I have a problem with French Roast.

I take that back; I don’t have a problem with French Roast. Maybe I have a problem with Starbucks’ French Roast. It’s actually too burnt (as even their mild blends seem to have an overdone quality to them). I love roasty. I love toasty! I love dark, and smooth; but baby, this Starbucks ain’t it. It tastes like charcoal.

The offending coffee

So naturally it’s one of the two selections available to me at work. Actually, I’m sure that even the version at Starbucks has to be better than this. It’s probably just user error; or more likely that the machine is deficient when it comes to actually extracting the flavor from the bean. They don’t have someone swirling the mixture in the basket to ensure that each ground gets the ever lovin’ attention it deserves from the water.

The offending brewing machine

And offending accompaniments/cover-up agents

It’s more likely that the majority of the coffee drinkers on my floor are more interested in the caffeine effects than the actual flavor of the coffee. Plus, I see the amounts of creamer we go through. My coworkers are only hiding the obvious – the coffee tastes awful.

The real answer probably resides with me. I think I need to be brewing my own coffee – and no, I don’t mean heading back to the old brew machine and letting it make the coffee. I need to bring in a press pot. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything that’s a good size for “a couple of cups at work”. But that can be fixed.

Time Lost in Chaos

Well, this past month and a half went a little differently than planned. So differently that I freaked out and again abandoned the things that have made me happiest, or even just the things that keep things running smoothly. Though the signs had probably been in the air for some time (above and beyond his chronic health issues) Jason's health took a nosedive this past month and we've spent 3-4 weeks in the hospital in the last month+. Fun times. 


It's so easy to forget to take of myself in all this. Whether it's guilt for enjoying something my husband cannot (I feel this guilt regularly), or guilt for just needing some alone time, it's easier to just ignore myself to make sure he's feeling better... even if it means a fight later.


On the upshot, one of the hospitals we've been in has some really great food, so good they even named their food court-styled area Windows on the Wasatch (the windows literally face the Wasatch Range). One of my favorite stations is the "Greens" area, where one of the servers mixes together your choice of greens, one protein, six veggies, a cheese, etc, and dressing for a delicious, though perhaps oversized salad.

One such salad... delicious!

They also have an excellent assortment of items to choose from, providing you can navigate around the sodium and caloric contents of the more junky food available.

Orzo and greens salad with feta, strawberries, and watermelon from a couple of days ago.
Sure makes a bad day better.

This veggie pizza was pretty delicious, as well. I think I got this early on in his stay.

All-in-all, though most items weren't photo-worthy (nor did I want photographic evidence of some of my worse choices... foot-long corndog anyone?), the food here was pretty decent. I'm still craving something a bit better from home, which I'll be able to get starting tonight. I'll also have to start tinkering around with new things to eat, things that will be both pleasing and healthful for Jason... (will be keeping an eye on Heidi's Blog for some healthy food tidbits!)

Time to get back to my regularly scheduled LIVING!

Challah!

Fridays at Harmon's means challah bread. Mmm... eggy, slightly sweet dream carbs... While I feel that challah is good to use for just about anything, nothing beats French toast made from challah bread, and that's just what I was thinking Sunday morning. 

I don't really measure, but I used approximately (and sometimes exactly):

• 3 large eggs
• ~ 1 cup skim milk
• ~ 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 lemon (I like this for a bit of brightness to the custard)
• 1 tbsp. good ol' white sugar

I'm really going to have to talk about this citrus juicers... one of my favorite tools. Squeezes until the last drop!

Soaked the bread for a couple of minutes on each side, then set it on a rack to drip off.

Browned for around 2-3 minutes on each side, then into the oven they went.

Here is the result:

Salty, sweet goodness.  

As far as tonight goes, I wish I'd whipped out the camera, but today was too much of a bummer to think about pictures, apparently. I decided to bust out the lamb chops in the freezer and threw them on the grill with rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil. 

They did not look like this:

Is that roasted garlic I see?

But they were quite delicious.

Friend Making Mondays? Okay, I'm in...

I've been seeing this in a few blogs I read and figure I should give this a try... eh? Maybe it'll get the wheels in my head turning a bit faster.

FMM: What’s in Your Fridge?

1. List a few common items that can always be found in your fridge.  Grapefruit and orange juice are both refrigerator regulars. I typically will have one or two types of cheeses. Yogurt. Some formerly fresh produce that I don't manage to get into our bellies. 
   
   
2. What kind of milk do you drink? Nada. I do drink some almond milk from time to time.
3. Do you prefer fresh or frozen vegetables? Fresh! Unfortunately, we can't always get that here in Utah, so I supplement with frozen from time to time. I've been trying to make a better effort of working with seasonal items to keep the freshness in the diet while saving on the coin.
4. What do you currently have to drink in the fridge? Jason's milk, cranberry juice, orange juice, (I ran out of grapefruit juice), Brita water filter, IPA (1 bottle), cherry cola (1 bottle).
5. How often do you clean out your refrigerator? Once weekly for basic maintenance (throwing out of bad stuffs), every couple of months for major leaning (involving chemicals and the removal of all contents)
6. What’s the healthiest thing in it right now? Fresh red cabbage.
7. What’s the most unhealthy thing in it right now? A soft, delicious French cheese... Brillat-Savarin, perhaps? Can't remember off the top of my head. (Though I do feel that good cheese shouldn't be considered unhealthy... maybe I'll sub in the cherry cola.)
8. What do you wish you had in it that you don’t have now? Figs. Figs sound good. That would be good with the aforementioned cheese.
9. How often do you shop for groceries? Usually on the weekend. I got a little excited and went on Friday this past week. Sometimes I get a hankering for something unusual, so I'll stop off on the way home.
10. What’s the weirdest thing in your fridge right now? Nothing too weird, in my opinion. My freezer has a wonderful calamari steak that I'll be preparing sometime this week, however. Is that weird?

Andouille Beef Burger and the noms it induced

Last night, we had andouille beef burgers with a side of potato salad. The burgers were simple:

1/2 lb. andouille sausage
1 lb. ground beef (85/15 was the beef of choice)
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper.

My hopes were to find the andouille sausage that one of our local grocers, Harmon's, used to carry. It was fresh-made and wonderful. Not to say the pre-cooked stuff you can buy in the lunchmeat section of the grocers isn't fine, it is, but the stuff they used to carry was bliss. So, since I couldn't easily blend it into the beef, I decided to chop it up into tiny little bits. I was hoping it would have integrated better, but it just didn't. I'd show you, but the pictures just didn't turn out well. (Taking pictures for this blog has only made me realize that I'd like a better camera and/or better lighting.). At least the burgers didn't fall apart once they hit the grill.

Prior to tossing the burgers on, I grilled up a nice slice of Vidalia onion on the grill. It went on top, along with some bleu cheese and some coarse ground mustard. Delicious... and sucessful!

As you can see in the picture, just a simple potato salad on the side. I'm not one for measuring, so I figured I'd just post a pic of all the ingredients: mayo, mustard, celery, green onion, dill, salt, pepper...

... and potatoes.

Andouille, or do we not?

I’ve contemplated some time on having a blog. On one hand, a blog satisfies the narcissism that lives inside me, or all of us really; yet on the other, it’s a pretty great way to let others know what’s going on in my life and hopefully put a spotlight on some interests I might have.

As my closer friends know, there has been a lot of drama and trauma in my life this past year. I started up a blog sometime late last year so that I could have an outlet for all my angst. I thought I’d pepper in all kinds of interesting insights to all the crap around me, but truthfully, it ended up being difficult to “keep up”. After all, how could I live in all the dark places of my mind without getting swallowed up into it? My instinct was to shy away from it, only indulging when I was hurting and scared the most. I don’t think it’s an ugly thing, but certainly a memoir of a dark time. I’m allowed my dark times, but wouldn’t it be nicer if I focused on living through those times, as opposed to crying, or reliving the time some asshole doctor told my husband and I that he’d have a 50/50 change of not making it off of the operating table. Yeah, the doctor was wrong (though the high risks were certainly there, and always will be); and so was I for letting it hurt me for so long.

Recently, a good friend of Jason and I started up a Group on Facebook for home cooking, under the premise that weekly challenges would open up our eyes to ingredients we may not ordinarily be using in our regular lives. 

First week was quinoa, for which I made a quinoa and black bean salad, accompanied by grilled chili-lime chicken. 

Quinoa and  black bean salad with chili-lime grilled chicken

Jason used what was left of the quinoa and made some delicious stuffed bell peppers. We took pictures posted them to the group, members of which also had some great ideas on how to use quinoa of their own.

Jason's genius use of leftover quinoa - stuffed bell peppers!

Second week: pork tenderloin. I love pork tenderloin. Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel like cooking at all that week. Fortunately, Jason did. He made a wonderful, rosemary-crusted pork tenderloin with a side of mashed red potatoes. Simple and delicious!

Rosemary-crusted pork tenderloin with smashed baby red potatoes

This week: andouille sausage. Jason has already made his jambalaya with black “forbidden” rice (which turns everything purple, incidentally). I took a weak pic before gobbling my bowl down. 

Jason's jambalaya with black "forbidden" rice

While eating, I contemplated reorganizing the food as to take a better picture of it to share and thought, “I wish I had a platform on which to share this with others.” I do like to write and I love to eat and cook – why wouldn’t I have my own blog on this.

So, here I am. I have yet to make my andouille sausage meal to enter into the “competition” – I already know what I'm making, and prepped the side dish tonight in advance. Mmm...