Never So Happy to See A Friday

It has been a crazy busy week at work.

You all are so complimentary of my cooking, but I have to admit, some days I don't have much of a cooking vibe and I phone it in with something I know my husband will like but takes no effort....Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  He is very particular about his mac 'n cheese - Kraft Original only - no homemade, no other brands, no other flavors, no different shapes...Kraft Original. And he definitely is NOT going to eat it leftover. Thankfully, I am not so picky and no leftovers were wasted.  I simply added a packet of tuna,  some frozen peas and mixed it together.

Grabbed a few apples and I had three yummy lunches. Yes, I confess, I break the cardinal rule of office etiquette and microwave tuna at work. Fortunately, I mostly work alone and when I don't my co-workers don't mind.  In fact, I think my boss was legitimately envious of my lunch the day he was in :) 

Being wiped out from work all week I was grateful for easy familiar meals. Before you say "oh no, there is the sweet potato hash (oatmeal, etc.) again." I would like to draw your attention to the glasses.  My husband took me out to eat one evening and the restaurant was right next to a flea market. I sweet talked him into popping in for a minute to look for a new glass...I ended up with 3 glasses and a plate that matches mine.  Score! 

I am a morning person, which is a good thing since I worked early every day this week. Monday, I worked 11+ hours on our office newsletter - 24 pages of information for our county teachers' institute.

Eating at my desk.  I didn't mind at all eating the faux tuna casserole three days in a row.

A long day on Monday, meant I got to see a pretty sunset on my drive home I would have otherwise missed : )

Next morning, up and at it again. My husband is claiming this glass for himself, but I had to at break it in, at least.

One final glass of water with a side of chicken tacos topped with fresh peach salsa.

Enchilada Turkey Stuffed Peppers are a go-to healthy comfort food. I always use poblanos for this recipe, but I only had three and needed five.  I substituted Cubanelles for the other two. It was my first time using them, They were good and like the poblanos they don't have that sharp over powering taste that green bell peppers can have when cooked.

I still had some of the egg roll wrappers left after making them for my niece. I made up some more egg rolls. This time I baked them instead of frying. I just sprayed them with a touch of cooking spray and baked until crispy. The turned out really well and I felt much better about eating them - both mentally and physically. I need to figure out the exact calories, but my educated guess is about 100 calories each.

Yesterday my co-worker and I decided to go out for lunch. She loves sushi. I've had it a couple times and like it, but never go out for it. My lunch special came with miso soup.

I was a little grossed otu by the way the soup separated as it sat. Reminded me of fat separating from broth. I was not a fan of the fermented flavor of the miso. At least I tried right?

I did however enjoy my spicy tuna and California rolls. I need to use wasabi more often.

Next to the sushi place was a cute store with home decor items. I was intrigued by this sign...I feel like it could have many meanings - live with excitement, run away, etc.

Perhaps the highlight of the week was finally getting our big dead tree removed from the front yard. We have been in desperate need for awhile, but I hate calling around for estimates and kept putting it off. I finally made a few calls last week and found a great price. I was super happy they could do it within the week (the service we used before was booked until the end of October!) Unfortunately, I was not home to see it in person, but my husband did a great job documenting the process! 

They were supposed to start before I left for work, but apparently they had a "tree fell on a house emergency" they had to take care of first. I was afraid to ask if the tree fell on the house when they were cutting it!  So, when I left for work...

They made it out in the afternoon and my husband got home just in time to see them get started.

He was super impressed with how the guy in the bucket was able to pretty much cut down the tree one handed. He just stuck out the chain saw and down fell the branches.I am sure it is a bit more complicated, but that is what it looked like.

 

My neighbor was impressed with how the other guy got paid for just standing around smoking while the guy in the bucket did all the work.

Our great deal on cutting down the tree was partially because they were not taking away the wood. I was told, however, the pieces they left would be a manageable size. I wonder who will be moving a 5 foot length of trunk with a 2+ foot diameter. I couldn't even roll it much less put it in a truck!!

I called the next morning to find out when they would be returning to grind the stump. I asked if when they came back they would cut a couple of those huge pieces another time. The office girl then put me on with the owner, who explained we were getting a free stump grinding because of the office girl's mistake when she wrote up our estimate. I was happy he was honoring the estimate, but was disappointed that he wouldn't send the crew back out to cut the logs again (cause he'd already lost money on the job). Apparently, the cutting and the grinding are two separate crews and the grinding crew doesn't carry a big saw.

I left Millie out to investigate. She was in 7th heaven - I've never seen a dog that likes to chew up sticks like she does. Hmmm...I wonder if she would work on those logs for us.

Millie weighs about 80 pounds so you can really get a sense of how big those logs are.

I am very much hoping for a relaxing weekend (other than cleaning up that tree mess) and a much less hectic week next week. What are your weekend plans?

Cooking for Friends

Before I get into this weekend, I forgot to mention in my last post  that I am a complete egg roll snob. I never order them in Chinese restaurants because I am always disappointed. I am not sure if there is some flavoring in them I don't enjoy. Perhaps it is partially the crispiness (or lack there of) of the wrappers. Nothing can live up to how that ultra thin wrapper fries up light and crispy. That being said, I have one guilty confession. I will eat (and sometimes may crave) egg rolls from...I don't know if I can say it....Jack in the Box. I know, I know, I can't believe it either.  Maybe it is "something" they put in them - like whatever they put in their greasy, chewy tacos that make some people go crazy for them.

Sorry for that diversion. I just felt like I had to address my snobbery.

Our weekend got off to a slow start and I didn't mind that a bit. It has been a crazy stressful work week, with another one on the way. Saturday morning, Millie was giving her best pathetic look.

To cheer Millie up (and to buy apples for me and peaches for my husband) we took her to the farmers' market. I hadn't been in a couple of weeks. The Beet Box is a mobile market. They travel around the county between market days selling fresh veggies.

 So many pretty flowers still in bloom.

You can tell fall is upon us with the wide variety of squash at the market. I am not sure how I feel about the warty pumpkin...does it have a disease? barnacles?

Millie was offered a doggie snow cone made from chicken broth. I think the heat got the best of the snow cones. It was just a bowl of cool broth.

 Millie was not impressed...she took a little taste and then tried to make her not-so polite getaway.

Turns market day was also an adoption event for several rescue groups. I was careful not to make direct eye contact with puppies. I am not quite ready to be a two dog household again. 

This past winter we had a fun trip to Baton Rouge visiting friends over New Year's. While we were there we made a delicious discovery. At our friends' New Year's Day/college football feast, we were introduced to the most delicious potato salad from a local restaurant, Rice and Roux. In their salad, the potatoes are mashed instead of the usual chunks. We loved the mashed potato texture and how the flavors were distributed evenly throughout the potatoes. Since we are some 800 miles from Rice and Roux, I had to find a way to make it at home. I made my first attempt this weekend. 

I scoured the internet for a knock off recipe, but came up empty. However, there were several generic "mashed potato" salad recipes. I settled on this one from Just a Pinch. My husband had friends over Sunday and it seemed like a good occasion to try it. I prepped all the ingredients while the potatoes cooked. The recipe recommended mixing it together while potatoes were still warm...and even eating it warm or cold.

 I mashed the drained potatoes and then transferred them to the mixer bowl.

I knew the potatoes had to be creamy and the best way to do that is with Super Mixer. The first mix included celery, onion and relish.

 I have never done this step for a potato salad - dissolve sugar in white vinegar.

The sugar/vinegar is then whisked into the mayo. Then into the mixer bowl for a second mix. Finally the chopped eggs were added for a final mix. 

The salad ended up having a really nice "mashed potato' texture. The eggs, celery, and onion made it a little lumpy, but not in a bad way.

Later in the day my friend messaged me the two pictures below - she was having the Rice and Roux original for an LSU football party.

 Looks like they had tamales too :)  Thank you for sharing the pictures.

First, I was envious and secondly, I could tell from the pictures they don't use green things in their potato salad. I am not sure about the onion and eggs. Surely, they add more than mayo to their potatoes. Guess I will need to do some more research. In the meantime, we did enjoy this recipe. For me the biggest takeaway is the mashed potatoes allow for the flavors to get evenly distributed. I am pretty sure we have all had that disappointing moment biting into a hunk of bland potato just dripping with over mayo-ed sauce??

My husband's game gathering had me busy in the kitchen. My husband loves sugar cookies. Since he realized he also likes my chocolate chip cookies (he's not the biggest chocolate fan), I haven't made sugar cookies. The sugar cookies are a little more labor intensive since I created a lime glaze for them...and why stop at lime when there are lemons and oranges in the world. I started by zesting each fruit. I combined the juice from half of each fruit with powdered sugar until my glaze reached the right consistency.

 Orange 
 Lemon

I took some of the lime cookies a step further, by topping them with a little bit of flaked salt to give them a margarita vibe. I am certain they will happen again. 

The guys has decided they wanted BLTs for lunch. They supplied the bacon and I was tasked with cooking it all. On the recommendation of friends, I cooked it in the oven - my first time. I put the bacon in a cold oven and let it start cooking as the oven got to temperature (400 degrees). I think the advantage is supposed to be more even cooking. And it did cook very evenly. However, it seemed to take forever to cook. To be fair, that was probably due to the two double stacked pans of bacon in the oven at one time. (I put a rack on top of these pans and laid out another layer of bacon.)  Everyone seemed happy with the baked bacon. Well, almost everyone....my husband is still solidly in the stove top frying camp.

 Nothing beats a BLT with garden fresh tomatoes!

My tomatoes have been slow this year, but have exploded the last week or two. They aren't the prettiest tomatoes I have grown, but I picked a bunch Saturday morning. I had two big bowls that needed attention.

I know some people go through a whole process of blanching and peeling the tomatoes, but I don't mind the skins. I simply washed and quartered them, cutting out any bad spots. I ended up with three quarts for the freezer. They will be the base of several batches of chili this winter. 

 I am not sure what to do about this guy.....

Birthday Treats

I can't believe I forgot to mention one of my favorite things from the sidekick birthday weekend. Friday night my husband was working, so I decided to make something I like and my sidekick loves...grabgrabgoon. You may know it as crab rangoon, but our sidekick has forever changed the dialect in our house :)  She likes to cook and I thought she would get a kick out of making this treat. I was trying to wrap them the way the restaurants around here do...like this.

from Dinner, Then Dessert

It didn't quite work out that way. We tried two different methods (see picture). The ones on the right are cuter, but the left is much easier. They were both delicious!

This hasn't been the exercise week I was hoping to have. I will definitely get some in this weekend. I tell you otherwise you have my permission to scold me in the comments next week....just be gentle :)

Between fried treats I did eat some good things....

Yummy sweet potato/spinach hash.

Egg salad sandwich with a side of grapes.

Stir fry - sadly, I am now out of snow peas and mushrooms again. I am not sure when I will make it back to my new favorite store.

Thursday was my oldest niece's 24th birthday. I decided to make her egg rolls. These are a family favorite that we learned how to make back when I was in high school. My brother was dating a Cambodian girl and her mother was a cook for the King of Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge took over in one of the world's worst cases of genocide. Her father was killed because he wore glasses...the sign of a learned man. The rest of her family later escaped to the United States. Her mother shared this recipe for egg rolls with us. I don't have it written down. Exact measurements are really not that important. I have made it so many times I just eyeball it. The filling is simply ground pork, cabbage and carrots. 

Chop carrots and cabbage. Don't feel guilty about snacking on the raw veggies as you chop.

Brown the pork, then add carrots and cabbage. This will seem odd, but also add about a teaspoon or so of sugar. Cook until slightly softened.

These are my favorite wrappers...super thin. I buy the ones that are pre-separated. The ones you have to peel apart yourself always end up a shredded mess when I try to separate them.

In addition to the pork/veggie filling, we add a little bit of cellophane noodles. The are also known as glass noodles and are made from starch (mung bean, potato or tapioca - I think mine were bean). Sometimes, I see them in the grocery store, but I always stock up at the international stores (much less expensive). Just don't confuse them with rice noodles, which look similar. Soak the noodles in warm water for a few minutes to make them pliable.

Ready to assemble.

A scoop of filling and a few noodles. (I've also heard the noodles called bean threads).

Start rolling away from you tucking the filling into the wrapper.

Then fold in the sides and continue rolling.

24 egg rolls and ready to celebrate my 24 year old niece :)  I gave them to her uncooked, since they are best freshly fried. You can also brush them with a bit of oil and bake...not quite the same as fried, but still delicious.  I wanted her to have extra to freeze for a later meal too.

I also made her a jar of this sauce...love that stuff. It is fish sauce, water, vinegar, sugar, salt and chopped garlic.

The whole recipe is super easy. I spent about 15 minutes making the filling the night before. Then the next morning about 15 minutes to roll them up and make the sauce.

Wrapping up this post with a shot of our pathetic pup living her difficult life in a pile of pillows. This might be payback for my husband letting her sleep on my pillows :)  

I am SO ready for the weekend...what are your plans?