Heather Bakes

That’s What She Said…

I Feel Like Neve Campbell in Scream 2 November 21, 2008

Filed under: November 2008 — heatherwlu @ 5:01 am
Tags: ,

Would it be Thursday night without an Office quote? I think not.

First of all- thank you for all of your Chloe votes!!! She’s currently in 2nd place, behind Buster (said with disgust), but only trailing by THREE votes. So go vote if you haven’t, and pass the link along… Chloe’s oh so excited about the whole prospect.

sleepy

Really, she is.

Again, here’s the link in case you haven’t voted yet:

http://www.dallasnews.com/perl/common/surveys/display_full.pl?poll_id=21478&site=DallasWebSites&vaction=voting&thissite=dallasnews

Today I had to work from 6am-noon. The highlight was the Thanksgiving meal that Whole Foods provided for the employees- it was great to actually get to try some of the prepared foods that always look so fabulous. The mashed potatoes (and mashed sweet taters) were the bomb. They even had a little vegan loaf for a turkey alternative. Sorry, no photo. Not only did I forget my camera, but it might have freaked out my coworkers if I’d just whipped it out and started shooting photos of my food. Too soon?

After work my mom and I headed to the Chi Omega Christmas Market downtown. It’s this giant gift/craft fair that we check out every year (I hate the term “craft fair”, by the way). I go for one reason only (other than the holiday food samples): The Cloverleaf, which is a really amazing store in Oklahoma that we used to pass on the way to visit my brother at OU. Since we don’t have occasion to drive through OK anymore, their booth at the Christmas Market is my annual fix. And this year it did not disappoint. Check out the funky earrings and necklace:

clover

We had a “fend-for-yourself” night in terms of dinner. I had a big salad with butter lettuce, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, pickled asparagus, tomatoes, pine nuts, olive oil and balsamic.

salad4

The best part was Brian’s soup, though. His mom used to make those Lipton’s Chicken Noodle Soup packets and add in extra elbow macaroni, so now he makes the same thing every so often… and I get to reap the benefits. Look at all the carby goodness:

soup1

I’m actually really excited about class tomorrow. We’re preparing a 4-course meal, and everyone was assigned a course. I’m working on the dessert (apple crisp), along with a couple other classmates. The best part? We get to bring in WINE. Baking + Wine = Happy Heather.

OH, and you know what else I’m excited about? THIS:

mags

Which will constitute my afternoon tomorrow. That and finally catching up on all of my blog reading. Do you see who’s on the cover of Self? Giada!! I actually read her interview right away. She makes a good point about trying to eat foods that are in season, because if you try to eat a fruit or veggie that happens to be out of season, it won’t taste nearly as good and you’ll end up drowning it in sugar or fat or whathaveyou. Very Alice Waters of her, no?

Okay, off to bed. But first…

SURVEY TIME!!

Weekend plans?

Does it creep you guys out that I ask what you’re doing all the time? It’s a combination of the fact that I’m nosy and YOU are interesting. True story.

Friday night I’m seeing Twilight, hopefully. I hear it’s supposed to be insane so I’m not sure I’ll even be able to get tickets. Saturday I work 6am-12, then run, then meeting some W&L friends for dinner. Sunday work 7-3, then probably collapsing in a heap of exhaustion and grouchiness.

 

VOTE FOR CHLOE!!! November 20, 2008

Filed under: November 2008, Uncategorized — heatherwlu @ 4:31 am
Tags: , ,

Now I know how moms feel when their daughters win pageants… Chloe’s in the running for the Dallas Morning News Pet of the Week! I sent in her photo back in July and just got an email today that she’s up for the award. It’s based on votes, so PLEASE click on the link below to vote for her. Chloe’s photo is toward the bottom of the page- don’t be fooled by that sorry excuse for a pug, Piper, at the top. Although at the moment, Piper is kicking Chloe’s ass in the poll. Let’s change that, shall we??

http://www.dallasnews.com/perl/common/surveys/display_full.pl?poll_id=21478&site=DallasWebSites&vaction=voting&thissite=dallasnews

You’ll be required to register with dallasnews.com before submitting your vote- they just do that so you can’t vote multiple times (lame). You won’t be spammed or anything.

So on to less exciting business… today was my one day off from work and school, so I got to sleep in! After dragging myself out of bed, I threw together a bowl of plain Chobani topped with Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, bananas, dried cherries, walnuts and honey.

breakfast1

That Kashi cereal is kind of amazing- it NEVER gets stale. We bought a huge box at Sam’s months ago and it still tastes fresh. After breakfast I did about 3 1/2 miles of hill runs, showered, and then met my parents for lunch at the Allgood Cafe in Deep Ellum. I started with the Lentil Soup:

lentil

Followed by the Main Street Salad, topped with goat cheese, rotisserie chicken and shrimp:

salad3

And I also talked the parentals into sharing an appetizer of Goat Cheese Ravioli. I probably wouldn’t have ordered it if I’d known it was in a cream sauce, but it was delicious- the sauce had a very fresh pesto flavor.

ravioli

Right now I’m doing a test run of a Bacon Crumble Apple Pie that was in the Holiday edition of Everyday with Rachael Ray. I’m debating making this for Thanksgiving, but the ingredient list seemed a little odd- hence the dress rehearsal. The filling is pretty normal (golden delicious apples and lemon zest, plus I threw in some cinnamon), but the topping consists of flour, butter, brown sugar, extra sharp cheddar and bacon. I made the crust from scratch, but it had some major side-shrinkage in the oven… does anyone know how to prevent this? I’m sure we covered that in class, but it’s been a while.

pie11

pie21

The verdict? Um, not so good. The chewy texture of the bacon just does not belong here. I do like the cheese, though; even though I used extra-sharp cheddar, it’s pretty subtle. It might be a good idea to leave out the cinnamon, too… but apple pie without cinnamon just seems weird. Brian didn’t seem as appalled by the final product as I did.

THANK YOU to Marie for the donation!!! Woohoo!

SURVEY TIME:

What are your Thanksgiving plans? Staying home? Traveling? Working?

I’m guessing that I’ll probably have to work in the morning (I hear grocery stores do pretty well on Thanksgiving) but then heading over to mom and dad’s for Thanksgiving dinner. I usually run the Turkey Trot in the morning and am so sad I’m going to miss it this year :(

 

I Went to this Club Last Week, Called Chili’s November 14, 2008

Filed under: November 2008 — heatherwlu @ 5:10 am
Tags: , ,

I remember in college when Thursday nights meant great TV- all the roommates would watch Friends and Will & Grace before going out. And now once again Thursday is beginning to redeem itself. Kath & Kim cracks me up, LOVE The Office and 30 Rock. Hooray!

Today was my day off from work, but I still had to be at the store for a meeting from 6-8am. I’m running on about 5 hours of sleep right now :( After the meeting I put together a random breakfast quesadilla: egg whites and cheese on an Ezekiel tortilla, and a side of salsa.

quesadilla

Chloe reminded me today that she hasn’t made an appearance in a while. Here’s what I found when I got home from my meeting this morning:

chloebed

You know those dogs that wake you up in the mornings and immediately want to play? No? Yeah, me neither.

The day was spent catching up on all the stuff I’ve been neglecting around the house. I did get a little shopping done with my mom and then grabbed a quick lunch at Tin Star. I had a grilled vegetable taco with pesto and picked at one with grilled chicken, black beans and sweet potato strips (too salty):

tacos

Tonight Joy came over for dinner. I made Giada’s Lemon Risotto recipe again… you guys need to try this one. It’s so easy to make (just a lot of stirring) but tastes amazing. The main dish was a roasted chicken based on Alice Water’s recipe in The Art of Simple Food. Very “Simple”- just rubbed some olive oil on the bird, seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence, stuck a lemon up its butt (I mean, “into the cavity”), and roasted at 400 for about an hour. You flip the chicken a few times during roasting to evenly distribute the juices and then let it rest for 15 minutes after removing from the oven. I also threw several cloves of unpeeled garlic into the roasting pan… not sure what to do with those, but roasted garlic is probably a good thing to have on hand, right?

rstdchick

Off to bed for some much needed sleep before my 8am class. Hrmph. Oh, Brian took a photo for the blog. He’s very excited about a Target purchase today:

eggnog

Egg nog! With bourbon. That stuff grosses me out to no end, but he and Joy both had a glass after dinner. I’m all for holiday beverages- but I’ll stick with hot chocolate and gingerbread lattes. Nice, eggless options.

SURVEY TIME!

This is inspired by Heather at Hangry Pants’ post today. She blogged about how she wished she could write a letter to her younger self…

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would it be?

Me:

  • Think REALLY HARD before declaring a major- and possibly save yourself 2 semesters of Calc I (F and D, thankyouverymuch).
  • Stop being so self-conscious.
  • Reconsider those bangs.
  • Diet Coke = crack. Once you start, you’ll never stop… even 10 years later…
  • Blind dates aren’t always bad :)
 

Happy Humpday November 13, 2008

Filed under: November 2008 — heatherwlu @ 5:36 am
Tags: ,

Challah!!

(Get it? Like “Holla”?? Every time we pull a loaf of challah bread out of the oven at work, I want to yell that… sad but true.)

Anyhoo, today was busybusybusy. Track workout at 5:45- 6 x 1200’s. Honestly, I felt I was going to hurl the entire time. Got home and took a mini-nap in the guest room until Brian decided to drop a very chunky yet excited pug on top of me before he left for work.

Breakfast was a bowl of plain Chobani with sliced bananas, walnuts and dried cherries. I also crumbled half of a Whole Foods’ Athlete’s Choice cookie on top… alongside a MUCH needed cup of coffee with Silk Pumpkin Spice soymilk:

breakfast

I had to work at 12, so I puttered around, read blogs and showered. I was still feeling sub-par at lunchtime, so I made a bowl of Pacific Natural Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup, along with the rest of last night’s ciabatta and some cheese. Tres French, oui?

lunch3

Work was good… my job was basically to fill the patisserie case. LOTS of decorating- cheesecakes, pies, chocolate tarts, chantilly cakes, etc. At one point I was covered in ganache. But decorating is still by far my favorite part of the whole pastry process. I guess it’s my little artistic outlet… some people paint, others write music, some knit with dog hair- I pipe buttercream.

Brian talked me out of going out for Mexican for dinner (BOO) in lieu of eating leftovers. Boring. Instead of eating the leftover turkey wheatberry chili straight, I really wanted it on a baked potato. So where do you go to get a baked potato at 9pm? WENDY’S, duh. Chloe got a Junior Hamburger off the Super Value Menu. She knows exactly what’s going on when we pull up at a drive-thru, too. The whining commences as soon as Brian places the order and doesn’t stop until she gets her burger/ice cream/whathaveyou.

Here’s my baked potato, topped with chili, cheese and sour cream:

potato

Along with the rest of last night’s salad topped with Woodstock Dressing:

salad1

And an after-dinner beverage of bourbon and Coke Zero. We’re very obviously out of wine:

drink

Hey, did you know that there’s actually a Larabar blog? And that Heather Bakes is mentioned on it? Check it out (5 stars, 5 stars…).

Also, I almost forgot that Runjen at The Perfect Balance tagged me last week. I think I’ve done this a few months ago and therefore am out of people to tag back. But here are a few more random facts for you:

  • I constantly pick at my cuticles. It drives Brian nuts.
  • I say the word “both” weird- like bowlth.
  • Am addicted to: magazines, Diet Coke, and crappy TV (Jon & Kate Plus 8, MTV True Life, Rob & Big, Wife Swap).
  • Am NOT a morning person. Or a late night person. Am obviously prematurely geriatric as evidenced by abundance of gray hair at age 26.

That’s all I got… but wait:

Survey Time!!

What did you think of the Top Chef premier? Who’s your money on this season?

I think the Finnish guy, Stefan, is obviously a strong contender, as is Hosea. Radhika looks eerily like an Indian version of Helena Bonham Carter. Danny is already getting on my nerves. Was anyone surprised by Patrick leaving? He just seemed so young and maybe a wee bit overconfident.

PS- THANK YOU JILL for your donation!!! Here’s the link again:

http://www.active.com/donate/tsrh08/heatherbakes

 

Oh I Wish I Were An… October 31, 2008

Filed under: October 2008 — heatherwlu @ 11:42 am
Tags: ,

So, are you ready for it?

You sure?

Okay… here it is:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!


What better way to celebrate than through a tribute to Brian’s 2nd favorite food (next to corndogs)?

Oh my goodness, she hates this costume. You can probably tell from the photos. We only leave it on her for a few minutes at a time, but she just stands there unmoving, or she’ll waddle over slowly and just lean on me, like, “Pleeease take this off of me.” It’s not heavy or anything, but I think the extra width bothers her. She’s used to her trim, toned figure :)

Last night we met Lauren and Robert at a new pizza restaurant in the Bishop Arts District, Eno’s. If you still haven’t ventured down to Oak Cliff, you should- they have a TON of new restaurants with anything you could possibly want at any price point (pizza, Mexican, tapas, upscale Southern, sushi…). The stores in the Arts District stay open pretty late on weekends, too, so you can make a night of eating and browsing. Anyway, Eno’s was great. I loved the decor:

And I especially loved the Dogfish Head Punkinhead Ale on draught:

I started out with the small Eno’s House Salad, minus the peppered pork belly. It was just okay. First of all, there wasn’t a trace of endive on this plate- it was all arugula, which I normally love but was a little overwhelming with the bleu cheese. I ordered it because one review I read praised the lemon dressing, but I couldn’t even taste it. Eh, at least the cheese was good…

The salad options all sounded pretty impressive, so I’ll give it another shot next time. Brian and I shared the Classic Pie, which is topped simply with mozzarella and “fresh picked herbs”.

This was delicious. The crust is wafer thin and super crispy, the tomato sauce tasted really fresh and sweet, and the herbs were perfect. They even had a little fresh dill on top, which worked surprisingly well. The problem with such a thin crust is that we wolfed the entire pie down in t-minus 5 minutes.

Lauren and Robert shared the Eno’s Supreme:

I was stuffed, but on the way home we stopped at yet another new yogurt place for dessert. What is up with all of these pseudo-Pinkberries popping up everywhere? I can think of 5 right now: Berry Berry, Natsumi, Orange Cup, I Heart Yogurt and now Yogilicious. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not complaining. This stuff is delicious. I had half taro (kind of tastes like graham crackers), half chocolate with pomegranate seeds and mini chocolate chips… like I Heart Yogurt, you pay by the ounce. I managed to keep it under a pound this time:

Lauren wins the genius combo award, though: Pumpkin yogurt topped with graham cracker crumbs and chocolate chips. Mmmm.

So my mom has been doing this major attic clean-out lately and keeps calling me to ask if I want stuff before she throws it out. So far I’ve been offered: a Barbie dreamhouse, Easter decorations and a plastic light-up ghost circa 1987. I did express an interest in two holiday trees for the front porch, but apparently Brian and I didn’t fetch them fast enough… because look what we came home to last night:

Nice. Hey, if Target can start decorating for Christmas, so can we. Brian was so tired when we got home that he shrugged and said that he would deal with it in the morning (don’t worry, I did manage to unplug the lights). Our neighbors must love us.

Gotta start getting ready for class. Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Survey Time!

This is going to be the weekly Friday survey, because I’m nosy and like to hear what you’re up to:

Weekend plans?

Friday- handing out candy and possibly seeing a movie

Saturday- relaxing, party to go to at night

Sunday- half marathon

 

Chunkin’ Punkin’ October 28, 2008

Filed under: October 2008 — heatherwlu @ 4:04 am
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Not to get you all excited, but today might be the most boring food day ever.

Brian cruelly dragged me out of my nice, warm bed to drive him to work this morning. Jerk. I mean, the 10 miles to downtown would make for a nice walk, no? Aw, I’m kidding… maybe if he didn’t have to cross the highway…

Anyway, I grabbed a quick breakfast on the way out the door. Two slices of the homemade honey-wheat bread, toasted, topped with butter x 2 (almond and cherry).

I had a Safety & Sanitation midterm this afternoon, so from 10-3 Chloe and I studied on the couch. The test was easy. I always get all type-A and create these huge, ridiculous outlines before exams and end up not needing like 90% of the info. So inefficient. I took a break around 1 for a bowl of last night’s tomato soup along with a slice of pizza leftover from dinner on Saturday. I took a bite before remembering to get a photo. Sorry.

Don’t you like how I eat off of paper towels instead of plates? That’s because the dish washer is full of (clean) dishes that I’m too lazy to unload. Niiiice.

Because of the test, this week we will have Slow-Cooker TUESDAY instead of Monday. I hope you aren’t too disappointed. I’ll make it count, I promise.

So tomorrow I have a 2nd interview! So while I should be preparing for the interview, I’ve decided to play Ghost of Halloweens Past with the pug instead. Today I stumbled on her costume from last year, so we decided to see if it still fit.

Yes, yes it does. But she’s not happy about it.

I wish you guys could have seen her waddling around in it. So cute. Unfortunately this is what happened next:

She’s molting…

Aaaand now she’s trying to smother the evil pumpkin:

Awesome.

Oh, remember how Brian went on that retreat this weekend? Well they had a raffle and look what prize my sweet hubby chose!

$100 to Williams Sonoma!!! So what should I get? Any suggestions? Go for something big or just a bunch of little stuff? I’ve had my eye on that vanilla bean paste everyone’s writing about.

Survey Time!

Sorry for you (three) male readers, this is kind of a girly question… but you can answer, too.

What beauty/grooming product(s) could you not live without?

Me: Lip balm (Dr. Hauschka or Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer), Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Liquid Soap, and Narcisco Rodriguez perfume- it’s the only fragrance I’ve bought more than once.

Night!

 

It’s The End of the World as We Know It… October 27, 2008

Filed under: October 2008, Uncategorized — heatherwlu @ 3:04 am
Tags: , , ,

“And I feel fiiiiiine”

Hope everybody had a fun weekend! Here’s the recap:

**FRIDAY**

On Friday my Dad called to see if we would be interested in tickets to an REM concert that night… um, heck yeah we would! We like REM and the Old 97’s were opening for them, so that made it even more exciting :) The concert was fun- the 97’s played a great set (as always!) and REM sounded good live. Here’s Michael Stipe doing the robot:

I wasn’t nuts about the stuff off their newest album, but they played a lot of great classics, too.

**SATURDAY**

Brian left for his firm golf retreat and I babysat in the morning. Chloe and I took a looooong nap, then went to lunch with my mom (just me, not Chloe). I got the baking itch and decided to try a recipe I’d been eyeing in the Giada cookbook: Amaretti Torta. I’m obsessed with these little amaretto cookies from World Market so I knew I’d love the cake:

The recipe entails adding ground chocolate chips and amaretto cookies to the batter (eggs, milk, flour and Grand Marnier) and folding in whipped egg whites. Here’s the mis en place:

After baking, you spread a thin layer of orange marmalade on top and then sprinkle with more crumbled cookies:

This torte is AMAZING. The combination of chocolate, almond and orange works so well together, and the egg whites keep it from being too heavy. I had a taste right away. I mean, to make sure that it wasn’t poisonous.

**SUNDAY**

Around 9 I headed out for the big 20-miler. It didn’t feel as tough as last week, but still sucked big time. I hit a wall around mile 12 and felt like there was NO WAY I could finish the final eight. But I did. With lots of walk breaks. My final time was 3:20, and I had some Clif Shot Bloks at 45 and 90 minutes, and then these Luna Sport Moon chews at 2:10 (the Pomegranate flavor- really good!). I’m not super happy with the time, but I’m running the DRC Half Marathon next Sunday so I’ll be able to get a better idea of my projected race time for the full marathon.

After Brian got home, we grabbed lunch at Freebirds- chicken bird bowl (mmm)- and then ran some errands, including buying a pretty sweet Halloween costume for the pug. Get excited. We put it on her today and she just stood in one spot and wouldn’t move for like 10 minutes. Then she tried to come visit us and got stuck between the couch and the coffee table… it’s a wide costume.

Speaking of pug costumes, I know I’ve posted that photo of Miss Chloe in the giraffe costume. Our local magazine, The Advocate, requested pet photos about a month ago and I just had to send in that shot. Lo and behold, a new issue arrived on our doorstep on Saturday…

And just look what was inside!

Aww, the little celebri-pug.

More baking today- for some reason I’ve been in the mood to bake bread, which I’ve only tried in class. Bread kind of freaks me out, so I’ve never made it at home. I decided on a Honey Wheat Bread from the Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook. Not bad, eh?

And for dinner, soup sounded really good so I made yet another recipe from the Giada cookbook: Hearty Tomato Soup with Lemon and Rosemary. It’s super simple. Just saute onions and carrots in butter, add some white beans, tomatoes and herbs, and simmer 30 minutes. Then puree and top with creme fraiche (which I did not have, so used a mixture of Fage and mascarpone with lemon zest instead). I stirred some tempered half and half into the soup to make it creamy. And what goes best with tomato soup?? Grilled cheese, duh. So Brian whipped up some grilled colby jack on whole wheat bread with sweet pickle slices. Perfect.

Off to do some studying! Thanks for bearing with my long and rambling post :)

SURVEY TIME!

What are your Halloween plans?

We’re handing out candy on Friday night- although last year we only had a few trick or treaters (sad), and then heading to a party on Saturday night. I loooove Halloween.

 

The Hot Lady & The Tiger Woods Guy October 24, 2008

Filed under: October 2008 — heatherwlu @ 2:50 am
Tags:

So it was our first *COLD* day here in Dallas- 45 degrees for the low!! We had a 6 mile tempo run this morning and had left the AC on all night- oh my goodness, it was so hard to get out of that warm bed. But it was a great run and we finished in about 51 minutes.

Brian and I actually got to have breakfast together this morning. I made some banana oats with vanilla hempmilk, almond butter (stirred in), dried cherries and trail mix:

The interview went really well! I met with 2 people and got a tour of the bakery. It sounds like the job will entail a LOT of decorating, which makes me very excited!! Baking is fun, but decorating is the best part by far. I’m supposed to hear back about a 2nd interview in the next couple of days. You know I’ll keep y’all posted :)

After the interview, I headed to the mall with Gina/Mom for some lunch and shopping browsing (boo). We ate at Kona Grill- I had chicken potstickers and a tuna roll:

And Gina had the sushi sampler. Much prettier:

The afternoon was pretty boring… cleaning, putting up laundry, cuddling the pug…

awwwwwww

After dinner I was craving something sweet so we headed to an old favorite: Tasti De-Lite! I had a swirl of chocolate marshmallow and pumpkin cheesecake. Sounds gross, but it was actually pretty good. And although you may (understandably) think that I ordered sand as a topping… you would be mistaken. It’s actually graham crackers.

I pictured something different. Hmm.

Okay, Brian’s harassing me now because I’ve been typing for an hour and I’m still not done (to be fair, I’ve been half typing, half watching The Office and SNL) so I guess I’d better stop here. Feel free to direct all complaints regarding the short, dull post to: briansucks@leavemealonedammit.com.

Survey Time!

What are you doing this weekend???

I’m nosy, so this may become a regular Friday survey question :) Brian’s going out of town this weekend for a firm retreat, so I’m planning on babysitting Saturday morning, deep cleaning the house, studying and being lazy. The 20 MILES on Sunday. Eeep.

Happy Friday!

 

Eat.Sleep.Poop.Repeat. October 23, 2008

Filed under: October 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:13 am
Tags: , ,

You guys are too funny! A Chloe-only blog? I can just see it:

  • 8-11 sleep
  • 11:30 Heather physically removes me from the bed and forces me to go outside. Refuse to potty and scratch at door for 10 minutes until she relents and lets me in. Try to eat Piper’s food. Sit on Heather so she can’t type or read blogs.
  • 12-3 sleep
  • 3-5 Try to break into litterbox. Heather yells at me. Scratch at pantry door. Heather yells at me. Try to break into office so I can pee on the white rug. Heather yells at me. Sulk. Sleep.

… and so on.

This morning I grabbed a quick breakfast before driving Brian to work. His car is being towed to the shop tomorrow (not the Prius- our other car, which was actually a hand-me-down from my brother). Plain Chobani with some Multigrain Cheerios, dried cherries, and honey in a GIANT mug:

My legs were still super sore from the long run on Monday, but I forced myself to take a short jog today- 4 miles at the lake. I think it did help a little with the soreness. After the run it was back to studying… and yet more of that Moroccan Chicken Stew for lunch. This time on top of couscous:

I think it’s time to retire the stew. Although it was good.

The practical went well. We didn’t even take the written test today, which means that I wasted a lot of time studying… but I guess I was going to have to do that eventually anyway. My hollandaise turned out perfectly (yea!), but the cream of broccoli soup was thiiiiiick. I think the term “baby food” may have come up during my evaluation. Oops. But it was seasoned well and a little stock would have thinned it right out. I should probably stick to baking…

SPEAKING OF- I have a job interview tomorrow!!!! I applied last night and got a call this morning! I don’t want to say where it is just yet for fear of jinxing it, but let’s just say that if I get the job I will probably never bring home a paycheck… too much temptation. Mwahaha.

Survey Time!

You guys hear a LOT about Chloe (probably too much!)- tell me about your pets :)

 

Five Little Pumpkins October 13, 2008

Filed under: October 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:08 am
Tags: , , , ,

Hope everybody had a great weekend! Last week felt really chaotic for some reason, so it was nice to have a couple of days to relax.

**FRIDAY**

This week we covered demi glace and hollandaise in class. The demi glace was no sweat- we actually made it into a piquant sauce for pork chops (I had 2 bites… I don’t miss pork, but the sauce was good). The hollandaise, on the other hand, was kind of a huge ordeal. It took our three group members to get it assembled and we were taking turns with the whisk. The scariest part is that we have to make it all on our own next week for our practical exam. Time to bust out the arm weights.

I forgot to take photos of what we cooked, but a few people in our class chipped in to buy a cake. The baking classes turn over whatever baked goods they don’t want to take home to be sold… I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want this cake:

I think this may be a lobster…?

My piece was frozen. A cake-sicle, if you will:

I was trying to get bed early on Friday, so we were boring and made dinner at home. I pulled out the new Giada cookbook (are y’all sick and tired of this yet?) and tried the Lemon Risotto. It’s similar to this recipe, but with a lot of lemon juice and more broth.

OMG- it was SOOOO good! We had it with some rotisserie chicken and steamed asparagus:

The risotto is really rich. It involves a good amount of butter, mascarpone and parmesan cheeses- but a small amount is definitely enough. Plus I used my whole, “Well I’m running in the morning…” justification, which is badbadbad. But yeah, go buy the cookbook and try this recipe. There’s also one in there for butternut squash and vanilla risotto that I want to try.

Which brings us to…

**SATURDAY**

Got up at 5:00 for a 6am 14-mile run. It was not too bad, but I really need to figure out the whole “what to eat before running” issue. I just get really worn out and the mid-run gu (NASTY) isn’t cutting it. Any suggestions? I need to get faster, too. We did it in about 2:15.

Oh, also on the running front: anyone who is debating a marathon- or any race for that matter- should rent Spirit of the Marathon. It’s a documentary following 6 runners of varying levels training for the Chicago Marathon (one is Deena Kastor, one is a new runner, one is a 70-year-old 5th time marathoner). I watched it on Friday night and definitely bawled at the end. Brian HATES running and actually enjoyed the movie, too.

The rest of Saturday involved a bridal shower, running some errands, and then driving to the lake. The best part? I slept 10 hours last night. And then napped with Chloe during the Cowboy’s game. Nice.

**SUNDAY**

We drove back from the lake late this afternoon and then took Chloe to a pumpkin patch right by our house.

She liked this one:

And tried to eat this one:

Be we ended up with these:

Brian set up a nice little fall display on the porch, but it’s too dark to take a photo right now. I’ll try to get one up tomorrow.

We’re having an easy dinner tonight- chicken quesadillas with Ezekiel tortillas, refried black beans, avocado, cheese and leftover chicken:

And watching Charlie Bartlett… so far it’s pretty funny.

Survey Time

Do you decorate for holidays, and if so, which ones?

We decorate for Halloween and Christmas, but I feel kind of dumb doing so since we don’t have kids. I think Chloe and Piper appreciate the effort :)