just peachy

Tonight my friend Sara came over and we made peach jam, peach pie filling, and Bill made peach martini.

This is my last week of fun time before school. Classes begin a week from Thursday but I have events starting Monday.

Before classes start up I have a few last things to do. On top of peaches, I have 25lbs of tomatoes that need peeling cooking and canning. I have case interview prep to continue. I have cover letters to start and pre-work for my classes.

Anyway, I will also try to read some and lay out and enjoy my week. I can't believe this summer is coming to an end.

Cluck!

I have stayed abreast of the backyard chicken trend and have often said that if we lived in a town that allowed it and hard the space I would love to have a few chickens. So, when I saw this blog post about the chicken trend on one of my favorite econ blogs I had to read it.

I think the author makes and excellent point about the safety factors while ignoring the "freshness" or "nutrient" arguments that I often hear about backyard birds. I don't buy his argument that if you ar raising the bird for humane reasons that it isn't a paradox. I think part of the point of this movement is getting closer to your food source. I think a bigger problem is that once you raise a bird for eggs and it becomes a family "pet" you won't want to kill it.

Anyway, just presenting this as food for thought.

easy nice dinner

so as the quarter is coming to an end Bill and i have even less time to spend cooking and being together. usually this means more fast food etc in our diet but with Cabo around the corner and that bikini I bought laughing at me I am trying to eat a bit better and exercise. So when grocery shopping this weekend we tried to keep this in mind. One of the places i love to go to get quick meals is Trader Joes.

They aren't the best for fresh fruit and veg, but their frozen meals rock. Bill and I bought so pre packaged snowpeas and a port tenderloin that was pre marinated. Last night I made dinner in the time it took bill to get from the train station down town to the train station in Homewood.

Sear tenderloin on all sides in a stove to oven pan

Through some baby carrots and half an onion in the pan with a bit of olive oil

set timer for 20 min

snap snow peans and wash

rinse rice and put in rice cooker.

saute snowpeas

dinner in 30 min - yum!

I think that pork tenderloin might become a new rotational member in my "homey" but easy meals.

so yummy

I forgot to take a picture because I was busy eating it.

Anyway when I was visiting mom we went to a restaurant called Cowboy Ciao and I got the chopped salad there. It was so yummy and different I had to make it for Bill. So I improvised a little but you can look at the original recipe here

What I did was this:

grilled chicken on my panini press

made pearled couscous (yum!)

washed and chopped red leaf lettuce

chopped tomatoes

used Trader Joe's canned corn

Used dried cranberries (b/c that is what I had)

Used shredded mozzarella (again what I had)

The only sadness was that I had not pumpkin seeds or even sunflower. The crunchy really does help the texture and the salty is nice

I used a vinaigrette, but if I was planning to make this again I might try making the dressing.

One other note - both what I did and the online recipe are for chicken, but at the restaurant they serve it with salmon. I am sure that is good, but I like my chicken.

Anyway back to watching the bowl of supers.

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?

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.

Meant to take another picture last night

but forgot. I made those pumpkin muffin/ cupcakes they are like a muffin but iced with cream cheese frosting. best of both worlds. Bill certainly approves, and one small can of caned pumpkin yields 2 batches, so I'll be making more today or tomorrow.

bad blogger

So, it's another friday and I haven't have time to myself all week. School work is kicking my rear. I did get a chance to cook a little this week: Sunday I made a mushroom sauce with noodles and meatballs (half Swedish meatball half stroganoff all yum). Monday I made brownies. Wednesday I made something called "Serbian potato casserole" Basically it was a ground beef and potato casserole, but with a lot of paprika, a bit of cayenne, and some cinnamon and clove.

Sunday, I also planted my garlic as we were having a beautiful weekend, and those will soon be far and few between. I cleaned up my asparagus patch, but didn't have time to take down the rest of my garden.

So lemme tell you all about the reason I am never online. I am on campus usually Monday through Thursday 8:30-5:30. I have four classes, all with great professors, Accounting, Micro Econ, Regression, and Investments. For three of the classes I have mandatory group work, so some of my extra time is trying to do group projects and homework. I also have my own homework and reading to finish. Then I have career services (literally a 3 hour class time every week) and a lot of work to do in getting ready to find an internship. Then there are lunch and learns, club meetings and sometimes a social hour (free cookies and hot chocolate wednesday at 4:30 - thanks Dean Kole!!!)

I keep telling Bill that while school is really only 4 3 hour classes a week, I am more worn out and harder worked than when I was working full time. I think the hardest thing is just getting used to learning that much again.

I am keeping up on other's blogs even if I don't comment as much these days. - Miss you guys!

25 lbs

I have spent the better part of today processing my tomatoes. I have 7 pints of quartered tomatoes in their own juice that are almost done processing. I have (hopefully) 5 pints of sauce. I also have 8 tomatoes left over. In the box there were 3 that were beyond saving. Overall, I am very proud of my tomato filled day. I can't wait to taste the fruits of my labor.

Real classes

So school doesn't start until next thursday, but I had my first "real" class today. It is for my LEAD class, which is a leadership element that every first year has to take. It was weird getting up and sitting in a class room bright and early at 8:30, but I guess I need to get used to it.

I bid for my classes over the weekend, and will find out the results tomorrow. I am still unsure about one of the classes I was going to take so I a currently bidding for 5 (both the accelerated and regular version) hopefully some clarity comes to me over the week because I am honestly torn.

This weekend was nice and Sunday morning we were back to the market after a few weeks off. I bought 25 pounds of tomatoes and i hope to can them on wednesday. I am thinking so into sauce and some into sliced tomatoes.

Otherwise, I am waiting to start any new books until my birthday (amazon gift cards yay!) but I did get Professor Layton and the Unwound Future yesterday. I hope that this game will keep me sufficiently occupied on the train.

Oh and a quick shout out to CB - congrats on your DC tri!!

Don't know how they did it 100 years ago

For six pint jars it took the better part of the day to peel the tomatoes, cook the sauce and process the jars. If Bill and I had to live only off what I could put up for the winter we would be super skinny.

Granted that this was my first time canning so I am sure I could be quicker if I was more experienced.

Btw it seems as if all six sealed properly.

busy busy busy

Wow I can't believe it is already August!

My fifth wedding anniversary will be on the sixth.
Bill's best friend will be married on the sixth.
My brother is turning 25 and my grandfather will be 75 next week (12th and 10th).
Next week, in 3 days, we have 5 birthdays in our families.
My last day of work is the 31st, I can't believe I have been here for 7 years.

Anyway let's talk about the weekend. Friday Bill and I tried to go see Inception, however forces were working against us, as the projector broke during the previews (though at least we weren't half way through the movie). Saturday evening we had Bill's last "new student" event, a wine tasting at Bin 36. It was fun, and we had dinner there with some of the attendees. (Mint ravioli with lamb ragout.... mmm mmm good)
Sunday I ran around non stop.... Winnie had her second to last class and she mad me so proud. Then it was off to the farmers market to get yummy fruits. Went home and made Chicago style (sort of) hot dogs and cut up the musk melon. Went outside and weeded and then ran to the grocery store. Came home and made a tortellini salad and potato salad for dinner and chicken salad for lunch. boiled the carcass of the chicken for broth. did some laundry and then sunk into the couch for a hour of tv before bed.
I needed to do some ironing, but that will just have to happen today or tomorrow.

I hope your weekend was just as productive.

tasting heaven

I had a bit of heaven last night with my farmers market bacon and my home grown lettuce and tomato.

and then just to make sure i had my quota of bacon grease, I sauteed some of my Swiss chard in the bacon pan.

Really how can you be bummed about CFA test results when you have such a simply delicious dinner.

Oh and dessert... peaches and ginger ice cream.

how to make freezer jam

1. Talk about how this year you are going to stop being chicken and make regular cooked jam
2. To back up this claim buy a canning rack thingie and a book on canning
3. Buy quarts of strawberries at the market
4. Realize you haven't even finished last year's double batch because your husband doesn't like jam all that much
5. Realize the berries have been in the fridge for over a week and decide you must make them at 9 pm on Sunday
6. Find out you only have one thing not two of surejel and also realize that some people haven't returned your jars (combined with the jars still in the freezer makes you short)
7. Decide to make one batch using one quart and promise that you will eat the rest of the quarts of berries for lunch
8. Clean the berries and de-stem them

From I'm not creative ...

9. Mash strawberries with potato masher. take well needed break from standing and do this task seated
10. Measure out the insane amount of sugar (4 c!!)

From I'm not creative ...

11. Combine the berry mush and the sugar
12. Heat the pectin in 3/4c water stirring constantly. Bring to boil and boil for one minute
13. Pour pectin syrup into bowl with sugar berries. Stir until sugar isn't grainy (about 3 min)
14. Put into clean, pretty (not pretty clean) glass jars.

From I'm not creative ...

15. Wipe off the dribbles and close all jars. Let sit over night.
16. After 24 hours, put into fridge (3 weeks) or freezer (1 year) move old jam upstairs and eat right now.

ode to a beet

sweet juicy root
so misunderstood and unloved
your greens are so tender
the stems dye my rice bright pink
your root, boiled to perfection
not earthy and muddy as some claim
more like a burst of sugar
you dye my hands as as I clean you
your skin slips off like a sleeve when cooked
the pink red stains everything it touches
thank you for your intricate flavor
and being so complete
I enjoy your entire plant
from the tips of your leaves
to the base of your root
yum.



by the way... there is a reason I stopped writing poetry.

dad's biscuit recipe

dad gave me a recipe for yummy home made biscuits and I made them last night along with a ham. yummy! i never realized how easy homemade biscuits are... and they are so much better than the pre-made types.

weather has been great around here and I can't wait for the weekend.

Creamy tomato and goat cheese risotto

With broiled tilapia and broccoli yum!

Roasted duck

Well since we weren't having duck soup this is my attempt at making the poultry I had thought was chicken.

___

Post dinner analysis:

I should always always should roast my birds for 10 min over the calculated time. I also should rotate it in the oven half way through and flip it to breast side up for crispier and tastier skin. Sigh it was yummy though. and my kitchen smelled soooo good.