What I'm Reading Now

The Insight City Guide to Philadelphia.

OK, so this post is more about Summer Vacation 2009 than it is about sharing good books, but I'm really not reading anything good right now. I started Rhett Butler's People, but haven't gotten very far. I actually haven't read anything since I finished The Shack at Christmas. We got Mark the new Joe Torre book for his birthday, but he gets to read it first. Nothing else seems particularly engaging. I'm open to suggestions.

But back to the Philadelphia guide. Yes - we're going to Philly for our summer vacay this year. We plan to drive to Hershey, do the Hershey Park thing, then drive through Amish Country to Philly and do the Philly thing for several days. I've never been to Philadelphia and am really excited to visit there - especially since seeing the John Adams series. I found a great hotel in Philly, and Daniel is particularly excited after having watched a Good Eats episode about the quality of pretzels in Philadelphia.

I love trip planning - almost as much as I love the trips themselves!

What's For Dinner? (Times 2)

This week, I took a page from Robin Miller and had a "prep-ahead" day. On Sunday, I roasted six bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Then I removed the skin and the bones and shredded the meat. I put it in a Tupperware container in the fridge to use this week. Here's what I did with it:

Monday: Enchilada Lasagna. Exactly what it sounds like. I got the recipe from a Good Eats episode I saw last week about tortillas. I made a chili sauce using tomato sauce, chicken broth, cumin, chili powder, and chipotle chili peppers. Then I sauteed an onion, and later added half of the chicken (just to warm it up.) Then I dipped whole wheat tortillas in the sauce, and layered them in the pan with alternate layers of the chicken, the sauce, and Monterrey jack cheese. It baked up just like a lasagna, but with a Mexican flair. Mark wants me to try it using corn tortillas, and Ben wants me to leave out the onions. But they ate it. That's something.

Tuesday: Buffalo Chicken Calzones. These ROCKED. I took the rest of the chicken and tossed it with buffalo sauce (2 parts margarine, 3 parts Texas Pete). I made pizza dough using my standard dough recipe, and rolled out two (approximately) twelve-inch rounds. I made one chicken-only calzone, and one chicken and cheese. I baked them at 450 for 15 minutes. Everyone ate the heck out of them. They were really good.

International Potluck Day!

I don't usually blog about work. Nothing good comes from it, generally speaking. But today was worth noting.

I am fortunate to work on a team of ten great people. We realized a while back that out of ten of us, only three of us were born and raised right here in East Tennessee. The rest of us come from three other countries, and other parts of the United States. We have teammates born and raised in Mexico, India, Russia, California, New Jersey, Memphis, and good ole' South Carolina. I don't remember whose idea it actually was, but one day we had this brilliant idea to have an International Potluck Day, where everyone would bring in food that reminded them of their home. Everyone participated, and everyone was really into it. It was cool to try new foods (many of which I had never had) and to listen to the stories of how people grew up and what kinds of food they ate.

And so I share with you my photos of the First Annual QA International Potluck Day. It rocked.

This is the team. After me on the far left, we have Jacob, Nirav, Chip, Randy, Tony (aka Coach T), Scott and Marina, and Eloisa and Bertha in front:




Eloisa brought tamales and rice. I didn't get a picture of the rice, but I got two pics of the tamales, one in the husk and one out. I got a pork tamale and it was AWESOME. And it was SPICY.

Nirav brought Samosas. He described them as Indian hot pockets. They had potatoes, peas, and corn on the inside.

We ate the Samosas with this green chutney. It was made with lots of cilantro, and some other spices which lit me up. It was good though.

Nirav also brought an Indian dessert called Ceero. The texture reminded me of cream of wheat, but it was almond-flavored and sweet. I ate about ten of these. They rocked.

Jacob brought strawberry cobbler. We said it was because he's from California and they grow lots of strawberries in California, but actually it was because it was one of the few things he knows how to make. But it was still good. We ate it with Chip's homemade ice cream, which I failed to get a picture of. Chip originally wanted to bring potted meat, as a culinary representation of his childhood, but we all balked. He finally landed on some memory of making ice cream as a kid, and we encouraged him to make some for us. I even brought in the ice cream maker. It worked out so well, we may just institute Ice Cream Friday in the lab. At any rate, this is the cobbler, sans ice cream:

Tony brought in fried catfish. I ate it with my cocktail sauce, which we'll get to shortly, and it rocked. (Tony also wore his Memphis Grizzlies jersey, just to get more into the hometown zone.)

Bertha brought fried chicken and potato salad. She said that's what everyone brought to church potlucks when she was a kid. It was nice to have some milder flavors to fall back to after the tamales and the chutney.

I brought a roasted shrimp cocktail. I was trying to find something that represented southern/coastal fare, and this was easy to transport and I didn't have to keep it hot. I served it with homemade cocktail sauce, not pictured.

Marina brought Pirozhki, which she described as Russian hot pockets. (Apparently, hot pockets are sweeping the globe.) It's made by wrapping dough around a potato/onion mixture. It was very hearty and very good. Marina's husband helped her make it, and he said the recipe was in Russian, so she had to translate, and then they had to do something like three math equivalents to get the measurements right. Obviously, I took the picture after most of the Pirozhki were gone.

But I got a picture of the inside of one:

Scott showed us what to do with day-old doughnuts. Re-fry them in butter! They were pretty tasty, I have to say.

Scott also made homemade pimento cheese, which was AWESOME!! Possibly the best pimento cheese I've ever had.

And we end with the beginning. Randy baked blueberry bread and a breakfast casserole to get us started. It was the breakfast of champions.

And that was International Potluck Day. I don't think I've ever eaten so much food at once in my entire life. Not even on Thanksgiving. I wanted to try everything, and everything was so good, I kept coming back for more. Good food, good friends, good times.

What's for Dinner?

Tomato-Basil Soup.

A few months ago (or maybe a year ago, it's been awhile now, come to think of it) a Jason's Deli opened right across the street from our office. We eat there fairly regularly - they have great sandwiches and particularly good soups. My favorite is Tomato-Basil. Tonight, I attempted to recreate it.

I combined a can of diced tomatoes, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste with two cups of chicken stock (homemade - once I started, I never went back) and a half a cup of cream. I added a tablespoon of dried basil, lots of salt and too much cayenne pepper. (I started with two dashes, which I could barely taste, and added three more dashes, which lit me up. Somewhere in those last three dashes, I crossed a line.) I pureed all of that, and added another can of diced tomatoes, drained. And then I kicked back and let it simmer.



It was pretty good, with just a little too much cayenne pepper. It wasn't as good as Jason's, but I'm definitely on the right track. I might need more basil, or maybe just use fresh instead of dried. At the very least, it looks just like Jason's, which is half the battle.

I served it with a little cheese and homemade tortilla chips (with Chinese Five Spice - my new favorite go-to spice.)




And for dessert, Sugar and Spice cookies. I found the recipe in my King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking cookbook. After King Arthur retired from the Round Table, he kicked up some killer recipes. This one uses whole wheat flour, molasses, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, along with the obvious butter, sugar, and egg. These were crispy on the edges, but chewy in the middle. In other words, perfect. And while the molasses was all I could smell while they baked, you really couldn't taste it too strongly in the finished product. Thumbs up.

Ben There, Done That

Ok, so I persuaded one more family member to start a blog. Ben There, Done That is now alive and well in the blogosphere.

Not much to look at now, but give him time.

Good Saturday

We had another one of those "multi-activity" Saturdays, only for this one, I don't have pictures.

Mark and Ben spent the day at Merit Badge University. All the scouts in the council meet up at ETSU and attend workshops in the morning and afternoon that help them knock out requirements for merit badges. Ben went to workshops for Citizenship in the Nation and for Citizenship in the World. All he will tell us is that they talked about Obama and China. Hmmmm. Meanwhile, Mark attended some of the leader sessions - he earned a Red Cross First Aid Certification (he wrapped my arm in a sling when he got home) and went to a forum on rank advancement (still not sure what that was about.)

Daniel had his third soccer game of the season. This was far and away the best game so far. It ended in a tie, but it was all action, all the time. Daniel made the best header I've ever seen in youth soccer. He also ran full-boar into a girl twice his size - they both bounced a few feet before hitting the ground. It looked painful.

And me, well I cleaned the house and made hummus. I used the same recipe, only I subbed two teaspoons of ground ginger for the garlic. And I sprinkled Chinese Five Spice on the pita chips instead of salt. It was a very tasty change.

A good day, all in all.

Season Five

OK, so I'm a huge Lost fan. And I thoroughly, THOROUGHLY enjoyed the season premier. I know lots of fans were dismayed at the thought of the time travel plot, but I think it rocks. I loved the opening scene where Daniel showed up in that tunnel with the Dharma guy.

My fellow Lost fans at work have been pondering the current events on and off the island, and we have some theories. If you don't watch Lost, read no further. Just go rent season one and get hooked. But if you are a Lost Geek.....

1. I think the baby in the opening scene will grow up to be Miles.
2. I don't think Locke is dead. I think he arranged to be bitten by one of those Nikki/Paolo spiders.
3. I think the remaining castaways will keep time traveling and we will see a lot of the things that happened in the island's past.
4. I think Sun is not on the up and up. She's a bitter woman. "How's Jack?" my big ole butt.
5. I think the lady at the end is Daniel's mom. The one who reamed Desmond in the antique shop a few seasons back.
6. I think the smoke monster......OK, I still don't really know what to think about the smoke monster.

And there you have it. Any other theories out there?

Thoughts on the Day

So, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. But I am truly excited and proud for America today. And I keep wondering - after all the parties and the hoopla - what it will be like for the Obamas to go home and crawl into bed in the White House? How cool would that be?

And finally, props to Aretha for sporting that hat. She totally pulled that off. Pelosi couldn't have pulled that off. Hillary couldn't have pulled that off. It's good to be Aretha.

Snow Pics

Well, we didn't get much snow. But they made it work.

After it started to melt, we went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Not a bad way to spend a day out of school.

Good Morning, East Tennessee!

The Results Are Varied

So, at least three of us took the Dutch Baby Challenge. That Neil Guy posted his results.

I have also heard, via Facebook, that my cousin Kelly took the challenge, and was unimpressed with the results. I have not seen photos of her efforts, however. (By the way, if my cousin makes a Dutch Baby, does that make it my Dutch Baby once removed?)

So there you have it.

The Dutch Baby. Boo-Yow.

Well, I completed the Dutch Baby Challenge. I think mine performed according to spec.

This is it, right out of the oven:


And this is it, post-deflation:



We ate it "utterly plain" as described in the recipe, and found it tasty, if somewhat bland. It tasted like a low-flavor Yorkshire pudding. And it was really fun to watch.

Did you take the challenge?

Saturday Breakfast Challenge

So, That Neil Guy has issued a culinary challenge. (Not so much a challenge really, but it sounds cooler to say it that way, like he took off his oven mitts and slapped me with them or something.) Anyway, he was intrigued by this recipe, and will be making it this Saturday morning. He asked me to make it as well, to see if we get similar results. Since it is a baking experiment, it is likely that we will have wildly varied results.

The funny thing is, this is a recipe for a Dutch Baby. AB made a Dutch Baby on his "Popover Sometime" episode and I was really intrigued by it. It looks like a ginormous Yorkshire pudding.

So I will be preparing a Dutch Baby this Saturday morning, using the above-linked recipe. Wanna try it too? If you do, and if you have a blog, post your results. If you do, and you don't have a blog, email me your results, and I'll post them. If you don't, then fine. Be that way.

Tune in Saturday to see us go dutch, baby.

My New Toy

So, I spent my summer on an excruciating training project. My teammates and I were recently awarded with "The Smoky Mountain Award", which includes $50 and a day off. While I should have just put my $50 in the bank, it came in the form of a gift card, so I felt that I had no choice but to spend it.

I am a HUGE fan of Lodge cast iron cookware. For some time, I have wanted to try their enamel cast iron line. So I used my $50 (and a little extra) to buy a 6-quart dutch oven. It came yesterday:

And what did I prepare for the maiden voyage?

Creamy Asparagus Soup. Mmm-Mmm good.

Resolutionary Road

So, I thought I'd check in and report on my 2009 resolutions.

1. Eat more superfoods. Remember, these were berries, beans, spinach, broccoli, salmon, red bell pepper, kiwi, mango, oatmeal, and nuts. I have been AMAZED at how easily I'm getting these into my diet. I'm getting like five or six of these a day. Maybe not full servings, but they're in there. I've been making berry/banana smoothies for breakfast, and those banana crunch muffins I made this weekend have walnuts and oatmeal in them. I've been adding baby spinach to wraps and sandwiches at lunch. I've made a couple of chicken dishes with red bell pepper and found them tolerable. And I've been happily snacking on hummus and pita chips. The only thing I haven't eaten more often is salmon, which is odd, because I usually eat salmon all the time.

2. Walk more. I haven't done so well with this one. It's been frigidly cold outside. I need to do better. I walked on Monday and when I was done, I thought my ears had frozen off. It made me quite moody for the rest of the day. Maybe I need some ear muffs. Why does exercise always involve special equipment?

3. Grow my own herbs. The parsley has sprouted! The parsley has sprouted!

And there it is. Two weeks in and I have about a 66% success rate. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.