Pepperoni Post!

My busy schedule both physically and emotionally kept me from blogging for the entire first week of April.  Not my intent but sometimes it happens.  I do have a couple of good posts coming up this week though.

Thursday was a really busy day.  I had an appointment at noon and then was showing a property at 130pm.  My client wanted to put an offer on the house.  I really hope they take it, it would be a great spot of my client.  Right after that I headed to pick Kaleigh up from her daycare, a little early and I caught her as she was getting off the bus.  We went to see a movie and had a great time.

Friday, as soon as I got up I started making some pepperoni deli slices.  It has been a few months since I made deli slices and wanted to have at it.  They came out perfectly!  Ashley soon arrived and we discussed a dinner plan.  We decided to make a pepperoni pizza and try out the slices.

I have never used the slices on a pizza so I wanted to see how it would turn out.  After finally getting a dough, we rolled out out pizza, adding red peppers, onions, and mushrooms as well as the pepperoni slices and topped it with some avocado.  It was actually great.  There is something gratifying about having your own pepperoni on your pizza.

Never fear, sandwiches were made with the slices the following day!

Who eats breakfast?

I had about 30 minutes extra before I needed to leave for work today.  I will be there for quite some time but it felt to early for lunch so I did something I rarely do; breakfast.  In fact, I think I have only made oatmeal about 10 times in my life, I have never been much of a fan.  Today I went for it.

I added some coconut, currants, brown sugar, and vanilla.  It was quite good.  I hope it holds me over a few hours at work!  Now off to get that time and a half with a full belly.

Great Thursday!

Thursday turned out to be a great day.  It was filled with all sorts of great activities.  I had an appointment at 11am but after I was able to to the farmers market where I got the ingredients to make dinner for myself, Ashley, and Kaleigh.

I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon playing some games and preparing for dinner, I decided to try to make Pad See Ew.  I have never made it before and thought it would be a fun meal to make.  It was actually better then I expected, the rice noodles came out perfect as did the tofu and veggies.  Kaleigh did not eat much of it, aside from the mushrooms but both Ashley and I cleaned out plate.

Digging through my fridge, Kaleigh found some of my homemade hummus and wanted to eat a pita with it.  We actually had to cut her off as she did not want to stop!  She tried it with roasted red pepper and cucumber.  I made Ashley a pita to take to work tomorrow.

Kaleigh and I were doing a science project of making a giant brain (did not really work) and Ashley suggested we make cookies.  I do not take much convincing to get the treats going so in short order, we were eating fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies.  Kaleigh wanted to watch a little tv and eat some popcorn so I obliged then too.  It was an evening of snacking!

Later that night, I got a last minute invite to a hardcore show.  I saw some new up and coming Atlanta hardcore as well as the Neo Cons.  I also finally got to see Manic, a local but I have not actually seen them yet.  The venue was a little rough but it was still a fun show.  Some great performances.

Neo Cons

Manic

Hurry up spring!

Atlanta seems to be having a battle these last few weeks.  One day the spring weather of 70 degrees and a nice breeze will make everyone think it is time to put the winter sweaters in the closet and break out the shorts.  The very next day the temperature drops back into the 50's and we need to sweaters again.  I feel a little spoiled complaining about it since my friends and family in Maine are still dealing with snow.

Due to the weather, my tastes have been bouncing around from craving the light summer foods to the roasted winter dishes.  As a compromise, I have been making more roasted hummus.  It has been really quite a flavor punch to roast the chicpeas in spices prior to the puree process.

Mainly I have been using the hummus in pitas to take to work.  It is quick, easy, healthy, and flavorful.  I have also shared them with some folks at work and they have been a big hit.  This time I even roasted a red pepper to add to the pitas.  It was a fantastic lunch!

Two Shows and a Dough

While I realize that most of the foodies that read this blog are bored to tears with my posts about recently shows I have attended, they are actually really important to me and my life.  I have been going much more frequently and it has felt good.  I have even been trying to break my own mold and go to some shows that I am not typically a fan of the bands just to have the experience.  Thursday was just such a show.

It was the local, Antpile, followed by Homewrecker and Pits of Hell.  Antpile was pretty good.  Homewrecker and Pits of Hell we too metal and tough guy for me.  I was not a big fan.  Up next was a real treat, The Goodtime Boys.  They played a very unique style of hardcore with a lot of tempo changes and were a great live band.  The highlight of the night for me.  Last was Loma Prieta, very talented and abrasive.  It was a decent show despite some of the tough guy macho crap.

Goodtime Boys

Loma Prieta

Loam Prieta

The following night Ashley and I headed to Dough Bakery before an acoustic house show with one of our favorite folk/punk singers.  We each had the cuban special while at dough and shared a cupcake as well.  The bread at Dough is always outstanding.  The cupcake was super moist and fluffy.

At the show we first saw a local favorite D-Flo.  Always good and just a fun guy to see live.  Then we saw Adam and the Ancient Gods whom I had not seen before but was looking forward too.  Adam did not disappoint, hilariously amazing.  Next up was Georgia Slim who was the only one that used and amp in the livingroom of a small house playing for about 12 people.  He was good with some old timer labor songs.  Last was Ryan Harvey.  Ive seen him a couple of time and this was the best performance yet (partly because he played my requests and covered Crass).  Ashley does not usually attend shows but this environment was in her comfort zone and she had a great time, as did I.

Ryan Harvey

Cooking with Kaleigh 5; Horned Melon!

I had a great day with Kaleigh yesterday.  I had the special privilege of picking her up right at school so that she and I could go to the book fair.  We got a couple of book and even a monster science kit.  Playing with a glow in the dark, growing brain will be a fun project for her and I.

Kaleigh has been making fruit salad on her own recently so she wanted to make one at my house as well.  Sadly, she did not want to film a video for it.  However, I did find a horned melon at the store.  I have never had (nor even opened) a horned melon and neither had she.  We were curious about it and after some discussion she thought it felt like jelly was inside since it was squishy.  We did a short video of her cutting into the melon and being the brave girl that tried it first!

 She gobbled up the melon on and off through the evening.  It was decent but not very flavorful.  The seeds seemed a little distracting to the unique texture of the melon but all in all it was a fun experiment.  Maybe in the next couple of weeks I can get her to film another actual cooking video.

Wordless Wednesday!

Mac and Creamy Sauce

Fried Rice

Stir-fry

BBQ Seitan Pizza

Recipe: Spinach and Basil Ravioli

When Kaleigh was asked what she wanted to have for dinner on the night we were going to do shrinky dinks, she said she wanted ravioli.  A couple years back, Ashley made me ravioli for dinner.  It was really good.  I realized then that as a kid we rarely had ravioli, which seems to be a fairly common food for most American families.

When Kaleigh put in her request, I knew I would need to try my hand at making some myself.  It was actually quite easy and a lot of fun.  Ashley joined Kaleigh and I for dinner and all seemed to enjoy the ravioli.

Spinach and Basil Ravioli

Ravioli Dough

3 cups of flour
3/4 cup of vegetable broth
1 tablespoon of oil
2 teaspoons of salt

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add the oil and broth to the flour mixture and use your hands to combine.  The dough should be moist but not wet, nor should it be dried out.  If it is too dry, add more broth, if it is too wet, add more flour.  Form the dough into a ball, place back in the bowl, cover, and let sit for 1 hour.  After an hour, roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick.  Use a pint glass to "cut" into the dough to form circular ravioli.

Ravioli Filling

5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 large portobello mushroom cap (finely chopped)
5 oz of spinach leaves (finely chopped)
2/3 cup of basil leaves (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

While the dough is resting, heat all the ingredients on low heat until the mushrooms release their liquid.  Feel free to taste test and alter the recipe.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Once the filling is complete and the ravioli dough has been cut out take a spoonful of the filling and place it on one of the ravioli circles.  Try to center the filling and make sure there is not much liquid.  Take another ravioli circle, place it on the top and with a fork, press the edges together.  Boil the raviolis for about 8-10 minutes or until tender.  Do not put to many in the pot at once, they should not be touching or they will stick together.

Pre-heat the oven at 375 degrees.

Once all the ravioli has been boiled, place in a baking dish with whatever sauce you might want and bake for 45 minutes.  I baked mine with a marinara sauce with a few leftover basil leaves on top.

An evening with the Shrinky Dinks!

For whatever reason, Kaleigh did not want to film a new Cooking with Kaleigh video.  It saddens me but I certainly do not want to force the issue and take all the fun out of it and cooking for this magnificent little 6 year old girl.  We did still spend the evening together though. 

For her birthday a few months back, I got her some shrinky dinks.  She did not know what they were nor did she care much since it looked like blank sheets of paper.  Last week however, she suggested that we try them out.  I had Ashley pack them in Kaleigh's school bag so that when I picked her up we could have the evening for crafting.

Jamie joined us in the beginning since she is an amazing artist and has dabbled in the world of shrinky dinks.  Jamie made a great necklace for Kaleigh while Kaleigh colored in a ghoul girl.  Ashley showed up a short while into the proceeding and we all had a great time cook and coloring the shrinky dinks.  Kaleigh had so much fun, she even made a few things for her friends at school and a special one for her mom.

Kaleigh's Ghoul Girl before baking

Kaleigh's Ghoul Girl after baking

Kaleigh's necklace

Rough Saturday

Saturday was a strange day for me.  I opted to work a doubled shift (rather then my usual 12 hours) because another person needed the day off.  I ended up working about 17 hours that day, then lost and hour that night for daylight savings times.  Needless to say, Sunday I was fairly tired and low energy.

I was well prepared though.  Friday I spend much of the day cooking.  I made some random items but the highlights we certainly some black beans with lime that I had been soaking since Thursday.  They had a really nice delicate flavor to them.  I shared with someone at work and she said they needed more flavor.  I thought they were perfect.  It was a reminder of how heavy handed I generally am with flavors and how feeding healthy natural foods to people who mainly dine in their cars with a take out bag is occasionally met with a palate shock.