And add to that, I start back to school on MONDAY. Holy crap. I still haven’t really wrapped my head around that. I have a really tough schedule ahead of me and won’t have too much time to cook very elaborate dinners. So my plan is this. I will try at least once a week to cook a real good meal and document it on here. I’ll also try to document our weekly potluck dinners more regularly, and get better about documenting dinners out. Overall, I hope to still be active on here, but it might not be as original for the next few months.

So, onto more interesting things. Over the holidays, I found an apron from when I worked at Caribou Coffee in college. I’ve been needing an apron for a while! How do I look?

I made homemade polenta today for this recipe. I’ve had polenta before, of course, and even cooked polenta at home – but only from the store-bought package. Today I made it from scratch – cornmeal and water! To make it, I needed coarse cornmeal. I went to like three different stores, but couldn’t find a single package that said specifically “coarse.” So finally I just picked one that sounded normal and not fine-ground. It looks coarse-ish.

The instructions for polenta that I found on a variety of recipes said to pour the cornmeal into boiling water in a steady stream. I don’t know if it was that my cornmeal was too powdery or what, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it into the water in a steady stream. I tried my best to shake it in steadily so I wouldn’t form lumps.

The thing about making homemade polenta is that you have to keep stirring it constantly at low heat. That stuff thickens up quick – and you have to stir for about 15 minutes! My arm was getting tired by the end, when I got to pour the polenta in a loaf pan to cool completely.

And then when it was cooled and firmed, I turned the polenta…loaf? out and cut it into pieces. I have no idea what to do with any polenta I have left over. Anyone have good ideas for polenta usage?

Yes, those are Worf and Gowron action figures keeping watch over my polenta.

While the polenta was cooling, I made the tomato sauce – using my AWESOME immersion blender. I have to admit, I love using all of my handy new kitchen tools.

I was smart and did all this work this morning. Then when it came time to make the whole dish tonight, I just layered the sauce, polenta, and fontina cheese into a baking dish (I ommitted the gorgonola cheese because P doesn’t really dig bleu cheese, and I thought he might not favor the gorgonzola in this dish) and put it in the oven.

I also baked some little tilapia filets – and when I say little, I mean little. They come in at a whopping .20 pounds each. No matter..this polenta dish looks quite filling! OK, so it’s sort of a weird pairing, but whatever. And it sort of achieves my goal of making the fish more of a side than a main.

For the filets, I just sprinkled some lime juice and salt and pepper on them. And I used my nifty little marble mortar and pestle Christmas gift to crush the peppercorns (thanks, Mom)!

I threw the fish in when the polenta had a few minutes left…mmm, that polenta looks good with the melty fontina cheese all over it!

After only 25 minutes, everything was done and ready to be served! The polenta dish sort of came apart when I was plating it, so I got a shot of P’s plate because it looked better. And it tastes great! A bit of fish with a bite of the polenta gratin or casserole or whatever it’s called was delightful. The fish added some extra texture that I think the polenta would have lacked. It sort of reminded me of something we might get at a local restaurant. Pretty good!

I am fully aware of the fact that if I go to a place where I can get a good local steak or some damn fine Cane Creek beef or pork, I will potentially order it. And every so often I might cook myself a hamburger for dinner. I enjoy food too much to say that I’m cutting anything out indefinitely, and I am not completely opposed to eating animals. But, I won’t be surprised if I get to a point where I just don’t want those certain foods as much anymore – that I indulge every so often. Ultimately, I think my decision is going to be healthier for me and the environment. I’ll keep you updated…and will bring you many more posts tagged “meatless!”

Now that that’s out of the way. It’s thirty degrees outside, I can sort of move around the kitchen, and I’m out of work for two weeks. So, I made corn chowder for dinner! Sans bacon. I can do this. I can do this.

Here’s mah veggies. I went to add carrots and found I had one measly little old carrot in my veggie bin…small and skinny. It looks kinda sad sitting there, all chopped up, beside all the fresh onions and red bell pepper pieces. Oh well.

Since I didn’t fry any bacon, I obviously didn’t have any bacon grease, so I decided to cook the veggies in butter. Unfortunately, I used waaaaaaaaay too much. That made me nervous. Too much butter and dairy makes my tummy hurt. Plus, it doesn’t taste very good.

I added the potato stock and milk/1-2 and 1-2 and let it all cook for a while…and at the end, as I suspected, a good bit of butter had separated and settled at the top. I was glad of that…I just skimmed it off and got rid of it. Thank goodness. I felt much better throwing it all away.

I added some crushed red pepper for a little bit of extra flavor. This was the first thing P and I ate all day, so we scarfed up two bowls each…and there are no leftovers. Wah wah.

This wedding entry is from this past weekend, when we went to one of P’s best friend’s wedding. It was a lovely little ceremony in a small chapel in New Bern, NC (eastern NC), and afterward there was a great little afternoon/early evening reception. I of course was starving by the time we ate, at about 3:00, so I gorged on the food offerings.

First of all the servers cam earound with a few little finger food appetizers. These were some tasty little spinach and cheese tarts in puff pastry. I think I probably ate about 15 of them.

Then they brought around little peppered shrimp cocktails with individual cocktail sauce servings and a wedge of lemon. Tasty tasty prawns. And they offered us little scallops on toothpicks, topped with some teriyaki glaze. I probably had about 8 each of these.

Thank god they had finger food. P had to get my food for me all weekend cause I was hobbling around still, and I was waiting for him while he went through the food line. But when he got back with my plate, this is what I had.

From the top – a little bit of tuna sashimi on a fried egg noodle and a bed of seaweed; pineapple and strawberries with chocolate fondue; a sandwich I made out of the cut turkey and rolls; a few little spring rolls; and a turkey and cream cheese pinwheel wrap. It was delicious! So delicious in fact, I made P go back and get me another plate.

Yeah yeah yeah. Another turkey sammie and some more chocolate fondue. It reminded me of that SNL skit with Chris Farley and David Spade and Adam Sandler dressed as the teenage girls going clothes shopping…and one of them asks Chris Farley how his diet’s going or something…and he bellows “LAY OFF ME, I’M STARVING.”

I was starving.

After the reception, there was an after-party at the home of one of the bride’s family friends. It was a gorgeous home, and the owners were so sweet. And they provided a huge spread for us! I was more keen on drinking the wine they offered – not to mention I was absolutely stuffed from my mid-afternoon pigfest – so I just watched P eat.

That’s some slaw; some chicken salad with big old pieces of grape; some potato casserole; and a bit o’ ham.

OK, I did have one thing to eat.

Please tell me you’re not surprised.

Congratulations, Ben and Molly! We <3 you guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a box cake-mix. I was driving home and I was thinking, OK, I can make red velvet cupcakes. But I had no idea how much flour we had at home…or sugar…or if we had red food coloring…and my leg was killing me. I couldn’t imagine getting home, getting out of the car, looking up my cupcake recipe, seeing what we had on hand, and going back out to the grocery store. So yes. I just stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up a cake mix. I’m sorry, Algonkians. I know that baking cupcakes from scratch is just as easy and inexpensive as doing a mix, but my leg just couldn’t deal with all the work tonight.

I’ll visit you next semester one day with a banana chocolate chip coffee cake. I swear it.

Here’s the ingredient list. Much simpler than my pumpkin cupcakes.

Even though I’m using a preservative-filled instant mix, I still care, and I prove it with my cupcake liners.

OK check it. This mix looks like chocolate right?

I was intrigued about how red that mix would actually turn. And WHY? Why does a brown mix turn blood red? Tell me that, and I’ll use this mix again. Maybe.

Maybe it’s that my mixer is magical?

While I was fixing the cupcakes, I was also making dinner. I’m a huge multitasker, even though I was hobbling around the kitchen at like 1/4 speed. I poured the batter rather haphazardly and made sort of a mess. I still have red dye on my hands and on the counter.

I know, right? Such a mess. I’m embarrassed of this post. Onward.

Wow, those are some shiny cupcakes.

Even though I made these from a box, I wanted to do something homemade-ish – so I whipped up a cream cheese frosting.

I had to ice all of these really fast cause I just wanted to sit down again rather than stand in one place. So again, they don’t look all that great…but I hope they taste wonderful.

Who took that one cupcake?! Grrr….

I’m so glad we made the trek over the American Tobacco District. First of all, the service was just wonderful. Our waitress was friendly, sweet, and patient the whole time she dealt with our party of 20+. Never once did I have to ask for a drink refill (always something that I like), the food arrived in a more-than-timely manner, and everyone’s entrees arrived at the same time. I was so happy to see that it seemed as though the service kinks were worked out after a few months of operating.

The food was delicious! I’ve only had Cuban cuisine a few times, so I by no means am an expert, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate.  So I consider it a success. Oh, first off though, here’s the menu.

See how bright and funky it is?

Everyone at the table ordered different appetizers, except most couples ordered the fried green beans. This seems to be a popular appetizer at restaurants these days, and a very American one at that. Green beans? Healthy? Let’s FRY them. Well, I thought they were delicious, served with a creamy, spicy roumelade-esque dip.

We also ordered the chips and salsa, which I expected to be mediocre like most places. However, their salsa was black bean salsa, and it had corn in it too, with a nice little kick of spice. Delicious and fresh-tasting!

Other appetizers that I didn’t get pictures of included the sweet potato fries (tasty), maduros (fried ripened plantains), black beans and rice, and black bean soup. But the fried green beans were the most sought-after, it seemed.

After sharing all those appetizers, P and I were pretty stuffed, so we just got some of the “World’s Best” sammies, as they were called. I got the steak sandwich and P got the cuban (pork, salami, cheese, pickles, and lettuce/onion/tomato). I added hot peppers to mine, which gave it a great spicy kick, but the meat was tender, flavorful and juicy on its own.

Our lovely friend Sonia, who is Puerto Rican and helped us with the unknown menu items (“Sonia, whats an empanada?” “Sonia, what’s a maduros?” “Sonia, what’s guava like?”) ordered the ropa vieja, which translated means “old clothes” and consists of a far tastier stew-like mixture of shredded flank steak and vegetables over rice. And her husband Paul ordered a selection of tapas – his black beans and rice, empanadas, and cuban wrap are in the background.

The wrap was really interesting and tasty – it had rice, lettuce, tomato, a piece of maduros, and hummus in it. A whole mix of flavors and textures that worked really well with each other!

Anyway, if you linked to Yelp you’ll see that mine is the only positive review, which I was happy to give. I hope Cuban Revolution has worked out its kinks, because the service and the funky atmosphere, not to mention a whole menu of other menu items I’d like to try, were enough to get me to drive back to the American Tobacco District for another go!

Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen is credited with 80 confirmed air combat victories during World War I.  Wow… just take a minute to let that sink in… 80 air combat victories.  The man is a legend amongst pilots… like Amelia Earhart only better at the flying part.  Not that I wouldn’t eat a pizza with Amelia Earhart’s picture on the box – I just might not have the same confidence that the pizza would “shoot my taste buds out of the sky” so to speak.  I’d be more likely to think something like “I sure hope this pizza finds its way to my stomach.”

So let’s get started.  There are three rules to making frozen pizza: 1. Don’t pay attention to the directions;  2. Never put yourself in a situation where you might have to clean a pizza pan; 3. Rearrange the toppings.  Outside of these three rules, virtually anything goes.  I once made a frozen pizza on a charcoal grill.

Now, it’s important to look at the directions so you know what not to follow.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (not likely).  Place the pizza directly on a preheated cookie sheet (who does that?).  Cook the pizza 16 – 18 minutes (you aren’t the boss of me pizza box instructions!).

I have to admit, 400 degrees is a tempting temperature to cook your pizza, but do any of you think that the Red Baron followed someone else’s rules?  He marched to the beat of his own drum (and the sound of his bullets destroying other planes).  I set the oven to 398 degrees because I like my pizza just a litte cooler… we’ve all burned our mouths on that first bite of pizza, after all.  Also, I don’t wait for the oven to preheat. I don’t have time for that and in my experience (which, when it comes to eating frozen pizza, is considerable), the pizza doesn’t taste any different if you wait those five agonizing minutes.

I also don’t put the pizza directly on a preheated pizza pan.  A layer of aluminum foil = Paul doesn’t have to clean the pizza pan.   Never forget rule #2!   I’ve gone years without cleaning that pan.

Now, I love frozen pizza as much as the next guy, but who in his right mind would put pepperoni on a pizza like that?!  There are going to be slices that barely have any pepperoni at all… I love you Red Baron, but you need to whip your pizza topping placers into shape.

Ah… that’s better.

Don’t forget to measure your pizza.  This pizza is 11 inches in diameter. That’s roughly 34.5 inches around which is pretty close to what it said on the box I think… although I have no idea since I threw the box away immediately after picture three so as not to be influenced further by those misleading directions.

You also need to make sure that your pizza pan isn’t warped.  The last thing you want is for your pizza to be unevenly cooked… nice and level… that’s a solid pizza pan.  Now hurry and get the pizza in the oven before the oven preheats!

While we wait the 14 minutes it takes to cook our pizza, let’s go ahead and grab our plates for thhh…. what’s this!?!  All our dishes are dirty!?

Not to worry, my friends.  Doing dishes is lame and should be avoided at all cost (that’s why Josephine Cochran invented the dishwasher).  Fortunately for me, I have other dishes that were made for holding coffee cups. If you aren’t so lucky, try a paper towel or the lid to something… you’d be surprised how easy it is to make an impromptu plate.

If you’re really bored while you’re waiting for the pizza to cook, get out some of your toys and set them up so it will look like they’re inspecting the pizza when it finally finishes… mmm… Be careful here – you don’t want Yoda to fall onto the pizza. It’s incredibly awkward to get caught licking the grease off of one of your StarWars toys.

That pizza cutter cam was worth every penny… look at how evenly spaced that pepperoni is!

After the cutting is complete, it’s time to dig in – and there’s virtually no clean up thanks to the alluminum foil.  Plus, alumminum foil is biodegradable so it won’t kill seagulls and stuff.

And with that, dinner is served.  At this point, I would recommend seasoning the pizza liberally with red pepper and an Italian Seasoning medley of some kind.  Bon Appetit!

My sister-in-law, Sonja, made this bread for Thanksgiving. It’s AMAZING. OK, again, it’s not bread. It’s hard to recognize any food as bread when it has more sugar and flour than other ingredients. But it’s really freaking delicious, and it’s super simple. I also have to preface this by saying that my great new kitchen appliances were a boon to have in this recipe. I think that’s part of what made it so very simple.

And yeah, OK, it has 2 cups of sugar in it but I DON’T CARE because I’m having minor knee surgery tomorrow and I want to have something tasty on-hand to nibble on throughout the weekend. So I made it.

Mixing eggs and sugar is always a great way to start a recipe.

Then I added flour, salt, baking soda, and a variety of spices (cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg). I love how they’re all brown, but so many distinct shades! Also, I have to say I’m partial to having all the different spices, instead of just having pumpkin pie spice on hand. I can alter the proportions of them (i.e. I loooove gloves and ginger, so I always add a bit more of those).

I looked at the recipe and groaned after realizing that I’d forgotten to chop up a bunch of fresh cranberries. But – enter my trusty new immersion blender with a chopper attachment! In addition to having the immersion blender attachment, I have a nifty little food processor attachment, and then also a whisk attachment (still trying to figure out how that is different than my hand-mixer whisk attachment, and I don’t think it is). I just threw a whole ton of cranberries in (avoid phallic jokes, please)…

Pulsed in short bursts for about ten seconds…

And voila! Chopped cranberries in no time flat. Brilliant. And pretty!

Fold those cranberries in and pop those “breads” in the oven. Then, every time you walk out and in of your house, it will smell amazing. Meanwhile, you can make some chicken salad for the weekend so your fiance doesn’t have to worry about fixing food, and make dinner before your in-home dog trainer gets to the house.

Mmmm breakfast and snacks for the next few days.

After the squash was done and it was cooling, I sauteed some onions and garlic in butter. Always, always, always has been and will be in my top five favorite things to smell cooking. Then I added a roughly chopped apple and a diced carrot.

Then I added some broth and brought the mix to a boil, then let it simmer for a while. Meanwhile, I scooped the “cooled” squash out of its skin.

I say “cooled” because I didn’t let it sit long enough, and if you could see my face you’d notice it’s twisted in a bit of pain. That squash was still hot hot hot!

By this point, the mixture had boiled long enough to soften the carrots and apples, so I threw the cooked squash in.

And then I got to play with my new kitchen toy! I’ve never used one of these before, but I have heard that the one thing you don’t want to do is take the blender out while the blade is still spinning, lest you throw soup all over the kitchen. Nevertheless, I moved my computer to the far side of the kitchen, just in case I screwed up, which I figured I would.

Well, the stuff seemed to be blending, and I wasn’t making a mess, so I kept going. Eventually, the mix turned into a pretty, creamy soup. Amazing that tiny blade can mash everything up so well!

I added a little half-and-half and took the soup off the stove, and voila! My first butternut squash soup. Enough to last for a week, too…P doesn’t really favor it, so it’s all for me!

Butternut squash soup

1 butternut squash, about 2 pounds
1 TB olive oil
1 TB butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 apple, peeled/cored/roughly chopped
3 cups stock (I only had chicken, but veggie would work too)
salt/pepper to taste
half-and-half for consistency

Start by cutting the squash in half and spooning out the seeds and innards. Roast face-down for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. When done, let cool.

While the squash is cooling, saute the onion and garlic in the oil and butter until soft. Add carrots, apples, and stock, as well as salt and pepper; bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until carrots are tender.

Meanwhile, scoop the cooked squash out of the skins. When carrots are tender, add the squash to the mixture. Puree everything with a handy immersion blender if you have it (if not, mix in a countertop blender in batches). Add half-and-half to desired creaminess and consistency.

8:12 am: One of my most guilty Thanksgiving traditional indulgences is a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. Since I could drive, I have always gone there first thing in the morning to get one. I’m sure the last thing I need on Thanksgiving Day is a 300-calorie drink for breakfast, but I’m going for a run later that will cancel that out. I also forgot my travel mug in Chapel Hill, damn it. But that’s a pretty red cup.

8:34 am: The turkey is out of its brine, dried off, and sitting in the bottom shelf of Dad’s fridge. The extra time in all this involved cleaning the cooler the turkey was brined in and then trying to figure out a place for the milk, orange juice, soda, and wine I had to take OUT of the fridge in order to fit the turkey. Good thing I cleaned the cooler.

10:18 am: Eight miles and one shower later, and Dad and I are sitting in the kitchen shelling beans*. Is that what’s it’s called when you break the end off of fresh green beans? Whatever it’s called, that’s what we did, for three pounds of green beans.

11:13 am: Not food-related, but Snoopy just made his appearance at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Woohoo!

11:15 am: It’s 11:00, so I decided to go ahead and blanch my beans, which can be done six hours in advance. Get some stuff out of the way before the rest of the fam gets here. Cooking at my dad’s house is always a bit of an adventure…

It’s actually a ton of fun once I get used to the mismatched pans and figure out where everything that I need is located. He has a lot of kitchen stuff…like a million different sized seives and at least a thousand different sized whisks…so I get to use everything I want.

11:29 am: Well, shoot. After all that, I can’t find a 13×9 pan. There’s like a 6×8 pan as evidenced by that last photo, but that’s not big enough for the huge amount of stuffing I’m going to make. I guess no Wilson Thanksgiving is complete without at least one trip to the store….

12:21 pm: After a relatively painless trip to the store, I’m back, and about to start on my stuffing. This stuffing is like, the best dish I’ve ever had. It’s got apple…it’s got apple chicken sausage…it’s got sage and thyme…it’s amazing.

12:34 pm: No sage and rosemary on hand, damn it. I left them in Chapel Hill. Dad’s running back to the store.

12:39: After that run and no breakfast or lunch, I’m starving. I’m cooking some shrimp so I can snack until dinnertime. I hope the guests get here soon so they can actually enjoy some shrimp too! Actually, maybe not….mmm, shrimp.

1:04 pm: Dad’s back with the spices, and I’ve started preheating the oven for the turkey. Hurrah!

1:20 pm: I’ve cooked the stuffing for a little bit, just to get rid of excess moisture…and I’m buttering that bad boy turkey down right now.

Gobble gobble, buddy.

1:34 pm: In he goes! Stuffed with a carrot, onion, and thyme…breast side down for the first 2.5 hours, then right-side up for crispiness. And I’m opening a bottle of wine because I can. And it’s dinner-time somewhere. I don’t really need a reason.

2:01 pm: Chris and Sonja and Lexi are here!

2:35 pm: It’s snack time for Lexi, and for me, too. More shrimp.

2:55 pm: Ouch. I just cut up four shallots for my green bean dish. I’ve never had an onion family member make me cry as much as I am right now. I’m in serious pain!

3:00 pm: Consolation for my messed-up eyes – Sonja’s cranberry pumpkin bread. It’s healthy because it has pumpkins and cranberries in it.

3:46 pm: The rest of our guests are here! Sonja’s parents and brother, Eric. They arrived with pie, sweet potatoes, and a deep-fried turkey. Good god.

4:06 pm: Time to flip the turkey…one and a half hours til eatin’ time!

4:23 pm: I’ve thrown in the garlic for the roasted garlic mashed potatoes…this is the point where everything starts getting down to the wire and it all starts happening at once! I think I have time to take the dogs out one more time and enjoy another glass of wine before it’s really go time. I suspect updates won’t be readily available then, but I’ll try! And happy eating to those of you already at your tables

4:59 pm: Paul and his family just got here, right as the turkey finishes. Perfect!

5:42 pm: All of a sudden, everything is finished. Holy crap. How did 45 minutes pass by!

5:58 pm: OK. No pictures. The food’s on the table and the turkey’s carved. I’ll be back later if I don’t have too much wine.

7:57 pm: Well, that was a successful dinner. Nothing got set on fire…no one tried to kill anyone. However, my dad did spill some wine on my camera, so I’m letting that dry out until tomorrow. So no pictures of the finished meal until then. Suffice to say, it was delicious, and a complete success. I hope everyone had a beautiful, happy, delicious, and delightful Thanksgiving as I did!

*Paul has informed me that this is called “stringing beans.” I apologize for the misnomer.**
**Rosie says this is called “snapping beans.”

So I realized today that during the last 45 minutes of prep, I didn’t get any pictures. Between cooking, helping delegate responsibility, saying hello to my future-in-laws when they met my dad for the first time, and occasionally picking up my niece, I didn’t have an extra hand to use. But here’s the finished table – at the bottom you’ll see my roasted garlic mashed potatoes and my green beans;  next up it’s Julie’s sweet potato casserole; then Kevin’s deep fried turkey (on the left) and my roasted turkey (on the right); then my gravy, Sonja’s cranberry sauce and Kevin and Julie’s deviled eggs; finishing up with my stuffing and Julie’s mac and cheese. And we also had chocolate chip, pumpkin, and apple pies. God.

Anyway, this was a great Thanksgiving. The potluck style is a great way to get the family together, with less work and less money spent for everyone. And I love tasting other people’s favorite dishes. P and I decided the next time I liveblog, he’ll be there to help take pictures if I get caught up in cooking, which I thought was really sweet.

Happy Thanksgiving!