Scones, Yo August 20, 2008

It’s been really rainy and gross out the past couple of days (not complaining- our yard is scorched and we so need this rain), and the weather has been making me hungry for fall-ish foods. The latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray (shut up) had a bunch of recipes featuring apples, so I decided to give the Oatmeal-Apple Scones a shot. This was NOT a light recipe. I tried to make it as healthy as possible by using fat-free half and half, whole wheat flour, and adding in extra apples; but for something dense and crumbly like scones, you can’t really make any substitutions for the butter. And this recipe calls for a LOT of butter… an entire stick for eight scones! Here’s the shaped dough:

And after baking:

They turned out well! The oats and wheat flour makes them really filling. Luckily I’m not a giant scone fan so I’ll probably end up giving these away… otherwise I might just down the entire batch.

We have the most annoying pantry EVER. The shelves are really narrow and deep, so you can only see like two items per shelf- which means we forget about half of the food in there and it ends up going bad. So today I moved half of the pantry stuff into the much more convenient laundry room shelves, and vice versa.

Pantry = BAD

Laundry Room = GOOD

Anyway, it was kind of like grocery shopping; I found all of this food I’d forgotten we had! So tonight I made a really random dinner:

• Red Lentils
• Diced Roasted Eggplant
• Puttanesca Sauce
• Parmesan (I wanted goat cheese, but it had spoiled in the fridge)

It was a good- and super fast- dinner. And light enough that I totally deserved some dessert! A couple glasses of wine and a bag of Figamajigs.

The track workout went well this morning! The rain definitely helped. I used the Garmin to time my 800m laps… unfortunately I forgot to time set 2, but here are the rest:

• Lap 1- 3:10
• Lap 2- ??
• Lap 3- 2:58 (woohoo!)
• Lap 4- 3:07
• Lap 5- 3:10
• Lap 6- 3:13

Tomorrow’s workout will be an easy 3 miles.

PS: Damn you, Lauren and Joy!!! I’ve been buried in Twilight all evening. Brian keeps asking how my “Vampire Nancy Drew” book is coming along.

Oh, and just for giggles- while Brian watches TV, he massages Chloe’s face. With his FEET:

So patient… and so supple.

Pseudo-Comfort Food August 19, 2008

Tonight was a typical “comfort food” meal… with a healthier twist (mwahahaha):

• Meatloaf
• Mashed Potatoes
• Fried Okra

I bought a bunch of this really cool red okra last time we were at the lake, and tonight it was at the point where I either cooked it NOW or it would spoil. The guy at the produce stand in Canton told me that the red variety is supposedly more tender than green… but isn’t it pretty?

I did the whole stewed tomatoes and okra thing a couple of weeks ago, so tonight I gave Oven Fried Okra a shot (Kath made some this weekend and I was inspired by her recipe). After chopping the okra, I mixed one beaten egg, some milk and a tbs of lemon juice in a bowl (FYI: cup of milk + either a tbs of lemon juice or white vinegar = acceptable substitute for buttermilk… look at me! I’m Alton Brown!). Then I soaked the okra in this mixture for about 20 minutes. On a plate I combined cornmeal and some Tony Cachere’s, then tossed the okra pieces a handful at a time in the cornmeal mixture. It’s messy. Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes:

YUM. I swear this is just as good as fried… especially drowned in ketchup. Brian was a huge fan.

To continue with the theme, I made one of my favorite recipes for the main dish:

Turkey Spinach Meatloaf

• 1.25 lbs Lean Ground Turkey
• 5 oz Chopped Baby Spinach (about 1/2 a bag)
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire
• 1 Egg, Beaten
• 3/4 Cup V8 (or tomato juice)
• 1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan
• 1/4 Cup Fine Dry Breadcrumbs (I use italian seasoned)
• 2 Carrots, Grated
• 1 Tbs Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 325. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Form into loaf and place in 1 quart loaf pan. Bake for one hour.

Finally (I know! Three dishes! I’m like the best wife ever…), our healthier version of mashed potatoes. This was inspired by a South Beach Diet recipe that we’ve played around with and made totally non-SBD acceptable. I guess it’s actually closer to creamed potatoes than mashed. Just take one bag of frozen cauliflower and cook it per the package directions for the longest recommended amount of time. I steamed mine in the microwave for 10 minutes. Then toss it into the food processor along with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light Cheese, a couple Tbs of butter substitute (Brummel & Brown is good), salt, pepper, and a squirt of my secret ingredient: WASABI PASTE. Then just pulse until you get the desired consistency. Try it… you will loooove this.

See? Looks like potatoes, right?

And here’s my whole plate. Along with my beloved ketchup in the corner:

So while I was cooking, I kept hearing this little *scratchscratchscratch* noise. After searching a while, I found this pathetic sight…

The puglet was trapped in our bedroom, along with her little protege, “Wilson”- who has been serving as our doorstop. In case you can’t tell, he’s a pug beanie baby. Chloe chewed his eyes off.

Off to bed! Speedwork at 5:45 tomorrow morning- 6 x 800’s if it’s not raining. And I’m going to try to get in a little reading in bed to see what all of this Twilight buzz is about.

Heather (sorta) Bakes Brownies August 18, 2008

I can’t believe the weekend is already over! It went by so fast. Friday night we thought about going to see Pineapple Express, but I was wiped out from going to bed late/getting up early, so we rented Penelope while eating Thai takeout (drunken noodles with chicken… soooo good). The movie is really cute! Brian was not at all excited about watching it, but even he, movie snob extraordinaire, seemed to enjoy it. A great, relaxing night for us old geezers.

Saturday was my long run- six miles this week. It was only about 70 degrees out! One of my friends had an extra Garmin and is letting me borrow it for a while (SWEET). The good news? It’s freaking awesome and really motivating to see your progress.

The bad news? I used it in tandem with the Nike+ (what I’ve been training with since JANUARY). At the end of the run, the Garmin said I had gone 7 miles total. The Nike+? EIGHT miles. I’m guessing that the Garmin is right, but how could my Nike be so off? I definitely calibrated it. Annoying.

Last night we met friends at Barcadia, a bar that opened a couple of months ago in a converted garage. The best part about this place is the entire wall of vintage arcade games AND skee ball. Lauren and Joy spent a good part of the night talking about Sweet Valley High Stephanie Meyer books. Although I still maintain that they’re huge nerds for getting so into a teenage series about vampires, they pretty much convinced me that I need to read them. Here they are discussing how they’re going to dress up like Bella and Edward when the Twilight Series movie comes out:

I’m just joking! These are my two brilliant-est friends (both have their MA and one is about to get her Ph.D!), so if they say to read teenage vampire books, read them I shall.

And here’s what we pretty much inhaled at Louie’s after leaving the bar. Best. Pizza. Ever.

Today I went for a short, 3 mi run and then was really craving a sandwich (weird), so we headed to the Corner Market on Greenville. Everyone raves about this place, and I have to agree with them. The entire menu sounded amazing and it was really hard to choose! Here’s my sandwich… sorry about the camera phone pic:

It was roasted turkey on honey wheat with cheddar, sweet mustard, and the best part: Grilled Apple Slices! They added great crunch, and apples with cheddar is always a great combo. I also tried these chips:

Terra Red Bliss Sundried Tomato and Balsamic Vinegar Potato Chips. I LOVE salt and vinegar chips, and these were similar. The sundried tomato flavor was pretty strong- I probably would have liked them with even more vinegar. But not bad and only about 140 cal, 7g fat, 2 g fiber.

So obviously “Heather Bakes” was more “Heather Eats Out” this weekend, but tonight we were invited to a cookout, so I decided to make brownies. I used the Baker’s Chocolate One Bowl Brownie recipe. These are SO EASY, it’s ridiculous. Seriously, from ingredients to oven in 10 minutes. I modified the recipe slightly by leaving out the nuts, adding 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, and substituted dark brown sugar for the granulated. Oh, and I added about 1/2 tsp of baking powder so they’d puff up a little:

So that’s it for the weekend! See you guys tomorrow…

Mmmm… Poultry Fat. August 15, 2008

My mom loves nothing more than to seek out estate sales. She scours the newspaper every Thursday for ads and then hits up each and every estate sale in the DFW area. She does find some cool stuff, but to be honest- these sales usually creep me the hell out. Unlike with yard/garage sales, estate sales usually involve the prior occupant either dying or heading to a nursing home, and it’s just kind of depressing to see their very personal (underwear?? hello!) items put up for $1.50. Today Gina suckered me into heading to one such sale right in my very neighborhood. This particular resident actually had a bunch of really cool cooking stuff, including some vintage cookbooks. The one I picked up? Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking.

This should be a lesson to all of you future authors out there: NEVER include “modern” in the title of anything, because one day it will not be modern at all. It will be kitsch. But I love this cookbook. It has a ton of dishes, and there are even little handwritten notes in the margins and scraps of handed-down recipes stuck inside. It’s also interesting to see how cooking has changed. For example, in the “Drop Cookie” section, there is a recipe for something called “ROCKS, No. 2” that includes rendered poultry fat, cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts and raisins. I wonder why we never made that in class?

Dallas is definitely not a walking city, so Brian and I were really excited when a new seafood restaurant opened just right down the street from us. We decided to give Offshore’s Next Door a shot tonight. It’s a teeny, tiny little place with maybe 12 tables inside. But the best part? They have a FULL BAR… and they’re open ’til midnight. The food did not disappoint. I’m not a big fried fish fan, so I had the chopped salad and added lump crab on top:

The salad contained not a shred of iceberg (woohoo!) and was filled with tomatoes, red and green peppers, hearts of palm (LOVELOVELOVE them), and lots of shredded lump crab meat. I made Brian stash a container of Annie’s Goddess Dressing from home in his cargo shorts, and that was a perfect topping.

I’m a little obsessed with this salad dressing… Old Dressing Pockets (Bri) was not amused.

They also had a great new beer: Leinie’s Sunset Wheat. Brian ordered it and I stole some sips. Very summery!

So yeah, we’ll definitely be going back. The walk there and back plus dinner made for a nice little weeknight date. Any Dallas readers- you should give it a shot!

Running Update: Easy 4 miles today. Tomorrow’s my rest day, but I’ll probably swim or something. Also, if anyone’s interested, you can check out my Nike+ running log here. I kind of want to switch to a Garmin (any reviews?) but for now this works.

Oats is Good. August 14, 2008

I tend to be a breakfast-rut person. When I first get up I’m too tired and crabby to make an informed meal decision, so it’s good to have a standby. As a child, I ate brownie bites for breakfast EVERY DAY for like 5 years. Most of college was Kashi Go Lean Crunch with berries, and my most recent rut has been oatmeal. A few months ago, I started making this baked oatmeal recipe that I heard about on a Weight Watchers message board. It’s great for work because it’s like a portable bowl of oatmeal, and you can do all kinds of flavor combinations. I’d completely forgotten about it until the other day when my mom brought it up, and I decided to play around with the recipe today. Here’s how it turned out:

Blueberry-Banana Baked Oatmeal

• 2 C Rolled Oats
• 1 C Milk
• 1 C Blueberries (I used fresh. If you use frozen, thaw and RINSE them first- unless you want blue oats).
• 2 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
• 3/4 C Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/2 C Egg Substitute
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Optional:

• 1/2 Banana, thinly sliced
• Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients (except sliced banana and brown sugar, if using) in a large bowl and pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and place sliced bananas on top, if using. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar and place under broiler for about 2 more minutes, until sugar and bananas have carmelized. WATCH IT because the dish goes from “carmelized” to “charred” really fast.

Cut into 6 large squares. I usually wrap up each individual serving and then zap it in the microwave before eating. Here’s my little bedtime snack:

Tonight we met my parents and Grandmother for dinner at Mi Cocina, our neighborhood Mexican joint. Mom and I split veggie fajitas (yum). Unbenounced to me, my Grandmother has been reading Heather Bakes! The verdict? She likes the blog, but chastized me for overutilizing the word “crappy”. My Dad chimed in to say that he thinks I say “sucks” too often- to which my mom replied, “I don’t like that word, Heather.”

Well, you know what?

I think it sucks that I can’t say crappy.

So there.

(I’m kidding, of course! Love you, Mom! Love you, Dad! You too, Grandma!)

Craft August 13, 2008

As I mentioned yesterday, last night was our Restaurant Week venture to Craft. As a huge Top Chef nerd, I was super excited to eat at one of Tom Colicchio’s restaurants. The Dallas Morning News hosts an “Eats Blog” that I stalk pretty regularly, and through that blog I had seen quite a few negative reviews of the food/service at various restaurants during RW- so I was a little nervous.

Well, it was pretty amazing. We arrived 15 minutes early for our 8pm reservation and they sat us immediately, even though the restaurant looked to be almost at capacity. The service was awesome. We had no less than 6 waiters assisting us at different points during the meal and everyone was very helpful and attentive.

But here’s the best part: Usually during restaurant week, you’re given a three course menu with 3-4 options per course to choose from. Craft is known for serving “family style”, so instead of choosing one option from each course, they bring everything. The only decision we had to make was for the main course.

So on to photos. I kind of expected them to be a little weirded out by the picture-taking, especially since it’s RW, but one of the waiters actually offered to take the photo himself! So nice.

First, the bread. I had a slice of the wheat, which was okay but nothing special.

First Course:

From left to right- Baby Lettuces with La Cuesta Goat Cheese; Heirloom Tomato Salad with Watercress; Smoked Salmon Rillette.

The tomato salad was amazing. There were at least 5 different varieties of tomatoes, topped with balsamic (my fave) and olive oil. The rillette was good, too- almost like a pate.

For the main course, I ordered Diver Scallops and Mushroom Jus, and Brian had the Braised Beef Short Ribs. In addition, they brought out individual dishes of the following sides:

• Roasted Mushrooms
• Lyonnaise Potatoes
• Roasted Farmer’s Market Vegetables (broccoli rabe, carrots, and asparagus)
• Cavatappi with Fresh Parsley- which definitely had a drizzle of truffle oil. YUM.

Rather than take photos of the individual dishes, here’s my assembled plate:

And here’s Brian’s:

Dessert (L to R): Mini Macadamia Nut Cookies, Brownies, and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with PB; some type of Sponge Cake with Lemon Sauce & Blackberries; Almond Ice Cream and White Raspberry Sorbet.

We were so full that we barely put a dent in the desserts, but the Chocolate Sandwich Cookies got my vote. The cookie part was not sweet at all- just very dark chocolaty- and the PB tasted homemade.

The only snafu was my wine. I ordered a glass of Chardonnay and got Chablis. It was good, though, and I actually debated ordering a 2nd. Good thing I didn’t, because the glass was $18!!! I bet that wine didn’t have a cute animal on the bottle.

So yea Craft! I feel like we got a good taste of what all the restaurant had to offer. It was a great experience and we’ll definitely be back.

Training Update: Track workout yesterday- 4 x 1200’s, plus 2 warm-up laps, 1 cool-down lap, and walking in between sprints. Today I did an easy 3.5 miles. My ankle has been pretty sore since yesterday, so I’m icing it right now. I need to be able to walk around and get stuff done, though (counteractive? Maybe), so check out my rigged ice-pack:

And yes, Brian, that is one of your dress socks.

Going Green August 12, 2008

And by “going green“, I mean our dinner…

I hadn’t cracked open Veganomicon in a while, so tonight I decided to try a recipe that I’d been curious about: Pasta Della California. It’s whole wheat linguine topped with broccoli, arugula, LOTS of garlic, and a light citrusy-wine sauce. The best part? AVOCADO! The whole warm pasta/avocado combo sounds weird, but it was really good. It gives the dish kind of a creamy texture. If you’re interested, the recipe is online here. It’s a great summer pasta dish.

The cookbook recommends serving this pasta alongside their Smoky Tempeh dish. That’s just tempeh marinated in a mix of olive oil, liquid smoke, cider vinegar, maple syrup, garlic and soy sauce. It’s probably best grilled, but I just ended up sticking it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’s really tasty and FILLING. One triangle (1/4 of the package) was more than enough.

Today was kind of uneventful. I met Brian for lunch (Sushi Zushi) and then started cleaning my closet. I probably could have finished, too- except that I stopped every 5 minutes to check my email, watch Jon & Kate Plus Eight, check weather.com… I’ve been putting off this closet business for weeks. Meh. Piper and Chloe had a boring day, too:

Off to bed. I took today off from running, but I have to get up early for Tuesday sprint work. OHHHH, I almost forgot: guess what this week is???? RESTAURANT WEEK! And tomorrow night is Craft! Wheeeeee.

Lazy Sunday August 11, 2008

So we went to the lake again this weekend (I’ll post some pics of that later) and ended up staying both Friday AND Saturday nights. We’d planned on just staying Friday, but it’s so darn relaxing… anyway, we got home to find this little guy spread eagle on our porch.

I’d seen him sunbathing last week, but he scampered off before I got a photo. Today he hung out ALL afternoon. Even when we let Chloe out, she slept on one side of the porch and he stayed on the other. I guess it’s just too hot for everyone right now!

Tonight my best friend Lauren and her new hubby Bobby Dubbs (Robert) came over for dinner. Robert tried some of our Pyramid Apricot Ale:

The verdict? “It’s a fruity beer.“

So there you have it.

They brought us some gorgeous flowers, and Lauren was super sweet and let Chloe crawl all over her, risking the much-feared “pug stamp” (if you don’t know, don’t ask…):

This weekend we stopped in Canton (again!) and bought some fresh lima beans. I’ve never actually cooked these before, but was inspired by this recipe. Here’s my variation:

• 1.5 lbs fresh lima beans
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1.5 tbs dried dill
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• salt/pepper to taste

Place beans in dutch oven and cover with water (2 inches over beans). Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Drain beans. Place beans in 9×13 inch baking dish. Add tomatoes, olive oil, dill, oregano and salt/pepper. Bake at 375 for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so.

Brian grilled turkey and beef burgers, and we baked some Alexia crinkle fries for another side dish:

After dinner we played some Wii Bowling (I won… booyah) and Wii Fit. I can honestly say that the best part of having a Wii is creating Mii’s for all of your friends. Brian’s looks EXACTLY like him- it’s creepy.

Dessert? We had a ton of blueberries left over from last week, so I made some Lemon Lime Blueberry Squares from foodnetwork.com (recipe here). They were good, although the cornmeal crust is a little weird. I guess I’m just used to graham cracker.

Marathon Update: 3.5 miles on Friday. First “long run” on Saturday- 5 miles (baby steps, people, baby steps). 3 mile “easy” run today. It’s just so HOT right now. Blech. But we’re supposed to get some rain this week, though… so yea for that!

Poor Puglet August 8, 2008

Drama day!!! But first we’ll start with food…

For breakfast: PB & Banana Oatmeal, inspired by Kath’s oats. Made with 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 cup water, 1 really overripe banana, vanilla and cinnamon. Topped with some raw granola, unsweetened coconut and PEANUT BUTTER:

For lunch I met my mom at Subway and had a boring turkey sub. No pics, because it was…uh, boring.

I attended a firm cocktail party with Bri tonight and we had a few hors d’oeuvres there- lots of fun, but I was still munchy afterwards, as is the norm after a couple glasses of wine. I would have taken pics, but I’m pretty sure that Brian would have died of embarassment if I’d whipped out the pink camera. Anyway, we stopped at Central Market (God bless them) and picked up sushi. So here is dinner:

Onwards to the drama. I’ve mentioned how Chloe HATES having her nails trimmed. We’ve tried taking her to the groomer, only to pick her up three hours later and have them tell us that they cannot trim her nails. She doesn’t bite or anything, but she wiggles and screams like a demon baby and makes it pretty much impossible to cut her talons. It sucks.

Well last night we decided to just go ahead and cut them ourselves. Brian held her down on our bed and I trimmed. It was awful. I tried to feed her treats in between nails to reinforce that the trimming is not a bad thing, but she was having none of it. We got through one foot and Brian asks, “Do you smell that?”

“No… smell what? OH. MY. GOD. What is that???”

Yeah, she totally pooped on the bed. While Brian was holding her. The nail process stressed her out THAT MUCH. So we let her outside to finish her business, then finished up the other three paws. When we put her down, she was totally favoring one back foot and limping. I cried, she got to sleep in our bed, and this morning she was still limping. So I took her to the vet… and $100 later we know that nothing is out of joint, no tendons were torn, and to keep an eye on her. Oh, and we got the equivalent of baby asprin to give her every 12 hours.

Whatever, she’s totally worth it. Do you think our future children will let us do this?:

I think not.

PS- I got tagged again, this time by my friend Sammie at Running with a Recipe! I’ve run out of fun facts about myself, so I’m letting Brian take this one. (I’m also out of blogs to tag, so you’ll just have to be satisfied with info about ME!ME!ME!)… and now here’s Brian:

I am a big pop culture person, so this is Heather, the pop culture version:

1. Heather is obsessed with crap reality television. Among the most popular are Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, and soon to be added Pam: Girl on the Loose. I think if you watch more than one show with a name featuring a colon (the grammar tool, not the small intestine), then you have a problem.

2. Heather has many boyfriends. Normally this would be a problem for a married woman, but these men are so diverse and unobtainable, it doesn’t get me worked up. For example, her boyfriends include Jason Terry, James McAvoy, Jon Stewart, and Rhett Miller.

3. Heather loves music. She’s always discovering new great bands (see the Weepies, I Love Math, and Brandtson). She’s even an accomplished singer. There’s a great bootleg version of her signing “Wind Beneath My Wings” floating around out there.

4. For movies, Heather loves comedies - the dumber the better. Among her favories are Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Dumb and Dumber, and Billy Madison. She tries to pass herself off as a cultured art film lover, but really she’s a sucker for a good fart joke.

5. Heather reads more than any person I have ever known. In the course of time it takes me to get through 1 book, she will easily cruise through a dozen (or more). She likes to alternate the subject matter of her books: food book, chick lit, food book, chick lit, food book, chick lit, cook book, chick lit.

6. I know more about celebrity gossip than any woman in my office. I often find myself correcting my coworkers. “No, Jennifer Aniston is with John Mayer now.” “Their names are Knox and Vivienne.” I owe this “skill” to my darling wife. I am confident that Perez Hilton gets more time with my wife on a daily basis than I do.

In the end, though, she is truly the most amazing person I have ever known and feel very lucky to share all these things with her. I hope her blog gives you even a taste of what a special woman she is.

Tagged August 7, 2008

So apparently I have been “tagged” by Greyce from Fighting with the Scale. Greyce is originally from Brazil and now lives in NY- her blog is fabulous and you should definitely go check it out if you haven’t!

Okay, so here’s how this thing works:

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person that tagged you- DONE! Thanks, Greyce!
2. Mention the rules on your blog- Yeah, that’s what these are.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours- See below

4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them- Unfortunately pretty much ALL of the bloggers I know have already been tagged, so I’m only tagging four very special ladies:

Julie from Crazy May Days

Katherine from Katastrophies and Other Important News

Lori Lynn from Taste with the Eyes

Betsy from Betsy Cooks Healthy Food

Sorry if any of you have been tagged recently… if so, just ignore this!

5. Leave a comment for each tagged blogger, to let them know they have been tagged.

*HeatherBakes Facts/Quirks*

1. APPEARANCE/RANDOMNESS: I have an unholy number of freckles (even on my lips). I am left handed, but do everything except write with my right hand. I have blue eyes and hate it when people touch my neck, and I turn red when I have to talk in front of a group.
2. CAREER: I went to Washington and Lee University and graduated with a BS in psychology. I applied to several Ph.D. programs in clinical psych right off the bat, got some interviews, got rejected. Worked for two years, applied again, got some interviews, and got rejected… AGAIN. So now instead of helping people, I write about food and cook things (Brian tells me that I’m helping in my own way). Anyway, this is much more fun and I would love to make a career out of food writing or cooking.
3. FAMILY: I have awesome parents and one younger brother (less than 2 years apart). My brother and I are pretty much oppposites in everything except sense of humor… don’t tell him this, but he’s actually a lot funnier than I am.
4. LURVE: I met my husband, Brian, 7 years ago on a blind date in college. It was a sorority function called Famous Lovers. Someone set you up, and then you showed up to the party in one costume and had to find your date by their matching costume. I was She-Rah and Brian was He-Man. We later found out that He-Man and She-Rah were actually siblings. Gross.
5. WHAT ELSE, YOU ASK? I took French classes from ages 3 through 21 and still am not fluent.
6. AND FINALLY: I like to sing popular songs to my dog, but replace the words with her name. You know “Call Me” by Blondie? CHLOOOOEEE… my love, you can call me any, anytime… CHLOE!

Now… DINNER

I decided on Spicy Peanut Chicken over Rice from the latest issue of Cooking Light (recipe here). I made the following adjustments to the recipe:

• Only used 1.25 lbs chicken, instead of 2.5 lbs
• Used 1 can of chicken broth instead of 2
• Added about 1/4 can of leftover light coconut milk we had in the fridge
• Squirted in a few drops of Sriracha

Even after halving the chicken broth, this still turned out really soupy. In the Cooking Light photo, it looks like more of a thick sauce. We had it over brown rice and steamed broccoli, with a little 2% Fage on top to cut the spiciness. I heart peanut sauce and would definitely make this again, but maybe add fewer fresh tomatoes or thicken it up with some cornstarch.

Assembled:

Brian’s bowl, all mixed together:

And for dessert? WINE! And we split a packet of the candy-coated Figamajigs (Brian sprinkled his over ice cream) while watching Project Runway.

Marathon Update: I think I’m going to start listing my runs/workouts at the bottom of each post, more for my edification (and accountability) than anything. Today was a 3.5 mile run… I’m all stiff and joint crack-y I need a yoga class or something.