Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Lazy Day

Well we had another ice day today. Fortunately, we didn't get as much ice as the weather man predicted....yay! I woke up early this morning to check the weather and to see if we were having school. At 5:45 I decided I better get in gear and get ready for work. At that time my district still had not canceled. As I was getting ready to walk out the door I checked my cell phone. One of the lovely ladies on my team sent a text saying school was closed. Good thing I checked or I would've made it all the way to school wondering why no one was there, ha! I'm still blown away by this weather. We usually don't have this many ice or snow days in North Texas!! I'm dreaming of birds chirpping, flowers blooming and the grass turning green. Can you tell I'm ready for Spring?!?!

Today I chose to be lazy most of the day, just cuddling with my dogs and watching TV. Later in the afternoon I FINALLY decided to do something productive, so I went to the gym. Tonight it is suppose to be the coldest it has been in 15 years...WOW! Since it's so cold I decided to make one of our favorite meals...Taco Soup. It's a Weight Watchers recipe, so it's fairly healthy. Here's the receipe if you want to try it out.


What you need:
1 pd. ground turkey or lean ground beef
1 chopped onion
1 can of pinto beans
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of dry Hidden Valley ranch dressing
1 can of chili beans
1 can of corn
1 can of Mexican style tomatoes
1 can of diced tomatoes
*side note: I usually add kidney beans or blackbeans as well

Brown your meat then drain it. Next let the meat simmer with the chopped onion. Mix the ranch dressing and taco seasoning in with the meat. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Let it simmer for an hour and enjoy!

Hopefully each of you have been able to stay warm!
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Bullet Trains: Cash for Clunkers II

President Obama wants $53B for high speed rail.
The White House on Tuesday announced plans to spend $53 billion over the next six years to build high-speed railroads, bringing California's massive bullet train project closer to reality.
It's so fundamentally stupid that it makes me think it's some kind of political payoff. It's like Cash for Clunkers all over again. I almost want it to be corrupt. At least then I wouldn't be thinking that this administration was completely divorced from reality.

Who's going to ride a train to go between cities that are only a hundred miles apart? I guess if you're talking about the congested Boston-DC corridor, that might make sense, but here in California? Are you crazy? Where I live, if I wanted to take the train north to LA, I'd have to drive south to get to the train station and then time my trip according to the train schedules. Once I got to LA, I'd either have to take a cab or rent a car to get where I wanted to go.

It would be absolutely impossible to make this trip take less time than driving. The whole idea is staggeringly dumb.

A Colourful Winter Root Salad/Relish


Think winter-- and I doubt the words "colour" and "salad" come to mind. Yes, this little dish is the complete anti-thesis of winter, but I didn't use anything that wasn't in season! I wanted to give these winter root vegetables an image makeover; they can be more than just stodgy things in thick stews.

Colourful Winter Root Salad/Relish
Ingredients
1 carrot, shredded
1 turnip, shredded
1 beetroot, shredded
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
The proportions are very much adjustable to taste.
No oil in this dressing, because you want it really light and sharp.


Method
1. Shred them all. For me it was a test of my julienning skills.

2. Mix it all up, and let it sit in the fridge for at least 20 min so the flavours all marinate.

You can add a pinch of sugar, but I find the sweet root vegetables (esp the beetroot) sweet enough. It's even better the next day, because the sweetness leaks into the juice/vinegar, and you get a very lovely sweet/tart dressing.
This is really refreshing with smoked fish (guess what I was inspired by? the yusheng/lo hei for Chinese New Year!) or heavier roast meats.

The 2 chives there are totally for show heh, just to add a 4th colour.

Random photos


- kat








Gluttony and Envy

Gluttony from the cat and envy from me at the brilliance of this video.

Domestic




Feeling domesticated today. I started cooking a pig butt in the slow cooker last night, and today we are having delicious pulled pork sandwiches. I used sweet baby rays barbecue sauce, onion,garlic, and salt. See mom I can too cook!



- kat

100th Day of School!

 


WOW...it is hard to believe we are already celebrating the 100th Day of School! Time is flying by this school year. To celebrate this special day, we asked the kids to dress as if they are 100 years old. Of course the teachers could not help but get in on the action too. I wish I could upload the pictures of some of my kiddos, they were hysterical!! However, I cannot figure out how to blur their sweet little faces. Due to privacy reasons, I cannot post pictures of them on my blog. So let me give you a visual. One sweet little girl wore a HUGE grey wig, shaw, and pearls. Her mother is extremely creative and put a lot of thought into her outfit. She looked precious! A sweet boy in my class wore suspenders, truckers hat, and the funniest glasses I've seen. He truly looked like an "old" man. It's such a fun day that I look forward to celebrating every year with my class. Oh the joys of being a 1st grade teacher!

A Two Zig Prospect

I'm coining a new phrase here and now. I've got a sales prospect that is just kicking my butt. The sale is terribly important to me, but I just can't get the deal done. I've been going at it for over a year and every time I think I've got the thing sealed, it slips away. This guy is a "Two Zig Prospect." You not only need Zig on closing the sale, you need Zig on motivation.

Here's Zig hitting the nail of my problem right on the head in the first two minutes of this video, just in case you've got the same kind of problem.

One of the Best Things in the World

... is coming downstairs in the morning to a coffeepot that is primed and ready to go. All you have to do is turn it on and dark, delicious goodness begins to brew.

Mmmmm.

Steamed Red Snapper and Mussels in Coconut Broth and Lemon Grass

Really had a challenge in the kitchen this weekend.
I decided to try out another episode of Curtis Stone's "Take Home Chef".  
This was the episode where he cooked for 'Jackie'.  
If you would like to try any of these dishes, go  here
The menu was inspired by Southeast Asian cuisine.  
This is new to me and outside my comfort zone.  
O.K., I'm not really talented enough yet to 'have a comfort zone' 
 but that sounded really good to say.
It was a difficult menu for me because the learning curve was steep.  
I don't think each dish was difficult necessarily, they each had elements that need trial and error.


Deep fried oysters with Ponzu dipping sauce

I have NEVER fried anything before.  Fried oysters, however, are one of my favorite foods.  I have had some amazing oysters since moving to Texas this past year.  Basically, my oil was not hot enough.  
The oil has to be really hot!  
I think I'll just leave fried food up to the experts, like  the delicious restaurant
Goode Seafood Co. in Houston!


Steamed Red Snapper and Mussels in Coconut Cream Broth with Lemon Grass and White wine

Delicious.  
Really aromatic.  
All of the scents were heavenly.  
I learned how to break open a coconut, scrape out the cream, pound lemon grass, dice chili peppers, and steam mussels.  These were all new cooking experiences for me.  Hardest part of this dish was not overcooking the mussels.  
The timing of wok-ing the mussels in the broth and steaming the fish just right was tricky.
Whole Foods didn't have Red Snapper so they sold me Rockfish.  
The fish was thick and wouldn't steam as fast as necessary. 
 I put the mussels and all of the vegetables in the wok and then placed my bamboo steamer on top of that in order to steam the fish. 
 Mussels cooked, fish didn't.  Timing of this dish was difficult.  I wouldn't want to serve it if I had more than 4 guests!  I would also choose a thinner fish that will cook faster.


Basic French Boule
Oh!  The intoxicating smell of baking bread.  
I am addicted to bread baking.  
This is the loaf as it came right out of the oven.
Every weekend I would like to try a new type of bread.  I hope it gets easier, though.  
All of the 'resting', 'unresting', 'refrigerating', 'covering', 'proofing', is boggling.
Hopefully, if I get better some of these steps will feel more natural.
This was the first recipe in my new bread book, 
Artisan Breads Everyday by Peter Reinhart. 
Yum. Yum.

This would be a good choice to serve a group of guests because you can do steps ahead of time. And...it is such a wonderful presentation.  
Looks harder than it is.
 I made the 'base' for the souffle the day before.
The only thing I had to do during dinner was wisk the egg whites and sugar, mix that with the chocolate base, fill the ramekins and then pop them in the oven for 12 min.  
I buttered and coated the ramekins with cocoa the day before as well. 
If I make them again, I will fill the ramekins almost to the top.  I was afraid to fill them too high and make a mess.  
Its o.k.  
They don't rise as much as you think so fill them pretty high to get that dramatic effect.
However,really disappointed with this photo.  
I was trying out some lighting techniques that I read about. 

 Back to the drawing board.
  I wasn't thrilled with the lighting or quality of the photo.  
Sooooo much to learn. 
But,
already dreaming of what to cook next.
Curtis?  What do you have for me?