falafel mix

Today I learned falafel mix makes an excellent breading for chicken! Just toss the chicken in a bowl with just enough olive oil to coat it.  Add enough falafel mix to coat your chicken and toss everything together.  I made bite-sized pieces which was 425F for 8 minutes with the convection fan on. 

To go with it I made a slaw with hummus instead of mayo dressing.  I took a bag of slaw mix (shredded cabbage) and sliced some radish into it.  Then I thinned out some hummus with some lemon juice to dress the slaw.  After I mixed the slaw and the dressing I added freshly chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.    

I warmed up whole wheat tortillas to put everything in.  The recipe I adapted this from is here.  The pita bread they show in the picture is the driest substance known to man.  Get yourself some good whole wheat tortillas like I did (8 inches should be plenty.)  TWSS.  Or to treat yourself, get some soft and fluffy naan.  Either way, stay far away from the pita pockets shown.    

french ovens vs. dutch ovens

Apparently they're the same thing.  My parents sent me a red French oven for Christmas which I immediately tested by cooking stuffing. I don't have a lot of experience cooking with cast iron.  First of all, wow it's heavy.  Second, it cooks evenly!  I was able to brown the sausage and vegetables on the stove top then transfer the pot into the oven to finish cooking.  Win!  I'm going to have a lot of uses for this pot.

In other news I slept 11 hours last night and it felt amazing!  I'd been working long hours at work and needed the rest.  I'm looking forward to having a more normal schedule in a week!  My blogging frequency definitely decreased on this crazy schedule I've been working.

getting into the holiday spirit

I feel like my eyes are always doing something weird.  I'm either squinting or blinking.  Whatevs.

Anyway, my job has been going really well and even though I don't work on the Adventures I was itching to try one.  This one was Wreath Making and Three-Course Lunch at Smash Wine Bar in Wallingford.

When we arrived, we went inside where we had a choice of hot buttered rum, hot chocolate or cider.  They had a breakfast spread laid out with the best banana muffins either of us had ever had.  They were super moist and had a complex sweet and spicy flavor.  While people nibbled, they went over a wreath-making demonstration.

Because I thought "arrive 20-30 minutes early" was for noobs, we arrived promptly at 11.  It hadn't occurred to us to arrive early to secure your wreath-making station.  So we had stations outside in the 35 degree cold.  Fair enough- sort of our own fault.  Each station had a gigantic pile of fir for your base plus pine, juniper, holly, and eucalyptus for accents.  Making the wreaths wasn't as hard as we thought.  All of the tools we needed were provided plus other accents like bows and pine cones.  The glass of wine that was served during the wreath making helped as well.  It turned out to be a fairly physical activity and only my feet were cold.

When we moved inside for lunch, there was one little two person table right by the window that was perfect for us.  We warmed up while enjoying a delicious three-course gourmet lunch.  I had mixed greens with apple and cranberry, buttermilk crispy cumin turkey tenderloin beside sweet potato frites (their description lols), and chocolate caramel lava cake topped with cranberry sauce served with ice cream.  Since the Adventurers had the whole restaurant, the courses had a nice, natural pace.  No rush to turn over the tables.

The whole event was organized and the staff was super helpful.  I felt like it was definitely worth the money and I'm happy we tried it.  Our wreaths are making the house smell like Christmas!  

10 years can fly by

Well almost 10 years.. 2 days shy of 10 years.  Today I finally downloaded Spotify and have been poking around listening to some newer music.  Something about the a Kings of Leon song triggered an Incubus flashback for me.  I was remembering how I could not wait to buy Morning View and I was counting down the days to the release.  Then out of curiosity, I looked up when it was released: 10/23/2001.  Holy crap, it's already been 10 years.  I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD.  Do people even buy CDs anymore?  This particular CD was in and out of my CD player so much it was scratched so I'm pretty excited to be listening to it on Spotify.  And I don't care that no one seemed to like this album.  This was a good album dammit and it's going back in my rotation!

good bye for now, asparagus

It's definitely the end of the line for local asparagus this year.  Before moving here, I had no idea Washington was so big on their asparagus crop but I have ended up eating it quite a bit.  For dinner last night, I made roasted asparagus and prosciutto pizza.  It takes about 10 minutes and was a win.

Because I hear pictures make a blog more interesting, here are the ingredients:

Manchego cheese

Garlic naan

Asparagus

Prosciutto

 Preheat the oven to 400F.  Trim off the woody bottoms of the asparagus and lay them out on a baking sheet.  Drizzle them with olive oil and salt/pepper.  Go light on the salt because the prosciutto is salty.  Pop them in for about 5 minutes to start the cooking process.  In the meantime, shred the cheese on the naan and arrange some torn pieces of prosciutto.  When the asparagus comes out, chop it as small as you like and add it on top of the naan.  Put it back into the oven until it's done to your liking.  I did about 5 more minutes because I wanted a soft and chewy crust. 

This was super tasty and quick.  I'm kind of bummed though because I think I'll need to wait until spring before the asparagus is back in season to make it again. 

roasted green beans

We stopped by the library yesterday so I could get more cookbooks.  The Tyler Florence one had a recipe for roasted green beans.  To be honest, it never occurred to me to cook green beans in the over but it's so good!

Making them could not have been easier.  Preheat the oven to 400F.  Put the green beans on a baking sheet and toss in a little olive oil.  Grind some pepper on.  Grate on a good amount of parmesan cheese.  Cook about 8 minutes.  (Note: the recipe said 10 which translates to 8 in my oven.) Eat.

*Don't cheap out on cheese.  It's only like $5 to buy a good block of parmesan that can last you all week and it's worth it.  I grate it on a microplane so a little bit goes a long way though I'm probably dulling the crap out of my microplane.
*Don't use pre-ground pepper.  The disposable Mccormick pepper grinders are actually pretty good.  I use it for everything and it lasts several months.

To go with it, I butterflied a chicken breast and pounded it flat.  I breaded it in a mixture of plain bread crumbs, more grated parm, and red pepper flakes.  It baked at the same temp but went it 6 minutes earlier (so 14-15 mins total.) Poured on some store-bought chicken gravy.  Super tasty! 

bad dream

I had a dream that I was driving around Seattle and found a Publix.  It was lunch time so I was super excited to get a Publix sub.  The sub tasted like it was from Subway and the manager yelled at me when I tried to bring it back and explain how the subs are made in Florida.  So sad.. it doesn't get any tastier than a Publix chicken tender sub! 

it's official

I hate gardening.  I even took it out of my Facebook profile.  That's how much I hate it.  I have 75 bulbs that need to be planted and about 75 already in the ground that I need to avoid destroying.  Sigh...

when you've got to feel it in your bones

I'm pretty sure this is one of those albums I'll still be listening to in my 50's reminiscing about how things used to be.  I feel like this one doesn't get the credit it deserves because all these years later it can still make me feel exactly like I did the first, second, and hundredth time I listened to it.

new job

We've been super busy and I haven't had a chance to catch up with this.  We went to San Francisco and then I turned around and went to DC to train for a new job.  Once I'm settled in I'll be able to keep up on blogging more!