STT; Merry Christmas – Sunday Afternoon

by Emily

I hope everyone had happy holidays! Adam and I have been feeling extremely blessed. I’m also feeling busy, I hate how brief I have to make these recaps!

Ok, back to Friday afternoon. Since we had already paid the daily admission fee, Adam and I headed back to Magen’s beach. He swam, I read a magazine, and we both clapped in delight over these signs –

On the way back, we had to hit up an island institution.

Going to St. Thomas without making a stop at the dairy is practically criminal! Adam and I split a Bailey’s Delight, made with rum raisin ice cream, egg nog, and brandy.

Then it was time for the final prep for our big Christmas Eve party. A family friend who knows we usually just have to scrounge on the 24th brought over turkey chilli with kidney beans for dinner.

The rest of the evening’s eats were indeed party food. I have no pictures from the actual party, but you can assume I ate at least one of everything, and that it was all delicious!

My hot pepper peach cheese ball.

Baked spinach and artichoke dip.

Baked brie topped with cranberries and walnuts.

Dippers.

Pinwheels.

Fixings for mini turkey sandwiches.

Mini bagels with cream cheese and lox.

Frosted shortbread.

Snowballs, macaroons, and 7-layer bars.

We were also fully stocked with booze. I spent most of my evening carrying around a tray of tequilla shots – it’s a Christmas tradition! And while I did manage to skip that particular tradition, I got so wasted on orange juice with Goldshlager (don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it!) that Adam had to pour me into bed.

Christmas morning began the best possible way – with a light workout! Adam and I ran for about a mile near the beach, then hiked the mile home. It was a short workout, but considering that we had double hangovers and presents to open, I’m pretty proud of us.

A small glass of egg nog was consumed during stockings,

and then a lovely breakfast before presents.

Sidenote – our family does stockings, breakfast, then presents. Always. What was your Christmas morning tradition?

Gingerbread coffee with 2% milk,

a small plate of eggs with red and green pepper and Applegate Farms turkey bacon,

and a 0% Plain Chobani with a slice of coffee cake.

I should have given myself a bigger serving of eggs, I gave away most of my bacon/yogurt/cake. In spite of our refreshing run, I think my nighttime imbibing had made me a little picky.

Not too picky, however, to turn down a big handful of maple sugar cotton candy(!!).

After present opening (which was plentiful – thank’s mom and dad!) there was lunch.

Apple slices and baby carrots,

and crackers with leftover hot pepper peach and spinach dip.

Plus dessert.

Dinner was consumed at my aunt’s house, with a large group of family and friends.

Plus a slice of garlic bread,

and a slice of delicious yellow cake with blueberry jam and vanilla buttercream.

I helped with the frosting, pulling a recipe from Eat, Live, Run that was to die for.

This morning started with another light workout. Adam and I walked up and down the beach for 45minutes, then hiked the mill uphill homeward. I wore my heart rate monitor and was pleasantly surprised that our 1hour, 11minute workout killed 290calories. It’s nice to know that our sand trudging burned up more than the back of my leg muscles.

Lunch was leftovers.

Turkey chilli,

and macaroni and cheese made with swiss cheese, chives, and white truffle flavored oil.

Sidenote – my cousin made the mac and cheese for Christmas dinner and the husband liked it so much he went back for thirds!

I also ate the final serving of Junior Mints,

which helped fuel me up for…. a long nap!

We are at school now, and rest of the day’s agenda is movies, dinner, maybe drinks with friends. See you soon!

13Dec2010

Tastes Like Home for the Holidays

by Emily

My shower took forever because I couldn’t bear to get out of the warm water! It’s already 10* outside, I’m a little afraid of what January will bring.

Tonight’s dinner utilized take-homes from my cultural meal project.

Callaloo and dumb bread with cheese!

Callaloo is a traditional Caribbean soup made traditional with callaloo, pumpkin, coconut milk, and okra. Our version was slightly less traditional, with spinach, butternut squash, and coconut milk.

Still delicious though. This is the recipe we used.

Dumb bread is a non-yeast-levened bread with shredded coconut scattered throughout. I topped my serving with extra sharp cheddar.

This flavor definitely took my back to my childhood! This is the recipe we used.

Leftovers for dinner meant less cooking time and more baking time!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Brownies.

I followed the recipe on the Baker’s Chocolate box, but substituted the nuts and vanilla for 2 tsp cinnamon extract and 1 cup chocolate chips.

Quite tasty! The husband said the cinnamon gave them a warm taste.

Brownies are usually my mom’s specialty but I think these definitely hold their own. I ate two small ones.

Between the traditional Caribbean flavors and (not)mom’s brownies this meal tasted like home to us; which makes it a good meal for this week because we are gearing up for a trip home! After all of our exams are done we are heading to St. Thomas for 10 glorious days. Now I’ve just got two more exams to get through; I can’t wait!

What substitutions have you made on the traditional brownie recipe? Which was your favorite?

6Dec2010

Nightmare Before Christmas

by Emily

There was no blog post yesterday because I was so exhausted that I bumbled around all day without really doing anything! We set our alarms for 8am and at 10:00 the husband was shaking me awake and I had no recollection of turning off the alarms. Finally the husband remembered – after I told him I couldnt’ study because I was too tired to lift my arms – that I had such a bad nightmare on Saturday night that my moaning and flailing woke him up. I don’t remember that either, but he told me I looked pretty pitiful.

When I got up today, the idyllic scene outside my window was like something out of one of my nightmares –

Yes, it’s gorgeous. But – that’s the kind of snow you make cocoa and cuddle by the fireplace in, not the kind of snow you walk 30minutes through to Organic Chemistry!

But after Sunday’s #fail I was determined to make the best of today; even though I woke up at 9:30! I started my day with some good stretching. Not gonna lie, then I started my day with this (after brushing my teeth of course!) –

Sorry I’m not sorry (thanks, Rachel), Cherry Coke Zero is my version of the dog with a barrel around its neck.

Then I dressed for battle.

I take the dull out of bundling! (Say that out loud for me, pretty please?)

Oh yes, those are children’s snow boots.

Even my boots couldn’t fully save my trek though, it sort of sucked 😦 When I lived in Brooklyn and everyone walked it was kind of fun, but here, where I’m the only one in the snow, it’s a bit embarrassing. At least I never really felt cold, probably because I got so sweaty; galumphing is a good workout!

I got to school early to pick up a portfolio (100%, booyah!) and then used the space before class to try to make up yesterday’s lost study time. While I worked I snacked on a serving of Kugel.

I also drank a medium skim gingerbread latte (half pumps) and got distracted talking with a friend.

During Anatomy (87% with the curve on Friday’s test, booyah!) I slurped down a Revolution Foods Fruit Mash-Up.

As soon as classes were over, and I confirmed with the husband that he could pick me up from school, I got my study on. I’m disappointed in myself that I screwed around so much it took me until after 7 to finish my notecards. I’m proud of myself that when I was done at 7 I headed to the gym anyways!

I took my notecards on the elliptical – 35minutes, random, level 6.

We got home close to 9:00 and I’m pretty proud of the dinner I pulled together – fruits, veggies, and dessert! First was a ~~green~~ purple monster.

This bad boy was a blend of frozen spinach, frozen blueberries, orange juice, Silk Almond Milk, and honey.

I gave the husband the extra and he loved it as well (although his did have a little extra sugar blended into it!).

Next up was a taste of the South.

I randomly picked up this can of Hoppin’ John when it was on sale a few weeks ago. I’ve never eaten (heard of) Hoppin John before so I pretty much stuck with the directions on the can –

I did a 1/2 batch (one can) topped with Applegate Farms turkey bacon, Sriracha, and a little brown sugar.

I portioned half of it into a bowl, and tried something new.

Pretty good, who knew I liked black-eyed peas?!

Dessert was “new” as well, but there was never any question about liking it.

Oh. My. God.

This, my friends, is a (half)-batch of Jenna’s Caramel Sauce.

Well, that’s what’s left of the batch after Adam and I got to it. It has a deep, decadent flavor and is sweet and rich. Make it, make it, make it, make it!

Eaten drizzled (liberally) over a small bowl of vanilla ice-cream with lots of sliced strawberries.

Really it was just an excuse to eat some strawberries 😉

Yum! Quite a pleasing dinner indeed.

Now I’ve got to hurry to shower so I can get to bed like a girl with an important test tomorrow.

Have you ever tried (heard of) Hoppin’ John?

6Nov2010

This Post Was Technically Born in ’09

by Emily

Yikes, I can’t believe this morning started 18hours ago! Registration went ok, I got into all fo the classes that I had to have. Right now I’m registered for 19 credits (2 classes more than the normal load), but I’ll probably drop a class once I get things figured out.

It was supposed to snow today (still hasn’t yet, knock on wood!) and I was wearing my Mary Poppins outfit so I had the husband drive me to school this morning.

That kind of cute is so worth it!

I got breakfast from the food court while I studied for my test, a toasted everything bagel with honey walnut cream cheese.

Love that savory/sweet combo!

The test went well, not a 100% but I’ll be surprised if I don’t have an A. Afterwards I had to meet up with my group to work on the poster for our presentation. When Orgo rolled around at 1:00 we still weren’t done, ugh. I snacked on this amazing combo from home while we worked.

1 serving of dried hibiscus and 2 servings of Sahale Snacks Sing Buri Cashews.

Not gonna lie, my afternoon snack was much much less impressive…

The dip was disgusting and got tossed, but I demolished the bag of chips 😉 This was supposed to be my bribe to study in the evening, but then a whole UPS debacle happened and this ended up being just a really unhealthy snack!

Dinner was one of those fabulous ‘I told you blog reading isn’t a waste of time, husband’ gems.

I’ve been reading Kath’s blog since 2008(!!) and I actually bookmarked this recipe way back in February of 2009! Tofu Quiche. You won’t believe it but my version was actually less cheesy than the original –

For the most part I followed Kath’s lead, but we did make a few minor changes,

increased to a pint of mushrooms
increased to 4 (packed) cups of baby spinach
cut back to 2cups of (2% Sharp Cheddar) cheese
subbed in 1/8 tsp each nutmeg and garlic powder for oregano
pulsed several times to chop up the veggies rather than leaving them whole
skipped the crust entirely

Our version was delicious!

We hurried and cut before it set, but the flavors were spot on.

The extra cheese wasn’t missed and I actually wished we had added more veggies. Adam was totally in love with this too.

After a very long, very fruitless drive to UPS we came home and caught up on tv. …..after a trip the Wegman’s candy bulk bins.

Jumbo malted milk balls? Yes please!

Do you try out recipes from food blogs? Any major successes? (Or failures!?)

1Nov2010

Rabbits Get A Lot Of Tail

by Emily

This blog post is my entry for Project Tasteless’ Challenge # 2: Pizza Tricks for Treats.

The only requirement was that you create a pizza inspired by your Halloween costume.

My costume was a little lame, but my pizza recipe is spooktacular (that’s a good thing)! ~~Sexy~~ Holy-crap-it’s-freezing-outside Bunny anyone?

Hey, it was cheap, allowed me to stay warm, and in leu of my ability to wriggle my nose I shook my tail all evening.

Sidenote – if anyone enters this contest as Sexy Chewbacca please just withdraw my entry Rachel, I’d rather not be a part of that.

My pizza was definitely more impressive.

Brick-Oven* Bunny Tale**, anyone?

* this was not prepared in a brick oven, but I image if you had one at your disposal that’d be great

**no bunnies were harmed in the making of this blog post

I went the personal pizza, store-bought crust route, but you could do any number of things with this recipe. Homemade dough would be an upgrade, store-bought honey mustard would be a downgrade, but really you can’t go wrong. Instead of specific measurements I’ll just give you the basics.

Soften some shredded carrots by sauteing over low heat in a bit of butter.

Whip up some bunny mustard using 1-part honey to 3-parts dijon mustard. Spread on your chosen crust in a thin, even layer.

Top with carrots and small pieces of baby spinach.

Add a few bunny tales (fresh mini mozzarella balls) and bake according to dough directions. If your crust needs a long time in the oven I would precook for a bit so as not to heat the mozzarella for more than 10minutes. Balls can only take so much heat.

Nibble daintily and twitch nose with pleasure. Or go at it like Sexy Chewy, your call.

The flavors and textures on this ended up being perfect; a little spicy, a little sweet, gooey, and chewy. The mini mozzarellas were perfect, you won’t miss the greasy layer of cheese at all. Although I did end up stealing a piece of the husband’s extra cheesy tuna slice, for quality control purposes.

Being in the Halloween mood and all, we had to round out dinner with some candy.

I’ve seen this on some many blogs that I have no idea whom to link back to, but suffice to say that homemade peanut butter cups were not my idea.

They certainly were a good idea though.

22Oct2010

Ending Sandwich Week with a Full Court Press

by Emily

Okey doke; It’s Friday night, I have a Modern Family and CSI to catch up on, and a husband waiting on the couch!

I had a ton of reading to do today before class so breakfast at home was a no-show. I did however get all my reading done, and I learned a lot about nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners (with and without calories). Because knowledge is power – The ADA says that

There is no definitive link between obesity and sweeteners alone
Your body knows no difference between sugars; an apple or a soda, the sugars are all processed the same (that’s not to say that the fiber, and nutrient piece doesn’t matter)
There is no proven link between sweeteners and hyperactivity in children,
but there is some evidence that suggests a link to depression
Stevia has yet to be approved by the FDA

I had just a few minutes after class to pick up my portfolio project (100%) and grab food before heading to a group meeting.

PB&J wasn’t the healthiest option, but it was the cheapest, and not the unhealthiest.

Hours later, when I got out of Anatomy all I could think about was going home. I was hungry, tired, and cold and the last thing I wanted to do was go work out. But I told myself if I went to the gym I could buy a cookie, so I did!

We are actually running in a 5k next weekend (what, another race I’m not prepared for!?!?) so I’m trying to be gentle to my legs this week; expect to see a lot of walking breaks on the treadmill. Today’s workout was all about the intervals –

5minutes walking, 1 running, 1w, 2r, 1w, 3r, 1w, 4r, 1w, 5r, 1w, 5r, 5w. So, 15minutes walking, 20minutes running, 35minute workout.

Adam picked me up from the gym and we spent forever driving around, accomplishing nothing. Sometimes it’s nice just to be together. Plus, we split some chewy Starbursts.

When we got home it was more than time for a salad.

I topped a bed of dressed spinach with craisins, blue cheese, and some almonds from Sahale Snacks.

Divine.

Since it’s the last day of Sandwich Week I decided to go out with a bang –

or a press rather; paninis!

Step 1 – Spread some thin sliced sourdough with dijon mustard and hot pepper peach preserves (or any kind of preserve really, you just want to give it a bit of sweet).

Step 2 – Add a few pieces of thin-sliced turkey.

Step 3 – Crumble on some blue cheese.

Step 4 – Top the cheese with some thinly sliced pear.

Finally – close and press.

This sandwich was fantabulous! The texture of paninis always drives me wild and the combo of flavors was perfect; a bit spicy, a bit sweet, and bit salty.

Make this at home! Send me pictures!

We’re going to go find a fountain diet coke and then cuddle up on the couch. Have a great Friday night!

19Oct2010

Start of Sandwich Week

by Emily

Some bloggers have their dinner posts up before I even eat dinner, how do they do it?!? We’re on a pretty late schedule here, but it works well for us.

That Paula Red apple was mealy and sad, I traded it off to the husband (he liked it!). Instead I ate a Crispin apple with a spoonful of peanut butter.

My night class got out super early today, and I completed the online quiz and walked home all before 7; score! I celebrated with a small piece of pumpkin chocolate chip square.

Btw – the husband has demolished these bars, almost all of them are gone! He took a container to school today and said all of his classmates freaked out about them as well.

Now, on to sandwich week……

Since it’s already Tuesday into the week, I decided to start things off with a bang. What’s that?

Oh, nothing. Just homemade from scratch mayonnaise!

It took team work, and more time than predicted, but in the end we were victorious; go us! I used the recipe from Katherine Darling’s Under the Table – which is an amazing book in general, I highly recommend it – but you could easily Google a recipe.

The sandwich vehicle for the mayo was Buffalo chicken subs, which came together in a snap.

I slow-cooked chicken breasts in a bit of broth for 8hours on low today and then shredded the meat with two forks. Then I doused two servings worth in Buffalo sauce. Next we stirred crumbled blue cheese into two portions of mayo. Finally we spooned and spread that fantasticness onto split rolls. Perfection.

Seriously, I can’t even handle this picture.

This was way healthier than a fried chicken sandwich and much much tastier! Speaking of health, as I told Adam – “I dont’ care that we forgot the asparagus, I’ll be damned if I’m serving blue cheese and mayo but no veggie!” So we made a quick side of microwaved kale.

Very, very not good. But I choked it down for the nutrients.

All together, even with bitter, chewy kale, the meal averaged out to be fantastic.

A fabulous start to Sandwich Week.

Do you eat mayo or does it skeeve you out? Have you ever made your own mayo? In general I’m not a big fan; I’ll eat Miracle Whip in tuna and chicken salads, but I prefer mustard varieties. I was pretty jazzed about it tonight though 🙂

17Oct2010

Why Don’t I Accomplish Things on Sunday?!

by Emily

I’m going to set a blogging speed record today because it’s bedtime. Especially with the amount of school work I did today (cough, cough, none, cough), I want to be well rested for tomorrow.

As we went to get in bed last night the husband and I both realized that we were starving. It was a bit ridiculous. We ended up getting staying up, getting pizza, and watching the Simpsons’ Halloween special.