And furthermore...

I know it seems like I only take pictures of food now. That's because I do only take pictures of food now. Well, it's because I don't have a camera so I borrow Ryan's to snap a photo or two...which is usually at dinner...and that's about it! Soon I'll take more photos of other things before you start thinking it's a food blog!

The photo is actually random here but it's of the flowers my mom sent to me a few weeks ago. I thought it jazzed things up a little.

Things eaten with the sauce

So, remember how I made that tasty sauce the other day? It was because I was craving crab rangoon in the worst way. I'm not sure why recovering from stomach flu inspired that of all things but I went with it.

In my mind I was going to make these crab rangoon with tofu and reduced fat cream cheese and see what happened but then I failed to think about the state of the tofu in my fridge - which wasn't good - so they wound up being just low fat cream cheesy. Regardless, they were pretty fun to make and tasty too. Next time I'll bump up the flavors a lot more as well as put in some tofu!

Anywho, they were great with the ginger sauce. And that over there was some pad thai we made that night as well. Ryan and I were great in the kitchen that night - working our tails off for a fun dinner.

The last photo is of dinner tonight. Ryan made it all by his lonesome while I was sitting in snow traffic and pondering life's complexities. He used the ginger sauce as a marinate on the chicken kebabs, made a cilantro-lime brown rice (with his signature presentation style in the dome) and a salad with apples, carrot, green pepper, peanuts with a white wine vinaigrette. It was scrumptious!

All in all, the ginger sauce was a huge hit and I couldn't help but imagine what else I could use it on like poured over a cake, marinating salmon, used as a salad dressing...it's a perfect little sauce if you like ginger.

I think it's cool

I have really no good way to loop these thoughts together tonight except they're all things that I thought to myself, "Holy smokes, that's so cool!"

1) I am in love with my new cutting tools! Friday my friend Amy gave me a present out of the blue. It's a double-bladed mezzaluna. If you're not a total foodie geek like I am you might not know what it is but see it there on the left. It's a curved set of two blades with handles on either end so you can rock it back and forth and cut things. It's so great for herbs and other stuff you just want to rough chop. Tonight it was glorious for finely chopping up ginger after I had cut it into tiny strips with my new Martha Stewart knife my mom gave me for Christmas! Good knives make Kim a happy cook.



2) I went to the store tonight and was checking out the sweet & sour sauces. I wanted to see if there was any upscale sauce with that kind of idea...something fresh...something new...not red and sticky. I couldn't really find anything exactly but I did see a fancy almost $5 bottle of this Tangy Ginger Sauce by Chinablue. I read the ingredients: Cider vinegar, Sugar, Ginger, Soy sauce. I thought, "Hmmm...I bet I could make that." So tonight I decided to use my noggin to plug around the internet and I found the recipe written by the founder of Chinablue himself! It was so insanely easy I made it in a few minutes. Joy!




3) When I went to take a picture tonight of my sauce and the mezzaluna I couldn't find Ryan's camera anywhere! I called him at band practice only to find out he brought it with him. :( Then I remembered my new and beautiful crazy green phone that has a much better camera than my last 80-year old phone. The best part? I took the photo and then Bluetoothed it to my computer! AH! I know this is dorky but I'm new to the Bluetooth scene. I'm just totally in awe of how completely cool it is. No emailing it! No burning disks! Fantastic!

Here's the recipe for that sauce, by the way:

Tangy Ginger Sauce
from Richard Wong's Modern Asian Flavors

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
7 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 cup very finely minced peeled fresh ginger
Makes about 1 cup

Heat the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce together in a small pan just until the sugar has melted. Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the ginger, stir well, and refrigerate until cold. The sauce will keep, tightly covered, for several days in the refrigerator.

Notes from the chef:
This is a variation on our family's dipping sauce for steamed, fresh crab Its clean, tart-and-sweet flavor enhances the crab's sweet meatiness. It is one of the first sauces I created for my company, chinablue. Tangy Ginger Sauce is great as a dressing the greens or fruit salads, to pour over vegetables, or to marinate salmon, or as a sauce for steamed, grilled, or baked fish. The sauce gives flavor to simple stir-fry dishes when added for the last few minutes of cooking. The flavor is a great inspiration for desserts as well. The recipe may he doubled.

Cheddar Bay

I've had quite a week of sickness. On Monday I came down with the stomach flu and by Wednesday I had a cold on top of it. I'm surprised I was able to maintain some sense of friendliness since I was feeling pretty cranky most of the week from eating plain rice and toast. How Ryan has put up with me all week I don't really know. He's a saint.

So last night after a fit of whininess where I laid across his dresser and dangled my feet, whimpering about how hungry I was, I took a pathetic nap to ignore the issue. My rice tolerance was intolerant. My ability to be happy with applesauce was exhausted. Clearly I was losing it because I don't nap - ever. My mom knows very well that I can't nap (God bless her). But when I got up I decided all I wanted to eat was drop biscuits. I figured I could probably keep those down. Ryan and I hunted around and found a recipe for the Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster. Honestly, they're the best thing on the menu...especially if you're eating at the one in Lincolnwood.

I'm proud to announce that not only was I able to eat said biscuits but I was able to eat some cornflake-crusted chicken and two, hear me, two tablespoons of corn without dying. I'm still blushing with pride.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits:

2 c Bisquick(R) baking mix
2/3 c milk
1/2 c shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/4 c butter, melted
1/4 t garlic powder
parsley flakes (if you have them and I didn't)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine Bisquick(R), milk and cheddar and stir with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds.
3. Spoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
5. Combine butter and garlic powder and pour over hot biscuits; sprinkle with parsley.

Made 6 big drop biscuits.

I found that the middle rack didn't really want to brown the tops of the biscuits very well so I moved them up to the top rack after a while. You know your oven best (or at least you should) so do what seems right but I'd say probably do 1/2 - 2/3 the time in the middle and then the rest of the time on the top rack.

Butterscotch and Coconut

When I'm thinking about making cookies it's usually along the lines of chocolate, maybe with cherries, oatmeal with milk chocolate chips...I don't know...lately I've been in the flashy chocolate kind of mood so maybe that's why it was so surprising that I decided to make a batch of Butterscotch Coconut Drops.

I made the recipe a few years ago at Christmas and found them to be so insanely good that I flagged it. You'll be amazed at people's reactions. Everyone who tried them seemed to flip out. One girl even proclaimed it was her new favorite cookie. It seems like a ho-hum innocent cookie until you eat it and then, next thing you know, you're an addict and you're pulling up your couch cushions looking for change for another bag of coconut.

Here's the recipe:

Butterscotch Coconut Drops

3/4 c sugar
3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c butter, softened
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 c flaked coconut
1 c butterscotch chips

Heat oven to 375. In large mixer bowl combine sugar, brown sugar and butter. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 to 2 minutes). Add eggs and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda and salt. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). By hand, stir in coconut and butterscotch chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let stand 1 minute: remove room cookie sheets. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies. From Lake O' Lakes Recipe Collection.

I love how they kept saying (1 to 2 minutes) in nearly every sentence. By the last time I thought they were just starting to mess with me!

Regifting

Within the last year I started seriously recycling. Now, I had gone through phases of recycling but had lost a lot of faith in the lame Chicago "Blue Bag Program" which was a heap of bull. The idea is that you'd put your recyclables into blue bags and throw them in with the regular garbage and they'd be fished out later by sorters. Now, that's after being crushed and dumped and whatever else...so most of the times the bags tear open and wouldn't be fished out - even IF they really have someone there to sort them. But anyway, the point was that Ryan and I figured out that our recycling center is less than a mile away (embarrassment ensued from this finding) and I started rinsing out everything I could and piling it up in bins.

So right before Christmas I pulled out stuff from last year which included a bunch of Christmas cards that I had saved and I realized I was on a gift tag gold mine! I started cutting up my card from Cathie last year (which wound up being the majority of the gift tags I used this Christmas!), a mailer from the Gap, a post card from DEPART-ment, and next thing you know I'm addicted. Tonight I went through the cards I received right around Christmas and started cutting them up for future gift tag use. Maybe you'll recognize your Christmas card in the pile or even your thank you note! I'm happy to have added them into my gift wrapping repertoire.

A major award

At the company party on Friday I was voted "Office Comedian" by my peers and won a $50 gift certificate to a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant. Hooorrrraaaayyy!! I was stunned and literally speechless although the boss was pressing me to tell a joke. I'm not a joke teller! I'm a situational humorist!

If you're wondering how I could possibly be funny based on my sometimes humorless blog posts I'd say, "I'm a professional. I choose to keep my humor at work and my blog all business."

On a side note, I also lost my camera that night. I think it might have never made it out of the cab. :(

This is making me use my scanner more which is kind of fun. Just wait until I start the self portraits!

Resolution #2

So, let's be honest, I looked pretty bad at the end of 2007. I think a combination of sickness, lack of motivation, general malaise and a particular feeling of hatred for all of my clothes led me down a path of looking a little rough every day. I don't think I wore makeup more than 5 times in all of December, I tried to plan my days around which hoodie I felt like wearing and was even lackluster about shoes! Heavens!

This inspired my other New Year's Resolution:

Let's go head and try to look better.

So each morning before work I think, "Ooooh gaaaaaawwwwww...I just want to wear my pink robe to work. I hate my clothes!" I have to move through that feeling and find something that looks ok - and not a hoodie with a t-shirt underneath! Then I move onto the makeup portion of the morning. Subsequently, my mornings are taking FOREVER right now because I'm digging around in my closet for thirty minutes, then digging around in drawers for another 15, then standing at the mirror again for another 10 groaning...you see how this goes. Next thing I know it's late thirty and I have to run!

But I will admit that it's nice to sit here and know that I am projecting myself at work as "not a schlub" if not looking pretty cute.

Delayed Reaction from the Gang

Since Janet and John had to born right around the holidays, they tend to get a little less attention than they should for their birthdays. This year I really tried to not forget...and I didn't...but I still feel bad that the gifts usually come late and I'm not there making them do karaoke and eat lots of cake.

So this year our pal Joyce sent out the word that we were having a delayed birthday get together for our favorite friends Janet & John. Since my birthday was so deliciously memorable at Piece last year, they chose to eat pizza for their birthdays too.

Here's the gang last night celebrating our favorite couple.

With much love,
Kim

Leftover

I'm not huge on New Year's resolutions. I find that I either set the bar too high that I give up or I come up with something just whack to begin with so the next thing you know you're feeling that pang of, "Well, I already am so far behind in this...maybe I should just quietly abandon ship when everybody forgets." Plus, everyone else is hoping you don't remember they mentioned they were going to run 5 miles a day too.

One thing I am going to try to be better about is not buying food at work. Now, hear me plainly, I didn't say "I'm never going to buy food at work" (because now that I say that I really want to buy a bagel or something this morning!) but I'm saying that I'm going to really try NOT to. It's just like losing weight...a daily struggle where you have to pull back into your rational mind and say, "My goal is this - now do I really want that?"

NO! Of course not. (mostly)

Salmon

So this weekend I decided it was time to cook some things that would be uber healthy for us, get in as many fruits and vegetables as possible as well as challenge myself by making some new things. Of course this meant a Saturday afternoon going to the big fruit market I love but then that also meant I had to go to Whole Paycheck to get some specific items. Alas, I spent way too much money there but seriously, I'm not going to go buy fish at Dominick's either.

The first thing on the list for the weekend was to tackle making salmon. I cheated a little by buying the sides at the above mentioned expensive grocery store but come on now, ginger sweet potatoes? Cranberry couscous? Sounded great to me so I caved! Anywho, the salmon recipe I found was in the Oct. 2007 Cooking Light magazine. It was super easy, tasted superb and looked great too. I halved the recipe (since I was only making two pieces of fish) and made one addition to it at the end*.

Bourbon Glazed Salmon

3 T brown sugar
3 T bourbon
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
1 T grated peeled fresh ginger
1 T fresh lime juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 t ground pepper
4 (6 oz) skinless salmon fillets
Cooking spray
1/4 c thinly sliced green onions
1 T sesame seeds, toasted
*1 c orange juice (my addition)

1) Combine first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add fish to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 1 1/2 hours, turning occasionally.
2) Heat a large nonstick skilled over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fish and marinade to pan; cook fish 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Place 1 filled on each side of 4 plates; drizzle each serving with about 2 teaspoons of sauce. Sprinkle each serving with 1 T green onions and 3/4 teaspoon sesame seeds. Yield: 4 servings.

So when I made it the sauce got really thick in the pan...maybe because I halved the recipe and there was less liquid to deal with. I then made the executive decision to add in 1/2 c (above I wrote 1 cup if you're using the full recipe for four people) of orange juice in the pan to deglaze. After scraping around in the pan to get all the stuck-on bits I let the sauce simmer down until it had reduced and then poured it over the fish. I think that my addition made this dish even better than it would have been. The orange juice added a brightness that I really liked.

Engaged!

Hi Everybody!

So...

Ryan proposed last night!

I came home over an hour late from work to find that he had made Cincinnati chili for us. The table was all set and looking pretty with a candle and homemade place mats. I sat down to do the "word find" he made for me and something just made me think, "He's going to put the words "WILL YOU MARRY ME" in it! I know it!" But no, those words weren't in there. I still felt that funny feeling...

So I got down to the goofy trivia question and had to turn the page around to read the answer when I saw at the bottom on the other side, upside down, were the words, "Hey Kim, will you marry me?"

Ryan was off in the kitchen getting some sweet tea for me and I sat there tearing up - stunned. I scampered off down the hall and just waited for him to meet me so he could see my teary eyes and goofy smile.

His chili was the best version he's made so far and the sweet tea was great! That proposal was even more memorable.

Biscuits

On Sunday Ryan started craving biscuits. He pulled the can out with that gleam in his eye and I gave in and made them.

As I popped open the can of Grands buttermilk biscuits I caught that whiff that I remember well from childhood and I said, "Mmmmmmmmm...potential donuts..." I slipped into a dreamlike state thinking about fried biscuit donuts rolled around in sugar or, better yet, cinnamon sugar.

Ryan said, "That's what Kim brings to the table -- a fresh, new, innovative
perspective. Most people see a can of biscuits and think 'biscuits.'
Kim looks at the same can of biscuits and thinks 'potential donuts.'"

Sounds like a good sales pitch!

Camera stinks

Hi everybody!
I just wanted to apologize for my camera. See, I have one of the oldest cameras on the planet which I've loved until recently when I started thinking about seeing other cameras. It started a long delay thing when taking photos with a flash, it started that funky striped swirly strangeness that would go off and on and now it's got a blue haze down the left side of the photo and along the top as well as the stripes through the photo. This hasn't left me very inspired to take photos when I know they're going to look horrible.

So, please excuse my photos I'm about to post because they aren't as great-looking as I'd like them to be but that's the breaks. Momma needs a new camera.