Spazzmanda

I had some pals over for dinner last night, my friend Holly and her little boy Brosey.

I made a big batch of Chicken and Rice Soup- from leftover chicken and rice- it rocked. My grandma has a cold, so I’m taking her some tonight cuz chicken soup is scientifically proven to help with colds. I also made some more beer bread (because it is impressive to whip up fresh bread for your friend all lightning quick from a few simple ingredients.) Since the whole wheat version was dense last time, I made a half and half -wheat flour and regular flour- and it lightened it considerably. Jeff says it is a little bitter-but it may be the cheddar or the beer- and he still likes it. Hmmm, it might be the cheapo beer (Sorry John)- I used Budweiser again- but I think that a darker ale will only enhance this bitterness so I’m going to have to think more on flavor combinations and consult with Jenny. And hey, it is beer bread, so it might just taste like its ingredients a bit, right?

Well, one person for sure really liked the bread.

Brosey insisted on wearing a Batman mask at dinner- hey, whatever gets a 2-year old to the table to eat is fine by me, right? He gave the meal an enthusiastic thumbs up!

Have a lovely weekend, y’all!

Yesterday I called Jeff and told him to throw some frozen chicken in the crock pot and pour some cream ‘o something on the top- we were having chicken and rice for dinner and I thought a head start would be nice. Now, my man is very smart, but intelligence and spending time in the kitchen with momma and grandmomma aren’t the same thing. This is his first time being exposed to some basic Crockpot cooking, and I’m more than happy to help him through it- he’ll be a pro in no time- nothing like just turning the thing ‘on’ and being done with dinner.

He did say to me “What if there isn’t any Cream of Mushroom Soup in the cabinet?”

(Snigger) Well, honey, in the south, there just always is.

His instructions were to turn the crock pot to low, thunk in the chicken and pour on soup, and no, don’t stir it.

I forgot one minor detail. Do you see it?

How about now?

I neglected to tell him to take the paper off of the back of the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Oops.

It was still delicious, and we had a good laugh. A very good laugh. A very, very good laugh. There were some tears and knee slapping and I had to call my mom.

I sure do love my mayun- he keeps me entertained.

Monday night I made some beer bread that was inspired by Jenny’s culinary endeavors on the bread making front. I also had some Budweiser I brought back from the beach and we don’t really drink beer.

I made a Whole Wheat, Cheddar-Dill Beer bread from a recipe at Farmgirl Fare.

All the ingredients before the beer:

In the pan:

And a final photo- quick before it gets gobbled up! Oh, and since Jenny put her fancypants beer in her bread photos, I decided I’d honor her and do the same. Nothing classes up a photo like a can of Budweiser, don’t you think?

I love fresh baked bread and use my breadmaker frequently in the winter. I don’t really have the patience for any ‘real‘ bread-making so this recipe was perfect for me. Overall I really liked this bread- it was dense- but I did make the whole wheat version and was slightly unsure as to the freshness of my baking powder- I bought it at the beginning of the summer when I made a tomato pesto pie (also awesomeness from Farmgirl). How long does baking powder stay fresh in a sealed container in the fridge anyways? Not being a beer drinker (except for the occasional Corona) I still really couldn’t taste the beer-ness much- so I’d say if you don’t like beer, the beer flavor in a beer bread isn’t overpowering. Jeff thinks a darker ale would make for some interesting bread, and I’ll definitely give that a shot this winter. The bread went really well with the beef stew I made for dinner (I threw some fresh dill into the crock pot with the stew to tie all the flavors together and that seemed to work nicely.)

And it was really easy and quick- did I mention that?

For my birthday I received the Silver Palate Cookbook from my boss. She knows how much I enjoy cooking and with her impeccable taste selected the most perfect book on the planet. This place, the Silver Palate, is apparently very well known for amazing catering and the like.

I haven’t been much for turning the oven or stove on since it is summer, so I selected the “Summer Pasta” as my first crack at the book. It is a no-cook pasta sauce that calls for fresh tomatoes (and thanks to my mom, I had some to supplement my one) fresh basil from my herb garden, garlic, olive oil, and chunks of brie. You let the linguine gently ‘heat’ the sauce and thus release all the flavors.

I made the man’s favorite salad (not much on the vegetable count which is probably why he likes it) but it has field greens, bleu cheese, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, toasted almonds, crunchy Chinese noodles and balsamic vinaigrette.

Yes, we had lots of cheese at dinner last night. No- I didn’t take a single photograph! But it was as beautiful a dish as it was good. I’m thinking it will be tasty leftover tonight, although I’m not sure how I will recreate the “gently heated” aspect again. Once again, I inadvertently planned an entirely vegetarian meal. (My poor, poor man.) I think I must have the tendency to eat this way from time to time and particularly in the summer.

Anyhoo, I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone who likes to cook or read about cooking. The margins of the pages are peppered with interesting tips on nurturing your creative side, such as, how to inspire yourself to play with unique flavor combinations in your cooking, technical tips like how to deglaze a pan- mingled with quotes about the joy of food and suggested event menus (I like the “nuptial brunch” that commences with figs and prociutto, mmmmmm.)

I purchased a sushi press back in April and we are just now getting around to using it. The collaboration for the Captain Jack’s birthday cake went so very well on Thursday, we tried another united cooking endeavor which was much less likely to end in bloodshed. I’ll admit that making my own sushi frightened me. I knew I didn’t want to start with anything too snazzy (or raw) until I had a safe place to purchase raw fish (and I’m open to suggestions by the way) and had mastered the rice, because from what I hear it can be tricky.

Now, the rice was not that difficult to make, purchasing it on the other hand…

I was at real Asian market a few months back, wandering around, purchasing my nori (seaweed) and wasabi, etc., a lot of packaging was written in English and with other items the photos were enough to let me know I was on the right track. I was looking for a small box of sushi rice. I couldn’t find rice ANYWHERE. Not near the noodles or other things that looked grainy. How could this be?

Well it might have something to do with the whole wing of the building devoted to rice. I was so overwhelmed and everything was in Chinese, so I bought the smallest bag of white, short-grain rice that I could find (5 lbs.) and it ended up being the wrong stuff. As it turns out, Publix has a lovely selection of international rices in convenient tubs. I followed the directions exactly and had beautiful sticky rice to show for my efforts without a rice maker, thank you very much.

As far as ingredients, I kept it simple. I thought we would make California Rolls (Crab, cucumber, and avocado) and Bagel Rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese and I threw in some chives from my thriving herb garden.) We then made rolls with variations of these ingredients and learned rather quickly that the less rice you put in a roll, the better.

The press really just helps the novice sushi chef keep all the ingredients contained and compact. You end up with a cube, but you can then roll it around in the mat and make it round if you want to.

Our final product, a mountain of sushi:

Things I learned:

1. Just as a little rice goes a long way, so does a little wasabi, DAMN. Oh, and the rice will will stick to just about anything if you aren’t careful.

2. Making sushi vs. going out to eat it is, like anything, cost effective. If we go out and order edamame, soup, three rolls, some sashimi and sake, we can easily spend $100 (or more depending on what rolls we get and how much sake is consumed).

3. Sushi, like Mexican food, uses lots of little bowls and utensils in the preparation. The process yields a messy kitchen. And a really sharp knife is absolutely necessary.

4. Ingredients: you don’t need much to go a long way, however, I don’t have many more ideas at present as to how to expand upon my current ingredients at this time.

5. The next party/social outing where I am asked to bring an appetizer, I’m going to forgo the dip and take a plate of homemade sushi! SUPERSTAR!

Things I need to learn:

1. Since the rice is sticky, if I make an “inside out” (rice on the outside) roll, how do I keep it from sticking to the mat and then what is the best way to roll it in roe?

2. Where, oh where do I purchase some broiled eel? (those are our FAVORITE rolls when we go out and you’ve GOT to be able to find it somewhere.) And a side note, doesn’t THIS look freakin’ awesome? The photography alone at Nook & Pantry is enough to make me want to eat my computer screen. I stumbled across this AWESOME blog during my initial eel research and if I can find me some eel, I’m making Unagi Rice Bowls for dinner- who wants to come over?

3. A good (and safe) place to purchase raw fish in north Georgia and any other things I need to know about that.

As Promised, Breaking News: Tomato Harvest 2007

We have had a development in Tomato Harvest 2007. After talking at length to my stepfather, we have determined that the much-loved tomato plant, although tall and leafy, was malnourished. I had Jeff get me some extra stinky organic potting soil for vegetables and I replaced the dirt in the pot with fresh dirt on Monday and watered with some more tomato food. We had some very nice thunder-booming rain yesterday, and there would appear to be some more yellow blooms already. I’m hopeful, but we aren’t there yet. I won’t be happy until I have a tomato. For reals.

Yay! The Pirate Cake is completed in time for the party tonight for Captain Jack‘s 30th birthday! The idea all started when I purchased my castle bunt pan back in April. I wanted to make something so badly, but just didn’t have the particular occasion. So the seed was planted and the idea flourished and I thought that a Lord of the Rings cake would rock. Unfortunately, Target, Toys R’ Us and Wal-Mart thought differently.

But we did manage to find pirates. DR-Boy said- hey- we can make a castle and a beach and then some WATER in order to justify the use of pirates! It sounded like a good idea to me, and so began our great “collaboration”.

Now when a control-freak and a perfectionist put their heads together, not everything comes out sweet. Actually, we are lucky we didn’t kill each other in some icing-coated massacre.

So we begin. I had my initial concerns, this frightened me:

That is a LOT of crevices for cake junk to get stuck in.

Luckily I purchased this:

And a Joy it was, indeed. The cake came out slicker than snot (if you will excuse the expression.)

So I made a bunt and sheet cake. I was finished baking. Ready to decorate. That is when Psycho Perfectionist (also known as Delayed Reaction Boy) swooped in to say that it wouldn’t be big enough do do land, sea AND castle. After much heated discussion, this happened.

Damn skippy. YOU think it isn’t big enough, YOU bake the next cake. (Um, he was right, by the way, about MANY things in this collaboration, but so was I, not that I keep track of that kind of thing. Oh, P.S. and by the way, I am a bit of a control freak, I CAN share but don’t like to, sue me!)

Moving on, he carefully shaped the terrain

I mixed the icing colors for land and sea

The Twizzler Cracken was introduced

Golden Oreo Crumb Beach (One of the things I was right about, but I’m not keeping score or anything.)

Castle dusted with powder sugar and supporting icing “bushes”

Fruit Roll-Up Flags

Voila! (Aerial View)

Yes, the pirates on the boat seem slightly smaller than the ones on land, but that is only because they are oh so very far away. They are WAY out on the ocean. Yes they are. Shut up.

The palm trees are cookie sticks, pretzels, icing and fruit roll-ups. Notice the mini goldfish surfing the waves. This cake is really awesome. No, I have no idea how we will transport the thing, I’m thinking a glass or two of wine so that I will be bold enough to balance it on my lap for transport and less likely to freak out. This sucker is pretty big.

Go here to see all the progress photos of the creation of Captain Jack’s Pirate Cake for his big 30th Birthday!

Trips to the Grocery Store: Four

Money Spent: Some

Moments Spent Planning the Demise of One’s Boyfriend: Too many to count.

Look on the Birthday Boy’s Face: Priceless.

Have a good weekend!

Drum roll please- I’ve finished an easy hat! AND I have the pictures to prove it!

My gentleman friend and I are currently working on costumes based on the movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” for us to wear at DragonCon. (I thought I might like to call him my gentleman friend until I figure out what I prefer. Boyfriend is blah. Besides, gentleman friend is what the little old ladies at my grandmother’s fancy retirement community call their boyfriends because the term boyfriend sounds really silly when applied to an 80 year old man. I thought I’d borrow the endearment and try it on for a little while.)

Well, anyways, the specifics of the project: The yarn is basic, boring Red Heart, but the result gets the point across. Seafarer beanie in red? DONE! Now, I only need to make 3 more. These costumes will actually be fun to wear as they will not be binding, nor will they require any makeup, mask, helmet or prop and we can wear tennis shoes!

Next Up: Another “Amanda’s Squatty Sidekick.” I know. I’m on my third in as many weeks. I really don’t know what is wrong with me. I also am working on have started and placed in a ziploc buried in a basket- a Rowan Tumbling Blocks Pillow in Intarsia (why? because I I’m a bit of a masochist? Probably, but more so I just feel like I should) and I the dreaded baby socks – I should probably finish before the baby gets too big, so I guess I’m just making felted bags because they make me smile, to procrastinate, to have that fresh-finished-feeling every day and if I mess them up it really doesn’t matter in the end.
Teaser: Now, guess what I’m making with these? (Sssssssssh. A special surprise for Jack’s 30th Birthday next week! More progress photos to come.)