happy thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day.

Everything turned out so wonderful today. We got up made pumpkin pies, got the turkey in made mashed potatoes hung out and then the family got here.

Because my mom and I had made everything else yesterday, it was a very easy relaxed day today. And I think for the first time in my mom's life the turkey was done before the time estimated. (by about 10 min) If you are all interested I can post links to the recipes I used for almost every thing I made.

Lily brought a corn chowder that was awesome and a traditional green bean casserole made with soy milk.

After we all had cleaned up and hung out my family (the brothers, mom, Bill and I) went to the horseshoe casino in Indiana. We were able to see my brother-in-law (he was working and there for didn't come to dinner), and got a tour of the casino. It was an odd way to end the evening, but bill and I had a good time and it was nice to see Pete.

Tomorrow we are up early and off to see Maddy dance.

Kale

yeah so while I haven't been posting as much, life does keep moving on. Last week was not too bad class-wise, and pretty fun otherwise. Friday was an awesome day, and made me so thankful to be able to have this experience.

I had a lunch and learn on campus so I drove to hyde park for a speech (but mostly just an awesome conversation) with Marianne Bertrand. Prof Bertrand is a wage and labor economist and wrote a paper about the wage gap between male and female MBA graduates using Booth data. While the results are rather depressing, if you want to narrow the gap in wages don't have kids, the discussion was interesting and lively.

After the speech, I drove to my hair cut. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get very excited by getting my hair cut. I almost always do something different from the time before (this time I colored my hair and did some fun layers). I think of my hair as a fun accessory like shoes or purses (which is probably why I love changing it).

From my hair stylist I raced home, took care of the win-ster and then headed downtown for a Booth event. Bill and I both attended and it was sponsored by the alumni association. The cool thing was that because it was part-time full time and alum Bill and I both knew people there and we were both able to meet new people. The event was held at a sushi restaurant that Bill has wanted to try for a while.

So Friday was awesome.

But what does any of this have to do with kale? nothing... Kale is really really good for you and I am never sure what to do with it (other than add it to soup). I make a really yummy kale recipe on saturday and thought I would share. (it is in the bon appetit mag currently). The mag suggested using dried beans but i had neither the time or patience for that.

1 can of cannellini beans (the white ones)

about 4-5 health leaves of kale de-stemmed and chopped roughly

drain the the beans and rinse them.

then put them in a pot with enough water boil the kale.

put some seasoning into the pot along with some salt (i used italian season, 1 bay leaf, sage and some shallot salt)

put heat on med-low and bring to a simmer (this is where cooking the beans from scratch would give you more flavor)

once the beans are at a rapid simmer (almost boil), add kale and cover until they cook down.

Let kale cook at least 5-10 min or until the rest of your dinner is done

drain the water (you could use this for soup) and serve with a bit of lemon juice and cheese (parma is what i used).

enjoy!

leaf be gone

So this year Bill and I tried the one and done tactic with the fall chores. This lead to 5 hours of raking, mowing, gutter cleaning, garden clearing, garage sweeping and other fun chores. I am not sure if this is the best tactic, but it worked (though I still have some tulip bulbs to plant and some weeds that look like shrubs in the back yard).

This weekend was the costume party that ended my leadership program. The theme was heroes and villains and Bill and I went as the Joker and Harley Quinn [i was trying to add pictures but it is getting late and i have tried 3 times now sorry :(]

Yesterday I ordered the turkey for thanksgiving. I have a lot of work to do on my house between now and then. You would think I would have all this time as a student to keep house and what not. anyway, here's the menu so far:

Turkey

Sausage and chestnut dressing

Pomegranate-Cranberry Sauce (and canned cran for Bobby)

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potatoes (not sure mashed or maple ginger)

Lily's making

green bean casserole

corn chowder

croissants

Bill's mom is bringing

honey baked ham

There will be pies but the who and what are nebulous right now. there will also be rice, great lakes Christmas ale, cranberry sparkling water, and lots of people.

any suggestions on what i am forgetting or your fav thanksgiving recipe?

Fall veggies

Alright the dog can't interrupt me

because I am at school.

So now that midterms are over I have a bit more time to myself and have gotten into cooking a bit more at home. I also don't know if I posted about this, but as part of my food club at school I went to a olive oil and vinegar tasting. I know, drinking little "shots" of olive oil or balsamic vinegar doesn't sound tasty, but it was, and afterwards I bought some oils and vinegars.

One of the two oils I got was a blood orange oil. It was so flavorful, and the store clerk insisted that he used it in a ton of baking and cooking. Since we got it, Bill made a delish roasted chicken with a honey soy glaze... with the orange oil it tastes like a healthy version of orange chicken. And I made chocolate chip cookies subbing out one of the two sticks of butter for the oil. the cookies turned out perfect and they have this nice citrus finish.

We have also made use of the balsamic (Brussels sprouts) and the toasted sesame oil (stir fry).

Ok so I know this was sorta boring... but i was really excited about these purchases and their uses.

Midterms over and yet finals are so close

I hope you all had a wonderful extra hour of sleep this weekend I know I did!

Things over here are going well. Midterms are over and we celebrated by going out with a large portion of my first year class on Saturday night. Everyone had a great time, and because the event started early we were in bed at a decent time.

I have some cooking updates to share (I made cookies with half olive oil and half butter!) but Winnie decided to start whining as soon as I sat down to blog.

Hope you are all having a great November. I am reading your blogs even if I am not posing here.

hope y'all had a nice Halloween

winnie says happy halloween, and please don't boil me in a pot


We had a fun filled weekend (after studying most of Saturday, that is). Since we moved into our house the number of trick or treaters has gone down in the last few years... so we had a surplus of candy. We had a lovely day though (the weather was never this nice when I was a kid). And our nice neighbors invited us over for ghoul-lash and pecan pie. This allowed us to not cook and enjoy some time with other people before hitting the books.

I have my fist midterm today and am being a bit manic depressive about it. as in ... i looked at the practice and all of this makes sense... therefore I will aces this ... and five min later ... crap if it is easy for me it is easy for everyone and i bet the questions will be all these hard things that we didn't practice on our homework and practice test.

I will let you all know how it goes.