A Series of Epic Fails Turn Into An Epic Dinner

I am clumsy and forgetful. Both of these traits played into a crazy dinner where I screwed up every single dish I touched. Despite what seemed like an inevitable fail, I made some of my favorite dishes so far.

It all started with the spinach. I had some spinach in the fridge and figured I should make something with it before it went bad. I set my mind on creamed spinach, since it is one of the very few ways Ian will eat it, and found a recipe for it in Mastering. I knew I didn't have much leftover and spinach cooks down to practically nothing, so I was going to grab some more at the grocery store. I just plain forgot, score 1 forgetful. When I got home my hatred of going to the grocery store more than once a day took over and I decided to risk it...probably not the best idea. I ended up with about a serving and a half of the spinach. And you all know Ian eats at least that himself.

Tiny portion of Spinach. 3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale.

It did turn out pretty tastey, even with my on the fly conversions. My next adventure was making a gorgonzola risotto from the Newlyweds Cookbook. Y-U-M - YUM. This in no ways fits in my DMV diet, but I would eat it all day if I could. It does take some effort, and since it was my first try at risotto, things got a little crazy. A big part of cooking risotto is slowing adding in the liquid (water/chicken stock/whatever) to the rice so it gets that creamy texture. The labor intensive aspect of it was a little annoying because it limited me from cooking the other dishes at the same time, and that mixed with my forgetfulness did not bode well. I tried to set it up so I would have the chicken ready to go once the risotto was done and pop it into the oven while the risotto was resting. Unfortunately, in my well laid plans I forgot to preheat the oven. Score 2 for forgetfulness. I ended up keeping the risotto on the burner way longer than it needed to be and adding extra butter and stock to keep it lighter. It ended up a lot more sticky than most (well all) risotto I've had. Honestly, I kinda liked how thick it was, but I think a certain MC [Ms. Childs] would turn up her nose to it. Whatever the texture issues, the flavor was amazing.  The cheese flavor wasn't as strong as I was expecting so I added the leftover gorgonzola crumbles on the top, and the result was a great dish with a strong flavor kick every few bites.

This bowl is like 3 times the size of the other and more full!
4 out of 5 on Yum scale

My last epic fail came with the chicken. Not only was it late, but I managed to burn my hand worse than I have ever in my entire life. It was a simple chicken in white sauce, and the key was to make the sauce in the pan you cooked the chicken in so it picks up good flavor. I finally managed to get the chicken in to and out of the oven (while trying to keep the risotto from burning), but then forgot that when you take a pan out of the oven it stays hot even if you put other food in it. Thus, while making the sauce I grabbed the pan handle to shake it and burned the crap out of my hand. The moment it happened I could smell it. Not feel it, smell it. I immediately got my hand under water and Ian made me a pack of ice to hold onto, but I was sure that it was going to be bad. Score 1 for clumsy.

I am an idiot. The shiny parts hurt a bit.

Surprisingly, the next day the only major damage I had was a few callouses on my finger tops and a small burn on my right hand - in my clumsy panic I had dropped the pan onto my other hand, but didn't realize it until the next day. I was shocked that everything the ice touched was relatively unburned. I guess there was a reason that everyone's mom tells them to do that, but I had no idea it worked so well!

In the end the chicken tasted really good - 3.5 out of 5 on the Yum scale. So despite not having enough ingredients, making a risotto glob instead of dish, picking up a 400 degree pan, and having to make Ian cut up my chicken, the dinner was pretty fricking good. End score: Forgetfulness: 2, Clumsy: 1, Me: Satisfied. 

It's Fall And The Leaves Are Falling

After living the past 10 or so years in Texas, I have forgotten about the wonderment that is fall. We always had a long summer, a few days of winter, then a quick spring lasting only until summer took over again. The lack of autumn made me forget about all the beauty that comes with the slow change of weather. Well, fall has come in full force to Denver and I am in love. In the ten minute drive from downtown to our house we get views like this:

City Park

And this:

Hudson St

And there were only pictures from my car. When you actually get out and walk around, it is just gorgeous. When we moved here I got really excited about seeing the first snow and a spring that actually brings a bloom, but completely forgot about fall. I don't think I will forget it from now on.

As you can see this brings tons and tons of leaves tumbling down (especially with the 30 mph winds we get within city limits), but luckily the giant tree in our front yard has yet to let them drop, or even change color. But even with the lack of change in our yard, I think the view from our front porch is my favorite:

Sitting area of the front porch

The fall atmosphere just gets me excited and wanting to go out and explore everyday. Maybe this is some sort of evolutionary thing - perhaps I am biologically now ready to go plow some fields...or something. Whatever it is,  that crisp feeling in the air may just push fall past spring and make it my favorite time of year. Hopefully I will have the same reaction to the upcoming winter snows!

Life Without Half Price Books

It's kinda sucky. Especially for an avid reader who now has too much time on her hands. About a week ago I finished my latest read - Pillars of The Earth. For all the hype and Oprah-love it got I was hoping for a modern novel that would finally grab me like my go-to classics do. I think my aim was set a little to high for a former fantasy writer taking a foray into the medieval realm. There was a whole 5 pages devoted to a circus bear fighting a pack of dogs while church building peasants cheered the spectacle on. Seriously. But, it was entertaining about 1/2 the time, and over 1,000 pages - a must have when a lot of your time is spent sitting at DMVs/Social Security Divisions/Title Offices. I did finally finish this not-so-classic, and I was at the awkward time when I need a new book to read and don't have one lined up in the queue.

I finally settled on Gone With The Wind, another 1,000+ pager that I have been meaning to read for a while. I got it into my head that I should get the hardback version since it is such a long book and the spines tend to break in paperbacks if they are too legnthy. Also, GWTW is was a classic that I'll want to keep around for a long time, or at least have on my bookshelf to look impressive. So, I hopped on the google and tried to find my nearest Half Price Books. As indicated in the title, they do not exist here. In fact, I have yet to find a single used book store in Denver. There was  a place called Tattered Cover that sounded just the place to go - but when I researched it, turns out it considers itself one of the boutique book stores that can charge triple the price for the 'unique' atmosphere. I'd rather grab a pumpkin latte from Starbucks at my nearest Barnes & Noble while only paying twice as much thankyouverymuch. 

I next tried to get it online through Half.com, an associate of ebay. I found a hardback for only 8 bucks and quickly put my bid in. But that fates were against me again, and days later I found out my order had been canceled. No notification, I only noticed that the money had been put back on my debt card statement. There goes that option for future literature purchases. 

So I sucked it up, found my local Barnes & Noble (got my latte) and bought the book there for full price. Thus, instead of the $8 hardback I expected to keep on my shelves forever, I got a $15 paperback whose binding will no doubt break by page 600. I just don't understand a large city with a fairly educated population not having a good used book store. Maybe I have just not found it yet, but then again, if it is so hard to find, then who is turning in their used books there? It all seems pretty suspect to me. Maybe there is a conspiracy hiding all used book stores from newcomers so all the locals can get the good used books first. I think that makes the most sense. At least it would in the Pillars' pseudo fantasy, bear-fighting-dog medieval world.

Show Me The Boeuf!

Today I decided to finally try out Boeuf Bourguignon. Besides having the most ridiculous name in MC's Mastering, it is also one of the most talked about dishes as well as one of the most time intensive. So obviously I decided it was a good day to try and bake my own bread as well. Needless to say, it was a tough day 'o cooking. To make the old Boeuf Bourg you have to get all the ingredients simmering in the oven for about 3 hours until tender. But before you do that, you have to cook each individually, in order, so that they soak up the correct juices. MC's order is: bacon, cubed beef, onions, carrots, more onions then mushrooms. Once that is all done (about 3ish hours of work), you make the stew out of wine, beef stock and some spices. Then comes the 3 hour oven-boil and post oven simmering. I started at about noon and finished at about 8 - with a 1.5 hour hiatus in the middle for pilates. At that point I kind of hoped I would hate it so I wouldn't have to cook it again. Unfortunately, and fortunately, I didn't. It was complex and hearty and exactly what I would want on a cold winters night:

4 out of 5 on the Yum scale

If I could have someone make me that every time I got off the slopes I would. I would also have them make me the cheddar cheese and herb bread from The Joy of Cooking (Mastering does not have a bread recipe as far as I can tell). Honestly I was expecting more of a challenge baking bread from all the play it gets, but really the big thing is time management. You have to be able to set the dough out for 1 hour in the bowl then another in the bread pan, but since I was chained to the kitchen for the Boeuf Bourg it wasn't such an issue. One thing I did wimp out on was not kneading it enough because I had to run out to pick up Ian. As a result the yeast didn't get enough air and it didn't rise as much as I hoped. BUT the flavors were all there and I kinda liked the denseness of it. To top it off, it was great to dip in the left over stew.

3.5 out of 5 on the Yum scale

The last thing I did was a frozen pea fix as suggested by MC. Now I would love to say that I did it to see how MC handled frozen versus fresh food - it seemed so unlike her to include this in the recipe book; however, it was because I forgot to grab potatoes (the suggested side) at the grocery store. Luckily, I had the frozen peas I normally use to ice my knees after a workout in the freezer. She suggested to simmer them in chicken stock with some spices and butter to add some depth of flavor. Meh. I ate a lot of frozen veggies when I was a vegetarian in college and I think butter with lemon pepper in the microwave did just as well if not better. (I am sure 300 cordon bleu chefs just rolled over in their graves). It was fine, and I'll eat them as leftovers cold on my salad tomorrow, but I expected more.

2 out of 5 on the Yum scale, but I might be biased
since I am generally not a pea fan

Despite the lackluster peas, it all added up to  pretty fantastic fall dinner, about to be followed by the fantastic fall dessert of hot chocolate and a good book. 

First Visiting Friends!

This weekend Ian and I had our first set of visitors! About a week before they came we realized we didn't know the famous places to take them, then promptly did nothing about it. Turns out you can have fun just being with your friends in a new city. The lone landmark we took them to was 16th Street mall - we wandered up and down it for an hour or so, but then had to rush off to watch the Longhorns game at Govnrs Park, a tavern close to downtown where the Texas Exs host the game watch:

Govnrs Park Porch

It's a really fun pub/bar that turns burnt orange most Saturdays - what else could you ask for? Govnrs Park's answer is extra beer. After 4pm you get 2 for 1 beers. It's a dangerous combination with the football watching, but always creates a great time. This Saturday was no exception, though it did lead to quite the early bedtime for all of us.

The next morning we got up and tried to take them to our usual breakfast place, but we couldn't get there because of the Rock N Roll Marathon that had taken over downtown. It was why our friends came into town in the first place, however we, not being the crazy fit Denver people yet, did not quite make it. Instead we tried out a new place, Toast.

Toast, in the Cherry Creek Area

It was pretty good. As far as I can tell Denver does not really have a "food" it does except breakfast, a.k.a the Denver Omelet. So, we were expecting a pretty stellar meal and got a medium stellar one. I got the famed Denver Omelet with bacon (I would add bacon to everything if my heart would not then explode). It was definitely good. Probably really good. But, every other place I've been to has been definitely, beyond all doubt, delish. Thus, getting merely whelming food while our friends were in town was a bit sad. Despite that, it was a wonderful weekend and it was so nice to have great friends in town to make our normal weekend extra fun. Showing them around reminded me how the city first grabbed me, and helped me realize how at home I feel in it now.

DMV Diet

After miles and miles of red tape I finally have my Colorado license with my new last name - yay! Even better, my picture somehow turned out decent, which makes 2 in a row. However, there is one thing about my CO license that I can't stand...it actually has my weight on it. I know all DMVs ask for your weight, but I always thought that the dreaded number went off somewhere in the inter-office-webs never to be seen again in daylight - that's how they did it in Texas! Not so in Colorado. Perhaps it is because they are the healthiest state in the US, or because everyone I meet here has done at least one triathlon/marathon/bike tour. However, even my skinniest friends don't like to parade around their number.

The other issue is that I told them my normal number when I went in - the one I have spit out at doctors since I have been in college. And that number is usually about on target...except that since I have been here I have been cooking like a fiend, and thanks to MC, with a lot of butter. Now, I feel like I need to lose weight not only to be healthy, but so I'm not a liar on an official government document.  I think that's at least a misdemeanor.

So, thanks to the DMV, I am going to try and be healthy again. I've already joined the 24 hour fitness down the street and have figured out the best spin class times. I also have all my healthy cooking materials from before I embarked upon classic French and American cookery (Don't worry, I'll still be cooking the classics, just cutting down on the portions so there won't be leftovers for days of butter-filled food). The only thing I am lacking is a good quick fix healthy meal. I've grabbed a few Healthy Choice things and liked them a bit, but I feel like there is better out there. I think next week I am going to buy a whole array of insta-healthy food and see which one suits me best. Any brand/flavor suggestions?

Soufflé?

I have never eaten a soufflé before, much less cooked one.  So when I found out the meal I'd been planning for two was only going to be for one, I figured tonight would be the best time to try it. I picked the savory salmon soufflé from Mastering by MC [Ms. Childs]. I had no idea what went into one and learned it comprised of some milk, flour, butter (of course from MC), and lots of eggs. A big step is folding in stiffened egg whites. I've made a bunch of meringues before for pies and had always used a mixer on the egg whites. In Mastering there is a section on how to do this by hand and stupidly I decided to take a stab at it. Good lord. I will never do that again - it took forever and my forearms are still sore.

However, despite my lacking arm strength the soufflé turned out great! It rose and was deliciously fluffy. I really liked making it, and though it took some effort I love how filling it was while still seeming so light. I'd give it a 4 out of 5 on the Yum scale. Next time though, I think I'll bake my own salmon instead of using the caned stuff as suggested by MC.

I know technically it should pouf over the edge, but I don't have a
 real soufflé dish and this one was too big so it only rose to the top of it! 

For sides I decided to do faux grilled asparagus and couscous, which I generally love with salmon. The asparagus I just sprinkled some salt, pepper, garlic and onion power (the spices I would use on pretty much everything if left to my own devices) and with some olive oil "grilled" it on the stove top. I then put it in the oven with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and let it do the last 5 minutes with the soufflé. I've made it a million times before and I know it's one of Ian's favs, so I thought I'd toss it in case the soufflé was no good.

Asparagus : 4 out of 5; Couscous: 2.5 out of 5.

The couscous was just a box mix I normally really like, especially with salmon, but this time it fell flat for me. I think the flavors didn't match right with the soufflé, and I didn't even like it so much on its own. Perhaps the impossible is happening and my palate is evolving? Impossible! I was trying to think what kind of starch I should pair with a savory soufflé, or if a starch is even needed at all? All in all I was happy with the meal, and can now claim that I not only have eaten a soufflé, but can make one that tastes pretty good!

I Passed The Bar Exam!

The title of the post pretty much says it all - I passed! No major celebrations yet as I have to head down to Austin today BUT I am sure when I get back I will have a few more Denver hot spots to talk about! Off to go pack!

Girls Night Out, And Then Some

Finally blogging about some living in the city! Last night I went out with Carolyn (my sister's sister in law - try saying that 3 times fast!) and some of her Denver friends. They do a girls night once a month and I was super excited to get an invite for October. We met up at Prime Bar down off of 16th street:

In Denver, 16th street is not open to the public for driving, but serves as a free bus route and open air mall for about 10 blocks, featuring some of the most fun places to go in Denver. It is in the heart of Downtown so it's a very popular place to go for happy hours. Prime Bar itself was fun - at first it seemed like a place that would take itself too seriously, but they ended up having a very good happy hour deal, especially for DT Denver, featuring a whole bunch of $5 apps, $3 drafts and some $5 wines. The apps were very yummy, I particularly liked the hummus, and they had a decent malbec on special as well. My one complaint was that they only had one wheat beer (my favorite kind) on tap - Blue Moon. It makes some sense since Coors is only 30 minutes outside of Denver, but in a state known for it's microbrews you'd think a nice place like this would have more selection. My beer disappointment aside, we had a great time and I got to meet a whole bunch of really nice Coloradans, who are very excited to help me come up with some sort of winter wardrobe.

After that I met up with some recent Denver University MBA grads at The Pour House. This place was in LoDo [short for lower downtown] and had more of a dive bar feel:

Instead of nicely plated apps the tables were adorned with beer buckets and hot wings. It is a fun place to hang out and features a big patio on the roof that is great for summer nights. I wouldn't take the co-workers for drinks here after work, but I definitely would meet up with some good friends to grab a beer.

The last stop of the night was at Illegal Pete's to get a late dinner. This place is Colorado's version of Chipotle, and I think they do it better:

Sorry the pics so small - I had to get one off the
internet and this was the best I could find

Maybe it's because this is the ONLY place I have found in Denver that makes a spicy queso...and that one incident of food poisoning that turned me against Chipotle a few years ago. BUT it is generally agreed to be the best option for a make it yourself burrito in Denver, and in my opinion the best "Mexican" food I have found yet. [I highly recommend putting the queso on the burrito - yum!] All in all it was a great night with 3 new places I'd be happy to visit again.

Joyful, But Not So Tasteful Cooking

Today I decided to tackle The Joy of Cooking by Rombauer, Becker and Becker [RBB? BBR? BRB?...cute nickname will be forthcoming]. I decided to do the Baked Stuffed Boneless Chicken Breasts with the Scalloped Cauliflower in White Sauce and Butter Made Dumplings. Despite the more complicated recipe names, I found them easier to make than the past few I've tried. It was Ian's favorite thus far, but I felt some of the spicing was lacking.

First off, the chicken. I started by making the Italian bread crumb stuffing. It wasn't too complicated, just some sautéed onions, spices and bread crumbs. Next was hammering out the chicken - my favorite part! - then rolling up the chicken with the Italian mix in the middle. I did forget to buy toothpicks so I had to improvise how to keep the chicken rolled. Luckily, we have been doing to picture hanging around the house so we had some things on hand:

Yeah, that's a nail holding it all together!

Don't worry I washed it then sterilized in boiling water before I used it! I did, however forget to take them out before serving and Ian got a little surprise with his meal. Luckily, while cutting up his chicken he commented on the bones in the boneless chicken and I remembered before we took a bite! The only thing I would change - other than the extra iron - was that the recipe didn't call for spicing the chicken and I think little salt, pepper, onion powder would go a long way. The stuffing was nice though (Ian loooved it) and with a few tweaks it could be super good.  And it looked pretty cool in the end:

3 out of 5 on Yum scale...for looks :)

Next up was the cauliflower. I whipped up the milk based white sauce earlier in the day and turns out it was the same one that my mom makes. I think there must be some more spices in her sauce because I much prefer hers. I poured it over the steamed cauliflower and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top before I put it in the oven. It was very comforting, if not very flavorful.  Last I made the butter dumplings. They were also a little bland, but I liked the idea of boiling them in the chicken stock/water mix instead of just water - it helped a lot. I also added some Herbs de Provence (thanks Aunt Jan!) on top after taste testing and it helped a bit, and added some color to my all beige colored dinner.

Dumplings and Cauliflower:  2.5 out of 5

 Next time I'll try to add some color to the dish! In the end it all tasted alright, but didn't hold a candle to the herb crusted pork, even in leftover form. I'll see if I can fix them in post to make some good lunches for the rest of the week.

Revisiting the Greats (aka leftover time)

Over the past few days I've been revisiting the pork with tomatoes and potatoes I made last week, trying to take the pieces and make them better as leftovers. I first attempted to make those potatoes that I thought I would love more than I did...more lovable. I tried a few things that people suggested - adding some onion, cooking them a bit longer to get a better texture - and it all helped. But to be honest the best thing I did for them was to reheat them with gorgonzola cheese sprinkled on top. I sometimes feel like adding cheese to things is like cheating because often the food will just take on the taste of the cheese, especially if it has a strong flavor like gorgonzola. Nevertheless, I would now definitely recommend replacing sour cream with the big G when trying to spice up baked potatoes.

The tomatoes I didn't really know what to do with. They tasted pretty yum on their own with the herb/breadcrumb mix. So I just reheated them for a snack/light lunch when needed. I did take the leftover herb mix and added it into some sautéed mushrooms with a little EVOO to try and make a side. It turned out that the mix was too thick, so I added the pork (chopped up into bite sized pieces) to it with more EVOO to make it a sauce for pasta. It was leftovers so it wasn't very pretty...

3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale.

...but it was pretty tasty. The herbs plus EVOO had enough flavor to carry the noodles and the pork still tasted pretty good. MC [Ms. Childs] noted in Mastering that marinating the pork for the extra time would lead to better leftovers and I totally agree.

I also have been ruminating on an idea for the past few days and it is semi-related to leftovers. I know once I start working I won't have time to make such complicated food, but I also know that at the end of a hard day a burrito form Qdoba just isn't going to satisfy me (good as they are). So, I'm going to take a stab at laying out a plan for how I can still make 2 nice meals a week based on these recipes while working. Something like a shop/prep list on Sunday, then just a quick morning marinade before I go to work and a well orchestrated cook when I get home that night. It might be a pipe dream, but I think it's worth a shot to have good food while working my tail off. What do you think?

Settling In

So I promised to talk a little bit about the house, and what better time to do that then on a lazy Sunday? For those of you who we didn't complain to, finding a house to rent in Denver is much more difficult than expected. Ian and I had 2 crazy weeks of viewing houses, most of which already had an application in on them or were trashed/way on the wrong side of the tracks/or in one case had an unmanageable infestation of wasps.

But through some fastidious craigslist-ing we found our place. As the search wore on, I began refreshing the craigslist renters page every 5 minutes to see the new places as they came up. I was doing just that in a coffee shop downtown in between viewings when around 2PM (2:05...2:10...2:15?) a cute place in our price range popped up. I immediately called the agent and set up a viewing for that evening. We somehow were not the first people to see the place, but we grabbed an application right away and returned it to the agent that night.  We still didn't think we would get it because the agent told us that there was "a lot of interest" in the house. In our experience this meant that even though we had the first application in they were going to pass us over for another tenant they liked better. Luckily our references were amazing and within a week we were signing the lease and putting down deposits on our cute Tudor cottage.

Home!

It has taken a few weeks, but we are finally feeling like this is really our home, not just our house. It started with a whirlwind of furniture finding with my parents. They actually drove with me to Denver from Dallas and spent three days helping us get started in our starter home. After how hard they worked - building tv stands, mediating Ian and my arguments over bedroom furniture, all while sleeping on a blow up mattress - I am not sure they are coming back soon. But there was still more to come. After everyone left and Ian went off to school the boxes arrived. They where everywhere:

You can't tell from here, but the kitchen was filled up as well!

It took about 3-4 days of nonstop unpacking to get most of the boxes unpacked. Three things that I didn't know about unpacking and don't ever want to have to deal with again: 1) the little tiny cuts on your fingers from the box cutters/boxes, 2) the ENDLESS amount of packing paper that you have to methodically fold for disposal, 3) the boxes still exist after you unpack them! This latter fact become the bane of my existence. For about a week after the movers came we spent our spare time trolling for recycling dumpsters with our car full to the brim of broken down boxes. However, after a while we had everything cleared out and the house was officially our home:

Living/dining room sans boxes

It was really quite an experience, completing our first move, but in the end it was so worth it. We absolutely love this house. We are still figuring our all the quirks (how does one clean out storm windows?), but it feels like we finally do have a spot in Denver to call our own.