3 on Thursday

I've really been enjoying this week of warm weather.  It had been too cold to do anything but sit inside my apartment underneath my favorite blanket with a plate of pad see ew from my favorite Thai takeout spot.  Now that it's become bearable outside, I've found a renewed fervor to get out and enjoy the city.

On Sunday, my black boots officially crapped out.  After three years,  the heels were hurtin and I had worn a hole that went all the way to the sole.  I figured they wouldn't completely fall apart with one more wear so I put them on and took myself directly to the shoe store.  I found these guys on sale for $98 at Aldo and wore them out of the store to test them out on an errand run.  The brown is light enough to wear with both black and brown outfits and the black stripes in back only confirm this.  Since I never got a new pair of brown flat boots after my last pair wore out two years ago, these boots fill two holes in my wardrobe at once.  I still want a pair of black riding boots, but I'll get those at the end of the season (which hopefully isn't that far away) when everything is on super sale.

Matt and Karina went to Morocco for their honeymoon - one of the destinations on my Top 5 wishlist.  I couldn't believe that in between basking in their newly married love, they found time to think of me on the trip and picked out an incredibly thoughtful souvenir.  They brought this gorgeous lantern all the way back to the US for me and even picked it out in the exact blue that decorates my living room.

Apparently it snowed once before in NYC this season, but I was out of town so it doesn't count.  Last Friday, I walked home in the season's first snow.  It really can be magical.

Chicken Taco Salad

When you want a big salad for a meal but are sick of the good old cobb, I highly recommend turning to taco salad. It's healthier than eating actual tacos and is full of protein.

I like using crisp lettuce for this, like romaine hearts. Instead of using ground beef, I decided to go with chicken to cut down on the fat. I covered nugget-sized pieces of chicken with a mix of garlic powder, chile powder, oregano, paprika, cayenne, and cumin (all the ingredients of taco seasoning that I already had in my pantry - no need to buy those packets!), drizzled with olive oil, and sautéed til it was cooked through (about 5 minutes). In a bowl, lightly toss canned black beans, canned corn, chopped tomato, onion, and avocado. I would have liked cilantro but the store was out (no worries, it tasted just as good). Cover a bed of lettuce with the corn/black bean/tomato/avocado mix as well as some shredded cheese (pepper jack or cheddar are good options). The chicken goes on last. Worried it won't feel like a taco without sour cream? The quick and easy homemade dressing you prepared will solve that issue. Greek yogurt will make you forget you wanted sour cream in the first place and it makes a great base for creamy dressings. Mix it with scallions and adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo. (Once you have a can of these, you'll find plenty of ways to use them). I had some buttermilk in the fridge from when I made biscuits so I used just a teeny bit to thin it out, but if you don't already have it there's no need to buy it for this recipe. The adobo sauce is spicy, a little sweet, and has great smoky flavor. This dressing takes the salad from good to great - and if you're going to compete with the Cobb, you better be great.

Yonanas

Last night during our weekly TV night, Brutus' sister Kim whipped out her new toy to prepare a special treat for us.  With Yonanas, you just peel and freeze overripe bananas and then put them through this magical machine to make ice cream.  That's it.  No cream, sugar, or any other ingredients...that is if you like it simple.  You still won't use cream or sugar, but you can always add other fruits, nuts, or chocolate to give your Yonanas some extra character.  Kim made us strawberry banana Yonanas and I couldn't believe how much flavor came out of 2 ingredients.  At only $40, this is cheaper than a regular ice cream maker and as long as you remember to stick the bananas in the freezer 24 hours in advance, it takes no time to churn out tons of ice cream for a party...or just for yourself when the mood strikes.

Book Review: The Dressmaker

When my mom found a New York Times bestselling novel featuring a character named Tess, she decided it was a must read and immediately ordered it to be sent to my apartment.  Kate Alcott's historical fiction novel follows Tess Collins, a maid eager to escape her station and become a designer.  She wins the attention of Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, a designer and one of the wealthiest passengers aboard the ship, just before the Titanic sets sail.  Madame, as she prefers to be called, hires Tess as her secretary with the intimation she will be able to apprentice as a designer once they arrive in New York.  After the ship has gone down and they are settled in New York, Tess is caught between saving her apprenticeship with Lady Duff Gordon and taking a stand against the unethical events that supposedly transpired on the Duff Gordon's lifeboat.

I enjoyed the historical backbone of The Dressmaker; however, I found the love triangle between Tess, a sailor, and a 1st class businessman to be a bit much.  Just like the film Titanic, probably the most famous of all Titanic commemorations, I found this part a little cheesy.  I recognize I may be the only person who didn't really like that movie: lame dialogue, overacting, and an unlikely story about a great piece of jewelry - not my thing.  I really don't think it deserved an Academy Award, and I'm sorry for airing such an unpopular opinion.  I did, however, love the intricate sets and seeing the wide variances between classes.  I am amazed by how the class system worked back in the day, and in 1912 there were strict rules to follow.  The opulence of the first class compared to the inadequacies of the 3rd class is incredibly interesting to me.  This same aspect is what held my attention in the book as well.  This time, instead of seeing the classes pitted against each other on the ship, you get to see how everyone deals with the aftermath of the sinking between trials and frenzied journalists.  It's a fine line, but in this case the fluff of the rest of the story took away from the historical piece of this historical fiction.  It was still a fun read, but I would have preferred a little more meat and a few less liberties taken.

5 out of 10 stars.

Curry Chicken Fingers

I have been in a bit of a funk when it comes to cooking lately.  Even easy recipes seem too time consuming or ingredient-heavy and I just end up making boring basics or something from the frozen section of Trader Joe's.  This weekend, I decided it was time to get myself out of my supper slump, but I needed to prepare myself because going to the grocery store without a plan clearly hadn't been working for me.  I pulled several cookbooks off the shelf and started menu planning, focusing my attention on the cookbooks labeled "quick and easy" so I could ease myself back into the whole cooking thing.

Wednesday night's recipe was curry chicken fingers that I made by dredging strips of chicken in egg and then in a mixture of panko bread crumbs, curry powder, and cayenne.  I would like to say I baked them because it was healthier, but the real reason is because I didn't want my apartment smelling like curry for days if I had done it on the stove top.  I always eat chicken fingers with honey mustard, but since these were curry chicken fingers, they required a different dip treatment.  I mixed greek yogurt with cucumber and scallions and it was the perfect soothing accompaniment.  I'm more of a savory gal, but if you're a fan of the fruity, I'm sure you could mix the yogurt with some chutney for a dip that's cooling and sweet.  I had gotten b-o-r-e-d with chicken lately and this was a great way to change it up a bit without adding any extra steps.

3 on Thursday

Gotta love short weeks (thank you MLK day)!  Sometimes you just need one less day at the office to keep yourself from going crazy.

I've been looking for a simple gold necklace that I could wear every day.  I wanted something with character, but it needed to be delicate enough that I (someone who feels awkward layering tons of jewelry) could wear it with other pieces.  This was a recent buried bauble at Bauble Bar so I scored it for only $10.

Every year, Karina and her Mom take a trip to Amish Country for a weekend away.  This year, she was kind enough to bring back a sampler of Kitchen Kettle Village jams for me.  I love jams with cheese plates and on the occasional breakfast bread, but I never eat enough to go through a full jar so these minis are perfect.

When I moved I realized I didn't really have any framed pictures in my apartment.  I have a truly amazing set of family and friends who I should be showing off.  The problem has become that no one prints rolls of film anymore.  Everything is just uploaded to facebook, but since most of us don't keep printers around after college, they remain in cyberspace.  The photo feature within the Wallgreens app is going to change that for me.  It pulls pics directly from your phone, whether they're saved in your iPhone's photo album or even on facebook.  This way, you can even print pics that you love but didn't take yourself.  You can pick them up right at Wallgreens about an hour later, timed perfectly with your laundry detergent run.

Biscuit Baking

I recently had my Mom go over to my Grandma's and have Mildred tell her some of our family recipes.  Mildred is an amazing cook but at 88 years old, someone else needs to learn how to make these recipes or we risk losing them forever.  Unfortunately, most of Mildred's cooking is done from memory.  She has tweaked them over the years so the written recipes are never what she actually ends up cooking.  Even if they were, the "formal" recipes contain a lot of measurements like "some butter" or "flour".  How much flour?  What's "some"?  Basically, my Mom managed to get me a bunch of recipe skeletons and now it's my job to flesh them out.

Mildred's biscuits are perfect, so I was most nervous to take on that recipe, but since they are, as I say, perfect, it was most important for me to figure this one out first.  Since I had the day off work, I made it my MLK Day project.  Because I'm working so hard to preserve the recipe, I'm going to keep it to myself.  Most Southern families have their passed-down biscuit recipe - get your own.

I am proud to say that I'm on the right track, especially when I top them with butter and honey, just like we do at all our family dinners.  When the oven timer went off they seemed undercooked so I left them in and then I think I overshot it.  They kind of crumbled apart when I tried to eat them so I think I need to work on the buttermilk/shortening proportions a bit.  But the flavor was there so I know I'm close.  I won't rest til I can give my family the same amazing biscuits they've enjoyed for generations.