Food Crazy!!!

Note: I have highlighted links in RED.  Not sure why but blogger is not formatting my links appropriately.  Until I figure this out I just changed the font color on my own.  It says they are underlined too but I can't see it on my screen....

Were you one of the crazies that resolved to lose weight in 2011??  Well I didn't.  So I'm going to share some food stuff with you.  And if you're currently crunching on a carrot or celery stick trying to drop a bunch of pounds then don't read this 'cuz I'll only have you breaking that New Year's resolution one week in....

First I have to apologize in being remiss in not better spotlighting the food blogs of my friends. Let's Dish is the food blog of Mom Outnumbered - otherwise referred to as "the wife of a grad school buddy", aka Danelle.  I normally wouldn't use her name but she does -  so the jig is up.  She makes some VERY tasty recipes and I love them because they are generally easy and fast.  She cooks for four boys for cryin' out loud!  (that range in age from 6 - "adult".  We won't give away her hubby's age ; )  I highly encourage you to check out her blog and her extensive recipe collection.  Our favorite is the Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork .  Of course I have a lot still to try.....  But if the hubby likes it and I can throw it in the crock pot it's a winner!!

And then there's Sara Bir, The Sausagetarian.  I've known Sara since we were, well, I don't know - before pre-school??  I know we went to pre-school together.  Suffice it to say, a LONG TIME.  Sara is a profession food writer and chef and lives in Oregon.  Again, I wouldn't have used her name but what can I say??  It's the address of her blog!!    While Sara definitely includes recipes she also writes about how the recipe came about, or why she made it, or, well, LOTS of things!  She's a FOOD WRITER!!  Duh!!  But I also love how she writes about her childhood memories of food in Ohio where we grew up.  That won't mean much to you but it does to me.  It means that she didn't go off to the Culinary Institute of America, move to Oregon and get all hoity-toity about food and forget about all the great stuff you find right along the Ohio river.  In other words - she didn't get too big for her britches!

Ok - now that I feel I have sufficiently introduced the foodies I will tell you what I made this weekend. 

Well, only after I make a confession. 

I've been in a food slump lately.  I haven't really been inspired to try lots of new things.  Usually I go through fits where I'll be making new stuff for months!  But I can't say that really happened in 2010.  I did try a new recipe here and there but nothing like in the past.  But I'm getting re-inspired!

This weekend I made spanikopita.  It's a savory Greek pastry.  It's a spinach and feta mix wrapped in layers of thin phyllo dough.  I used Emeril's recipe from the Food Network.  They rate it as difficult but I don't think it is.  I suppose phyllo can be difficult to work with because it's so thin but just be careful with it and keep the sheets you aren't using covered with a wet towel and you'll be fine.  Oh - and to make the squares just fold the pastry just like they taught you how to fold the flag in scouts. 

Now every version of spanikopita calls for brushing butter between each layer of phyllo.  Let's just say it's a lot of butter.  But Sara informed me you can use olive oil instead.  I'm sure it'll still "grease the tracks" but at least it's healthier and lighter tasting than all that butter. 

It just occured to me that I should be taking snapshots of my food to share!!  I'm no photographer like Neda and Danelle but at least you could have a visual to go with the story...  like if you have NO idea what spanikopita is...

I had a stray sheet of phyllo and decided to see what I could cook up.  (pun intended...)  so I made little strips of the phyllo and put a dollop of basil pesto and goat cheese on each and rolled them suckers up!  Some were triangles.  Some were.... some other shape...  Appetizer size, of course.  They were great!  except I put too much pesto in and it squished out the ends.  But it was soooo  good!

So now I've decided I'm going with that theme and I'm going to add some chicken to the pesto and goat cheese mix and make me some more kopitas!!!  I dropped the "spani" because I dropped the spinach...  I don't know if that's proper Greek or not but who cares.   Maybe I'll call it "Pollo Kopita"!!  I mean really - Greece and Italy are close enough to each other I can mix and match, right??

So watch out - my food mojo is back!! 

(and really the only person this really impacts is the hubby....  he needs to be prepared for many possible "pizza nights" - my fall back in the event a recipe goes waaaay wrong...)

Well, that backfired!!

I try cooking all sorts of things.  Not all of it ends up being "my favorite" but I generally like most things I make.  I would say 90 - 95% of recipes fall into the "I'll make that again" category.

Rarely is it that I make something that I can can barely eat or absolutely hate.

So this must be one of those rare times...

Last night, after making dinner (from a Cooking Light recipe, where I get most of my recipes) I whipped up a quick soup, also out of CL.  I knew tonight would be busy, the hubby at practice and then I leave to swim and run before he gets home.  And I won't be home until 9 or so.  I figured I'd make this soup, take some for lunch today and then eat it for dinner too.  The hubby surely can heat up soup for his dinner, right??

I was interested and excited about this soup.

1. It was easy to make
2. It only made 4 servings so I wouldn't be left eating soup lunch and dinner for the next week
3. It had parsnips - which I feel is a very under-utilized veggie in my house
4. It also used a gourmet mushroom blend - and I love me some fungi!!
5. It had chickpeas and I'm trying to incorporate more beans into my diet (flatulence aside...)
6. It used a prepared rotisserie chicken - can't get easier than that

I whipped all of it together while doing other things like cleaning up the kitchen, watching TV, etc...

Today I just heated up the soup for lunch and...

Ugh!  It was awful!!  Not often will I say that about a recipe.  I practically held my nose to get it all down.  (It was all I had for lunch, after all....) 

Shame on you Cooking Light for publishing that recipe!!!

Hopefully I can get the hubby to suck down a serving before I bring to his attention that I didn't care for it and throw out the remaining 2 servings... (or for my luck he'll actually like it...  who am I kidding?  He doesn't like mushrooms and I don't think he really cares for parsnips....)

Dogs and Soup - but not together

Since I have been using my side of the garage as a "workshop" for my Murphy bed I have been parking in the driveway.  This has brought on an unexpected difficulty.  Now I usually opt to go out the front door in the morning rather than through the garage.  As soon as I open the front door Liam is up and at the door like lightning.  Ok, not really lightning...  but it's what I consider exceptionally fast for him.  And usually I would be quick and nimble enough to open door, step outside in one fell swoop and quickly close it again probably before he could even mange to get his rump off the ground.  However, in the morning I'm usually juggling a purse (yes, I do actually carry one these days), a bag full-o-stuff (usually my lunch and snacks) and on occasion - my computer backpack.  It all makes me quite unwieldy.  and slow.

The past few days Liam has managed to make it to the door so fast that I assumed he really needed to "go".  So I let him out and keep an eye on him while I load up my car.  Except Tuesday I noticed that he wasn't really going and he wasn't particularly interested in going back inside.  I had to call the hubby to come and get him.  This morning I figured out why.

He wants to go with me!

Of our two dogs he's not the "oooh! oooh!  lemme ride!!!  lemme ride!!!" dog.  That would be Nikki.  But it seems Liam thinks I'm going somewhere in the morning and he wants to come too.  When he wouldn't go inside this morning I went in to get the hubby.  When we came back out we saw this:

I think it was his way of saying "Mom take your time.  I'll be right here waiting to go when you're ready."

Last night I made my famous "Quick Chicken Soup".  (maybe the rest of world doesn't know it's famous but I think it is...)  It calls for a rotisserie chicken picked-thru, chicken broth, pre-chopped bag of celery, carrot and onion and orzo (small pasta).  Let's just say that I put in waaaay too much orzo.  I usually do - but this time it was even more.  So this morning, after sitting in the fridge all night, it looked more like a casserole.

I scooped some out to take to work for lunch for the next few days.  I also took 2 cans of chicken broth too.  So now I can choose to have soup or casserole.  That way it doesn't feel like I'm eating the same thing for days in a row!!  Genius!!!

Oh!! That's why!!!!

Ever have something blatantly obvious in front of you but you just don't figure it out at the moment?  And then later it dawns on you and you think what an idiot you are for not realizing it sooner??

Nope??  Just me then, I guess.

The last few days I've been feeling especially bloated.  Right now I'm eating lunch at my desk and it hits me.

DUH!  I've been packing myself full of salads for the past few days! 

Uh, ever heard of fiber???

The hubby and I belong to a CSA (food co-op kinda thing) and in the past two weeks I've gotten lots of salad greens.  The hubby really doesn't eat it and it's been piling up so yesterday I brought in all the greens and any other salad fixin's I had.  I even stopped at the grocery and bought a few things to round the bar out.  And we've been having "Office-Kitchen Salad Bar" for lunch.  ("we" as in my office.)

As I'm sitting here with my plate full-o-salad it occurred to me that I'm eating a lot of raw veggies... more than I have in a looong time.  Duh.  (insert V-8 head smack here...)