More Experimenting in the Kitchen

So, a Southern lady should be able to cook- we have established that. And so I have decided to take it upon myself to cook more. Of course, having a willing participant/sous chef/test pilot makes a huge difference.

First on the menu is a beer chicken cooked in the crock pot. I got the recipe off of Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/MakeItWorkMolly/lil-foodie/ and http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340491864/).

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle or can of beer
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook in crock pot 6-7 hours.

I actually used two cans of beer, Bud Light in this case because someone ended up with a bunch of it and doesn't drink it, and David's crock pot tends to cook a whole lot faster than it should so... two cans. It was stupidly easy and turned out really, really well. With this we also roasted brussel sprouts. We've made them before with olive oil and salt, but this time I threw in some balsamic vinegar as well. I think it added just another touch to them.

We also made this lovely cocktail (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340122020/):

Ingredients:

2 parts ginger ale
2 parts cider
1 part bourbon

Well guess what- I misread and I am just now realizing it. I read "ginger BEER" not ginger ale. Oops. And I used sparkling cider. David actually mixed the cocktail up but as it was, my mistake turned out something really quite good. Yummy-yummyness.

I had planned to also make this cheesy, garlic bread for this meal but somehow it just didn't happen so that was last night instead. (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340303511/)

Ingredients:
pizza dough
garlic butter
cheese

Well, the damn pizza dough didn't want to roll out properly so I had to knead it up and spread it out by hand best I could. I mixed garlic powder and unsalted butter and heated in the microwave to let it spread better. Then put mozzarella cheese and pepperjack cheese along the dough- after having put the garlic butter on. Then drizzled the rest of the garlic butter on top. Rolled up and placed in the oven. The oven was already on 350 for the chicken cordon bleu we made (not from scratch- courtesy of The Fresh Market) so I sat it in there for the last ten minutes the chicken was cooking. As it was, I should have done it sooner. Because I did not cut up the roll of bread as the directions said, it took a lil longer. I'd say about 20 minutes, I also got impatient and turned the heat up to 375 about halfway through. They turned out pretty well but I think I used too much cheese and not enough garlic butter. Lesson learned- less cheese. So- what should I try next? Here are the choices:

Entrees:

Bruschetta chicken http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356339868691/

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446692/

Sides:

Potatoes baked in chicken broth http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340910902/

Oven roasted mushrooms http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340522660/

Desserts:

Peanut butter and yellow cake and chocolate http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968400/

Golden graham bars http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968458/

Cocktails:

"Shock Me" http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340971984/

Crimson Spice http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446683/

Til next time yall...

The Perfect Christmas Gift

I think part of being a Southerner is knowing how to give the perfect gifts. Example: house warming parties- bottle of wine (I like to go with a red and a white unless I know what the gift recipient likes for sure); kids birthdays- coloring books, crayons, kids books, anything Melissa and Doug, as well as a "smaller" gift for any siblings; etc etc.

Same goes for Christmas. I get the biggest rush out of giving gifts, more so than receiving them. And really, the rush comes when someone opens their gift and they give you the most genuine expression of surprise and thankfulness. The best example I can give is one year I bought a coffee table book about classic sports cars, thinking I would give it to my dad or brother. It was a rather expensive book, too. But after some thought I realized, as much as my brother and dad might like it- they would not be truly thrilled by it. The person who would be thrilled by it would be my (now ex) husband's uncle. Bruce owns a classic car restoration company  (http://www.extrememotorcar.com/ ) and I knew it would just be perfect. The book even went in a chronological order of the years these cars were produced.

When Bruce opened his present, he had this impulsive exclamation of surprise and gave us a genuine thank you that I will never forget. He spent the rest of the afternoon intermittently looking over the book while interacting with everyone. I am still proud of that moment. I can't even remember what I received that year, but I do remember his joy at receiving that book. That is the BEST feeling for me.

One can do the same thing with any gift, and that is what I aim for. To be honest, if I don't get that kind of reception it's a bit of a disappointment and I feel that I have somehow failed in my quest. I like to think this comes, in part, from my Southern heritage. We are taught to always be gracious hosts and guests. Gift giving is much the same: it truly is the thought that counts.

To be perfectly honest, I don't always like to receive gifts on Christmas. I like to be able to give the same kind of surprise reaction to whomever is giving me an item, and I am so hard to surprise and also get so caught up in the giving to others that I often times don't have the energy to give that same reaction that I love to receive. And I am not very good at faking it- but I would not want to let someone else down. Christmas tends to be rather exhausting for me in that regard.

This year, many of my gifts will be hand made. Even without a large budget, I know my family members will appreciate the craft and time that went in to my gifts.

When the World Doesn't Make Sense

Right about now- we want answers.

As human beings, we desperately need to make some sense out of our lives. It has been that way since the beginning of time. It's the reason people tell stories, and make mythologies, and feel the need to tell the lives of our many Gods.

But sometimes- it just doesn't make sense. Sometimes, no matter why or for whatever reason it just doesn't damn matter. I think this is one of those times.

Even if we can figure out why this happened- all of these little babies losing their lives- even if we get inside this shooters head and figure out why he felt the need- it doesn't matter. Cause it just shouldn't have happened.

I guess it's one thing when we lose people to disease or natural disaster, those things seem so much bigger and out of our control but this this feels like we could have and should have prevented it.

And then there are those getting mad about potential politicizing- I have no problem with what our President said. Hell he's right- this should NOT happen and we should do something to make sure it doesn't. When our country was attacked by Al Qaeda  we called President Bush a hero for stating America would not stand by this. And I am a Republican(-ish). We don't know what exactly our President meant by his statement.

Anyways, and that's not even my real point. My point is, this is just one of those times- even if we did know why it happened, even though hell I want to know why it happened- because it's just our own human reaction to want to know- to have to reason through it.... but sometimes we cannot have the answers. Sometimes there just isn't an answer. And even if we do get an answer, does it even really matter? I think not. Whatever answer we have, this should not have happened.

May God be with these families, I pray for some relief for those who died, for those who survived, for anyone and everyone touched by this. Whatever God you pray to, whatever means you use to send kind thoughts towards those you care about- may you please employ them now.

As for me, I know I'll be hugging my kids that much tighter tonight, they can watch Cinderella as much as they want and I won't even think of getting tired of it, and bedtime might have to be a little later this evening.

EDIT:

There's been a lot of talk about gun control/not taking away 2nd Amendment rights. I'm super torn on this because I do believe in keeping one's second amendment rights but I also believe those children had a God given right to live. I don't think God gave me the right to bear arms. God gave me the RESPONSIBILITY to preserve the lives he has placed on this earth. God also gave me the right to free will. Does that mean gun control? I don't know. But what I would like to see is if someone wants to argue against gun control, that they offer another solution or idea as well. Cause I can promise you this- if I were those parents, and even though I am not- I damn sure don't want something like this to ever happen again.

This Southern Lady Attempts To Cook

I am not a cook. Really I'm not- but the funny thing is, I can cook when I want to. Not exactly sure what that means. I didn't learn cooking from my mom (sorry, Mom) growing up we mostly ate some kind of meat along with canned veggies. That was what Dad liked. Well that's not totally true- I remember helping Mom break off the ends of snap beans.

Anyways. So yesterday I was off from work for a photoshoot with Sabrina Sikora and I had my history final but in between I decided to cook for myself and David. He let me in to his house and frankly- I think he was scared. Hell he was scared the night before when we made mashed sweet potatoes and pork- he even told me I wasn't allowed to use "the big knife" to cut the potatoes. ("You don't know how to do this?" ummm it's been a while.)

You would think being a Southern Belle such as myself knowing how to cook would be a prerequisite. Eh- not so much. I am a bit more modern for that. Maybe too much so. But the funny thing is I really do wish I knew more.

So two nights ago, I attempted to make mashed sweet potatoes while supervised. And they turned out really well. Although David really should take credit for finding the recipe Martha Stewart I believe. Sweet potatoes, brown sugar, butter and milk. (We used soy milk.)

But last night, all by myself like a big girl, I attempted lasagna. I actually made it before when I worked at Tic Toc and Luigi's, but that was ages ago and David didn't trust me alone in the kitchen.

Imagine his damn surprise when it turned out really well. I'll be honest- I didn't make it as usual. Once before I made them in a "roll-up" style rather than layering the pasta. I really didn't even measure while cooking. I used a smaller pan than the recipe I originally found called for, hell I couldn't find the original recipe either. I had a large can of crushed tomatoes, once regular sized sauce can, tomato paste, lasagna noodles, and a pound of ground beef.

I browned the beef and drained off the fat, and added the crushed tomatoes, sauce and paste. Then some ground oregano leaves and garlic powder and black pepper to taste. Then, let the sauce simmer while I cooked the noodles. While cooking them for about eight minutes each, I pulled out nine pieces and laid them on foil. While cooking the noodles, I took ricotta cheese (15 ounces) and added Parmesan cheese- close to half a pound- and heated up in the microwave to melt the cheeses together. I then took the cheese and placed it along each noodle, and then layered the meat sauce over the cheese.

In the pan I placed enough meat sauce to cover the bottom. Then, I rolled up each lasagna noodle (being careful to not lose much cheese and sauce) and placed them in the pan. Once I got all of them in I placed more meat sauce, then the cheese blend, more meat sauce and then sprinkled the Parmesan over it.

Later that night we cooked it at 350 for 30 minutes- but it probably should have been at 375, as it wasn't quite as hot as it should have been. But it was still very good. At least, that's what he said ;) Maybe I am a cook after all.

Oh and- thankfully we did have a lovely McManis zinfandel to go with it. Cheers!

When Did Texting and Emailing Take Away Our Manners?

(i know... our manners left when the last letter was written... circa 1985...)


Where did our manners go? I wondered this when I received a text from a close friend wishing me a happy birthday. That's not to say texting HBD is always unacceptable, however the only times I feel it to be acceptable are when this is an associate you speak with occasionally. The kind of person that it would be awkward to call a happy birthday to, because you haven't spoken with them in a while and a any conversation besides one involving cheese, wine, and the obligatory social event and chatter would be even more awkward. But NOT for family members of any kind- sorry, but you need to suck it up and hear about Aunt Ida's second-cousin-once-removed's-no-blood-kin-to-you's sorry new brother in law's appendix removal. (Gross.) And NOT for someone you speak with on a daily occasion- you know, anyone remotely in the realm of dating, love, relationships, close friends, or (even more importantly) close business associates- you know those kind. The business relationships that require a scotch or two to get over reminding yourself that you hate kissing this person's ass and hate even more how they are raising their bratty kids to one day inherit their business when you could do the job now and better. Actually- let me amend slightly- I do have friends who I consider to be very close friends and we speak almost exclusively over text. THAT is perfectly acceptable, because texting has been established already as primary form of communication.

Manners, I believe, also left when people stopped writing letters and starting writings emails. It's so easy, especially in the business world, to spout off an email when one is angry or to press send without running spell check. I cannot tell you how many times we would laugh at a former job about how, the higher up you're promoted, the worse your spelling got. Must have been the sunstroke from playing golf too long. Writing letters took time, and thought. Hell go back far enough to the time of quill pens and ink and it took you two hours to write one line- of course you made your words count you usually had to remind yourself what you were writing or come up with something else entirely 5 times before you were finished. Maybe even 20 times- did they have ADD back then?

It's so hard these days to determine when texting and emailing is the best method of communication. I am just as guilty of it as anyone else. In the days when it's easier to send a Facebook invite to reach everyone than to send out printed invites (and let's face it- tremendously cheaper) it's hard to discern. A friend of mine recently invited me to her child's birthday party via Facebook, and she was beside herself upset about not sending out invites to the party. But in this day of busyness and venues getting booked up and finding a place last minute- she had no choice but to create the invite via Facebook. Another event I went to last night- the notifications were sent out through Facebook. Personally, I think it's perfectly appropriate to do so in those situations.

Situations when it's not appropriate? Weddings, for instance. Even when getting married last minute or in a pseudo- elopement type of event, a phone call at the very least is best if one does not want to fool with hand written invites.

So, how do we reclaim our manners? Once we all realize our methods of communication have become entirely too impersonal  that we spend most of our dinners looking at our phones and not at each other, and that nothing can ever replace a handshake and speaking to someone by name- then we will regain our manners.