Divine Dessert

Sundays are special for Jim and I. We pick a new recipe and cook together. We have made homemade, fresh pasta, chicken schawarma, crab cakes, just to name a few. We split up the chopping, mixing, and stirring and spend the afternoon around the kitchen island. We have a great time together and I look forward to it all week. This past weekend we made Giadas egg, gorgonzola, and pancetta sandwiches and a scrumptious dessert - bread pudding. We stepped it up and made pecan praline sauce, then topped it all off with homemade whipped cream. Lets pause, shall we and discuss homemade whipped cream.
Homemade whipped cream is amazing. It is super easy to make and it is just so much better than store bought whipped topping. (notice how its called topping not cream.). If you have not experienced the this treat, I demand that you make yourself a pie, and top with some homemade whipped cream. Or just eat the whipped cream on its own with some coffee for breakfast. I have heard that is really good. From a friend of a friend.
Don't be scared....I'll walk you through it.

Bread Pudding: (recipe follows)

Get your bread ready

Give it a nice bath in some milk, eggs, and spice


The yummy yummy in the tummy finished product. Holy cow...it was good!


Bread Pudding

6 slices day old bread *(see my notes)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins, optional *
4 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
t teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.
Break bread into pieces and place in an 8 x 8 pan. Drizzle melted butter over bread. If using sprinkle with raisins
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread and lightly push down bread until all bread is covered and soaking up mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes or top springs back when lightly tapped.

Pecan Praline Sauce

1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 stick butter
1tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans (pieces or halves)

Combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and butter in heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil gently* for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until candy thermometer reads 210 degrees. Remove from heat, add vanilla and stir well. Stir in pecans. Cover and refrigerate unused portion. Or eat with a spoon directly from saucepan. It's totally up to you.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream (bet you don't see that in the whipped topping ingredients list)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

In large chilled bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not overbeat*

Serve with your favorite dessert, or breakfast. Again...its up to you.


Notes
*I use cinnamon raisin bread. I did shop until Sunday morning, so I just pulled the bread out and let it sit for a few hour to get a little stale.
* Since I used cinnamon raisin bread, I didn't add additional raisins
* When making the sauce, be sure to keep an eye on it. If you scorch the sugar, its over. Low and slow. Slow and steady wins the race
*You need to whip the cream at a relatively high speed to get it just right. It's right when you have peaks that start to form and then fall over. If you overbeat it, the cream will become lumpy and butter like.

No Iron, No Cry

Dear any shirt manufacturer that makes a non no-iron shirt:

Perhaps you don't iron. Or its just that you since you are crazy rich shirt manufacturers you have someone else iron your non no iron shirts, leaving you ignorant to the difficulties involved.
Maybe its just some sick twisted game you play. You like the non no-iron shirt. You revel in how wrinkled it is even if you pull it out of the washing machine the moment it stops it's cycle. You sit back and cackle at the fact that it seems as if someone purposely snuck into the wash and manually put thousands upon thousands of wrinkles in the shirt. I bet you sit around a table eating fancy catered lunches cracking up about how some poor sweet wife irons the front of a sleeve only to put those wrinkles back in the shirt once she irons the back. It's mean how you have no regard for the kind sweet wife who spends 30 minutes of her day getting that shirt nice and crisp. The stock price for Magic Sizing probably soared as I ironed that shirt, spraying it over and over. You two are probably in cahoots. You should be ashamed!

Then again, what idiot buys a non no-iron shirt anyhow?

My first daring cook challenge - Potstickers

I recently joined the Daring Kitchen - a group the tests your baking and cooking skills each month with a new challenge. What is great about this group is that there is that you try a new recipe each month and learn and develop new skills. It is a fun, non judgemental group. You can post in forums for tips and help with the challenge. Everyone is in it for the love of the food and cooking and baking.

This months cook challenge was hosted by Jen at Use Real Butter and called for you to make Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers. You had to make the wrappers yourself (no cheating by purchasing store bought wrappers).
I made the wrappers using whole wheat flour and filled them with a pork filling. They turned out great. Pleating the wrappers was a bit of a challenge for me, but all in all it was great recipe and a delicious meal!

The filling - Ground pork, bamboo shoots, green onions, ginger, shitake mushrooms, and cabbage


Getting the dough together
First disc of dough for wrapping


My dumpling - not the best pleats, but they will do


Dinner is served. Nice crispy bottoms. Served with dipping sauce and broccoli slaw.

It's not you, It's me

Writers Workshop #3

It's been two months. I know, two months!
I am sorry. Things just got rough, and then we went on vacation and one thing leads to another and I start to think...."Should I even start up again?"

Where do I start, what do I say.
Then, I remember why I started. For me, for an avenue to vent and release and be me through some writing. I love comments, I really really do. Hopefully I will lure you all back.

I lost my job, and three weeks later, my grandpa. He wasn't just any grandpa. He was a friend (for real), and so many memories of my childhood have him in them.

Those two losses got me down. Really down. My friends and family know that I am not one to not have something to. I stay active. (not the exercising, healthy active - the always doing something kind of active). I can't sit still, I need to multitask and I like to squeeze as much in to my day as I can.

Well, after those couple of weeks I did nothing. I sat around watching movies, sleeping, reading the gossip columns. It was depressing. Really. I allowed myself to be that way for a while until I had a little "meltdown". Jim, my sweet loving Jim, assured me it was ok. I was grieving two losses (one more important than the other). I felt a little better, but by then, it had been a month away. Next thing I knew we were off on a dream vacation we had saved and planned for. I got back, and by then it had been over one and a half months away.

You get the idea. It got crazy, life got in the way. I was nervous to come back, but I am here. I hope you all still like me!

Thanks for the prompt Kathy!

It's still half full

I have had a rough week. On Tuesday, I became part of a statistic. Jobless.

I liked my job...a lot. I was beyond shocked that it had happened to me, and four days later, the reality is still setting in. I have cried at least once every day. My sister in law recommended allowing myself to grieve the job loss, many have told me to take a few days to relax and regroup. I am doing both. It has gotten much better every day.

I am riding a roller coaster and heres the thing...I hate roller coasters. I don't like scary yet safe, I don't like not being in control of what is happening to me, I don't enjoy the feeling of panic even when it is quickly followed by joy and safety. I would never voluntarily hop on a roller coaster. Nope, I say enjoy the ride and then I find a shop to visit or a snack calling my name. I sit and people watch while the others enjoy the thrill of unknown moments of ups, downs, twists, and turns. Not knowing whats ahead doesn't really work for me.

Through it all though, I have continued to see my world through a glass half full. I won't lie and say that it's been half full every moment, but when all is said and done that glass is half FULL. The half full glass is a reminder that:

• Jim is my rock. He was out of town when it all happened. When I picked him up from the airport, it all started to feel better. He reminds me it will all work out.
• I have amazing friends.
  
• Sometimes, even as an adult, all you need is to hear your dad tell you everything will be ok.
• People that I called "friend from work", are actually just friends.
• When you spend a Thursday morning cleaning, it leaves your weekend wide open
  

Much appreciated

Thanks to my buddies for the comments to the last post.

Kendall...I JUST figured it out with this post. (I'm a loser), but I appreciate the support.

Heather was sweet as ever, and being reminded that I haven't had to shovel or even scrape a car window in two years helped deal with the heat.

And Amanda was hilarious. A mix of friendly advice, encouragement, and a tiny splash of motherly guilt. Classic!

Tomorrow is a new day, and I am ready to run (if I keep saying it, eventually I will believe it).

Still balancing, oh and I need some encouragement

Remember this post? You know, where I told you that Jim balances me? Well, we balance each other.
And Friday as we completed the second week of our eight week running program I was reminded why. The running program that I hate (and I won't even apologize for using that word), that I feel like a loser doing, and that I really really want to give up on. Until, as I was "cooling down" in the 6:15am heat and lovely Florida humidity, Jim said to me "Hey, its ok if you're not perfect at it, at least we are exercising, and I need you to get me up and motivated to keep going." And there is the balance. I have to tip the scales back sometimes as well.

Maybe I should back up.

You may know, and if not, are about to find out that two years ago we moved to southeast Florida from Northern Ohio. It was a big change in many ways. Many are amazingly positive, some are negative. One that is neither great or awful is the physical differences. It's hard to explain, but a friend said it best once when he said "In Ohio I am a bit out of shape, in Florida I am morbidly obese!" It's a bit of wake up. It's not just the stereotypical changes. I am not talking about the clothes, cosmetic surgery, or the cars. Sure, its a difference, but I don't care about those things. I haven't changed the way I dress (Jessica would still probably put money on me being the first to where a sweater with snowman buttons to a PTA meeting), the things I value, etc.

So let's just put it out there, sometimes it's hard to feel like you are in a sea of fit people and not be there yourself. I have often said that my weight didn't matter, but being fit did. The numbers on the scale don't mean as much to me as knowing that I am in shape. And the thing is, I could use some work.

We have taken great strides in eating better, but neither of us were really exercising. A few weeks ago Jim told me we should start exercising together. I, in a moment I will forever look back on with great regret, said "Why don't we start a running program?" And like that, it was done.

We found a program called "From the Couch to the 5K". Over the course of eight weeks, through interval training, you work your way through the program and are at the end, able to run a 5k. There are no promises for speed in the 5K, just the ability to endure and run the distance. Pretty simple right? Well, I would have thought so too. Then there was me on Friday, sweating and trying to breathe at 6:15 in the morning (and btw it's like 70 and humid at that point already).

I wanted to quit, and Jim kept encouraging me. I kept thinking, six more weeks, just get through it. Then the moment happened. I realized that he needed me for this. To get him up 45 minutes earlier than normal, to make him do this, to help us both. CRAP! It's my turn. I can't keep whining, and hoping we can quit. I have to make this happen, I have to be the balance. Did I already say CRAP!

How do you runners do it? Did you ever hate it? Is it bad that I have to remind myself to breathe? Am I loser because I struggle to run 90 seconds straight? How many Ibuprofen do you take before, during, and after each run? Are you suppose to lose 8 gallons of sweat during your run?

The truth is I want to enjoy this. I want to want to keep doing this after eight weeks. I do.

Do me a favor please. Send me comments and emails and tell me I am a loser if I can't do this. Tell me to push through this program or you will make fun of me. I need a kick in the pants.