl and pour beef burgundy over the noodles and serve.

from: Everyday Food Jan 2005

Ingredients
2 T butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
1/8 to 1/4 t cayenne pepper
coarse salt
1 package (16 oz) frozen corn kernels
2 plum tomatoes, cored and chopped (1 C)
1/2 C milk

Directions
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, cayenne and 1 t salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Add corn and tomatoes; cook, stirring often until corn is tender and tomatoes have softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in milk; remove from heat. serve immediately.

Nutritional Info (1/6 recipe(
127 calories; 5.2 g fat; 3.5 g protein; 19.9. g carbs; 2.7 g fiber

New Meal Monday

We opened up the Everyday Food we'd had lying around since Jan and tried out a couple of recipes this week. Both were a decided success. For the main dish, we made Sole with Lemon Butter Sauce and on the side we made Spicy Corn and Peppers.

Both were tres yummy. The Sole had so much flavor it was amazing, especially compared with how easy it was to cook. I really liked the corn as well. It was not just your average frozen corn. It was nice and spicy and though I don't think it was a paticularly awesome match with the sole, it wasn't bad. We used a orange pepper instead of red, since a decent one wasn't available and it was soooo pretty.

Another Weekend Gone!

Well hopefully tomorrow, Matt will be gainfully employed by a giant national HMO. And in anticpation of the end to his vacation we really lived it up this weekend. We were busy busy.

Friday was an extra-special Friday cuz it meant I was DONE with my OSHA classes. 10 full hours of governmental boredom. But I had a horrible headache, so we stayed in and goofed around and watched Stargate.

Saturday we spent an extra-long amount of time and then went mountain biking. I'd never really done that before, and it's waaay different from road biking but I really enjoyed it (apart from banging the hell out of my knee on a rock) and I am sure I'll be back to the trails to improve.

Then we hung out with some friends for a little while and then we went to dinner with my parents and came back here to indluge in some Oreo pie and watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (again!). Continue reading “Another Weekend Gone!”

Boeuf Bourguignon with Egg Noodles

Ingredients
3 slices bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons butter, divided
16 white mushrooms, medium in size, wiped with damp cloth to clean, thinly sliced
1 cup frozen pearl onions, defrosted and drained
Salt and pepper
2 pounds lean sirloin, 1-inch thick, trimmed and cubed into 1 inch pieces
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup burgundy wine
1 1/2 cups store bought beef stock
Bouquet of 3 or 4 sprigs each sage and fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string

Herb Egg Noodles:
12 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves, 2 handfuls
12 blades fresh chives, snipped or finely chopped

Directions
Heat a large deep skillet with a heavy bottom and a lid over medium high heat. Add bacon to the pan and brown. Remove crisp bacon bits with slotted spoon. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to the pan and melt into bacon drippings. Add mushrooms to the pan and turn to coat evenly with butter and bacon drippings. Season the mushroom slices with salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes and add onions to the pan. Continue cooking onions and mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes longer, then transfer to a plate and return pan to the heat. Add remaining butter to the pan and melt it, then add meat to very hot pan and brown evenly on all sides, keeping the meat moving. Add flour to browned meat in the pan and cook the flour 2 minutes. Add wine to the pan slowly while stirring. When the wine comes up to a bubble and you have scraped up the pan drippings, add the stock and bouquet of fresh sage and thyme sprigs to the pot. Cover the pan. When the liquid boils, reduce heat to medium. Cook covered 5 minutes, remove lid and add mushrooms, onions and bacon back to the pot. Simmer with the cover off until sauce thickens a bit. Adjust seasoning and remove herb bouquet.

Toss hot egg noodles with butter and herbs. Place a bed of noodles in a shallow bowl and pour beef burgundy over the noodles and serve.

New Meal Monday

This Monday's meal was Boeuf Bourguignon with Egg Noodles and Baby Spinach Salad with Swiss Cheese Crisps. Jess found the recipe in with 30 Minute Meals 2.

To cook the boeuf bourguignon I had a very hard time finding a Burgundy wine at the local liquor stores. I ended driving about 20 minutes away to Apple Jacks which had a decedent selection. While I like the wine, I think I might just pick up a California Pinot Noir next time. I also was unable to find fresh sage at our local grocery store (they were out), so I just used dried sage and fresh thyme. I also didn't bother making a bouquet, I just dropped the spices in the recipe. When making the salad, we had a lot of trouble making the fried swiss cheese and most of it burnt. As a result, we just put swiss on top of the salad unfired.

The boeuf bourguignon turned out very well. It had a lot of flavor and very nice sauce. We did overcook the meat a little but that was our fault. The salad was unremarkable, epically without the fried cheese.

Verdict: The Boeuf Bourguignon will be added to the cookbook but the salad will not.