unknown

what color is friday? to me, most days have colors- i guess according to their stress level- so my "normal" thursday to saturday colors are dark and hot colors- think deep reds and oranges- so tonight, being an "unnormal" friday night off- i guess the color would be a muted rose color...i'm curled up, in bed, dog at my side, movie ready to start, full belly and cake for tomorrow- its 931pm...this is what this 25 year old enjoys doing.
i wonder what i'll enjoying doing on friday nights in 5 years? will it be hanging out with friends? watching my baby sleep? or still making the best food out of the produce farmers bring me? where will i be in 10 years? beginning some new friday night tradition with a little family of mine- going to watch the local high school football team? traveling home after a day at work? getting ready for an event on saturday? i can't even get to 15 years...

as afore mentioned- my relaxing colors are muted- so when i look into the future i see muted colors, though i know when i get there they will get sharper and more distinct- just as when i look into the future all i can see are hazy images of what i want to come true...sometimes i just want to wake up in 5 years or 10 years and see what has happened...but then i would miss the moments that built up to them...why did i chose A over B? why is this person looking at me this way? *like the worst blackout ever*

question of the day: if you could travel forward or backwards in time, which way would you go? you stay for a week and then return to the present merely seconds after you left...

thankful

so i read on someone's blog this morning that they were going to randomly list things they were thankful for- so as i think of them i'll randomly post things i'm thankful for :)

1. my dog
2. my sister and dad
3. my extended family, who really does seem to want to be involved in my life
4. a job i enjoy 99% of the time
5. my health and the well-being of my family
6. for the weather that is ever changing- and constantly changing my moods
7. the game of tennis- and how it relaxes me and centers me

*ps- at work i like to ask random, though thought-provoking questions...todays: if you lost all memories, and could not remember anything new, except for one memory- what would you want that memory to be?

orangeeeeeee

Drum roll to the much anticipated pumpkin soup + burgers post...i thought i'd take this post to a newer FUNNER level and delve into what happens while i'm cooking- good news, its fun. i'll just caption everything from here on out...enjoy!

Jbrown has expertly quartered and is beginning to seed the pumpkin.
She LOVES pumpkin seeds- so she is saving them in the green bowl.

Quarter of pumpkin with seeds...

Place the seeded-quarters of pumpkin on sheet trays-
as with the other squash- we are going to liberally salt and pepper-
for this application we are going to use olive oil- though butter is fine.

into the oven they go...375 until tender- this took about an hour

in the mean time...

Sami is supervising...

the gin and tonics- which are really responsible for my
excellent cuisine :)
*can i note how much i LOVE these rocks glasses- i believe they
are a grandparents somewhere down the line...

Touch Down makes fantastic g + t's

Jbrown put her seeds in water to allow the gunk to sift away

mine looks empty...

while the pumpkin is roasting and your assistant is making gin and tonics
get your vegetable stock rolling...basic mire pox + water

these are sami's toys for the evening- her new mummy toy and a carrot...
not to eat, just to play with...

veggie stock 

diced onion for the soup base- i added 1 whole onion to a large pot with olive oil
and after they had sweated out a minute or two, add carrot and celery and garlic

we had munchies- these are mozzerella sticks...

our supervisor...disappointed in the lack of quality control
she has participated in thus far

the pots a stewin'

base for the soup- don't forget to season, season, season (salt, salt, salt)
each layer of our soup...

on the other side- TD was making burgers- this time he added sauteed
onions- in half he added pickled jalepenos...hot hot hot

and our cheese options- cheddar, gouda, grueyer, and the mystery cheese

someone was excited about halloween and put on her flower costume :)

we then pull the "meat" out of the pumpkin and add it to our sauteed mire poix in the big pot

researching how to best season the seeds this year...

after straining the veggie stock add it to the pumpkin mix...SALT HERE

in true Alton Brown fashion, we'll call this our "Soup Station"- we move from right to left
cooked, unblended soup--> blender *in small batches, not too full b/c its hot!!-->fresh pot to heat uniformly

may or may not have a couple gin and tonics at this point...

mmm...ssseeeeedddsss...sweet and salty was the consensus

still in costume...

obsessed--green??

i 'm OBSESSED with taylor swift's new album- speak now...in a way that may be reaching unhealthy...i did this with her last album, too...listen to it multiple times a day for about a month then still listen to it whenever someone will tolerate it in the car...for a year...and still..."Haunted" in it's acoustic version is a favorite...and i can't wait for the video for "speak now"....such lyrics.... the whole album is fantastic- you should get.this.now.

that is all for now- later i shall share with everyone the adventures of cooking at dad's with jbrown...its good.

*thanks youtube.com for letting me link to you to share your wonderful videos of tswizzle with all 5 of my readers :)

Green Georgia Collards

so....ooopss...i made a wonderful dinner Sunday night for my dad and his fiance *weird calling her that* - i started taking pictures of what i was making- but low and behold...as it often does- the beer was a'flowin' and i forgot to take some pictures- so here is what i did, lots of captions- not as many pictures

So we have collards, diamond squash, and rib-eyes *not seen here*
1. stem collards by gently pulling the stem from the leaves and swirling them in a tub of water to remove grit
2. dice bacon into small-ish pieces, because you want to render the fat, place in the pot you want to cook in- over medium heat- make sure you are moving them around often
3. slice onion into crescents- or desired shape *one onion per bunch of collards
4. dice up your can of tomatoes- or open your can of diced tomatoes
5. add oil to the bacon, then add the onions---SALT, add SALT here....stir the onions till coated nicely with the fat and allow them to become translucent- 5 minutes?-ish
6. add tomatoes- SALT/PEPPER- stir well
7. add collards- cover with water *ADD SALT**
*cook at a simmer until tender--about 1.5 hours or 2...
the bacon fat will flavor the collard cooking water- which will soon become pot liquor
be sure to taste the pot liquor throughout the cooking process- do not hesitate to add salt

next is our diamond squash- which i have never heard of, but seems to be just baby acorn squash
this is a very similar cooking method to the spaghetti squash
1. preheat oven to 350*
2. split squash in half + remove seeds
3. salt liberally and pepper, add 1 pat of butter to the cavern in the squash
4. place on foiled baking sheet
5. bake until tender *about 1 hour
to serve you will put the whole half of the squash on the plate and allow each person to pull
the squash flesh into the center of the squash as they want

and the rib-eyes...nom nom nom
1. preheat the grill for about 15 minutes before you are ready to cook *30 minutes before the meal
2. pull out your steaks and heavily salt and pepper, and rub with olive oil-
you want these to be at room temperature- it will allow the meat to cook more evenly, as
there will be no cold spots
3. place on a hot hot hot grill- after 4 minutes rotate the steak 90*- this results in
the super cool "x" marks on your steak
4. flip the steaks after another 3 or 4 minutes- let the steaks cook on the second side for another
6 minutes or so- this will result in an approximate medium-rare/rare
5. rest the steaks for 5 minutes before cutting into them- this allows the juices to redistribute
evenly throughout the piece of heaven... 

collards are pretty close to done...taste to be sure your greens are tender enough

dinner.


*can anyone tell me how to to make my pictures less yellow?...

white and black

ok, so i'm unconditionally, absolutely, head-over-heels, in love with my dog. i'm looking forward to children, because if i can love a person more than i dog it will be wonderful. i love this dog so much, she gets away with pretty much everything and anything she wants. she is a HUGE cuddler- thus when we are not playing- we are cuddling. i have approximately a million pictures of her- because she is always doing something cuter than the last time. however, last night she maxed out- i got home a bit late/early *depending on how you look at clocks* and when i opened my bedroom door to grab my pajamas- she leapt onto the bed and was asleep when i got back---usually its my side of the bed, but she was so cozy looking she won. she didn't move all night- except to nuzzle her sweet nose into my neck- and snore...alas, it was wonderful :)

*** be aware, this is the first- of i'm sure, many many dog posts

mulit-colored

this post is for my sister- who has asked for a step-by-step food cooking post: what i did in pictures and caption...

set oven to 350*

split spaghetti squash in half and remove seeds with a strong spoon: warning!! you will bend spoons with this

we then take our sweet potato- peel it, then cut it into the sizes you desire- tonight i went with the "fry" shape

next line your sheet pan with foil (because who wants to scrub that??!!)
heavily salt and pepper the inside of your squash + 2 tsp (ish) of butter or oil and
some small dice onion- i think i used about 2 tbs in each

nommmm nommmm nommmm

my sweet potato fries- on the foiled sheet tray i tossed it in olive oil
(not extra virgin, if you can help it- too fruity- use a neutral oil- canola, veg, or regular olive)
and salt and pepper

you want to put these in the oven for 30 minutes- i added them at the same time i put
the squash- just pull them out earlier- i broiled them until they were crispier as i finished pulling the flesh from the squash skin

left over onion for the spinach

note: i used about half a stick of butter for this whole meal- i consumed half of this tonight-
thus i only actually consumed 2tbs of butter- and butter makes everything better

butter in the pan for for spinach

add onion + salt (initially)- you want to sweat it to soften, not brown

frozen spinach = amazing! *and cheaper*

the sweating onions...

once the onions are soft *5 minutes or so* add the spinach and about 2 tbsp of water *it will evaporate*

roasting squash...nom nom nom...for 1 hour or until it pulls away from the skin easily

flesh pulling away from the skin...nommers

dinner- i ended up adding maple syrup to the potato...

well JB- i hope you enjoyed reading about my dinner- i hope you do this sometime :)