And Onto the Next Thing

2008-12-08T07:39:00.001-08:00

So here we are, 2 weeks before the *official* move to Texas -- my cupboards are almost bare, my freezer is empty save for 1 bag of frozen broccoli cheddar soup and 1 bag of frozen fruit, and I'm slowly whittling away at the bottles of sauces in my refrigerator.

I've been thinking a lot recently on "greenness" and living a sustainable lifestyle. I struggle with this for a few reasons...one is, I would like to eat healthier more whole foods but at the same time purchase of organic foods is (1) more expensive and (2) not necessarily better for the environment*. Trying to balance selfishness and nutrition with self-lessness and high-minded environmental goals puts my mind in sort of a tail-spin, so I generally try not to think about it too much.

I also try to reduce the amount of waste I generate in my cooking -- using food before it has a chance to rot in the fridge, and now that I'm moving, consuming as many of the perishables as I can to avoid throwing them away (condiments and sauces are the hardest...even if they don't need to be refrigerated, the movers won't take liquid goods).

Sometimes I wonder why I bother with all the cutting, washing, sauteing and baking when I could make a one-pot meal of macaroni and cheese with steamed broccoli in less than 10 minutes. The mac/cheese/broc meal only costs $3 for 2 servings and time is money too, isn't it?

*Organic foods require additional irrigation and use of fuel for maintenance of the crops and quicker shipping from the farm to the grocery store. Also, by eliminating fertilizers and pesticides, there is more waste involved with organic foods as pests and disease do destroy some of the crops -- so for the same amount of land and fuel, less goods are produced than conventionally-grown foods.

2008-12-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I made these cookies for a friend who is stationed in Afghanistan as an early Christmas present, and he said he couldn't eat them fast enough. I will admit...I made 3 dozen, and I only sent him 2 of the 3 because Ben and I scarfed a few down before I get it all boxed up.

My adaptation is from this recipe on the Ghirardelli website. Instead of walnuts, I used some crushed almonds (I forgot to buy walnuts) and I doubled the size of the cookies - 2 tablespoons per cookie instead of 1. I think if I did it again, I would cut back on the salt just a tad and try 1/4 tsp instead of 1/2 -- the cookies were delicious, but I could taste the salt in them.

12 ounce(s) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup(s) butter, softened
3/4 cup(s) packed brown sugar
1/2 cup(s) sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla
1 cup(s) unsifted flour
1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
1 teaspoon(s) cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon(s) nutmeg
3 cup(s) oats, uncooked
1 /2 cup(s) almonds, chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color (about 4 minutes). Add vanilla and egg, and mix on low speed until incorporated. Stir flour with baking soda, salt, and spices; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Stir in oats. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by 2 rounded tablespoons of dough per cookie onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 11 to 12 minutes for a chewy cookie, 14 to 16 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on a cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling racks. Store in tightly covered container. Makes about 3 dozen 3-inch cookies.

2008-11-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

So I went to Trader Joe's and on a whim, bought a little jar of pumpkin butter. Not knowing what to do with said jar of pumpkin butter, I began scouring the internet for recipes...until I came across this one. I made it for a weekend visit to Matt & Beth's house in Fergus Falls, and it was absolutely TO DIE FOR!! I licked the entire bowl, both beaters, and the spatula absolutely clean since I couldn't take a bite of the gorgeous cheesecake itself.

It could be fairly easily adjusted to make a strawberry or apple butter cheesecake by substituting the pumpkin butter for some other jam-like concoction (key lime marmalade, anyone?)

My recipe is adapted from one I found at allrecipes.com. I'm bummed that I forgot to take a photo of this delicious dessert.

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake
- handful of chopped candied pecans
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup pumpkin butter
- 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat cream cheese at high speed of an electric mixer until smooth. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Gently fold in pumpkin butter and chopped pecans. Pour mixture into crust.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 - 50 minutes. Let cool for 30 min to an hour.

Pumpkin Whipped Cream (I didn't really measure here, I just kinda poured and mixed to taste)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2-3 tbsp pumpkin butter
- 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Whip the heavy cream until thickened, but still liquid. Add the remaining ingredients. Whip until firm peaks form -- careful not to overwhip so the cream separates into butter and buttermilk!

2008-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

Pasta alla Carbonara (Fettuccini or Spaghetti)

I seriously love this dish. It's an easy, stick-to-your ribs Roman classics that I could eat three times a day. (When I had it in Rome, it was for breakfast...but it is hearty enough to be served at any meal!)

The basic recipe is simply this:
1 box of spaghetti or fettuccini (or any other noodle you like)
4-8 oz. pancetta or smoked bacon
2-3 eggs
2 oz. pecorino romano cheese, grated (you can sub parmesan, but pecorino is better)

Cook 1 box of spaghetti or fettuccini in salted water to just before al dente. Reserve 1-2 cups of the pasta water before draining.

Pan fry pancetta or bacon cut into small pieces in a LARGE pan. Drain off the fat (some people *cough-my husband* keep the fat, but it makes the dish too rich for me). Remove the pan from heat.

Toss the pasta in the pan with the bacon with 1 c. of the reserved pasta water. Temper 2-3 eggs with some of the remaining reserved pasta water and add the grated cheese. Pour over the pasta and toss until the egg, water, and bacon fat have combined to make a custardy coating on the pasta noodles. Be careful to toss right away so the egg doesn't scramble in the bottom of the pan! If necessary, return the pan to low heat to cook the egg and dry out any excess liquid -- the pasta should be thick and hearty, not soupy.

Serve topped with extra cheese and fresh ground black pepper.

Now -- my variation on this is that I add sauteed bell pepper and mushroom to this to liven it up a bit, but this part is by all means unnecessary. Notice there is NO CREAM in this recipe...because classic carbonara doesn't have any! Enjoy!

2008-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

As usual, been busier than ever!

This month, I made:
-Tomato sauce from scratch -- thanks to the 20 lbs of romas my coworker brought me!
-butternut soup -- from the 1 butternut squash that I buy each year because they're so pretty
-butternut cornbread
-fettuccine carbonara -- this is actually one of my most favorite dishes, and a comfort food in our home
-cream puffs! (well, sort of)

Tomato sauce is surprisingly easy, I actually made 2 different kinds. Sauce #1t was just chopped tomatoes with seeds, peels, and all thrown into a saucepot and cooked down with a little salt and italian seasoning until it thickened and the tomatoes fell apart. I served it with spaghetti noodles and shrimp with fresh basil.

Sauce #2, I actually went to the trouble of blanching the tomatoes, then peeling them & removing the seeds prior to cooking them with the seasonings. While it was cooking, I went at the tomatoes with my immersion blender to get a nice smooth sauce. I made 2 quarts of this type of sauce, one for crockpot venison rotini for my co-workers and another quart for the freezer.

The butternut soup is good, but it tastes just a little bit off compared to what I normally make, it just seems more rich than normal...I think I put too much of something into it, but I can't put my finger on what. It could be a number of things, I roasted my butternut this year instead of just boiling it and I added bacon fat instead of butter to the base puree...but I really only put like 2 tablespoons of bacon fat into it, so I'm not sure. I also used roasted garlic out of a jar instead of fresh garlic...so there's a whole bunch of changes compared to last year. Anyway, I can't remember the exact ingredients, and I didn't so much care for the soup to begin with no recipe on that this year.

Butternut cornbread was made from the above puree, so same flavor issue. The cornbread consistency and texture was great though, not nearly as dry as cornbreads in the past -- but still not quite as moist as I'd like.

And cream puffs! I used a basic recipe from the Joy of Cooking, with 2 modifications -- I used 1 c. 2% milk instead of 1/2 c. whole milk mixed with 1/2 c. water, and then I added Trader Joe's pumpkin butter to my whipped cream. The pate choux came out a little tougher than I'd like, but I attribute that to my use of a hand mixer in lieu of a kitchenaid that I so covet...but who knows, it could be that milk substitution I made. I just couldn't justify buying a quart of whole milk when the 2% was sold in nice neat little 1-cup cartons. Photos & recipes to be posted later!

2008-09-26T09:50:00.001-07:00

The "almost" turnover!

Ok, so the good news was that I did have a sheet of puff pastry in the fridge.

The bad news was that in my absent-mindedness, I didn't shrink or foil wrap it, so it semi dried out...it still puffed up just fine, but I wasn't able to fold the puff pastry prior to baking it.

I started with this french recipe for chocolate-strawberry turnovers with some modifications. Again, I couldn't fold the pastry since it was brittle even after it was thawed. I also didn't have any bittersweet chocolate, only some dutch-processed cocoa...and no fresh strawberries, only ones I had frozen earlier this summer. Not such a great start.

So...into the double boiler, I dumped:

3/4 c. Hershey's Dutch Processed Special Dark Cocoa
1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 handfuls (~1 1/2 c?) frozen strawberries
1 handful (~ 1/2 c) frozen raspberries

This turned out to be absolutely delicious, I had to force myself to stop eating it. Luckily, the slightly runny mixture of chocolate sauce was about 3x more than I needed for my 4 puff pastry squares, so I saved the rest for the next time I have ice cream.

I baked the quartered pastries with a scoop of chocolate sauce on top at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. They were awesome with a scoop of vanilla on top.

Next up, how to get rid of that box of cornmeal...

2008-09-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

And Summer in Minnesota is over already! Can you believe it?

Now that the leaves are (barely) starting to turn colors and it's no longer warm and humid at night, I can (yes, I can!) turn on my oven at night without feeling guilty about our energy bills.

This fall's task is to bake and cook while using down my pantry as much as I can before we move in January. I'm not terribly worried about using up my spices as I want to use up the pile of liquids (vinegars, oils, syrups, sauces and marinades!) that fill my refrigerator door and cabinet above my stove.

I'm also working on clearing out the freezer because I really hate throwing food away.

So first on my list of goals...I have some leftover puff pastry and these beautiful strawberries and raspberries that we picked in August just sitting in the freezer...I think that sounds like breakfast turnovers to me...we will see!

2008-06-30T12:43:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I posted in early June, and I'll post again late June -- We've made it half-way through our summer travel season!

This Thursday we'll be driving to Michigan for a week visiting friends & family, followed by some camping/cycling and a wedding! The week after that Ben will be in NYC wrapping up some loose ends on a paper so I'll be home alone catching up on phone calls :-)

2008-06-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Whew, it is June already! This year is just flying by...

2008-04-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Springtime is HEEEERE! It makes me so happy :-)

So with the grass turning green, here are some decidedly green links to go with springtime:

And that basically sums up what we've been doing - drinking tea, trying to live more a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle, and improving our diet.

2008-02-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Oof, what a crazy February!

Ok, we ran a 5k just after Valentine's day - fabulously fun!

Later that week I came down with pneumonia - not so fun.

In between all that our old camera broke so we haven't been taking too many photos, but we got a new camera so there should be more photos soon!

2008-01-23T14:45:00.001-08:00

So I found this awesome website that I just love!

http://www.mint.com

I've never used Quicken or MS Money -- I have this thing, I hate to pay for software if I don't have to (I think the only software besides video games I've purchased in the last 5 years has been internet security software). Mint.com will draw information from your banking accounts and credit cards and put it all into one place for you to see your spending habits. It's really neat, I quite thoroughly enjoy geeking around with it. Check it out!

2008-01-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

I made this a few weekends ago -- butternut squash lasagna with crab meat & cream cheese filling. I was nervous that it might not turn out quite right, but it was so yummy! Here is my recipe below:

Butternut Crab Lasagna
(Makes 1 9x13 lasagna)

1 2-lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and grated
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 6 oz can crab meat (white or lump is fine)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 pkg no-bake lasagna noodles
2 c. low-fat or fat free milk
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. freshly grated parmasan cheese
salt, pepper, and nutmeg to garnish

Melt the olive oil & butter together in a medium skillet or saucepan. Sautee the onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Stir flour into onion/garlic mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add milk, stirring vigorously, and cook on high until just bubbling. Turn down heat and let simmer for 5-10 minutes (until mixture thickens a bit).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

While milk mixture is simmering, drain the juices from the canned crab. In a small mixing bowl, combine the crabmeat and the cream cheese mixture. Set aside.

Grease (with oil or butter) a 9x13 casserole dish. Pour enough milk mixture into the bottom to just coat the bottom of the pan, then begin assembling the lasagna. 1 layer of noodles, , 1/2 the crab/cream cheese1/2 the squash, 1/2 c. of parmasan cheese, 1/3 the remaining milk mixture. Repeat. Place the last layer of noodles, then pour the last of the milk mixture and top with the remaining cheese.

Bake covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly on top. Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

2008-01-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

So here it is! My first loaf of (edible) bread. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but boy oh boy was it delicious!

2008-01-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

We finally did it!

We paid off the last of our wedding loan! While we're far from debt free, mostly because we're sitting on a big pile of Ben's student loans, we've pretty much removed ourselves from all non-student debt (i.e. anything with a disgustingly high interest).

I'd write more about it, but really, there's not much else to say. ;-)

2008-01-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Whoa....2008?!? Happy New Year, and holy cow, I can't believe it's here already. Maybe I'll actually start updating and posting stuff regularly. I've started having some serious nesting syndromes with the onset of winter, so there's been a few massive cooking/baking operations that I've taken some pictures of. We'll see how this goes, but I'll add it to my list of New Year's resolutions (along with running all 6 of the 5k's I signed up for despite how cold it is).

Speaking of 5k's -- Ben and I ran one on New Year's Day in the bitter bitter cold (it was 4 degrees Fahrenheit with 20 mph winds, so -16 with the windchill) but very sunny day. This photo is of us right before the race.

Next one is February 16th!

2006-06-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

Naples, Pompeii, and Mt Vesuvius

2006-06-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Messina & Mount Etna

2006-05-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Fabulous!

The wedding was amazing, Benjamin and I want to thank everyone for coming. We had a fantastic time, and it was so wonderful to see so many of our closest friends and family - we are truly greatful to everyone for making it such a memorable day for us!

By the way - for those of you who heard my dad's toast, I just want you to know that I cook JUST FINE. ;-) And those of you who have had my cooking can attest to that. I still love you anyways, Dad! Oh yes, and kudos to Uncle Michael for videotaping everything - I can't wait to see it.

So about the part you're all dying to hear about - how did the honeymoon go?? Well...let's start out by saying that "Kim and Ben's Mediterranean Adventure" quickly became "Kim and Ben's American Airlines Misadventure". Our flight was delayed, so we missed our cruise ship and had to fly to the next port of call and wait for the ship to come to us...but we spent 2 days on the beach about 40 minutes from the port, so in the end it all worked out well! Pictures should be posted somewhere very soon.

2006-03-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

Invitations part II --

For those of you who have not yet replied and are curious what the menu entails, the beef option is London Broil in a Teriyaki sauce and the Fish option is Southwestern-crusted Salmon. Both are very yummy, I still haven't decided which one I want. Oh, and for you militant vegans out there, there is a vegetarian option too ;-).

2006-03-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been terrible and have not posted an update on our wedding blog in 5 months! Wedding invitations should be sent out to nearly everyone by now (there's a few people left who have not received them, mostly because we ran out of envelopes and I'm trying to figure out how I can buy *just 2* envelopes instead of 10 or 50 or however many. I might just end up making the envelopes. Whatever works. =)

Our preferred registry is http://www.thebigday.com, but we're also registered at Target. Again, please don't hesistate to email either of us with questions! kim.h.mai@gmail.com or hamilton@cems.umn.edu (if you email Me instead of Ben, you're more likely to get a response ;-D)

Ciao!

2005-10-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hotel information (in case you don't want to stay at Brooke Lodge):

Okay, so really...there's a LOT of hotels in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek Area, and the best thing to do is go to travelocity.com or expedia.com, whichever you prefer and find a hotel that suits your budget needs/preferences. Brooke Lodge is super nice, and convenient because the ceremony and reception will be right there, but we understand that it's a little pricey! Expedia/Travelocity are picking up anything from an EconoLodge (~$55/night) all the way up to McCamley Plaza (~$155+/night), so if you're willing to make the drive you can find just about anything!

The address for Brooke Lodge (in case you were basing your hotel search by address instead of city) is 6535 N. 42nd Street, Augusta, Michigan. Happy hunting!

2005-08-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

THE WEDDING DATE: May 20, 2006

For those who wanted to know. A little history on this date - this is the date that Benjamin and I first started "going out" when I was in 7th grade. That lasted about 4 months because he was going into 9th grade that fall, and the distance between the middle school and the high school was just too much for him to handle right now relationship-wise. (I always find this ironic, considering we spent most of our relationship over 300 miles apart.)

This is also the same date in 2001 that we started dating again -- just before I graduated high school, and just after he completed his first year of college. It's a very sweet and nostalgic date for the both of us.

2005-08-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

*The* Engagement!

So where to begin...back in Europe. Kristen and I took a trip to London for 2 weeks, but decided to take a little excursion to Paris at the beginning of the second week. We ended up spending Sunday night at the train station because our train left at 5:30AM on Monday, well before any tubes started running. Upon arriving in Paris, I checked my email and read that Ben had visited my parents while he was in Kalamazoo for the weekend. I was pretty exhausted from spending the night in the train station so I didn't really think much of it.

Fast forward 12 hours of sleep later, I wake up and it dawns on me. Ben visited my PARENTS in Kalamazoo. Without me! So then I get a little excited, but a little part of me tells me not to - he is after all a boy, and they can after all sometimes be dense. Either way, I crossed my fingers and hoped for a romance novel-style proposal at the airport upon my arrival back to the States. After all, he says he misses me terribly right?

Wrong. I land at the airport on Sunday to a hug and an offer to carry all my luggage. I find this a little upsetting so I'm fairly reserved for the carride home. After listening to Ben tell me how much he missed me and how I'm not allowed to go overseas without him again, I finally blow up at him about the engagement...he looks bewildered and says we can go ring shopping next Sunday. I am quite satiated for the time.

I emailed my friend Susan when I got home to arrange dinner - she's picking up a second job at Borders Books in addition to her current job as an engineer for General Mills, so we both thought it'd be great to get dolled up and have dinner and drinks before her life became unreasonably hectic. Susan can be a stress case, so when she told me it was a really rough week, and she'd talked David into picking up the tab, I thought fabulous! I'm upset, Susan's upset, let's all go have drinks ;-). We agreed to go to this nice seafood place downtown called The Oceanaire, and Susan has reservations for both of us at 7pm.

In typical Susan-fashion, she calls me to tell me that she's having an emergency at work and is thus running late. This is no surprise to me, so I just resume getting ready and I call a cab to take me downtown. I wait 20 minutes while I watch the cab company drive back and forth across the road outside of my apartment complex, clearly lost. Finally he comes to pick me up. He drops me off at the Oceanaire at 7:25, and at this point I feel bad because the restaurant's been holding this table for me and Susan for so long.

I speak with the hostess and explain to her that Susan is running late, and that I hoped that they hadn't given away our table (the restaurant was very busy with many people waiting for tables). Luckily she hadn't, and she leads me to my table in the back of the restaurant.

Sitting on the table is a single rose and an envelope with my name.

Oh. My. God.

I sit down and open the envelope and the card was adorable -- it is clearly handmade from scrapbook supplies, and very very sweet. After opening the card, I start to get teary-eyed because it says all these wonderful things about me, and then our waitress comes and whisks me off to the bar to meet Ben who's all jazzed up in his suit and tie and shiny shoes, drinking some pretty strong-looking drinks.

Ben proceeds to hug me and sit me on a bar stool, buy me a glass of riesling, and grin at the dumbfounded me. He tells me how Susan helped him plan while I was away, he tells me how hard it's been for him to keep the whole getup a secret, he tells me how this is the best decision he's ever made in his life, and then he reminds me as my eyes are welling up not to cry because it'll make my makeup run (chuckle from me, watery eyes from him).

As he gets down on his one knee at the very crowded bar, I can feel tingly numbness all over, and I hear the guy sitting next to us at the bar with his date say "Oh my god, there's a ring coming out!" Ben asks me if I would be his forever, and of course I say yes. He slips the perfect ring on my finger and explains to me all the things about this ring that make it perfect for me (and especially why it's more perfect for me than the ring that I'd picked out).

The rest of the evening is magical with a fantastic waitstaff, amazing seafood, and a flaming baked alaska for dessert (very cool...except you can taste the Bacardi 151 on the marshmallow after the flames went out). After dinner, we walk around downtown until my feet start to hurt in my strappy stiletto sandals - the weather is perfect, not too windy, but just cool enough for me to comfortable in my dress and shawl. We hold hands and kiss and I stare at my ring every few seconds, and we have a fabulous time.

So that's my fairy tale engagement story, beginning to end! ;-)

2005-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the pictures, story to follow ;-).