a SUPER Super Bowl

Um yes i can say deeeelayed, but let's all be honest here, i'm clearly not writing anything up to date. I'm going through my computer and pulling up all my old pictures and thinking of oh so witty things to say. Super Bowl is not so much of a big deal for me, but i did decide to make a feast for Super Bowl. It consisted of umm CHILI! cornbread, guac (not pictured here b/c we ate it all before i thought about photographing it) and beer. Not sure i'm supposed to be making chili, not the best thing ever, but the corn bread was good. I can't remember if i told you guys about it before but i swear it comes from a higher cooking goddess. I could eat it every day...i won't tell you what's in it (unless you want to know) b/c this will explain why we really can't eat it everyday.

Holy macaroni...i almost forgot to tell you about my "truffles". They were chocolate date and a bunch of other yummy things which i attempted to roll into coconut. Not so easy. I won't make those again. Too hard and doesn't fall into my category of worth my time. But i did love making them because i required using my newest toy. Oh how i love to chop things up now!!

zip zip zip tzatziki

Where to begin. I HATE chopping things up. Ohhhhh how i loooooathe dicing, and slicing and julienning. Second thing on my list to help me in life was to request from Santa a Cuisinart. Santa was very generous to me and my plight. A few weeks after Christmas my 20 some odd pound baby arrived. Shiny, new and ready to make mama happy. Similarly to my big decision when i got my first born baby (my Kitchen Aid mixer) what would i make first? Something memorable and delicious. Something that i'd hate and would never ever make unless i had something to make my life easier. TZZZZZZATZIIKI!!!!! Here is how to make tzatziki with the Cuisinart. Throw it all in, pulse pulse, and eat. K, it's not really THAT easy, but it really did take about 5 minutes to make and i think 4 of the 5 minutes was trying to get the blades on without slicing and dicing my fingers off. It made my garlic so tiny, and the cucumber so slicey and then blended in all the other ingredients to peeeeerfection. I love to throw in all sorts of things to make my life a slice of heaven. hehe, i just can't help myself.

oh and ps: the middle picture is to show that i must have received the brand for those of us who have poor vision and get panicky about slicing too much. The buttons are pretty much fool proof. AAHHHHHH my cucumbers are turning to juice....where is that darned button. Ohhhhh phew, there it is. 3 inches long and in bold silvery letters.

Pizzazy pizza

Seriously, i love to cook, but i HATE hate to wait for things that take too long. Instant gratification is my best friend. Therefore when i found a recipe for pizza dough that didn't take a long time to rise like regular pizza dough i was kinda wow'ed to the max! Now this dough isn't going to be the best dough you've ever tried, but for dough that doesn't require rising this is pretty darn delicious!

Sadly the first time i made this i wasn't in the mind set to document BUT here I am making it again! It's just not a pizza. This is a flatbread. What the difference is i have no idea...maybe the lack of tomato sauce? This is just oil and ingredients.

Here is what i've got goin' on

Butternut squash

pumpkin seeds (i heard that pine nuts is good)

spinach (arugula should be good too!)

red onion

parm. cheese

oil

the recipe for the pizza dough is as such:

3 cup all-purpose flour

1 package of dry active yeast

2 TBSP veg. oil

1 Tsp salt

1TBSP white sugar

1 Cup warm water

mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast in large bowl. add oil and warm water. mix, mix mix. put on the pizza pan and decorate as you'd like.

bake at 375 for 20-25 min.

Now i have made this a couple times since the first and once i added whole wheat flour....pretty much we ate bread with pizza toppings. it was not so nice. I still have to figure out how to convert whole wheat and all-purpose.

Earth Hour

I am starting to drive J crazy. Not only have i started to make him eat things that are organic, not filled with preservatives and introduced him to butter (instead of margarine), but i just started pushing the use of less lights/electricity and a decrease in meat products. The poor man is really starting to get frustrated and i don't blame him. Don't worry the decrease in meat thing is really only me...i'm not taking away all the boy's fun.

Today was Earth Hour. I only remembered after someone in my electronic universe reminded me and asked if she "could watch tv with the lights off and it still count". I laughed a lot b/c any decrease in electricity is better than no decrease correct? J made the point to me that although the lights are off, everything was still plugged in and we were still on the grid. He didn't understand why i would participate, so he left the house for a run and i sat in dark silence and read. It really did make me think though, is earth hour really effective. Having things on and running does increase the amount of electricity used, but is unplugging for an hour worth it all?

I don't use paper towels anymore. I have cut up an old shirt and i use that instead. I wash it and reuse over and over again. My whole idea behind that is i'm decreasing the amount of waste i send out. I guess this can also be said of this Earth Hour concept. Even though it's a small decrease i guess it's a decrease to an extent. Every little bit helps right?

google reader

Sometimes i think i live under a rock with regard to technology. I love to bookmark things, but i don't really have a clue on how to have my computer tell me when people update their blogs. You know, send me a note or just some how make it so blatantly obvious i don't have to go blog to blog and check...enter here Google Reader. Let's rewind a few months ago.

As many of you know i had my Child Life certification exam back at the beginning of November. I do not standardize test well at all. Worst way to measure my knowledge (and many other people for that matter, but that's besides the point). When if finished my exam i thought i was going to throw-up. I was CONVINCED i failed. Really and truly i thought i failed.

Fast forward 2 weeks after the exam. News started to spread that people were getting their results. A friend of mine mentioned someone she knew found out via mail that day. It was around that time of day when our mail is put out. I became so incredibly nervous and freaked out I stood up and while attempting to put lappy (the laptop) on the kitchen table i accidentally decided to let go a few seconds early and drop her on the floor. It was a crack heard around the world...and a long NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

escaping from my mouth...before i quickly sprinted down the stairs.

Sad thing was my mail didn't arrive until the next day, which is where my results were, but that was the day my laptop died. Happiest day (yeah i'm a CCLS) and saddest day of my life. When lappy broke, and never started again, i lost all my favorited bookmarks. I knew i'd get my hard drive pulled out and all the information put into a new laptop (eventually), but some of the hardest things for me to lose are the favorite sites i have. There were hundreds of them. All organized, and labeled, sigh, so beautiful.

As embarrassing as it was, for a long while i couldn't figure out how to find my blog. This is obviously a lame excuse for not writing. The thing is you can't google my name or the title of my blog and find me...i did that as a safety/privacy measure. Apparently I did such a great job i couldn't find myself. Which brings me full circle to Google Reader.

I'm sure there are ways for an email to show up and tell me there is a new blog post, but now that i've got my new computer i've discovered this instead. All my blogs protected for me to read, updating me as they are written. loooove it!

That's all...maybe i'll remain inspired in my writing. i just don't know though. i really do enjoy reading other peoples thoughts and comments on life oh so much more!!

Get in ma belly biscotti's

The idea of having something last a long time without going bad or becoming stale is a very tempting idea for me. Hello i'm the gal who likes to make cookies, roll the dough into balls and freeze them for later use. 10 minutes later in the toaster oven i've got my delicious chocolate cranberry oatmeally cookie treat.

This is why i decided to give this biscotti recipe a go. They said it would last a month! A lot of coffee is consumed in this house and i liked the idea of having this. All i can say is OMG!! I was so excited about making these and how delicious they were i threw myself to the lion and shared my cooking with my grandmother. A not so quiet critic of anyones cooking. I passed the test. Oh wait did i mention this happened months ago...yes these were made before Christmas. Oh yes, i'm a slow writer and finally got my shiznet together. Anyhoo, the story is still true. The short of the long is these biscotti's were delicious and eaaaaaasy to make. I think my motto should be, if it's not easy she won't make it. If anyone is interested in giving this a try let me know i'll track down the recipe. I want to say it was a King Arthur Flour blog recipe...i do get a lot of goodies from them.