{mozart is my homeboy}

It's Sunday night.  As per usual, I'm drinking tea (sometimes substituted for wine), cleaning my room, and making a mental list of the errands to run/bills to pay/tasks to take care of during the upcoming week.  The not-so-typical part of this evening?  No re-runs of Kourtney and Kim take New York can be heard.  Nope, I didn't temporarily give up my E! obsession for March Madness.  Wake Forest isn't even in the tournament this year, damnit.  In fact, I'm about halfway through the second of four movements in Mozart's Symphony #40.

This happiness challenge comes courtesy of my dear old dad.  I guess he took a liking more to the "challenge" part than the "happiness" thing, although I do have to give my old man credit, this music is kinda good.  I keep laughing at myself because between folding t-shirts (I hate laundry) I keep swaying my head and air-conducting.  You know, waving my fingers in the air all goofy like as if I am conducting the symphony and it's not just streaming out of my dell.  I'm sure it's a funny sight to see.  Thankfully I'm alone in my room, and no one can actually see it.

Gotta give it to ya pops, this classical stuff is a nice change from rap.  It's full of passion, strength, and energy.  Not boring or stuffy at all.  And that's music to my ears. Hah. 

I'm officially done with Symphony 40 now, and I still have cleaning to do.  Heck, I may even listen to another.  Wolfgang would be so proud.

Handy Candy

This weekend while at CVS, I make the mistake of walking through the candy aisle.  I should have just looked straight ahead and kept moving, like those horses in Charleston with blinders on their heads.  But alas, I turned, I looked, and I was hooked.

Peanut butter M&Ms are a vice for me.  A big one.  If you've ready any other blog posts, my pb/choco obsession will not come as a shock to you.  Plus, mainstream grocery/convenience stores don't always carry the PB variety of M&Ms (whomever makes these foolish inventory decisions should be fired), so when I do spot that b-e-a-u-ti-ful bright orange bag among the ranks of the candy display, my heart races and I inevitable scoop up a bag or two.  Or, in this weekend's case, a one pound sack.  I know, my gluttony is semi-gross, but they were on sale.  For THIRTY NINE CENTS.

At first I assumed there was a cruel typo on the price tag, and was going to employ what little self-control I maintain in the face of such amazingness.  Just to be sure though, I price-checked a bag, and after the rock-bottom cost was confirmed, I rang that sucker up quicker than you can say "sugar high."  In the name of balance (and over-indulgence), I also threw in a bag of Starburst jelly beans.  Some may say it's overkill, but since I got all two pounds of sugar for under two bucks, I just like to think that I jumped on the budget bandwagon. Happy Easter, kiddos.

{my tummy hurts}

{bake me a cake as fast as you can...}

This just in: the baker's man got it wrong.  Baking a cake as fast as you can doesn't actually produce a quality product.  I now know this from experience.  And I won't do it again.

Teacher roomie won the "who got the weirdest Christmas gift from a distant relative" contest this year.  The prezzie? An oversized chocolate cupcake kit. Yeaaaaaaaaah.

Considering even the baking bowl was included in the one-stop-shop, the only ingredient requirements for the "recipe" were nine tablespoons each of vegetable oil and milk (seems suspiciously specific to me), and three whole eggs.  If I wasn't feeling weird about this whole situation before, I was after I added said ingredients and attempted to stir them together.  Oil and milk don't mix well, and neither were this recipe and me.

{eggs, oil, and milk don't play well together}

I stirred and stirred and finally just gave up and plopped the whole thing in the microwave.  I spent the cooking time (yep, all five minutes of it) laughing with my roomies and trying to guess what the product would taste like.  I remained semi-optimistic, despite our consensus that something starting with three raw eggs could not possibly end up edible in under thirty minutes.

{maybe our weird wisk was the problem?}

I watched the whole shebang cook with my forehead pressed against the microwave (that whole brain damage side effect thing stopped years ago, right?) and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the final product was in fact more a solid than a liquid.  But, as Snow White and the Wicked Queen taught me a few years back, appearances can be deceiving.

{innnnnnnnteresting}

Yeah, the cake was gross.  And not really edible.  Roomies and I tried to cover the bitter, not-sweet-at-all taste with various toppings ranging from frosting to whipped cream, with little success.  None of us made it past bite #5 before throwing our forks down in defeat.

{rescue attempts...unsuccessful}

Oh well.  Lesson learned.  Final verdict: we should change the words to "patty cake, patty cake, baker's man, take your time making a cake with an actual oven and a pan."

{five favorites}

Five food & bev things I'm loving right now:

1) TAZO Calm Herbal Infusion Full-Leaf Tea

I drink it in the morning, I drink it in the afternoon during the sleepy hours at work, heck I'd drink it at midnight if I wanted to (yep, it's caffeine free so it won't jeopardize any of my beauty rest).  As the tin says, it's a "comforting blend of chamomile, rose petals & soothing herbs."  As I say, it tastes like happiness.  And flowers.  But in a good way.  And how could you not love a teabag that is that pretty?

{so zen}

2) Cadbury Creme Eggs

Yep, it's officially Easter season.  Well, in the local Giant anyways.  I couldn't resist picking up a cute little four-pack of the classic Cadbury eggs today.  I've eaten them every year since I can remember, and I just can't get enough.  I know they're a love or hate thing for most people, but I'm definitely in the former of the two camps.  The first second you get through the milk chocolate and into that delicious and creamy center is like a little slice of heaven.  Yes, there are only three eggs in the picture.  Because I couldn't wait to eat the first one.

{easter came early this year!}

3) vitaminwater zero "rise"

I'm not usually a diet sports drink kind of girl (I always find the "fruity" taste too fake), but this stuff changed my mind.  And bonus, it's calorie free and packed with vitamins c, b, a, and e.  The orange flavor tastes authentic, it's a good alternative to soda and other void-of-any-real-nutrients flavored waters, and if you're lucky, you can score the bottles for just $1-a-pop at the grocery.  Frugal and fantastic.

{tastes like a million bucks}

4) Dried Cherries

My mama turned me on to craisins a couple years back, and they're awesome on salads, in muffins, etc.  But then I found the Mecca of all dried fruit: CHERRIES.  Sure, they're super expensive (my typical brand is $5 for five ounces, which translates to ~3.5 servings), but they're also somehow tart and sweet and superrrr addictive.  When I bought my first bag a few months ago, I finished it off in less than a day.  Roomies and I used them for the brie en croute cherry sauce during our dinner party last month.  Truth be told, I'm eating some right now.  I tell you, they're ubiquitous.

{sweet as candy}

 5) Girl Scout Cookies

Need I say more?  When toothy Victoria visited our office last month with her order form and her adorable smile, I couldn't help myself.  Most of my coworkers chipped in for a few boxes.  Most of those people also have families to share their heart attacks cookies with.  I bought five boxes.  I don't have a family.  I just have two roomies with more self control than I have.  Got the cookies a week ago today, and since then, I've eaten 39 tagalongs.  What can I say, chocolate and peanut butter are my weaknesses.  Put them together and I'm done.  Thank goodness those girl scouts only come a knockin' once a year.

{all that's left one week later}

So that's what I'm digging these days.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Want a tagalong?

{dinner party? what are we, adults?}

Happiness challenge #2 (we did them out of order, sorry kids) came from a female co-worker and in the form of a dinner party.  Considering that I started this blog to write about new recipes I was trying in 2011, I'm not going to complain even a little bit that the first three challenge cards we picked were all related to food in some way (or in every way, for that matter).  The level of deviation from my original plan is minimized this way.  Shout out to all of you who haven't yet given us back your cards -- make 'em about food, please!  Also, get them in, the year is flying by!  But back to the matter at hand...

Step one: choose people.

Step two: choose food.

Admittedly, we probably should have done those two items in the reverse order, but the first step was way easier to complete, and we're "path of least resistance" girls, generally speaking.  The original idea was for each of us to invite one person (for a total of six eaters), but whaddya know, we ended up with nine.  Once we sent out the formal invites (read: BBMed and texted our way to a semi-confirmed guest list), it was time to hit up Whole Foods.

Our plan was to ask the experts at the seafood counter what they recommended, both fish and recipe wise.  The reality?  We just held up the line while staring blankly at several men in rubber gloves.  We ended up with two pounds of cod, which we figured was a whitefish that is hard to screw up, and whioh our friends and relatives found it to be good fodder for mockery.  "Who the heck gets cod?" was a common utterance from said loved ones.  WE DO, darnit.

After the fish incident, we stopped asking people for approval and just whipped out our plastic left and right and shopped til we dropped.  Well, dropped a lotta money anyways.  Three girls, three days, three stores (Whole Foods, Balducci's, and Harris Teeter), and waaaaaay more than $25 a piece later, we had a whole lotta food and a whole lotta work in front of us.

Final Menu:

Appetizers:
-Brie En Croute with Cherry Sauce 
-Spinach and Artichoke Dip with various dippers (heck yes for the Pepperidge Farm Entertaining Quartet!)

Main Course Meats:
-Backyard Bourbon-Marinated Flank Steak
-Tequila Lime-Marinated Cod

Sides:
-Grilled Asparagus
-Steamed Haricots Verts
-Ina Garten's Rosemary Roasted Potatoes (I love her like a fat kid loves cake)

Dessert:
-Paula Deen's Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake (This is why the above kid who loves cake is fat)


We cooked this monstrous menu on a typical Tuesday night.  I raced out of work (definitely a minute or two early, but I just couldn't contain my excitement) and began making the above cake heart attack at approximately 6:02 p.m.  While I did this, teacher roomie made an excel spreadsheet of all our dishes, including prep and cooking times, and taking into account oven temperature and cooling period requirements.  I make no apologies for our nerdiness here, this is where we went to school together, after all.

Despite teacher roomie's laudable attempt to keep us organized and our pulses from reaching "target heart rate" status, chaos ensued and we all almost lost our minds (and at one point, the entire uncooked cake).  Taking into account the novice-level culinary skills we possess, as well as the cramped kitchen we were working in, I think the dinner was a wild victory for us.  Not so sure Gail from Top Chef would agree, but our friends did (or at least they're good liars).  And I don't like Gail anyways.

Pictures of Note:

{coulda eaten only this and been happy}

{always a crowd pleaser}

{you say potato, i say YUM}

{two veggies? mom would be so proud!}

{perfectly pink}

Events/Things of Note:

1) Paula's cake begins with a chocolate cake mix.  Oh, and a stick of butter and an egg.  Also an entire box of powdered sugar, a whole package of cream cheese, another two eggs, and another stick of butter.  I couldn't even believe the recipe as I was following it, although I also couldn't believe how incredible good all that fat/sugar/cellulite tasted, so I guess I'll promise myself only to make it for very special people and very infrequently in the future.

2) Roomie #3 (I need an awesome nickname for her) remained in her work wear during the entire cooking process.  Maybe "work wear" is a good alias for now.  I, on the other hand, took a page out of Pebbles Flinstone's book and put my hair up like this (sans the bone):

{where's bam bam?}

 Also, I changed out of my chef's attire of choice (flour-covered yoga pants and an old sorority tee) just seconds before my invitee arrived.  We were quite the pair zooming around the kitchen. Our antics/outfits made things just a tad bit funnier for our guests.  It was like dinner and a show.

3) After all the cod mockery, it was a hit (and the favorite dish of several dinner guests).  Ha! Take that, haters!

4) There is such a thing as too much spinach and artichoke dip.  I ate it for lunch yesterday.  The original dinner party?  Nine days ago.  Thank goodness for modern refrigeration. 

5) On the contrary, you can never have enough wine. Ever.

{new fare, new fun}

Last night (yep folks, I mean on Valentine's Day), my roomies and I went on a triple date.  No boys allowed.  Just the three of us, Korean food, and a whole lotta floundering.

Throughout the course of the evening, I tried no fewer than 10 new dishes, took no fewer than 25 pictures (do you think my camera flash ruined the romantic atmosphere for the patrons around us?), and accidentally snorted from such intense laughter that those same patrons turned and stared no fewer than five times.  But more on that later.

I can honestly say it was one of the best V-days I've had in years.  Props to teacher roomie's half-Korean co-worker for providing us with happiness challenge #3.  We arrived feeling immensely challenged, and went home feeling happier than ever. Yo go, girl.

As soon as we pulled the card this weekend, we promptly realized that with our powers combined, we had exactly zero knowledge of local Korean restaurants.  Maybe less than zero.  Well, a few hours and an iPad later, we had yelp-ed our way to a location and a last-minute 7:00 reservation on the 14th.  Guess Korean isn't a popular genre on the most romantic of all days?  No worries, that fact worked in our favor (meaning there were fewer people there to witness our utter bewilderment with every aspect of the meal).

We showed up, we sat, we ordered wine (hey, we could do that successfully on the moon).  Then it came to food.  In the words of Scooby Doo, "Ruh-roh."  Thankfully, half-Korean co-worker didn't leave us totally out to dry - she provided us with several suggestions of what to order.  So what did we do?  Ordered exactly those dishes without giving it a second thought and without really reading the menu.  I did, however, take a picture of it (shocker, I know):

{only needed the wine list}

We were first presented with pretty simple salads (think iceberg lettuce, shaved carrots, a few rings of onion, and a ginger dressing reminiscent of type you'd get in any good sushi restaurant).  It was delish.  And bonus, it didn't raise my blood pressure.  Granted, watching roomie #2 eat with (and I use that term very loosely) chopsticks was beyond funny.  I reminded her at one point that, generally speaking, you hold the pair in the same hand, not one in each.  I'm practically giggling right now just thinking about it.

{salad, wine, and mystery sauce}

Now is about when things started to get really Korean (aka unfamiliar and awkward for us). Our waitress brought out bowl after bowl of nuts, beans, vegetables, etc. until the whole table was covered.  Each time she plopped something new in front of us, I peered across the table at my friends, hoping for a glimmer of recognition from one of them.  No dice.  Other than kimchi, we couldn't identify a single thing.  And wouldn't you know, we were 0 for 3 on liking that.  So began the "you try that one and I'll try this one...okay...ready...go" game, until at least one of us had tried everything (kimchi excluded).  During this time, teacher roomie took several covert cell phone pics, sent them to half-Korean co-worker, and provided us with some second-hand text message knowledge of what we'd just eaten.  For the most part, things were tasty (or at the very least edible by my uber-picky-eater standards).  Check out our table with all the goods:

Next up: main dish(es).  As I mentioned, we didn't veer very far (okay, at all) from half-Korean co-worker's suggestions.  Three girls, three dishes, one great gamble.

First dish: Chap Chae (meaning vermicelli noodles stir fried with beef and vegetables in special seasoned sauce).  Verdict: amazing.  Not too spicy, not too sweet, but just right.  The noodles gave chopstick-challenged roomie a little trouble, but in the end, we all got our fill, literally, and were more than happy with the schmorgasboard of veggies (carrots, onions, spinach, mushrooms) that is Chap Chae.

Dish #2: Dolsot Bibim Bap (meaning grilled and marinated beef and vegetables topped with a fried egg and spicy bean paste). Verdict: also scrumptious, although for me, not as good as the Chap Chae.  I have to admit, my stomach churned a little when I saw our waitress pop the fried egg over the whole bowl.  In 24 years, I've only ever eaten eggs hard-boiled or scrambled, and I'm not sure I ever mentally got over the yellow gooey yolk explosion.  However, all in all, I did somewhat savor the "mixed meal," which is precisely what bibim bap means in Korean (according to my good friend Wikipedia).  Sidenote: I think I said "bibim bap?!" two hundred times throughout the two hours, each time in an increasingly higher-pitched voice.  What a fun word to say.

{dolsot bibim bap, pre egg explosion}

Final dish: Bul Gogi (meaning thin slices of tender beef).  Both teacher roomie and I had eaten some form of this before and loved it, so we made an executive decision to save it for the end of the meal and pig out in case we didn't like anything else.  Is it just me, or does watching food cook in front of you make it taste that much fresher and more delicious?  I'm fairly certain I drooled at one point.  As one Rachael Ray has said a time or two (or ten thousand), "Yum-o!"

{open flame}

{bul gogi}

The final course was smooth sailing for us.  We were in our groove and were feeling good.  But hold the phone.  After we had plucked every last shred of Bul Gogi off the grill (we abandoned our chopsticks at one point and just went at it with our hands), our waitress presented us with one bowl each of a light yellow liquid.  So you have the visual:

{to drink or not to drink?}

				Teacher roomie immediately poises herself to daintily dip her fingers in the bowl (as if she was getting a manicure).  Considering we had just forsaken our forks, she figured this was like a palate cleanser, except made of soap and for your hands.  As this finger-dipping was occurring on one side of the table, I proceeded to cup the bowl in both hands and prepare to drink the contents.  Only when the liquid was about to hit my lips did teacher roomie and I lock eyes.  It took about .2 seconds to realize one of us was about to make the error of a lifetime.  Cue an eruption of laugher from all three of us.  Yep, this is when I snorted.  Several times.  We sat there for a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), paralyzed in fear and totally unsure of what to do.  Wide-eyed, we looked around, desperate for help from other patrons, but no one else had made it past main course, and our waitress/only beacon of hope in the situation was nowhere to be seen.  Crap. In the end, we pulled ourselves together, stopped the snorting, and summoned the courage (thanks roomie #2!) to ask the waitress what exactly we were supposed to do with our bowls of bubbles.  She mocked us with her eyes a little bit, but then politely let us know we had sweet water in front of us and not Palmolive.  Phew.  Crisis averted.  We resumed eating, drinking, and being merry. {my valentines} We had a great night.  Lots of laughs, and lots of love.  Thank you again to half-Korean co-worker for the excellent idea.  Here's to hoping our other challenges this year are as much fun as your was.  I'm thinking they might be.  And hey, I'll drink to that. {cheers}

{better than mrs. fields?}

So, I guess it's about time I give you that post I've been promising re: the oatmeal raisin cookies I made as part of happiness challenge #1 (courtesy of a goofy kid from Syracuse who lives across the street), huh?

Unlike the first time I put my baking cap on and made cookies (read about the meringue madness in last month's entries), this go-round, I followed the recipe to a T.  When Ina said jump, I asked how high.  Although, the only time I actually jumped was when I dropped a mixing bowl on the kitchen floor and it (totally unexpectedly!) shattered.  Who knew heavy duty plastic could break like that?!  Oopsie daisies.  Thankfully, said incident occurred after the cookie batter was safely in balls and baking away, so there was minimal mess (save the green plastic bits o' bowl on the floor of the kitch).

Well, the cookies turned out (according to the boys I made them for) ah-mazing with a capital "A."  I couldn't be happier.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words (and in this case I think it's truer than ever), here's how I documented the process.  Enjoy:

{ingredient army}

{pretty}

  

{rip}

{larger than life}

Moral(s) of the story?  1) Follow the recipe and everything will be smoother, tastier, better. 2) Cookies without chocolate can be good after all.  Yeah, I may have eaten one or two.  But as my mom used to say, "only to make sure they weren't poison."  Nice try, ma, I'm on to you.