operation dumb blonde
August 7th, 2008 @ 10:18 pm | blonde moments | Comments (15)I almost forgot — I have a blog! Maybe perhaps you would like an update? I have been forgetting things left and right lately. Well, not so much forgetting, but — take tonight, for example. I got my hair cut after work, then did some shopping (bought the branch hooks and some elbow-length knit shirts, both items have been lingering on my wish list) and hopped on the Metro to go home. Granted, it’s not my usual stop, but it’s not like I’ve never gotten myself home from Chinatown before. But OOPS. I missed my transfer, and ended up at the Pentagon. The wait was super long for the next yellow line train so I just took the blue line all the way over the hill and through the woods… and about 87 stops and a few near-vomits later I was home. So, yeah, my brain is a little bit gone these days.
Perhaps you read elsewhere that I hosted a little blogger party at my house last weekend. It was super fun, and if I didn’t invite you, I swear it was an accident. See forgetfulness above. (Really, I am all about being inclusive. Sharing the love and all that.) But anyway, somehow after a bottle of vodka and several bottles of wine (and I mean collectively here. I am not THAT big of a lush) I ended up locking myself out of the house whilst saying goodbye to everyone.
I had a key to the screen door, but not to the inner door, the one that was locked. Luckily, my screen door key also works at my back door, so it was just a matter of getting into the back yard to get to the back door. Sounds easy enough, except that I live in a rowhouse, so in order to get to my back door I have to:
- Walk to the other end of my street, turn the corner.
- Walk halfway up this street and enter an alley way.
- (Have I mentioned I sort of live in the ‘hood?)
- Walk all the way back into the alley, which snakes around into several twists and turns and gets darker and leafier and sketchier as you go.
- Yes, THIS alley. With the cheetah.
- Find something tall to stand on, like a trash can.
- Hop the fence.
- Open the back door.
No problem, right?! The completely nice and lovely (and hardened Baltimore resident) Jen kindly insisted that she would come with me to try to break into my own house. Everyone else had already left, and it was me and Jen and potentially a cheetah and also murderers, drug dealers, and rapists. NO BIGGIE.
So we get about 3/4 into the alley when it gets completely dark and we think we hear a rustling noise. Obviously, we squeal and run away right on back out of the alley. For the record, Jen totally kept her cool. I probably did most of the squealing and running.
Thank god about this time my husband calls and says he is almost home. I freed sent Jen on her way and husband and I went back into the alley armed with a wind-up flashlight and a nine iron. I KNEW there was a reason we kept the golf clubs in the trunk permanently.
Thankfully, I think our squealing probably scared off whatever homeless drug dealer murderers live in my alley, and husband was able to hop the fence and bust us into the house just fine.
I believe that the moral of the story is: Maybe I should get a new key for the front door. And also? My blogfriends totally have my back.
Happy Friday to all. Come back soon so I can tell you all about my experiment in making bacon rice krispie treats and how 5 out of 7 bloggers dared to eat them. Would you?
whip it up vegetarian week: spicy black bean cakes
July 28th, 2008 @ 9:54 pm | food | Comments (17)As I was making this meal tonight, I was composing this blog post in my head, illustrated, Pioneer Woman style. God, I love that woman’s blog. The post in my head was so brilliant, so witty, so charming, just like hers always are. But of course now I’ve eaten dinner and downloaded my crappy photos, and have totally lost all brilliance, wit, and charm. Ha, as if I ever really had it!
I went through several phases while cooking these black bean cakes. 1. Excited! I’ve wanted to make these for a long time. 2. Fatigue. Seriously, all this work for a little turdball bean patty? 3. Satisfaction. They were really yummy, so maybe it was all worth it. And? This is a big AND. My husband, lover of meat and sauce, skeptic of vegetables that are not named onion, liked them so much he even got himself seconds. (!)
The hardest part about making these is all the chopping/prep, and staying one step ahead. By the time you get to the pan-frying at the end, that’s the super easy part.
It starts with chopping and sautéeing ingrediets for the patties. Onions, jalepeño, bell pepper, garlic, grated zucchini, cumin, cayenne, a wee bit of chipotle in adobo sauce.
Throw all of that in a bowl and add in 3/4 of a can of black beans. Bust out your awesome hand mixer (I know you have one because they are the Best. Things. Ever!) and give them a little whir. You know, until it looks like barf. Sorry.
At this point, I started adding all kinds of things that weren’t on the original recipe, and some that were. Panko bread crumbs, the rest of the black beans (so there are a variety of textures), taco seasoning (my little secret), green onions, and honestly I can’t remember what else. Oh! Parmesan cheese. Because, why not?
Here is where things got a wee bit out of control. You have to take this bowl of bean goo, form it into patties, dip it in flour, dip it in egg, dip it in bread crumbs, and lay it in a hot pan with a little oil in it to pan fry. It’s MESSY. I wasn’t going to risk the life and liberty of my iPhone to get a photo of the process, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. It kind of looks like this in the end.
Now you can finally breathe because you’re almost done. Oh, and you can start to wash the 14 dishes you just dirtied.
The toppings are the key to making this a complete meal. I served the cakes/patties/turdballs with diced tomatoes, avocado chunks, fresh lime wedges, baby spinach, shredded cheese, and chipotle sour cream. I made the chipotle sour cream by combining a few tablespoons of light sour cream with the juice of half a lime and about 1/4 of a chipotle in adobo sauce. It was hot and cool all at once.
Wanna see it all together again?
I ended up flying by the seat of my pants and not really measuring anything, as well as adding in ingredients on a whim, but I used these two online recipes as my starting point: Crispy Black Bean Cakes from more bread and cheese please! and Crispy Black Bean Cake Salad at The Kitchen Sink.
Both recipes were easy to follow, and easy to modify. The dish tasted really good, better than I was expecting even. I probably will make the dish again, but only if I can employ my sous chef to help with all the chopping and clearing out dishes once they get dirty.
This is one meal you can feel good about eating. Lots of vitamins and fiber, and no animals harmed or husbands starved in the process.
there’s something lurking in the basement
July 24th, 2008 @ 10:47 pm | blonde moments | Comments (31)There’s a danger out there on your lunch hour. And it’s not trans fatty acids. Or high fructose corn syrup. Or overpriced slimy turkey sandwiches.
It’s retail shopping.
Within just a few blocks of my office you can find: Macy’s, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Zara, West Elm, and H&M. And my newest predator, Filene’s Basement.
For those of you who didn’t grow up in the mid-Atlantic region and have never heard of Filene’s Basement, it’s like an urban TJMaxx or Nordstrom Rack or something like that. A big old hot mess of department store overruns and rejects. (Some of you may be familiar with their insane annual bridal gown event.) But oh, how Miss Filene sucks me in with her huge selection and low prices. She keeps it real with some dank ass dressing rooms, though. Check out this horrible lighting:
Oh yeah, I also have Leftover Hair™ and PMS-y skin. Why am I showing you these photos again?!
Because I got that black and white top on the left for $20. I never wear prints, but maybe I should try once or twice. That pink cardigan in the middle is wholly inappropriate for 95° and 95% humidity, but for $11 it can sit in my closet until November. The blue shirt on the left I’m still a bit undecided on. The spotlight on the chest in that photo is not helping.
The real reason I slipped out to Filene’s yesterday was to find a cute, cottony summer dress. I keep seeing everyone wearing them and was feeling left out. I bought a sassy black wrap one (wore it today with pink strappy heels) and a blue one. I’m somewhat undecided on the blue one. I really want to show you some of the detailing, but I don’t really want to post a close up of the Bo0b$ ya know?
But oh man I would love to wear the blue dress with my favorite red heels and red chunky necklace. (Turquoise + red. Canary + gray. Black + fuschia. I can’t pull mself away from these color combos.)
My occasional hour long escape from cubicle land always feels so good. The only problem I haven’t yet solved is how to make my my bulging shopping bag become invisible when I slink in the front door and back to my desk for an afternoon of work.
love & hate hump day
July 22nd, 2008 @ 10:29 pm | love & hate | Comments (20)love: reading all the fun BlogHer posts.
hate: missing out on all the fun. Maybe next year?
love: got to spend part of my weekend with my BFF and her cute cute cute baby!
hate: one day is never enough time, ya know? how could it be?
love: which is why I am SO THRILLED to be going home for a whole week next month. I successfully lobbied for the time off before my “90 day probationary period” is up!
hate: anyone want to housesit for me?
love: fresh cut flowers in the house, just to brighten things up a little.
hate: broken garbage disposal. Where is my dad, the Master Fixer of All Things, when I need him?
love: that Mad Men got so many Emmy nominations, because it convinced me to start watching it
double love: that they did a Mad Men Season 1 marathon on Sunday and I discovered it just in time to catch the whole thing on the DVR.
hate: husband hasn’t been home to watch it with me, and I really want to wait to watch it together. So I wait.
love: these lovely branch hooks
hate: my local store doesn’t have them in stock; do I really want to pay for shipping?
love: Hey, guess what? Jackie is married! Erika had another baby boy! Laurel’s birthday is on Thursday! Aly is coming to America! (and also has a birthday coming up) Oliver turned two! Jen has been freed from her crappy housecleaning contract! JP won the new blog design! Zandria successfully led a session at BlogHer! Kerri’s in skinny shorts!
hate: Did I miss your big news? Leave it in the comments, along with your loves and hates, my lovelies.
whip it up: roasted poblano and chicken penne
July 17th, 2008 @ 11:22 pm | food | Comments (15)When I left my job, they threw me a big party and gave me a custom cookbook full of everyone’s favorite recipes. It’s my favorite kind of gift: thoughtful and useful! I made my first recipe from it last week:
Roasted Poblano and Chicken Penne (recipe from Cooking for Love blog)
This recipe is great if you like cheese, peppers, and pasta. And who doesn’t like those things? If the spice thing scares you, just use fewer or milder peppers.
The basics of the recipe are this:
- Broil the peppers until they get black and charred. Let them cool and peel the really black stuff off.
- Sauté mushrooms, garlic, and onions. Add one or a portion of a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.
- Add flour and spices and cook for a few more minutes. Whisk in broth and water and thicken.
- Add chopped peppers and rotisserie chicken chunks.
- Add cream cheese (we used FF) and Mexican cheese to make it all creamy and cheesy.
- Gently fold in cooked penne pasta, add salt and pepper and eat up!
Was the recipe easy to follow? As long as you don’t get too hung up on the pepper-roasting step (and you really shouldn’t; no need for perfection here), the rest is easy. You just saute up a bunch of yummy things in a big pot in successive order. The use of rotisserie chicken is the key here: no raw meat in the kitchen to clean up - blech!
Did the dish taste good? Yes, but it was spicy! If you don’t like spicy, just use a wee bit of chipotle/adobo sauce and cayenne. Husband gave it his approval. Also, we used FF cream cheese even though I am morally against FF cheese (another rant for another time) and I couldn’t even tell. The dish is deceptively healthy for how rich and flavorful it is!
Would you make it again? Yes, I think so. I might even add in different veggies (corn, zucchini).
Ingredients below the jump…Happy Weekend to All! 
