Jenny Lewis made me eat egg salad, twice

I woke up this morning with no food in my fridge and 30 dollars in my wallet. I had plans to see Jenny Lewis with opening band the Heartless Bastards, there was no spare cash for lunch money, as mentioned before, I'm on a New York City, singing Elvis budget. I quickly scrounged to create something delicious, yet nutritious for my lunch that would leave me with enough leftovers for day 2s lunch.

Mmm mmm mmm egg salad. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing terrible about this creation, other than my mother. When we were wee children traveling on spring vacation to visit my brother in Georgia, my mother made us stop for a "picnic" of egg salad. The only problem, the picnic was in the parking lot of Hardees. Yes, egg salad in the parking lot of Hardees. No, we couldn't go in for french fries. We had to sit there and eat it while all the other kids got fries and soda. Talk about tragic, and a swarm of painful memories.

This creation is quite easy to make. I already had 2 boiled eggs from a previous week's CSA. I say previous because I'm not sure when I boiled them. I'll let you know tomorrow if they were spoiled. I chopped them up and mixed them with a spoonful of mayo, 2 squirts of mustard, 3 shakes of dill, 2 shakes of paprika, and a shake each of salt and pepper. Placed on sliced bread with a side of raw cabbage made for a delicious lunch. It was helped by the fact that a coworker bought me a bag of Doritos.

Jenny Lewis was well worth eating egg salad for, I suggest you do the same if she comes to your town!

Cheapskate Summer Squash Cooking

In an attempt to save some green for an October outing to New York, I'm cooking on a budget. One of the ladies at work was kind enough to bring in some extra Zucchini, right on, I took one and made this delicious sandwich.

Slice up some squash, brush with Olive Oil and sprinkle with garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasonings of your likening and a hint of crushed red pepper. Pop it in the broiler, flip once, remove when broiled, whatever that is.

I placed mine on some flat bread and sprinkled with a little goat cheese from my CSA basket. Instant delicious with cash to spare to tip that singing Elvis.

Cooking with Cocktails, and Dave's Mom!

I inherited this amazing cookbook "Home Cookin' with Dave's Mom" by David Letterman's mom Dorothy. It's my favorite. Inside I found many delicious, wholesome goodies including Coca-Cola Cake. Megan will agree, this recipe is a must.

I volunteer each month to make goodies for the Louisville Gilda's Club. They are an amazing non-profit organization, you should check them out. So, I have altered the recipe to make 2 dozen cupcakes.

To start, a cocktail. I opted for the summer refreshment of a Gin and Tonic with a splash of lime.

Now don't pay too much attention to these ingredients, these cupcakes aren't for the strict dieters or the diabetic.

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallow (plus 24 for later, and a handful to eat at your leisure)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup Coca-Cola (I really want to try Vanilla or Cherry Coke, don't bother with diet)

1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together sugar and flour (again, just whisk it). In a medium saucepan heat butter, oil, cocoa, and the Coke. Remove from heat and pour over the sugar/flour mix. Add in buttermilk, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla. Dance around while you mix well. Pour into lined cupcake tins (makes about 24).

Icing

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons cocoa

6 tablespoons Coca-Cola (be adventurous, try the cherry)

1 box powered sugar (that's confectioners)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat the butter, cocoa, and Cola. Bring to a boil and add the powered sugar. Remove from heat and blend it like you meant it. Add vanilla.

Ice cupcakes immediately and place 1 tiny marshmallow on top. Be sure and try one before you share, you don't want to miss out on these!

Because you've been neglected...

So, Megan and I haven't posted in awhile. She's moving and I'm, well, I'm just lazy. So here's an LOL cat to amuse you for now. Visit Icanhascheezeburger.com to see how I pass my time not blogging.

yummy yummy... csa time is finally here!!

hooray!!!

for the next 6 months, amanda and i will be receiving a fresh bushel of produce every week!!  and then, every other one of those weeks we will be receiving goat cheese and eggs.  this is a preview of what we got last week...  sorry i was a little delayed in the postings.  we get our next bushel tomorrow so i will be more prompt on the upload :)

What to do with fresh greens?

Megan and I are first time participants in a CSA (community supported agriculture). Each week we get a bushel of goodness that sometimes leaves me speechless. What to do with fresh greens. I ended up cutting up my asparagus and chard and doing a quick stir fry in olive oil, soy sauce, crushed red pepper, fresh garlic, and a splash of honey.

I must say, it's quite delicious. I'd post a picture but really, it'd just be green on white (the steamed rice).

- Amanda

my kitchen disaster...

pictures first...

this last picture here is a little smokey... if you couldnt tell.

so, i was going to make a pie for my mom.  a banana carmel pie to be exact.  i was very excited about it and found this great recipe.  the recipe called for one 14 oz can of sweet condensed milk (unopened) to be boiled for 3 hours.  yes, unopened.  boiled.  for 3 hours.  so, one hour down i get a text from amanda.  "happy hour at dark star"  long story short... went to happy hour and left the unopened can of sweet condensed milk boiling knowing that i wouldnt be gone too long.  as soon as we pull up to the apartment, amanda calls it.  you can smell something burning from outside... and i was just praying i wouldnt open up my apartment to flames.  luckily, this was all i found.  

i ended up making my mom a pie but it did not involve boiling unopened cans of any kind.  and yes, ive learned my lesson.  alcohol does not trump leaving the oven on.  hahaha.

The powers of champagne and mother combine to bring you, PIES.

My mom and I opted for not 1 but 2 pies this Memorial Day Weekend. The first, a delicious apple pie, the second being a mixed berry.

Homemade Crust:

Makes 2 nine inch crusts

2 cups all purpose flour (not wheat, this is pie, suck it up)

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup plus 2 tbs shortening

4 to 5 tbs cold water

Measure flour and salt into bowl, mix in shortening. Sprinkle with water, 1 tbs at a time mixing until dough almost cleans side of bowl.

Gather dough into 2 even balls. Roll out on floured surface.

Berry Goodness:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 orange zested

pinch salt

1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tbs butter, cut into bits

2 cup fresh blueberries

2 cup fresh blackberries

2 cup fresh raspberries

Line 1 pie pan with crust. Mix together sugar, orange, salt, lemon juice, and butter. Add berries. Toss until coated. ( Our berries were slightly runny and we are pondering adding a bit of flour to this, let me know if you try it)

Kindly dump into pie crust. Lattice second crust over top, crimping edges. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Place pie in oven and bake 15-20 minutes at 400. Reduce to 350 and bake an additional 40-50 minutes.

Apple:

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour (again, it's a pie, go for the white)

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash salt

6 cups granny smiths (peeled and sliced)

2 tbs butter

Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Mix with apples until coated (try one, they're good). Place into pie crust and dot with butter. Lattice top with 2nd crust. Bake 40-50 min. at 425. Prepare for great smells!

super amazing (and easy) muffins

i have this bulk muffin mix that is very handy.  i use it quite a bit since its already made up and you can always add something different to it.

for the dry mix: 6 cups flour 2 cups oats 3 cups sugar 3 tsp. salt 3 tsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. nutmeg 3 Tbsp. baking powder ingredients for the muffins: 1 c milk  1 egg 1/2 c applesauce, unsweetened 2 3/4 c of the dry muffin mix in a huge bowl, mix together all the dry muffin mix ingredients. i use a whisk to mix it all together until well blended. store in a container with a lid until used. to make the muffins, combine 2 3/4 c of the muffin mix with the wet ingredients. spray muffin tin or use the muffin cups. fill half to 2/3 full. bake in a preheated 400 degree oven. 16 minutes for regular sized muffins. 12 minutes for mini muffins. thats it :)   ive put things from chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, dried fruit and nuts into the mix when im making these muffins.  theyve all turned out awesome!!

slow cooker chili

i recently went home to surprise my mom on her birthday and acquired a few new cooking goodies.  (i also forgot my camera there so youll have to deal with the camera phone pictures)  one of the things i was very excited about was the slow cooker aka crock pot! :)  the day i returned to louisville, i was in the kitchen cooking.  this was the result...

mmmmmm.... chili :)  i made the concoction that night and put it in the refrigerator.  the next morning i turned it on low and let it cook all day while i was at work.  i was so excited to come home and walk into my apartment!!  the wait was torture but it was worth it...

ingredients:

(basically a little bit of this and a little bit of that)

28-ish ounces of diced tomatoes

(i used one can of diced tomatoes with onions and chilies in them and one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes)

1 can black beans

1 can of dark red kidney beans  

(drain both cans)

1 onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

(the green peppers were ginormous!!!)

i got to use my nicer dicer.  i love this product... like, a lot!  amanda makes fun of me for it but i think its amazing and use it as much as possible!!

2 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano 

i think thats it.  you can add more of anything or add less.  you can also add other things like carrots and celery but i dont really like those in my chili.  

enjoy :)