I am not Martha.
I love having people come over for dinner. As a matter of fact, I would invite people several times a week if it weren’t for A. this crazy thing I do all day called work, and B. having to actually figure out what to serve.
It’s not that I don’t like to cook because I do enjoy it (most of the time). The problem is that I don’t think a lot of what I cook is fit to serve others. I mean, it’s one thing for me to defrost a bunch of random vegetables from the freezer, scramble some eggs, top the whole thing with salsa, and call it a day. But serving that to someone else? Completely out of the question.
Over the years I have managed to pull together a few fail proof meals that I serve when we have guests.
- Lasagna and salad.
- Pasta and salad.
- ??
Okay so maybe I haven’t managed to pull together too many recipes, but I do make some pretty decent pasta dishes.
We had a few friends over for dinner tonight and I decided that I wanted to make something other than pasta for a change. I always find meat rather intimidating, and a bit gross if I’m being honest, but since my meat-only eating brother was lucky enough to be included in tonight’s guest list, I decided I needed to make a meal that involved red meat.
So I trekked down to Ralphs, bought the largest pot roast I could find, and pulled out my dusty slow cooker. I chopped up a few potatoes and carrots, added some water and seasonings, and the roast, and cooked it on low for 9 hours.
I bought this slow cooker on amazon.com for about $30 and it was worth every penny. I believe that the slow cooker might be the most under-utilized kitchen appliance! Seriously, this pot roast couldn’t have been any easier and with the rave reviews it received tonight one would have thought that I slaved in the kitchen all day long.
Since I don’t eat meat and I do get a bit tired of eating eggs three times a day, I decided to go all out tonight and make salmon as well. Once again, I headed to the grocery store and purchased one of the few non-farm raised pieces of fish I could find. I threw together a marinade as follows:
Salmon Marinade
2 Tablespoons of plain mustard
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 Tablespoon of apricot jam
2-3 Tablespoons of capers
1/2 a medium onion
Combine the first 4 ingredients and pour them over the salmon. I somehow managed to cut an onion without cutting my hand or crying my eyes out, and I sprinkled the onion slices and capers on top of the salmon. I cooked the whole thing at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
Here it is before:
And after:
This is my plate with an amazing Caesar salad that my friend brought. She makes the dressing herself and it is THE BEST. All I know is that it includes anchovies and tons of olive oil.
Since everything was falling into place so nicely, I decided I had time to come up with a dessert too. While I don’t usually excel when it comes to main dishes, I do much better in the dessert department. Normally I make something chocolate related because really, what else should dessert be comprised of? But today I decided to tackle bread pudding. Why? Because Ali loves it and I thought I’d stop being selfish for a change.
I based my recipe on this one but made a couple of changes, as follows:
Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding
10 Slices of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread
2 Tablespoons of melted butter
4 Eggs, beaten
2 Cups of milk (I used Vanilla Almond Breeze)
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. I had Maya do this and I had a blissful 5 minutes of peace and quiet. Drizzle the melted butter over the bread.
3. Combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla and stir until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down until the bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
I am pretty sure that I will never master the camera’s flash.
I served this warm and with vanilla ice cream. I couldn’t eat it (gluten allergy) but this too received many compliments and the house smelled amazing!
I think I was 3 for 3 today. Obviously I will never be Martha Stewart but I didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself.
Do you have any go to meals that you serve when you have visitors? Do you have a kitchen appliance you think is underrated?
Book Review – Pinkalicious (Guest Post)
Pinkalicious
by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann
Review by: Maya Din
My mom says I can’t have a brother or sister because she doesn’t have a minute to do a single thing for herself as it is. I think she is being dramatic. Other than cooking and cleaning, working, going to the gym, blogging, and cleaning some more, I’m not really sure what she does all day long? And truthfully? I think my mom just likes to complain. But please don’t tell her I said that.
A few days ago I heard my mom say that my dad and I don’t do anything except make a mess. I don’t think that is true. Well maybe its true a little bit. I mean sometimes I drop Cheerios all over the floor and step in them and trail them around the house but it’s not usually my fault. It’s my dad’s fault I think. And sometimes my dad leaves his plate in the sink a minute after my mom has cleaned up all the dishes, but that’s not his fault either. He just doesn’t know better.
We are always trying to help her around the house but she tells us not to bother because we usually make an even bigger mess. I don’t know what she means! Yesterday, I saw a huge basket of laundry sitting in the living room and I decided to put it in piles so my mom could put it away easily. I guess I didn’t notice that the clothes were already folded neatly according to color, size, and location. Oops. My mom got really mad and said “Great! Now I have to refold everything!” I felt bad. I think my dad did too because when Mom went into the kitchen to clean up the dinner dishes my dad quickly grabbed all the now-unfolded clothes and shoved them in random drawers thinking my mom wouldn’t notice. He isn’t so smart sometimes. He forgot she has eyes in the back of her head and she sees everything.
I knew my mom really wanted to review a book for the blog today but didn’t have enough time. I think she was busy searching drawers for the aforementioned unfolded and now creased clothes. My dad is really good at shoving things in random places and I knew it would take her a while to find everything, so I volunteered to do a guest post on one of my favorite books.
There were so many to choose from because I love books and I have a lot of them.
My bookshelf is pretty messy. My mom will probably make me alphabetize my books again after she sees this picture.
It took me a while to decide which book to review because I am indecisive. My mom says I got that from my dad. But after much debate with Fancy Nancy and Baby Doll I decided to go with Pinkalicious. Why? Because the book is pink and my favorite color in the world is pink. Of course.
So this story is about a girl named Pinkalicious. She and her mom made cupcakes one day when it was too rainy to go outside and Pinkalicious wouldn’t stop eating them! Usually my mom says I can have ONE cupcake and that’s it so I was pretty jealous of Pinkalicious! But then she ate so many that she turned pink and I wasn’t jealous anymore.
Her dad gave her a bath but the pink wouldn’t come off so her mom took her to see Dr. Wink. The doctor diagnosed Pinkalicious with “a very rare and acute case of Pinkititis.” That sounds pretty scary to me. Dr. Wink said that Pinkalicious needed to eat lots of green food to turn back to her normal color. But Pinkalicious wasn’t very good at listening because instead she ate more cupcakes. When her parents weren’t looking she even climbed up a bunch of chairs to reach the cupcakes on top of the fridge! My mom would get really mad if I did that!
The next day Pinkalicious woke up, looked in the mirror, and realized she’d turned red! But she didn’t want to be red so she decided to finally listen to Dr. Wink’s advice and ate tons of green brussels sprouts and relish and okra so that she’d turn into her normal self again. And luckily she did. But in the meantime her brother Peter was eating cupcakes like there was no tomorrow and he turned pink! Silly boys! They never learn, do they?
This is my favorite page in the whole book:
And my favorite part was when Pinkalicious’ mom said, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” The only thing is that since we read this story my mom says that to me all the time. I’m not sure if I like that.
The best part of this book is that it inspired my Pinkalicious birthday party last year. All my friends came to my grandma’s house and we played “pin the cupcake on Pinkalicious.”
We also had a yummy Pinkalicious cake.
I can’t wait for my next birthday. I think I want to have a Fancy Nancy party. Mom says, “we’ll see.” She says that about everything. I think it is code for “no.”
Well that’s it. I hope you enjoyed my guest post and my favorite book Pinkalicious. I’m going to go find my mom now. I’m sure she must need help with something!
A Granola Kind of Day
Thank you all for sharing your experiences regarding my post yesterday. While I’m not thrilled others have had to deal with similar situations, it is nice to know that others have had to deal with similar situations! Anyway, after blazing three miles on the treadmill this morning, I felt a ton better. My arthritic knee doesn’t agree but sometimes a run at 5:30 am is just what you need.
After the gym I was suddenly inspired to make granola. Ali has actually been asking me to make it for a while but since I wasn’t able to eat it (Fat Flush) I decided not to make it. I can be pretty selfish at times. I won’t share my bathroom, closet, or blanket with Ali. Or Maya. Or anyone else for that matter. Nor will I share my glass or spoon. I have issues sharing space and germs. I think we can all agree that I won’t be winning Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon.
Anyway, while I love the taste of store-bought granola I don’t love the following:
1. The price tag – why buy something you can make for a fraction of the price in 10 minutes?
2. The amount of fat – granola should not be filled with tons of oil and butter. Some commercial brands even use trans-fat which literally makes me nauseous.
3. The amount of refined sugar – I don’t like to eat anything super sweet and that especially includes something I eat at breakfast. Why start the day out on the wrong foot? I prefer to end the day on the wrong foot with my ridiculous chocolate habit.
After investigating many different recipe sites for a healthier granola I came up with my own version using the following ingredients:
Looking at this picture one might note that I have a slight addiction to Trader Joe’s. And I do. I love almost all their stuff except their oatmeal. Sorry TJ’s but your oatmeal is a just an inferior quality compared to Ralphs brand. Plus, it is expensive and your tiny canister lasts about 5 minutes in my house. But that’s okay, we’ll continue to visit your store for everything else, especially Maya’s free stickers and free snacks.
Easy Stovetop Granola
2 cups of rolled oats
1/3 cup of slivered almonds
1/3 cup of dried cranberries (I used a mixture of cranberries and raisins)
1 Tablespoon of maple syrup
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 Tablespoon of vanilla
Cinnamon
1. Toast the oats in a large nonstick pan for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the toasted oats into another container and set aside.
2. Using the same (now empty) pan combine the maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla for 2-3 minutes over low heat.
3. Add the almonds stirring constantly.
4. Add half of the toasted oats and stir until clumps form. Add the rest of the toasted oats and stir until everything is combined.
5. Chop the cranberries/raisins into smaller pieces and add to the rest of the mixture.
6. Sprinkle with cinnamon and store in an airtight container after the granola cools completely.
Ali felt pretty daring this morning and ventured away from his usual bowl of morning oatmeal to join me in eating some granola topped with Oikos plain 0% yogurt. Separate spoons were involved, of course.
Thank you Oikos for sending us coupons to try your yogurt. I love greek yogurt and yours is just as good as my favorite Trader Joe’s version except that it’s better because it is organic and I am all about purchasing organic when possible. That being said both Ali and I agreed (and that never happens) that the yogurt is much better on its own because it makes the granola soggy.
I offered some to Maya and she said, “that granola doesn’t smell very good.” I guess some of us find the delicious smells of cinnamon and vanilla offensive. So Maya went with a tried and true bowl of Cinnamon Puffins mixed with Joe O’s.
As you can see her distaste included visual effects. She should have been sent to her room for being so rude but I have to admit the Puffins are a pretty tasty second to my granola. So I forgave her.
Maya would like to thank you Puffins, for saving her from almost certain incarceration this morning. Her mom thanks you too.
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 
