.market-inspired salads.

Scott and I love eating salads...they're a light and delicious meal and you're able to sneak in vegetables amid the dressing, cheese and croutons.  That being said, even though we eat them we don't eat different varieties of salads.  Usually our salads will consist of Romaine lettuce, carrots, cheese, croutons, bacon bits, and whatever dressing we want that day (and we keep a large variety in the fridge at all times!).  

However, after making a very successful trip to the farmer's market this weekend, we were able to venture into some different types of salads.  The first salad contained fresh Romaine, spinach, and Lamb's lettuce, so we definitely had a variety of greens.  Then I tossed in some large chunks of tomatoes, broccoli, some mushrooms, cheese, and Italian Vinaigrette dressing.  This would have  been a fine meal by itself along with some bruschetta, but we had also picked up some rabbit tenderloins (another adventurous move) and marinated them in some red strawberry wine.  After they thawed we dipped them in an egg wash and brushed on some bread crumbs and salt & pepper.  To top off this meal, we had some delicious sweet corn with it as well.

 

For dinner I was craving salad again so I put together our three greens, some chopped strawberries, mushrooms, shredded parmesan, crushed black pepper, and Caesar vinaigrette.

We are very glad to have found a farmer's market near us with a great variety of produce, meat, and bread! Here are some other recipes for salads that I hope to be trying soon: Recipes from AllRecipes.com

another pudding recipe : )

The other day, I wrote about my recent rediscovery of instant pudding and all of its wonderful possibilities in dessert recipes.  Today I was sent a recipe from Taste of Home that I thought I would share, and it too uses instant chocolate pudding.  Obviously I haven't tried it yet, but it looks absolutely delicious!  Here is the recipe for Frosty Coffee Pie (It seems the only downfall might be the calorie-count - 1 piece = 429 cal.):

• 8 Servings
• Prep: 15 min. + freezing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
• 1 chocolate crumb crust (9 inches)
• 3 cups coffee ice cream, softened
• 1 package (5.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1/2 cup cold strong brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup cold milk
• 1-3/4 cups whipped topping
• 1 cup marshmallow creme
• 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• Directions

• Spread ice cream topping into crust. In a large bowl, beat the ice cream, pudding mix, coffee and milk until blended; spoon into crust.
• In another bowl, combine the whipped topping and marshmallow creme; spread over top. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Cover and freeze until firm. Yield: 8 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 1 piece equals 429 calories, 17 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 20 mg cholesterol, 463 mg sodium, 67 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 5 g protein.

In other news, I am eagerly decorating our balcony.  Luckily CVS was still having its bogo sale on the beige outdoor chairs so I bought two of them and put the two seat covers on them.  They look fabulous! The plastic pots I bought from IKEA did not have holes in them for the water to drain so Scott drilled holes in them for me and they are ready for flowers.  I think I'm going to wait on those though because it's supposed to be a little chilly again this week.  Hopefully we can go get some African marigolds sometime in another week or two. 


In light of the delightful spring weather, I thought I would also include this poem by one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins: 

"Today"
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

Ode to an underrated dessert & dress success

Last Friday I had to make a trip to the Dollar General store for some allergy medicine (I've been having awful pressure headaches) and while there I just happened upon a display of instant Jell-o pudding packets. For some reason when I saw it I started craving pudding, so I picked up a few packets and some vanilla wafers. At home I mixed 2 cups of cold milk and the chocolate pudding packet and then I layered vanilla wafers and pudding to make a little pudding cake.   I popped it in the fridge for a few and within minutes I had a deliciously simply dessert.  


I once made this homemade tiramisu using instant pudding; it's simple, fast, and it turned out to be absolutely delicious (it looks pretty too!).  You just don't see many people making dessert using pudding anymore, but I have to say it's definitely an underrated dessert.  There are so many things you can do with it!  Here's the recipe for the tiramisu.

I can remember being excited when I was little about going to Golden Corral or Prime Sirloin so I could go to the dessert bar and get heaps of chocolate pudding (yes, I know they make snack packs and mom would buy those for my lunch, but there was something about scooping out a big spoonful into the little dish and sticking a cookie in it or something like that!)  


Needless to say, I have gotten into an instant pudding kick since my rediscovery of it the other day, and I'm bringing Scott with me!  Right now we have a huge bowl of vanilla in the fridge and I just made a mini-serving of the tiramisu for my lunch tomorrow.


Also, for the last few days I have desperately (and frustratingly) been trying to find an outfit, preferably a dress, to wear for my undergraduate commencement in May.  While Scott worked out the other day, I went everywhere from Forever XXI to Banana Republic and couldn't find one dress that I liked.  I browsed Modcloth.com yesterday evening, but found that all the dresses I liked were either out of stock or over-priced.  


Finally, today before class I popped into Khol's and found a lovely floral brown summer dress with pink accents.  I was so excited when I saw it (and especially when I saw the price!).  I have to say, I just really don't like the styles of dresses right now.  They are all made out of cotton and look like bathing suit cover-ups.  I found two other "everyday dresses" at Khol's and purchased them as well! I get so excited when I can find dresses I like because it just doesn't happen very often! 

One chicken...three meals!

On Friday I bought a rotisserie chicken from the local market where we go to buy meat.  It was only $5.99 and it was a reasonably-sized chicken.  My mom has taught me to bargain shop and I knew this was a good deal! That night we had delicious chicken, a fresh salad, and some french bread.  We stripped the rest of the chicken off the bone and put it in the fridge.  On Sunday we were craving chicken and broccoli alfredo so we brought out the chicken again.  We sauteed some broccoli and some strips of some of the leftover chicken in olive oil, butter, and italian seasoning.  Then we added our alfredo sauce to the pan (not too much...you only want it to lightly coat your noodles).  We always just buy our alfredo sauce at the store and spice it up with some basil and ground pepper. We poured our penne pasta into the pan and tossed it, adding shredded mozzarella cheese on top.  It was another delicious meal!

  

We still weren't finished with our leftover chicken! Today we decided we wanted chicken and cheese quesadillas with brown rice.  

 

We still have a little bit of chicken leftover but I'm not sure what our next meal will be.  But it just goes to show you, if you play it right you can have three meals from a small rotisserie chicken.

Julie + Julia + Julian (post 1)

So I'm sure most know about the new film, "Julie and Julia."  If not, Julie is a "government drone by day, renegade foodie by night," a blog writer from Brooklyn who decides to start blogging about cooking through Julia Child's cookbook.  This brings in Julia Child, who even more people know, as the great American cook who learns the art of French food! The film is about these two women's lives and I try to watch it at least twice a week...I just love it! I decided to start a series of posts where I will blog about food and end with a word from my third character, Julian of Norwich.  Julian was a 14th Century Christian mystic who received visions from God and wrote them in her work called, The Showings of Julian of Norwich.  I did my senior seminar paper in my undergrad on her writings as early feminism.


So my first topic: Cornbread
I can remember eating cornbread probably before anything else.  Mom would make two or three small pones in her little cast-iron skillets and we would put butter on it right out of the oven so it would melt. I would take it in my lunch the next day, and I just don't think there is a better snack! I have gotten quite good at making cornbread already (still waiting for the success with corn muffins) and use my mom's trick of using Martha White self-rising cornmeal.  You just follow the instructions on the bag and then, (what they don't say in the recipe), before placing the mixture in the oven, add a little of your oil to ensure that it doesn't crumble.  When you take it out of the oven, don't try to take it our with a spatula; lay your serving plate down and plop the cornbread right on there upside down.  (The bottom of the cornbread often looks better than the top anyway.)  Scott and I prefer our cornbread pretty crisp on the outside but very soft and white on the inside.  This way you get a good crunch in your first bite!  Here was one of my first attempts!

Here is a link to other cornbread recipes! 

Cornbread Recipes

So, as promised, to end the food discussion, I will end with a word from Julian, her most famous: "All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well"