Too Much HGTV in Our House

I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Home Depot and loaded up on little improvement goodies since we're staying in town this weekend. That was Home Depot Trip #1. I started the day Friday by removing the gnarly sliding glass doors from the bathroom tub. Oh what a difference that made. We have a really small bathroom and with a big glass wall in the middle of it, it looked even smaller. The gunk I cleaned out from under the doors was so nasty. I was amazed that the tub and walls were easy to get back into shape.

Then Jac got home and started immediately on replacing the kitchen sink and faucet. He removed the old sink. (Wow, my husband can do that?) Then he tried the new sink. Yeah, I'm an idiot. Well, not so much, but I did buy an XL sink accidentally which was in no way going to fit into our kitchen. The box was completely unmarked, it had no indication of the size or style of the contents. It was in the bin of the product I'd been looking for. I did think it was about $90 more than I had anticipated but there'd been no price next to the sink I was seeking. So, we made a list of the rest of the things he needed from the store and headed out together.

The Home Depot tends to be a popular place on weekends. So natually we had to face a Thunderdome match to find an orange-smocked helper. We finally did find a guy with an orange mohawk and he got our correct sink down from the rafters. We headed home and Andy resumed work on the sink project. The sink fit, the faucet looked great, now he had to actually secure the thing, re-do a whole bunch of plumbing to accommodate the deeper basin, and somehow manage to retain his sanity. There were plastic pipes that had to be cut to size then secured through a hole between floors. There were screws that had to be placed and tightened in a tiny recess in the back of the dark cabinet. There was the adventure of removing the dishwasher to get at some of the sink securing screws. Then there was the fun of re-installing the disposal. Jac's come through it with a remarkable persistence and possibly even one or two bad words left unsaid.

Old School Sugar Fix

In DC we have a couple cupcake places. I still haven't found anything that equals the old Giant grocery store cupcakes. It was only when it was too late that I learned Giant had its own bakeries turning out a butter cream frosting that tasted like kitchen food instead of factory food.

So when I'm looking for boxes of pastries, cookies, cupcakes, breads, and undiscovered delicacies I seek out the one place that never disappoints - Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe. Mmmm. The bakery cases are loaded with exquisite treats made by real bakers. It doesn't hurt that no matter how many people are in the shop there always seems to be someone ready to help load up your arms with goodies.

Sneaky Greens Sunday

Some people seem to think that concealing vegetables in food is a new thing aimed at children. They are not married to Jac. I've found vegetable hiding places you wouldn't believe. Although Jac actually likes spinach, I was stumped about tonight's dinner. Then I did a mental inventory of the fridge and came up with this spinach calzone.

Spinach Calzone

3 c. spinach, chopped

1/4 c. goat cheese

1 1/2 c. Italian cheese blend

1 Pillsbury pizza crust

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 tsp garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Finely chop spinach - I used the food processor. Add goat cheese, garlic, most of the Italian cheese blend, and parmesean cheeses to food processor and blend until a ball begins to form. Grease baking sheet with olive oil.  Roll out pizza crust and spread spinach mixture lengthwise along the center 1/3 of the dough. Sprinkle with additional Italian cheese blend. Fold both sides over the center and seal the seams. Create steam vents by slicing the top of the dough diagonally across the top every 1.5 inches. Bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Delectable Doughnut Discovery

Jac and I failed in our effort to be complete hermits this weekend. We headed out this morning to hit the spice shop again and the used book store. I, apparently, am incapable of reading a website because I thought Penzey's opened at 10, but they open at 11 on Sunday. Jac was headed for trusty old Hole in the Wall Books. But a note on the door warned us they'd be late. After a momentary flirtation with actually attending mass to kill 45 minutes, we found ourselves in the endless strip mall. Jac eyed a doughnut shop and I hesitated silently for a moment at the thought of unknown baked goods. The fact that the small shop was mobbed was a clue that we'd found a little gem.

Jac sampled the pumpkin and glazed doughnuts and I got a chocolate iced doughnut. They were fresh fluffy little round holey cakes from Heaven. We couldn't even refrain from chomping down on them long enough to take the obligatory blog photos. So we ended up having a brush with a religious experience after all.

Falls Church Donuts

1112 W Broad St

Falls Church, VA 22046

(703) 533-1349

Quick Clip

Lexi was looking a little too Matthew McConaughey circa summer 2007 before he got his girlfriend all knocked up and got off the beach. She's a plucky terrier but she'd seemed a little listless lately. Well, we watched a repeat of a dog show (Yes, I know, issues.) while I groomed Lexi and the moment she was done she was the happiest, proudest terrier on the block. She's been prancing around and posing ever since. 

A Girl Learns Green Beans Good

Jac showed up last weekend with a little bin of organically grown green beans and presented them to me like a caveman would have brought his wife a wild boar, "Got this. Make."

An opportunity to ply my husband with greens cannot be missed, so before these turned into remnants of green beans, I had to find a good recipe. Sure enough Allrecipes had Tasty Green Beans. I halved the soy sauce and we can't stop eating these things.

Finally a Snow Day

Today wasn't a full-fledged snow day, it was a beggar's snow day, a.k.a. liberal leave. I've already ranted plenty on the plight of workers afflicted with liberal leave, so I'll just say we embraced the day. I did have a meeting scheduled, but it got bumped. The worst of the weather they anticipated never materialized and Jac and I seized the opportunity to go to the yuppie grocery store while it was nearly empty. 

I had a taste in my head from some chicken past and I turned the whole brain attic over trying to remember where I had had this particular dish and what it might contain. Finally I decided I'd had Swiss Chicken at an awards banquet with Jac a few years ago. I set out to find the ultimate recipe. I ended up making a melange of a bunch of different recipes and it was ooooh soooo goood.

Swiss Chicken Bake

6 boneless chicken breast halves, without skin

6 slices Swiss cheese

1 can (10 3/4 oz)  cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup dry sherry

Place chicken in an ungreased 2 quart baking dish; add mushrooms. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese. In a small bowl, combine soup, sour cream, and sherry. Pour over the chicken. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Barack My World

Thank goodness there's finally a translator for anyone who hasn't caught Obamania.

Faux Sunday Chicken Piccata

Yum, Elise at Simply Recipes is always inspiring. Her post about chicken piccata sent me straight to the stove. We drove back to the city from the river today and the experience made me want to move to Montana or Wyoming for the relief in population density. Traffic was attrocious. I guess traffic is horrible every day, but we were in a 40 mile traffic jam. We bailed out and still found every road clogged beyond belief. And today was a holiday. Sheesh.

The weather actually made me want to move to Canada today. I'm not speaking metaphorically, I mean geez, it'd be nice to live in Canada. It should not be 70 degrees in February in Washington. I am so jonesing for an actual freaking winter. The spring-like days are certainly nice, but the whole reason spring has a rejuvenating quality is that it comes after winter.

Pay No Attention to the Charred Chicken Potato Salad

Jac rarely makes dinner requests. When he's got a yen for something I find myself being wooed into the restaurant or store that carries whatever's gotten into his head. This weekend he asked for fried chicken and potato salad. Frying is not something I did a lot of growing up. I'm not actually sure I even made French fries until the late 90's. So it takes me a while to get into the swing of things. I made us fried chicken using Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network. I had a little trouble regulating the oil temperature so it felt like an eternity until that thermometer read 180.

There was no such trouble over in the land of creamy potatoey goodness. As much as I adore, enjoy, worship potatoes, I stay away from all things potato and pasta salad at picnics. Not because I fear a foodborne illness. (Bring on the salmonella! Got any trichonosis? How about botulism?) But because all those funky salads use crumbled up hard boiled eggs. (Egg-haters unite!!)

So I was beyond delight when I found MizzNezz's recipe for New Red Potato Salad over at Recipezaar. No eggs! I laughed when I read some of the commenters' notes that they had added egg. I squirmed a little when I read the ingredients, could it be five stars good? Oh yes, yes it could. Look out soup night, potato salad month might be right around the corner.

February Tomatoes of Global Warmth

If it's gonna be fiercely warm in the month of February well then dammit we're gonna have blatantly summery dishes. Jac suggested a tomato mozzarella salad and not one to tell him tomatoes are no good this time of year, I took the two that had turned from pink to a fair shade of red on our windowsill and coaxed them into maturity in February with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, a bit of olive oil, some basil, salt and pepper. We had this with a Fresh baguette and thought it was July, well okay not quite, but at least May.

FPS - Family Pasta Salad

From the first splash in the pool through Labor Day, one thing is in high demand in our house, and that's FPS. Officially it's Family Pasta Salad, my adaptation of my grandmother's macaroni salad recipe. Unofficially it is Effing Pasta Salad because the demand can get pretty out of hand, even for a gal whose pretty crazy about the stuff. We used to have one member of the household known for scarfing down bowls of the stuff before anyone else even got out of bed. I had to resort to hiding the secret second batch. Grandma's recipe included ham and boiled eggs and there's no way they were making it into my version.

It's a little too simple to even require an actual recipe so I'll give you an annotated list. Cook a pound of elbow macaroni, drain and rinse under cold water until cool to the touch. Mix in enough mayonnaise to coat (about a cup) and sweet pickle relish. Add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and parsley. Mix in 1 large can chicken breast or one to two shredded poached chicken breasts. Adjust seasonings to taste. Chill for one or more hours. Stir, adjust mayonnaise and seasonings to taste. Hide.

Para Ganar Obama

Oh Mo, you always know just what to say...

Chesapeake Tuesday

Headed to the polls this morning. Looking forward to long lines.

Beat the Clock Bourguignon

When you look at the sell by date in the grocery store it always seems like there's oodles of time to make the dish in your head. This weekend I got some lovely top sirloin and planned to make sandwiches. But the weekend went so fast, and we'd already had sandwiches, and the weather took a turn to frigid and our appetites demanded something more wintry.

God bless the crock pot, because I came home to work in the afternoon and I threw the steak in the slow cooker with onion, carrots, garlic, wine, beef stock, and tomato paste and a few hours later we were rewarded with a surprisingly sumptuous weeknight meal.

A Hot Cup of Soup

I don't know about where you are, but it is ice cold in Washington today. Just the kind of weather that calls for a nice hot cup of soup. I couldn't resist making the red lentil soup again last night. But in Rite Aid the other day I spotted the most generic product I have ever seen. This tomato soup looks like it should be in a clip art gallery but it was actually made and for sale. I didn't buy any, I have a feeling it was made entirely of lead and arsenic.

Sunday Simmers Again

Since I made the last Red Lentil Soup, Jac has been hinting he'd like more. So I made a Sunday soup yet again. This soup just does not disappoint. We had turkey and brie panini which was perfect for surreptitious dipping.

Back of the Box Chocolate Chocolate Cake

I've been yearning to make a chocolaty cake from scratch for several weeks. Finally this morning the stars aligned and I got out the goods. I wanted a basic non-mix chocolate cake and I found the recipe right at my finger tips on the back of the Swan's Down cake flour box.

Cake:

3 squares unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled

2 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup sour cream

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9 inch layer pans.

Cream the melted, cooled chocolate with the butter. Add the sugar until fluffy and well blended. Add the eggs, a bit at a time until mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients to blend. Add dry ingredients, along with sour cream to the batter, alternating dry ingredients and sour cream until batter is smooth, mixing on low speed of mixer, scraping bowl often. Add boiling water. Batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake 30 minutes until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto cake rack.

My Penzey's Finds

Here's what we got at Penzey's Spices yesterday. Pantry space is limited in the city so we focused on things that would punch up our minimal spice shelf.

Stocking Up on Spices

About a year ago I was lucky enough to get a crate of spices like these from Penzey's Spices. My spice cupboard got a major makeover. Somehow when you have tamarind on hand, you want to find things Tamarind goes into.

We've been meaning to check out the actual brick & mortar Penzey's in Falls Church since we first heard it was coming to town. Today the stars aligned and we found it nestled in a hub of new development. 

Penzey's is a delight for the senses. The moment you enter there's an aroma of... what is that... oh, every single herb and spice you can imagine. Well, almost every one. We crawled through the store as a few other spice hunting couples did. It's a niche shopping experience to be sure. We saw everything from adobo to zatar. 

Most pleasingly, the spices were reasonably priced - most were just about what an aged McCormick spice would be in the grocery store. Oh the variety. Were there five kinds of cinnamon?

Can't Talk Now

...watching too much NCIS.

NCIS was "strike tv" for me. It's amazing what I'll watch when there's nothing new on. CBS has had a whole host of curious knockoff looking shows and detective shows that just didn't seem that appealing. Someone raved to me about the wonderousness of Numbers, which I think is a CBS show of this ilk. When I watched it I was astounded at just how predictable it was. 

But NCIS for it's somewhat clunky storytelling, is good enough in a pinch. 

Super Bowl Sandwich Night

Yum, a big game calls for a hearty sandwich and the Johnny Harris spiked barbecue chicken I made in my crockpot today rises to the occasion. There is no simpler recipe - put chicken breasts in and cover them with a bottle (or two) of Johnny Harris barbecue sauce. Four hours later, enjoy.