Long time no type!

Hello World!
Sorry it seems as though I've temporarily fallen off the face of the earth. Life has been keeping both Jose and I very busy! Of course, I'm still cooking, nothing will stop me from making new dishes! Not even my own funky digestive system.

Anyhow, in just a few short days we will be moving into our new apartment! I am so excited, it'll be our first "home"! It's likely we've purchased almost every possible cute decorative objective from the thrift stores here in Austin. I've never done so much thrift shopping in my life and I think I'm an addict! Sometimes I'm amazed at what cute objects people throw away. Just last weekend I purchased this really sweet Pillsbury Dough Boy sugar/creamer set...and, no, I don't drink coffee, but I've always wanted Pillsbury Dough Boy paraphernalia, even if I refuse to buy his pre-made cookie dough. (I was a big fan of that stuff as a kid, now I have a pride issue about buying even canned beans or practically-already-made cookies/cakes--one day I will make everything from scratch, I'm determined!)

In just a few weeks, Jose and I will hopefully be working part-time, and in just a little over a month he'll be starting his final year of college...then it's time for the great move to wherever Jose wants to go to law school! Sometimes I think I'm more excited than he is, though I'm sure he's looking forward to it, but I'm coming down with that former military brat syndrome. What are the symptoms? Well, for me--I feel awkward staying in one city for too long. Don't get me wrong, I've always wanted to settle down and feel like I actually have a real home (instead of feeling the way I did during the "moving years," as if I lived in a storage facility loaded with the many boxes I refused to empty, since I'd have to start packing right after unpacking the last box, anyway).

But it's not exactly time to officially settle down yet, if you know what I mean. Even when Jose's in law school, we'll still be going back and forth, probably during the summer months, between Texas and Connecticut...or New York...or Virginia...or California (depending on where he decides to go). So it seems I've adopted a few ways of the gypsy, but once that biological clock starts ticking, and I start buying onesies, bibs, and bonnets with my college insignia embroidered on them in tiny pink or blue letters, I plan on settling down, most likely here in Texas with my far from cowboy, not quite city slicker, but wonderfully dorky hunk of a hubby, wow...what a long title I've given him, and what a run-on sentence that was!

In much fewer words, I'll sum up my blog absence excuse like this: Life is good, lots of sunny days...but we're still in Texas, literally and figuratively, so the weather changes in the blink of an eye. No complaints here, though, at least we have an umbrella of blessings to keep us dry when it pours; it helps us last through the unexpected storms, if you will. Speaking of the weather, now in a more literal sense, the lightening and thunder outside are pretty intense right now...I will definitely miss these Texas storms when I leave. But I am looking forward to seeing the first snowfall of another state's winter season, and mostly...living life the way it was meant to be lived under any conditions: loaded with love, full of thanks, and stuffed with meaningful moments, like the after-effects that develop from sharing a near perfect Christmas dinner with the people who've inspired us to live that way long after we've broken all our other New Year's resolutions.

I'm grateful that I can finally see I have so many things to be grateful for.

Recipe: Meatball Soup

This recipe was taken from my grandma's version of meatball soup. I improvised, mainly because I seriously don't remember what, exactly, went into the actual "soup" part. I've made this multiple times, and to be honest, I usually tend to overcook the little pastas and zucchinis. That didn't happen this last time, though!

I usually purchase ground meat (turkey in my case) 1lb at a time, but when I use it to make something other than meatloaf or hamburgers, I find that 1lb tends to be too much meat when it comes to dishes that call for more than just a slab of ground meat (things like meatball soup). So that's why I actually used the same meat from the previous recipe (I seasoned it the same way, so refer to yesterday's entry for the meat when preparing the meatballs). I cooked both dishes on the same day. My initial plan was to just make the meatball soup, then I realized I wanted to make something new with the "leftover" meat, hence the chilaquiles recipe I posted yesterday.

Anyway, here's what I added to the meatball soup this time around, usually I change up the recipe each time I make it. It's nothing major, really, just different veggies depending on what's in the fridge (my grandma adds spinach and I was going to until I realized the only spinach we had was canned, and that stuff is gross, in case you haven't figured it out for yourself!)

Meatball Soup (this makes enough for about 4-5 hearty servings)

Meatballs: (see previous entry for the "meat" recipe, but this time, roll the meat into 1/2-1 in. meatballs)

The soup (these ingredients will be added to a large pot that should be able to hold more than 1qt):
3/4 of the 32 oz Pacific Natural Foods beef broth quart (the rest can be used to make gravy...)
1 cup water
1.5 TBSP salt-free garlic and herb seasoning
1/2 TBSP Italian seasoning
2 tsp salt (I'm guessing here, basically, whatever amount tastes good to you)
2 fresh bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper
1/2-3/4 of 1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 bag of baby carrots, cut long-ways or 2 large carrots, diced
1 large zucchini or 2 medium, also diced
1 large corn on the cob, remove kernels with knife and add to soup pot
1.5 oz sliced black olives
1 can stewed tomatoes*
1/3 of a 16oz bag of garden rotini pasta
*the stewed tomatoes add a lot of acid; the soup can be made without it and it'll still taste good, tomato just adds another dimension of flavor. If you do want to go ahead and add it, you can add a little baking soda to lessen the acidity.

Instructions:
Bring beef broth and water to a boil once the spices and stewed tomatoes are added. Next, lower the flame to a medium setting and add the meatballs until they are no longer pink. Once the meatballs are cooked, add the carrots...once they are tender, add corn. Lower the flame even more, to a "low/simmer" setting, then add the zucchini. Cook the zucchini for only about 5-7 minutes, then add the pasta and olives. The pasta is the last thing to cook, turn off the flame when the pasta is less than al dente; the heat from the soup will continue to cook the pasta until it's just right. Once the pasta is cooked (again, while the flame is off!), the soup can be served, since it will be cool enough to eat at this point.

Recipe: Quick and Easy Chilaquiles

So here's my first recipe posting...and it's for a Mexican dish! It's not authentic, although Jose claims that it tastes like it is, so I'm gonna take his word for it. Why isn't it authentic? Because I used so many canned items and...premade tortillas! I am ashamed, I truly am, considering I am half Mexican and grew up with a grandma who makes the best Mexican food this side of the border. I usually hate using canned goods, but when I'm too lazy to make the food myself, I purchase it premade. I know how to cook beans, at least, but today, I was too lazy to do even that! It's ok, though, considering I'm still entitled to the "college student" label, and we all know what most college kid's diets consist of: Ramen and Ramen, and maybe white rice or some kind of freezer burned pizza! I like experimenting outside of those three food groups, but like I said, sometimes it's nice to just keep it simple...we all have days like that.

So here it is, it's my quick version of chilaquiles. If you're not familiar with this simple but still pretty good Mexican concoction, it's a mix of meat, chili, cheese, and tortillas (or corn tortilla chips, but I used soft flour tortillas, instead). I changed up the recipe even more by adding black beans, they're full of iron and fiber! yum yum! I also mixed in some ground meat (oh, and I use ground turkey instead of ground beef because it's a lot healthier). The cheese I used was very American: Colby jack...but I don't have any goats around here, and I'm not as fabulous as my grandma, who can make her own cheese! So, Kraft, thank you for saving this culturally ignorant child by coming to her rescue on a lazy day like this!

This recipe makes about 4 servings of chilaquiles

Here are the ingredients:
For the meat:
1 TBSP garlic and herb bread crumbs
1/2 lb ground turkey
2 tsp fine herb spice (I bought this at Central Market*)
1/2 Tbsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper
1 TBSP olive oil

*Central Market is basically a gourmet grocery store here in TX, I know they don't have them over in CA, but Whole Foods probably carries this mix of spices too.

The other stuff:
1/2 15 oz can organic black beans
1/4 bag low fat Kraft colby/jack cheese
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 container mushrooms
2.25 oz can of sliced black olives
1 10 oz can Old El Paso green chile sauce (mild, if you can't take the heat like me!)
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
5 flour tortillas (cut these up into little bite-size squares)

Garnish:
1 tbsp sour cream/serving
1tsp pace picante sauce/serving
1 small handful colby/jack cheese/serving


Instructions:
Mix the meat and all the meat ingredients into one medium sized bowl (except the olive oil), after all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in the meat, cook the meat over a medium-low flame/setting in a pan with the olive oil until the meat is no longer pink. Then, slowly add in "the other stuff". First the mushrooms, mix them in with the cooked meat so they absorb the flavor of the spices, then add in the black olives along with the olive juices from the olive can. Then add in the red pepper and Tabasco sauce, mix in with meat/olives/mushrooms. Finally, add the green chili sauce, followed by the flour tortillas, then sprinkle the cheese on top. Lower the flame so it's on the lowest setting, and cover the pan until the cheese melts and the tortillas are soft. Then serve and eat as is or with the garnishes. See, it's pretty darn simple and it only takes about 30 minutes to cook/prepare and less than 2 minutes to eat!

9 Months of fun

I enjoy reading-up on Health stuff, sometimes it's because it applies to me, and other time it's because...well, it's just interesting. I watch the History and Discovery channel for fun, you can call me a dork or just plain boring, and I won't argue with the first claim but I can't agree with that last one. Boring people do boring things...but I actually have fun when I dedicate an evening to watching a National Geographic special about babies and their development in the womb. I am also content with the fact that I have someone in my life who'll happily join me on these dorky cable TV adventures, and that person is Jose.

But there is something extra special about fetal development and all that goes on in the womb before the big eyes belonging to that cute little pudgy baby open up to get their first glimpse of an even bigger world. It'll be a long time before I know what it's like to hold my own delicious dough-like ball of cuteness, but I remember how cute and soft my brother was when he was still a baby.

They look pretty simple, actually: not much hair, tiny fingers and toes, toothless and tender, but these newborns are the finished products of a very long and complicated 9 month process. It's pretty amazing what goes on, at first all the mother can feel is usually that overwhelming pang of nausea brought about by morning sickness, then that wears off and the generally uncomfortable feeling develops and lingers long after the cravings kick-in. I remember what it was like...not entirely, though, never been there done that...not yet, remember! Got ya! I guess I should stop talking as if I actually know what I'm talking about, hu? But watching my mother, helping her out, noticing the changes in her behavior and appetite, it was something. Little did I know that there were so many complicated chemical reactions occurring and they were responsible for the changes. Oh yeah, and I'll never forget her odd cravings (actually, she went through a late-night cooking/eating phase...it was alright when she was obsessed with eating calamari and baking lemon cakes, but then she decided to make a gag-inducing banana meatloaf and it was all downhill from there! She actually got the recipe from a friend who wasn't even the least bit pregnant!).

Anyway, doctors emphasize the importance of taking pre-natal vitamins in order to ensure that the fetus has the proper nutrients it needs to develop, but you don't usually hear too many people talk about the negative implications of stress...at least on the fetus during pregnancy. Sure, it's been suggested that ulcers can develop as a result of stress, and that someone's life can be shortened as a result of spending too many sleepless nights worrying, but not until recently have the effects of stress on fetal development been depicted as serious issues by various people in the medical profession, from behavioral psychologists to perinatologists (oh, and I didn't even know what that was until I read this fancy article on medicinenet.com). Oh yeah, and National Geographic had a few things to say about it too, that's where I first heard about it: Mom gets stressed too often, baby develops in ways that'll help him adapt to that stress later on in life, then that increases his chance of developing diabetes, a learning disorder, or even anxiety issues in his own life.

Stress is inevitable but some of it is also avoidable. Of course, we all get stressed out about things we can't control, like getting sick during finals or getting rear-ended as a result of someone else driving too fast during unsafe, rainy conditions, but it's the things we can control that can actually cause us more long-term stress than the things we can't. We can control who we decide to marry and when we decide to have children; we choose what we put in our bodies, and I'm not just referring to drugs (legal and illegal) what we watch and read influences our habits, how we behave and think, in different but just as important ways. By the way, fetal development is very much affected by the father, not only the mom, so it's just as important for him to stay healthy and avoid ingesting anything toxic or harmful, like tobacco or alcohol, when he and his wife are planning on having kids. Even if you're in college, um...smoking pot more than the ever-so-popular "couple of times" now will destroy your sperm count, keep this in mind when/if you wanna have kids in the future. I'm sure you learned that in high school health, but it's likely that killing off all those brain cells has impaired your memory, among other things, and you forgot. Sarcasm aside, I am allowed to say this because my dad was a big time pothead in another time and I'm sure I would've been a lot smarter/healthier if he wasn't, and I'm sure he would've been too.

I've heard it said, and I agree: If people need a license to drive, they should have to get one before they become parents. I know, I've mentioned this to Jose and he's said what I'm sure you're thinking, this gets in the way of people's freedom, something with that ring to it. Then I have to ask myself ...Well, should people really be held completely responsible for making stupid decisions? When does nurture override nature? I guess this is where having a sense of morality comes in, you know, convictions. Some things are right, some things are definitely wrong and never gray, and I think hurting your child, or even fetus (to be politically correct), is always wrong. Even if stress seems unavoidable, there are ways of managing it.

Baking Secrets: Butter isn't always better

Ok, so I'm addicted to sweets, and baking/cooking, so I figured I should devote at least a little section of my blog to my many experiments in the kitchen. I don't have any pictures of this last experiment, because I already gobbled up the cake I made where I actually applied these techniques I'll be sharing. I do promise to take a quick pic of whatever I make in the future before I decide to stuff my face.

Anyhow, it seems that wherever I look, people are posting recipes that definitely look delicious and taste-bud pleasing, but they're also heart attack inducing and tummy ache producing, at least for me. After having my gallbladder removed, I have to stick to a somewhat low fat diet. This has required me to alter the way I bake. So below are a few low fat tips that actually work and don't leave your tummy, heart, or taste buds unhappy.
A few tips on baking low fat cookies:
I'm not really a fan of using apple sauce instead of butter (this only applies to cookies, don't use apple sauce in cakes unless the recipe calls for it) but I have found a way of making cookies that are less fatty, just as good, and sometimes even better than the original recipe. If you want to go the apple sauce route -- let's say the recipe for a batch of chocolate chip cookies calls for about a cup of butter, as most of them do -- add a HALF CUP apple sauce instead, if you use a full cup of apple sauce, they'll come out much too soft and chewy without much crunch. If you're a fan of Paula Dean, and you love that stick of butter, then go ahead and use it, but just cut the required amount in half; the cookies will be crunchier and less soft. If you want them soft without the butter fat, then use an extra egg yolk (don't include the egg white. And yes, I know egg yolks are still fatty, but at least they have more protein, silly!).

How to make moist cakes without all that butta :
It's quite the opposite with cakes, though, at least on that last note. You actually want to use less egg yolks and mostly egg whites if you want a cake that's light and fluffy. About a week ago, I made a cake that called for 3 whole eggs and one half cup of butter. I changed the recipe up by adding 1 whole egg and the egg whites of the remaining 2 eggs; I also replaced the butter with Canola oil (this is another fat-cutting technique) and added 2 TBS light sour cream (to make it extra moist without calling on Duncan Hines for help). When I followed the recipe exactly the first time around, the cake was pretty good, but it was surprisingly much better the second time around...and it was less fatty. Just because something claims to be low fat doesn't mean it has to taste low quality.

So here's the recipe for a yellow cake:
(You'll use 2 round 9" pans for this recipe; fill each one about one-third the way. Pre-heat oven to 350 and cook for 25 minutes; and if you're not lazy like me, go ahead and mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another, then mix both together in a big bowl...but if you're more like me, just throw it all together and mix the ingredients enough to get rid of the lumps, but not too much because it'll mess up the baking process--it has something to do with the baking powder and how it reacts with the remaining ingredients, I read about it on a cooking chemistry site but I don't remember the details, just this little tidbit, ha!)

The original:
2 cups cake flour
2 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 TSP vanilla extract
3/4 Cup milk

My low-fat version:
2 Cups cake flour
2 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 Cup Canola oil
1 1/4 cup sugar (it needs a little more)
1 whole egg
2 egg whites (from 2 eggs)
2 TSP vanilla extract
3/4 Cup non-fat milk
2 TBSP light sour cream
oh yeah, 1/2 TSP orange zest (it makes a difference!)

It's all so exciting!

It's just a few more weeks until we move into the new apartment and I really can't wait. The new place is located in a much better area, one that's actually quiet! I am looking forward to decorating it and creating many meals in my brand new kitchen! Not that the kitchen is anything to boast about, but it's one I never cooked in before! I can't wait to baptize it!

But that's not all I'm looking forward to! Jose got his LSAT results back this week and he scored in the 98th percentile!!! That deserves more than just one exclamation point, not only because it's a great score, but also because it means we'll more than likely be moving to the East Coast, where there are actually seasons! I'm looking forward to seeing the leaves change color around Autumn, and building snowmen during the winter! Oh, and did I mention they have some of the best culinary art schools on that side of the US?! Back when I was applying to college, I was hoping to submit an application to one of the art schools around the New York area. But my parents were against the idea, they didn't want me so far away, and they were afraid I might change my mind about being a designer...they were right. I ended up studying English, as you readers know...but my interest in the arts has never waned, as quite a few entries in this blog suggest. I make cards, I'm starting to make jewelry, I'm determined to learn how to use a sewing machine because I dream of the day when I can make all my own clothes, since shopping annoys me...What else? My middle finger on my right hand is crooked from all those years of writing hundreds of usually overly-dramatic, far from laureate worthy poems, and as for these days? Well, now anyone can spot me gallivanting around the kitchen with oil spots on my shirt (cheesy pun intended) either from baking a fairly edible frosted cake or an experimental concoction involving some mix of meat and vegetables that my guinea pigs would probably not eat, though my fiance ever-so-lovingly consumes with a smile on his face, followed by a quiet, closed-mouth, indigestion-produced burp disguised as a nod of approval. Well, it really isn't that bad, unless I decide to turn the kitchen into a toxic chemistry lab, but that only happens on rare occasions. That is precisely the reason why culinary art school is for me, think of how many lives will be saved !

You know, my cooking really isn't all that bad, but I like to pretend it is...just in case someone does get repulsed by something my weird taste buds find appetizing. At least if I go to culinary art school, preferably one on the East Coast, I can use it as a sort of insurance plan, or a claim to the yummy legitimacy of my kitchen creations...if Alton Brown went to the Culinary Institute of America and I did too, then obviously I can't be that bad of a cook and, really, it's just that your taste buds are uneducated! Well, maybe that doesn't sound as good as I thought it would, seeing that individual taste buds don't have brains, but you know what I mean!

(HAHA! I literally had to run off to the kitchen in the middle of this entry because I burned the potatoes and carrots that I was steaming/boiling for a pot roast I made for dinner...Note To Self: DO NOT write and cook at the same time! Two forms of expression occurring simultaneously=not good! Ah, but at least I was able to make up for it by making a mean, tasty gravy, no recipe required here, man! Oh and as for the potatoes and carrots, I was able to separate the good from the bad and discard the latter...it's my goal to never waste, but sometimes that is a challenge, my friend.)

Alright, back on topic. So, as the blog title claims...it's all so exciting! Whether I'm burning veggies in the kitchen while contemplating a blessed life as a future chef and soon-to-be wife of an LSAT genius/future attorney...or posting a new blog entry about it all, there's never a dull moment around here. Life's been tough, and even though I often thought the grass was greener on the other side, it turns out that the weedy dandelions on my side of the fence have definitely been faithful in granting wishes. Always be thankful, that's what I've learned.