Snowed in

After spending yesterday completely out of commission from stomach flu, and today starting to feel like a real person again after many many hours of sleep, I awoke this evening to find myself snowed in by a blizzard. Now that the thought of food doesn't make me ill, I wanted to bake something. This is a recipe of invention, using the limited ingredients I had on hand, and dreaming of summer weather.



Tropical Cookie Bars

Bars:
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
zest of 1 orange, or 2 clementines
1/4 c orange juice
1 pineapple cake mix
1 c sweetened shredded coconut

Glaze:
1/2 c orange juice
zest of 1 orange, or 2 clementines
2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs, oil, orange juice and zest until blended. Add cake mix and coconut. Mix until combined, with no dry lumps. Spray 13x9 baking pan with non stick spray. Pour batter into pan, bake 30-35 minutes.

For glaze, mix orange juice, zest and powered sugar until smooth. Pour over cooled bars.

Pineapple Shrimp Curry

I heard of a killer curry sauce recipe from my brother in law, but I didn't have the exact recipe when I was at the store, just the general idea. So I bought some stuff and decided to wing it. Luckily, winging it usually works for me! I wanted to make the sauce tonight, so tomorrow's dinner would be really fast, and it allows the frozen shrimp I bought today to thaw out in the fridge. The sauce recipe easily made enough for two batches, so I am freezing half of it. This dish is very flavorful, but not hot in spiciness at all. Don't fear the entire jar of curry paste!

Pineapple Shrimp Curry

Sauce:
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 sweet yellow onions, thinly sliced
salt to taste
3 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (not drained)
1 whole head of garlic, each clove peeled and sliced
1"x2" finger of ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
4 oz jar of green curry paste
2 T ground cumin
13.5 oz can of light coconut milk

In a heavy skillet, heat vegetable oil, and add sliced onions. Sautee until softened. Add salt, garlic, ginger, cumin and curry paste. Stir to combine and break up curry paste. Add diced tomatoes and juice. Simmer for 45 minutes until everythign is tender. Remove from heat and add coconut milk. In batches, transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Let cool and transfer to refrigerator or divide and freeze half.

Ta assemble whole dish:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs frozen raw shrimp
1 t old bay seasoning
1 whole fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and diced
2 cups basmati or jasmine rice
4 cups water
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Prepare rice in rice cooker or stove top. Heat sauce on stove top if using sauce made in advance. Peel thawed shrimp and remove tails if desired. Toss shrimp with 1 T olive oil and old bay seasoning, spread onto a cookie sheet. In a separate bowl, toss pineapple pieces with 1 T olive oil and a few grinds of sea salt. Spread pineapple on a different cookie sheet, and put under the broiler, broil until softened and turning brown. (Around 15 minutes) Remove pineapple from oven and put shrimp under broiler, until pink. (Around 5-7 minutes) Top bowls of rice with the curry sauce, shrimp and pineapple, and finish with cilantro.

Black Bean soup

I got the original recipe for this from my sister in law Kara, but I made some additions and changes. Here is my version:

Black Bean Soup

2 15 1/2 oz cans of black beans (drained and rinsed) (68 cents each)
24 oz jar mild picante sauce ($2)
5 cups of water
5 tsp chicken bouillon granules ($2.99 for whole jar)
2 Tbs ground cumin (99 cents for whole jar)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 yellow onion, diced (50 cents)
i large sweet potato, diced (80 cents)

Garnish:
shredded cheese ($2)
sour cream ($2)

bring water to boil, add bullion granules, stir to dissolve. Add diced onion and sweet potato. When those are softened, add beans, cumin, salt and pepper and picante sauce. Simmer until all is softened. Use an immersion blender, or transfer in batches to a blender to blend smooth. Garnish with cheese and sour cream. Serve with chips and guacamole on the side.

Easy, Cheap, and good! (makes 8 servings at about a $1.50 per serving)

Deals, galore!

Since I am so lax in writing anything on this blog, and I prefer doing more of a visual thing anyway, I decided that I am going to start documenting my awesome deals that I find at Goodwill and other thrift stores. Right before Christmas, I got the best deal I probably will ever find at Goodwill- a Lego Deathstar over 3,000 piece kit that I gave to Kent. As you can see from the picture, he was really excited. Having just looked into Lego sets at toy stores, I recently realized how pricy they can be, but I still underestimated how much this one was worth. I snapped it up for $30, thinking it was probably worth around $150, but it turns out that it retails at Toys R Us for $400, but it is also very hard to find due to high demand, so it is going on Ebay for around $550. Yowza! It sealed my legendary status as best wife ever, and brought joy to many adult hearts as Kent and his friends (all in their 30's) gleefully worked on assembling it. Kent's friend Jean Remy did the bulk of the assembly, and it will now go live at the place they work, a video game design company, where it can be appreciated by many star wars loving nerds at once. :)



The other recent triumph is a series of nine cashmere sweaters that I have found on separate trips that I gave out as Christmas gifts. Those all retail at $100 or more new. I am kind of known for my thrift hunting skills. The reason that I manage to find good things is because I have a catalog of information gleaned from years of browsing stores and reading fashion magazines to know the high quality brands. Even though I could never afford to buy any of these things new, I still retained the information. Even though I know I will likely not top the Lego deal, it got me thinking. I have posted some pics of deals on this blog in the past, but what if I track all of my second hand purchases this year, just to see how I do? Why not? I'll take a pic with my phone, and since I have google+, it will automatically upload online. I can then edit the picture to add text captions. Easy peasy. It will be interesting to see not only how much value I get for my money, but just how much stuff I am bringing home in a year from the thrift store. Maybe it will make me think twice about some purchases.

Here's the first of many hauls this year. (Click photo to enlarge and make text readable.)

Wedding pictures!

As usual, I haven't been good about updating this blog on a regular basis. But, I figured I should at least one post in the year 2011! So why not talk about the biggest event of my life this year, my wedding to Kent! A wedding is the ultimate craft project + hostessing event ever, so it definitely qualifies as something that fits on here. I was also on a budget of as cheap as possible, and thanks to all the contributions of my talented friends, including the free wedding cake by Karen Thoma, and free photos as wedding gifts from Rob Baker and Nathan Biehl, my grand total was around $5,000. Pretty good for a fiesta for 130 people, I'd say. I'm a deal hunter, and one of my best deals was my $300 dress from David's Bridal. It went on sale a few days after I bought it for $500, and they credited me the difference when I asked, without any hassle. That was awesome of them.

Our wedding was an outdoor event, on September 18th. Having learned the hard way, I would not recommend planning an outdoor wedding, since you never know what the weather will be like. Our day was cold and rainy. We had to scramble to wrap the outdoor shelter in plastic to keep the rain out and the body heat in. For being kind of a disaster, the day actually turned out really well. I guess it helps that we have such a drama free group of family friends, so everyone just pitched in and made it work.

Since I am a DIY kinda gal, I did a ton of prep work, but there's no way I could have done it alone. Luckily, I had an awesome team of friends who all went full speed ahead at the last minute to make it happen. I designed the save the dates and photo thank you cards on Vistaprint, printed the invites on cards from Papaya, and made the programs at home on the computer. The centerpieces were just $5 bouquets of flowers from Aldi's parted out and put into colored glass vases that I have already been collecting for years. The additional decorations were white paper lace doilies folded over and made into bunting strings, and Indian paper star lamps, purchased online at Whirled Planet. I made my own bouquet out of vintage metal flower pins that my sister had been collecting for years. (Luckily, we are Goodwill junkies- and the fact that things we love and have collected for years made an appearance just made the wedding that much more personal. My goal was to make it feel like a larger version of entertaining at my house, and I think we accomplished that.) The majority of the photography was done by my friend Rob, who has his own business, Photogenic Chicago. We made all of the food ourselves- pulled chicken and steak tacos, chip and guacamole, garlic cilantro salsa, peach pineapple salsa, fruit salad, etc. And we had bottled Mike's Hard Margaritas and the beers of Mexico from Sam's Club. It was delicious! Without further ado, here are the highlights...

My homemade vintage flower pin bouquet.

Invitations printed on flat cards with matching envelopes from Papaya Art. (We had 5 different designs.)

I made the inside text to the programs, then my bridesmaids assembled them, with little ziplocks of confetti on the front. Also, favor boxes and silverware bundles.
Paper star lamps from Whirled Planet.

Disassembling flower bouquets and arranging stems in vases.

A close up of the confetti on the fronts of the programs.

Paper doily strings. These made for a great backdrop to the ceremony and for pictures later in the night.
The shelter, all set up. Notice the plastic on the right side. We wrapped it around three sides of the shelter, and left the one side open for ventilation. With 130 people inside, it was comfortable.

The lime green tights were a last minute addition, since our wedding day turned out to be chilly. But they fit in to the crazy color scheme perfectly!

Kent performing the song he wrote for me at the reception. It is awesome to be married to a rock star!

One of my favorite shots that my friend/photographer Rob captured.

This cake was amazing. It was so pretty, and it tasted amazing! It was almond sour cream cake with confetti. Yum. It got rave reviews from everyone!

We took our couples photos the next day, when of course, it was sunny and beautiful. The S monogram is part of the word "SWEET" that I had encrusted in rhinestones and we put it on the cake table. I also covered my wedding shoes in rhinestones (see montage photo at the top)

I got this sparkly butterfly Mr. & Mrs. banner from tutucrafts on Etsy.

All in all, despite being a rainy day, the wedding turned out wonderfully, and luckily, my love of bright colors conquered the gray skies outside. I am so pleased with the pictures, and lots of people said it the funnest wedding that they'd ever been to. (I think that the margaritas and taco buffet had something to do with that.) It was an amazing day, but after 7 months of planning, boy, am I glad it is over now!

greek pasta

i'm celebrating spring by making up a recipe using lots of fresh veggies! this is good hot, and hopefully, just as good as cold left overs, too.

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lb asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 of a red onion, cut into bite sized pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 15 oz can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
1 t cavender's greek seasoning
1 lb rotini pasta
1 bunch or bag of spinach leaves, roughly chopped
10 oz greek vinagrette salad dressing

On a jelly roll pan, place all veggies except for spinach. drizzle with oil, sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper. Roast at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. While veggies cook, bring a pot of water to boil.
Shred chicken, put in bowl. Add drained beans, and toss with greek seasoning. Cook pasta, add chopped spinach to pasta and water just before draining pasta. Toss pasta, spinach, roasted veggies and chicken and beans with the greek vinagrette. Serve immediately. Makes 8 servings.

wishlist 2009

it's that time again! here's my birthday/xmas wishlist. honestly, this was really hard to come up with. last year, i was dreaming of being a homeowner, and all the fun stuff i could decorate with. now that i own my home, i know i have no extra room for tons of stuff. i couldn't think of anything i wanted, so i did a little browsing online for fun tonight. common theme: nothing takes up much space!

forest friends earring set

kitty key covers

cute overload 2010 calendar

5x7 zebra printed cotton rug

dumpling dynasty coin purse

birds and blooms postcard tin

bohemian blue postcard tin

pink cuckoo clock

birds of america stainless water bottle

sugar skulls earring pack

robot love earrings

black sparrow necklace

sugary sweet rubber stamp set

bunny rubber stamp

granny square scarf

The Circus book (for some reason $200 on Taschen's website, but only $19.98 at Barnes and Noble)

or, gift cards to any of these places: tj maxx, gordmans, lane bryant, target, maurices, village inn, olive garden, popeye's, quiznos, pita king, movie theater, or kwikstar. Also a couple of online stores I would LOVE to own something from- www.igigi.com, www.kiyonna.com, and www.hipsandcurves.com.

strawberry french toast casserole

Strawberry French Toast Casserole

This is an easy casserole that tastes like the stuffed french toast from Village Inn! I had to create it when I needed something sweet using up what I had in the kitchen. To be more authentically like VI, use the orange marmalade. I used what I had on hand- homemade strawberry jam from the farmer's market, and it was delicious!

8 slices sandwich bread
8 T strawberry jam or orange marmelade
4 T whipped cream cheese
4 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
1 t vanilla
1/4 c sugar + 2 T reserved
1 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 4 slices of bread with jam. Spread remaining 4 slices with cream cheese. Form sandwiches, and cut each one into 16 little squares. put pieces in a 8x8" baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 1/4 cup sugar. Por mixture over bread pieces. Mix together 2 T sugar and 1 t sugar. Sprinkle over casserole. Either refrigerate over night or bake immediately for 50-60 minutes. Serve topped with sliced fresh strawberries and whipped cream.