Orange-y Crockpot Chicken

I'm a big fan of my crockpot. I throw a bunch of stuff in it while Grady eats lunch (i.e. strapped into his highchair so he can't destroy everything within reach) and 3-6 hours later (depending on the recipe) dinner is ready.

I made this last night and it was a hit. It's not the healthiest recipe (the sauce is sweet) but it's health adjacent. I will probably cut the sugar next time but I will definitely make it again.

Orange-y Crockpot Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Juice from 2 oranges (approx 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup soya sauce
1 tsp sriracha
1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup cold water
2 Tblsp cornstarch

Put chicken in bottom of crockpot. Mix together remaining ingredients (apart from water and cornstarch) and pour over chicken. Cook for 3 hours on high.

Remove chicken and slice / chunk / shred - whatever your preference.

Mix together water and cornstarch. Add a little of the hot cooking sauce to the water / cornstarch mixture so it doesn't just turn into a clump when you add it to the sauce. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the cooking sauce and leave on high for 10-ish minutes until it's thick.

I had a de-zested lemon from the broccoli slaw so I juiced it and threw it into the sauce with the cornstarch. It added a nice bit of zing to the sauce and it meant that I didn't have to keep a naked lemon in my fridge until it dried out and I could throw it out without feeling wasteful (which I realize is ridiculous because I would still be wasting the lemon. Look, I don't claim to be sane.)

Throw the chicken back in the sauce to stay warm.

I served it over carrot quinoa (1/2 onion - diced, 2 garlic cloves - minced, 3 carrots - diced, 1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water or stock: sauté veg in oil for 5-ish minutes, add quinoa and stock, heat to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, fluff with a fork.)

I made broccoli slaw as a side because I'm kind of obsessed with broccoli slaw right now. I started with this Smitten Kitchen recipe a couple weeks ago and keep playing with it.

Broccoli Slaw (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

2 large heads of broccoli, chopped finely
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Dressing
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of Tobasco sauce

Mix up the dressing and then toss it all together. I like to make my slaw ahead of time so it's got at least a couple of hours to get nice and chilled in the fridge.

not the prettiest but definately yummy

Step Into My Kitchen We Will Cook Away Your Fears

Yesterday Britt tweeted this recipe for beans and rice and then I thought of nothing else for 24 hours.

I didn't go into the office today. I worked from home because I've managed to come down with the throat rabies of doom again (I blame it on Grady's teeth. There is no sleep. I am a zombie.) I still worked, though, and in an effort to acclimatize Grady to Shawn being his primary caregiver (oh I am so clenchy writing that) I made myself as unavailable as possible. Which means that I had both the need for some cooking therapy and the time (and arms!) to carry it out.

I strayed far from the recipe but the result was fantastic. First I cooked up a small red onion (small dice) in a little olive oil. Then I threw in two chorizo sausages (chopped into small pieces) and let that cook up while I chopped the other vegetables. Two medium carrots, one large green bell pepper, two large jalapeno peppers (small dice) and two large garlic cloves (minced) all went into the pot. I let that cook away for about five minutes and then added two heaping tablespoons of tomato paste and two tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Next I added a cup of (dry) quinoa, four cups of vegetable stock, and one can of well-rinsed black beans. I didn't add any salt but it could have used a little because my stock wasn't very salty. I brought the mixture to a boil and then put a lid on the pot and turned the heat down to a simmer. Twenty-five minutes later it was ready for a simple topping of spring onions.

Very yummy! I know it's not exactly diet food because of the chorizo but I'm still calling it healthy because of the vegetables, quinoa, and beans.

Leave The Cauliflower In The Casserole Today

This is not exciting soup. It's comfort soup. It's sore throat, rainy day, feeling blue soup. My Mom has made this soup for as long as I can remember. You could definitely make modifications to make this soup more exciting. Add an onion, maybe some garlic. Spice it up. Sprinkle bacon on top. It wouldn't be Mom's Cauliflower Soup anymore though.

Start with a medium / largish cauliflower. Wash it thoroughly and break it apart into large chunks. Don't worry about making things bite-sized at this point.

Put the cauliflower in a large pot and add 3 cups of water and 3 cups of milk. I use 2% milk for a little creaminess but you could go either way - skim milk for a healthier soup or whole milk for a creamier soup. It's all about preference. Note that you do thicken the soup with a roux so you do end up with a nice, creamy mouthfeel even if you do use lowfat milk.

Cook the cauliflower in the milk/water over medium/high heat until the cauliflower is tender crisp. Don't have your heat too high or the milk will foam up and boil over the pot and make a giant mess of your stove top.

When the cauliflower is cooked, put a strainer over a large bowl or measuring cup and strain the cauliflower. Reserve the liquid! Do not strain the cauliflower into the sink or you will cry! You want to save the cauliflower and save the warm milk, you just want them separate.

Melt 1/4 cup butter in the pot you just cooked the cauliflower in. Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour over top. Stir and cook over slightly-higher-than medium heat for a minute or so, until the flour smells a bit nutty. Slowly add your reserved milk and whisk so you don't get lumps. Every stove is different so it's difficult to specify a heat. You want your milk to be hot so it starts to thicken but you don't want it to boil. I usually go with a smidge over medium heat.

Once all of the milk has been added, continue to cook (stirring / whisking constantly) until the soup thickens. Not as thick as a cream sauce, but not water thin. Again, it's about preference.

Stir in 6 bouillon cubes. I used chicken Better than Bouillon because I ran out of vegetarian bouillon but it's equally as nice either way. Taste your soup at this point and add salt and pepper to taste. I don't add pepper because black pepper is of the devil and I don't add salt because I find the bouillon to be salty enough. But again, preference!

Cut your cooked cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and add to your soup.

Ladle into bowls (serves 6) and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Enjoy!


Shopping List:
1 medium/largish cauliflower
3 cups milk
3 cups water
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 bouillon cubes
salt and pepper
cheddar cheese

If You Want To See That Italian Tower Leaning

Call me uncultured, but I had no idea what comprised Italian wedding soup until looking it up just now. So when I saw it on the deli menu board, I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat it or not. There was no description - just the name. I asked the deli lady if it contained meat (I have strict rules about eating fast food meat - the only acceptable forms are Tim Horton's chicken noodle soup, Wendy's junior cheeseburger deluxe, and A&W's teenburger without bacon. Please don't ask me why; I can't explain my crazy, I can only abide by it and hope that it doesn't steer me wrong.) She told me that nope, no meat in there. Just pasta and meatballs. And then my head melted. No meat, just ... balls of meat? Please, deli lady, please explain your logic.

So of course now I have to make Italian wedding soup. Anyone with a recipe they'd like to share?

All My Little Ladies Eating Up The Gravy

I had big plans to celebrate American Thanksgiving but I got sidetracked by the thought of homemade poutine.

We went gourmet style, making a rich, shredded beef gravy and using real fries from the fish&chips place on the corner instead of making oven fries.

We invited friends over, one of whom was a poutine virgin, to share in our gluttony.

It was glorious.

Well Thanks For The Time I Needed To Think A Spell

I realize that Canadian Thanksgiving was a month ago and it's a bit ridiculous for me to post about it now but I loved my Thanksgiving dinner and it's almost American Thanksgiving so that's my excuse. I'm kind of debating celebrating American Thanksgiving just so I can have a full turkey dinner again.

My dinner consisted of (clockwise from the left) spicy green beans, sweet potato / turnip mash, roast carrots, turkey!, homemade cranberry sauce, and cowboy potatoes (which are actually called Jamie Oliver's Painted Hills Potatoes but I think cowboy potatoes sounds better.)

I don't have a large enough roasting pan to roast a turkey so I bought an aluminum one and threw celery, onions, lemons, apples, and fresh herbs in the base to keep the bird raised off the bottom. I seasoned the turkey with salt and pepper and filled the cavity with heads of garlic that I'd sliced horizontally through the cloves. I cooked my turkey upside down (because that's how Nigella does it) so it looked ugly but was moist and flavourful.

I was really happy with my side dishes. I was able to do a lot of prep ahead of time (I made the potatoes and the mash the day before and cooked them with the turkey) so when my kitchen sink clogged from the peelings of 20 carrots that I tried to send down the garbarator all at once and Shawn had to dismantle the pipe under the sink, it didn't throw my dinner off by too much.

Dessert was my grandma's pumpkin chiffon pie and chocolate mousse pie. Shawn had requested chocolate mousse and I was fully committed to making it until I realized that I didn't have any chocolate mousse vessels. The only thing I could think of using was wine glasses but then we wouldn't have anywhere to put the wine which I think we can all agree is a completely unacceptable situation. So I piled the mousse in a pie crust and called it mousse pie and everyone was happy.

My sisters both had other commitments but my mom, dad, and Westy came, along with Shawn's mom and brother. I made too much food, as usual, and I got quite shouty at Shawn when the sink was broken, but the evening was a success. Plus we had enough pie left over that I had pumpkin pie for breakfast for days afterwards so I was a very happy lady.

There's A Blueberry Pancake Flying In The Sky

I am deeply entrenched in schoolwork. Yesterday my course completion deadline was moved up by a week (a week!) meaning that I have until Friday (Friday! As in, three sleeps from now!) to submit my coursework. I am grounded from fun. I am grounded from non-fun (I hit a new low when I started looking forward to doing laundry as a break from studying.) I am a studying machine.

Machines need fuel; however, so the one thing I am not grounded from is making blueberry buttermilk pancakes with fresh local blueberries and topping them with fried eggs and bacon.

Priorities, people.

Whatever This Is Oh Baby I've Had Enough

My attempt at a productive weekend was derailed by the giant bowl (I don't own a pitcher) of sangria I made Friday night. I'd not made sangria before; as it turns out, I make very yummy (very strong) sangria.

Sangria holds a special place in my family's history after one particular summer evening with a large amount of sangria-soaked fruit and my afraid-of-water mother and a midnight swimming experience. I should know better than to drink sangria during a weekend of Getting Things Accomplished is what I'm saying.

Friday night quickly morphed from earnest discussions with Shawn about the things we would get done and how to maximize our time, to earnest discussions about which cheese we should melt on top of the garlic bread we were having for dinner (not as a side dish, no. Garlic bread was the main, and only, course.)

And then it was Saturday morning and my head felt funny and my breath was stinky and my list had disappeared.

Without my list it was very easy to pretend that items like "scrub the little circle of rust off the bathroom tile" had actually been "make a giant batch of chocolate chip cookies" and "reduce the number of condiments on the fridge door by at least 50%" had been "eat an inappropriate number of chocolate chip cookies."

It was all fine until Sunday afternoon when I realized that, oh shit, I actually did have deadlines to meet and promises to fulfil. So I whipped out my textbook in an attempt to cross "finish Chapter 7 reading, lazyass!" off my list.

But Wolfgang's inability to see an empty lap without needing to fill it meant that my study time quickly became puppy nap time.

My weekend of epic productivity was more like a weekend of epic avoidance and denial (and chocolate chips.) I've got a 4-day weekend coming up (whoo Canada Day!) so hopefully the extra days will make my redo more successful.

Did You Ever Know That You're My Hero And Everything I Would Like To Be? I Can Fly Higher Than An Eagle

I am not a fan of chicken wings.

I do not like to nibble meat off the bone. I do not eat chicken skin. I cannot tolerate blue cheese. (No really, the taste of blue cheese makes me retch; the smell of blue cheese makes me shudder; the sight of blue cheese with all its spindly veiny veins makes me gag. Blue cheese gives cheese a bad name.) The only thing I like about chicken wings is the hot sauce.

So when Jennie mentioned buffalo chicken pizza last week, I didn't exactly salivate. I did think that Shawn would really like a buffalo chicken pizza though, so after a particularly trying work week for him, I surprised him with buffalo chicken pizza and beer. It was ... just alright. It's my fault - I didn't have time to make my usual pizza crust so I tried a new recipe and it turned out bland and cardboardy and I thought that substituting goat cheese for the blue cheese would be adequate but it was ... lacking. It was a pizza coated in hot sauce and yet it needed more taste.

However. I ended up defrosting way too much chicken so we had leftover hot sauce-coated chicken bits and no motivation to make another pizza. I made salad (baby spinach, pink grapefruit, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, cucumber, orange pepper, dried cranberries, sunflowers seeds, and goat cheese) for dinner last night and threw the leftover chicken on top and it was heavenly. Sure it felt a bit counterintuitive to top a salad of lovely fresh veggies with aggressively orange-coloured chicken but the gorgeous flavour helped us get over the weirdness. If loving aggressively orange-coloured chicken is wrong, I don't want to be right.

You Might Know This But You've Never Been This See If I Ate Spinach Then I'd Be Called Spinach D

I have eaten a ridiculous amount of spinach this week. I don't even know who I am anymore.

I had an insatiable spinach craving again today so I decided to play with the garlic spinach recipe to turn it into a meal.

First I boiled the water for my pasta (I used fresh linguine.) Then I made the sauce - I started with a healthy splash of olive oil and a snob of butter in a hot saute pan. I added a red onion and cooked over medium/high heat until transparent. Then I added about 10 cloves of (minced) garlic (what? I really like garlic) and the zest of one lemon. After that cooked for a while, I added 1 can of (rinsed) white kidney beans and a handful of (quartered) cherry tomatoes and let that cook for a while. My water was boiling by this point so I added my noodles. Once they were done, I scooped about 1/3 cup of pasta water into my sauce and then drained my noodles. The pasta water helped me scrape up all the yummy bits that were sticking to the bottom of my pan. Then I piled the spinach on top of the bean mixture, covered the pan, and let everything steam for 2 minutes or so. When the spinach was nice and hot and thoroughly wilted, I added the juice of one lemon and a largish pinch of salt. I mixed in the pasta and let heat through.

I topped mine with finely grated asiago cheese.

So tasty. It wasn't perfect - I think next time I'll add some white wine or chicken stock (maybe half a cup) after the spinach to create more of a sauce - it was pretty dry. I'll probably add some red pepper flakes too for a little heat. And I will probably use the whole box of spinach next time instead of just half the box because it renders down so much. But still - so tasty.

My Words Don't Travel Far They Tangle In My Hair And Tend To Go Nowhere They Grow Right Back Inside Right Past My Brain And Eyes Into My Stomach Juice

My May resolutions (to embrace meal planning, drink no pop, eat no fast food, and spend no money on prepared coffee) were a huge failure. May was such a bitch that I ignored my resolutions and just tried to get through the month without completely losing my mind. It turns out that my survival mode includes a lot of french fries and $4 coffee shop lattes. Mid month it became very easy to ignore my resolutions because I had already failed so spectacularly. Why bother trying to salvage my resolutions when french fries are so tasty and prepared coffee is so easy? I'm not proud of my defeatist attitude but it is what it is. May is over and June is set to be my bitch.

June is going to be the month of meal planning. Shawn is going to become more involved in our kitchen (totally against his will, I should point out) and I am going to focus on learning new ways to prepare healthy food. To keep the momentum going, I am resolving to learn two new recipes per week. They don't need to be elaborate or fancy - just two new ways of preparing healthy food. This week I made this spinach and it was glorious.*

I'm excited about this month's resolution. The farmers' markets have started opening and local, fresh produce is becoming available. It's my favourite time of year (just wait til the local strawberries are available - you won't be able to shut me up.)


* Spinach is on my list of food that tastes like dirt (spinach, beets, mangoes, walnuts - don't ask me why, they just all taste like dirt to me) so it was extremely bizarre to be eating it and actually enjoying the taste. The only change to the recipe I made was to add a finely diced red onion to the hot oil and let it brown up nicely before adding the garlic. I don't have the patience for cleaning spinach and I have an aversion to grit in my food, so I used the baby spinach that comes in a box (says that lady who was just gushing about farmers' markets and connecting to local food.) You'll feel like you're using a lot of spinach (I used the whole box) but it renders down significantly as it cooks and you're left with a tiny, fragrant pile of bliss that you'll want to keep all for yourself but you can't because the whole kitchen smells of garlic and lemon and loveliness and your husband will be all "you have to share! What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. It's called marriage!" and you will shoot him the stink eye but he will ignore it. And then he will eat half of your lovely spinach and you will store the "what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours" argument away in the spiteful part of your brain for the next time he is eating chocolate.

Don't Waste Your Time Or Time Will Waste You

This weekend was an amazing concert,

new cupcake toppers,

long naps and puppy cuddles,

and too much breakfast pizza.

It was equal parts draining and restorative.

This weekend was three days long but far too short.

I'm Gonna Take You Down To The Market Lover

Shawn and I are trying to eat more vegetables. The problem isn't a dislike of vegetables; it's a time thing. It takes a lot of time to chop up enough fruits and vegetables to make a salad interesting. I'm not a fan of a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. I need variety.

Another problem we've faced is that our supermarket has crappy produce. Crappy expensive produce. So we've started making a weekly trip to the green grocer. Yes, it's annoying having to go to another store to complete our grocery shopping but the quality of the produce is so beyond that of the supermarket that it's not even comparable. And cheap! We got all of this for just $36:

It would cost over $60 if we had bought it at the supermarket.

We solved our quality control issue so now it's just a time thing. I'm hoping that the thought of all this beautiful produce going to waste is enough motivation for me to take the time to actually prepare it.

Smitten Kitchen's Citrus Salad with Feta and Mint

Just Beat It Beat It Beat It Beat It No One Wants To Be Defeated - Take 12

Operation: Cook a Salmonella-Free Turkey Dinner was a huge success. I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by all of your suggestions; I didn't know which recipes to choose. I ended up using Nigella's method for cooking the turkey because Nigella can do no wrong. The turkey was delicious but to be honest, I'm more of a side dish kind of gal.

My dinner, in all of its gluttonous glory:

Clockwise from the top:
turkey with cranberry orange sauce, garlic smashed potatoes with gravy, Meg's brussel sprouts (steamed and then sautéed in butter, brown sugar, and pecans), maple balsamic roasted beets (ewww beets but also yay! December beets!), sweet potato mash with an unfortunate topping of burnt-ass (why yes, that is the technical term) marshmallows, and not-cooked-in-the-bird stuffing of my own recipe that featured bacon (heck yes), dried cranberries, apples, and caramelized onions (which is just a fancy way of saying that I burned the onions and was too lazy to chop more so I used the burnt ones.)

For dessert (because we weren't already bursting at the seams) we had pecan bourbon pie with bourbon caramel sauce and pumpkin chiffon pie. It was ridiculous.

The pups were being irresistibly cute so more than one person slipped them a few morsels of turkey, resulting in what may be the cutest thing I've ever seen, the Puppy Turkey Coma:

Tryptophan Overdose

I'm glad that I attempted the full turkey dinner but I seriously doubt I'll do it again. It took two full days of cooking to finish everything and I still ended up an hour behind schedule, forcing my dad to make the gravy and carve the turkey while I drank bubbly wine and set the fire alarm off with my unfortunate marshmallow / broiler incident. It was a tad stressful. I had leftover pumpkin pie for dinner last night though, so I'm not complaining.

Dinner At Eight Was Okay Before The Toast Full Of Gleams

Last week in a fit of "I hate family drama, we're getting the fuck out of here for Christmas"-induced rage, I went online and looked up plane tickets. I didn't know where we were going to go, I just knew that I couldn't stay here (and yes, I do realize that I am a bit of a hypocrite for hating my family's drama when I so clearly embrace drama as a way of life.)

It didn't take long for me to realize that Shawn's work schedule plus two rambunctious puppies means that we have to stay in town. My furious searching did lead me to a cheap flight from Montreal to Vancouver, though, proving that rage isn't always unproductive. Shawn called his dad and a few clicks later, his flight was booked. Shawn's dad will be here from December 19th to the 28th.

Which leads me to my next bit of crazy: I decided that I would have my parents over for dinner so they could spend time with Shawn's dad (well, my dad wants to spend time with Shawn's dad, my mom wants to spend time with the puppies.) Due to family drama, my parents aren't having a turkey dinner this year and because Shawn's dad is in Vancouver instead of Montreal, he isn't having a turkey dinner. You can see where this is headed, right? I decided (because I am insane) that I would make a turkey dinner. On Sunday. Six days from now. I have never cooked a turkey before. I need help, peeps, and I'm hoping you will all share your wisdom.

How big should my turkey be? There will be 6 adults eating it.

I don't have a roasting pan so I was just going to buy a disposable aluminum pan. Is this a bad idea?

How long and at what temperature does the turkey need to cook? I have a meat thermometer but I never know where to stick it so I'm not sure that it's completely accurate.

Does anyone have a good stuffing recipe? I've never really eaten stuffing before because it creeps me out that it's cooked inside the turkey but it has recently come to my attention that you can make stuffing outside of the turkey. So I need a recipe for cooked-outside-the-bird stuffing. Also, what is the difference between stuffing and dressing?

I am making garlic smashed potatoes but I need a few more side dishes - what is your favourite Christmas dinner side dish? (Shawn is allergic to carrots and I hate mushrooms. Bonus points if it's a beet recipe!) I was thinking of doing sweet potato mash smothered in mini marshmallows and a green salad but I'm not sure. Is it okay to serve sweet potatoes and regular potatoes? Is green salad lame? I feel like I need a green vegetable and I'm kind of bored of broccoli. Does anyone have a kickass brussel sprout recipe?

For dessert I'm planning to do a bourbon pecan pie and my grandma's pumpkin chiffon pie. I don't have any questions about dessert, I'm just bragging.

Just Beat It Beat It Beat It Beat It No One Wants To Be Defeated - Take 11

Random Tuesday Tidbits

Robin loved all of your comments. Miel et Cannelle brought up the point that we don't know Burt's financial situation, which is true and totally valid. It's possible that I'm being an insensitive douche (it's been known to happen.) The thing is, he chose the restaurant for their first date. He took her to a trendy oyster bar in one of the fancier downtown neighbourhoods. He set the tone. Anyway, Robin hasn't fully decided what to do about Burt yet but I will keep you posted.

* * * * *

My family got together on Sunday to celebrate my mom's birthday. We were all in charge of bringing something to contribute to dinner. They should have been suspicious when I offered to bring the salad course.


Why yes, those are my November beets atop the salads. Suckers!

* * * * *

We have had nothing but rain for days. I try to walk the pups but it only takes a few minutes of precipitation before Wolfgang decides he has had enough and starts to cry. He is such a delicate flower. He'd much rather curl up in bed and hibernate until it's sunny and warm again. I don't blame him.

'Cause You're Doing In My Nut And Do You Think I Care?

I have the throat of death again, which means that my diet has been reduced to liquids and viscous substances. I'm all about the scrambled eggs and rice pudding right now. My mom is a firm believer in the healing properties of homemade soup so I decided to make myself a giant pot of butternut squash soup. I love squash but I don't often buy it because Shawn doesn't eat it and then I'm stuck eating squash leftovers for a week. I've never prepared a butternut squash before, is what I'm saying. I was completely unprepared for all the burning and crying. Butternut squash is evil. Butternut squash can be a moody bitch . Butternut squash should come with a warning label. My left hand (the hand that held the squash as I peeled it) was swollen and painful. The skin was chapped and reddish-orange. My skin was so tight that it ripped when I tried to straighten my fingers.

Dr. Google told me that I was suffering from "cucurbita moschata dermatitis" which is just a fancy name for "wtf, nature, wtf?"

My hand is almost back to normal now, two days later, but the psychological scars remain. I think the moral of this story is that trying to be healthy is not worth the pain and agony it can cause. From now on I'm eating cheeseburgers.

Just Beat It Beat It Beat It Beat It No One Wants To Be Defeated - Take 10

So I'm all caught up on the road trip shenanigans and I haven't faffed in a while. Let's faff, shall we? We'll call this one Friday Faff: The Catch Up Edition.

* * * * *

The puppies came home the day after we arrived home from the road trip. They had been separated for a week (our families can only handle one pup each. Amateurs!) We brought Stella home first and it was adorable / heartbreaking to watch her race around the condo looking for Wolfgang. I have never seen the puppies so happy as they were when we reunited them. They practically vibrated with joy.

Wolfgang has become a bit clingy since we've been home. We've started calling him the stage five clinger (which is only funny if you've seen Wedding Crashers and if you haven't seen Wedding Crashers you probably should because it is hilarious.) He follows me from room to room, not letting me out of his sight. He has started jumping into my lap if I'm sitting at the kitchen table (which is impressive because our table is bar-height so it's quite the leap for him.) I got out of the shower yesterday and saw tiny little Wolfgang paws reaching under the bathroom door. It's funny but on the brink of becoming very annoying.

* * * * *

Turtle made me a chocolate / beet cake for my birthday. I don't have any pictures to prove it but I totally ate a giant slice of it and it's counting for my October beets. Chocolate / beet cake is not awesome (sorry, lady) because once someone tells you that it's beet cake you can totally taste the beets, but it's not as gross as it sounds. You wouldn't know about the beets if you weren't told.

* * * * *

I went out last Friday for some birthday shenanigans. Cat's birthday is the date after mine so we gathered a group of friends and went out for a civilized dinner. Which quickly turned into a not-so-civilized dinner when the pub we wanted to go to was full (a pub where I would have been drinking pumpkin beer, which means that I would have had 2 drinks because I can only manage to drink 2 pints of pumpkin beer and then I'm over it) and we ended up at a restaurant we'd never been to before and they had pitchers of cocktails on special and they had a special Pimm's cocktail on the menu and I love Pimm's and then someone started buying tequila shots. My head was very hurty the next morning. It was big fun, though. If you can't act like a drunken ass on your birthday, when can you act like a drunken ass?

* * * * *

Last weekend was birthday shenanigans and two family dinners to make up for missing Thanksgiving while we were road tripping and a massive hangover and puppy love. This weekend will be vacuuming and homework and cleaning out my closet to donate old clothes. The old lady in me is really looking forward to it.

Have a great weekend, peeps! See you Monday.

Just Beat It Beat It Beat It Beat It No One Wants To Be Defeated - Take 9

Friday Faff: Birthdays and Burgers and Beets Edition

* * * * *

So, uhh, this is awkward. It turns out that Wolfgang's birthday isn't until next Tuesday. Yet another reason why I should stick to fur-babies.

* * * * *

Thank you for all your road trip suggestions! I am kind of ridiculously excited to eat at In-n-Out Burger. Shawn and I ate dinner at Fatburger the night we got engaged. We served burgers at our wedding. We are burger people, is what I'm saying. All the other road trip stuff is great too, don't get me wrong, but what I'm really looking forward to is the food. I'm going to shop at Trader Joe's! I'm going to drink lemonade at Sonic!! I am lame, I know.

* * * * *

So I ate my stupid September beets. Enough people suggested pickled beets that I figured they must be something special. Pickled beets are ... fine. The vinegar taste was quite strong, which masked the taste of the beets nicely. The problem was the cleanliness (and my craziness.) I bought a jar of pickled whole baby beets, which I assumed would be peeled. They were not peeled. I could see beet skin on some of the beets and they all had the top rooty bit attached. It was too much for me to handle so I used a paring knife to peel off the entire outer skin. I ended up with tiny little beet nuggets:


I served the beets on a salad, with a side of barbecued chicken and grilled zucchini. Who's in denial that summer is over? Not I.

* * * * *

Have a great weekend, peeps!

Just Beat It Beat It Beat It Beat It No One Wants To Be Defeated - Take 8

I bought beets at last week's farmers' market. They were smaller and fresher than the beets I buy in the grocery store. They were so fresh, they still had the greens attached. I asked the farmers' market lady to remove the greens for me because they were too big to fit in my bag and it's not like I was going to eat them anyway. And then my mom's head melted. The farmers' market lady did not remove my beet greens. The beet greens went home with my mom. Apparently beet greens are very healthy for you and if you can buy them locally, they are fresh and tender and delicious. However. I did not make a resolution to eat beet greens once a month.

Look, Mom! No greens!

I boiled my beets and then sliced them and tossed them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and feta cheese and then threw them on top of a green salad. It pains me to say this but I ... well, I liked these beets. A lot. I'm going to say it was the addition of cheese that made these beets palatable but I have a horrible suspicion that I might be starting to like beets.