Clean-out-your-veggie-bin Enchilada Soup

That's what I did today. It's good a good thing to do once in a while, make a giant pot of soup from every scrap of vegetables in your fridge. Here's how it went. I kept it completely vegan til the end, when I added cheese. It was delicious and super flavorful before the cheese, so it's a great alternative to leave it all meat and dairy free.

A few onions, celery, garlic, green peppers, one poblano pepper, shredded carrots, one yellow squash, 2 tomatoes, one ear corn, half bunch cilantro, one avocado and a handful mushrooms is what I came up with from the veggy bin.
Everything was rough chopped and sauteed in olive oil. First celery, garlic and onion.
Then green pepper, poblano and carrots.

Then I added a generous amount of kosher salt, cumin, paprika, chili powder and two bay leaves.

Then the zucchini, corn, tomato and mushrooms.

All this cooked for about 20 minutes. Then I added one large can diced tomatoes, one cup homemade salsa, two cups tomato stock and some Mexican hot sauce.
This cooked for about an hour, until all the veggies were tender.

Then I blended it with an imersion blender, removed from the heat and stirred in one cup cubed cheddar cheese and half a cup cubed cream cheese.

I served it with fresh crispy tortilla strips, seasoned avocado & cilantro with lime and some cheddar cheese. I also diced up half a blackened chicken breast to put in Joseph's soup. It didn't need the chicken at all, I just knew he'd like it. It was rich, filling and flavorful with out it.

After lunch we took the dogs for a walk. It has been nasty and cold for the last few days, and even froze last night. We were happy to take advantage of the afternoon sunshine and warmer weather. Here is Marshall having a stand off with a deer in someone's front yard. In his doggy dreams he wishes he had gotten to catch just one of the thousands of deer he's seen in his life.

When Joseph Cooks

This week I had to work early in the morning on Sunday and Monday while Joseph was off. It was nice that I got to be home to have dinner together, but I was super tired and Joseph was in weekend relax & chill mode. Joseph was in charge of the grocery store this week, and therefore, what we had for dinner on Sunday and Monday. Check out what he cooked for us!

On Sunday afternoon we watched the Lakers kick the Spurs in the ass. Joseph cheered loudly and sent rude unsportsmanlike text messages to some local SA fans. He made shrimp cocktail and a little cheese. He drank Chimay and I drank Shiner Hefeweizen with a lemon. Yumm.

I could seriously get used to coming home from work to find him in the kitchen. For dinner that night he made some bacon, bleu cheese burgers. That's crispy bacon and bleu cheese crumbles mixed into the burger patty. He fired up the grill, even though it was kind of cold. Totally worth it, they came out completely delicious.



Monday evening I was even more lucky! I am off Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so Monday was like my Friday. Joseph had two bottles of wine for us to drink and made the most delicious fettucini alfredo with blackened chicken and shrimp I have ever had. Better than the last time I made alfredo. The wine was awesome. J Vineyard, in the Russian River Valley, makes some of our most favorite wines. The "champagne" has really special meaning to us, and we've enjoyed both the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay several times. I was excited to get to taste a 4th variety from J, the Pinot Gris. Fantastic!! My turn for the toast: "To taking that trip to wine country and visiting J Vineyard before I turn 30!"

He also made casesar salad boats for an appetizer and sizzler bread with the pasta! A-Ma-Zing!

Un-sewing

I read all kinds of other people's blogs about their sewing projects. My sister recently got a sewing machine and quickly picked up sewing. I grew up wearing home-sewn clothes and watching my mother sew at the kitchen table on Monday nights with Lynn. I could cross-stitch when I was six and I am naturally gifted in all things domestic. I assumed it wouldn't take much for me to pick up sewing.

I had started to notice more than few seams, socks and buttons that needed to be fixed around our house, and even the fitted sheet of an 800 thread count set with a torn corner. I asked Mama Lisa for a starter sewing kit this past Christmas. Joseph made fun of me for asking for something so lame. She sent me a darling little pink and brown sewing bag with all the basic essentials inside.

Tonight I wondered from my closet to the laundry room for 15 minutes before settling on an outfit which would require me to sew a button to a pair of cute khaki pants for tomorrow. Fine, I have The Office and Kath & Kim on dvr to watch so I'll sit on the couch and sew this button on while I watch.

Wrong. It took me 10 minutes to thread the needle. Then I realized that the thread was the color of the pants and not the button. Start over. Close enough colored thread, button semi-affixed to pants, would make due until I had some patience, or more time. How does it look? Like the wrong button! A black button on a pair of khaki pants with greyish buttons. As Chelsea Handler would say, "What!....a moron." I will find a different pair of pants for tomorrow.

Fiesta!

We made some really delicious tacos last night. Joseph declared the meal "the best taco spread possible", and I happen to agree. Taco shells and spicy ground beef to make tacos and all the toppings your Tex-Mex ass could ever desire... Spanish rice, refried beans, guacamole, kick-ass salsa, diced tomatoes, white onion, cilantro, lime, shredded lettuce, cheddar and sour cream. Too bad you only get to see it.


Now I'm about to toot my own girlfriend horn. I'm kind of amazing though, it deserves to be said on occasion. I feel a little sad for Joseph when he has to come home to a dark and quiet house on nights when I have to get to bed early. The idea of him having to try to make himself something to eat in our kitchen, which contains little to no junk food or pre-made anything, is even more sad. Unless there is soup or leftovers, he thinks anything else is too much work. It's all just vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads, sauces and stuff that has to be cooked... So before I went to bed tonight I put this together for him


Salsa, guacamole, homemade refried beans, sour cream, green onion, tomato, cilantro, black olives and I even shredded all that cheddar by hand! How great do I make his life?! :)

Oh yeah, I went to bed after posting this and remembered that anyone who had read about our oven predicament might think I was either cruel, leaving him nacho prep and having no way to heat them, or lying about the oven. The truth is, the broiler still works!

P.S. This entire taco feast cost less than the two 6-packs of Mexican beer.

outside the doors

I took a few more photos at work last week.





There is a certain high profile Texan with a lot (more) free time on his hands, headed back to central Texas as we speak. He is apparently expected to stop by for a round or two. Stay tuned.

Hanging the Flag

Our back fence flag post is usually reserved for OSU and USC flags on gameday. The American flag came with the pole when I bought it and has remained folded in the closet ever since. I've never been a flag hanger, or whatever. But after my mani-pedi (which was delightful, by the way. Even "Crystal", my spa lady is pregnant, due May 1. Man, I can't escape pregnancy anywhere)I found myself plopped on the couch watching the Inaguration. All of the sudden it occured to me that today would be an excellent day to hang up our American Flag.




Welcome President Obama, welcome.

Two Great Pasta Dishes

Last Tuesday we stopped by the local redneck meat market, with a ceiling that looks like this...

to pick up some chicken basil Parmesan sausage. We turned said sausage into this lovely meal. Grilled chicken sausage sliced, tossed with rigatoni, sauteed onions, red & green peppers, spicy marinara, fresh basil and mozzarella pearls. Umm, yes, very delicious. And with jarred marinara, very quick and easy.

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Pork Orloff ala Amy

Joseph requested beef stroganoff for dinner tonight, a good choice given our oven less predicament. We both had steaks last night so I chose to change it up a bit, but still give him what he wanted. Here's how it went down.

First, I thinly sliced a pork tenderloin. Then I browned it up in some bacon fat & butter (gross, right? no, so so good). I sprinkled a bit of flour over it and salt and pepper.
Then removed the pork, added a bit more butter and sauteed one white onion, 2 T minced garlic, one sliced green onion and one pint chopped mushrooms. After 10 minutes, deglazed with 1 ounce of Knob Creek whiskey and 1 cup white wine. Then I scraped all the pork goodness bits off the bottom and added 2 cups beef stock. Brought to a boil and simmered for about 20 minutes.
Once sauce was thickened, removed from heat, made a liaison to slowly add in one cup sour cream, 1 T dijon mustard and 1 chopped green onion. Served over egg noodles with sauteed squash, zucchini and carrots.... it was heavenly. I recommend it highly. Joseph does too. Although now that I'm looking at the pictures, it seems to resemble orphanage food.

And we're back!

Technical difficulties behind us, at least temporarily. Glad to be able to post about our awesome weekend! I got majorly lucky with my schedule at work... Sunday, Monday & Tuesday off!

Sunday we chose to celebrate our "anniversary" (year three down, onto year four) with a special date downtown. Dad & Robin sent us a gift card to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for Christmas, so that's where we went. Thanks, again, it was excellent! We headed to Austin in the afternoon. First we stopped at Joseph's favorite brewhouse, Live Oak Hefeweisen with a lemon for me, Gulden Draak and Duvel for him, a cheese platter (that didn't even try to compete with one I'd serve at our house) and the sickest (that's a very good thing) hot pretzel covered with melted swiss cheese and sliced bratwurst. After a few hours on a leather couch at the Flying Saucer and a disappointing Philly/AZ game we headed to dinner.


It was awesome. We shared a bottle of Paul Hobbs Russian River Chardonnay while we enjoyed a Crab-tini and Ruth's Chopped Salad. With our steaks, petite Filet for me and Cowboy Ribeye for him, we had another bottle from the Russian River, Belle Gloss Pinot Noir. We toasted twice, naturally, once to a good three years and once to actually taking the trip we've been planning to wine country, to finally see the Russian River Valley with our own eyes and tour the vineyards we love most. The service was impeccable, which makes a major difference to us. For dessert we had a molten chocolate cake. Mmm. I slept the whole way home, thanks to Joseph for always getting us home safely.

Today we are going to try to get some housework done and finish up rearranging our living room. Tonight I'm making pork Orloff (basically stroganoff) for dinner, a request from JHig. He even asked me to include the mushrooms, if I cut them really small. No problem, I'm so impressed with his expanding palate. When I met him he wouldn't even allow a mushroom in the kitchen and he hated onions. He's come a really long way! After dinner we've got lots of new dvr'd tv to watch!! What a peaceful day. Our life is pretty sweet, I love it.

Except for two things... first, you see that pretty scarf I'm wearing. I got it for Christmas and was super excited to wear it for the first time. I got a few compliments on it too. Anyone who wants it can have it, it gave me an itchy rash all over my chest and chin. You've got to be kidding me!
Second, as Kate mentioned, our oven is broken. The stovetop still works but the heating element inside the oven is shot. This sucks very much because the oven in our kitchen is not a standard oven and the kitchen was built around it. Yes, in order to replace the oven there has to be construction done to the counter and cabinets. With our landlords in Colorado, things like this tend to take a w h i l e.

Tomorrow I'm getting a mani/pedi and then meeting my friend Susan for lunch, a little bangs trim and some OBAMA celebration! That should make me feel better.

Technical Difficulties

Kate here. I'm posting to let you know that Amy is having some issues with her computer so I offered to help out and update the blog. It's still having some technical difficulties but hopefully Amy's computer will be up and running soon!

And, oh, her stove broke or something. Weird.

9pm is the new 3am

It took much less time and struggle than I expected to become adapted to earlier hours. These days, I'm surprised to find myself in bed with the lights out by 10pm almost every night! Sometimes earlier. And getting up is not a problem. After about a week, I was waking up just before my alarm. I continue to hop right up at 7:30am (occasionally 6:00 or 8:30) when the alarm goes off, which gives me 90 minutes to be at work. I go in at 9 or 10 most days and 7:30 rarely. I have been getting home between 6 and 7:30, or about 3 on early days.

The part I have not adapted to my new schedule is running. It's cold and dark when I'm getting ready in the morning, and I'm lying if I say I will even consider running when it's below 50 degrees. It's dark when I get home most nights and there are way too many animals to run up on and not enough street lights to go out at ithe dark. The pool closes at 6pm. I keep meaning to do my yoga video...... It needs to get lighter and warmer earlier in a hurry because my ass is getting fat.

Joseph has been more affected by my new schedule than either of us imagined. Turns out, Joseph has a hard time going back to sleep after I leave. He's been using his extra hours of the day to play more disc golf. Naturally.

I'm pretty sure this computer got hijacked by some virus or similar pain in the ass computer scenario, so if I suddenly become an absent blogger at some point, you know why. I'm tempted to use one of my thrilling weekly paychecks to go buy a new computer. All the other shit we need can wait, I'm tired of this POS laptop that we've never bothered to get wireless for. That's gotta change too. Hmmph.

It's almost 10 and I'm ready for bed. Peace.

Oh yeah...HOW MANY DAYS UNTIL OBAMA TAKES OVER? :)

Orchids?

I rescued 6 orchids from certain dumpster death yesterday. At AGC there is a constant flow of orchids purchased, enjoyed through one bloom, discarded and replaced. I could not imagine throwing away perfectly alive and healthy plants of any kind, and I was happy to take the orchids in. I do not know anything about orchids, except that they are rather fickle. I learned to water by soaking them in a few inches of room temperature water for 10 minutes. I did that.
Then I jammed them in this big pot and put them in the dining room, which has become quite full of plants because it gets really great direct sun all morning long. Beyond this, I know nothing about orchids. Hints and suggestions welcome. I guess I should do some orchid research online.

Not Much

There's a lot of Kleenex in the trash at our house these days. I've got Cedar Fever, the ultimate middle finger from the state of Texas, which plagues me with itchy, runny nose and 2,458 sneezes a day for three months at the beginning of each year. And poor Joseph woke up this morning with a sore throat, clogged everything and a swollen neck.

I got off work before 7 tonight and don't have to be in until noon tomorrow, so I was feeling like I needed to do something with my Friday night. The exciting plan I came up with for a wild Horseshoe Bay night: visiting Joseph (even feeling crummy, he's still so handsome) at Lorraine's
And making chicken noodle soup. I used a whole leftover smoked chicken (from Christmas), which cooked down in the broth for a while before I added the noodles. Mmmm, Mmmm good, I do believe that's what those Campbell's people said.

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This is the (nearly) full moon on the back deck at Austin Golf Club. I'm going to take more pictures of the club, but here's a few. It's pretty amazing out there. A small stone building on 5,000 acres

A grrrrrreat day at work

A seriously awesome sixth day at a new job! Here's what happened.

Since my arrival I had been noticing several aspects of the food & beverage department that needed to be adjusted or improved. I mentioned a few of them to my boss, she agreed, and then asked for the rest of my suggestions. The next day I presented her with each aspect that I thought needed improving and my suggestion for how to do so.

One of my suggestions required restructuring the entire kitchen and hiring another cook, another would include rearranging the f&b responsibilities amongst the staff in a totally different way. She agreed with each one and she promised to stand behind me about all of them to the staff. The only hurdle before presenting and implementing my changes was to present a summary to the GM and the board of directors for approval.

It took about 45 minutes for them to agree all the way around and approve of each and every one of my suggestions. We are ordering new uniforms, redefining staff job descriptions, training servers on proper table service and changing the employee meal program. The best part though... I got to bring in my friend David, the baker from 909, to be the NEW COOK! He came in and was hired today! It is so AWESOME that I have someone in the kitchen now who is on the same page (culinarily) as me as I'm making these changes at the club. SO KICKASS! Also, he's got a baby and a pregnant wife, and it makes me pretty frickin' happy to have helped him get a great job! And, if you wish to scan back to the days of Cafe 909, you will read that I absolutely adore working with David. And he's my bread tutor, so I can get more sourdough lessons!!!!

I called my dad on my way home to tell him about my day. He was happy/impressed/proud/supportive, you know, all that dad stuff. At the end of the conversation he said, "Make sure you let me know when Ben (Crenshaw) knows your name." I said, "Dad, I'm pretty sure he already does." He laughed and said , "Ben Crenshaw knows your name?" And that is when I knew he was really proud of me. :)

See, it was a great day at work.

Happy New Year!

Last night I watched Mama Mia in bed and was asleep before midnight. Joseph worked.

Today we celebrated the beginning of an excellent year! We declared another tradition, a feast of king crab legs on New Years Day. We had them last year on the first for a fantasy football championship party. We never discussed before hand that we wanted to eat crab legs today, be we saw them at Costco on Tuesday it was a done deal. A tradition it is. :)

For lunch we had a staple cheese platter with nuts and fruit, today grapes and blackberries. Joseph had a Chimay and I drank some sparkling Pinot Noir. Notice the new board and cheese knife? It's a gift from Chris & Mandy, which makes me grin because I served them a massive cheese display when they were here in July and they ate the whole thing and loved it so much!!



Now we're watching USC kick Penn State's ass in the Rose Bowl. Joseph says: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

After the game, USC won 38-24!, it was time for dinner. We had caesar salad with croutons made from leftover cloverleaf rolls and this delicious grilled Ribeye. We drank another bottle from Mama Lisa, a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from Rodney Strong Vineyards.