Day1 - Bacon Explosion

Friday Jan. 1, 2010: Charlie's House: Bacon Explosion.



Today, Charlie made the ultimate in bacon/pork amalgamations. It is basically bacon, wrapped in pork, wrapped in bacon. Somehow, he managed to stuff more pork in this very small space.

It was a little bit of magic. Somehow Charlie crammed three pork molecules into every one. I don't believe there is a better way to sum it up.



The only thing that was better than the pork explosion was listening to Ed, Steve and Charlie discuss the what percentage cheese can make other foods better. It was college all over again.

Thanks Charlie! Go Penn State!

Day178 - Sqooze-ing the juice from a chicken.

Thursday, June 26, 2008: My kitchen: chicken broth

So, I finally found the perfect chicken broth (never thought I would write that!). It's organic to boot. It only has a cup of broth in each box and 4 boxes come in a pack. Tonight I made the same pasta I've been making forever: Sausage and mushrooms over ziti. But the recipe only calls for 1/2 of stock. That means that I waste most of a regular jug most of the time I make it. This will save me from wasting, which in my newly hysterical "green" state I hate to do.



Cute, huh? About the size of a red bull, and although I haven't done any shots of it, I think that it has a pretty good flavor to it.

Day174 - How do you like these apples!

Sunday, June 22, 2008: Allen & Yana's: Stuff and things.

Yesterday we took the truck for it's first drive out of the county to visit Jen and Derek. Today we took it for it's first ride over 7 Mountains to Yana & Allen's. It made it back and for succesfully. I mean things may have actually fallen off of it and water may have flooded in it, but you will have this.

Yana made super fucking good food. This pizza being one, the roasted red pepper stuff in the background being two. Yana, I think we need to have an Iron Blonde Chef cook-off.




Here is a picture of the Mr. & Mrs. with Troy going for a ride after dinner. I got to chill out with some dogs and cats. It was an even trade off.




Right after they got back it rained like cats and dogs. They very graciously let us park her in their garage. I think this maybe the last time that happens. Foolishly, they let it slip that they know where to "dump our bodies." Yes my friends, the truck is so bad ass that we have been threatened with death - by OUR friends! If we go missing, please check their garage.


Later, we played Apples to Apples. It was really fun. The only person who is more of a sore loser than me is Allen and that is comforting. Troy and Yana are pretty relaxed about winning or loosing. Oddly, their relaxation is not comforting.

We stayed super duper late. Crazy late. If we didn't have a crap load to do in the AM, and I didn't have a need for my own pillow, we would have stayed til morning, which was only a few hours away. To you both, thanks for a great night - it was much needed. Next time we are playing Pictionary. I feel like some blood may spill.

Day134 - The Polish do it in the kitchen.

Tuesday, May 14, 2008: Our Kitchen: Chrusciki

We love sourdough turkey sandwiches. It's not very good for our diet, but I don't think that I can eat deli turkey any other way. Mmmmm, especially with multi-grain cheesy poofs. Love it.

The downside of the wonderful sourdough - besides processed white flour - is having to walk through the bakery dept. to find a loaf. When we went there today to rescue their very last sourdough, we found these suckers - Chrusciki, Polish Cookies, also known as Angel Wings:





They kind of taste like cannoli tubes. I never had them before, and I wasn't in love at first, but over the next couple of days I started to crave them. If you can portion control yourself, there not terribly bad for you either.



Yum. I know. Fried dough with powdered sugar - how can you beat it?

Day121 - I'm corn-cobbing it.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008: My Kitchen: Corn Cobber


I think that if Troy ever bought me a sweeper or a dishwasher for a holiday, it would probably be the last thing he ever bought for me. It would either be the last day we were together, or the last day of his life.

That being said, the dremel he gave me for xmas is a favorite of mine.

As is this little corn cobber.




Even though I can only find one task for it (Rethinking that - I could maybe peel a mango or pineapple), it does make stealing little corn nuggets from the cob easy. Sure, the cobs are steaming hot - but now steaming hot kernals are not bouncing over the kitchen.





In action:





The cob after the fact:




A little plastic package of joy:





Side note: I don't like eating corn off of a cob. It reminds me of being a kid and loosing a tooth while eating an apple. This is also why I do not eat apples in the traditional apple eating way.

Day113 - You say potato, I say crostata

Tuesday, April 22, 2008: Home D: Boursinberry Turkey

Today was primary day and our household is divided between candidates. We have agreed to disagree and will vote with whomever candidate is ultimately chosen. I'm excited for the actual election for sure, especially since Karl Rove will not have his greedy shitty fingers in it.

Also! It was Troy's mom, Vickie, birthday. We went to Home D, now bringing my total days eating there to 3 out of 7. The bright side is that I ordered something new every time. Today I had the Boursinberry Turkey sandwich: Turkey breast, Boursin cheese, Raspberry jam and artichoke hearts on a croissant. Jeez Louise, that it yummy.




Troy got the Chick Brie (chicken and brie on a croissant), and although I liked the bite that I had - he did not. For desert I had this, an apple crostata. My first crostata! I'm going to try to make one of these soon.




So. Great day. Great dinner. Great life.

Day111 - How much green is too much?

Sunday, April 20, 2008: My House: My new sweater.

I was able to get Troy to relent a little today, and instead of waking up and going straight to the garage, we went shopping for garden stuff. We were all walmart, trying to decide between huge sunflowers or really huge sunflowers and I found the cutest sweater in the world.

I've been looking for something like this for weeks and weeks - ever since I bought these shoes in fact. I love it! I think it makes me super tiny (This may also be because I lost another 3 lbs since the last time I weighed myself. Yay me!).




I want to one in another color if they have it. I bought a green skirt that day as well. What a green day.


That night, after meeting with a client, we went to dinner with Ryan and Erin. It was entirely too late at night to eat this, but I picked the hazelnut Crème Brûlée for dessert. I like pumpkin better, or for that fact just plain, but it was good. Troy liked it, which I love because now I can crank a few out without fear that I will have to eat them all.





Even though I went to bed with a stomach ache, it was another great, great day.

Day105 - Raw, baby, raw.

Monday, April 14, 2008: My office: Think Organic bar

Troy and I read an article for these Think Organic bar. I'm not sure what to call it - the packages says "raw fruit and nut snack bar for true vitality." I guess you really can't boil that down to a slogan, huh. Mine was Cranberry Apple and it was actually very good if not entirely disgusting looking.


The article we read was in Brand Week and was focused on their marketing and branding campaign. The spent a lot of time and maybe some loot trying to find packaging that was eye appealing and non-traditional.




It certainly is different that most packaging that I've seen in the organic section at the market. The redesign is getting them all sorts of buzz, enough so that even Troy had to check it out in person.

Speaking of in person, here is a close up of the bar.




It looks like someone "momma bird-ed" it into a wrapper. But then you realize that it is 100% raw and everything listed as an ingredient is natural and organic: dates, cashes, apples, cranberries, walnuts, almonds and some sea salt. That is impressive really.

Here is my thought stream after the first bite, "Um, no… What is the big deal… wait… maybe… no… hmm… yes… where is that damn bar… gnosh, gnosh, gnosh… I'm finished - I need another."

Then I fiended for one for the remainder of the day, leading me to believe the secret ingredient was crack. I guess it's worth the price.

Day100 - If it's free, I like it.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008: My office: Measuring Cup.

First, let's give a big whooohoooo for 100 straight days of NEW. Awesome! Almost done.

Today, I spilled a load of water down the fridge across stacks of recipes recipes taped and tucked behind magnets on the fridge. I decided enough was enough and I looked for a free program to keep track of all of them. I found two: Measuring Cup and Yum.

I am using Measuring Cup because the interface was more appealing to me. You can add calorie/nutrition info as well as photos. If you need, you can then print out all the recipes in on nice long list. It also has a drop down menu of common abbreviations, such as tsp and g. Very cool. Here is a screen shot.




Yum has more exporting features as well as drop down menus for commonly used ingredients and the ability to make shopping lists. I may switch over in the future, but for right now I kinda like what I got.

Day99 - Buried in a coffin of it.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008: My Kitchen: Spicy peanut chicken with jasmine rice.

Like I have said before, I am addicted to jasmine rice. After I am gone, please bury me in a coffin of jasmine rice from Kelly's. I will be forever grateful on the other side.

I made this spicy peanut chicken. It was super easy - I just shook a pack of stuff from Wegmans international market on it. The rice smells so good. My goal for the end of the month is to cooks something new and wonderful with it. Maybe rice pudding or whatever the Indian equivalent is.



It was really very good. Just spicy enough to make your nose run a little. We will be making this again.

Day27 - A peanut butter explosion!

Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008: Sunday Fun


The biggest reason for Gayle's visit was for her to work on the truck a little. I think everyone wants to say they helped out somehow, someway. And why wouldn't you, it's fucking gorgeous. And it's probably going to be the most rad thing we've done in a long, long time.

And, at this point, we could use all the help we can get to make Troy's goal of the end of March.


So Gayle and I sanded one of the front fenders. I've sanded before, and I've bitched about it in depth, but Gayle was a really good sport and she got a lot done in 2 hours.


Here is Gayle looking cute and serious.





This is before. The fenders are huge - easily 4 foot long and really awkward.





Hard at work:





What we accomplished in about 2 hours. She had to get back home so we called it quits. I will be left to tackle this sucker by myself.





I usually spend most of my time doing this:




I dance a lot. Also, that is the finished side that I started and Troy finished.



Later that night, I made these low-cal extremely peanut buttery cookies.




Really easy: 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup Splenda for baking and 1 egg. Makes 12 cookies at 180 calories each. I limit myself to one and that's fine. I think that they are probably a really good source of protein and, seeing how there is no flour or anything else really, it tastes like hardened peanut butter and nothing else. Very good.


Close up of the yummy:






I know! The screen is just not giving them up. I keep on trying to reach in, but it's not budging.

Day23 - New rules to the same old game.

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008: My kitchen: Pork Roast

This post isn't going to be very exciting. It's just food that was so-so. Maybe a 3/5, but Troy would probably disagree. 

This is a new recipe for pork loin. Here is a picture of me and Troy disagreeing on whether or not he should have taken the pork out of the oven first before he took it's temperature.

It's a good argument for sure - and I think we came away with a draw.


Here is the finished pork. It def. tasted good, but the was a little dry as pork is want to do. Very simple: 6 red potatoes, 1 cup of carrots, 1 onion cut into 6, 2 cloves garlic. Sprinkle with salt, pepper & italian seasoning and cook for 20 minutes at 350. Sprinkle pork chops (or where we fucked up - sliced pork loin) with same mixture of spices and cook for 15-20 minutes or until internal temp rises to 160 degrees.

It tasted good but was dry and not all of the veggies were soft and said pork was dry-ish.




Good looking but not the best. We'll get them next time kiddo.

Day18 - I can't find that turkey anywhere.

Friday, Jan. 18, 2008: The Ale House: Turkey in the Pumpkin Patch 

**This post is out of order because my memory is terrible!**

We went out for happy hour tonight with Sarah and Jess to the Ale House. I made the mistake of wearing a short sleeved shirt and sitting in the outside enclosed bar. Brrr! It's just nicer than sitting inside and when we arrived I was able to get a really good spot so I suffered although ever so slightly.

I had the Turkey in the Pumpkin Patch: Wheat bread, turkey, shredded pumpkin and some kind of cheese. It was outrageously good and I probably should have only eaten half the sandwich but I went for the whole thing. Who knew that raw pumpkin could be so tasty. 

I didn't take a picture of the sandwich because talking to my lovely friends was much more interesting/fun. I did find this picture when I googled it:

The sandwich was almost as good as the illustration. Almost.

Day21 - Do you think it's chili? I said Brr.

Monday, Jan. 21, 2008: My Kitchen: Fire roasted tomato chicken chili

It is cold outside. Crazy single digit cold. I hate leaving the house and I'm a total crybaby about it.

Nothing combats freezing toes and all-out body shivers more than chili. Well, maybe macaroni and cheese, but not by much.

This is the first time I've made chili from scratch - I usually just make white turkey chili from a little packet. I wasn't impressed with it, but Troy is in love with it and therefor he's been eating all of the leftovers. We served it with a little slice of dark honey wheat bread instead of crackers.

I just don't think that it was taste-y or hot enough. I would give it a 3/5. Troy says 5/5. The orange bits are shredded carrots. I've had a weakness for them since back in the day when we would get chicken quesadillas at the Bullfrog Brewery. Now I always put them in my quesadillas and chili - I think that it just add something: texture, taste, bulk and good memories. All of the above or any one.

The recipe goes so: 1 large chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 japaleno pepper diced and 1 lb of chicken cubes cooked over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes. Add 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, kidney beans, chili powder salt and water. Simmer. Done. 

I skipped out on the cilantro because I'm not a fan of it and maybe that's what it was missing. It was also missing fire so I should have dumped some hot sauce or cayenne pepper. The jalapeno just didn't cut it, even though I left in the seeds.

At any rate, it was just as easy as making it the lazy way with pre-bought everything. I'm positive I'm not done beating this sad horse. Winter is far from over.

Day19 - You are flat out fantastic.

Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008: My kitchen: Flat bread Pizza

I am a major fan of pizza mostly because of the cheese. I don't think anyone has invented a meal that is so versatile, great for: parties both laid back and formal, late night post-bar, early morning post-hangover, lunch, dinner, mid-day snack. Really, it requires no silverware or plates. 

And cheese! Jesus, there is almost nothing better in this world than cheese. Sharp or mild, soft or hard - it doesn't get any better.

But, one slice of cheese pizza has approx. 400 calories! depending upon the restaurant. That is just plain!!! I can eat a whole pie on my own on a good day, especially Facia Luna's fresh tomato/italian sausage pie. Jeez, that is a little slice of heaven right there and I can't imagine what it is racking up. And who isn't in love with the all out gluttony that is Cece's Pizza. There you are encouraged - dared even - to try and defeat their business model. Imagine. It is so easy to be fat in this country.

Sorry to totally rant on dietary concerns and scold a bit there, I'm really sensitive right now to calories and the like. Eat whatever you like, life is short and you should enjoy the shit right out of it.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. We came across this great recipe for a low-cal pizza, it's about 330 calories for a whole pie which is the size of a large burrito wrap. 

Cook 1 medium onion and 2 gloves of garlic in some olive oil. After 7 minutes when the onions become translucent and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (my fav) and 1 cup of mushrooms. Cook until all liquid is gone. 

In the oven place an oval flatbread wrap or a whole wheat tortilla and bake for 5-7 minutes at 350. Next spread onion/mushroom/balsamic mixture on top. Add 1 roma/plum tomato and 1 oz. of goat cheese (we used feta) to each pizza and toss back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Pull out and toss 1/4 cup basil across the two.

This was FANfuckingTASTIC. I was delightfully full after eating it, all though I suppose if you are not you can start off with a salad before hand. Or add some grilled chicken to the top.

I would easily give this a 5/5. I actually kind of prefer it to regular pizza because the feta cheese certainly gave it a punch of flavor that is not present in the lovely but bland mozzarella. We used a red onion and that added a layer of sweetness that a plain yellow onion wouldn't ordinarily. What I'm getting at it that it was a flavor explosion. Literally. The wheat bread was sweet and crunchy. The vinegar pungent. The tomatoes soft and yummy. You see what I'm getting at. This was G. R. E. A. T.

Well enough of that. My mouth is watering and it's just getting to be too much.

Without basil. I think basil tastes like summer.




With basil - extreme close-up.

Don't you just want to reach out and grab that mushroom. I know - the screen just isn't giving it up.

Day17 - I'd steak my taco on it.

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008: My Kitchen: Steak Tacos

Tonight we made steak tacos with homemade avocado salsa. I've never made avocado salsa before, and my only other venture with salsa was a disaster that I solely blame on cilantro.

The salsa is avocado, red onion, tomatoes, garlic and a lot of lime. For the first time I did not "bash and chop" the garlic - I used a little grater to finely grate the garlic and I think that made a difference in the over all taste and texture. Finally, something Rachel Ray and I can agree on. 

Also, I liked eating raw onion. Something is definitely wrong with me this year… the Melissa of old would not eat anything crunchy, let alone and onion and, gasp, green beans from a few nights before. This newness thing is affecting me in profound and psychologically deep ways.

I forgot to marinate the steak in lime and garlic, so I just squeezed some on top of it after is was cooked and resting. Just as good. The whole dinner smelled just like Mad Mex and there is nothing wrong with that.

I think the final calorie count was around 380. Overall, I would give it a 5/5. Troy was bummed because his avocado was hard, but I both like the taste and hard texture of it. Although I did swallow a whole piece of avocado and nearly freaked the hell out. Yummy none the less. Oh, and devastatingly beautiful.