Posts Tagged recipes
Seven Quick Takes (vol. 6)
Jennifer at Conversion Diary isn’t hosting Seven Quick Takes this week, but I have a few things to share, so I thought I’d post mine anyway.
1. Happy Thanksgiving! (or as I said yesterday, Happy Slapsgiving!) John and I enjoyed a yummy dinner together at home. We both cooked and ended up with this beautiful feast:
our (small) table
No, we did not have a turkey. We figured it was kind of silly for the two of us to make a big turkey. Plus, look at the table. Where would we have put it?
2. Earlier this week, I mentioned that I had made a new (two new, actually) recipe. The first was Caramel Coconut Pie from Sweet Pea at the Newlyweds blog. The crust is from my grandmother’s recipe and the filling is Sweet Pea’s grandmother’s recipe. The second was a delicious Baked Sweet Potato and Apple dish. It’s an excellent substitution for the typical yams and marshmallow dish for Thanksgiving, not to mention a very season-appropriate fall/winter side dish.
Caramel Coconut Pie – mmmm!
3. Yesterday morning, before all the cooking and baking madness, we went to the gym. We ran a mile, biked 2 miles, ran a mile, biked 2 miles and ran one more mile. By the end, I really did think I might pass out. My last mile was the fastest though – hurray! Speaking of working out, we’re heading to the pool for some laps as soon as I can get this posted.
4. I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but Béni basically looses it when you say the word “park.” We took him to the p-a-r-k today and said “park” right before we got there (on purpose). He started running back and forth in the back seat, crying and whimper barking. So freaking cute. Also cute — the 12-week-old Newfoundland puppy that was there. He was so scared of other dogs but he loooooved people. He came right up to me and let me pet him, he jumped up on John and licked John’s face and he stuck his head between both of our legs to hide from Béni.
5. I finished my quilted table topper (my first ever quilting project)!! I also stabbed the ever-living daylights out of my thumb with the threading end of the needle, but that’s irrelevant at this point.
sorry about the angle…it leads to an unfortunate resemblance
the back of the project
6. I had to work today. I got up at 6:44 AM. I am aware that I am incapable of setting my alarm for a normal wake up time like 6:40 or 6:45. Anyway, I got to work only to find out that the electrical work that was supposed to be completed yesterday did not get finished and there was no outlet power, which meant I could not turn on my computer or even use the phone. I ended up packing up one of the laptops at the office and taking it home to work. Nevertheless, I was pretty frustrated. Plus I still had to go back to the office in the afternoon once the power was back on in order to submit my time card for the week. For some reason, the time recording site does not work from any of the work laptops.
7. I was so tired this afternoon that I started crying. I ended up taking an hour nap. When I woke up (at 5 PM), it was dark and I panicked that I had slept all night. It’s nearly 8 now, and I think I could go back to sleep for the rest of the night. However, I do need to get some laps in at the pool first!
6 comments November 27, 2009
Seven Quick Takes (vol. 3)
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another (my second!) round of Seven Quick Takes. Admittedly, I forgot all about it last week, but I’m back on board now. Visit Conversion Diary to see everyone else’s Seven Quick Takes this week.
1. I wore orange and white today as a nod to Halloween, which is not nearly as cute as the elementary school Halloween costume parade I witnessed this afternoon. The kids from the DODDS school on post had a short 2-3 block parade around the school with an MP car escort. Parents were standing on the sidewalks waving and taking pictures. Freaking adorable.
2. Béni keeps wiping his doggie snot on my shirt right before I go to work. Is this what it’s like to have kids? My mom said she once spent the day at work with baby spit up on the back of her skirt and didn’t know it. It was probably my fault. Oops.
3. The trees have exploded this week. Some trees around our building are almost bare now. Winter, here we come. On that note, Kenneth Cole jacket, where are you? (I ordered one about a month ago and had it shipped to my parents. They mailed it to me almost two weeks ago. I’m going to need it soon!)
4. It’s only 55 days until Christmas. Living overseas, that’s more like only 30 days since I have to allocate time for shipping. I still have two major Christmas projects to do and 4 people’s gifts to buy. Yikes!
5. As a result of daylight savings time last week (Europe does it one week earlier than the US in the fall), it gets dark so early now. This is my 3rd year to experience it, but it still surprises and annoys me. Today the sun sets at 5:09 PM. Imagine going to work just after it gets light and getting off work when it’s dark. No fun, right? Oh well, at least the Christmas markets are just around the corner!
6. We made Pumpkin Yumkins and Mar-A-Lago Turkey Burgers this past week. The pumpkin muffins were great, but I recommend no icing at all. I wasn’t a big fan of the yogurt icing and thought they tasted great without any topping. I’d also be willing to try cream cheese on top or even a buttercream or powdered sugar-based icing. The turkey burgers were also tasty. However, if you make them, just be careful with the patty size. We halved the recipe and had 5 LARGE patties. I would say halving the recipe yields 6 patties. Also, if you make them, be sure to get ground turkey breast. If you just get ground turkey, it includes the dark meat too, and this yields nearly the same nutritional value as ground beef.
7. Tonight is our friend’s birthday party. She and her husband aren’t affiliated with the military, so there are a number of American goodies they can’t get on the German economy, so we’ll be bringing some fun treats to the party (root beer, Oreos, Sun Chips, chips & dip, etc.). I’m sure we’ll look like some enthusiastic health nuts when we go to the check out at the grocery store. Hah!
Happy Friday & Happy (early) Halloween!
6 comments October 30, 2009
The Mad Scientist
This past week, John and I have tried several new recipes, which were all delicious and worth sharing with y’all.
(Side-note: I am trying to use y’all more often. I mentioned yesterday that I had stopped using it so much, and I miss it!)
Our culinary endeavors began with Artichoke Pizzas last week. I loved every bit of those crispy, vegetable-packed pizzas. I also discovered how great pita bread is for a quick pizza crust. On Friday, we used our left over pitas (cut in half horizontally) to make quick personal-sized pepperoni pizzas. We just covered the crust in a tablespoon of olive oil and threw it under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until it was crisp. Then I put some tomato sauce, oregano, basil (I think), mozzarella cheese and pepperoni on top, put it back under the broiler until the cheese was melted (which was less than a minute). Viola! Easy-peasy pepperoni pizzas.
Over the weekend, John was inspired to try concocting some more interesting treats by a blog he reads, Life Hacker. The blog author wrote about groceries that were cheaper to make at home. Although for us, neither of the ones we attempted were cheaper – yogurt and granola – the results were fantastic. (A half-gallon of milk costs us $4.09.)
I have to give all the credit to John for the yogurt. He made it while I was at the movies with a group of girls (seeing Confessions of a Shopaholic), and he said the process made him feel like a mad scientist. Did you know that to make plain yogurt it only takes a small bit of yogurt plus milk?? The recipe he used can be found here.
The yogurt takes a long time to make (about 6 hours in the oven and setting in the fridge overnight), and in the morning, you get creamy, slightly tart, mouth-watering yogurt. I have tried 3 brands of yogurt since we made this, and none of them compare. So you can understand the consistency, I made a short video:
I put about a spoonful of honey in and mix it around with the yogurt and fruit. John has become a big fan of mixing the yogurt with our granola, which we made together on Sunday (click here for the recipe). Oh my goodness. It was so easy, it made our apartment smell amazing, and it tastes delicious. Why wouldn’t you make this?! Also, it doesn’t clump up like other granola, which I was thrilled about. Typically, I think granola can be a pain to eat because my jaw gets tired from chomping down on all the hard clusters. Give this one a shot. You won’t be sorry!! Here’s a photo of the granola with the yogurt in the background:
see? no clumps!
The rest of this week has been a pretty boring one for our kitchen. However, I pulled a few new recipes that I plan on trying next week. If they’re any good, I’ll share the recipes again. Enjoy!
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I almost forgot, today is Thursday, which means it’s “Hi/Lo Thursday,” which is a blog carnival from the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else’s highs and lows for the week. Like last week, I’m going to end with our highs, because I want to end on a happy note 
Our Lows:
- Driving back and forth like a taxi driver to John’s work 3 times a day every day this week.
- Not having enough time in the day to get everything done and dealing with the frustration that comes along with that.
Our Highs:
- Beautiful weather today!
- Taking Béni to the park and having another yellow lab there for him to play with. (He really tired himself out!)
- Enjoying wonderful food all week.
- Overcoming my fear of driving in areas I don’t know around here, and making it back safe and sound
- Sarah
4 comments May 7, 2009
Soup Disappointment
Cucumber soup is healthy disgusting. As I mentioned yesterday, we made it for lunch, and about halfway through my bowl, I started gagging. Yes, it really was that bad. I’m still holding onto hope that the avocado cucumber soup recipe will be decent.
Our dinner was much better last night, and the best part (in my opinion) is that there’s enough for leftovers tonight. So yay! No cooking for me tonight. I also won’t have to cook tomorrow since that’s the night of our Bible study/dinner. This week’s menu: fajitas. They aren’t having chips for the salsa/guac or queso…it makes me want to bring all that stuff!
Speaking of mexican food Tex-Mex, I have been craving a margarita. Unfortunately, that’s a no go here. The restaurant on post will make them, but the last time I tried to order one, I ended up sending it back twice. The final result was ghastly. I am 99% sure they made it with tequila, Mountain Dew and olive juice. Yes, it was carbonated. John ended up having to toss it out in the men’s restroom. I was too embarrassed to just leave it on the table since I’d sent it back twice already.
The table set and ready for dinner
Dinner is served, yum! (We also split a beer, as you can see in the photo. We only had 1 left, and neither of us wanted to go to the store again.)
Dessert!
Enough about food. I have a job interview — yes, a JOB INTERVIEW! — on Friday. It’s not a full time job, but hey, it’s a job. That’s really exciting, especially considering I’ve been looking for a job for 8 months, and I’m actually interested in this position. So please, wish me luck!
- Sarah
2 comments January 28, 2009
Workout Day 2
Today, the only “news” I have to report is on our new workout routine. I’m also pretty excited about our lunch and dinner, so forgive me if I ramble on about that for a bit.
On Saturday, we finally made it to the gym. We both did 25 minutes on the elliptical, which used to amount to about 3 miles for me. Now, I am down to 2.25, but that just leaves me room for improvement!
We also did some stretching (of course) and hit up the weight machines. If I can recall correctly, we worked out our abs, pecs, upper back and did the leg press thing (so quads, maybe?). We did the same workout today, but I thought it was much harder. The cardio wasn’t so bad, but the weights were just nasty. I kept giving myself less weight, but it continued to feel like I was hurting myself rather than working out. Maybe it was my body’s continuation of my mental battle to NOT have to go to the gym today.
The only things I wish the gym had that they don’t are: 1) a lap pool and 2) a cardio hip hop class.
I think I’d enjoy the lap pool, but I have never tried it. I belonged to 24 Hour Fitness for 1-2 years before moving here, but never utilized that amenity there. However, I did go to their cardio hip hop class and loved it. Dance has never seemed like working out to me, and the hour in the class goes by so fast! Here, I have the option to go to aerobics, step, yoga and pilates classes. Maybe I’ll attempt yoga…
We’re trying a recipe for Cool Cucumber Soup today at lunch (thanks, Food Network). I’m excited to see how it tastes. They also have a recipe for a Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup that I’m eager to try.
The menu tonight? I’m ready to go with a homemade mac ‘n cheese casserole (actually, it uses shell pasta); baked sour cream chicken (light sour cream, of course – thanks for the recipe, Chelsea!) and a spinach, avocado & strawberry salad with homemade honey Dijon dressing. I can’t wait! Oh, I also have to make the salsa that we’re bringing to our Bible study tomorrow night. It’s always better when it can sit and gather flavor over night. I hope they don’t think it’s too spicy!
So…what’s YOUR favorite thing to cook for dinner?
- Sarah
4 comments January 27, 2009
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