An Olympic Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was last year's breakfast but this morning's was very similar. Just substitute the egg and toast for banana-blueberry pancakes.

(All you need to make a breakfast like that is a cookie cutter. Cut the shapes out of the toast. To fry the egg in a heart-shape, butter the inside of the cookie cutter - don't be shy with the butter - and set it on the pan then crack the egg into the cookie cutter. Viola!)

We're getting ready to make our valentine's day dinner and we just finished the first of our 2 movies. We rented The Hurt Locker (really good, very suspensful) and Zombieland, which we're saving for after/during dinner.

Right now we're watching the women's 3000 speedskating event. Cindy Klassen (Sinter Clausen is what we've nicknamed her) didn't do so hot and Kristina Groves just kicked it up into 3rd place. I was cheering my little heart out for Clara Hughes though. This woman amazes me. She's medalled in speed skating AND in cycling. Winter and Summer Olympics. My lord.

Plus look how darn adorable she is!

You cannot look at her happy face and not want to cheer for her.

She'll medal in the 5000. I feel it in my bones.

I've got an angel food cake in the oven. I love angel food cake. It's so light and airy and there's nothing bad but sugar in there. Well a cup of flour but that's small potatoes when you're talking about a cake. No butter, no oil, no cholesterol-filled egg yolks. Mahhhhhvelous.

Angel Food Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix 12 egg whites until they foam and then form soft peaks. Add in 1 tsp cream of tartar (unprofessional note: I have no cream of tartar and did not add this, my cake is still fine). With the mixer still on, gently sprinkle in 1 1/4 cup sugar into the egg mix and beat until stiff peaks form. Add in 2 tsp vanilla extract.
2. Using a seive to ensure there are no lumps, measure out 1 cup of flour and add 1/4 tsp of salt. In 4 additions, gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture using a rubber spatula.
3. Gently spoon the batter into an angel food pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Let cool in pan for about an hour, then use a knife to loosen the sides and invert the pan. Cut gently and enjoy!

I made the bellinis....but with peach schnapps instead of rum. And not enough ice. It's not as good as Moxies. Darn.

And lastly.....

Our valentine's day chair! So ergonomic. Lovely.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pulled Pork Sammy's & (faux) Bellinis

I am sleepy.

But the weekend is here!

I have lots of exciting plans lined up for this weekend - AND on top of all that, this upcoming week is my reading week!

Here are my plans:

Sleep, sit for hours in bubble baths, and make fancy drinks.

I'm really craving a Bellini and I'm hoping that the place I'm going for dinner tonight has them on the menu. The one's from Moxies are by far the best. Swiss Chalet, though, does make a mean bellini also. I ordered one in a fancy Italian restaurant in Stratford and they gave me an actual bellini - proseco and peach juice.

I want the frozen kind that comes loaded with various liquors splashed all up in there.

Perhaps tomorrow, or Sunday, or Monday night, or Wednesday night of next week I will attempt to create my own. Maybe I'll even do it on all of those days.

If you want to make your own (faux/slushy) bellini here's what you should do:

Mix together:

• 1/2 shot white rum
• 1 shot peach shnapps
• 1 shot sparkling wine
• 1/2 cup sprite
• 1/2 cup soda water
• 1/2 cup peach juice

Pour all of these into a blender, add ice, and blend away then finish with 1 shot of sangria poured over the top.

This year for Valentine's day dinner I bought some heart-shaped pasta from Costco. Cheese and spinach filled pasta. Mmmmmm. John said he would make a sauce for it. I kind of want a rose sauce. He makes good ones.

Soon, my darlings, soon you'll meet your fate in my stomach.

Now, tonight I'm going out for dinner with John and some friends from work. We're going to the Memphis Smoke House and boy howdy my stomach is excited. I'm mulling over my menu options and I keep coming back to pulled pork.

I had a pulled pork sandwich for the first time this past summer during the Martha-Cottage-Cookoff-Competition when my cousin and his wife made them. Heaven.

I thought I'd find a recipe for it and mayhap one day try to make it all on my own. For now I will dream about eating it in mere hours.

(Lighter) Pulled Pork Sandwiches

(I forgot where I done stole this photo from - oops)

Martha says that for this recipe you will need:

1 can (15 ounces) crushed tomatoes in puree
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound), cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 head small green cabbage, shredded
4 whole-wheat rolls, split

1. In a medium saucepan, stir together tomatoes, sugar, garlic, mustard, and 1/2 cup water; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; add pork, and simmer, covered, until tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer pork to a plate to cool. Simmer sauce over medium, uncovered, until reduced by half, about 20 minutes
2. Meanwhile, make slaw: In a bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon vinegar, celery seed, and 1 tablespoon water; season with salt and pepper. Add cabbage, and toss to coat.
3. Shred pork with 2 forks, and return to sauce; stir in 1 teaspoon vinegar. Serve pork on rolls, topped with slaw.
   
   I'm going to go start getting ready for this big dinner. Do my stretches, etc.

Date Squares

Here it is as promised

maybe for a date night this Sunday....?

DATE SQUARES

1. Cut (as best you can, dates are awfully sticky) up 2 cups of dates and add to a pot with 1 cup of water, a small pinch of salt, and the zest and juice of one lemon. Let the dates simmer on medium heat for about 12 minutes or until soft. Allow them to cool.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1 tsp of baking soda. Cut in 12 tbsp of butter until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a baking pan, covering the bottom and up the sides.

3. Pour the cooled date mixture into the pan.

4. Crumble the remaining 1/3 of the flour-oat-brown sugar mixture over top of the date mixture. Place in the oven and let the squares bake for about 35 minutes or until the top starts to turn a golden brown.



Allow the squares to cool then cut and enjoy!

Rustic Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Appologies for the delay in posting the recipe!

It's been a busy week already and now that I have a night to myself I'm going to make it up to you by giving you a two-for-one.

I'm going to do two posts: one with the chili recipe (this one) and one with the recipe for the date squares that I'm making right now.

This is a tasty chili, super easy to make, and a great option protein-wise for those of you who don't eat meat.

Rustic Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Here's what you'll need to have on hand:

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of mixed beans
• 1 can of corn niblets
• 2 medium-large zucchinis
• 1 medium red onion
• 2 large carrots
• Chili poweder
• Cumin
• Olive oil

1. Coat the bottom of a large pot with about 3 tbsp of olive oil and turn the stove to medium heat.
2. Cut the onion to desired size. If you want a more rustic look cut all of your vegetables into larger than normal sizes. Toss the onions into the heated oil and sautee until the onions are well coated and look kind of translucent.
3. Cut up the zucchini and carrot and add to the pot, stiring to coat with the remaining oil.
4. Add the diced tomatoes, beans, and corn. Stir well, careful not to smoosh* the beans.
5. Add in about 3-4 tbsp of chili powder. Make sure to taste the chili before adding too much. Add in about 2 tbsp of cumin.
6. Cover the pot and let the chili simmer on a low heat for awhile until ready to serve.

*"Smoosh" the beans does not refer to smoosh in the Jersey Shore sense.

And there you have it! So easy and so good. I meant to add okra to it also but forgot to thaw the bag I have in the freezer. Maybe next time.

I have to go put the laundry in the dryer, then write a paper, then finish the date squares, then prepare myself for acting as "team lead" in clinical tomorrow - bum bum bum!!!

There'll be another post with the date squares recipe + pictures up in a few hours!

Superbowl Madness

Well, dear friends, the Colts didn't win it. It was close but they got their behinds handed to them by the Saints. That one touchdown where the Saints guy (please note my obviously expert NFL knowledge) ran like 74 yards was pretty nice.

I really enjoyed myself though. It was a fun night FULL of delicious food, good company, and I think I genuinely like football.

Now that I have a pretty pimped out t-shirt I may just become a regular Colt's fan.

Or whichever team Peyton Manning, aka my future husband, is playing for.

THIS (if you haven't seen it before) is what convinced me to cheer for the Colts.

The quality is kind of crappy but the man is hilarious.

Love.

Our contribution to the Superbowl party was a vegetarian chili and some jalapeno havarti cornbread:

John also made some bruschetta but I was at work and forgot to take a picture of it at the party.

I'll put up the recipe for the vegetarian chili on Wednesday when I have some more time.

Congrats, New Orleans. You played a good game and your I hope the victory brings your city new hope for the future :)

P.S. Love you, Peyton.

Cakes and Cupcakes and Birthdays - Oh My!

Wednesday was my Mom's birthday so I baked her a cake. After a bit of nagging I finally got her to tell me what kind of cake she wanted: carrot or chocolate. Knowing she loves carrot cake I went in that direction. I forgot to copy down the recipe but it's in a school-recipe-book from my mom's former school. I'll get the recipe next time I'm over there and copy it down to post here. It's a delicious cake.

I also subsituted apple sauce in place of oil which made the cake more dense and less bad :) That substitution, however, made it impossible to get the cupcakes out the liners...oops.

And I brought those cupcakes to clinical the next day for a girl in my group because it was her birthday. Hope she still enjoyed the way they tasted!

Straight outta the oven:

After decorating - cream cheese frosting (made with brown sugar because my parent's house is sparse in baking essentials now that I'm gone apparently), orange mike & ikes and green icing:

I have to explain, the cake was still warm when I frosted it and was so warm that when I put it in the fridge to cool it down the icing cracked :( Boo hoo.

Anyway, I'm making more baking. It was my friend's birthday on the 2nd and it's another friend's birthday today. I made them cupcakes.



In an effort to save time I used a cherry chip mix but added in a whole load of marachino cherries that I cut into smaller pieces. I also added in a dash of brandy for good measure. This could be a sloppy night as one of the girl's just got back from a trip yesterday and brought back a big ol' bottle of rum with her. She's making rum punch and pina coladas.

Good thing I went to the gym today.

Speaking of the gym, I'm kind of curious as to how tomorrow plays out. The elliptical (one of two, the second of which has been 'broken' since September) is broken so now there are only one bike and 2 treadmills for cardio. In the gym, however, there are 3 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, 1 stationary bike, and a stair climber. Apparently no one cares when machines need to be fixed.

Anyway, ranting aside, I hoped on the treadmill. I have been careful not to run for more than 20 minutes because last spring/summer I did something to my knee. If I ran for more than about 20-30 minutes I got an awful pain in my left knee everytime I went down stairs or bent it. I went beyond 20 minutes today...I ran 6 miles. Which is what I used to do but considering I haven't run that kind of distance in a looong time is both incredibly exciting and worrisome because while my knee is okay now I'm scared that tomorrow it'll be sore again. I really should make a physio appointment but they're so pricey. Maybe I'll ask for one for my birthday :)

In other news (aka nursing news):

1. I gave my 1oth ever needle today! Celebration! And of the 3 I did today my hand didn't shake at all! I did 3 today and 3 yesterday - diabetics have really helped up my needle-giving.
2. I changed a diabetic foot ulcer dressing and packed it....it was gross in a really cool way. I want to find a similar picture but it would (a) gross everyone out, and (b) possibly break some sort of nurse-patient confidentiality laws.

I'll google you's a picture tomorrow. Or you can do it if you're that gross-curious type. The pictures of people with black tissue on the bottom of their feet? Seen it. The ones with deep holes in their feet? Packed two of those bad boys with gauze. Twice.

Ya, I'm that good.

And ready for the weekend.

And rum.

Happy Birthday Mom!

"Women know

The way to rear up children (to be just)

They know a simple, merry, tender knackOf tying sashes, fitting baby shoes,

And stringing pretty words that make no sense,

And kissing full sense into empty words."

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A little girl, asked where her home was, replied, "where mother is." ~Keith L. Brooks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

I love you :)