Fusilli and Pomegranates

Hello all!

I hope everyone had an amazing week :) I know I did! It was chock full of classes starting back up, resilient and inspirational young ladies in my girls trauma group, coffee, editing training materials for Head Start teachers, cheese sticks, Walking Dead, honey lime enchiladas, coronas, volleyball games, and naps. What was your week full of?

I am about to share a very special recipe with you. As you all know, I am a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa. I believe I get this admiration from my mother, who has refused to make anything non-Ina Garten for the past several years. Just kidding, but sort of it's true a little bit. This recipe also has some special memories that come with it. The first time my mom and I made this, I was on winter break from UConn. Doug and Charlie were going to look at houses in Minneapolis, and my Mom and I went to stay at their beautiful apartment in Manhattan to watch their dog. My cousin Emily joined us, and so did my friend Tiffani. We had a blast walking around the city, going to the wax museum, drinking under-aged margaritas (oops), and buying cheap shirts from Old Navy. We decided to make dinner, and bought a bunch of delightfully fresh ingredients from a little Italian market right by their apartment. We wore our new shirts, made martinis, and soaked up the NYC feel in that gorgeous apartment. This dish really brought the whole weekend together, and I swear it has magical powers.

It is creamy, tangy, and DEFINITELY not healthy. But if you utilize some portion control, it's not the worst, and will last you a few dinners/lunches. It is the BOMB. Here's where you can find the recipe, although ignore the broccoli part unless you are eating it as a side: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-fusilli-with-arugula-recipe/index.html

Isn't this dish like a piece of art? I could seriously stare at it ALL DAY. and eat it ALL DAY EVERYDAY. Also is there anything better than frozen texas toast made in a toaster oven? Probably, but I don't want to know what it is. ALSO I'm asking a lot of questions today.

My next recipe to share is a Cate Reynolds ORIGINALLLLL WHAAAAAT!?!?! Craaaaaaaazy. It was inspired when Steve and I said to each other at the grocery store, "Why yes my love. Why WOULDN'T we get this pomegranate?". I've always wanted to try to cut open my own pomegranate, and when Steve said that our latest issue of Food Network magazine had good suggestions, I jumped at the opportunity. Steve lied of course...we could not find the article. Alas, that is what the internet is for.

Pomegranate seeds can badly stain clothes, so we cracked it open in a bowl of water. It was suprisingly easy to cut open with a knife, and pulling the seeds out worked well. The seeds sunk to the bottom, and the extra bits floated to the top. Easy peezy. I would recommend this method to anyone.

I'm pretty much obsessed with these seeds. I ate them all week for breakfast, on english muffins with better n' peanut butter, a healthier version of peanut butter (not as good, duh). I also plan on putting them in a protein smoothie later today after my workout. BUT, this particular night, we incorporated them into a dessert. A somewhat healthier dessert maybe, I don't know. I'm no expert and I didn't care to look it up.

The ingredients: pomegranate seeds, chocolate chips, the greek gods honey greek yogurt.
Directions: Mix together. Enjoy tasty chocolately explosion in mouth.

Even Steve agreed, and his desserts usually include three cups of whipped cream and sugary cereals. So if you are looking for a little something after dinner to satisfy that sweet tooth..try this. It's super flavorful and won't totally ruin your caloric intake for the day.

Happy eating! :)

Lazy blogger.

Remember that time that I did not post ever? Like in two months?


Hello. I am still in my post-final high. I did a little experiment this semester to see if I can live a semi-normal human life, by doing my homework in the morning, in order to make night time and weekend homework completion minimal. The outcome was quite positive, so let's see how far I can push the slacking this next semester.

I hope that everyone had an amazing holiday full of family, friends, and maybe a little treat or two. I had ten. Almond joys that is. As well as a plethora of delicious Christmas cookies. Here was my list this year for my annual exchange with Steve's Mom:

Chinese noodle cookies (made by the lovely Ms. Molly Reynolds)
Andes mint cookies
Peanut blossoms (even tastier with a dark chocolate hershey kiss, with a little extra crisp from Ms. Cathy Reynolds)
Pretzel rolo bites
White chocolate cinnamon pretzels

We wanted to make more cookies, but who has time for that with all the episodes of Wings to watch, cocktails to dream up, and shopping to finish? I still have another season left in case you were wondering.

My time home was previous as usual. I was also lucky enough to celebrate my cousin's wedding with my whole family. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the reception was full of classic Reynolds shenanigans. ANDDD my other cousin, the gorgeous Emily Reynolds, got ENGAGED on New Year's Eve! I am so thrilled for both her and her fiance. I also had a rather silly New Year's Eve, complete with spraying champagne on the ceiling, escargot, and Big Macs.  It has been such an exciting and fun-filled month, so I am just going to pretend that time is not passing. That's healthy right?

I have had many a meal since I last posted, so I am sorting through to try to pick the best ones to share. First, let's go back to a family dinner a few months ago with my Milwaukee bffz Tracie and Caroline.

 

Caroline and I brought dessert and wine, and Tracie put this delicious trio together herself. She made a cold Asian noodle salad, with crockpot chicken in peanut sauce, and homemade fried rice! I don't have the exact recipe, but peanut sauce you can buy by the bottle and just use (generously in my case) with many different dishes. I did look up a recipe for the salad, because that stuff is like CRACK and I want to eat it all day everyday.  Here is a recipe I might try by Guy Fieri: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/dang-cold-asian-noodle-salad-recipe/index.html

Next was a one dish wonder. I've been trying to reconfigure my weeknight meals, seeing as I usually don't get home until 8:30 most nights, and Steve is about to start his crazy rotations. I'll be doing more research on make ahead meals and freeze ready stuff. So..more to come on that later.

This was pretty perfect for that. Chicken Tetrazzini combines a bunch of my fave ingredients (mostly pasta...and peas).  It involved some minor prep work, and then throwing it all in the oven. What could be better? Here's the recipe: http://dailywaffle.com/2012/10/17/comfort-food-dead-ahead-chicken-tetrazzini/

YERM.

Finally, I am truly spoiling you with this recipe: Chicken and butternut squash stew. It was blow-your-mind, make-again-every-other-week kind of good stuff. Also the recipe made a BOAT LOAD, and it produced several dinners for both Steve and I, as well as some lunches.  The stew was CRAZY with flavor, and is perfect for a chilly night. This also might be a good time to stock up on spices that you always wish you had, but don't use enough to invest in, as many of them are called for here. I didn't have any plain yogurt, so we used sour cream, but yogurt would have tasted just as good if not better. Also I totally ignored the preserved lemon aspect of the recipe, as I tend to do. Also, I got an Iphone over Christmas, and downloaded an app called "food on the table". It's an app to help organize recipes, meal plan, and keep track of groceries. I thought this would help my flaws related to not reading recipes all the way and buying the wrong ingredients. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.

Anyways...here is the recipe: http://www.partial-ingredients.com/archives/3764

As for working out....hmm...I did try that once sometime ago...

But seriously I found a great website for at-home workouts with no equipment, for times that I go home for the holiday. This blogger is excellent, plus has a cute blog name. Here is the link to her at home workouts: http://www.pbfingers.com/2012/01/15/at-home-workouts/. I'm also pretty pumped about a cookbook I just got. I'm very picky about my cookbooks, and have only really found one that I use frequently enough that I can honestly say I've made about half of the recipes in the book (the seam is broken and pages are falling out..). So, I was pleasantly surprised to see the new edition of Great Food Fast, Fresh Flavor Fast, at Barnes and Noble the other day. This series offers a variety of simple dishes with a short list of ingredients so it's easy on the wallet, packed with flavor so it's easy on the palette, and relatively healthy (easy on the caboose). I would highly recommend Great Food Fast, and will keep you updated about Fresh Flavor. I've been thumbing through it the past few days, and I can see that it looks like it has great potential.

In 2013, I resolve to continue slacking on my blog posts when I am busy with school work, and to continue watching Wings and eating kit-kats. Speaking of...some peppermint bark is calling my name. I'm going to go take care of that...

Happy eating!

Epic baking fail.

Why hello der.

So I have a confession. I'm a terrible baker. With cooking, my lack of caution/precision/care is no problem. Oh, I forgot to pick up the main ingredient at the store (happens more than I would like)? No problem, let's substitute ____. I bought 1 can of diced tomatoes and we needed 4 cans of crushed? No worries, let's be creative and do _____. Easy smeezy.

Baking however? Baking is an absolute science. I can remember baking in my Mom's kitchen, and the determined look in her eye as she carefully leveled off her cup of flour. Me? I dump the vanilla in until it "feels" like 2 tablespoons. Totally excusable, almost encouraged practice in cooking. I could sense my mother's frustration as I dumped two uneven cups of granulated sugar into her bowl that was supposed to have 1 cup of packed brown sugar, the despair and horror in her eyes.  There does not appear to be any room for my messy, creative, don't-give-two-poops attitude (scuse my french) when you are baking a cake.

So how is it that I found myself going to the store to pick up ingredients for the pumpkin spice cake with chocolate pecan filling that I discovered in our new food network issue? Maybe the sound of it...maybe because I had way too much pumpkin...or maybe I have temporary memory lapse and forgot that I suck at baking. Whatever the reason, I thought it was a great idea. I was incorrect.

This was the ugliest cake I ever made (as you will see from the pictures). Here is the story.

The first problem (of many) was that I bought the wrong cake pan sizes. This is often my boyfriend's reported pet peeve of my many obnoxious mannerisms. I tend to not read recipes carefully, forget how much I need of each ingredient, and forget the main ingredient of the whole meal. So this cake pan error was not surprising.

The second problem, was that I (of course) was not precise in my measurement. Steve always observes in shock as our measuring cups and tablespoons lie dormant in their respective shelves and drawers during my baking experiments. The result of these two problems, was that I was left with two cakes basically uncooked in the middle, and dry around the edges. Sigh. How did I not see this coming.

In a moment of hanger (hungry anger), I decided to improvise (again, encouraged in the cooking world, wildly frowned upon among pastry chefs). I cut the cakes in half, and piece mealed the dry parts of two into one, while removing the parts that would have resulted in vomiting from salmonella. What am I, an architect? No Cate. Why?

The next series of problems is expected. I only had 3 layers of cake instead of 4. Therefore I had way too much filling spilling out EVERYWHERE. I was also too impatient to wait for my beautiful chocolate ganache to cool, and dumped it on the cake in a moment of anticipation. It pooled around the edges of the cake like a sad river. This cake looked like it was created by a three-year-old assisting their mother in the kitchen.

The end of this fiasco is the point in which I realize why I will probably not put forth too much effort into changing my ways. The cake was delicious. I took half of it too my practicum site, and it was gone within the hour. I took swipes of the sad river of a glaze every time I walked past that horrific looking excuse for a cake. Flavor conquers aesthetic beauty, everyone. That is the lesson of my story.

Enjoy my ugly cake. Here is the link for the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pumpkin-spice-cake-with-chocolate-pecan-filling-recipe/index.html

I hope yours looks slightly more professional than mine.

Pumpkin this.

Oh hey there.

So I have been trying to fill up my boring life with pumpkin-y things. Here is an update of my life lately.

1. Eating.

2. Eating butternut squash ravioli and drinking wine at Maggiano's.

3. Eating Vietnamese food and saying "Pho" a bunch of times in a row.

4. Hiding in our apartment for fear of a shooter (not funny at all, very sad) and then thinking it would be a good idea to watch Prometheus. At night. Lights off.

5. Making a pumpkin spice cake with chocolate pecan frosting...under-baking the cake part with my awesome baking skills, and then piece-mealing the cooked parts together to resemble a cake that a four-year old attempted, and then abandoned for a nap and a bottle (more on this later).

6. Eating (surprised?) amazing Colcannon cakes, which are a kind of fried potato (surprised!?!?!?!) patty, stuffed with kale and gruyere. Spending the rest of the day doubled over in glorious pain.

7. Delightful conversations with amazing friends.

8. Pretending I'm good at High Intensity Interval Training.

Do you see why I need the pumpkin?

This recipe I am about to share with you...will..blow..your..mind. But also, very spicy. But also, so good and spicy. This was seriously amazing and you all should go out and make it right now except maybe tomorrow because it's late now, unless you eat dinner like Steve and I..probably should figure that out. This BBQ spiced chicken with pumpkin chipotle polenta was the perfect blend of fall and spice. We nixed the salsa salad however, and subbed some teamed lemon brocc what whaaat. Here is the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bbq-spiced-chicken-salsa-salad-and-pumpkin-chipotle-polenta-recipe/index.html

Also, check out these two new favorites: www.skinnytaste.com/2010/10/pumpkin-butter.html and http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/09/easy-pumpkin-spiced-granola.html. Pumpkin butter and pumpkin granola were the perfect combo when I tried to smush everything pumpkin into this one weekend. I've been eating oatmeal every morning, with 1/4 cup of the granola, and 2 tablespoons of pumpkin butter. For less than 300 calories, that's not a bad gig. Plus..tasty.

Cakes and other boring tidbits to come soon. Happy eating :)

Food and Stuff

Hey guyz.

I wish I could say that all these exciting things are happening in my life and in my kitchen, but that would be an exaggeration. So I'll just talk about how boring life has been.

Highlights:

1. Working on one stats assignment for 7 hours. It was the wrong assignment.

2. Eating lean cuisines on a Saturday night (yes, sometimes I eat lean cuisines, let's talk about it).

3. Watching old episodes of Parks and Recreation. Over and over. Endlessly.

4. Going to urgent care thinking I had a kidney infection. Pulled muscle.

5. Seeing Ingrid Michaelson in concert, picking apples with my love, fantastic food, and fabulous friends. Okay, so that one wasn't so boring/ironically evil like the others.

Let's talk about food...in a Parks and Recreation analogy. Sometimes I am loving Chris Traeger's views on food, but sometimes I just want to pick up some meat at Food and Stuff and have a lovely meal with Ron Swanson. So here is one recipe with meat and one without :)

Steve is quickly becoming more than a sous chef around here, especially with my late night clinic/class evenings. Also we have been breaking out the crockpot more often...so easy, and makes the apartment smell delicious all day.  So we (he) made crock pot honey sesame chicken! Served with brown rice and plenty of veggies, so relatively healthy and well balanced. I'm all about the balance, especially if it includes ice cream after dinner whaaaat? Who said that.

Here is the link: http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2012/08/crock-pot-honey-sesame-chicken.html

I kept this asian dish vibe going throughout the rest of the week, finishing with another noodle peanut type concoction. Really can't get enough of those. Soba noodles with spicy peanut sauce was almost as addicting as those crack-like peanut noodles I posted several months ago.

 is the link: http://cupcakesandkale.blogspot.com/2011/08/soba-noodles-with-spicy-peanut-sauce.html


So that's about it for now, folks. The rest of my night will be spent reading stats (like I'll ever understand that, come on Cate), watching Steve yell at the Yankees, and brainstorming Halloween ideas. My cute idea was Calvin and Hobbes...Steve's was himself as Frankenstein, and I the pitchfork wielding villager. Sigh.

Can't wait to share more boring/ironic things with you next time! Plus buffalo chicken soup and broccoli with spicy sriracha. Stay tuned.

Happy eating!

Jalapeno cream and tough mudding.

Hello all!

So I officially finished Tough Mudder! 11.5  miles later, 10,000 volts of electricity, and an irregular pattern of bruises and I am still standing. It was definitely a challenge but I am so glad I did it. Those boot camps were rough, but quite helpful. Completing an event like that was a huge rush, and totally worth not being able to walk the next day. If anyone is thinking about signing up for an event or race, go for it. If you push yourself to do the training, crossing that finish line is one of the best feelings in the world.

So on to food...Steve and I have been brunching a lot on the weekends. I actually had some delicious multi grain pancakes with yogurt, granola, and honey this morning at this new pancake house. However, sometimes I just don't feel like putting on a bra on a Saturday morning :)  So for those lazy weekend days, our kitchen is the place to be. For me at least.

Steve and I had whole wheat tortillas, eggs, avocado, and some leftover of this jalapeno cream (found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/jalapeno-cream-recipe/index.html). The best ingredients to make tostadas! We toasted the tortillas in the oven for 5 minutes, scrambled the eggs with cheese and avocado, and put the cream on top. Yerm.

Light and flavorful.

Current obsession: water with cucumber and lemon juice. SO tasty. SO refreshing.

Current frustrations: working/having class until 8:30 every night! Where did my cooking time go? Come on now. It is helpful to have a kind boyfriend who often makes dinner, and another helpful thing is....fish packets!

An easy weeknight meal that you can do with most fish. Just choose your fish, some veggies or potatoes to add, and a sauce. Steve and I got tilapia, green beans, yellow tomatoes, and red potatoes. We baked them in aluminum foil at 450 degrees for 12 minutes. When they came out, we drizzled a delicious citrus basil oil over it and voila! Dinner is ready in a quick 15. Perfect for those late nights, when I am literally exploding with hunger after work.



Citrus Basil Oil

10 basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbl orange juice
pinch of sugar and salt




*Cook the basil leaves in salted boiling water for 10 seconds, drain, and run under cold water. Then squeeze the leaves dry. Puree the rest of the ingredients in a blender (I used an immersion blender) and serve over fish foil packets.

A new workout I tried today (props to Pinterest of course) was nice for the tush. You do each exercise 20-30 reps, and than repeat the whole circuit 2-3 times. I only did 2 because my buns were burning. Here are the exercises:

Squats
Plie squats
Donkey kicks
Fire hydrants
Circling donkey kicks
Alternating jump lunges
Skaters
Bridges
Lunge kicks
(http://thehautebunny.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/brazilian-butt-workout/)

Besides that, classes have started so I am immersed in a world of statistics and neural circuits. More food to come when I pull my nose out of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

Happy eating!

Stuffed tomatoes and sore butts.

Hey peeps.

It's been a crazy few weeks, with my trip to Orlando and Minneapolis, and Steve's buddies from college visiting. There has been Packers games,  Brewer games, beer pong games, drinks by the water, cheese curds, and a whole lot of fun. So amidst all my traveling and all of our visitors, I did manage to eat healthy. For three days.  Two of those days involved tomatoes, which made me very happy, and Steve very sad. Here is a rhyming formula:

Potatoes: Steve happy, Cate depressed
Tomatoes: Cate ecstatic, Steve enraged

He says tomatoes taste like rotten lettuce. Not sure what that means.

Anywho, he'll eat them anyways which is nice. So one of the meals I made was Orzo caprese in tomato cups. DELISH. It is easily served in a tomato cup, but I also had it on its own the next evening for dinner...just as good. Anything with orzo and pesto, I am sold. It was super easy too, a nice weeknight meal. Also, if you add something like basil to tomatoes, and roast them, Steve magically can tolerate tomatoes. What have I gotten myself into?

AMAAAAZzzzzing. We also served it with some chicken we had lying around. We bought a huge thing of chicken breasts from Sam's club, that is now gone after having three 25 year old guys come visit...coincidence? I think not. (Excellent chicken parm though). We rubbed the chicken in this spice delightfully called, "Butt Massage" by Paula Deen. It tasted like a less flavorful barbeque sauce. Not your best Paula. Do love that Kristin Wiig sketch about you though. Butter and oil!

Also during all this fun, food indulging, and lack of exercise, I should've been training for Tough Mudder...which is in...like 3 weeks. Great job Cate. What a teammate. So, I started the Tough Mudder boot camp this week. I decided to try a week on the medium level before moving up to hard, and let me tell you...I never thought you could sweat from your eyes. Probably not medically possible, but it certainly feels like it. There are four circuits, with a five minute warm up and a cool down. Should take you approximately 50 minutes. Here are the circuits:

Warm-up:
1 minute running
1 minute grapevine (awkward in your apartment complex gym)
1 minute side shuffle (continued awkwardness)
1 minute high knees
1 minute butt kicks

Circuit 1:
2 minutes running
1 minute pushups
1 minute squat with weights
2 minutes jump rope
1 minute mountain climbers

1 minute rest

Circuit 2:
2 minutes burpees (DEATH)
1 minute turkish getup (basically hold your arm up with a weight and use your other arm to help you stand up and back down. Repeat and switch arms after 30 seconds)
2 minutes skaters
1 minute crawl outs
2 minutes ski jumps
1 minute side planks

1 minute rest

Circuit 3:
2 minutes standing mountain climbers
1 minute jump squats
2 minutes high knees
1 minute pull-ups (whatajoke)
2 minutes quick feet
1 minute lunges on a bosu

1 minute rest

Circuit 4:
2 minutes tire jumps
1 minute low plank
2 minutes run
1 minute tricep dips on a bench
2 minutes burpees (AGAIN REALLY)
1 minute lunges

1 minute rest

Cool down! Just random stretches and a 2 minute wall sit. Intense. I'll write the harder level when I try it next week.


Sigh. I must go because Steve is making phallic references to our jalapenos. Also I just drank half a diet coke before realizing it expired...over a year ago. HAPPY EATING AND DRINKING NONEXPIRED THINGS.