All Purpose

I can’t believe I’m on my last week at work. It did go by pretty fast. I’m winding things down now, finishing up the last few things, packing my office, doing errands on campus and then I’ll be done. YAY!

In other news, I’ve been able to add a bunch of new things since gluten, namely eggs and citrus. So of course I needed to make something to celebrate having citrus in my life.

I went for another Smitten Kitchen recipe, one I’ve done many times, the wonderful Margarita Cookies. I always get raves when I make these, they are simple, sound fancy and taste delicious.

I think this is basically a shortbread type cookie and you add lime and orange zest along with tequila and then you roll the dough in a sugar and sea salt mixture before baking and it’s the perfect combo of salty, sweet and tart.

Probably the hardest part of this recipe is rolling the dough into a log, but my laziness has helped me find an easy way to do even that.

Of course mine is not uniformly shaped, but it’s still yummy. Now it’s ready to be rolled in the sugar and salt mixture.

Then you slice and bake. You could totally make these and wrap them up pretty (in log form) with baking instruction and give them as gifts.

So citrus? Passed the test.

No Comments | In: baking, life | | #

So I’ve been doing this cleanse thing since the beginning of May. It’s been very interesting and challenging. Basically, I spent a week eating veggies, fruit, and select grains while drinking green juice every day. Then the real work began and one by one I began adding foods back into my diet to test. It’s two months later and I’m still not finished with my reintegration stage. I’ve got several key things back into my diet (dairy, fish, chicken, turkey, tomatoes, nuts, garlic), but I’ve still got a lot of stuff left to test and I’ve got some things that didn’t work out so well.

Anyway, I realized (too late) that this would be have been good blog fodder but I had a lot going on and missed that opportunity. I will try to document the things I have left to test though since I still do have a ways to go and it feels as though the process has gotten murky lately

So I added gluten (second try) on Tuesday and my first meal was cooked greens (stir fried in olive oil with garlic and olives) with whole wheat orzo and finished with a dusting of parmesan. It was delicious, but I was looking for something else.

The day before I added gluten I happened to surf on over to Smitten Kitchen and see her recipe for Cherry Pie Crumble and I knew I wanted to make that during my gluten test. So I made the crust on Tuesday night and then after procuring a cherry/olive pitter from Target I made the pie last night.

Normally, since I’m still on the cleanse, I would have substituted the sugar with agave but since I haven’t done any baking in forever and I’ve never baked with agave I decided to just go with the recipe. In hindsight, I should have gotten some raw, organic sugar at least to use since it’s less processed and I know that refined sugar can sometimes be processed with corn syrup and corn is a big no-no for me (it failed its test big time).

I also could not find sour cherries, perhaps this is an East coast thing? I got regular cherries and cut the sugar I used in the filling to a little over 1/4 of a cup. I also used arrowroot instead of corn starch.

I also cut the sugar used in the crumble in half, since I was trying to mitigate the use of sugar and any side effects it might have.

Overall, it turned out really good, it had a nice cherry flavor without being too sweet and the crust was awesome (I did use the vodka trick). When I cut into it it was a bit messier than I wanted, but I may not have let it cool enough or maybe the arrowroot didn’t thicken as much as cornstarch would (more experiments needed).

I did miss at least one pit though, I think I’d probably be eliminated from Top Chef for this, but hey I wouldn’t complain about making a dessert.

No Comments | In: baking, experiments | tags: cherry, cleanse, gluten, pie. | #

So I’ve done it. I took the first step and gave notice at my job yesterday. While I am a little nervous about what the future holds, I am also relieved beyond belief that my time here is coming to an end in 3.5 weeks.

I will be taking a break from work for 6 months and then I will figure out what I want to do. What will I do in the meantime though? I will read, cook, bake, write, garden, knit, do yoga, run, walk, swim, rest and hopefully heal.

Wish me luck!

2 Comments | In: 9to5 | tags: job, moving on, quit. | #

I’ve been trying to force myself to do a little more cooking and to try some new things in the kitchen. This is probably the second Experiments in the Kitchen, but my first foray (croissants from scratch) happened before I had a name for it.

My second experiment is learning the art of the soufflé. I got Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas this year and that’s one of the main things I wanted to really try. Plus we went to this amazing salon de souffé called Rise while we were in Dallas for my birthday and now I’m hooked on soufflés. The non-dairy thing was stopping me though, but since I took a break from no dairy at Easter it turned out to be a perfect time to try soufflés!

So I actually didn’t use a MtAoFC recipe for my soufflé because I really wanted to do something that was light on the cheese and milk. I used the Goat Cheese and Herb Soufflé recipe from Epicurious.

I halved the recipe and made some other changes, like WAY less Parmesan and goat cheese and used So Delicious Coconut Milk instead of regular milk. For the record, this kind of coconut milk is not like the canned coconut milk you find, it’s much thinner like the consistency of 2% or skim milk and does not taste like coconut at all. I use the cream (non-flavored) in my coffee everyday now.

So when I cook I like to get everything ready and then do the cooking. So I get everything set up and chopped and I might mix some things then everything is ready to go. I guess I watch too many cooking shows, maybe?

I prepped the dishes with maybe a teaspoon of Parmesan for dusting the pans and just a bare minimum of butter to cut the dairy content. Then I got the base ready to go.

I used probably a little less than a full cup of the goat cheese and I barely put any Parmesan into the base. I got the eggs to the right place but when I added the eggs to the base I think the base might have been slightly too hot. Everything seemed fine though and while the soufflés baked I made a Spinach Salad with Raspberry Champagne Vinaigrette.

The dressing was a little tart since I left out the sugar, will remember that next time and add some agave nectar. The soufflés did puff, but not like they were supposed to, but I blame the fact that the dishes I used were a bit too big for the amount of soufflé. I’ll try again soon with smaller dishes.

They were delicious though, really yummy and I’d definitely make this again or some other soufflé variation. So this was a good experiment, but I have not mastered this yet so I’ll be trying again soon.

No Comments | In: cooking, experiments | | #

So every year at Easter my husband’s family makes Easter pies. It’s an Italian tradition and the pies can be savory or sweet. M’s family makes savory pies and I’ve been trying to learn this skill, and though since we were hosting the pie making this year that it would be fun to document the process. So here it goes…

So first thing is the sausage which must be purchased about 2 weeks before Easter. We bought 4 pounds of Italian sausage (3 lbs of hot and 1 lb of sweet) from Central Market, it’s their house sausage. You have to poke holes in the sausage and then put them on a rack in the fridge to dry for roughly two weeks. We did slightly less than two week, about 12 days. Then the day you make pies you cut the sausage into small chunks.

You also need chopped Italian parsley (seen in the above photo) and mozzarella (cubed into small cubes), ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs and of course some dough.

The dough technique is very different and requires flour, salt, water and Crisco and heavy kneading until it’s “soft as a babies bottom”.

Then the dough gets rolled into two pieces (top and bottom crust) while someone mixes the filling.

Then you place the bottom in a pan and fill it, without out pressing or squooshing the filling. Then the top crust goes on and is trimmed.

Then you press the crust into place with a fork to make sure it’s sealed tight. You also dab the bottom crust with water before placing the top crust down so it seals better.

Then the slather the top with a mixture of egg yolk and water and then you do the thing that makes it Easter pie, you cut a cross into the top.

Then there’s baking, and there might be drinking and more pies made.

And finally there’s this:

We made 8 pies, I think, in about 4 hours and we used both the oven and M’s Big Green Egg. I drank a lot of bubbles and it was fun. We capped the day off with dinner at Perla, but that’s another story.

No Comments | In: baking, mahwage | | #

So today is the day that I start preparing to get out of the way, which is just another way of saying quit my job. Today I sat in a meeting and heard how many positions our area has lost and how hard it’s going to be to replace anyone. It makes me feel bad. It makes me feel guilty that I want to leave at this, the worst time.

I know the organization won’t die without me, and in fact if they can hire a replacement then that person might really flourish where I have only floundered.

I guess I’m feeling a little like I’m giving up, or that I’ve failed.

So now I need to give some thought to my project in progress and figure out, what needs to be done to ensure the project is continued and what can I leave behind?

Also, I really wish I had not agreed to speak at TLA this year. I wonder if I can wiggle out of it…

No Comments | In: 9to5, life | | #

So today in a SXSW session someone said, “If you don’t like your job there is someone out there who’d love to have it. And there’s someone else somewhere that has your dream job and probably hates it. We just all need to stand up and move out of the way”.

This, along with a lot of other wise observations from the group made me realize that I need to get out of the way. I need to give someone the chance to do my job and love it. I need to give myself the chance to do what I love, or at least what I think I love right now. I need the chance to be a whole person, not one bound by pain or lack of confidence. I need to give myself a chance at healing.

So how do I do that? How do I do that and have us still maintain our life and continue to meet our financial goals? I am not quite sure, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going to blog about it.

I think SXSW just changed my life.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: change, life, writing. | #

Saints Superbowl Victory Celebration from Cottage Films on Vimeo.

This right here is why I love this city so much.

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: nola whodat saints party. | #

So I’ve been slacking in the blogging department, I know. I’ve got a plan though to make this a more regular blog. I know I keep making promises. I really am trying though to make this part of my week at the least and hopefully I can get to the point I’m posting more than once a week.

I will be posting on some projects that I cannot discuss in detail, but that will result in much frustration and hilarity though. I’ll also be posting more when I travel. My first trip of 2010 is coming up, and it’s a good one.

I’m going to Mardi Gras! Yes, in New Orleans! I haven’t been since 2006, and that MG, while wonderful to experience, was not like the joyful and exuberant celebrations that I remember as a former resident of the city.

The other totally awesome and exciting thing is that I’ll be riding in a Krewe! I guess I’m technically now in a Krewe, which is cool. I’ll be riding with Tucks on Saturday February 13th on the traditional Uptown route. It will be so exciting and I’m really going to try to take photos and capture the fun.

So stay tuned for blogging from Mardi Gras…coming soon.

No Comments | In: life, travel, writing | tags: 2010, mardigras, neworleans, nola, trips, tucks. | #

I did it. I wrote a 50,014 word novel in 30 days, and while it is a very, very rough draft it’s something, something I’ve never done before so it’s pretty awesome.

So yeah, I didn’t really journal here did I? It was hard, really hard, the last week especially, so I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging. Plus, my body? It’s really pissed at me now for all that computer time, and typing (it really hated all the typing). So I needed to rest when I could. I probably shouldn’t be typing now because, frankly, it hurts. I have a massage in my future though so it’ll all be fine.

So I’m going to keep writing every day for 10-30 minutes, but I’m going to stick to exercises for the first couple of weeks and then transition into doing some character and setting work before I read the novel and starting revising it in January.

I have no idea how to revise a novel, but I’m just going to give it shot and I have a deadline for finishing (March 15th) so that should help.

I have a ton of stuff to take pictures of, but it’s so cloudy I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance. I’ll try though.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: 2009, fiction, nanwrimo, process, writing. | #