Molecular Gastronomy

For Christmas, my sister got Shawn a molecular gastronomy kit.  Shawn decided it was time to make something.  I present to you spherized drinkable yogurt (you can call them smoothie balls if you want):

Step 1:  Make your Sodium Alginate bath using your stick blender.  Find out that your stick blender is busted.  WONDERFUL!

Step 2:  Prepare your yogurt smoothie - add some Calcium Lactate and mix with spoon until dissolved.

Step 3: Drop teaspoons of the smoothie into the alginate bath.

Step 4: Wait.

Step 5: Fish balls out of alginate bath with slotted spoon and transfer to a water bath (to rinse).

Step 6: Yay! Yogurt smoothie balls!

Now then, you do have to be careful when adding the spoonfuls of smoothie to the alginate bath because if you don't get it all in in one fell swoop you end up with weird shapes...I can't quite decide if they look more like pink cat turds or little organs from a small animal.

Pink cat turds or pink organs?  either way, it's spherification gone wrong.

Enjoy your pink cat turds!

Thanksgiving Recipes

This last Thanksgiving, Shawn and I spent the evening with our friends, Shawna and DJ, DJ's family and Shawn's parents.  I was in charge of appetizers, what follows are my favorite recipes for appetizers.  I liked these so much that I'll be making them for my coworkers on Monday for December Food Month.

Greek Yogurt Ranch Dip
packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dip dry mix
packet specified amount of plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream

Directions:  Mix together, chill and serve with potato chips or veggies. (420 calories, 80 calories from fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 3990 mg sodium, 34 g total carbs, 18 g sugar, 46 g protein FOR THE WHOLE RECIPE)

Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or vanilla flavored)
Honey to taste

Directions:  Mix together, chill and serve with fresh fruit.

Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Dip
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or vanilla flavored)
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 T whipped cream cheese (optional)
Honey to taste (optional)

Directions:  Mix together, chill and serve with apple slices, or maybe graham crackers.  (210 calories, 45 calories from fat, 15 mg of cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 18 g total carbs, 5 g dietary fiber, 13 g of sugar, 25 g protein FOR THE WHOLE RECIPE)

Cream Cheese with Razzpotle
1 brick of cream cheese
jar of Razzpotle sauce or other fruity chipotle sauce

Directions:  pour razzpotle sauce over cream cheese and serve with wheat thins. (880 calories, 160 mg of cholesterol, 1440 mg sodium, 80 g total carbs,
8 g dietary fiber, 72 g sugar, 16 g of protein FOR THE WHOLE RECIPE)

Day 1

Day 1 of Shopping Local and/or American Made:

I left work at 5 (we actually were allowed to go home at 3, but I had some work that needed to get done and those extra 2 hours were quite the boon).  I immediately drove to a locally owned book store.  They did not have any of the specific books I was looking for.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  I still found books which I think will be appreciated.  The sad part is that as I was leaving, I found another 2 that another on my list would like...guess I'll just have to go back there next week on the way home.

And I'm back (I left for 5 minutes to see where the books were made).  All of them were printed in America, so I'm guessing this is quite a common thing...which means I may be able to find the ACTUAL books requested and still be able to follow through with my "American or Local" mantra.

You know, the tough one to shop for is going to be my husband...always so difficult to find gifts for.  I guess I could always give him a stack of cash and say, "This is the money I was going to donate to charity, but I didn't.  Merry Christmas."

Challenge

This year, for Christmas shopping, I'm going to challenge myself to either buy local, or buy American made.  I have to put in that extra caveat because there are some things that are practically impossible to find American made (e.g. electronic goods, plastics, etc.)

So...Yeah...we'll see how well this goes - I already know that Shawn thinks I'm crazy, and it's not like he likes christmas shopping to begin with.

Family

The requisite Family Portrait for Christmas:

My family - Me, Shawn, Dani, Mom and Dad.

Black Friday

So I'm not one to usually go shopping on Black Friday. I hate crowds, and I hate driving around a bunch of psycho drivers who are all trying to get the best parking spot available. Furthermore, I hate getting up at 3 in the morning to go stand in lines for a product that I may or may not be able to get, plus standing in an equally long line in order to get out.

Shawn, on the other hand, has no problems with any of the Black Friday craziness.

Thus we found ourselves leaving the house at 1030 on Thanksgiving to go stand in lines at two different stores. Both of which opened at midnight. Only one of which I expected to have a line (Best Buy). I figured for sure that Old Navy wouldn't have anyone standing at the door. I was wrong. By the time I showed up (at like 1040), there were already 35 people in line. (compared to the Best Buy line which had to be at a couple hundred, though...)

And that's about when the crazy started. There were some kids in line (and I say kids because they were in high school) at the front and they were really there to hold spots for about 10 of their friends. Which is no different than the girls right in front of me who took turns holding each others' spot in line because they were all dumb and wore shorts and t-shirts so they were switching of running to the car to get warm. But I digress. The point was that most people in the line felt that holding spots for people who had heretofore never shown up counted as "cutting in line." After copious amounts of yelling and two of the girls in front of me going and threatening bodily harm, the group of boys got out of line and instead stood across the cross walk.

Now then, at this point, we (the lady behind me and I) figured out that the reason for all the crazy was that Old Navy was giving away a Kodak Easyshare Sport camera to the first 40 customers who purchased $40 worth of clothing. It was also at this point that the lady and I were lamenting that we didn't want to be involved in any Black Friday stampede craziness, we just wanted some $15 jeans. I told her that the deals were valid online as well; but you would have to pay shipping and tax (though shipping was free at $50). So she left while I continued to wait (it wasn't like if I left I'd be able to go home anyway because I was still waiting for Shawn).

At 1145, the manager on duty came out and started handing out the wristbands signifying that you were one of the first 40. Imagine my surprise when I was actually customer 39 and got a wrist band. And shortly after that point, the group of kids at the front realized that they were going to have to purchase $40 worth of clothing to even get the camera and they decided it wasn't worth it so they gave their wrist bands to the people behind me.

It was about this time that Shawn joined me as he had found out that the item he wanted at Best Buy was already sold out (as Best Buy also hands out vouchers for their high ticket items). And so we commenced with our plan of 'get in, get out.' With the added benefit of "get a free camera! Yay!"

Now to do shot comparisons between my existing point and shoot and the new one.

State of the State

So yesterday (Valentine's), the flags were at half staff.

"Don't look now, honey, but I think Texas has shifted to a Catholic State and is commemorating the martyrdom of St. Valentine by putting all flags at half staff. I think it's probably best if we just quietly go with it."

The Tradition: Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up, my mom made cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. We'd eat cinnamon rolls with an orange on appropriately festive paper plates and then we'd go look at all the goodies that Santa left us in our stockings. (Ah yes, I remember the year that Dad got a bag of coal. That was a fun year.) Mom originally started out making cinnamon rolls by scratch using a recipe from my great-aunt (dad's side). By the time we were older (in middle school), she found Rhode's Cinnamon Rolls in the freezer section of the grocery store and after we all agreed that they were just as good as the home made ones, she never went back.

For the past 5 years, I've dutifully made cinnamon rolls for Christmas day (and yes, I've made home made ones, pillsbury ones, and rhodes ones at various times - and mostly depending on when I went to the grocery store, if I had any yeast, and how quickly I wanted to make the rolls).

This year, for December Food Month (which is what I've affectionately named the tradition at work where someone brings in some food item to share for one day during December - the goal is to have at least one person signed up for every work day during December. Thus obviously turning us all into gluttons; who, on the first work day of the new year, walk down to the break room in a zombie-like fashion hoping and praying that someone was nice and brought in left over Christmas candy), one of the co-workers brought in home made cinnamon rolls. HOME MADE CINNAMON ROLLS, PEOPLE!! She used Ree Drummond's recipe which can be obtained through her website: The Pioneer Woman. The cinnamon rolls were Delicious and I single-handedly ate half a pan (so like 5 or something). I do not feel bad about this because she brought in 6 pans, and I waited until after lunch to have the 3rd, and until the day after to eat the other two. I was just being helpful and trying to make sure that we did not end up with an ant problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that cinnamon rolls are quite possibly my second favorite food in the world.

When I figured out that the recipe was easily available, I decided that I would make them instead of any of my other methods. Below is a pictorial process of the making of the cinnamon rolls.

Step 1: obtain all of the ingredients below. Including the foil throw away pans--the full recipe makes 6 of the square pans, 7 or so of the rounds.

Step 4: mix half the flour with the milk, yeast and sugar.

Step 5: Let rise.

Step 6: While dough is rising, make yourself useful and butter down those cinnamon roll pans.
Step 9: Turn out dough on well floured surface and form into a rough rectangular shape.

Step 10: Roll out into large rectangle. I rolled it too thin though, so you definitely want to go a little thicker than I did...maybe about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.

Step 13: Sprinkle well with cinnamon. Very well.

Step 15: Cut in 3/4" to 1" rounds and place in buttered pans.

Step 16: Find an appropriately festive towel, cover the rolls and let rise. I only did a half batch and managed to get 4 full pans out of the deal (as I said, I rolled the rolls too thin, and then I also cut them a bit on the skinny side)

Step 18: While the rolls are baking, break out your coffee maker and make the glaze. This is the third time it has been pulled out of the cupboard. Hot diggidy! The other times it has been pulled out are for French Onion Soup Night and during March when the Inlaws came to visit. We do not drink coffee, and Shawn told me I was a dum-dum for making frosting with coffee in it--I couldn't taste the coffee at all in Andrea's rolls, but apparently using a Dark French Roast with the setting on the coffee pot set to "Strong" is not the best option for those of us who do not like coffee flavored things.
Step 20: Glaze your finished cinnamon rolls making sure to get as much into the nooks and crannies as possible. Step 21 is to enjoy them, but step 22 is to listen to your husband complain about how the rolls taste like coffee.

YAY! Jacket!

To tide you over while I write the cinnamon rolls entry.

TRADITION!!

In my family, especially around Christmas-time, you inevitably will yell "TRADITION!" at some point. Sometimes, this exclamation comes while in your underwear, and at others, it comes while opening gifts. In my case (this year) it has come with the revelation to Shawn that I will be baking cinnamon rolls.

Traditionally, my family had lasagna on Christmas Eve, opened all the Christmas gifts from each other, went to midnight mass, came home to find our gift from Santa, went to bed, woke up, ate cinnamon rolls, "opened" stockings. The rest of Christmas is open to either playing with your new gifts, or, as my sister and I got older and had boyfriends, it meant that we could spend the rest of the day with them and their families.

So, yes, cinnamon rolls. Of course, this means I need to go get all the stuff to make them (okay, not ALL the stuff - just the milk, butter, stuff to make the glaze, and a bunch of those square throw-away pans).

Now then, if you want to follow along, you can find the recipe I'll be using over at Ree Drummond's site: Pioneer Woman

Family

My Family. Family tradition of taking a photo of everyone sitting on the stairs. Including dogs, would have included the cats if they didn't hate the dogs. The white dog is my parents' (Claire), and the orange one is my sister's (Remington)--they have their Christmas jackets on because my sister's dog is a wimp and thinks it's too cold in Colorado; Claire only has her jacket on because it's the ONLY jacket that my mom and sister have ever put on her where she didn't have this look on her face like "oh god, what are they doing to me? please make it stop!"

Ringing in the New Year

So yes, sometimes my posts are boring, and there are only maybe 4 people in the world who read this blog. So, I figure I will show you just how old-fogey I can be.

Last night, that is, New Year's Eve, Shawn and I ate leftovers for dinner, watched a movie, fell asleep on the couch while watching the movie, and then, after waking up after the movie finished, I decided that it was time for bed. It was 10:00.

I was totally asleep, in my bed, when the new year started. And I don't even have kids waking me up at 4 in the morning to blame it on.

Holidays

It's happened.

We have reached the point in the year where the holiday spirit hits me. It usually (since moving to Austin) doesn't hit this early, but what are you going to do?

I can even tell you the precise moments leading to this point-- At Bond and Dave's house I flipped through a foodie magazine that was themed for Thanksgiving. It is 'cold' outside today, meaning it is in the mid 60s and is rainy. I got the Pier 1 Christmas catalog the other day. The day after, I got the LLBean Christmas catalog (this is because all the retailers are trying to get you in the Christmas mood early so you'll buy more stuff). And then finally, the Woman's Day December magazine came yesterday so I've been reading all these Thanksgiving recipes, and feel good Christmas stories, and decorating ideas and gift ideas all day. And that's when it hit me. I'm now officially looking forward to the holiday season.

I'm sure it doesn't help any that last night my dream was about finding an ornament for Ma-Belle, and since she's in a total Disney Princess phase I was trying to find a princess-esque ornament but all the ones I found were all wrong--all the Snow Whites were wearing blue Cinderella dresses, Sleeping Beauty was wearing a Jasmine outfit, etc.

1+ years of work

Lady Bird Johnson Luminations Display

Last weekend Shawn and I went to the Wildflower Center Luminaria display.

Of course it was one of those things that we wanted to go on Saturday, but started cooking the Borscht too late and didn't feel like leaving the house. So we agreed we'd go on Sunday (the last day of the Luminations--it only lasts a weekend).

I started the Corned Beef and Cabbage a little late so we ate at 715. And the festival is only from 6-9. We finished by 745, put away the leftovers and practically ran out the door. As we're driving down Mopac, Shawn's lamenting that we should have left earlier and it's stupid that we're trying to get to the wildflower center, not because we wouldn't get there before 9 pm but because we'd get there and we'd walk in the gates, have to book it around the trails to see the lights and then leave. You know, kinda like trying to see the whole zoo in less than an hour.

We got there at 815, and I would say that 45 minutes was a little too short, but not by a whole lot. We wandered around the lighted trails, got some cider, Shawn listened to the band while I went and looked around the little store. Had I not already finished all my Christmas shopping for extended family, I would have probably picked up a couple of things for them. Below are some photos we took with my point and shoot (next year we plan to go a little earlier and take the DSLR with tripod). Oh! and if you have kids, this is probably a pretty good thing for them--the wildflower center has craft tables for the kids (and adults), music in the main courtyard (with plenty of space to dance), and Frosty and Blue Santa (from the Blue Santa Operation) make appearances and pose for pictures.

View from the tower

Okay, so it's not a Luminaria, but pretty nonetheless. I really enjoy how the Texans decorate the trees like this. I don't remember seeing trees done like this in Colorado.

Christmas Shopping

So, I left work at 7 pm today (I was completing a project which is due tomorrow afternoon. You might ask what I was doing finishing a project when I have all morning to work on it. And that is where you'd be wrong. See, tomorrow is the annual holiday party at work, and I, being on the committee, am lucky enough to have to be at some gymnasium at 7 in the morning to decorate. I guess they're trying to hide the fact that it's a gymnasium or something).

And then I decided, since Shawn was out with his coworkers, that I would do some Christmas shopping for family members.

I am now officially done with my mom, my sister, and my niece. I have yet to buy anything for my father-in-law, but Dad and the mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law are halfway done.

But, because of all this shopping, I didn't get home until 9pm. And that explains why I'm eating spaghetti with tomato sauce, a little tomato bisque, and pecorino for dinner at 9:47 pm. Yes. I put tomato soup on top of my spaghetti noodles. Wanna make something of it?

The end of an era

I write this final NaPoBloMo post from Shawn's laptop due to the fact that he turned off my computer. Because he wanted the Christmas Tree lights to go through the Kill-a-watt thingy.

What we learned?

That the Christmas tree uses the equivalent wattage of 4 computers. FOUR!

Well then, we won't be turning THAT on very often this month.

Almost Done

So, we're at the end of the month, which means that we are almost finished with the posting of pointless crap everyday and we can recommence with the posting of pointless crap a few times a week instead.

Anyhoo... We've decided to do a secondary Thanksgiving meal tonight to use up left overs and some other things that we have laying around (like the butternut squash and potatoes). Of course, this means that I have to make an apple pie. Because well obviously I have to make an apple pie--because nothing can be simple for holidays as evidenced two years ago.

Black Friday

So there was no getting up at 4 am for us (thankfully). We did venture out to do some shopping, and pretty much Shawn realized that the airbrushing paint gun he wanted wasn't what he needed, the stuff I'm buying for my mom and sister would be better shipped through the company than by me buying it and shipping it, and we stopped off at the Woodcraft Store so Shawn could pick up some dyes for his new drum set coming on Monday.

I also took Quaz to the vet to have his drain tube removed. That was fun--what with the fighting to get the cat in the carrier so we could go to the vet, and then, after getting to the vet, fighting with the cat to get out of his carrier. silly little beasties.

Candied Yams

This year, I am in charge of making the candied yams for Thanksgiving. Candied yams are something that my family doesn't eat, so I called my mother in law to get the recipe.

Since 90% of sweet potato recipes involve the marshmallows on top, I figured it'd be an easy enough request. After talking for a while on the phone, I brought up the candied yam recipe request. She told me she had to find the recipe and she'd get back to me.

She called back about 15 minutes later and told me the recipe she was about to give me is a recipe that everyone who has ever had it has RAVED about. She also said that my father in law requests it every Thanksgiving and usually she pooh-poohs the idea because it takes more effort than the normal recipe.

This ultimate candied yam recipe contains pineapple, maple syrup, pecans and dried apricots. It decidedly does not involve marshmallows.

When Shawn and I went to the store for our weekly shopping trip, I sent him off to get some foods and I went off to get other items. When we met up in the meat aisle, I said the only thing left on the list was dried apricots. He looked at me like I was crazy and asked, "And WHAT in God's name are those for?!"

"Your mom's sweet potato recipe."

"Are these pecans for that too?"

"Yes, and half that can of pineapple"

"I have never had this recipe ever in my life. I don't know what my mom was thinking. Just make the marshmallow version, okay?"

And this is why you'll be served the normal marshmallow version. Though to be fair, I was going to make the two versions and bring both of them...I mean really, variety is the spice of life, is it not?