hubby's 29th!

I had some of his favorite dishes planned for dinner. But, he had other ones in mind. He got word today that he's going to Germany in a little more than a week for a twenty-four day business trip. So, he was rushing to get paperwork done, thus, making for a long work day. In addition, he had already made plans to hold his fantasy football draft with a bunch of his buddies at their local hangout, since I really had not planned to be home.

So I spent the day making this easy chocolate trifle using the homemade brownies in the previous post, chocolate mousse I made with heavy whipping cream and a box of instant pudding, actual instant pudding, and some whipped cream. I garnished with some chocolate cigars. It didn't really look pretty (quite ugly actually) since I kind of made a miniature trifle, but he seemed really pleased with the little taste he was able to have between a change of clothes and looking for his draft kit. I told him I would sing for him when he gets home, which, really isn't a treat.

I made some sticky roast chicken and the sweet italian sausage stuffing pictured below. The recipe can be found here, I'm not sure if I've blogged about this recipe before, but, I will always volunteer to make stuffing at Thanksgiving because of this recipe. It is truly wonderful and decadent; sure to make you poke a notch on your belt. It also makes a ton if you don't stuff your bird, so great for leftovers. Happy Birthday Bub!

been away for awhile...

...from blogging, from life. My work schedule + my road to hypothyroidism = no energy. I would never wish ablation therapy on anyone. The day I get off of a night shift, I sleep, wake up and eat, sleep. I've got a stretch of days off lined up so I've got some energy. I've been keeping the house clean, I've even been cooking, I just haven't had the will to write about it.

Since memorial day weekend, our grocery store has been in the dumps. I was aching to make hot milk cake with strawberries but gone are the wonderful, quadruple size containers full of strawberries. In the last two containers I picked up, every single strawberry was good. This recession/depression/whatever we're going through has seemingly depleted our produce supply at the store. I'm going to try tomorrow, I think Tuesdays are shipment days at our store.

I'd like to share the secret of the best rib eye ever. Alton Brown and his recipe, right here. I will never ever enjoy a steak on the grill as much as I enjoy this. Tonight we had it with pan sauteed spinach and buttermilk mashed potatoes. Using the same pan I cooked the steaks in, no cleaning involved, I added just a wee bit olive oil, browned some garlic, then a whole bunch of organic baby spinach. A whole bunch. I tossed with salt and pepper to finish. Very simple. Very yummy. I didn't have room for the mashed potatoes, and I usually eat those first. Below, a shot of my husband's plate. He refuses to use our white plates because they aren't round.

green with a side of bacon

Organic is always an easy choice for us to make, being green though, is a hard one. It's Earth Week! I indulged in Oprah's special featuring Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock while drinking an avocado milkshake. I have to improve on the recipe (basically ice, milk, and condensed milk) and add some tapioca balls but here is my wonderful o-avocado. The actual milkshake picture didn't turn out. Anyway, Sandra Bullock is my new HERO! I'm definitely going to give her restaurant in Austin a try, later on this fall. I'm glad I caught it and after seeing my new hero talk about biodegradable plates, spoons, forks, and cups, I invested $131.28 at this website. I am excited to get all of my bagasse products, I immediately felt guilty but, you don't understand, my husband (half of the blame falls on me also) goes through so many paper products bringing his lunch to work. To make myself feel better, these products are probably going to last us a year, $0.36 a day! A few months ago, I gave him a manly looking reusable lunch bag and it has cut down 9/10ths of the plastic bags we have been having to take home from grocery stores. When I usually pack it, I put his lunch in glass containers but, if he gets away with packing it it's tons of foil, paper plates, and resealable plastic bags. I am guilty of the paper product use as well, I probably go through 1 roll of paper towels every 2 days from all of my handwashing (it's the germophobe in me). In honor of Earth Day, I vowed to try to use less of them, and came home with some rags. I've been successful in the last 2 days and will keep my fingers crossed for the next 3 weeks (they say it takes that long to make it a habit). On my wishlist is a pretty cool composting bin, but the hubby isn't really digging the idea yet. Just between us, I'm going to tell him to bring home his bagasse products home from his lunch (the lie is so we can reuse them) but, I'm secretly going to compost them. Thank goodness he doesn't read this blog. He's an accept things by experience kind of guy, take the organic milk, for example.

Green is my favorite color, ever. I love green electronics, purses, and vegetables. That's right, vegetables. So, this is what I do when I'm in a pinch and need a side dish. I have to admit, I really never measure when I do this, so I apologize if you need to add a little here and a little there. I just made them though paying attention to my measurements and I served them with Panko Crusted Butterflied Pork Tenderloin (something I made after seeing it on Food Network, it's a definite keeper and will share with you next week) so I hope everything turns out okay. I imagine the sky's the limit when it comes to choosing a vegetable but peas and green beans are my favorite (soybeans, if you've got the patience and time to steam and peel, I'm guessing would be good). We usually do peas to side macaroni and cheese.

Slightly Smothered Green Veggies

Ingredients
· 3 slices center cut bacon, cut into 1 inch squares
· 1/4 medium sweet onion or 3-4 shallots, sliced
· I-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
· 1 lb french style green beans, ends trimmed or 16 oz frozen peas, defrosted in refrigerator
· ¼ -½ cup or so of water
· Salt & pepper to taste

1. In a large skillet on medium high heat, fry up bacon until crispy, drain on paper towels. Drain most of drippings if desired (I usually don’t).
2. Add onions to skillet and saute until almost carmelized, add garlic at this point, if you choose.
3. Add vegetables and 1/4 cup water, let water evaporate, approximately 5 minutes. If the beans aren't tender, add more water and repeat.
4. Return bacon to pan, season with salt and pepper. Toss and serve.

i have been missing dinnertime for two nights now...

When I work nights, I sometimes go sleepless on my first day off to do my grocery shopping or to watch the Today show (with the occasional mimosa or two or four). This week has been extremely rough because I got off of Monday ran errands and fell asleep at one o'clock in the afternoon and woke up at 9 o'clock at night. My body has adapted to this schedule for the last few days now waking up only to see my husband soundly in bed. I'm working this whole weekend so to cover part of his meals while I'm at work and to make up for not being able to spend time with him, I made his favorite: meat & potatoes. This version happens to be Thyme Crusted Bottom Roast & Roasted Potatoes with Greens. I have to apologize for these pictures, I need to work later on tonight so I didn't have time to wait for daylight in order to take these pictures. The nasty fluorescent lights in my home made for yucky photographs. The bottom roast was on sale so I picked it up.

The night before, I coated the roast in some olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, some minced garlic, and a hefty sprinkling of thyme (hubby's second favorite herb to cayenne). We have roasts probably once a month and this is my usual method of marinating. When it came time to cook, I set it in the oven at 325 degrees F, stuck the handy dandy meat thermometer that plugs into my oven and set the internal temperature to beep at 160 degrees F. While it was cooking, the drippings made a wonderful au jus and my husband was surprised at how tender it was.

I decided to make these potatoes to use the left over baby spinach in the fridge. I generally followed the recipe except I used olive oil instead of butter, and, I used Italian seasoning except for rosemary (though I've used fresh rosemary on these before). I usually don't have sea salt on hand and find that kosher works just fine. In the end, I tossed the potatoes with a grating of Parmesan cheese. We make these potatoes so much that I don't really even need to look at the recipe anymore. They are really good with company and an awesome alternative to mashed potatoes. They are especially good with garlic prime rib. Fresh spinach always wilts down to nothing so use plenty of it! I'm sure you could use any potato here and now that I think about it, I might try it with Yukon gold or fingerling potatoes next time. Here's another shot of the potatoes amongst my dinner mess.