Fan Girl Wannabe

Thanksgiving Top 5 Plus

2012-11-22T14:51:15Z

This is the fb part of the post:

‎5. I'm thankful I don't have to get up at 0400 every day to clean up dog vomit (tx Cosmo) like I had to today.

4. I'm thankful I still have my challenging and interesting job, even though we went through lay-offs and restructuring earlier this year.

3. I'm thankful for our trip to Kennedy Space Center this year, even though the Rocket Garden made me cry (or is that because?).

2. I'm thankful for the time, energy and funds to finish my 6-yr kitchen remodel, plus do a little needed re-decorating.

1. Most of all, I'm thankful for all the wonderful people in my life who love me and let me love them right back.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And because this is my fandom happy space, you get all the thanks for helping me survive real life by giving me regular and excellent escapes when I need them, plus the laughter and tears and deep thoughts and sexy feels that go with all your wonderful stories and posts about other things you care about on a daily basis. I love my little corner of fandom with all my heart, and hope you all have a lovely day no matter where you are or what you are planning.

My Plans:
+ Watch the Macy's Parade with DH, and maybe eat some waffles with fruity salsa (if we feel ambitious enough)
+ Take advantage of unseasonably warm weather to hang our outdoor xmas lights and decorate the entrances
+ Watch football while partaking of yummy charcuterie, cheese and beer
+ Bake pumpkin pie and oyster dressing
+ Sit downwith DH and the boy (we're just 3 this year) for a dinner of Bacon-wrapped Turkey Breast with Pear Hash (a revival of last year's success), Oyster Dressing & Turkey Gravy, Famous Southern Jelled Cranberry Salad, Roasted Broccoli & Cauliflower with French-fried Onions, and Pumpkin Pie. We're still debating if we should open the Pinot Noir or the Late Harvest Riesling for dinner. (I don't know why we couldn't find Beaujolais Nouveau anywhere in this town. Buehler?).
+ Go to bed when I feel like it, and get up for a 9:00 salon appointment Friday. No shopping trips anywhere!
+ We might join friends at Old Sugar Distillery for Friday happy hour and mosey on to fish fry later
+ Saturday - rearrange some furniture in preparation for the girl's return next week
+ Sunday -the local products expo at the Arboretum, where we'll pick up Mad Urban Bees' gift packs for gifting out-of-state friends.

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Fan Girl Meet Up Today!

2012-08-26T11:41:27Z

I am excite! Eight wonderful fans have RSVP'd, and I expect there will be much laughter and squeeage.

Also, I have to ask for help on a couple of things: 1) I promised I'd update a fanlore page with an icon I made, but I can't get it to embed. All it wants to do so far is show the link. 2) I read a Teen Wolf/Supernatural crossover (delightfully cracky) but since I've got very little canon for one and none for the other, I couldn't figure out who the last character to appear was. My only guess was Fox Mulder (fit the description fairly well, including the distraction by crop circles in Nebraska and the bagful of bees), but X-Files wasn't listed as source material, and this character wasn't listed in the tags. Since there will be TW and SPN fans present, I know I'll get an answer.

I was working on a fairly traditional brunch menu at first, but it came to me that this gathering from the outside would look like a gathering of proper ladies, so I twisted the dishes a bit sideways, and now we're having a brunchy tea party! Because how much more can we subvert a trope than to discuss boy-kissing and porn while partaking of tea?! Hee.

Menu:

Bloody Marys, Mimosas, Tea, Strawberry Lemonade
Crustless Ham & Greens Quiche (lactose free)
Avocado BLT finger sandwiches
Chicken Salad in Radiccio Wraps
Sausage-stuffed Mushrooms
Assorted Fruit
Blue Cheese with Honey & Toasted Nuts
Nectarine-Ginger Galettes
Tofu Chocolate Mousse (lactose free)
Terra Chips

If I have time, I might add Deviled Eggs or Cucumber Sandwiches, but I'm not sure I'll need them.

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Garden Borscht

2012-07-22T00:12:46Z

That was awesome, you guys!

I made borscht from these garden ingredients: beets, beet greens, carrots, fennel, garlic, thyme, and whole frozen tomatoes from last year.
These were the pantry ingredients: frozen homemade chicken broth, red wine vinegar, celery, vidalia onion, sweet paprika, balsamic vinegar, plain greek yogurt, black pepper and sea salt.
When it was done cooking, I pureed with a stick blender, blended in the yogurt, and then DH used an ice water bath to quickly cool enough for tonight's servings.
Served in a soup plate with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of thyme. Accompanied by fresh sourdough and a dipping plate of EVOO, cracked black pepper and dots of balsamic-pomegranite glaze, and a glass of white wine.
The rest is still chilling before being put away for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, it's a rack of ribs we discovered while cleaning out the freezer today, later in the week will be a summery pasta with sauce (summer squash, tomatoes, garlic, onions), and Thursday is a traditional steak cook-out with all the kids, natural and fostered. I love summer cooking!

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Tonight's Menu

2012-02-26T01:32:41Z

I was feeling inspired to cook, probably because this week I've been going through the old foodie magazines, pulling the keeper recipes. Today I found an old keeper that I'd forgotten all about: Fusilli Alla Crazy Bastard! (Food & Wine, Jan 2009) The whole family had enjoyed this in the past, several times, with improv variations, but it had been so long that I'd totally forgotten about it (other than I can never say "fusilli" without following it up with "you crazy bastard" anymore).

So, the dish is the creation of Andy Nusser, Mario Batali's head chef at multiple locations. Andy and Mario have adopted "Fusilli, you crazy bastard" as the punch line to every joke :)

I made half the usual recipe, since it was just the two of us: toasted walnuts or pine nuts, roasted cherry tomatoes, sauted sliced garlic, beet greens, red pepper, chevre and parmesan create a "sauce" for the pasta. I used whole wheat penne, since that's what I had, and forgot the nuts. I had spinach instead of beet greens, and with B's lactose issue, I just used the soy cream cheese instead. I think a bit of lemon juice would have helped add the goaty tang, but I forgot to try it. I wanted a bit more protein, so I sliced up some hard salami into ribbons and fried them up until crispy to toss in - a nod to bacon, but more in keeping with the italian inspiration.

For the side, I made a wilted asparagus salad with a orange-tarragon-leek vinaigrette. This was adapted from a Vegetarian Times recipe. Half a leek, thinly sliced and sauteed in olive oil until limp, and half a pound of super thin asparagus (if it was regular sized, I would have shaved it with a vegetable peeler) tossed in the pan and heated until bright green, but still super crisp, with about a tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon. I squeezed the juice from half a blood orange into the pan and splashed it with some tarragon vinegar (white balsamic would have been great as well), some freshly ground black pepper on top, and it was done.

DH made us some lovely lemon martinis and we were set. It was lovely, and relatively quick to pull together (30-40 min). Imma use the rest of the asparagus for an Asparagus-Mushroom Bread Pudding tomorrow or Monday.

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Sunday, Sunday, or see me do the domestic diva thing...

2012-01-29T23:18:04Z

I did my usual weekend chores early this week, starting the laundry on Friday, and making sure it was done well before noon today. I worked some yesterday (4-5 hrs) on the stupid stuff that never gets done, so it won't be cluttering my to-do list in the coming week. I felt all smug about this until I realized I didn't have a whole lot to do *today* (I still have to balance the checkbook and pay the 1st of the month bills though).

So we went to Target to pick up Moneyball - I can't believe it's on DVD already, we totally meant to see it in the theater. B & I read Moneyball a few years ago, on a rec from a non-baseball-obsessed friend, and absolutely loved it. We've recommended the book to so many people; we were pleasantly surprised to see it become a movie. We'll probably watch that tonight in lieu of the ~~Who the Hell Cares~~ Pro Bowl.

While there, I found the entire Firefly series for $15! It includes 3 unaired eps! I am excite!

Then I decided I should get a tension rod to try out a really neat organizational idea a friend turned me onto. You put a tension rod in your kitchen cabinet and hang all your spray bottles on it. We had two baskets corralling all that stuff under the sink, and it wasn't too bad, but this is much better. I swapped out the baskets for a turntable/lazy susan also. Everything fits, and you can see exactly what's in there. I chose the oval shape rod because it seemed sturdier than the round ones, and I also made sure not to pick the size that was at the upper limit of the rod's range. For a 36" cabinet, getting a rod sized for 22-36" seemed risky. I opted for the 36-60" rod. I wanted to double up the rod for strength, so the weight of the bottles won't pull it down or cause it to sag in the middle. However, now I know that you want the lower end of the range to be something smaller than the nominal cabinet dimension. We got it in there, but it was a near thing. The lazy susan was repurposed from another cabinet where it was being underutilized. I traded one of the under-cabinet baskets for the tray, and I'm thinking it will work much better this way. So I re-organized two cabinets for the price of one tension rod. \o/

We also needed a few things from the grocery, and I don't know about you, but that always seems to double up on me. Today, fresh asparagus was on sale for $1.99/lb. That's a great price even "in season" so I got a pound. When we came home, we worked up next week's menu:

White Chili with Sourdough Baguette
Cornish Hen, Asparagus and Pilaf
Spaghetti with yesterday's marinara, Spinach Salad
Tilapia Filets, Yellow Squash - just have to decide how these will be prepared
Broccoli and Onion Frittata

We'd already invited our friends over for the football game next Sunday, but we suspect we'll be watching more for the new crop of commercials than the outcome. Even so, we've decided the main dishes on the buffet will be a Souper Bowl of sorts: New England Clam Chowder vs. Manhattan Clam Chowder. It will be interesting to see who wins that battle ;)

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Harvest Meals

2011-09-12T13:42:14Z

We've been enjoying the summer abundance again!

Labor Day weekend, it was heirloom tomato pie, fresh corn salsa, and home-cured & smoked bacon (an experiment that seems natural when you've got half of a pig in your freezer).

This past Friday, I went home and cooked dinner for what felt like the first time in ages. DH has been doing most of the cooking, or we go out, or we eat leftovers. So, I did a light lemon-ginger sauteed chicken, and a whole-wheat conchigile in cream sauce with peas and walnuts. Saturday, I cooked again! Penne in fresh tomato-vodka sauce, tilapia filets that poached atop the sauce and a lemon cucumber, artichoke and cherry tomato salad with tarragon-dill vinaigrette. I've been using agave to sweeten my vinaigrettes instead of sugar, and I really like the result.

Yesterday, we went to the BFFs for "lunch" which set a personal record I think - 6 hours of eating, drinking, & socializing at lunch! Crawfish etoufee, shrimp & grits, sweet potato and corn salad, biscuits with 2 savory toppings and 2 sweet, traditional finger/relish stuff, bloody marys, vodka lemonade, beer, fruit-infused tequila, ice cream with yummy toppings, and chunky bacon on demand! The weather was perfect to laze a Sunday afternoon away, and the laughter rang through the neighborhood. An excellent party. Also, that was my only meal for the day, LOL. I was completely stuffed and had zero need for dinner.

We have half a pound of oyster mushrooms that need to be used this week, and I'm positive they're going into our new comfort food/shameful secret - fried oyster mushroom po'boys with homemade remoulade. SO so so DELICIOUS!!!

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Fangirl Weekend

2011-03-07T03:28:12Z

Friday was sasha_feather 's birthday celebration, and I was finally able to go socialize with the girrlz. It's been probably a year since I've been to bookclub, and although we've all run into each other at various other events in that time, I've really really missed those regular gatherings. I haven't read any of the bookclub choices in that time either. But this isn't about all the crazy in my RL that prevents me from getting my girl fix.

This is about getting that fix. DH had a terrible week, and I was expecting to have to skip the gathering, or for him to attempt to attend and us staying for maybe an hour before having to give it up for a bad job. But he said go, and I *didn't* say "are you sure?" I went.

So I got to give a fabulous Star Wars card to sasha, which made everyone howl with laughter, and I met more of her friends than I had before, in addition to the bookclub regulars. We were at the bookclub's fave place (Argus), with the hardest working owner/bartender I've ever seen. Gwen is amazing. She's seriously a pro. I got to dance to Adam Lambert with happy, tipsy girls. We talked about beer and brewing, tattoos, drinking, work/careers, and politics. Sasha's new girlfriend seems lovely and more than able to hold her own in the melee. were_duck was as adorable as usual, with an added side of kittenish and snuggly. Her girl was a lot more talkative than usual, and it turns out that we have some similar tastes in music. I got to make up a lot of touch deficit, and giggling deficit, and general fullygoldy deficit. The weather sucked, but I waited for it to calm down a bit before hitting the road. Even though it was only 4 hrs out it was heavenly.

Then for the rest of the weekend I read approximately 175,000 words of Adam Lambert fanfiction (mostly schmoopy), with a side of Merlin. I've also got another long AL bookmarked, because were_duck recommends mistresscurvy quite highly. I did manage to wash all the laundry, and do the grocery shopping, but the weekend was also dominated by my stupid PMS, which made the reading the only thing I was seriously interested in accomplishing. DH wanted to go to the protests/rallies, and I wanted to too, but I totally needed the sofa days, and he needed a bit more recovery time.

Dinner tonight was a delight, prepared by the multi-talented DH. We had crabcakes with greek yogurt remoulade, roasted corn and tomato compote and a spinach salad gazpacho. The menu was designed around our newest acquisition - a Wisconsin made vodka,"Referent" which is infused with horseradish. I liked it fresh from the freezer with lemon wedges, and DH liked it straight with a tomato juice sidecar. It is going to be fabulous with oysters on the half shell. I can only assume it will also be great with bloodys, but they're not MY drink.

Okay, I've got to get some sleep so I can be at work on time tomorrow. Better go neaten up the kitchen, fold the last load and hit the hay.

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