{slight detour}

For those of you who don't know, one of my two spectacular roommates is a teacher (read: underpaid saint).  While her classroom stories typically revolve around her three-year-olds biting and/or kissing each other, a most recent school-related drama shared at home involved her 35-year-old principal and a little something called a "happiness challenge."  

In short, said principal decided that as a self-declared middle-aged woman, her life needed a new balance, and that she would get this balance, indirectly, from 52 of her closest friends.  You can remove the seesaw/tightrope images from your brains now-this this "balance" is a little less literal and a little more fun than an amateur gymnastics class.  Essentially, Ms. Balance handed one playing card from a deck to 52 to friends/family members/employees/whatevers and simply asked them to write down on the card a challenge for her to complete during her thirty-fifth year of life.  Each week, she plans to pull a card (no peeking beforehand!) and do her very best to actualize whatever is written on it.  The ideas is to try/do/eat something new and, in turn, feel happier and more like this woman:

      

Well, maybe like this woman if she were looking at the camera, smiling, and not supporting a naked man.

Where am I going with this, you ask?  I've got a point, I swear.  And that point is that teacher roomie, other roomie and yours truly were all smiling after we read Ms. B's email to her 52 friends.  And we figured that if just reading about the Happiness Challenge second-hand could make us happy, we could do the challenge ourselves and maybe even (gasp!) make ourselves a little cheerier throughout the year.

Well, cards have been distributed. We've even gotten some back already. As someone who hasn't really ever been a fan of surprises, it's taking an enormous amount of strength (please reference the above woman again) not to sneak into the off-limits envelope and read what all my friends have in store for us).

The plan is to start Monday.  It's like a bucket list.  For three people.  But we're not making it.  And we're not dying (knock on wood).

Three girls. 52 cards. One year.  Here goes.

{not just a dance?}

Day: 9 (and 13)

Throughout my 24+ years of life, I've taken a liking to a lot of twosomes:  PB and J, Bert and Ernie, Abercrombie and Fitch, Johnny and Depp (okay, that last one was a cheat, but come on, he is the only man in eyeliner ever worth swooning over).  When it comes to food, there's one pair that's tickled my taste buds since I was a wee one.  What you ask?  None other than chocolate and peanut butter.  Hence, my choice for recipe two was an easy one.

Recipe: Cooking Light's Peanut Butter-Chocolate Meringue Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1  ounce  unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/3  cup  powdered sugar
• 1/4  cup  unsweetened cocoa
• 2  large egg whites
• 1/8  teaspoon  cream of tartar
• 1/3  cup  granulated sugar
• 1/4  cup  reduced-fat peanut butter
• 2 1/2  tablespoons  powdered sugar
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  fat-free milk

 

Lessons Learned:  Most importantly, wax paper does NOT equal parchment paper.  Wondering why there are two days listed for this recipe up top?  Well, because I figured this rule out the hard way.  My first batch of meringues (if you can even call them that) stuck to the wax paper like white on rice.  I ate very few of them, and each that I did manage to force off the paper had just that stuck to the bottom.  Yep, I ate wax in the name of this blog.  How's that for dedication?  

Problem #2 was the size of the meringues.  I spooned the dough on to the baking tray having no knowledge of how big each mound was supposed to be.  In the end, I think I made eight meringues (I was supposed to have twice that number).  Not knowing how crucial the size of the cookies was to the final consistency of each, I popped them into the oven and plopped my self down on the couch to watch Ina Garten whip up something delicious.  I was sittin' pretty for the 75-minute cooking time and afterward, until I tried to pry the suckers off the sheet.  Oops.  The meringues were super flaky on top, but the texture of uncooked brownies on the inside.  Cue the mess.  While the batter tasted pretty good (even with a side of Reynold's) the whole ordeal was much more a trial than a triumph. 

{meringues...just like the pic on the CL website!}

Verdict: After a few days (read: ample time for my embarrassment to wear off), I re-attempted the recipe.  Everything went swimmingly this time around.  In fact, I just ate the last meringue from batch numero two and chuckled to myself a little as I licked the peanut butter filling off my fingers.  Hey, if everything went cleanly and smoothly, this blog would be far less entertaining, for me and for you.  So I suppose this week has added a new twosome to my repertoire: successes and failures.

{and so it begins}

Day: 1

Recipe: Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

• Kosher salt
• Vegetable oil
• 1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi
• 1 quart milk
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 12 ounces Gruyere, grated (4 cups)
• 8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar, grated (2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Twists: I skipped the tomatoes. Don't love those suckers.  But who knows, maybe I will by the end of this.  Also I switched the quantities of Gruyere and cheddar -- I'm not rich enough to buy what Ina does just yet (bummer).  Finally, I used gemelli because they didn't have cavatappi in stock on my block.  I'm no pasta connoisseur, but they look pretty similar to me so I went with it.

Lessons Learned: Buy grated cheese for goodness sake!  I had a small panic attack when I realized the pasta was done cooking, and I was barely into grating cheese block two of three.  Second, read the recipe beforehand and take note of how many pans you'll need and in what sizes.  I had to do some rearranging towards the end of the prep work to make sure I didn't spill cheesy goodness all over the kitchen (well, I did that anyways, but I chalk that up to being an amateur).

{eat this, kraft! pun intended.}

Verdict: Delish.  It's like grown up Velveeta.  But 500% better.  Not sure I could eat it every day for a week, but that's something I'm working on.  And luckily for me, I have two roomies and a lot of freezer space.  Move over, lean cuisines, there's a new dinner in town!

{challenge: accepted}

While brainstorming resolutions for 2011, challenging myself to eat more than a lean cuisine for lunch and/or dinner (yes, there were many of these such two-a-day occasions last year) immediately came to mind. 

It's not that I don't love to eat.  It's one of my top three favorite activities in fact, so here's a shout out to mom and dad for the quick metabolism (woop woop!).  If the saying "you are what you eat" really was true, I'd be in major trouble.  It's not even that I dislike cooking slash baking.   Mostly, it's just easier to buy one item (or ten if there's a sale) for $2.49 each and have a whole meal ready in six minutes or fewer than it is to plan out menus for which the prerequisites are 3+ elusive spices I'll never use again and a mess in the kitchen.  Oh, and I've never been very good at eating leftovers, so it seems like a waste of time (not to mention money) when I make any kind of multi-serving dish.

All that said, I l.o.v.e. cooking shows (thanks to big sis for turning me on to Barefoot Contessa in recent years -- she's the cat's pajamas) and the satisfaction received from planning, preparing, and finally enjoying a well-made and delicious meal.  So, what I determined from all this brainstorming is that the only thing standing between me and scrumdiddlyumptious meals in 2011 is a little motivation.  Well, what do ya know?  It's resolution season.  Game on.

Challenge: try a new recipe each week (or so) for the duration of 2011 (52 in toto) and blog about each one (the good, the bad, and the ugly- no cheating!)

Contestant: me, myself, and I

Stay tuned.  This could be awesome.  And it definitely will be messy.