Happy Halloween!

This is the first year that we haven't carved pumpkins, so instead here is the Evil Halloween Spirit of Sipsey:

He looks like he has a bloody mouth, and roasting the marshmallows with his eyes :)

Tasty Tuesday

I apologize for the absence of posts - I just haven't felt like blogging for a while, especially since I switched to mostly the iPad and my laptop is usually connected to the TV to stream shows and football games.
 
Pizza night - we tried the two-pound pizza dough recipe for our bread maker since we wanted to make deep dish pizza. We pre-baked the dough, and Tom didn't like the way the round one looked, so I turned it into cheesy garlic bread. The pizza has pepperoni, mushrooms, and onions. 

Then, you know what they say about not going shopping when you're hungry? Well I didn't listen and ended with these pork florentine at Publix. Just put in the oven and 40 minutes later, dinner was ready. We had grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes as sides. It was super yummy!

Last night, I was craving Indian food. I made Mauritian chicken curry (except that I didn't use peas since I didn't have any). I served this with cardamon and cinnamon rice and lettuce. I made extra rice because I wanted to make rice pudding (or kheer, rice cooked in milk) but the milk in the fridge was expired. Maybe we'll have fried rice at some point this week.

We also had baked lemon fish and shrimp pasta at some point but I didn't take any pictures.
And finally, the last of our pepper pickles. Yes, I was lazy and didn't peel the labels off these jars before using them. They had been previously washed. 
I saved a few peppers since Tom had been talking about Jalapeno vodka.


 

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

For some reason, we have been using our slow cooker more frequently than usual, as in three times in two weeks.
The first time, Tom made a shredded BBQ dish, served on buns. I forgot to take pictures. We had enough to make leftover wraps.
The second time, Wednesday, I stayed at home because of a migraine and threw some lentils in. I made it with most of the regular ingredients for a Mauritian lentil soup: carrots, chopped onions, thyme. I didn't have what we call curry leaf (it's almost like a bay leaf) or parsley. I usually make this in the pressure cooker but that day I decided to put it in the slow cooker and 5 hours later, Mauritian comfort food. And by that time, I could eat.

 

The third time, Saturday, I made garlic honey chicken, with broccoli and other stir fry veggies. While this was cooking, I ran my errands and finished a few crafts (more on this later).

On top of Crock Pot cooking, I've been feeling pretty inspired. Maybe my gift subscription to Everyday Food (thanks Laura!) is to blame.

I made Italian turkey meatballs, with and without cheese. Baked them, let them cool, and froze them for a quick meal later, while the chicken dish was baking.

Lemon rosemary baked chicken, roasted acorn squash with brown sugar, baked potatoes, tomatoes (from the garden) and mushrooms.
We had leftover buns from Tom's BBQ dish, so I made turkey burgers.

 Last night, we had shrimp poboys, with cocktail sauce and spicy mustard.









We also had more peppers, which meant pickling time. 

Tonight's supper: Spaghetti with turkey meatballs in marinara sauce, with maybe some cheesy garlic bread. I cooked shredded carrots and onions then added some reserved pasta water, and stirred in jarred pasta sauce. Then I added the frozen turkey meatballs and simmered while I wrote this blog post :)

I think one thing that I found out and really like, is making fresh breadcrumbs. I put a few slices of our regular honey wheat bread in the mini food processor and added it to the turkey meatballs. I did the same for the burgers. For the shrimp, I lightly toasted the bread before processing.
I expect more slow cooker meals coming soon :)

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

This past Saturday, Tom and I went for a 3.5 mile long hike at Oak Mountain. It felt good to be outdoors again. We decided to go all out and have a date night in.
We picked yummy cheeses with a crisp white wine (Rhine wine) and white Zinfandel. 

From left to right, goat cheese, Morel mushroom and leek Monterey Jack cheese, and extra sharp cheddar cheese.
Tom made perfectly cooked steaks while I made mashed potatoes, garlic mushrooms, and garlic sourdough grilled bread. We also picked Otter Paws ice cream (with caramel and chocolate covered pecans).

On Sunday, I finally found pectin and used a coupon to buy mason jars. The results: pepper jelly. I wasn't sure whether to strain or not, so I went without. This is very good - sweet and spicy. Would go well as a topping for cream cheese dip or with a creamy cheese on a cracker.

Used all the peppers in the back bowl, one large green pepper and a few more peppers from the garden. Final result:

These are cooked and heat processed and should be good unopened for one year. Maybe Christmas gifts? With a cute red ribbon?

Finally, last night I turned leftover mashed potatoes into creamy potato cheese soup (with mushrooms and bacon). Unfortunately or fortunately? my $10 seven-year old Walmart immersion blender died on me. Tom was powerless against my sad face. I have a feeling that a new immersion blender might magically appear on the wedding registry or the Christmas wishlist.

I added pickled jalapenos to mine, Tom added green onion to both

Oh October!

For October, I'm
Excited:  that temperatures are finally coming down and meeting Morrison (Susie Beth's new baby boy)
Watching: football, Revenge, Scandal, NCIS, Bones, Big Bang Theory
Reading: Siddhartha
Listening to: nothing in particular
Creating:  wedding invitations
Cooking: soups
Loving: the garden 
Thinking: about grandmothers and hoping for their good health
Looking forward to: Fall scarves and layers!

And Auburn makes three

One of my goals is to visit three new towns/cities every year. Yesterday we escaped to Auburn for a fun football filled day.
We rode down to Auburn with Matt and Melissa (and their puppy Mandy) and spent most of the day on campus. Doug (Tom's co-worker) and his wife are big Auburn fans and host a tailgate at every home game.

From left to right, Melissa, Matt, us, Melanie, and Doug

And we got to hang out with Nate. Unfortunately, cellular service sucked on campus - so we couldn't get hold of Mikrish, who was also in Auburn.

I have to say, Auburn fans are very nice and welcoming. Except for the corn dog taunting, which I still don't get. Apparently, LSU fans smell like corn dogs. That's not very offensive since corn dogs are yummy.

We scored awesome tickets for really cheap. We had a great view of the field and the LSU section and had mostly nice Auburn neighbors.

The LSU band

Half time show

After the game, the LSU band hung back and played the Alma Mater

After checking the weather, I decided to go with comfy rather than cute (since it was supposed to be in the low 50s with wind). Well, can you tell that we were still hot at the end of the game? Maybe it was the adrenaline from the narrow win.

After the game, we spent the night at Melissa's parents house where I proceeded to be a puppy magnet and get puppy kisses all over from Mandy and the resident puppy, Molly. Dog pictures from Melissa's blog.

Mandy

Molly

With Chapel Hill and Fairbanks, Auburn makes three (can you tell the pun? LSU dropped in the rankings to #3 after their narrow win against an unranked team while Oregon won against a ranked team and jumped to #2).  
We got back to Birmingham this morning and proceeded to do nothing, except water the plants and do a mini harvest. The red pepper got its color hanging out on the kitchen counter while we were gone.

Hmm... I probably should tackle this laundry pile today.

We're coco-nuts for CoCo

Our lab is unique, we discuss science, troubleshoot each others experiments, and plan crafts. We have equipment that are named after Shrek characters, or other names such as Toddlers and Tiaras, Honey Boo Boo (except when it doesn't work, then it is called Honey Doo Doo), and of course we have nicknames. 

Yesterday was Corenna's birthday, and we're coco-nuts for CoCo!

Coconut cupcakes with special frosting

Tasty Tuesday

We've been busy in the kitchen lately.
After making pickled jalapenos a few weeks back, Tom made jalapeno infused vodka. We still have plenty of peppers, including a variety that we are calling a hybrid. Jelly? Maybe.
Onto the cooking:
I tried an eggplant and chicken lasagna (eggplant slices instead of lasagna noodles).

I've been craving broccoli cheddar soup and decided to make my own. Except that I didn't have potatoes like the recipe called, instead I had one sweet potato. It started with a roux and chicken stock in which I cooked the veggies, and once they were tender, the immersion blender came out. Finished with a small amount of shredded cheese (since it was thick enough), and topped with some grilled chicken and green onions.

And when I didn't want to cook, I finally broke out the Hamburger Helper, Stroganoff, except that I didn't have ground beef. Instead, I used cooked beer brats from our freezer and tomatoes from the garden. Topped with a few basil leaves.

And when I still didn't want to cook, Tom took over and made turkey nachos with refried beans, onions, banana peppers from the garden, and topped with Mexican cheese. Leftover meat went into soft taco shells and onto the Foreman for Quesadillas. 

Onto my sweet tooth Tom's lab meeting treat:
Tom presented lab meeting two Fridays ago. On Thursday night while he was in lab until the late hours of the night, I decided that this mathematical equations looked good: Wine + Pinterest + Tom's lab meeting = Mini Oreo Cheesecakes.

The Pinterest recipe made a little over 24 cheesecakes, one tray for Tom's lab and one for mine :)
One more treat but I can't tell until tomorrow afternoon :)