Guacamole

A couple of months ago I was hanging out with a friend of mine and decided we wanted a snack so she offered to make guacamole. Now, I am not a guacamole fan. I've tried the stuff a number of times and have never been all that impressed with the green gloop. However, this stuff she made was AMAZING!

Recipe:

One avocado - cut it like you see in the picture then scoop out the green stuff. Mash.

About a quarter of a cup each of chopped tomatoes and onions. (more or less to your taste preference).

The juice of 1 lime (I'm a big lime fan- if you're not you may just want to use half a lime)

1 tsp cilantro

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix.

Get a tortilla chip. Scoop. Eat. Yum!

It has a very...unique? Powerful? taste. I love it though. It also refrigerates well. (Though I have no idea for how long as it usually doesn't last more than two days around here.)

Gyro Burgers

As you may have noticed, I enjoy frequenting All Recipes to find new things to cook. The other day I stumbled across one of their columns called Single Servings. Basically the columnist picks out a number of recipes from the site, compiles the shopping list,and then gives you prep and cook instructions to give you a number of single-portion meals each month. I haven't actually gone through her entire recommended month of meals yet as I'm finding that I'm surprisingly picky about food. I like variety - but I like MY variety. It's great inspiration nonetheless. I forgot that all recipes lets you change the serving size of recipes (it scales the ingredients for you!) and that you can add the ingredients for any recipe you want to one compiled shopping list.

Anyway. Back to the point of this post. The August column included a recipe for Gyro style burgers that looked delicious - so I thought I'd try it out. Basically you take ground beef and lamb and mix in some spices and then grill the patty like a hamburger. My local grocery store didn't have any lamb and I didn't feel like hunting down specialty butcher so I just used all beef.

I grilled one patty on the George Foreman and froze the other three for a dinner at a later date. I sliced the burger into thin slices and put them inside of a wheat pita pocket. (Not all that impressed with the brand of pita pocket I got - I'll have to try another). I topped it off with some Tzatziki Sauce I had made earlier (using a cucumber from CSA. yay CSA!). If I had lettuce I would've added that - it was really good without it though.

I think the Indian Style Okra I posted about a few weeks ago would've made a great side dish to this. I'll have to try that combo next time. You have the cumin and the coriander in both things - but I think the taste is still different enough that it shares a common thread without being mono-flavor.

My New Favorite Sauce: Cocunut Curry

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts here. I was doing so well with my regular updates! Then I had to go back to work and suddenly the great domestic question of the evening is no longer "What will I cook for dinner?" but "Which is more important: sleep, food, or lesson plans?"

Tonight "food" was the answer to that question and I cooked up a new dish using a coconut curry sauce I spied in the ethnic food aisle at the grocery store. It was YUM!

Very simple.

Cook about 1 cup of bite-sized chicken pieces in a pan with some olive oil until cooked through. Throw in about 1 cup of vegetables cut into bite sized pieces. (I used what I had on hand from CSA: squash, onions, and green beans). I cooked that for a few minutes. Then I poured in about half the bottle of the sauce and brought the mixture to a boil stirring often. Sprinkled in some cilantro and served. I would've made some white rice to go with it had I any rice -but I didn't - and it was still good. The sauce is a bit on the spicy side - which I love!

The only thing that wasn't great about it was that my green beans were a bit too crunchy. I guess I should have done something to them first. I don't know what I should have done to them as I've always been a "green beans come in cans" girl up to this point. I only know to snap the ends off because I watched Olivia and Esther Walton do it so often growing up. (By the way, I LOVE snapping beans. It is quite fun. Really. You should try it.)

The best part is that It was enough for dinner tonight and leftovers to take for lunch tomorrow. So I won't have to eat cafeteria food for lunch!

Making Bread

The other day at an estate sale I picked up this very simple bread tray. Antique reproduction if you will. It is pewter colored and has an engraving on the base of some men in a wheat field and it says "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread." I don't know why I liked it - but I did. So, when one has a bread tray one should make bread!

(I do believe this is the first picture of me on this blog - hello everyone!)

Here's my preferred recipe for when I have a couple of hours to enjoy the kneading, punching, rising, kneading, baking, smelling, cooling process of making bread. It's great as a breakfast bread lightly toasted with some fruit or jelly on top.

I don't do the bread machine thing. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make brad - I want to really experience it! Besides, there is no where in this small apartment kitchen to store yet another kitchen appliance anyway.

Amish White Bread

2 cups warm water
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast (2 packets typically)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans. (make sure you wait for the full rise - not just 30 minutes! I got impatient and my bread was a little flat :( )
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

I just fell in love with a rug

Right now my living room is two colors. Brown and Blue (see picture). I've been wanting to add more color to the room but haven't yet seen anything that says "That's It!"

Until now.

I stumbled across these Kathy Ireland rugs on Apartment Therapy's website that deals with designs in kids rooms - but I think they're beautiful, not childish.

We have the Garden Girl Milk Chocolate rug and the Butterfly Fantasy Ocean rug. I think the butterfly one is beautiful - but probably too green. So, the Garden Girl one is going on my wish list. (Hey, Mom! Christmas present? *smile*)

It's a lot of color - but will be under the coffee table (might need to get rid of that table runner you see in the picture and get something else) and I think it'll give the room some variety. I could get throw pillows the colors of the fabrics. Right now the throw pillows are just the same material as the couch. (Fancy looking, but boring.) The Garden Girl also comes with a "sand" colored background rather than the "chocolate" - but I think that would blend in too much with my current carpet.

So, maybe they'll carry them long enough for me to save $200 to spend on a rug.