Taco Tuesday Twist

Mexican Rice, Corn, and Cheese Casserole

Ingredients 2 tsp canola oil    1 medium green pepper(s), seeded and chopped    6 medium scallion(s), chopped    2 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), finely chopped    1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning    1 cup(s) uncooked white rice, long-grain    14 1/2 oz canned stewed tomatoes, chopped    14 oz vegetable broth    8 oz frozen onions, about (2 cups)    1 1/2 cup(s) frozen corn kernels, whole    2 Tbsp Las Palmas Diced green chiles, mild, or other brand    1 medium tomato(es), finely diced    2 cups low-fat shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup cilantro, fresh, chopped    Instructions Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or flameproof and ovenproof casserole over  medium-high heat.  Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the scallions, garlic, and Cajun seasoning. Cook, stirring occasionally,  until the scallions are soft, about 2 minutes.  Add the rice, stirring until well coated. Stir the tomatoes, broth, onions, corn, and chiles into the casserole;  bring to a boil.  Remove from the heat and cover.  Bake until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice and vegetables are tender,  about 20 minutes.  Remove the cover, then sprinkle the casserole with the tomato and cheese.  Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, until the cheese melts,  about 5 minutes longer.  Serve the casserole sprinkled with the cilantro.  Yields generous 1 cup per serving. Note: There is no need to thaw the corn or onions. Simply add them to the mixture frozen (step 3).

Not My Best Decision

On Friday I decided to take a half day. My boss and his wife sponsor a team for Race For The Cure every year and as extra incentive to join, he gave all his employees a half day extra to use. So I took mine on Good Friday. Had lunch with some coworkers at Highland Bakery (which I never go to because I'm never willing to stand in it's ridiculous lines on the weekend), got a mani-pedi, did some vintage shopping, went to the craft store, did a whole lot of nothing. Saturday I got up early to clean up and move some furniture because my media center was finally delivered. It looks so good and I'm so proud of myself. It's my first real piece of furniture. I have a couch and a coffee table and some bookcases and the regular pieces but my media center says to me "you did it!" the most. Got nearly 8 inches chopped off my head - just because. Went shopping for odds and ends for the house afterwards. Got organized. Cleaned more. Went to Target, bought some movies. By Easter Sunday I was so bored I didn't know what to do with myself. Can't call Yones anymore, he lives in NYC. Missing him so much. All other friends were out of town or had plans. I've learned my lesson. Go where your friends and/or family are for Easter Sunday. Seriously lonely.

Easter Gift

Mango was going to come visit me this weekend, but since she usually drives and there is rain in the forecast, she moved it to the next weekend. She'll probably keep moving it until I go see her end of June/early July, but whatever. I can understand why she doesn't want to drive in the rain for half a day.

I decided since I can't go shopping with my mom and won't be getting an Easter basket, I would give myself a gift. I think it's time for a Le Creuset - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I have been wanting one for so long and I'll need one to make Easter dinner. I've got my Bed Bath & Beyond coupons. Here I come!

Easter Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

Serves 12| Hands-On Time: 20m | Total Time: 1hr 05m

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 3 tablespoons
• 3 pints strawberries, stemmed and sliced
• 3 cups heavy cream

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F.
2. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, and oil, along with the amount of water called for by the package directions. Beat until well combined. Divide the batter between the pans. Place in oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the pans. Cool completely before assembling the shortcake.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle 1/2 cup of the sugar over the strawberries. Set aside at room temperature until the berries release their juices, about 30 minutes. About 15 minutes before serving, combine the cream and the remaining sugar in a medium bowl and whip by hand or with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Place one of the cake layers on a serving platter. Pile on half the strawberries and half the whipped cream. Top with the remaining layer, the rest of the whipped cream, and the remaining strawberries. Serve immediately.

By Sara Neumeier,  May 2004

Easter Dinner

Recipe: Lamb shanks slowly braised in red wine, rosemary and thyme

Curtis Stone

Ingredients

• 6 1-pound lamb shanks
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 head garlic, halved crosswise
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 celery stalks, 2 coarsely chopped and 1 finely diced
• 3 carrots, peeled, 2 coarsely chopped and 1 finely diced
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 8 cups lamb stock or beef stock
• 1 1/3 cups dry red wine

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Starting at 1-inch from the narrow end of each shank, score the meat, sinew and fat around the bone (this will help release the meat from the bone as it cooks). Sprinkle the lamb shanks with salt.
Whisk the flour, paprika and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Coat the lamb shanks thoroughly in the flour mixture. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the remaining flour mixture.
Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large wide Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the lamb shanks and decrease the heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the shanks are brown on all sides. Transfer the shanks to a baking sheet.
Drizzle the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the Dutch oven and add the garlic, and coarsely chopped onions, carrots and celery. Cook for 8 minutes over medium heat, or until the vegetables begin to brown. Sprinkle the reserved 3 tablespoons of flour mixture over the vegetables and stir to coat. Using the back of a large knife, gently pound the rosemary and thyme to help release their flavors. Add the rosemary, thyme and bay leaves to the vegetable mixture. Cook for 2 minutes, or until the flour mixture is golden brown. Stir in the tomatoes, then the stock and wine.
Return the lamb shanks to the Dutch oven. Cover and braise in the oven for 3 hours, or until the lamb is tender.
Transfer the lamb shanks to a baking sheet and cover them with foil and keep warm. Place the Dutch oven over medium-high heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Carefully strain the sauce through a fine-meshed strainer and into a medium saucepan. Discard the solids from the strainer. Skim off the fat that rises to the top of the sauce.
Simmer the sauce uncovered for 15 minutes, or until reduced to 4 cups. Add the finely diced carrots and celery and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Place 1 lamb shank on each of 6 plates. Spoon the sauce and vegetables over the lamb and serve.

Serving Size

6 servings

Dogwood 420

Lots went on this weekend, I don't even know where to start.
Friday, the other female in the office and I left work early to walk around the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park. She and I bought artwork from Kana Handel.  I wanted all her originals, but they were unfortunately way out of my price range. We left a couple hours later as a huge storm rolled in that night.
What they say about the rain is true - the day after is always gorgeous. Saturday I cleaned some, but was mostly lazy and only got up and showered and ate in the late afternoon so I could head to the Sweetwater 420 Festival in Candler Park with Mama C, Cray-Z and O. We met a couple of friends there and had fun listening to some cool bands. I don't remember the first one, but the second one was Arrested Development and they were AWESOME! They played all their hits and put on a fun show overall. My biggest mistake that night was eating a nasty ass gyro. When I woke up the next morning it seriously tasted like a dog shat in my mouth. I stunk. I can still kinda smell it and I've taken two showers. I've learned my lesson. Don't ever buy another gyro from a street vendor. Especially at the end of the night when you're not thinking clearly to know you need to shower and brush your teeth before going to bed. Seriously the smell made me want to vomit. I'm not sure how I made it through the night without doing it.
Today I lazed around a bit and got up only to go to the grocery store for ingredients to make a Zucchini-Mushroom-Baby Spinach Rotini casserole. I can't be the only one who's watched those damned Kraft Mozzarella with a touch of Philly Cream Cheese commercials and wanted to eat my TV. As always, I had to share my casserole or risk eating the whole thing. Shared with my favorite trio.
I guess I should document this - my insides have been bothering me again. The area under my ribcage has started to feel hard and it almost hurts to touch it and breathe in and out deeply. Hopefully diet adjustment and running more than twice a week will help.
Bleh.

Proud Moment

Last week, or maybe it was the week before, Steven text me.

"Hi :)"

Deleted it.

That's all.

Stay Classy, Phoenix

Last Saturday, my sister and I donned our finery and went out to party with the Real Housewives of Phoenix at the annual Phoenix International School's soiree. The soiree is for parents (and sisters from Atlanta) only and raises money for the school through silent and live auction of items the parents have gone out and collected from various vendors as well as items the kid's have made in their class. The theme of the evening was An Evening in South America - or something like that. The Phoenix International School is a charter school that immerses kids in either Spanish or French, so the theme made sense.

I didn't know what to expect given the way I came to find out it was cocktail attire. The invitation didn't say anything, so when we got there we spotted everything from black jeans (!) to floor length gowns (though something tells me some of these were re-purposed bridesmaid dresses given the color and fabric) to stripper platform shoes. It was good people watching at the very least.

We were seated at a table with 4 other couples, the parents of kid's in my niece's class. These parents must not get out much because they were downing the free bottles of booze at the center of the table. For the most part, our table were pretty young, not as young as my sister, but still young (my age, I'm 32). The oldest couple (in their 40's at least) was the worst. The wife was already pretty drunk by the time she sat down for dinner.  The first course came out, salad, and you could see her struggling to keep lettuce from falling off her fork and out of her mouth. If she wasn't so obnoxious, I would have felt sorry for her, but it was easier to laugh. Meh. She left right after the main course was sent to our table and had to be lifted out of her chair and practically carried out by her husband.

During the live auction portion of the evening one of the couples at our table bought some ugly ass flowerpot with all the kid's handprints on it for $675. Starting bid, $300. An ugly wooden chair decorated by the French A class was sold for $1,000. A cup and saucer set by another class was auctioned at $1,250. I wonder if any of these parents got home and thought "what the fuck did I just buy?" I mean, it all goes to their kid's school, but still. My sister tells me the event raised $40k that night and there were only about 200 people there. I think this says a lot about the money these people have to spend and given the way they weren't listening to any of the speakers and instead drowning in cheap wine, how you can't really buy class.

I drank a bit, but I wasn't drunk. I kept it classy. So did my sister, but only because she's pregnant. Just kidding, V.

Why?

I flew out to Arizona with Mango on Thursday night to visit my preggo sister and my niece. My BIL is in Florida doing military training. He'll be there for awhile; likely right up until my niece or nephew (Nora or Cody, eh), is born.
My mom and I met at the Atlanta airport, had dinner, and slept through the 4+ hour flight to Phoenix. We got in around 1am EST and took a cab out to Gilbert (another half hour) to my sister's house. She was awake and so were her dogs, Atlas (a Beauceron) and Cargo (purebred black lab). Atlas is a big, scary looking dog, but he is the sweetest boy. He is super intelligent and has the best expressions. He even smiles! Really! Cargo, or Cargo Pants, is my black pig. He looks chunky (though my sister says he is underweight) and is super lazy (like me!). They both gave my mom and I a welcome to remember. So cute.
The next morning, the ladies shopped all day. My sister had invited me to my niece's school soiree. She said to bring a dress because it was fancy. Here's the thing. My sister's "fancy" is different from my "fancy", so I brought a nice work dress thinking thats all I would need, but after talking about the event, I discovered we would need to be in cocktail attire and neither of us were prepared, hence, the shopping. My sister hates shopping and anything girly, so it was definitely interesting getting her to be patient with me while I picked out an outfit and accessories for her. Me? I just made a b-line for Banana Republic, picked up a dress and purse I liked, and was out the door in 10 minutes. The shoes took me about as long to pick out, as did the accessories. Had I left my sister to fend for herself, she wouldn't have come back with anything. She kinda reminds me of the ridiculous women of What Not To Wear. Sorry dude, but it's true.
Later that day, my sister, my niece and I headed to the pool! It was 100 beautiful degrees in Gilbert last Friday and NO humidity. Love it.
I will say I was a bit nervous about how my niece would be with me. Back in January she really didn't want anything to do with me. It wasn't until the last couple of hours I was in town that she really warmed to me, so I was nervous she'd be the same this time. I couldn't have been more wrong. On her home turf, my niece is the sweetest, most playful and articulate 2.5 year old on the planet. She's super inquisitive, asking "Why?" at least a million times a day and wanting to play pretend.
The Saturday Soiree deserves it's own post, trust me.
To Be Continued...

My Heart is Sad

This morning I took Yones to the airport. He's moving to NYC to pursue what people do when they move to NYC. It's always been a dream of his to live there and I'm so proud of him for gathering the strength and the means necessary to do it, but I am beyond sad today. He will be missed.
Yones was my first friend in Atlanta. I already knew my now ex-best friend, so he was the first real friend I made when I got here (even before really, she lived with him back when I used to visit). He's so easy to get along with and he has the best smile and laugh. We would go out nearly every night for the first couple of years I lived here. We laugh now about what was involved in going out. The thousands of dollars we must have spent on clothing and liquor back then. I was 23 when I moved here. I'll be 33 this year. We've aged together and now, instead of throwing down, we usually get together on Sundays for a flaust-fest (*flaust is a verb we created to describe doing nothing). I'll miss our Sundays together and our mid-week Fellini's and a movie.
I realize he's not dead and I can go visit (which I will), but Atlanta just won't be the same without him here.
I love you, Yones.
Suerte!