What Would Jen Do

Archive for the ‘food’ Category

So back to my birthday.   Aside from the whole crazy drunk driver situation, it was a very good birthday.

The day of my birthday I ate free twice at two local places owned by the same guy. He actually owns three restaurants and you can hit all three for the birthday trifecta but I couldn’t swing breakfast on a workday.   I also got me some red velvet cake at lunchtime.  note to self, when you bring red velvet cake home make sure it gets its own box.  otherwise it tastes like the mini hamburger you also put in the box.

The hot stone massage I got was just ok.  Not sure if it was the massage therapist, the actual hot stone massage or the fact that it probably would have been better in winter, but i think i’ll pass on another one.   It did make me pretty tired tho.

Friday i made my husband go to golden corral at like 2:30pm. but it was so awesome, I ate everything in sight.   twice.

Saturday we went out for dinner to  a tiny little place in the middle of downtown.   It’s (pulled from their site) a charming re-creation of a neighborhood French bistro, but with a BYO twist.  the food there is TO DIE FOR.   I brought home the rest of my chocolate caramel tarte.  (it got its own box)

and then there was the zombie portrait. I know that’s not for everyone, but I really love it and it’s an original. It’s about 16×9 and i can’t wait to get a frame this weekend.

For as much TV as I watch, I am almost always continually a season behind on say 30% of my shows. This is so I can watch as many as I want in a row on DVD without having to wait for a new one to start up next week.  some new shows i don’t even bother to watch, just put them straight into save in my netflix dvd queue.    Lots of major networks only let you watch the last 5 on line and that’s a pain in the ass if you aren’t up to date.  ok so now that i’ve given you a lesson in the best way to utilize your time watching TV, my actual point was that I was actually 2 years behind on The City.  Which is actually the entirety of the show.   This is the show I watch on the treadmill.   Unfortunately I am almost done with it, and I have no idea when season 3 starts.    And my actual real point was that if you watch that show, which you probably don’t. I want Kelly Cutrone to be my real life friend.

Because she said this

really … who gives a f**k about her opinion? No, she’s dead! She is f**king dead! Because I’m gonna f**king come up like a shark underneath a glass bottom boat and f**king whip the s**t out of her.”

My friend Cat and I did the Bountiful Baskets this morning.  There was a bit of confusion (probably only on my part) when we got an email that said YOUR PICK UP TIME MAY HAVE CHANGED.   when I signed us up there were two choices for pick up 7am and 7:30am.  i went with the 7:30am.   then suddenly on the website there are 3 times.  7, 7:20 and 7:40.    so we just showed up at 7:30 and it was no big deal.    Everything in the basket was basically stuff I was going to buy today.  Cat got the lone cantaloupe and basket of strawberries.   I got the celery.  but we both got bananas, tomatoes, nectarines, carrots, blueberries and bell peppers and maybe something else i can’t remember.

Last night I randomly looked in my spam folder in email.  normally I just delete everything that is in there without looking because i don’t need a larger penis or  rolex watch or viagra.   and that’s all that’s usually in there.  but i saw an email from Philosophy and opened it because i love Philosophy.   And it was a b-day E-gift card from my mother in law!  HOORAY.   I went straight to the website and spent it.   I ended up with these 3 in 1′s  (shampoo, shower gel, bubble bath)

calm me (it’s lavender scented)
pineapple coconut
red velvet cake
vanilla birthday cake

Philosophy stuff is an indulgence I would never purchase for myself.

The dogs are currently on a partial raw diet, stew meat on top of a little bit of dry food.  Voodoo, the big one has turned savage now.   Any plastic baggie you take out of the fridge he assumes is full of steak for him and he follows you around all cracked out.   We’ve only been doing it about a week but it seems like they are a little more feisty.

I’m really feeling like August is going to be a good month for me, and not just because it’s my birth month.  Even tho it’s hotter than crap outside and that usually makes me lethargic, I’ve gotten back a level of energy that I definitely didn’t have in July.   I’m taking advantage of that energy and have gotten back on my treadmill, which was all but abandoned last month.   My lungs do not agree with running for really any period of time, thanks to childhood asthma that made a comeback last year.  It’s worse in humid weather and inhalers and/or meds don’t really help much, so i don’t bother.  I can live with it the way it is and jog for very short periods of time.

anyway, my point is, i’m taking advantage of my new found energies and putting them towards something productive.  I really love walking and the 4 months a year i can walk outside, i do.   I got the treadmill specifically for the hot weather months.  And probably to the surprise of everyone, it didn’t become a clothes rack.   Like I said, I watch TV whilst on the treadmill and that really helps pass the time.   otherwise walking indoors is rather boring.

i’m also dedicating August to doing new, fun, interesting things or things that make me happy.

Strange side note here, my big dog often lays on the couch or bed or chair with his head hanging off and this makes his nose drain.   Just right now his nose drained right onto my shoes!! GROSS.

Example:

The yellowish color on the photo is from taking this picture in the dark with no flash.  He was sleeping on New Years Eve, apparently worn out from all the partying he did.

My friend Cat (go visit her) and I signed up for Bountiful Baskets this weekend.   that’s where you pay for a basket of half fruits and half vegs that is locally grown.

From their website:  Each week different items will be in the Bountiful Basket! We base the basket contents on what is in season, high quality, good value, and local. We generally have 6 fruit items & 6 vegetable items. We focus on what would be well received in our homes, and the extensive surveys we’ve done with participants over the past 5 years to know what families eat.

Cat and I are splitting the first basket for a few reasons.   Neither of us has done this before and we’re both too scared to go alone.  The closest one to our houses that had this going on at the time I wanted to go (i’m bossy like that) only had one basket left and also i have heard/seen that you get a crapload of stuff in these baskets and we weren’t sure if it would be too much for one household.   so we’re feeling it out this weekend to see what it’s like.

It’s a Thursday Blog Hop!

Here are some pictures of our fresh catches o’ the day

we put a crab pot out and left it down overnight, when the guys went to get it the next day this is what we found.   That was a tasty tasty dinner.

This is a Halibut, also a tasty tasty dinner

Rockfish, caught lots of these and ate them too

Starfish, accidental snag.  This one went back in.

Some kind of spiny or quill Rockfish

Red Snapper.   Very neon.  And tasty.

We didn’t catch this but it’s a jellyfish.  and it’s HUGE.  Once we hit Sitka the water was full of them.  I hate jellyfish.

This is a sous vide.  Technically it’s a sous vide cooking controller.

French for “under vacuum”^, sous-vide is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60°C or 140°F).

The gist of this is that you put your food into a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a water bath.  The cooking controller we have works in conjunction with our crock pot.   We converted our crock pot, temporarily into a sous vide.

This is the type of vacuum bag we used.

look, the bags even say sous-vide!

These are ribs.  Two days before we made steak.  Which does sound weird, but stay with me.   Here is the vacuumed sealed meat inside the water in the crock pot.

The crock pot plugs into the sous vide controller and the temperature of the crock pot is controlled by the thermometer attached to the sous vide.   You set the sous vide for the precise temperature that the meat is supposed to be cooked at.  The sous vide’s job is to maintain that temperature over a long period of time.   I believe these ribs were in here for about a day and a half.  The steaks we made were in about 6 hours.

When the meat is done it will need to be ‘finished’.   the steaks went into the cast iron for a minute or two on each side and the ribs went into the oven with some more bbq sauce for about 10 minutes.

these ribs FELL off the bone and almost all the fat that had been on them had melted away.  The steaks were probably the best steaks I ever had.  The meat is tender, it’s perfectly and evenly cooked the whole way thru.

our equivalent of a jesus in toast, or hot pocket, or cheeto or pancake.  it’s a happy face in burrito juice!!!

i think good things are definitely acoming.

lookit, it’s grass.  we haven’t had grass in 5 or so years!!!!  i think in the next month or so, the whole yard should be filled in.

i am so happy it’s a holiday weekend.  So far, two days in and I haven’t been able to sleep much past 5am.  Icey is turning into me and was up before 6am yesterday and the Voo got him up around 6 today.   But we had a pretty busy yesterday.   shopping, cleaning, home repair….. Icey’s not been around much the past few weekends because he was helping to build a pretty kick ass deck at his dads house, so i was excited to have him around.  yesterday he grilled up some burgers and dogs and zucchini for dinner.   I baked oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate cupcakes .  it was my first attempt at not only cupcakes, but chocolate ones at that  and they are pretty tasty.

I bought this for my weary feet.  my feets always hurt from too much walking and just generally having stupidly shaped and freakishly skinny feet. it looks like it’s going to hurt but it actually tickles for a little while. but after you get past that, WOW does it make your feet feel nice.  added bonus it also feels nice on your back and the dogs seem to like it too.

these are our artichokes.  i think they’re on their way out so i’m going to cut a couple off today and steam them.

i’m supposed to be spring cleaning this weekend but the lack of sleep is making me lazy and i have a headache.

I had a very productive day that did not really include doing any of the work I was supposed to be doing.    sshh.

Icey was home most of the day, so that explains that.  and then he brought home in-n-out hamburgers for lunch.  best day ever.

thanks to glitches and things that were corrupted I was charged 2x for a car payment I didn’t need to make.  and when they went to credit me they took another payment!!    I finally got reimbursed those 3 car payments.    If it happens again I’m just going to scream.

I finally called and made an appt to have my bumper repaired.  I found a nice place close to home that has an enterprise car rental right in the building.    I picked it specifically because of their affiliation with a rental car company, which just so happened to be the only approved rental car company of the other guys insurance.  win.

Of course I thought it would be a good idea to make the appt for Tuesday next week.  They said it would take about 2 days. so we’re looking at a thursday finish.   except depending on the time, i’m busy thursday with a wedding rehearsal and friday with a wedding, so hopefully the timing works out for me.   of course i didn’t think of any of this until after i’d set everything up.    weddings sneak up on you.

oh my god, i would love to get married again!!!  when we were picking up my matron of honor dress i was looking at all the pretty dresses and tried to con Icey into having another wedding.  he apparently did not find it as fun and exciting as i did because he said no.   I guess i’ll just settle for going back to vegas and having buffet again.

last night we had fajitas for dinner and i dropped a couple (ok all) of the tortillas on the floor and gave the dogs one.   i had no idea the monster i created in voodoo.   This morning when i was making a breakfast burrito (with different tortillas) he practically attacked me.  that dog loves himself some carbs. tonight we had waffles for dinner and he tackled me when he realized one was for him.    there are so many things he won’t eat, but when he loves something, he REALLY loves it.

I got a check for $3.56 cents for my jury duty services.   That’s not even $1 an hour!!

We (icey) sold the Z yesterday to a very nice young man who came all the way from CA with his brother.   Now we’re back to being a regular old two car family.

Icey pulled some carrots and parsnips from our garden yesterday.    They are carnival carrots, so they aren’t your standard issue orange carrots.    The purple one has purple skin only and when you peel it off, you get an orange carrot.  It’s kind of weird taking a bite of a fresh carrot that’s white.   For some reason my brain does not expect it to TASTE like a carrot.

The two vegs on the far right are the parsnips.

here they are glazing

and glazed.

I used too much brown sugar……….

I’ve been planning a bachelorette party, which in itself isn’t that hard. I can throw a party together in a matter of minutes, which is basically what happened here.  The maddening part is other people not cooperating with me.   Party planning is easy until you have to deal with humans.    And this reminds me why I choose to spend most of my time in my home, not speaking to people.   the biggest stress that I had was lifted from my shoulders last week.   And a party is a party, you throw people together and they create the party themselves.   alcohol + people = party.   I’m confident that everything will be fine.    I have NEVER thrown a bad party.    speaking of alcohol, has anyone else noticed the price hike on alcohol in the past few weeks?

We watched that Zombie TV show friday night, all 2.5 hours of it.   Basically there is a fast zombie outbreak in the UK and the show revolves around the people living in the big brother house.   Icey finally noticed that people in zombie movies have no idea what a zombie is, it’s always annoyed me. i think just once there should be a movie where people are like, ‘oh yeah i see what’s going on here…..’.   The show was good because you really couldnt’ see what the ending was going to be, normally zombie movies are a little more predictable, not that i’m complaining.

I made a lemon bundt cake with lemon glaze.  And apparently I’m not very good at pouring glaze over the top of a cake.    I like this a lot more than Icey does.

Saturday Icey pulled a cabbage the size AND shape of a football and a tiny carrot out of the garden.

here it is with the cake

and with the carrot

I cooked the cabbage  yesterday and it was very tasty!

the garden is doing really well, I think that pretty soon everything we planted will be ready to eat.

We went to Coup Des Tartes on Sunday for our ‘paulandjenaversary’ and I had a mushroom tarte that was so good I nearly fell out of my chair.    Icey got the papas and lox, the same smoked salmon that we had as an appetizer the last time we went for dinner, it was also fantastic.   We spent the rest of the day being really super lazy.

This morning we had some citrus trees delivered to replace the trees we lost in the freeze about a year ago.  We got vodka cocktail, kumquat, tangelo (or is it tangerine?) and blood orange.

I think that if we just get a few chickens and goats we could create our own compound and rarely have to leave home.

I’m sad my long weekend is over.  I just have no desire at all to ever go into the office. If I could work from home 5, even 4 days a week, i’d be very happy.

We had a very nice New Years dinner, on the 1st, cooked by my husband.

my camera has a feature that will take flashless pictures in low light, the results are a little yellowy (as you can see above) but I almost always prefer a flashless picture.

no flash also means mojo doesn’t have laser eyes

Speaking of dogs,  Icey was tired of never being able to take the dogs anywhere in his car, he couldn’t even go to costco for paper towels.   After months of searching and thinking and researching he decided on a mazda speed 3.   So he is the proud owner of a brand new car.  It’s white and pretty and goes fast and looks just like mine on the inside, so of course I love it.   Now this car brings the total of Mazda 3′s in this family to 4.

OMG the lamp in our TV went BOOM the other day, literally.  and we were without TV in the living room for like 24 hours and we both almost died.   The new lamp came yesterday, thank god for overnight shipping, and Icey put it in and the picture is brighter and better than ever. The problem with rear projections is that you need a lamp in them and they just burn out (or pop) it’s what they do.   And smart people would have an extra on hand but we didn’t.  (now we do)

Last Friday i got to semi work from home since my business phone line was being installed that day inside a rather large window of time.   Everything hooked up well and I connected to the system, but the real problem started when the phone guy got here.  yadda yadda yadda, three hours later I’m completely set up.  And the best news is that I had a meeting at work yesterday to discuss working from home and it’s FINALLY a done deal and I start working from home tuesdays and thursdays next week.  my god, i am so excited I could spit.   I’m only starting this a month after everyone else……