New Blog!

Hello everyone!

Check out my new blog home over at Veggies, Cake & Cocktails!

I would love to know what you think of the new site...

Thanks to everyone who checks it out!

Wisdom Teeth, Smishdom Teeth!

Not only have I been sick for the last couple weeks but last week I was woken up in the middle of the night with the worst sort of mouth pain. It wasn't just a tooth that hurt it was my entire jaw and throat on the left side of my face! I wasn't excited about going to the dentist but I knew I had to make an appointment when the pain was so severe I couldn't eat!

Yesterday was the day I would take on the dentist chair. See, I still have my wisdom teeth and I was pretty sure those pesky little things were to blame for my jaw pain. My appointment wasn't until after lunch and I forgot to bring my toothbrush to work so I used one of these:

This is one great invention. I always carry some in my purse, you never know when you will need a fresh mouth;)

I also popped a few DayQuil in hopes of stopping my cough for the 10 minutes my dentist would be checking out my mouth.

It also helped that the views from my dentist chair are pretty amazing:

Verdict:

As suspected my wisdom teeth were to blame. I can get my wisdom teeth taken out or use a homemade mouth wash everyday. I'm going with option #2 for now but who knows what will happen in the future.

I also must mention the fact that my dentist is awesome! I've hated every dentist I've ever come in contact with EXCEPT for my current dentist. If you are in the Chicago area and need a good dentist contact me and I will get you his information.

Dinner

After a long day at work Patrick and I walked to our voting location to do our civic duty. When we were finally able to get home I was exhausted and did not feel like cooking anything. Luckily my husband is good in the kitchen and he stepped up to the batters plate.

Spicy Broccoli Stir-fry Over Rice

• Frozen broccoli
• White rice
• Red pepper flakes
• Schezwan sauce
• Olive oil

1. Put a bit of olive oil in a pan.


2. Add broccoli, red pepper flakes and schezwan sauce and cook until broccoli is to your desired texture.


3. Put broccoli mixture over rice and enjoy!

After dinner I wanted something sweet so I decided to put some frozen cookie dough in the microwave. Turns out it wasn't such a good idea:

Not only did I burn the heck out of the cookie but I turned our condo into a chimney. Smoke was everywhere and now all my clothes smell like burnt cookie!

Told you I wasn't in the mood to cook tonight;)

Question:

Did you vote on Tuesday?

Have you ever burnt anything in the microwave?

Starbucks Holiday Cup !!!!!!

Woohoo!!! I received my first Starbucks holiday cup of the 2010 season.

This cup says, " My sister and I would just stare up at the sky. Trying to see where the snowflakes were born".

Looks like they have multiple versions of the holiday cup this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what they all look like!

Under-the-Weather Comfort Food

The last week has been a rough one for me. I've been working like crazy and sick as a dog. I have this cough that just won't stop no matter how many Halls I suck!

I was very happy to see that a childhood favorite dinner was on the schedule for Monday night. Not just a favorite dish but the dish that my mom would make when I was feeling under the weather.

Mrs. Grass Soup with Homemade Dumplings

Dumpling Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Start by beating the eggs and seasoning:

Add flour to egg mixture:

Drop teaspoon amounts of mixture into boiling water. Remove when dumplings float in the water for a minute or so:

Done! Simple, right?

Finished product isn't pretty but they sure do taste great in all kinds of soups and stews!

Dinner

Mixed greens with a garlic vinaigrette dressing:

And a bowl of Mrs. Grass chicken noodle soup:

With homemade dumplings, of course:

A very filling meal with loads of good memories attached:)

Question:

What dish do you like to eat when you are feeling under-the-weather?

A Dog Halloween

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I did!

I started off the day getting my outfit together so I could participate in the Halloween fun and hand out candy. I dressed up as a disco girl. I've actually worn this the last 5 years because I secretly wish I could rock the Blonde fro wig everyday of the week!

After I was all situated it was time to dress the dogs. Solera was Frankenstein and Cappy was a Bat dog.

The association organized trick-or-treating in our building. Those condos that wanted to participate put a note on their door so the kids would know which doors to knock on. We had about 20 kiddies show up at our door and they were all very cute!

However, I think our candy bowl scared more than a few of them. We thought it was innocent enough...

until we realized when you stick your hand in the bowl the skeletons head moved and it eyes glowed red. I hope we didn't cause any nightmares:(

Dinner

After all the Halloween night fun, I started on dinner.

I had an acorn squash sitting on my counter from my last CSA order and it was screaming to be prepared like Iowa Girl Eats stuffed acorn squash.

I prepared my squash exactly like Iowa Girl Eats but added cayenne pepper and chili powder:

However, I stuffed my squash a bit differently. I prepared some ground turkey using taco seasoning. I also prepared some Stove Top following the directions on the package minus the butter.

Next I put a scoop of cooked ground turkey in the cooked squash and topped it with some prepared stuffing. Then I placed the stuffed squash back in the oven to broil for a couple minutes...and voila...

Great meal! The husband even liked the squash!

This dish will be making a repeat performance in my kitchen:)

And it's a Wrap

After dinner all I felt like doing was slamming my head into a pillow and calling it a night. Looks like I wasn't the only one feeling exhausted...

It was a long day for the pups too!

Question:

Do you dress your pets up for Halloween?

Meatyballs !?!

I can't wait until the day that work doesn't consume my thoughts and my time both day and night. Not only will I have a better work life balance and be a happier person all around but my blog will be much more interesting!

Breakfast

Starbucks grande skinny vanilla latte:

Lunch

I've been a fan of Chef Foss' food and humor for some time now. When I heard that he was moving on from his gig at Lockwood and starting a food truck featuring meatballs, I was excited.

My husband and I have been stalking following his twitter account to see where the food truck would be parked. We were not very successful, either the truck was too far away or he was sold out of sandwiches by the time we go to the truck.

This all changed on Monday. We finally tracked the Meatyballs Mobile down:

Ordered 2 sandwiches to split.

The first sandwich was the Meatyballs. I always like to try the food named after the restaurant (or in this case, food truck)!

However, this was not the sandwich we were expecting. We were expecting meatballs with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese - YUM!!! Instead we got the meatballs with mushrooms, shallots and 4 cheese sauce.

I don't like mushrooms so this sandwich didn't taste all that great to me. I found it kind of bland but it would have been good with tomato sauce or BBQ sauce.

The second sandwich was the Thai'd Turkey Balls - Coconut Milk, Chili Sauce, Lemongrass. This sandwich was very tasty and the chili sauce gave it a really nice flavor.

Looking forward to going back and taking a bite out of the BBQ Pork Balls!

After our ball themed lunch my husband decided to get a shoe shine.

The shoe shiner actually lit Patrick's shoes on fire, totally crazy! Can you see it?

Dinner

We have no food in our house so we went to Flo & Santos. I just love all the exposed brick in this place:

Crispin cider to drink:

Sauerkraut and Canadian bacon pizza:

Flo & Santo's has become one of my favorite places for thin crust pizza. So flavorful and I really like all the different types of toppings.

Question:

Have you ever eaten out of a food truck? If not, would you?

Pumpkins in the Park 5K

A couple weeks ago I signed up for my second 5K, Pumpkins in the Park. This was definitely a race the entire family could take part in. It was so cute seeing the kids running around in their Halloween costumes and running in the CLIF Kid Spooky Sprints. There was also a tent where kids (and adults) could decorate a pumpkin to take home with them. Good times had by all!

The Run

This was a hard one for me for multiple reasons. We were running on a trail which I'm not used to and it was packed. The trail was not only packed by runner and walkers but strollers, double strollers and dogs.

I always wondered why a lot of the races didn't allow dogs to run and now I know why. About 8 minutes into the race an owner lost control of her dog and I tripped over him. Normally I wouldn't be upset but this owner didn't say sorry and gave me a look to suggest I did something wrong. I have 2 dogs and if I chose to take them on a 5K race I would make sure to stay to the side and not weave in and out of all the people like this owner was doing. Okay my bitch fest is over;)

I put the "tripping" episode behind me and ran on. I wasn't able to train prior to this race so my only goal was to beat my PR. Due to some of the race conditions I didn't think it would happen but I'm happy to say that I did beat my PR!!!

Sorry about the lack of pictures but I will make up for it in a couple weeks when I do my 3rd 5K race, Hot Chocolate!

Question:

Is anyone else going to be running or walking Hot Chocolate in Chicago? Did you do any running this weekend?

No Machine Pesto

My husband talks a lot.


He amazes me with all the information he has in his brain and it's great that he wants to share his knowledge with others. However, sometimes my brain can't take it and I have to tune him out (sorry, Patrick, I love you!).


With that said, he has more than a couple stories that are impossible to tune out. One of those stories has to do with his love for Pesto. He has fond memories of visiting his grandma's house, in Tennessee, when he was little. As a little boy he remembers watching his grandma's "male friend" make fresh pesto and how wonderful it tasted. P has mentioned, multiple times, that that was the best pesto ever and nothing has compared to it ... until now.


Start with cleaned and dried fresh basil:



3 cloves fresh garlic:

Small handful of pine nuts:

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese:

Start chopping the basil and garlic:

add pine nuts and continue chopping (at this point you will thanking your good knife or cursing at your not-so-good knife):

add grated cheese and, yep, chop away (no blender or food processor allowed):

All ingredients should be chopped to oblivion and formed into a pesto brick:



Mix in a small amount of good olive oil:

Add to pasta and you will be enjoying a fantastic dish of pesto pasta!

Yep, I've been able to recreate a dish from my husbands past. He says it tastes just as good as his memories.

However, part of his admission may have to do with the fact that he watched me working away and he has to live me with:) Either way, I'll take the compliment!

Question:

Have you ever prepared pesto from scrach?

Ding, Ding, Ding ... We have a winner!

Monday was Columbus day so I had the day off work. Love 3 day weekends but hate having to cram 5 days of work in a 4 day work week. Oh well, I'll take a 3 day weekend anytime!

I had some time so I made Patrick and I Last Minute Lasagna that I found on the Real Simple website. I love Real Simple recipes because they are, well, real simple to make;)

Not only is this dish easy to make but it tastes good AND is a cinch to clean up. Ding, ding, ding ... we have a winner!

I pretty much followed the recipe except I added broccoli in place of the spinach and added less cheese to cut down the fat content.

My plate:

On the side we had a piece of Texas Toast which was crunchy, cheesy and garlicky!

The lasagna was so good.

This dish is definitely a crowd please and will be making more appearances in my kitchen.

Next time I'm going to try and health it up a bit by using whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese and loading it up with more veggies. I will for sure let everyone know how the healthier version turns out.

Question:

Have you ever made a dish featured on the Real Simple website or in the magazine?