Read-a-Thon Goodies

So, what do we have? Cheetos, three kinds of Pringles (Loaded Baked Potato, Pizza, and Sour Cream and Cheddar), Publix dipping chips, Publix spice drops, chocolate candy, and French Onion dip. I also have some frozen pizzas for dinner. I'm sure I'll make hubby run out and fetch me something for lunch, too. One of my favorite parts of the Read-a-Thon is the amount of junk food one gets to consume! I'll be drinking Diet Mountain Dew Ultra-Violet, water, and Propel.

Let's do this.

Mailbox Monday

It's Mailbox Monday again! Join Marcia at
The Printed Page to see what everyone else got in their mailboxes this week.

I received another two BookMooch books. And they are a continuation of my attempts to beef up my science fiction reading. They are both Andre Norton books: Daybreak 2250 A.D. (also published as Star Man's Son) and Witch World. The WW book is the very first one in the series. I'd like to collect them all (though God knows when I'll get a chance to read them).

In other news, Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon is coming up this weekend! This is one of my favorite blogosphere events. I cannot wait to spend my entire Saturday (and part of Sunday?) READING. I need to stock up on snacks, but I'm set for caffeine and books.

I made Rachael Ray's recipe for Aglio Olio (garlic and oil pasta) tonight. Usually I take a pic and post it, but this didn't really look spectacular. It was okay taste-wise (although I suspect that the hubby didn't really like it), but the finished product didn't really LOOK like much...plain ol' pasta! I have leftovers for work this week, at least. Next up, I'd like to try a homemade salad dressing from her original 30 Minute Meals cookbook. I'm really enjoying getting back into the kitchen!

What I Did Yesterday

Step One...

Step Two....

Step Three...Buckeyes!

What I have eaten today:

Spice Drops for breakfast (yeah, AKA gum drops)
Chef Boyardee for lunch
Peanut M&M's as a snack
a plate of frozen French fries for dinner

Such weird, single girl food. Obviously, my husband is not around today. :)

I'm thinking about trying to cook more. We have decided that we eat out too much - spend too much money and eat too much junk doing it. So we're trying to scale back on that. But, honestly, if eating at home results in the above...maybe we should just spend the money?

I need some veggies.

Brief Update

Less than three weeks till the wedding. I am freaking out a little, mostly over the few last things that need to be done. But I'm taking Friday off of work to get some things accomplished, since most places I need to deal with aren't open on the weekend.

I finished Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood last night and began The Fire, which is the sequel to The Game, which I read over Christmas. I'll post a review of the Ya-Yas soon.

Also...look what I made! Paula Deen's Caramel Apple Cake with Caramel Topping:

The caramel topping is homemade...mmm! Can't wait to cut myself a piece!

Oh, also! I have the best friends in the entire world. Saturday, my shower and bachelorette party, was WONDERFUL. My friends were more than generous in their gift-giving. Love them!

My Creations

So, I'm trying this new thing called organization, perhaps you've heard of it? Ricky and I went to the store today and I spent all evening cooking the meals for the week. Hopefully, I'll be better able to handle Weight Watchers (yeah, I'm back on it) if I have the meals made in advance. I even froze some for later in the month. I hope it doesn't backfire, and I end up throwing out a whole bunch of cooked food that we just didn't get around to eating.

What did I make? Here it is (if I can figure out the pictures):

This is Layered Mexican Chicken, which has chicken chunks, black beans, sour cream, low-fat Mexican cheese, chilies, and corn tortillas. VERY easy to make. (All recipes courtesy of Weight Watchers.)




This is Vegetable-Peanut Stir-Fry (sans peanuts at this point). I'd just finished making it and the white misty stuff is not a ghostly visitor from another realm, but steam coming off the just-finished stir-fry. It was supposed to be tonight's meal, but it was the Fiance's turn to do dinner, so he just Foreman-ed up some chicken for us. (Why do I go to so much trouble?!) This dish will be reheated later this week and served over brown rice with crushed peanuts on top. YUM!

This is Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Dill. This is to be a side dish with the Mexican chicken thingie and/or a lunch for me to take to work. Also VERY easy.

And, last but not least, the Tri-Color Pesto Rotini. This is probably going to be my favorite of all the things I made tonight: rotini, sun-dried tomatoes, red and green bell pepper, PESTO. I can't wait to heat some up for dinner and take some as a cold pasta salad for lunch.

I have to say that I am impressed with the ease of the Weight Watchers recipes. I was worried that this would take me all night, but it only took three hours...during which time I also stopped to eat dinner with My Beloved. I've used every dish in my kitchen, but now I have (HEALTHY!) food enough to last me until I've washed them all...

Holiday Random-ness

Christmas shopping is, for the most part, done. I would like to get Ricky a thing or two more for his stocking, but the particular last item I want is SOLD OUT at the particular place I went looking for it. (He reads this blog, or at least I think he does, so I have to be kind of vague.)

I have the makings of my holiday peanut butter fudge sitting on the stove, to be made later today or maybe tomorrow, if I have time.

The office Christmas party was last night. I pooped out on the bail bondsman's party that is THE big holiday fete. I was just too tired after working all day and then partaking of the Christmas cheer with my co-workers. I'm invited to yet another party tonight. Not sure if I'm going. Mostly, I just want to curl up in my apartment and read or surf the internet. I don't really feel like schmoozing. Or drinking. Which means something is wrong with me, because I ALWAYS feel like drinking.

The fiance' and I had an unaccustomed amount of togetherness this past week. He was on a short break from job number three (!!!) while they switched him to another store, so we got to spend our evenings together, which we haven't done for quite a while. And I didn't even kill him. We actually went on a dinner date on Wednesday. And it was nice.

Tomorrow, I plan to accompany two of our good friends up north, to "Central Florida," to see another couple that we used to work with and their new baby girl.

In between all the merry-making, fudge-making and baby-meeting, I'm not having much reading time. Since my opportunities to read have been pretty broken-up lately, I've been indulging in magazines. Currently, I'm browsing the November/December Bookmarks. I asked for a subscription for Christmas...I HOPE SANTA BRINGS ME ONE! (Uh, hint hint.) And today, for some unknown reason, I decided I had to have the Rachael Ray magazine that I saw in the checkout, despite the millions and millions of BOOKS staring at me from the spare room, waiting to be read. But come on, how am I to resist 329 meals that rock, or the holiday cookie blowout? I mean, really. I've never read Rachael's magazine, but I love her cookbooks and cooking shows. Although she should annoy me to high heaven, I ADORE the lovely Ms. Ray. I just hope this isn't a must-have subscription. I think one to two magazines a month are my limit.

Review: Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells (and Thanksgiving)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a character-driven novel about the Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana. Big Shep and Viviane (Vivi) Walker have four children: Siddalee (the "main character"), Little Shep, Lulu, and Baylor. The family is rounded out by Chaney, the African-American farmhand who helps Big Shep run the farm, and his wife, Willetta, who is also Vivi's maid. Vivi also has a group of crazy girlfriends that some may recognize from another book: the Ya-yas. The story alternates between the 1960's and 1991, as well as between all the characters' points of view. Some might find the alternating viewpoints or time periods confusing, but I thought Ms. Wells did a good job giving each character an individual voice. By far, my favorite character was Sidda, who was very intelligent and a complete bookworm. (Wonder why I liked her!) I love the part of the book where she runs away and is found hiding in the town's bookmobile!

At first glance (especially if you're looking at the pink cover, featuring a little girl jumping rope), the book seems to be a light Southern read: cute vignettes about an Old South family growing up in the 1960's. But the Walker family hides several dark secrets. Vivi and Big Shep both drink far too much, and that leads them down other unsavory paths. There's really not much of a plot to the book; it's mostly just the story of a family told from multiple viewpoints. I'm interested in reading the other two books in the series to see if anything else about the Walkers is revealed.

I really did enjoy the book. Even though it's not plot-driven, I liked most of the Walkers. And I HATED Vivi, which I think I was supposed to. I'd give the book four out of five whatevers. It's a good read for people who like Southern novels and/or character-driven works.

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We went to the fiance's aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I ended up enjoying myself. Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday, but since law school, I haven't been able to go home and share it with MY family. Thus, I inevitably end up depressed on Thanksgiving, remembering the years when we would all gather at my Grandma's house and eat till we burst. I know it's not the same anymore: Grandma is in a nursing home now, so dinner is at my parents' house; one of my sisters is now married, so she doesn't come anymore; not all of the cousins show up, depending on what their significant others are doing; there's no more touch football in the yard; etc. But I miss it anyway.

Ricky's family did it up right, though. This is the first year we've celebrated with his extended family. The last couple of years, it was just me and him and his parents. So it was nice to get back to a big family Thanksgiving. We had spicy turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, con gris (black beans and rice), grilled asparagus, frijoles refritos con tocino (refried beans with bacon), homemade cranberry sauce, corn, MOJITOS!...and I made a Cheesy Broccoli Bake to share. Everything was delicious. And his cousin Miguel and his wife Elizabeth had an announcement to make: they're pregnant again! So it was a nice night all around, even if I was missing my family. I'll get to see them soon enough...Christmas is coming!

We've got the tree up, now we just need to get the lights on. But we're both suffering from a terrible chest cold, so that might have to wait for Sunday.

Culinary Bungling

I love to cook, but that doesn't mean that I'm good at it. My fiance' works about a billion hours a week, and the only night we have for dinner together at the house is Sunday. Tonight, after several weeks of having other dinner obligations on Sunday nights, I finally had an opportunity to cook dinner for my beloved. I decided that I was going to make Paula Deen's fried chicken recipe. I was all ready...I had all the ingredients, I'd gone to Publix early today to get the chicken, and I even had the courage to ask the butcher to cut it up for me (MUCH more affordable than buying individual pieces, but I have a strange fear of asking the butcher to do things, after the meat fiasco of a couple months ago).

So, I'm getting ready to fry up some chicken. The Dutch oven is on the stove, heating, and I add the vegetable oil. And it CATCHES ON FIRE. Do you throw water on a grease fire, or NOT throw water on a grease fire? I can't remember! After screaming for the fiance', I remember that the vegetable oil package said to smother the fire, so I grab the lid for the Dutch oven and throw it on top. After the smoke cleared (literally), I tried to decide what I was going to do.

Okay, I decide, I'll just fry it in olive oil. So I heat my olive oil and start my first batch of chicken. Seems to be going well at first. Then, I realize that the outside is getting MIIIIGHTY crispy. And by crispy, I mean burnt. So I take the chicken out and cut into it. Raw at the bone. Totally raw. I try to continue the cooking, but the outside is just charred. The second batch, not much better.

This is why God made KFC. We chucked all the half-raw chicken and brought home some greasy popcorn chicken instead. Oh hell yeah.

I believe my downfall was twofold: my chicken was too big (over three pounds, when the recipe called for a one and a half to two pound chicken...but it was all that Publix had!) and/or my oil was too hot. I watch enough Food Network to know that if your oil is too hot, it will burn the outside of whatever you're cooking, while undercooking the interior. And if it's not hot enough, you'll get grease-logged food.

So, as I told the fiance', there's ONE thing in this world that I can't do: fry chicken. I guess we'll continue to order ours in the drive through.

Mailbox Monday!

Only one lovely book to report this week (we're trying to save money). Through the lovely folks at McBooks Press and LibraryThing, I received a copy of The Jewish Princess Cookbook. Now, I am neither Jewish nor a princess (although the Fiance' might disagree on that second point), but I do LOOOOOVE to cook. Trying new recipes is one of my favorite things. This cookbook looks so cute that I can't wait to try something out of it...something that my Kosher friends can eat too!

Meat Debacle

I love to cook. I'm not very creative, can't just hop into the kitchen and "make up" a recipe, but I love to dip into one of my eight thousand cookbooks and haul out someone else's recipe to make for Ricky and myself. Right now, I'm working my way through Paula Deen's "The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook." I saw a recipe for Bourbon Beef Tenderloin, which sounded really good, and we haven't had beef in a while, so I decided to try it.

While searching out the ingredients at Publix, I didn't see any beef tenderloin. So I decided, today, we were going to an honest-to-God butcher shop here in town and picking up a beef tenderloin. So Ricky and I set out early this morning and make our way to the friendly neighborhood butcher shop. And I found out why the butcher is so friendly: he's rollin' in the dough! I blithely asked for a beef tenderloin to feed eight to ten people (that's what the recipe calls for), and the butcher grabbed it up, trimmed it, tied it, got it all ready for me. I stepped up to pay and he said, "That'll be ninety-eight dollars." I thought he was kidding at first. Then, when I realized he WASN'T, my jaw dropped. Then I almost went into cardiac arrest.

I felt like an idiot. How could I not have asked the price first? And I felt so bad for making him do all that work for something I simply COULD NOT AFFORD. And I felt so embarrassed, after all my harping at Ricky about saving money and not buying things we don't need, that I was about to spend that kind of money on MEAT. So I meekly asked for half. The butcher told me that wouldn't feed ten, but I said we'd make it work, since I couldn't afford to spend almost a hundred dollars on a fucking piece of beef. It was still fifty-five. Fifty-five dollars on some dead cow. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PAIRS OF SHOES I COULD GET FOR THAT?!?!?!?!

So the golden calf rests in the fridge right now, awaiting its bourbon marinade, which I will mix up in the morning. It will marinate through the morning, through the Dolphins game tomorrow, until the evening when I roast its ass and Ricky and I devour it. Should be enough meat to last us all week, and we WILL eat it all.

Book Slump

Although my sidebar says that I'm currently reading The Empress of Weehawken, I'm kind of...not. I haven't been into a book since I finished Defending the Damned a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it's that I liked that book so much, maybe I just needed to let it settle, but I can't seem to get motivated to pick up another book. I've just been reading my Bookmarks and Glamour magazines (of which I have plenty to catch up on, but...) I do tend to need some time between books to mull things over, but this is a little ridiculous. I mean, I finished the last book on Sept. 7 or 8, and it's now the 26th. Sigh.

This is quite an unusual phenomenon for me. I'm almost ALWAYS into some book or another. Well, once I finish the current issue of Glamour, I won't have any choice but to dive back in. Anyone have any ideas to jump-start me?

Oh yeah, I forgot! I made Paula Deen's Low Country Boil last week, to rave reviews from the Fiance'. Amazing, since he doesn't really like seafood. I pared it down to just two servings, from the original six, since we weren't going to consume that much of it (and to save money, too!). It was great. Both of us enjoyed it. I have yet to make something out of her cookbook that isn't excellent. Up next? Bourbon Beef Tenderloin!!!

Vacation

I've been spending a lot of time at the beach with my sisters, and I have the lobster-shoulders to prove it. We're taking a break from swimming today in favor of indoor activities, which, hopefully, will not burn us. I've taken them to eat at one of my favorite places, and we've eaten at home a bit, too, since we're all poor. We've been watching the Olympics obsessively, when they're on, although I've been falling asleep much too early. In between all that, we've been having all the fun a flock of us generally have when we're in the same place. Ricky seems to fit right in...it's been a great week so far.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I think we're going to have brunch at our favorite diner today, and probably do dinner with a couple of my co-workers. Ricky's brother is supposed to come into town today, also, so maybe we'll have dinner with him tomorrow night. All this eating out is kind of hard on the wallet (and the waistline -- Weight Watchers is out the window this week), but it sure is fun.

More book news when I get a chance to get back to reading. It's been mostly magazines and the beach this week.

News

I took my personal day today, since I received an e-mail last week stating that I would lose it if I didn't use it by the end of June. So it was nice to sleep in this morning and spend the early part of the day with Ricky. We just ran errands, but I like to hang out with him when I can.

Wednesday night, I made Paula Deen's She-Crab Soup recipe. Ricky hated it, as he is not a fish-lover. It was a bit fishy for me, even though I do like fish, but I ate my whole bowlful. There are plenty of leftovers, but I'm not sure I'll get through them. Even if the soup is good reheated, I'm not sure I can eat six more helpings before it goes bad, but I will sure try. I should take some of it for lunch at work next week. And it could be a lunch for me over the weekend.

Been dipping into book blogs and adding to my already ridiculously long reading list. I've spent so much time reading ABOUT books that I haven't kept up well with the one I'm actually reading right now, The Prince of Tides. It's not that the book isn't engaging, it's just that I'm obsessive-compulsive. And that I've been on vacation. And a million other things. Maybe I'll finish it this week.

Catching Up

Monday, Memorial Day, was one of the most perfect days yet this year. Ricky and I woke early and headed to the beach to catch some sun. It was a gorgeous morning, bright, sunny, a light breeze, not too hot. Unfortunately, that light breeze meant that the waves were RIDICULOUS and, being the fool that I am, I attempted something I never should have...going in the water. I was beaten severely by the Atlantic and when I got home, I found about a pound and a half of sand in my suit, not to mention scrapes and scratches all over my knees and feet. I also pulled a muscle in my back that has yet to fully heal, but it was worth it. We didn't really stay very long, as couples with children soon parked themselves unnecessarily near us. When we returned home, I spent some time reading books and blogs. We met Ricky's parents for dinner at a local sports bar, and then went to BJ's with them. His mom had bought us a little grill for the patio, so that was nice. (We tried it out last night and the burgers were YUMMY!)

I finally got a library card this week. My first since childhood. I don't know why I haven't had one in so long, but it's nice to know that the library is once again a possibility. I need to stop buying everything I want to read, because that is leading to a lack of space and a lack of funds.

Ricky got a new second job, helping a pair of documentary filmmakers tend their experimental garden. Sounds intriguing to me, and it will allow him to exercise his green thumb. The cactus and palm tree on our patio are taking over, along with his new (and extensive) herb garden, so this should be right up his alley. I really hope he likes it as much as he thinks he will.

No culinary explorations recently, although Paula Deen's Pecan-Stuffed Dates went over like gangbusters at the Summer Smash party at work. (We like to party in my office. We had another party today, pizza-type, as a going-away festivity for one of the co-workers, although not the one who got FIRED today!) I intend to try She Crab Soup next week, and I'm making Ricky eat it, even if he's scared.

I'm getting two interns at work. Well, I have to share them, but still. Somehow I was singled out for the honor (she said, not ENTIRELY sarcastically). I don't know what I will do with them. Hopefully one of them will be a Certified Legal Intern and able to handle her own docket. The other is an undergrad, so I'll be doing plenty of talking and explaining, I predict. Speaking of work, I have to go in tomorrow to prepare for the possibility of trials on Monday. Sigh.

Back Again

Friday I made a new recipe, one I got off of the Weight Watchers website. I had needed something new to do with chicken breast, and what I found was what turned out to be a pretty good recipe for Chinese Pineapple Chicken with Black Bean Sauce. The one slight problem was that I bought the ingredients last week, thinking I would make it then; I froze the chicken and pretty much everything else kept well...except the ginger. I had forgotten to take it out of the plastic produce bag and it was moldy. So we had to go without it, but the dish was good anyway. The sauce wasn't as thick as I expected. Maybe I'll try either a little more black bean sauce to up the ratio with the pineapple juice, or I'll add in a little flour or cornstarch to thicken it up next time. The ginger, which I do plan to add on the next go round, should punch up the Asian flavor a little too...this version was more Hawaiian than Asian.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is slower going than I thought. The book is good, if a little too ADD for my taste. There just doesn't seem to be much direction, but I will assume that the NOBEL PRIZE WINNER knew what he was doing and that it is a conscious style choice, rather than a lack of ability. This is really my first foray into magical realism. I've done fantasy, I've done whatever you would call Diana Gabaldon's books (I don't know, maybe they are also magical realism), but this is new to me altogether. Upon researching the term, I found that Don DeLillo is listed as an English-language example of magical realism. Interesting...

The Fiance' and I are off to check out a potential wedding location today. More on that later, if it pans out.

Food for Thought

I realize that I haven't been updating my latest attempts at culinary creation. Last week I made a Fish Fry featured in one of Rachael Ray's earliest cookbooks (Comfort Foods). I couldn't find haddock, so I subbed in tilapia (ON SALE!) and it came out great. I managed not to burn anything, and I pulled together a homemade tartar sauce of my own recipe to round it out. I did not make the accompanying recipe for slaw (one thing at a time), but I think it was good nonetheless. Not sure Ricky enjoyed it that much, not being the biggest fish fan on earth, but he SAID it was good. That means he either liked it or he's learned something from our last 18+ months together.

Next up, I'm switching to Paula Deen's cookbook. Oh, and I'm trying a recipe for some kind of Asian-Pineapple Chicken dish off of weighwatchers.com. More on that to come.