Just Another Update

So...no interviews yet. Most other people have gotten at least one. I haven't. It's kind of scary but also a little early still to be worrying...but it's hard not to. It's hard to see everybody all excited for their interviews, because I really want to be excited for them, but also I just want to get one. :(

So there's that. I promise I'll update as soon as I hear anything positive. That just hasn't happened yet.

In other, better, news, we are having Thanksgiving with Camden and Matthew again this year and I am SO excited. Camden and I have it all planned out. Dan gets in at 10:45 Thanksgiving morning, so we will be driving over there right from the airport and beginning the feast.  We're trying some new recipes this year, mainly Cooking Light, so if any of them work out I'll post them here. I will give you a sneak peek at one because I made it this morning and it was amazing:

Cooking Light Chocolate Fudge Pie

And because it's Cooking Light, that means it has no calories. :)

Okay. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! To those of you in Ohio, I miss you and wish that we could be there. To everyone else...Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Pasta

What have you been cooking and eating lately? It's been a while since I shared with you what I've been making so I thought it might be fun to share my latest adventure...

First of all, I took a pasta making class a couple weeks ago at a place in Waco called Gourmet Gallery. It's a cute little kitchen store and they also hold lots of classes where they teach you how to make things such as pasta, tamales, bread, Mediterranean food, Easter desserts...I mean it's quite the range of classes. It's amazing. The only negative thing is that it costs money to take these classes. (Shocking, I know!) And often more money than I have.

However, this class only cost $35 so Camden and I decided to take it together! We learned how to make homemade spaghetti with marinara sauce and butternut squash ravioli with brown butter sage sauce. Amazing. So we decided to try it at home.

Here I am rolling out the dough:

Here are our noodles waiting to be cooked:

And here they are after they were cooked!

Those noodles are definitely much thicker than any of the ones we made at our class, but we were working without the help of a pasta roller. They still tasted great.

Here's the recipe we used for the dough. This recipe is from our class we took and courtesy of chef Juanita Barrientos, who taught the class:

2 cups flour (we did half whole wheat and half all-purpose)

1 t. kosher salt

4 large eggs

1 T extra virgin olive oil

Cornmeal, for dusting

On a flat, clean surface make a mound of flour. Add salt and make a well in the center. Crack all the eggs inside the well, add olive oil, and scramble them with a fork until combined, gathering some flour from the walls in the process. When dough is dry enough to handle, begin to knead dough until elastic in texture. This process should take at least ten minutes - even longer with whole wheat dough! You will notice a huge change in the way the dough feels after it has been kneaded long enough. It will be so soft compared to when you started.

Next, divide the dough in half, rub each half with olive oil, wrap them with plastic, and let them rest before it's rolled out. Or don't, whatever. Then roll out the dough by hand until it's 1/8 an inch thick, if you do it the way we did. Or do it the way the chef recommended, and the way we did it in class, and use this amazing pasta roller Kitchen Aid attachment that I really really really want...(Hint hint, to those of you who sometimes buy me really expensive presents...) But anyway.

It's so good! It tasted delicious! And you can buy spaghetti sauce if you want, or you can make it! Camden and I made our own vodka cream sauce from a cookbook I have to go with it, and it was delicious. If you go to the cookbook on Amazon and click "search inside this book" and then search for vodka cream sauce, you can get that recipe too. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but oh well.

So that's my latest cooking accomplishment! We haven't been brave enough to try the ravioli yet, but I will eventually. And hopefully I'll even branch out further. Seriously, this stuff was good. And extremely cheap to make. That's a winner in our house every time!

Have you had any cooking adventures lately?

I Cooked a Chicken!

You guys! I did it! I cooked a chicken! Not just a chicken breast or thighs...but a whole darn chicken! It was so freaking cool.

The best part was, it was really easy. I followed the directions from this blog to do it in the crockpot. And I didn't even know where to buy a whole chicken at the grocery store, but it was right with the divided up chicken that I normally buy...so that was easy. And it was way cheaper to buy it this way so I bought organic chicken, so that was nice too. The whole prepping part took me about oh...five minutes. I just put it in the crockpot and it was all ready at dinner time! I thought I would have to carve it like a turkey or something, but I didn't - the meat just came right off the bone using tongs. We just ate it with some roasted veggies and it was delicious, although next time I might try some sort of sauce. And there was a TON left over, so we froze some of it to use in the future and I'm going to make soup from some of it too.

So the point is, you should do it!

Will you pretty please vote for me?

My recipe is up! And I am up against some people with much better salesmanship and photography skills than I have...so I need you guys to help me out!

http://www.iledefrancecheese.com/blog/?p=504

Go there, and scroll down to "Kristi's Brie and Cherry Kolaches" and rate my recipe! You can give it anywhere from 1 to 5 stars and then the recipe with the highest rating wins. I'm not expecting to win first place but it does go all the way to fourth place, so I'd love it if you would help me have a shot!

Brie and Cherry Kolaches

Before I moved to Texas, I didn't know anything about Czechoslovakian culture. Luckily, it just so happens that West, Texas, which is about 20 minutes north of Waco, is full of people with Czech heritage. People even speak Czech there frequently, and they have a big Czech celebration every year called Westfest where people dance polka and drink "pivo" (beer).

Beyond Westfest, West is most known for their famous pastries called kolaches. These are delicious treats that all use the same yeast, sweet bread, and the fillings range from fruit, to cream cheese, to sausage! You can get sweet or savory, but either way, they are still called kolaches. Anyone who is from Texas knows to stop by Czechstop as they are driving up I-35 and the line is usually out the door to get homemade kolaches.

This story has a point, I promise! I was given some Ile de France Brie cheese to enter their recipe contest. I was stumped about what to make with it that would be different than what everyone else is making, when I thought of it - Kolaches! Of course!

Hence, I looked around online until I found a satisfactory recipe for the dough, and then of course I adapted it to my own needs. But all credit goes to Homesick Texan for the base dough recipe. created some Brie and Cherry Kolaches. And they were delicious. I want you to try these right now and tell me you don't love them. Dan was nervous about the concept at first, but he gave them two strong thumbs up after trying them and has since eaten most of them. We also took them to Thanksgiving to snack on before the meal, and they were declared a success there as well.

I'm going to enter the Ile de France competition with these, so at some point I might be asking you to vote for me if you like this idea! I'm sure that there will be people with way cooler and fancier recipes, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Here I am, putting the jam on each of them.

This recipe isn't hard, but it does take time for all the different risings. I would recommend making these on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I would also recommend making them smaller than I did, particularly if you want them for appetizers. They rise more than you think they will in the oven!

Ingredients:

1 package (or 2.25 teaspoons) yeast

1 cup warm milk (I used 1%)

1/4 cup sugar

4 cups flour (or more)

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 round Brie Cheese (I used Ile de France)

1 jar cherry preserves

Combine the yeast, milk, sugar, and 1 cup flour in a small bowl. Cover and let this rise until it's about doubled, maybe 20-30 minutes. While it's rising, beat together the eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and salt. Combine this mixture with the yeast mixture and beat again.

If you have a stand mixer, now is the time to use it. Stir in 2-3 cups of flour, while stirring continuously if you have a mixer. If not, add it about 1/2 cup at a time and then stir. You want the dough to be soft and pliable, but not too sticky. You should be able to knead it a bit without it being super sticky all over your fingers. If it's too sticky, add more flour. I used quite a bit, but a lot of it depends on the weather and humidity where you're cooking. I think I used about 4.5 cups of flour total. But don't freak out if you need to use a lot less than that, or even more - it's okay! Then knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or let your mixer do the needing for you. Let it rise, covered, for about an hour.

Once it's about doubled in size, punch the dough down. Grease two cookie sheets and start pulling off little balls of dough! I would recommend making these about the size of a small cookie. Roll each piece around in your hands a little until it's round, and then smoosh it down so it's a little flattened. Set them on the cookie sheet. You can put them kind of close to each other - traditionally, the kolaches are close together and end up shaped into sort of squares because they bump up against each other. Also, don't forget they will rise even bigger.

Next, use a spoon (or your fingers, whatever) and make an an indentation in the middle of each dough. You want to make this as wide as possible to fit in maximum possible toppings. Make it as deep as you can, but obviously not too deep, because you still need enough dough underneath to hold everything together.

Next, put in the Brie! Cut off a slice of cheese and press it into the indented part of the dough. Don't stress about how big or small it is...it really doesn't matter. All I can tell you is the more cheese, the better it tastes. I tried to fit about a 1/4 inch thick piece in each kolache, and just tore them to be the correct length. Next, top it off with the cherry preserves! Add about a tablespoon of this to each kolache. Of course, you can try other flavors of preserves or jams...we tried grape, but everyone voted that cherry was way better. I think fig would be delicious too.

You're almost done! Bake the kolaches in an oven at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes, maybe a little longer, until they look done and are a little browned on top. They might be a little messy, as you can see from the pictures below. That's okay. And you can also add more preserves once they've baked if too much slides off during baking. Just reheat for 15 seconds in the microwave and no one will be the wiser. Obviously, mine were super messy and you're also seeing the lack of photography skills I have. Oh well - I guess you'll have to try them yourself!

Snack Time

Thank you, everyone who commented when I asked for suggestions for my blog. I will definitely get to all those at least once and maybe more often. (Although unfortunately, I can't promise that Dan will respond to the requests for him to write - he claims to be "too busy" while only taking 18 hours of MBA classes a week - hmmm....) I decided I would start by posting some new recipes I've made lately! I wasn't planning on blogging about any of these, so I don't have any pictures, but the next time I make something fun I'll be sure to capture the process.

Now that I'm working at the Counseling Center, I have to bring some sort of breakfast item to work once or twice a month. I've also gotten better about bringing a couple snacks from home, since when I get really busy, I tend to get really hungry as well and need something quick to snack on in between sessions. So, I've been doing more baking recently.

My requirements tend to be something that tastes good (i.e. has some sweetness to it), is fairly healthy, fairly cheap or easy ingredients, and will hopefully be enjoyed by people other than myself. The following recipes have all met those requirements!

Smitten Kitchen's Granola Bars

She posted these yesterday. I made them today. I am trying to refrain from eating them all so that I can bring them to work tomorrow. This may or may not work. They are GOOD. Crumbly, but oh so GOOD.

Ricki's Mrs. K Date Cake

I actually made this out of my Sweet Freedom Cookbook, but luckily for you, Ricki posted the recipe on her blog as well. This was a perfect afternoon snack (and morning, and evening, and...). It's not super sweet, like I thought it might be. In fact, I'm not sure the word "cake" is exactly appropriate in the title. It was more like a muffin-y sweetness and texture. One of those really good muffins that's healthy as well. But since it's made in a cake pan and then cut in to squares... Actually, you could probably just bake it in a muffin pan and then the whole dilemma would be gone. Okay - I'll move on.

Mark Bittman's Coconut Macaroons

These were in my How to Cook Everything cookbook, but I just found them on Mark Bittman's blog. Hm.m, I'm starting to wonder if there's even a point to buying cookbooks anymore. Regardless, these are light little egg white and coconut treats that taste sort of like angel food cake bites. The best part of these was that Dan couldn't keep his hands off of them! You know a baked good is a success if that happens. If you aren't a huge fan of coconut, though, I would skip these, or maybe try almond macaroons instead. (I think those are more common, but I haven't made them, so I'm not going to link to a specific recipe.)

I'd love to hear your suggestions for good breakfast/snack/potluck/etc dishes. I've been looking for a good fruit salad one, but I haven't found what I'm looking for yet. I'm also always looking for just anything a little different than what everyone else is bringing.

Caldo Verde

So our CSA experiment is going...okay.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. We get tons of fresh, organic veggies every week and I love finding new recipes to use them in.

However, my husband...is a different story. He will try everything I make, but after about ten different sauteed types of greens in as many days, he got a little sick of them.

I've been promising him that the greens are only because that's what's grown this time of year, and soon we're going to get more tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and other spring and summer produce than we'll know what to do with!

In the meantime, thought, we've found a compromise. I've been using all our greens to make soups. And we found a soup we like that uses tons of greens, and it's sooo good! We both really, really like it.

It's in a cookbook called Recipes for America's Small Farms, which my mom got me for Christmas. Although the recipe may not look like much, it's so good. This is definitely a very simple soup that tastes much better than the sum of its parts.

Caldo Verde
(Because Dan's a Spanish teacher, we can translate this for you - it means "GREEN SOUP" in English! You're welcome!)

Ingredients:
1 onion, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
4 Tablespoons olive oil
6 large Maine or Eastern potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (note from Kristi - I have no idea what these are, I just use regular Texas potatoes and they work perfectly)
6 ounces chorizo, pepperoni, or other dry garlicky sausage, sliced thin (note - don't skip this, although I have to admit my definition of "dry garlicky" has varied wildly depending on what's in my fridge at the time...)
2.5 teaspoons salt, or so
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound collard, kale, or turnip greens (or swiss chard, or spinach..) trimmed of coarse stems and veins, rolled crosswise and sliced filament thin
2 quarts water (I think it tastes better if you use chicken broth for at least some of this)
*Also, I usually add some cumin, and the recipe says that it will taste good with any of your favorite herbs and spices!

Directions:
Saute the onion and garlic in 3 T of the oil for 2 or 3 minutes over moderate heat until they begin to color and turn glassy. Add potatoes and saute, stirring constantly, 2 or 3 minutes, until they begin to color also. Add the water/chicken broth, cover, and boil gently over moderate heat 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are mushy. Meanwhile, fry the sausage in another saucepan over low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until most of the fat has cooked out; drain well and reserve.

When the potatoes are soft, remove the pan from the stove, and with a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the pan in the soup mixture. Add sausage, salt, and pepper, return to moderate heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the greens and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and taste the soup for salt and pepper. Serve accompanied with a crusty bread.

Enjoy!

More Recipes

Dan and I decided to join a CSA that just started up in Waco, called Waco City Farm. We get tons of produce that was grown locally and organically every single week! We are even splitting our subscription (is that the right word?) with a friend because the amount of veggies we get is way more than we could eat in a week. (That has the added bonus of bringing the cost down to under $10 a week, which is ridiculously cheap for what we get.)

If you've never heard of CSAs, I recommend you check them out. There's usually at least a few in every city, and there are so many benefits - organic food (usually), supporting your community, eating in-season, reducing your carbon foot print, etc etc etc...not to mention it usually tastes delicious!

We got our first basket last week and it included mostly greens, since it's January and all. We got kale, swiss chard, bok choi, mustard greens, spinach, and turnips...as well as a few more things that I can't think of right now.

All these new things forced me to frantically search through my cookbooks and online recipe sources to try and find meals that incorporated them. I was looking for things that would use mostly ingredients I already had, were somewhat easy to make, and hopefully both Dan and I would like. So far, I've found a couple, which I'll share below, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the mustard greens and turnips. Any suggestions?

Sweet Pepper Pasta Toss with Kale
This was our dinner one night, and then Dan's lunch and snack the next day. We both loved it, although I made a few changes. The dish is vegetarian as written, but I added in a pound of sweet Italian sausage to make it more meatatarian. I also drizzled quite a bit of olive oil over it at the end to give it some more flavor. Oh and finally, I used green peppers due to the fact that they were ONE FOURTH the price of red and orange peppers.

Tuna Salad with Swiss Chard
Obviously, Dan got nowhere near this one, but I liked it enough that I wanted to include it on here. I've been eating this for lunch the last few days and honestly I've been looking forward to lunchtime every morning because of it. As long as you like tuna, make this!

I also have two more recipes that in no way relate to my CSA, but are still yummy:

Indian Tandoori Chicken
Spicy. Healthy. Unique. And goes oh so well with my favorite Naan bread. We made this last week when we had friends over for dinner, and I kid you not that when I saw them recently, Faith said "I'm still dreaming about that Indian food you made last week!"

Classic Spanish Sangria
I'm posting this recipe because it was a special request from my friend Kelly. I usually make this in the summer, but after Kelly reminded me of it, I decided I want to make it soon. Maybe when I drink it, I'll remember our warm days in Spain, sitting outside in the plaza for hours, just watching everyone go by... This recipe is about the closest I could find to the sangria we drank in Salamanca. When I make it, I pretty much follow this except I also add club soda right before I serve it - maybe a cup or so. Some people use Sprite or 7Up, which would also work. I also add a lot more fruit - it's my favorite part! Oh and you might want to cut down on the rum a bit - traditional Spaniards like it rather potent.

Seriously, let me know if you have any other ideas for my CSA food! We have a new batch coming this Thursday so I need to get going!

Eat Your Veggies :)

Well, it's a new year and with that comes everyone's resolutions. But regardless of whether you've resolved to lose weight, work out more, or something more unique than those (gasp!), we've all been saturated with holiday baking for the past few weeks and are probably looking to scale back a little bit.

Therefore, I scoured the web and found some recipes that I am planning on making this month. These recipes had to involve fairly easy to find and inexpensive ingredients, taste good according to reviewers, and be healthy! None of them include much sugar or unhealthy fats. And best of all, they all will help you increase your veggie intake! Because I haven't made these yet, I can't actually vouch for them, but leave a comment if you try one and let me know your thoughts!

Smitten Kitchen: Potato and Artichoke Tortilla

Ever since we went to Spain, I've tried numerous times to recreate the quintessential Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Tortilla). In Spain, this dish is served for all meals, hot or cold, with or without toppings. The cookbook this recipe is from, The New Spanish Table, has a traditional recipe that I've tried and is very similar to what we tasted in Spain. However, this version throws tradition to the wind and makes the tortilla into something completely different (with artichokes! and roasted red peppers!), while retaining the Spanish flavor.

Kalyn's Kitchen: Roasted Carrots with Agave-Balsamic Glaze

This looks like a delicious winter side dish. If you've never used agave nectar, it can be found in a lot of grocery stores in the baking aisle, right by the sugar and honey. Whole Foods and HEB definitely have it, and as it becomes more popular, more and more grocery stores carry it. If you don't want to buy something new, just use honey - they're very similar.

Bitten: Luccan Farro Soup
I heart Mark Bittman, the author of this blog. His book How to Cook Everything has a prized place on top of my microwave - because I use it so often, it's silly to keep it on the bookshelf! (Okay, Dan puts it back about once a week when he gets fed up with my things strewn around, but I confess it makes it back to its spot usually the same day.) Anyway, this soup looks delish. I have absolutely no idea what farro is, but he offers easy substitutions like barley or brown rice if you can't find farro.

A Veggie Venture: One Skillet Cauliflower with Cheese
This was technically offered as a Thanksgiving side dish suggestion, but it certainly can be made anytime and looks like it would be a great side dish when it's cold outside and you're looking for something hearty.

Homesick Texan: Grandma's Chocolate Pie
You didn't think I would let this entry go without one completely unhealthy dessert, did you? Let's face it, the only thing that kept me from making this pie the day I saw it was the fact that I would probably eat the entire thing before Dan even got out a fork. I'm still dying to try it though, so next time I'm invited somewhere and asked to bring a dessert, this is what I'm making.

Let me know what you think!

Recipe Round-Up

It's been a while since I've shared with you what I'm cooking, so it's time for another post about it. And although the temperatures are still in the 70s or so here, it's finally starting to feel like fall so all these recipes have a somewhat-loose "fall" theme to them.

Apple Cider Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze
I made this last night for our Bible study. It was a huge success! Everyone really loved the taste of it, even those people who don't normally like cakes. I have to confess that I used a pound cake mix for this rather than baking it from scratch. I just substituted apple cider for the water the mix called for, and added in all the spices as well. It made it much easier and it still tasted great.

Barcelona Hot Chocolate
Confession: I love hot chocolate. I drink it at least a couple times a week, even during the summer. This recipe is one of my favorites. It's got a slight hint of orange in it that somehow just makes it extra-tasty.

Pumpkin Pie Cake
I helped a friend make this for her boyfriend's birthday party. He requested pumpkin pie, but she really wanted to make him a cake, and so she found this! It's absolutely delicious and most people at the party, including her boyfriend, decided they liked it better than actual pumpkin pie. (Note: I don't think we used the pecans that they recommend)

Shrimp Arrabbiata
So most of these recipes I'm giving you are desserts, you say? Well, here's one that's a main dish. It's a spicy twist on spaghetti that is really quick and easy as well. I heart Cooking Light!

Tilapia Parmesan
I don't know why I share so many seafood dishes, we rarely eat it...but when we do, this recipe is something we use all the time! Actually, I've used it with chicken too, and it's also delicious. Also, I realize these last two recipes aren't exactly fall themed, but oh well...they still get to be included.

Happy Halloween!

Entrepreneurs in Dominica

So most of you have probably met or heard me talk about my friend Andrea. About a year ago, she visited Dan and I out in Waco and we had our first trip to Rudy's BBQ together... this is a picture of us being really nervous about eating in a restaurant that has picnic tables and serves you a loaf of white bread with your meat!

Don't worry, we've since adjusted, and now Dan and I routinely take visitors to get a taste of Texas BBQ.

Well, I think the experience helped Andrea realize how important bread is to people, no matter where you live. Andrea moved to Dominica so her husband, Kyle, could go to medical school there. While they were there, she started up a bread baking business with another girl, Ashley. They were a big hit on the island. Although she and Kyle are back in the United States now, their fame lives on. Ashley's newspaper published a feature article about their business!

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20080903%2FLIFESTYLE%2F809030301

(Yes I know, I still can't figure out how to put links in that are just links and don't look like this. Hey Josh, wanna help me out??)

The article tells their story and also includes some of their recipes. Enjoy! I have more if you're interested, and they actually have a cookbook they made as well if you like them.

Recipe Round-Up

I've had several people ask me for certain recipes lately, so I figured I'd put them on here so anyone who wants to can enjoy them. I didn't want to post all four complete recipes, so I just have their links. Each of these is very delicious and healthy - and all have the Dan seal of approval. (Lots of the recipes I try don't get this!)

First off is one I've made about a million times in the last few weeks since I bought a bunch of zucchini at the farmer's market...and I'm still not sick of it. I love this - the combo of roasted summer squash and feta cheese is amazing.
Kalyn's Kitchen: Roasted Zucchini Recipe with Green Onions, Feta Cheese, and Basil
(note: I just realized this recipe actually does not have the Dan seal of approval. He has refused to try it based on an intense dislike of summer squash. Sorry for lying to you above)

I've tried a couple mashed cauliflower recipes that have not been successful, but this one went over really well. Probably all the cheese, but oh well - it's still packing in a lot of veggies and tasted just like cheesy mashed potatoes!
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/07/mashed-cauliflower-recipe-with-cheese.html

I like to make scrambled eggs and omelettes a lot, so it's nice to find a good biscuit recipe to go with them. This one is perfect - easy, healthy, and yummy. It's sort of a cross between a biscuit and a muffin, I think - it's not the perfect take-apart layers like store bought - but so good!
http://cookinpanda.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/lemony-herby-and-healthy-too/

Finally, this is my standard pizza crust recipe. When Dan and I first got married, we realized we needed to mesh our pizza preferences somehow. Dan was eating a frozen Red Baron supreme pizza for approximately 75% of his dinners! I was not about to do that, and he was not about to give up his pizza. So, we compromised and now I make homemade pizza about once a week. It's cheaper and healthier than frozen pizzas, and if you make the crust ahead of time it doesn't take any longer.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amazing-Whole-Wheat-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx

By the way, I've found most of these recipes on Foodblogsearch.com. It's a search engine where you just type in which ingredients you want, and all the posts with those words will come up.

Watermelon Sorbet

I couldn't resist a huge, decently cheap watermelon last week at the farmer's market. After we took fruit salad to a friend's house Friday night, ate tons of watermelon all day Saturday and Sunday, and still had about 3/4 of it left, reality set it. So what to do with all this watermelon? Well, make watermelon sorbet, of course!

I found the recipe online( http://www.bakingandbooks.com/2007/08/02/watermelon-strawberry-sorbet/) but ended up modifying it quite a bit based on what we had in the kitchen. (If you can't tell, it was sort of a spur of the moment decision to make this - possibly had something to do with procrastinating for a test the next day!) First, I put 5.5 cups of chopped up watermelon in the blender, along with some lemon and lime juice, and blended it.

Then I heated up some honey and water in the microwave, and stirred it until the honey was no longer gooey but instead it ran pretty thin. I blended that in with the watermelon. Then I poured the mixture into my amazing ice cream maker!

I let the ice cream maker run for about 25 minutes until it got to sorbet-like consistency. I put it into 2 bowls for Dan and I, and then the rest in a Tupperware container in the freezer. Here's Dan enjoying his sorbet:

And the verdict: Yummy!

We both really liked it. We had it again after dinner, but after it's in the freezer for a while we had to let it sit out for a while (say, 20 minutes or so) before it was soft enough to spoon and eat. I really want to try this same recipe again with other fruits, like strawberries, rasberries, or blueberries. It was so easy and delicious! So here's the recipe - I'll give you the original with my edits to the side, and you can decide how you want to do it:

Watermelon Sorbet (adapted from: http://www.bakingandbooks.com/)

Ingredients:
4 cups seeded and chopped watermelon
1.5 cups chopped strawberries with hulls removed (I didn't have these so I just used more watermelon instead)
3/4 cup sugar (I didn't have any sugar so I used honey instead. The honey brought a very distinct flavor to it, and I happen to really like honey, and plus it's healthier. But this may not be the best for those who don't like the taste that much. And by the way when you sub honey for sugar you really only need about half of it, thus here about 3/8 of a cup. However, to me that really didn't taste sweet enough and I knew it definitely wouldn't after it was frozen so I went ahead and used the full 3/4 cup of honey.)
1/4 cup water
Lemon zest (yeah, definitely did not have this, so I used about 1 t lemon juice instead)
1-2 T Lime

Instructions:In a saucepan over medium-high heat combine sugar and water. Stirring constantly with a whisk, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, without stirring, until the liquid becomes transparent, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large blender combine watermelon chunks, strawberries and lemon zest. Puree until combined. Add the sugar syrup and 1-2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, according to taste. (I used 2 tablespoons.) Puree, then taste. If the mixture is not sweet enough add 1 teaspoon of sugar then blend and taste again. Continue until you are happy with how sweet the mixture is, adding up to 3 teaspoons of sugar. If the mixture is too sweet, add extra lime juice, following the same procedure as with the additional sugar, up to 2 teaspoons.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl or Tupperware, cover, and chill for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in an ice-cream maker, churning according to the manufacturers instructions, up to 25 minutes. When the sorbet has finished churning, transfer to a freezer-safe container, smooth with the back of a spoon, and freeze for 3 to 4 hours, or until firm.

This sorbet will keep for about 4 days in the freezer. If it becomes hard let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes, then use the edge of an ice cream scoop to break it into chunks. Warm a metal spoon under hot water and use the back of the spoon to smooth the sorbet back into its original shape. Freeze for 10 minutes. The sorbet will have regained a soft, smooth texture.

Having a Kitchenaid Ice cream maker is pretty useful during Texas summers. It hit 104 degrees here yesterday - yikes! And thanks everyone for the Sam's Club comments. Based on them, I think we'll hold off, although I'm still not totally convinced - I might end up doing it just to see.

Eye Scars and S'More Pie

Well, it's been kind of a rough week for me in random ways. I scratched my cornea the weekend before last, and have been to the eye doctor twice and am still taking steroid drops six times a day. I went to the doctor again yesterday and he said it's healing, but there is a small scar on the middle of my cornea. He doesn't think it will affect my vision - but still, how weird to have a scar on my eye? I've been wearing my glasses for two weeks and will be in them another week, which is really not my favorite. :-) Then yesterday, my computer, which has been acting funny for a few weeks, decided to just completely give out and start flashing orange lights at me everywhere. I called Dell, fully confident that because my computer was under warranty, it would be fine. Well, apparently the problem is the battery, which actually is not under warranty anymore. Oh, cool. And right now my internet still isn't working and no one is quite sure why... (I'm on Dan's computer).

Luckily, though, at church on Sunday the entire sermon was about Phillipians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again - Rejoice!" The sermon was about that we should be joyful no matter what our circumstances because of who God is. So I was feeling sorry for myself yesterday and this morning, and I kept thinking about this verse. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how lucky I am that a small scratch to the cornea and a sore throat (yeah, I have that too) are the biggest physical problems I have...and thank the Lord I have a computer, and I can afford to buy a new battery if I need to. For some reason, I dreamed about the helicopter crash in Sandusky and woke up sad about that as well. I can't imagine what that felt like for all the other people there, and all the family members of those in the helicopter. I don't know, I guess I just sometimes get into these traps of feeling sorry for myself and forget to be grateful for everything I have.


So, on that note, we had a wonderful weekend where we got to hang out with friends quite a bit. On Saturday night, we went over to Matthew's house, and ate dinner and played Guesstures with Matthew, Camden, Sean, and Faith. Here are Dan and I fully involved in the game:





It was a hard fought battle but the guys ended up winning in the end. (Yes, Dan made me write that!)

The other highlight of the night was the S'more Pie I made. It was seriously such a fun and delicious dessert - perfect for summertime! I'm proud to say that both Sean and Matthew said it overtook their previous favorite dessert and has become the new title-holder.
Here's the link to the recipe and pictures from the website I got it from:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/06/smore-pie/#more-506

Okay, time for class....enough of this procrastination!

5 Months/ Last Day of School

Yesterday, we both woke up tired from chaperoning the school dance the night before. The school dance, by the way, consisted of three rooms of video game systems in addition to the dance floor. Dan and I both played Guitar Hero and rocked it... then we mostly hung out with the other teachers eating brownies and laughing at the kids' antics the rest of the night. It was fun, although we were there from 7-11:15 and were both exhausted by the time we got home.

Somehow, we managed to get up and drag ourselves to work. Dan actually got up on time, which may have had something to do with the fact it was his LAST DAY! I didn't get up on time whatsoever, and therefore did not shower, put on makeup, or let dear Sammie go to the bathroom before I went to work.

I got a phone call from Dan around 11:00. I was in a good mood, because I had just had an assessment with an 18 month old that went pretty well. Dan was in an even better mood, because he found out that he passed his Spanish oral exam! He had to pass this test at Advanced-Low level to get his real teacher certification (he only has a temporary one right now). I know what you're all thinking, that of course he was going to pass. But actually, this test is really hard and a lot of people "fail" it because they get Intermediate-high ranking. So he was really nervous and has been worrying about it since he took the test several weeks ago. So it was such a relief to find out he passed it and now can become a real certified teacher!

I stayed at the clinic until 1:00. But then it was time to come home and prepare to celebrate! I made a homemade key lime pie, which turned out awful so I'm not going to bother to share the recipe. (It tasted like a big hunk of cream cheese, basically). But it was fun to make and looked really pretty. Unfortunately I let it chill before I took the picture, so the wording ran into the icing:

It says "Congrats! School's out! 6 on Test! 5 Months!" The 6 on the test refers to the Spanish test, and the 5 months refers to...our five month anniversary, which was also yesterday! So we decided to open up a bottle of champagne that Matt and Leah got us for our wedding. That's in the picture too.




I also made dinner, "Herbed Salmon with Mixed Greens" from Cooking Light, which turned out delicious. After dinner, of course we watched Lost season finale online. All in all, a great night.