Karaoke Anyone?

I have always been  a wreck when it comes to karaoke. I feel like the expectations are always too high or too low, and I don't like the pressure. It doesn't help that I have seriously talented friends that are somewhat impossible to sing after. However, karaoke is the social activity of the CU grad student group. At least once a week the get together to belt out everything from Britney to the Commodores. I finally got over my fears last night and managed to get through a song without running off the stage. Major accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

However, it got me thinking. What songs are good for karaoke? I feel like you can rock a song, but if it's not a crowd pleaser you are just as likely to get blank stares rather than applause afterward. I know this is going to be a reoccurring social engagement for the next 5 years of Ian's grad school, so I'd better figure out what's a show stopper, and what just stops the show. I know a bunch of you out there are karaoke experts, so have at it in the comments. What is your favorite karaoke to sing/hear?

Best Meal Ever: Fish a la Parisienne with Garlic Mashed Potatoes (and broccoli)

If you try only one fancy French meal I have made on this site, let it be this one. It was, by far, the best yet. I'm so excited about it I can't even think of a cute intro.

The first thing I worked on were the potatoes since you can set them aside and reheat right before serving. The potatoes have 2 separate components that you make individually then combine right before serving. The sauce is:

17 cloves of garlic
4 TBS margarine
2.5 TBS flour
1 cup boiling milk (I used 1%)
salt/pepper to taste

crap load of garlic

Looking at this I thought, "17 cloves of garlic, that HAS to be a typo!" Then I looked more closely at the recipe and the ever saucy MC [Ms. Childs] wrote  that though this seems like a "horrifying" amount, "if less is used, you will regret it!" Touche, MC. After dicing for about an hour I put the garlic into the butter over low heat for 20 minutes or so, then added the flour slowly until the sauce thickened (2ish minutes). Then, I took it off the heat and added the boiling milk and seasonings. Then I put back it on the heat for another 2 minutes to thicken again. I don't know if all this backing and forthing with the heat really does anything, but it tasted so good, I won't mess with it.

The next step in the potatoes was to make the base. Since it takes forever to boil water in altitude I should have been getting the water going during the first step, but as always the altitude tripped me up again and left me like 30 minutes behind. Here's the ingredients:

2.5 lbs potatoes, peels and quartered
3 TBS margarine, softened
3ish TBS whipping cream
1 TBS each of parsley, thyme, and 2 of herbs de province

You boil the quartered potatoes, then run them through a potato ricer. I still don't have one of those so I used a trusty potato masher instead. More messy, and therefore more fun IMHO. Then add the butter a little bit at a time. Lastly, right before serving beat in the garlic butter stuff and the cream. Do the cream a little bit at a time to make sure you aren't thinning it too much (personal preference of thickness here). Lastly, add in the herbs.

5 out of 5

Guys, this was AWESOME. I actually made Ian stop eating to make sure he took time to taste the herbs up front and then the garlic kick at the end of the bite (I told him to pretend it was beer and he was at a brewery doing a tasting). It was that good. No, it was better.

The main dish, fish a la Parisienne was astonishingly just as delicious, though a little challenging. It reminded me of when I first started doing these recipes and had to fumble around a bit to figure out what MC wanted me to do. Soooo worth it though.

The first step in this is to poach the fish. MC suggests using boiled down fish parts to do this. I refuse to boil down fish parts without some sort of weapon pointed in my direction, so I opted to poach in a white wine sauce of my own invention.

1 TBS shallots, minced
salt, pepper, onion powder to taste
1/2 cup vermouth
1/2 cup water
2 fillets Tilapia (less than 1 lb total)

You first season the fish with the salt/pepper/onion powder and then put the fish in the pan with the shallots. Pour in the liquids, making sure that they cover the fish. Then bring it to a light boil and place in the oven, covered, at 350 for 7 minutes/until it is cooked.

 I snuck a bite here, and honestly, this was good enough to eat already. I was glad I plodded on a head, though, because it gets sooo much better. You put this aside for a while (I put it in the micowave - turned off - to keep it warm), while you work on the sauce.

1.5 TBS margarine
2 TBS flour
boiling liquid from above, reduced to about 3/4 cup
1/4 cup milk (1%)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tsp lemon juice
3 TBS grated swiss cheese

To start off, melt the butter in a pan then add the flour slowly, until it is frothing. Take off the heat then add in the boiling liquid (you should heat up the liquid to a quick boil beforehand to reduce it down to the 3/4 cup) and the milk. Put back on the heat for about 2 minutes until it gets nice and thick.

Next, in a medium bowl, beat the yolks and mix in the whipping cream. Blend in the pre-made sauce slowly, making sure not to cook the yolks right away. Put back on the heat until you get a boil going for about a minute to get the sauce to the thickness you like. Add the lemon juice and some salt/pepper to taste.

Whew, we are finally onto the last step. Put the fish back into the pan, and cover with sauce and the grated cheese. Place in the broiler for a few minutes just to brown the top.

5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Seriously, this was the best meal I've had in a long time, including the semi-fancy French place we went to a few weeks ago. As you can see, I added some broccoli done with lemon pepper to the dish at the last minute to counter act the overt creamy-ness of the meal. It fit together perfectly, and every component worked as well separately as it did together, something I don't always make happen in my dinners. If I ever went into the restaurant business (and don't worry Mom and Dad, I won't!) this would be on my menu.

[NB: While these dishes are based in the Mastering recipes, I tinkered with them a little bit, so I feel alright posting them in totality.]

We've Officially Moved In!

It's been a joke that I was so bored/hyped up on post-bar exam energy  when we moved into our new house that I unpacked the entire house in 3 days. That is almost entirely true. Yes, I was bored. Yes, I was still in the frantic state of mind that getting married and taking the bar within 10 days of each other will create. However, I did not unpack the entire house. At the end of those 3 days I had 6 boxes left, 2 of which I bought in Denver, and 4 that had come up on the moving van. The ones I bought were build-your-own-bookshelves from Target, and the 4 other boxes were full of books.

Those of you who have visited know that half of our living room wall is a built in bookshelf. Unfortunately (or fortunately as I like to think of it), we filled it and the 2 mini bookshelves in the office with our "immediately necessary" books right when we moved in. Thus, the 4 boxes of non-essential books got shoved downstairs into the basement. Not only were the out of sight and out of mind, but I really did not want to spend a lot of quality time down in the basement building the shelves with our closest neighbors, the wolf spiders. They are everywhere in Colorado, especially in older houses, and generally stay out of the way. This does not mean I want to create a more familiar association with them.

However, this past week I've been getting ready to start working again - I've been taking my suits to the cleaners, brushing up on any new trends in the finance industry, and collecting things I will need for my office. One thing I will certainly need is my blue book - the Bible of citation style for legal writing. Happily, this book has been non-essential for the past few months. Unhappily, I realized it is now essential and to find it I would have to spend some quality time with my 8-legged neighbors. And, since I had to dig through the remaining 6 boxes, I figured it was time to finally unpack and build the bookshelves.

Although my hubby claims that he is the superior craftsman, I have hung every picture, fixed every crack, and built every "do it yourself" piece of furniture in this house. (Though for a lot of the furniture my Dad took the lead when he was visiting - he has built enough ikea/target/walmart furniture to get 4 girls into a total of 10 college residences, qualifying him as an expect. I think the BA is mechanical engineering helped as well). Therefore, I was surprised at how long it took me to put together these bookshelves. It was partly because I forgot to charge my power drill and partly due to me jumping up every few minutes to check if a spider was on my shoulder. There may have also been a tea break - you know I can't make it past 3PM without it!

Despite my dawdling, after about 1.5 hours I did finally finish the job and did not see a live spider to boot. I did, however, see a few legs lying around the basement, which makes me think there is something down there helping with my spider problem that only likes the white meat. I know it can't be our cats because they are some of the worst hunters I have ever seen. (Indy does a booty shaking dance and meows loudly every time he sees a bird and Earl cannot be bothered by...well...pretty much anything). I'm not going to inquire into what may be helping me out, and I'm just doing to assume it's pretty and nice and doesn't eat humans.

The last step was to put all the books up. I love doing this since it reminds me of all the fun things I've read and all of Ian's books that I have yet to read. The best part is there is still about a shelf and a half of space left to fill!

It felt really nice to finally finish moving in. It's been a long road of making Denver our new home, but I think we are coming to the end of it. The irony of it all is that these bookshelves are next to a pile of boxes we kept for the next move we have to make in about a year and a half. I wonder how long it will take me to get these books out then?

Eggplant Parmesan a la Merce

One of the best parts of writing this blog is that people are starting to e-mail me recipes that they think are good. Granted, that it not how I got this one from Mercedes, my sister (it took begging for the recipe after I saw her post about it on facebook), but I am loving the perk. This eggplant parmesan Merce created for Dave, her husband, who loves anything eggplant-y or parmesan-y. 

Even though I was a vegetarian for about 3 years, I had never eaten eggplant parmesan before. In fact, I had avoided eggplants altogether because something about those giant vegetables made me uncomfortable. But, I figured there was no better time for me to try then the present, so I made the dish this weekend. Recipe:

2-3 TBS olive oil

1-2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese  

1 egg plant, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 TBS minces fresh basil (I used the dried and doubled the amount)

1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 can marinara sauce with spinach 

Note the knife in the background

I was already dumbfounded with the first step - prepping the vegetables. I could slice a tomato, but had no idea how to peel an eggplant. I pulled out my handy peeler and it wouldn't pierce the skin. My mom can do this cool trick where she peeling an entire apple in one strip using a paring knife, so I tried that. however, I am not that skilled with the paring knife, and I realized that it would take me about forever to get through an entire eggplant. I ended up paring off small sections with the knife and then using that incision to get traction under my peeler. It worked out well, but it wasn't an encouraging start to my first time cooking eggplant. 

make-shift sauce

After prepping the veggies, I had to add in another step. I thought I had some marina at home, but I didn't. So, I took some tomato paste I had on hand and mixed it with some frozen spinach, water and spices (onion powder, basil, parsley, pepper). I put it all in a pan for enough time to defrost the spinach and it worked well as a replacement. As a side note, what is going on that I have tomato paste on hand, but not marinara sauce? Spaghetti from a can was my main form of food in college! And then, the other day I didn't have and white wine but happened to have vermouth and chicken stock. I didn't even know what vermouth was until a few weeks ago! I think I'm turing into a 1950s housewife, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

After the sauce, it was time to bread and fry the eggplant. As you all know, the messier and more hands on it is, the more I love it. This was epicly messy/hand-sy AND called for an assembly line. Call me in cooking heaven. First step you dip the sliced eggplant in the eggs (beaten), then into a mix of parmesan and breadcrumbs (1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup parmesan), then into the frying pan on medium heat with the oil in it, then into a baking dish. There were crumbs everywhere, my hands were covered in goop and I was loving this dish. And as you can see in the picture, my personal assembly line ended in a glass of wine. What could be better? I did the frying in stages because you only need a layer of eggplant at a time. It was a little hard to keep the oil temperature stable, but it meant one less dish to wash at the end. 

With all the elements, the final step is to layer everything, similar to a lasagna. First layer is the eggplant, then the sliced tomatoes, then the basil, then the sauce and lastly the cheese mix (all the mozzarella and the leftover parmesan). I only made 2 layers, but Merce said she did 3 and it worked well, so whatever your preference should be fine. Then, just pop it into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes (25 in altitude).

4 out of 5 on Yum scale

It was pretty de-lish. I can see why Dave (and most vegetarians) love this dish. The best part was it tasted even better as a leftover, which I find is a rarity with most food. I wasn't sure what to do for a side since the dish is already so hearty and full of veggies, so I went with a basic garlic bread. I don't like the ones in the store that much, so I made my own with some fresh white bread and a quick butter mix:

3 TBS butter

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 tsp Italian seasoning

I just mushed it all up together then put a dollop of it in between each slice of bread. I also sprinkled some onion powered in each section because a meal isn't complete without some onion in it :)Then into the oven for 10 minutes with the eggplant just to melt the butter and brown the bread a little bit. I ended up with waaay too much spread for how many slices of bread I wanted, but the taste was definitely there. 

4 out of 5 on Yum scale

It all was very tasty and filling. Sadly, the part of the loaf I didn't use for garlic bread was bad by the next morning, so that went to waste, but it was well worth the meal. 

Things I Forget Every Year About Holiday Shopping

1. Take the first spot you see. It won't get any better, and if you have the audacity to try you will end up across the street parked at the sketchy store with the windows blacked out.

2. Target becomes a war zone, bring kevlar.

3. Wear comfortable shoes. You will not try on jeans to buy for yourself and thus have no reason to make sure your bum looks good.

4. The "best ideas" under the neon lights of department store are generally the worst. See, the bf pillow.

5. You are on the store clerks turf, if you are lucky enough to find one not on break, just do as they say and hopefully you can make it through the checkout line without any visible bruises.

6. Your list secretly grows while hidden in your bag, thus you will NEVER get everything on it.

7. The best cure for holiday shopping is a stiff drink - why do you think it's called holiday cheer(s)?

Bunco Babes Cookin'

The Bunco Babes hold a special place in my heart. They are a group of ladies, most of whom are the mommies of my high school friends, that meet once a month to "play bunco." I am not sure if bunco has been played since the first get together, but whatever they end up doing, its always fun. The recipe today came from the Bunco Babes ranks. I got this from Cheryl, who made it for my mom, but originally learned it from Sally. And who knows where she got it from. Here's the recipe:

 4-6 Chicken breasts (I used 3 so we wouldn't have leftovers for weeks and shrunk down the other ingredients accordingly)
12 fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup white cooking wine (I used vermouth)
1 1/2 cups mozzarella
1/4 cup parmesan

Hammer Time!

First step is to clean and cut it into strips. Then you tenderize them, usually with either a fancy tenderizer or with a a kitchen mallet. I didn't have either - I think my mallet was lost in the move. So, I had to improvise. Luckily, I have about 4 hammers in my three different tool boxes, and they made a excellent, if not  unorthodox, replacement.

Almost there...

Next, you dust the chicken with flour and saute in butter on the stovetop. It doesn't take too long, like 5 minutes per-side. Put the chicken aside into a baking dish and saute the mushrooms in the leftover chicken-ness with some more butter. I added in some onions that were going to go bad if I didn't use them. Together it took about 10 minutes. Then you dump them onto the chicken, along with the cheese, but don't wash that pan yet!

You use the pan one more time to cook up the sauce. I LOVE this technique - using the same pan so that the flavors stay consistent and the sauces get more richness. When MC [Ms. Childs] first introduced this technique to me in Mastering, I thought it might be overrated, but the countess of cooking was right. It takes a little longer, and if you splash over the side, it can lead to a stain on the pan since it stays on the heat for so long. BUT it is totally worth it. This sauce was just the leftover chicken broth and vermouth (and the gummed up pan goodness). You get it to a quick boil to burn off the alcohol and then pour it over the sauce. After that, it's just a quick 25 minutes in the oven at 350 (I did 30 - frickin altitude!).

4.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

It was really good. The sauce kept the chicken nice and moist and there was a surprisingly strong (and good) mushroom flavor. I can can see why this has been so popular with the Bunco Babes. To go with it I decided to re-try a favorite, the tomatoes provincial (tomatoes hollowed out and filled with a breadcrumb/herb mixture then baked).  It was the first dish I made, and I wanted to see if cooking has gotten any easier for me AND if I thought it tasted as yummy now that I have tried so many new things. A resounding yes on both accounts. It was much easier this time to make up that yummy herb filling and just pop it into the oven. In fact, it felt a little too easy for how good this dish is because good lord this dish is yummy.

4 out of 5 on Yum scale

I added some parmesan cheese on top, unlike last time, and I liked the addition. It was a great dinner, and came at a great time. We are both a little on edge right now with everything going on - Ian is getting into finals and I'm gearing up to go back to work. It's really nice to have a good home-cookin' meal, where we can take a minute to get out of what I call "the crazy place." It's no wonder the recipe came from the Bunco Babes.

Cinnamon Sugar Bread

I was having a bit of a rough day today, so to cheer myself up I decided to make a loaf of cinnamon sugar bread. Ian and I don't keep bread in the house, so having some around - especially some full of sugary goodness - is a big treat. I made it with a milk bread base (kinda like a white bread).

First step is to take a packet of yeast and dissolve it into 3 TBS of warm water. You wait for it all to dissolve, it took mine like 8 minutes, then add in:

1 cup warm milk
4 TBS margarine melted
4 TBS sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Dough ball

Then you slowly add in more flour until the dough is no longer very sticky. It's normally between 1 and 2 cups. Then you kneed the dough until it is smooth, say 5-10 minutes depending on how enthusiastic you are. Obviously this is my favorite part because it leads to the most hands on mess.

You then coat a bowl with oil and put the dough in, making sure that the dough gets oil covered as well. Next, cover the bowl with a cloth and place it in a warm area for about an hour to let the dough rise. In the spirit of Christmas I chose to cover mine with a santa towel.

While that is going on, mix together 1 & 1/2 TBS cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar. Some people add raisons, but I can't stand them so they got left out of my loaf. Once the bread has risen, roll it out to about 10in by 18in. Then, sprinkle 3/4 of the sugar mixture on top. I like to sprinkle some nutmeg on as well to get more flavor out of the cinnamon. Next, roll up the dough lengthwise and place it in the buttered bread pan, seam side down.

You then have another hour or so of waiting while the dough doubles in size one more time. Once the dough has reached its own epic proportions, brush some butter on top and sprinkle the rest of the sugar mix on top. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. You know it's done when you knock on the top and it makes kinda a hollow sound.

4.5 out 5 on Yum scale

After it was done it looked so good I had to take a bite right away. It was goooood and made me feel better about the day. I hope that it's still as delicious once it's not as warm and gooey!

Breadcrumb crusted chicken with brussel sprouts

Until a few weeks ago I didn't think that I liked brussel sprouts. That all changed when my brother in law cooked the most delicious brussel sprouted dish for thanksgiving - brussel sprouts in a white cream sauce.  It was so good that I decided to try and recreate it at home with a Mastering recipe.

The first step in the process was to partially cook the brussel sprouts in boiling water (about 5 minutes in altitude) then shock them in an ice bath. This was a step that I kind of scoffed at, thinking that MC [Ms. Childs] was taking things a bit far. I have not taken a bath in about year, so why should these vegetables deserve better treatment? But to make sure I made the best recreation I could, I gave them a bath. Maybe it made a difference, who knows.

5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Next, I made the sauce mornay, which is a bechamel sauce with swiss cheese - which is a white sauce made with butter flour and milk. Did you catch that? It was about as easy to follow in Mastering,  it took 3 cross reference recipes spanning about 300 pages. But the sauce isn't hard - just make a butter and flour roux, add milk, boil and add in swiss cheese, salt and pepper. The sauce is sooo good on pretty much any dish. I just poured that over the sprouts with some parmesan cheese on top, and put it in the oven for 25 minutes. Even Ian, who actually doesn't like brussel sprouts very much, enjoyed the dish.

FAIL

The next thing I attempted was another risotto. I successfully made one a few weeks ago so I thought it would be cake. Oh, hubris, you got me. It was horrible, I cooked it for about an hour and the rice was still chewy. I think it was because I used 45 minute brown rice instead of 20 minute white rice, so much for trying to be healthy. Ian and I both tried to nibble on it with dinner, but gave up and tossed it out. It's been a while since my last fail, so I guess one was due. As least we had delicious brussel sprouts to cleanse our pallets.

breading the chicken

The main course was breadcrumb crusted chicken. The recipe calls for a whole chicken, but since I didn't want leftovers for days, I used chicken breast. The first step was to cook up some chopped onion and garlic with herbs (I used thyme). Then I combined that with dijon mustard. While that was going on, I broiled the chicken for 10 minutes on each side. Then I covered the chicken with the dijon mix and patted on the breadcrumbs. Then the chicken went back into the broiler for another 10 on each side. It was ok. -  moist and fairly tasty, but I've made a similar recipe before and like that better.

3.5 out of 5

Here's my stab at re-doing this dish:

2-3 chicken breasts, cleaned and sliced into 2in by 1in strips
1-2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup dijon mustard
2/3 cup parmesan
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Spice the chicken strips with salt, pepper and onion powder, set aside. Beat egg(s) and mix in milk and mustard [NB: you can just use the mustard without eggs and milk for a stronger spicy flavor]. In another bowl combine parmesan and bread crumbs. Dip the strips in the egg mix, then press on the bread crumb mix. Put in the oven for 20 minutes at 350. It's easier than the Mastering recipe, but I like it better. Next time I make it, I might copy MC and cook up some onions/garlic cloves and add that to the mustard mix. Also, I think broiling it at the end would be good to get a crunchy top to it. Even thought the meal wasn't the best one I've made, I'm glad to have rediscovered brussel sprouts...and eaten something with the yummy white sauce again!

MY Constitution, not YOUR Constitution!

A while ago a friend of a friend blogged about the invasion of privacy involved in these airport pat downs.  It sparked a pretty heated debate about where the line should be drawn in invasion of privacy in light of the constitution. However, as I looked into the comments, I started to realize that a lot of people just didn't have a clear view of how the constitution works. This is not to say there is one right way that it should work, the debate on how the constitution should be used has been a hot topic since it was written. What surprised me was that people did not seem to know how they wanted it to be interpreted. I understand this happens all the time with legislative acts and supreme court rulings, but I thought that the document that ferments our way of governing would be different. Then I thought some more.

Before law school I don't think I had any idea what the constitution meant to me. Sure, I had read the big passages and could say "separation of church and state!" loudly with conviction, but I didn't have a clue what I thought about the constitution as a whole. Luckily for me, hours of debate and a few too many papers have helped me form a pretty strong view point of what I want out of my constitution (and the people who are in charge of dealing with it). But what about people who have not been subjected to the hours of socratic method that I have?

I should say that in no way do I think I am any smarter than my non-legal friends, in fact many of them are much smarter than I. Perhaps they were able to pick up more of the intricacies of this document from the few hours of required government in college. I just didn't myself. What does that say about our education? Maybe it's not a big problem because if a person wants to go into politics or some other profession that deals with the constitution on a daily basis they will most likely get the extra training. I use my body every day, and still know nothing about medicine.

On the other hand, how can one not understand the document that outlines their rights as citizens? Some of the problem might stem from when we are required to learn about our basic rights - in high school where rote memorization is key, or a required class in undergrad with 400 people where debate is not possible. As long as you learn the 3 branches of government and watch that School House Rocks "I'm Just A Bill" video three times, you pass.

I don't really have a point to this post other than to wonder at the level of constitutional instruction given to students, and contemplate if more is even necessary. Does anyone have an opinion? Better yet, do some of my non-legal friends have some good viewpoints on what the constitution means to them? Maybe I just lost touch with the world, and people do have opinions without the painful law schooling that is more valuable because they are based in real life and not some stuffy classroom. Thoughts?

[NB: I know I've kinda put myself out there with this post, but no matter how clumsily I wrote this I did not mean to offend anyone or their smarts. I'm just curious...]

Adventures in X-Mas Decorating

My parents always went all out for Christmas and held at least one huge Christmas party, so to feel like home, I decided to decorate with abandon - or at least as much abandon as you can have on a newlywed budget.

Budgeted abandon!

I wanted little nutcrackers and stockings and ornaments, but the one thing I demanded above all was to have a real live Christmas tree. Shockingly, this is also something that Ian is a stickler about as well - normally he goes straight for whatever is more economical. [NB, I had snuck out and bought a bunch of ornaments earlier that week, so not to have a tree wasn't even an option]. So with the scent of pine in mind, we set out to find the most "practical" live christmas tree. I'd found a seven foot unlit tree at target for $50, so that was our price point. Amazingly, driving home from the airport last weekend we found a place that advertised 6ft trees starting at $29.95. Sold. Granted, the place was a bit shady - it only accepted cash and there was one guy working who spent most of his time in the car, but we were able to get tree, tree stand AND tree skirt for under $50.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for finding such a deal, and even if the warranty was only for one week, because it was going to be one awesome week. However, when we got home it was questionable if the tree was going to make it that long. You see, the tree stand we bought was the type with a big spike in it that you match up to a hole drilled into the bottom of the tree. Apparently the proprietor of the tree stand had drilled our hole at an angle, so when we put it down on the stand, the spike promptly ripped out the side of the trunk and made it impossible for it to stand in our stand.  Things did not look good for our tree.
Luckily from my extensive training as a theatre tech lacky, I knew how to do slip-shod fix-ups [technical term]. I found some old Christmas-y looking ribbon and looped it around the trunk of the tree, then tied the ends to our window latch. 

Christmas Corner!

The needles are still falling out at an alarming rate, but we are happy with the tree. The pine scent still fills the house and every time I look in that corner I get into the holiday spirit. I did, however, overdo a bit on the ornaments. We are only decorating the front 2/3 of our tree, since the back 1/3 is acting as a support system, so the huge box I bought was a bit of overkill. (I still stand by buying them though, there was this awesome $1 sale at the time - worth it). To make myself not feel wasteful, I took the extra ornaments and put them in some glass bowls around the house. It's not the most classy deco, but I think it looks kinda cute.

I'm pretty proud of our holiday-ness. And, I found another perk to having a tiny English tudor cottage for a home, less space = less decorations needed!

Real Texas Chili

I think. I don't know what makes a chili a Texas one, but this one is pretty spicy. Also, Ian's aunt gave the recipe to me and she's full on Texan, so I'm going to count it. Of course, I had to play around with it since there is hardly a time that I can leave well enough alone - but the recipe was so stellar that we ended up with a great chili despite my meddling. Here's how I did it:

1ish lb of ground beef
1ish lb of ground sausage
1/2 onion
3 jalapenos (seeded and chopped)
1 serrano  (seeded and chopped)
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 can chili beans
2 cans crushed tomatoes with green peppers
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup chili powder
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS paprika
1/2 TBS black pepper

Yum, Yum, Yum!

The first thing I did was dice up all peppers, onion and garlic. I then dumped the onions and peppers into a pan and after a few minutes I added in the garlic. I know everyone thinks that onions are a big pain, always making their eyes tear up, but I LOVE the smell of them cooking. Yes, it's a little stingy, even to the nose, but it's like a promise of good food to come. Especially when they are headed toward chili :) Once I got enough of the aroma, I added the beef and sausage to this mix and browed it all up with everything in the pan to make sure all the spicy flavors were infused into the meat.

Reasonably cooked rice!

I next put everything else into a big pot and mixed it all up. Then I just covered it with water and let it simmer for the next few hours. While it was going I took a stab at some rice - I like to line my bowl with it to add some more texture to the chili. For those of you closer to sea level, rice directions don't apply 5,000 ft up. It's a balancing act of adding water and time that I never get completely right. Except this time. I have no idea how it happened, but my rice came out somewhat decent.  Hooray for small victories!

5 out of 5 on Yum scale!

After a few hours I combined it all, put some cheddar cheese on top, and chowed down. It was really, really, good - I owe Ian's aunt big for this recipe. It's especially nice since we have not been able to find a place that knows how to use a non-green chili spice and have had to resort to home cooking to get any real zip in our food. It was a great meal and really warmed us up for the night. In fact, I think I'm going to go nosh on some of the leftovers now. Let me know if anyone has good chili tips because I think this is going to be a re-occurring dish in the Oliver house!

I thought winter was all sledding and snow-man making

It's not. There are long stretches of time where it is just cold. I guess living in Texas for so long I got the idea that when you went North it was cold and there was snow on the ground. Apparently, you do not get snow every time the thermostat goes below 32 degrees. This makes sense because it does not rain every time the thermostat goes above 32.  I somehow missed this logical connection for years - I just figured every time it got this cold you would be rewarded with fun fluffy stuff to play with. In fact, I have yet to build a single snow-man because we have not had enough snow to make one!

However, the same logic works in your favor, at least when it come to driving.  I thought every time I got on the road during the winter my 2 wheel drive Nissan would be skidding across the lanes, but when it does not snow there is a lot less slippy stuff on the road! (I don't know where the small amount of slippy stuff comes from, and I probably don't want to know). Again, a fairly logical conclusion I somehow missed in my years of driving in the South.

I am sure that in the future I will become one of those jaded Coloradans who grumbles about the first "big dump" of snow, but right now I cannot wait for it to fall so I can get over to city park and sled with all the other first timers and small children who still wonder at the snow. Right now I'll just have to be satisfied with the measly 1/2 inch hanging on from a few days ago, and the fact that my boots make a uniquely-winter crunching noise when I walk outside. Oh, and the Hot Toddys, which require no precipitation at all.

Leftover Sunday Dinner

Traveling back from West Palm Beach was not the easiest. It takes about 8 hours of travel to go from sunny Florida to wintery Colorado - plus a 50 degree temperature shift. So, when we finally got home we didn't really feel like doing much, especially not cooking. However, we felt less like going back out in the cold to pick up food, so we were stuck trying to make a quick dinner with whatever had been left in our fridge for a week.

We settled on making a quick veggie spaghetti with a garlic based sauce. The "veggies" I had were some leftover carrots, an onion, some garlic and a bag of frozen stuff I usually use to ice my knees after a run (luckily I couldn't find the gross lima beans at our Safeway that I normally grab for my ice down).
I threw the spaghetti in the pot with the carrots and tried to figure out a quick sauce to put on it. I had some extra virgin olive oil and mixed it with some balsamic vinaigrette and put the onions in to cook. I after a bit I put the garlic in and added some herbs de province to flavor it. Then I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't taste bad.

A few minutes before the spaghetti was done I tossed in the frozen veggies. When it was done, I strained them all and coated them with some bread crumbs for texture. I then just put on the sauce and some parmesan cheese and we ate it up while watching the Modern Family that we'd missed. It tasted pretty good for week old fridge food - but nowhere close to all the delicious things we had eaten this past week. I think I'll keep the recipe in the back of my mind though, because it only took about 20 minutes, the time it took to cook the noodles, and tasted pretty good. Later this week I'll get back to my more complicated dishes, and maybe some old family recipes I stumbled onto this past week!

4ish out of 5 on Yum scale

Thanksgiving Day 3: Ham Dumpling Hangover

By the Saturday of Thanksgiving we had eaten a lot of food, but the holiday wouldn't have been complete without ham dumplings, a.k.a grey clouds. They are a great "food hangover food" [ i.e., a hangover from eating too much, not from drinking] because they are relatively simple. They consist only of flour, potato and a ham bone, which conveniently is usually hanging around after a big holiday dinner. It starts off by pealing and chopping up 12 potatoes. Luckily we had some ringers come in and help out.

The boys helping out with the peeling and chopping

Next you puree all the potatoes. This step always takes a lot longer than I expect, and it produces this awful looking gunge that you are later expected to eat. I believe that it's the pureeing that speeds up oxidization and adds the unappetizing red/brown color to the potato mush. It's always at this point that I wonder if grey clouds are worth it. But, then I remember how good it tastes in the end and dive ahead, adding about 2 TBS of salt to the gunge.

yummy!

Next you take about 3-4 pounds of flour and mix it in slowly. This is also an arduous process and requires a lot of arm power. Gena started off with it then passed it on to Carina who finished it off like a champ. You can do it either with a big wooden spoon, or just stick your hands right in there and kneed it. It doesn't really matter which you do, but kneading is messier, so obviously my preferred method. It depends on how large the potatoes are as to how much flour, but the goal is to get it to a beige color and a consistency that is no longer sticky.

I think carrying the baby so much has added to
Carina's arm strength

Lastly, you put large spoonfuls of the dough into boiling water with the hambone already in it. The ham adds a nice flavor and some grease to the water to keep things from sticking together. Also it's where the name comes from. You boil it for at least 15 minutes, but it can be left in there for however long you want, as long as you don't boil out the water. I think we waited about an hour before we got to actually eating it.

There are different methods of how to dress up your ham dumpling once cooked, depending on whether you are a sweet or savory person. My favorite is just pouring on melted butter, but my cousins swear by about a TBS of honey per dumpling. I've also heard of adding some spices like basil to it, or just eating it plain.

We don't add ham chunks s shown in this picture
5 out of 5 on yum scale

Unfortunately, I was too interested in eating the dumplings and forgot to take a picture of the final product. I got an image off the web, though, that appears to have the same consistency as our family recipe. It is always a great meal that stays well as a leftovers - I was just sad that I couldn't take some on the plane back with me.

After 4 intense days of cooking, eating, and board game playing, it turned out to be a fantastic thanksgiving with tons of great food. It's no wonder that I now write a cooking blog with these genes. I can't wait for the next holiday get-together in less than a month!

Thanksgiving Day 2: An Assortment of Images

Yesterday during our Friday Thanksgiving I was a bit more focused on food than blogging - go figure. Unfortunately, that means I don't have that many pictures of the amazing meal we ate, but I did manage to snap a few shots that typified our non-traditional turkey day.

My Dad and Uncle David grilling the turkey

First off, we decided to do our turkey on the grill instead of the oven. And by grill, I mean The Green Egg - the best invention in grilling since the smoker. It gets incredibly hot and cooked our 23 lb. turkey in 3 hours and 45 minutes. Even with that heat, it was still super juicy and had this great texture to the skin. We started this tradition last year, and I think it's going to continue on. The best part is the boys like taking over the bird cooking now that it's on the grill...but I don't think it's too much of a chore.

The day was full of an all around team effort, with everyone helping out in the kitchen. The one ever present person was Matto, the matriarch, guiding everyone though the thanksgiving menu. And when people were not to be trusted in the kitchen, they were given the manual labor tasks, like sucking corn and peal/mashing potatoes. She was a very good taskmaster.

Matto leading Mercedes in
potato mashing

Ian shucking corn

One this did remain traditional, at least following the Dullum tradition - there was a ton of dessert. From fudge, to brownies, to 3 kinds of pies, everyone had a dessert to themselves. My favorite dessert, possibly because it is one that requires an assembly line of cooking, is Cotty's cookies (named after my Great Uncle Cotty). I don't feel like it is truly the holiday season until I've eaten one of these cookies. Here's the recipe:

1 Cup Butter

5 TBS Sugar

2 Cups Flour

1 Cup crushed pecans

Gen putting the cookies into the oven

First thing you do is crush the pecans. The best way I've found is to put them into a plastic bag and beat them with a tenderizer mallet. It's fast and surprisingly fun. Next, you rub the butter and sugar together, then add in the flour. This is all done with your fingers so you can get nice and messy. Then, you form the dough into 1 inch balls then smush them onto an ungreased baking sheet. Put into the oven for 45 minutes at 300 degrees. 

After they are cooked, the assembly line comes it. You take the cookies while hot then roll them in powered sugar. You have to do it while hot so the sugar sticks to the cookies, but about halfway through your fingers get too hot and someone else has to tag in. It's not a long assembly line, but it is one that you can make a bit of a mess with (maybe this is why I really like it?). When done place them into a tin lined with wax paper so the powered sugar doesn't come off. They are best hot, but they last forever without going bad - I never make it except in double batch. 

Very short and messy assembly line

I don't think I can give away any more family recipes without risk of revolt, but trust me, with how many amazing cooks we had in the kitchen, everything was beyond delicious. It was great to have family everywhere, and I can't wait for the last day of feasting before we head back to the real world. And I think Sophia enjoyed her first Dullum thanksgiving as well:

My adorable niece, Sophia with her first taste of meringue 

Thanksgiving Day One: Lime Meringue Pie, A Labor of Love

This year for thanksgiving the Dullum clan is having a family reunion. About twenty people descended upon 2 houses in West Palm Beach, Florida to celebrate the holiday...and my Dad's ability to mix a fantastic rum punch. Our official turkey day celebration is going to be Friday (we didn't want the football games to upset our meal), but every day we've been in town there has been at least one feast. I'll fill in with the other family recipes we've broken out this week, but I think I'll start with an homage to the Lime Meringue Pie, the ultimate labor of love.

This pie is a favorite in my family, and only me and my grandmother will attempt it. And, with so many people this year, they decided we must have at least two.  The thing about Lime Meringue Pie is that you can't just double the recipe, you have to do every step twice for each new pie (according to Matto, my grandmother).  Thus, the three step process must be repeated every time, making it a grad total of six complicated steps for one dessert.

Step 1: Pie Crust

This is no store-bought crust. In fact, you have to make the crust a day before so it has time to chill in the refrigerator. Also, one thing Matto loves to say is "dough does not like to be warm," so any second you are not working on it, back in to the fridge it must go. It's a simple recipe of:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 cup shortening
2 TBS butter
1/4 cup cold water
1 egg white

Actually sifting!

You have to sift the flour first, which I rarely do, but with Matto in the kitchen the step cannot be missed. Next you combine the salt, shortening and butter, cutting it together until it is slightly more corse than cornmeal. Then,beat the egg white and combine with the water. Lastly, slowly add in the water/egg mix and from into a ball. This will make one large pie, or two small.

You then put the crust into the fridge for the night to cool. The next day you roll out the dough and place in the pie pan. Prick the dough to let it breath and cover with foil (shiny side down!) to preserve the shape. Then bake at 350 until golden, 30-45 minutes. Take it out and let it cool.

Shiny side down, for some sort of physics reason

Step 2: Lime Filling

The lime filling takes a bit more finesse. The recipe calls for:

1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cup boiling water
3 egg yolks (save the whites for meringue)
1/2 cup lime juice
1 1/2 TBS lime rind
2 TBS butter

Juicing

Just starting with the ingredients is tough. Zesting and juicing the limes is not my favorite thing to do - we roped Ian into zesting and Gena into juicing. Next you have to separate the eggs to get the yolks for the filling and the whites for the meringue. [Sidenote, make sure the egg whites are in a newly cleaned bowl, they are finicky if they touch oil].

Next you combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt and put it in the double boiler over boiling water. Slowly add the boiling water.  Stir constantly until it has thickened and is a milky color (this is a step that you have to do with the master, Matto, because you just have to "know" when it is thick enough").

Double Boiler!
The base before the lime juice is in.

Once thick, cover it with let it cook for another 11 minutes, stirring occasionally so it does not burn on the bottom. In the meantime, beat the egg yolks, and when the cornstarch mixture is ready, add in the eggs slowly. The key to this step is to add some of the cornstarch mix into the egg bowl THEN slowly add that into the double boiler, stirring constantly. Cook for another 2 minutes then add the butter, lime juice and lime rind. Cook for 1 more minute, then remove form the heat. Put in the fridge and let cool.
Once it is cool, pour it into the cooled pie crust. It's a good idea to sprinkle the pie crust with powered sugar before to make sure it won't get soggy later. Take a breath, the hardest step is the last.

Almost there!

Step 3: Meringue 

The last step is my least favorite. Not only does it have the highest likelihood of failing, but I also don't like the taste of meringue very much, and would rather my pie naked. It is, however, most people's favorite part of the pie - so the laboring of love has to go on. The ingredients are deceptively simple:

12 oz sugar
water enough to cover the sugar in the pot
3 egg whites

You pour the sugar into the pot then cover it with water so there is about 1-2 cms above the sugar line. Then boil the sugar "until it is done," another Matto quote. As far as I can tell, it is when the bubbles have shrunk until the size of small pearls and when you stick a spoon in the mix, the syrup creates strings as it drops off - again something that is easier once seen. While waiting for this to happen, you beat the egg whites in a blender until foamed. Lastly, you slowly pour the hot syrup mix into the foamed eggs, beating the entire time. Then just beat it until stiff. The way you can tell is that if you lift a section out on your spoon, it not only hold it's shape, but the ridges in it from the blending. It's a finesse ordeal that I have had to toss out and start again more than once.

To finish it all off, you pour the meringue onto the filling and texturize it by dipping a knife into it and quickly pulling upward, so there are little peaks. It takes about a day and 1/2 to make this pie, but it is worth it. Everyone loves it, and when made right, everyone is your best friend for at least an hour. I know most of thanksgiving is a labor of love by whomever is in the kitchen, but I feel like this pie exemplifies it best. I'll post the other labors later this week, with some helpful Matto tips along with them! Happy thanksgiving everyone!

5 out of 5 on Yum scale...if done right