Oompa Loompas, where are you???

Here we are a week later! So far, so good. I think this whole project might actually help me stay organized since I have to plan out menus and groceries. If all goes according to plan, I should have eight recipes down by Saturday... we'll see.

Scott finished up an acoustic set at Summerfest and then we went grocery shopping. On a Sunday. The LAST Sunday before school starts. Great idea for two borderline agoraphobic/obsessive compulsive germ-phobic snobs. The place was teeming with cranky kids and their parents. On the upside, we actually saw a kid punch his father directly in the crotch which caused him to double over in the entrance. Appropriate? Nope. Hilarious? Absolutely.

Everything we had to buy was making me nauseous and confused. I actually put question marks beside items on the list, and Scott kept looking at me like I was losing it. I was someone else, walking determinedly through the store saying things like, "I think I'll just get a small jar of pimientos," or "Where are the cans of french fried onions?" or (frantically) "Is apple cider vinegar the same as cider vinegar? IS IT? IS IT???"

This was followed by Scott and I dissecting the semantics of pork products upon our arrival home. Are spare-ribs side ribs or back ribs? Are country style ribs the same whether they're pork or beef? After checking Google and the chart in the book, we asked my mom and she said they were side ribs. We cooked them for the longest time on the chart and they were AWESOME! Molasses, mustard and cider vinegar... who knew?

The side dish was rice with mushrooms and parm (not a recipe, just what was available) and a cucumber salad. Get this: Cucumbers soaked in sugar, salt, pepper and cider vinegar for three hours, drained, and mixed with sour cream and dill weed. Despite the image I had in my head of my friend and co-worker M shuddering at the thought of this salad (he fears any and all creamy sauces and dips) it was really tasty. My mom remembers this recipe from her childhood. I think it's really cool to resurrect some of these classic recipes... they've lasted this long for a reason.

One question: WHY does Betty like putting sugar on veggies? With the broccoli and now the cucumbers, it's happened twice. I'm starting to check for Oompa Loompas.

xox

People Eat Breakfast.

By the time I dragged my butt out of bed this morning, it was ten. By the time I finished shredding cheese and grating potatoes, it was almost eleven. Hmmmm...

I know OF people who eat breakfast. I've even done it myself in my adult life, but it usually involves yogurt and coffee or last night's leftovers... I just don't understand the whole "spend an hour making breakfast" thing. I suppose if you want to do all the prep work the night before or else you have tonnes of time in the morning this makes sense. Right now I'm on holidays, so it happened. But, dear readers, do not imagine for one second this will happen once I'm back to work! Looks like we'll have breakfast for dinner alot until the egg chapter is finished!

I made a French Omelette with cheese, cheese being a "variation" of the original recipe. Alot of the egg recipes have the basic egg dish followed by three or four different things you can add to them. (Scott says that it counts for both the French Omelette recipe as well as the "with cheese" variation... I agree, and this means I don't have to eat a plain omelette).

The omelettes had to be flipped a certain way in order to be "french." (Haha, like kissing!) It meant I could only cook one side, which kind of grossed me out, as I hate "wet" eggs. I solved this by pre-heating the oven and throwing the first omellete in while I made the second, and the second in while I finished the potatoes. The result: Scott's eggs were good, mine were prettier (I got the "flip" better the second time) but runnier, blech!

The potatoes were "Hash Brown Potatoes." Basically, potatoes shredded with onion, salt and pepper and fried in (of course) butter. They were kind of wet on the inside and really good and crispy on the outside. I think I should have cooked them longer on a lower heat, but whatev, it was morning and I hadn't had alot of coffee yet.

All in all, Scott (such a sport) loved everything, I thought it was all a little gross. But I DID find a use for the ginormous bottle of "spicy" ketchup.
xox

It's Betty with Butter

Okay! Day four... and no heart attacks yet! Last night I made THREE recipes from the book and they were all actually ready and hot at the same time. This is akin to a meteor shower for me, it happens ever so rarely. On the menu were pesto-couscous stuffed chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and stir-friend broccoli with mustard glaze. Here is the wisdom (or lack thereof) I wish to impart regarding this meal:

1. Couscous cooked in chicken stock and then mixed with pesto is AWESOME. Like, hard-to-actually-want-to-stuff-the-chicken-with-it awesome. This was a good thing, since I was worried that it would lack flavour given that I was supposed to be using chicken breast WITH skin, but a)I couldn't find any and b) Seriously, Betty, why don't we all just have a shot of melted butter? Urgh. Which brings me to:

2) There was butter in every damn thing I made last night! I was supposed to "grease the baking pan with shortening." Believe it or not, Sunday was the first day I've ever even purchased shortening... (to make the cookies) so greasing a pan with the stuff freaked me right out and I used Olive Oil Pam instead. Good thing too, since you were supposed to dump two more tsp of butter over the chicken while it cooked. I did this, and for some reason, I had myself convinced that what came out of the oven would be brown, crispy and somewhat KFC-like due to the huge amounts of fat on it. Um, it tasted like chicken. There was also butter AND oil in the mushrooms (and lemon juice, which you could taste rather obviously) as well as in the glaze for the broccoli.

3) Mustard-glazed broccoli sounds gross. It is actually so good. Betty knows how to cook broccoli to that tender but still crunchy point and then you throw this glaze on it made up of Dijon, brown sugar and butter. I wasn't sure how this would go over, but Scott and I were both really surprised, it was really good! (Scott ate broccoli without cheese sauce. This is a miracle.)

If I could run, I would have after last night's dinner... it just seemed SO fattening. I'm usually not neurotic about fat grams, but seriously, this was insane. I feel like my skin is softer because the butter is moisturizing me from the inside out... Buh-buh-buh-butter face, buh-buh-butter face.

Tonight I was exhausted, so Scott handled dinner. Perogies with turkey bacon, onions and yes, butter (but in normal amounts). These were not Betty's recipes, so I threw together a salad and made her Honey Dijon Dressing. Yummy enough, it tasted like honey and mustard, which it was. Upside: I got to use the handy-dandy little tool that my sister made her fiance trek to a bazillion different stores for a few Christmases ago. It's the Jamie Oliver (cooler than Betty, sure, and cuter... but beside the point.) gadget where you put all your ingredients into this bottle sort of thing with a ball in it and shake it and it mixes things really well! I felt kind of cool, since I know Betty never had one of these.

So far, so good. The recipes make ALOT of food, so I halve alot of them. My spice rack now has ground mustard in it, which I saw in my mom's pantry for 29 years and never figured out what it was for. I may or may not be doing irreparable damage to mine and Scott's arteries. Guess we better keep drinking red wine. You know, to counteract the butter.

xox

Greetings from Blandsville

Where do you think in the Thousand Islands region did somebody say, "Hey. Let's put mayo and ketchup together and name it after where we live." Weird.

Welcome to Day 2... Okay, I didn't have alot of time today and I was a little worn out from yesterday. A night out with the band followed by a day of grocery shopping and trying three new recipes to eat at a dinner party? I get so ambitious sometimes! Guess what's for dinner... LEFTOVERS!!! Would Betty approve? Not sure, but there's an economic crisis going on, people! (AND the band is practicing in my basement AND Intervention is on tonight) So, I'm making a new salad dressing and calling it a day.

I bought "spicy" ketchup (made with Tabasco!) hoping that it would (obviously) spice up my Thousand Islands dressing. No dice, Betty. It tastes just like regular Thousand Islands dressing, though, so it's still pretty good. (Side Note: There is a hard-boiled egg in Thousand Island dressing. Ew. Weird.)

Today I noticed a challenge to this project. I am not a "measurer" of ingredients. AT ALL. In fact, I worry people, because even when I bake, I "guesstimate" ALOT. (I have to say, things usually turn out really good. Pat self on back now.) Problem: I don't consider my weird ways of cooking to be "following" recipes, so actually measuring things out and following a recipe is hard! And you know what? Betty hardly puts cayenne or jalapenos in ANYTHING. Seriously!

So the band is still blasting away in the basement, and Intervention is going to start in 9 minutes and I can't hear anything and I'm determined to wait for Scott to eat dinner.

Thank Heavens and Betty for leftovers and PVR.

xox

My Version of the Julie/Julia Project... Day One

So basically, I've wanted to do a Julie/Julia Project for about two years (ever since I read the book) and now I've seen the movie, which motivated me that much more to actually start (I take awhile sometimes).

My version though, hopefully will NOT involve trying to track down a calf's foot, although I think I may have to kill a lobster and (eeeewwwww) shuck oysters... barf! I also worry about Scott's and my physical health as well as our mental well being... given that on this, day ONE of the project, we've both already burnt ourselves and I almost cried. Hmmm...

Okay, so my cookbook is by Betty Crocker. It was given to me when I moved out of the house (by my ever-so-cool mom who is more than happy to give away any and all cookbooks - she's more into the gym and international travel). It covers the basics, which I think I need to learn. I make awesome curries, decent sushi, and I can make really cool cupcakes. However, I have never roasted a turkey, made mashed potatoes or anything "normal."

I'm doing this for a few reasons:

a) Scott LOVES normal food and is jealous of people whose girlfriends or wives make chicken and corn for dinner while we have thai lettuce wraps or glass noodles (or on really bad nights, frozen mango, cheese and wine);

b) I'm not super duper healthy at the moment and I need something to occupy my time at home since I'm usually too tired to do anything major;

c) I DO have this fantasy that I am a 1950's housewife and would LOVE to rave about my swedish meatball recipe while sipping a martini, wearing pearls and vacuuming... whatever, judge me if you must.

So here we go. Day ONE!

This evening R and D came for dinner. They are awesome and not judgy, so I wasn't worried. I made italian dressing (which I halved, since I ran out of olive oil, but then I forgot to halve all the spices) In spite of what should have been "spicy" dressing, I found it bland. But I threw some onion sprouts and cherry tomatoes into the romaine and people said it was good. I also made the Italian Sausage Lasagna. Scott and I ruined a shirt each trying to get the sauce to calm down while fishing lasagna noodles out of boiling water... bad idea? Yes. Good Lasagna? Yup! The last thing I did was make "Snickerdoodles," which, ironically, contain no Snickers bars. But they tasted like little cinnamon bun-like timbit cookies.

Three recipes and a bottle of Chilean Red down, many more of both to go.

xox