Looking Forward

I made a pact with myself that I was going to be more positive in 2009... and while I think I've done well in some areas, there is always room for improvement. Bev and I talk a lot about trying to stay positive and part of her take on it is evidenced in her blog where she keeps tabs on her blessings, listing out the things and people in her life she is thankful for. For me, looking forward to things always makes it easier to stay positive, not to mention helps make this awful dreaded Chicago winter a teeny bit more bearable.

One thing that always makes everything more bearable... Dan. Check out the adorable heart shaped pancakes he surprised me with for Valentine's Day breakfast!


And here's us in our kitchen (I love love love my kitchen) later that night after a day out downtown. Crystal jokingly captioned this "romantic". :)


Here's some fun I am happily looking forward to in the coming weeks -

Valentine's Day has come and gone... which means that Forest Park St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner! In fact, it's just 2 short weeks away, and I am (obviously) very excited about it. We're hosting breakfast at the house with a little pre-gaming before the parade, and we found out a couple weeks ago that Dan's brother and sister in law will be in town with BABY MICHAEL!!! I can't wait to meet him. Seriously, look how adorable he is -


Hopefully he will like the house more than little Aiden, who usually screams for the first 15 minutes he's there, and then gazes around happily for the rest of his visit.

And speaking of babies, we're babysitting for Kadence on Saturday, another excitement to look forward to! Also this weekend is my friend Mike's wedding. He was a close friend at Triton and thankfully we've kept in touch. His wedding is on Friday, which was a good excuse for a day off of work, although I'm fairly busy this week so Thursday is bound to be a bit crazy before my long weekend.

I'm going to dinner with Bev tomorrow night, who I don't see nearly enough lately! I'm hoping that once it gets a little warmer out I can finally motivate myself to learn a lesson from her and start exercising.

One "lesson" I have learned lately is that I miss having some sort of creative outlet and am so content and happy when I take the time to sit down and create. I've always been more of a designer than an artist - I'd rather a computer than a pencil and sketch pad any day, but thanks to a great Christmas gift from Dan and a little splurging on a gift card at the Paper Source, I've started up a new little hobby that I'm really enjoying! Dan got me a heat embosser for Christmas, which is used with rubber stamps, high-pigment ink pads, and embossing powder to create a neat raised final effect. I made a couple of cards over the weekend and am hoping to get better at things like sending thank you notes now that I can personalize them!

Two of these Color Box color wheels are the latest addition to my hobby materials. Considering one ink pad costs around $6 and these come with 8 colors each for around $15, I definitely think this is the better bet. Also, thanks to the individual petals sliding out with a nifty little grip on the bottom, two-toned and multi-colored stamping is a cinch.



One last excitement from the weekend is our new toaster oven from my gramma. I have decided that I am officially domestic if I am this thrilled about a small kitchen appliance. Either that or I am just craving a PB&J straight out of the toaster oven, an amazing take on the simple sandwich that a friend at my old job got me hooked on. I raised my eyebrows at her the first few times I saw her stick her open sandwich in the toaster, until one day she came to work with an extra sandwich which she demanded was for me. I was hooked! :)

Orzo with Chicken and Asiago

Go team me for cooking with new ingredients! I picked up a small bag of orzo pasta at Target last week not knowing what I would do with it and not even knowing really if I would like it since I've never had it before. Thanks to All Recipes I found a great and extremely simple recipe to try out Tuesday night for a quick dinner. Both Dan and I liked it, and it was ready in literally 15 minutes - considering we weren't having dinner until after 8 that worked out perfectly! I'll definitely make this again when we need a quick dinner and don't want frozen pizza, but I'm not sold on adding it to my Top 10. I will, however, be posting an amazing versatile Top 10 recipe shortly after this though!

Orzo with Chicken and Asiago
1 cup water
1 can (14-16oz) chicken broth
12 ounces skinned, boneless chicken breast - cut into bite sized cubes
1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo
1 cup frozen peas, thawed (I omitted - neither of us will go near peas with a 10 foot pole)
1/2 cup shredded or grated asiago cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon rosemary, oregano, or basil

Combine water and broth in a large pot, bring to a boil. Add in chicken and pasta, reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, stir in peas (if using), half of cheese, salt, pepper and herbs. Serve with extra cheese sprinkled on top.


Image and recipe from All Recipes

A cool feature of All Recipes is the addition of nutritional information. I typically only look at calories and fat, although I know there are many more important factors in the nutritional value of a meal. However, this doesn't look too bad overall -

Nutritional Information
Calories: 384 (14% from fat)
Fat: 5.9g (sat 2.9g,mono 1.5g,poly 0.7g)
Protein: 34.3g
Carbohydrate: 45.7g
Fiber: 2.9g
Cholesterol: 64mg
Iron: 3.3mg
Sodium: 656mg
Calcium: 179mg

A few of things I learned while making this dish:
1. It really is THAT easy. Stir everything together and it's done in literally 12 minutes. I was concerned about boiling the chicken right in with the pasta but it turned out great.
2. Two small chicken breasts is plenty. I used 3 and thought the amount of chicken was a little overwhelming.
3. A little more salt and pepper would be good... and I definitely recommend rosemary over the more-typical oregano or basil. I bought some at the store just for this and it was more than worth it.
4. Leftovers are so-so... I had some for lunch yesterday and was not crazy about it. Sitting in the fridge and being nuked definitely took away some of the flavor and the creaminess of the fresh meal.

Living Room Inspiration

I am once again finding myself searching for ways to keep up my blog - and keep it about 906 - without having constant projects to write about. Blogging about my adventures in cooking has been fun, and I certainly plan to continue it, but there's so much more to the house than just the kitchen! With that in mind, I turned to my new favorite blog This Young House for some design inspiration. Today's posting focuses on a living room makeover that is so drastically different from the starting point that it's hard to believe it's the same room. I immediately zoned in on the elements of the room that match my eventual hopes for my own living room - the breezy curtains across the huge window (something I love about our house but am constantly torn about what to do with), and the modern graphic rug, which pulls all of the room's colors together and adds a little fun for a completely cohesive final product.

I decided to take one of the photos of the "beachy" living room and throw in my own couch to see how it all matched up. I also replaced the bit of carpeting in the original photo with a google image of a hardwood floor, as we have. Finally, I threw in some pillows from Pillows and Throws to cover up the ugly pillows in the stock photo of the couch.


At first glance, I thought this rug might be a bit too much blue, seeing as our walls are a blueish gray, but this photo of a closely-colored dining room with the rug in place settled my thoughts on that right away.


While I'm pretty convinced that this rug is exactly what I've been looking for, it's definitely more expensive than I'd like - probably because it's from Pottery Barn, which has some decent sales but tends to still be out of my price range. Either way, I'm always on the hunt for pieces that I think will tie up a room and finally make it feel "finished", and this rug fits right in on that list!

As I mentioned before, my major dilemma tends to revolve around window treatments at the house. Because of this, we have plain white blinds in our bedroom and on the one kitchen window, and off-white roman shades in the extra bedroom and office. The living room and dining room are aching for some curtains, but I just can't seem to settle on any! I did get the navy blue panels for the dining room that I mentioned before, but without even hanging them I can already tell that they are going to need something more... and I'm not sure what that's going to be just yet. :) I spent some time thinking Ikea curtain panels were the answer to all my problems, but (as usual) changed my mind. Now I'm thinking some simple bamboo blinds and plain white panels like the living room makeover above might work perfectly!

Top 10 - Brown Sugar & Basil Pork Chops

Considering it's been a full 2 weeks since I made these pork chops and LOVED them, I cannot believe it's taken me this long to post about them. Although, I really wanted to include a picture and I NEVER know where the little adapter thing for my camera is so I can upload pictures, so I suppose that stalled the entry a bit. Either way, I'm posting now and officially adding this insanely simple dinner to the top 10 list I'm trying to compile. I'm most excited about these simply because they involve pork - not chicken, steak, or pasta, which tend to be the 3 dinner staples in our house. Being able to throw something different in the meal rotation is thrilling for a new cook like myself. Another added bonus - I had no idea pork was so cheap. This 4 pack of boneless chops was just $2.50 at Target! I served this with some roasted smashed potatoes and corn and had my brother and his girlfriend over for dinner with Dan and I, and all of us agreed that this dinner is worth making again.

I got this recipe from Dan's friend Jeannie - not sure if it's hers originally or not, but either way I'm crediting her with it since she introduced me to it. :) So with that, I suggest every pork chop fan out there take a stab at these, and let me know if you enjoy them as much as I did!

Brown Sugar & Basil Pork Chops
1/2 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
4 boneless med thick pork chops

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and spices. Stir in 1 tbsp of olive oil until crumbly. Coat chops on both sides with the rub.

In a large skillet, cook chops in remaining olive oil over medium heat, about 7-8 min per side or until done.

Um, yum.

A couple of things I learned while making this dish:
1. I am severely paranoid about cooking meat - or better, UNDERcooking meat. My meal took longer than the recipe suggests simply because I flipped the chops every minute or so checking to see if they were done. My brother finally took the fork out of my hand, put a cover on the skillet, and told me to step away. A few minutes later we had finished chops and a gooey glaze had formed in the pan to pour over them. Phenomenal.
2. When you're buying meat, the store often puts the best looking piece on top, so you don't quite see the whole package. In this case, all 4 of the chops were lean and good, but 2 were much smaller than the others. With mine and Erica's smaller appetites this worked out great for us, but seeing as I've picked out meat at the grocery store a grand total of maybe 3 times, it was still a bit unexpected for me.
3. If I'm going to be posting pictures of my food, I may need to invest in a couple of pretty serving plates for the photos :). I have a plate from Pier 1 similar to this but with a pretty scalloped edge... maybe it will become my official "I'm going to blog about this dish" plate. :)

Goodbye McDonald's Sausage Egg McMuffins...

...hello saving $4 a day and inevitably saving my arteries in the long run as well.

Let me explain. I have a slight problem. It comes in the form of always being hungry, and needing a substantial breakfast to be able to make it until lunch without whining. Cereal doesn't cut it, unless I eat half the box, I have tried oatmeal and yogurt but can't seem to force myself to like either, and while I like fruit - that again is just not enough. The other part of the problem is that when I get off the train every morning I walk past Jamba Juice, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonalds in a matter of seconds. Sigh. I've gotten into the GREAT habit of bringing my lunch every day - but breakfast is another story. What good is saving money on lunch if I just spend it a few hours earlier on breakfast instead??

SO, this year for Lent, I have decided to give up the one TRUE problem in all of this - McDonald's breakfast. I know, I know, I might die from the deprivation I am sure to suffer just days into the 40-day stretch... but I am determined to make it. So determined, in fact, that I have decided to start NOW and am only having mcd's one more time, which I think I will make the very day before Lent, before the long haul really begins.

In order to prepare myself for the lack of calorie-packed fatty goodness (um, gross), I decided to make a breakfast quiche last night, so I could still get in a flavor-packed morning meal that's easy to bring to work and will last all week. The total cost of all the ingredients was probably about $5, so my new budget will thank me. I know better than to think this is anywhere near healthy, but I am confident that a slice of this quiche is definitely a huge step down in fat and calories from the daily mcd's.

Breakfast Quiche
1 ready-made pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 bag shredded cheese
couple pinches of salt
meat fill-ins (cooked) of your choice (I have made this with crumbled bacon before, and last night used a chunk of jimmy dean sausage)

Preheat oven to 425.
Spread the crust into a 9" pie pan (I used an 8") and spread a little butter on it.
Dump the meat and cheese in and spread it out so it covers the whole bottom of the pie crust.
Beat eggs together with heavy whipping cream and a little salt and pour into pie crust.
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 and bake for another 40 minutes.

A few thoughts/things I've learned:
1. Putting the flimsy pie pan on a cookie sheet before going in the oven saves spills.
2. I'm going to try and make this a little more healthy next time by using low-fat cheese, a bit of cooking spray instead of a slab of butter, and turkey sausage. Also, I'm curious if using just egg-whites would work, and also if substituting the 2% milk I already have in my fridge for the heavy whipping cream would work... I think it's worth a shot!
3. Ready-made pie crusts are a pain and always break/rip when unrolling them. Luckily, this does not matter at all for the end result of this dish.
4. The amount of eggs and heavy cream can vary depending on what you have on hand - The original recipe I used for this (with bacon) called for 2 cups of cream and 5 eggs, which nowhere near fit, and didn't set well. Last night's 4 eggs and 1 cup of cream made a HUGE difference in the final product.

So there you have it, my first successful step in my mission to not buy breakfast every day. And speaking of successes, Dan and I also made a whole roasted chicken Friday night (yum) and I used the leftover chicken pieces for some homemade chicken noodle soup in my mini crock pot (even more yum). Maybe I will post the soup recipe later, but as good as it was it was nowhere near as comforting and wonderful as my mom's soup... so maybe instead I will just beg her to post her recipe.

Since a post without a picture is no fun (and I was too tired this morning to take a picture of my quiche before cutting into it), I will post this fun apron set, which I have decided I absolutely need for my future kitchen endeavors.

Turquoise

Seeing as I am slightly obsessed with the color turquoise (see my bathroom) and will buy nearly anything I can manage to justify in that color, you can imagine my excitement when I came across the blog "Everything Turquoise" a couple of months ago. Some of my recent favorites are on sale and begging me to find a place for them in the house.

How fun would it be to have these bright punches of color on the currently furniture-free front porch? Or better, out in the yard for BBQ's in the summer! Even more fun (and obviously much more affordable) would be to find some garage sale furniture and spray paint it bright blue.

I can't even explain how happy it would make me to serve chips and dip on a platter that MATCHES the outdoor furniture.

And hey, while I'm at it, I could chop up some veggies for salsa to go in that little dip bowl with this funky hand chopper.

Later, I can help Dan with a project with my very own TOOL SET!!! (Really, this item is the reason I decided to write this entire entry, I love the idea of having my own little set of tools - in my favorite color!)

And finally, although not specifically for the house, I would looooove walking around in these boots. Too bad they're Uggs and I find their pricing asinine and would therefore never actually buy them.