Caprese Eggs Benedict

Breakfast today was a variation of Eggs Benedict. 

I put a poached egg on top of wheat toast (probably better with an English muffin), prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and tomato. I topped the whole thing with pesto hollandaise. It was terrific. 

Most of the recipe is pretty self explanatory, but here is how I made pesto hollandaise:

Combine 1/3 cup non-fat buttermilk, 1/3 cup light mayo, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons pesto. Microwave mixture for about 1 minute (until warm) then stir in 1 teaspoon of butter. (recipe adapted from Cooking Light)

Next time I make this, I'll definitely make it with an English muffin (or if I am in a pinch bread-wise again, I'll only make one slice worth). The pesto hollandaise is wonderful and I am going to have to include it in other recipes. 

Guacamole & The Incredible, Edible Egg

What's up there, lemon square!

I took another culinary adventure today. I found this recipe a few days ago and immediately pinned it on Pinterest thinking that I would eventually find the time for it. I spent all week thinking about it so I finally got all the ingredients yesterday and made it!

I didn't really follow the recipe and just kind of guessed based on the pictures. I just added hard boiled egg (discard the yolks) to regular guacamole. It turned out really great. I still have more avocados and might try the recipe to the letter later this week & take it to work for lunch. I will probably forget to post about that so just know that I am thinking about it, haha.

My guac browned a little bit even though I made sure to add lime juice (apparently the acidity is good for flavor as well as keeping it bright green). I ate this with pita chips and eventually just a spoon because it was damn delicious.

The Result!

Better Than Green Beer

I am way behind on blogging... my apologies.

Anyways, I tried out this recipe that Courtney showed me to make beer jell-o shots for St. Patricks Day. They turned out really well and were surprisingly very easy to make. I used Harp as the ale - but it would work with just about anything. They tasted pretty great too. You can add whiskey for an extra kick. It was nice to be able to do several and enjoy the flavor without the fear of getting too wasted from the traditional vodka kinda. 

Make some beer jello shots for your next party and let me know how it goes in the comments. 

texture!

yum!

Egg Onion Rings

My momma was in town this weekend. We went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo on Saturday and I will post about that later, but I wanted to share the breakfast I made this morning for us.

I was inspired to make this after having good success making eggs in avocados. I attempted eggs in onion rings. To make these I first lightly browned one ring of onion then flipped it over and put in the egg. The eggs didn't cook as well as I wanted them to so I ended up flipping them over to finish them off. In the end, I really liked the way it turned out.

I served the eggs with bacon (made in the oven, of course). This didn't turn out so well - the pack of bacon I had was really fatty and it didn't crisp up very well at all. And I finished the meal off with whole wheat toast.

I broke the yolk for my mom.

obviously I jumped the gun and took a bite before the photo, hah!

This Little Piggy Went to Market

I have been making an effort in the past few months to go to the local OB farmer's market which happens every Wednesday. Luckily traffic on the way home from work has cooperated and made it possible for me to hit the gym quickly before slipping over to the market as it winds down. This probably isn't the best strategy and I should do it in opposite order (as the gym is always open and not going anywhere), but it is less backtracking this way. 

Here are some instagramed up photos of things I got a couple weeks ago. I didn't get anything this last week and just enjoyed walking around with friends, the sights and sounds. 

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I am a big proponent of buying local and the farmer's market is a great way to support local businesses and farmers. BUT it is important to note that buying local is much more than just getting things at the farmer's market. I try to support local farmers etc when I buy at grocery stores etc. Be conscious of where your milk is coming from and all that - happy cows come from California! Even though it is coming from a bigger store, you can do your little bit by buying produce, dairy etc from California (or wherever you are from) producers first (maybe they aren't hyper local, but more local than the milk from Cincinnati that I saw this weekend). 

These cost a few bucks and a smile.

Super delicious and made with local ingredients

Okay, so this next one isn't from the farmer's market but I did get it while I was walking back to my apartment. It is an amazing ale - slightly sour but not over powering. I have since had the Rodenbach Grand Cru and it was also AMAZING. Loving these.

yum yum yum

Gimme Pizza

As I mentioned, I recently bought the fixings for pizza. I didn't really put two and two together until very recently that my pizza inspiration was probably directly influenced by Matt Stopera's coverage of the International Pizza Expo for BuzzFeed. 

Anyways... here is what I did:

First, I followed the instructions on the Fresh & Easy brand whole wheat pasta dough package to roll it out and prep it for topping goodness.

Then I topped the dough with yummy things. My pizza had the following: tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, shallots (thinly sliced), tomato slices, baby spinach, prosciutto, oregano, salt & pepper.

Then I brushed the crust with olive oil and cooked it according to the package instructions. It turned out pretty great.

Obviously, the next step was to slice and eat my delicious pizza. I put grated parmesan & red pepper flakes. It was terrific.

This is the second time I have used this dough and my only complaint is that it didn't keep so well. Well, the first time I tried this dough was with other people and we ate the whole thing so I don't actually have evidence to support this being a permanent problem. I do believe that the pizza not being so good leftover was caused in part by the extra moisture caused by my ingredients (tomatoes were very juicy and the mozzarella was moist too). Despite this, I will definitely be making pizza this way again. It was really fun to do and I am excited to try other ingredients. Go try making your own pizza and let me know in the comments what fun topping combos you come up with!

Baking a Steak?

I went grocery shopping today and decided to treat myself to a juicy steak for dinner. I bought a giant steak (for around $5 - no idea what cut or quality... I don't have a refined palate in this regard).

I tried out a cooking method that I never tried before and it was very successful.

Procedure:
First, marinate your steak. I used a bit of worcestershire sauce, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper (this is how my dad always preps steaks). Next, move your oven rack to the highest slot and set your oven to broil on high. Oil up your cast iron skillet and place your meat on it. Put the pan into the oven and cook each side about 4-5 mins (this gave me a medium-rare, but each oven is different - monitor that shit). Be careful not to burn yourself when flipping the steak. I used my thickest oven mitt to slide the rack out and long tongs to flip the meat. Those cast iron skillets get mad hot. Finally, remove from oven & pan, let rest and enjoy!

Sizzle

I finished off my meal with steamed asparagus (seems like I always do, huh... it was on super sale so I have a ton of it) and horseradish sauce (not pictured). 

HUGE meat!

It was a very big portion so I am going to slice up the rest and put it on a salad or in a burrito in the next day or so. I was very pleased with how this came out. It is really great to have that hot off the grill sort of vibe for a meal without having to fire up the grill outside in the frigid San Diego weather (it was 75 degrees today...).

I only ate half

Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments. 

Don't Leave, Let's Order Breakfast!

I made myself a pretty good breakfast this morning so I thought I'd share.

What you need: egg(s), asparagus (steamed, roughly chopped), bacon (cooked & crumbled), tomato (chopped), grated parmesan, salt, pepper, hot sauce (optional).
Procedure: Scramble the first 4 ingredients together, top with the rest. Enjoy!

This is an easy way to use up leftover veggies from the night before. Try it; hope you like it!

Dinner Hacking

I kinda failed at grocery shopping the last time I went - didn't really plan out complete meals. So I have been doing some hackery for my dinners recently. Here is my semi successful creation:

Pretty Good! 

I combined chopped, steamed asparagus, wide egg noodles, swedish meatballs and a horseradish-y sauce. For the sauce, I combined light sour cream, prepared horseradish, minced garlic, lemon juice & salt. I love this sauce and make it often (especially for when I grill steak). However, it wasn't quite right for this dish... but whatever. The asparagus and swedish meatballs played well off of each other and I think with the right sauce to bring this all together the dish could be a total success instead of just semi-successful.

Any ideas on what sort of sauce I should make? I suppose next time I could try the sauce that you usually put on a traditional swedish meatballs dish, but it might be nice to mix it up with something different; maybe lemon buttery? Comment with your ideas.

Romance Yo' Self

I wanted to have breakfast in bed this morning... but I live alone and no one will make food for me but me - doesn't really work out. So normally when I have this feeling I take myself out to a nice brunch or something, but instead I was ambitious today and made a yummy breakfast. Here are the details -

What you'll need: Avocado, couple eggs, salt, pepper, tin foil and a baking sheet.

the fixings!

Cut the avocado in half, hull out a little bit so the egg will fit, plop in the egg. I placed each half on a little tin foil bed so that it would sit level. Put salt and pepper on top. Cook in the oven til the egg is cooked.

raw!

Maybe next time I'll melt some cheese on top.

cooked!

My final step was to serve with a piece of whole wheat toast and some strawberries.

delicious!

It turned out wonderful. It looks pretty impressive for not a lot of work. And I am such a sucker for warm avocado... YUM. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

Greatest Since Sliced Bread

On a whim, I purchased Rosemary Focaccia Dough at Fresh & Easy for $1.69. It ended up being mad easy to make and very tasty. 

Wrapper McPackaging

The simple instructions are to take out of the package, pat it out into an even blob, put on greased baking sheet, let it rest, dimple with your finger, prick it with a fork, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt  & dried herbs (if desired) and bake. Sort of sounds like a lot of work, but really it takes no time at all.

Dimples McDough

My bread came out lop-sided. Not sure why - some magical air bubble or something. Regardless, it tastes great. I am going to feel so fancy making a sandwich with this. Not to mention that it was cheap as heck for the impact it makes on a meal & how much it makes.

Tasty McBread

Overall, I give it high marks and will definitely be getting this again in the future.

I'm Lovin' It: At Home McMuffins

Before heading out of a long hike (which I'll write a post on later), I decided to make some imitation Egg McMuffins for the gang. 

I tried out a new technique for making the eggs. I cooked them in muffin tins in the oven. This was extremely easy. Basically all you have to do is grease the pan with cooking spray, plop the egg in (breaking the yolk if desired - I did since McDonald's does too) and bake. I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on the top of each one before throwing them in the oven. 

easy like Sunday morning

The only downside is that a regular muffin tin ends up making the eggs a little too small for an english muffin. So I skirted this problem by breaking each egg a little so it covered the surface area of the english muffin.

y u so small?

hulk smash!

To finish off the McFakeMuffins, I put one strip of bacon (made in oven) and a cheese slice. I used whole wheat english muffins, low sodium bacon and 2% milk cheese slices. They turned out really well. Next time I will make them with turkey sausage patties.

suck it, Micky Ds

Super Bowl World Peace

I was originally planning to host a get together with SD peeps for the Super Bowl but that shit didn't work out (lame). So I turned those lemons into lemonade and partied elsewhere - here are some highlights.

Since both teams (Giants & Patriots) have pretty much the same colors and I didn't have heavy loyalties either way, I decided to go with a simple red, white & blue outfit. Also, since I live in Sunny SoCal I had the luxury of wearing shorts in February; suck it everywhere else. The look is a little 4th of July (or some similar America! holiday), but I think it was successful.

Shorts: Ann Taylor Loft, Tank: Don't Remember , Sweater: Target, Shoes: Keds, Necklace: Vintage

Detail of necklace - Vintage from my grandma

Onto the food! 

I made a veggie platter and buttermilk ranch dip with bacon bits & green onion. It was really great and ended up being pretty low-cal (bonus!).

Steamed asparagus, steamed french green beans, raw carrots & celery

Next, the main course was swedish meatball subs. I thought it would be a fun little twist on the old standard of a meatball sub with marinara sauce. I definitely liked these more than the traditional, but then again I like a swedish meatball meal better than spaghetti and meatballs... soooo, live your dream.

I tried to make this crap picture better with instagram... didn't really work.

And finally, for dessert I made brownies, cut them into football shapes and iced on laces. The icing was a little runny so the laces didn't really come out as well as I had hoped, but they were a real hit anyways. Lesson learned: make food shaped like the ball of the sport you are watching and you are a culinary winner (this may fail if you make hockey pucks).

Fudge-y! 

Game, Commercials, Madonna 


I wasn't very excited about the match-up mostly because I don't have any favorite players on either team and just generally don't much care one way or the other for either team. I did end up rooting for the Giants because of Lex and my mom suddenly deciding she liked JPP. It was a really good game - and the last quarter was classic.

The commercials seemed weak this year and I was hoping for some more memorable stuff. The kind of things you talk about at the watercooler. oh well... not buying a car, beer, phone or whatever else they were selling.

I thought Madonna's performance was solid. It was overly theatrical which is exactly what I expected from her doing the Super Bowl. I was so ready to make jokes about her super toned arms but they were censored with sleeves (boo!). The highlights were, of course, MIA flipping off the camera and Cee Lo's teeth. The lowlight was everything about LMFAO (though, I did laugh at the "I workout" bit).

Not too shabby of a day for last minute. 

You Had Me At Bacon...

I was up early this morning so I decided to be ambitious and make a fancy breakfast for myself. I was inspired by this post to try two things - one, baking bacon and two, making it into heart shapes. 

Baking bacon is the smartest thing on the planet. Here is what to do: 

1. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Arrange bacon on foil lined sheet. Put into cold oven.
3. Set temperature for 400 degrees. Go do other shit for about 15-20 mins. Look at it for the last few minutes to know when it is done. 
4. Remove from oven and immediately drain bacon on paper towels. 

SO EASY. And hot bacon fat won't pop in your eye like traditional pan frying does. Also, lining with foil makes clean up so simple - you can funnel the bacon fat into a container and save it for later if you want. 

HEARTS: This was not so easy. I first tried cutting one strip of bacon in half and arranging it - not so effective. I also tried with full strips of bacon which was a major fail (didn't even picture it). I had mixed success with my final methodology which was to quarter each strip and then arrange into a heart. The meatier parts of the bacon work way better for this so you might want to just take the fattier parts and lay them flat instead of trying to make them into a heart (see how it shrivels in the top left corner of the fail picture). 

This would be a nice breakfast in bed/Valentine's Day meal. Try it out. Let me know how it works out!

Adorable

Meat Candy

oops

All the Splendor and Romance of 11th Century Spain

In case you were wondering... I want to go here.

angels!

Days 10-16

Catching up:

Day 10: Talk about your pets, or the pets you would like to have.

My parents wouldn't let me have a pet for a very long time, with the exception of one very awesome goldfish I won at a school fair. I named him Spencer and I cried when he died a year later. There was an elaborate funeral at my toilet.

When I was 17, I was given the most amazing bunny in the entire world. I named him Bobby because he moved his head like the crazy detective Vincent D'Onofrio played on L&O: Criminal Intent. Bobby passed away a little over a year ago and I still cry about it (read as: "as I am typing this"). Every time I go to my parents house, I still expect him to be there - I go to shut the door quickly so he doesn't go out the front and I look around when I put my feet down as not to step on him. I cried so much when he died. Especially since my job and the driving distance between SD and my parents house prevented me from being there when he was ill and passed. I'll never forgive San Diego for that. I really hope it didn't hurt to much when he went and that he knew I loved him so much.

I also had the great fortune to have Sir be a part of my life. Sir is a clinically insane min-pin/something cuddle dog.

He is incredibly adorable and I miss hanging out with him. He and I shared a whole lot of time together, him being a dog and me being unemployed. I will never forget when Kate and Courtney brought home this scraggly looking dog in Kate's shoulder bag. I believe my first words about him were "that is a dog!" I miss having him around and it was a treat and a half to visit Kate and Riley and see him again this fall. (wtf is that pose in the picture...)

I now live with my roommate's dog Bella. She is very well trained but not my cup of tea. I have discovered I am definitely a small animal type of person, but it is very nice to have a dog that knows your the honk your car makes when you set the alarm and waits for you at the door to say OMG OMG YOU ARE HOME OMG OKAY DONE.

Day 11: Your top three favorite bands.

I liked Heather's idea of letting the internet tell me - it said Motion City Soundtrack, Butch Walker and The Avett Brothers.

MCS seems to be a relic of my middle college years. I think Ryan Adams/Elliot Smith/Jeff Buckley/the Decemberists/Ponderosa/The Mountain Goats get played way more.

These are the consistent elements of my musical library. I try to listen to new stuff all the time. And hip hop plays a big part in my musical life. But I can say with certainty that Butch and the Avett Bros are favorites.

Day 12: Your thoughts or opinions on Harry Potter.

I haven't read the books and I remember thinking when they came out that they were too young for me. I can say with certainty that I have seen the first, sixth and seventh (pt 1) movies. Based on this I think Ron is the best.

Day 13: Your thoughts or opinions on Mean Girls.

I know I watched it, but beyond that I don't really recall much of anything about the movie. I know Tina Fey wrote it. These are the entirety of my thoughts on the subject.

Day 14: Do you have siblings?

No.

Day 15: Tell us your favorite junk food.

Soda isn't a food, but if it was I would pick soda. However, since it is excluded I will have to go with something else. I am not sure this counts as junk food but I love meat, cheese and crackers. I could eat trays full.

Day 16: Your favorite Disney Princess movie.

I have always loved The Little Mermaid. I also very much love Disney's Alice in Wonderland... but she isn't a princess.

Frozen Fruit Cold Compress

12 10 08

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I also may become one of these:

Quotable

Check out this craigslist ad here. 

I love it.

And finally, my life is strangely like Fight Club in many aspects:

A house full of condiments and no food... how embarrassing. 

What is Next?

Some things about my new job:

I sit in a lawn chair and work at a really fancy computer. This makes me lol. 

The hours are strange - 1-8pm: mostly because those are more active hours for people to be online and searching for things to do in the space and still within semi-normal hours for work. 

These hours sort of throw me off... I am more productive in the evenings but at the same time I want to be off work when the rest of everyone is. This is why I am considering not keeping on with this kind of work in the future. 

I am also more motivated to go to the gym after work, but the lyon center hours during the summer preclude that. I guess I will just get fat. But at the same time I end up not eating much more than a snack before I leave (and no breakfast [who eats breakfast anymore?]) and then a soda and snack at work and then a dessert-esque snack after I get home. This is so unhealthy - maybe it will make me thin... lol. 

Real work will start happening next week. I have an orientation session on Monday about the more specific things that I am going to be doing on a day to day basis to get traffic to the site. Hopefully I can achieve the goals they want. 

I don't know if I want to do this with my life in the future. When I am here I think it is okay, when I leave I don't really want to... everything is hard.

I want to do nothing and just go on road trips and blog about them. 

Truth