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26 October 2011

I love the internets

Odd things found:

The perfect song to play at your next pizza party:




Some of the saddest scense from "classic" TV shows. Carlton makes speed look great:



Tumblr sites can get a bit crazy:

Kanye'd by the Bell - Kanye lyrics placed on screen shots of everyones favorite "Saved by the
Bell"

Ryan Gosling mixed with Cats and Disney: Click Here

24 October 2011

Recipe of the week

I follow loads of cooking blogs. Despite owning dozens of cookbooks I still need to look at some sort of recipe on a daily basis. I used to follow through and make a lot of these recipes. Weekly potluck with the friends was one major reason- I always had to bust out a new and unqiue recipe so I could "beat" everyone else, despite it not being a competition. In the past year our weekly potlucks have faded and I have stopped cooking near as much. I miss it and miss chopping; it always helps me get my anger out. I was driving around looking for errands to run yesterday when I decided to go to the grocery store. I mean if I'm going to stop eating out on a daily basis I might as well stock some food in my fridge to allow me to want to stop eating out. On the drive to hipster Kroger I noticed a printed out recipe in the passenger seat. It was one I printed out just days ago. A healthy macaroni and cheese, or at least a health-IER version. Being Sunday I decided to jump into the cooking pool feet first. No toe dipping for me. I bought the ingredients, not cheap by the way since the cheeses required were not cheap and god forbid I use cheaper cheeses, and rushed home to cook my little heart out. I cooked my heart out so much and chopped so fucking much that I have a blister on my finger. Improper knife holding anyone? Anyhoo despite the pain, the recipe also brought me glory. Glory for getting back into cooking with only 1 blister to show.

This health-IER mac n' cheese contains roasted acorn squash, gruyere, sharp white cheddar, spinach, wheat bread, basil, sour cream, wheat pasta, and tomatoes.

Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese
*ever so slightly adapted from 101cookbooks.com

1 small acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut into tiny chunks
olive oil
1 bunch of basil, stems removed
2 slices wheat bread, stale or dried out in the oven
1/2 a small head of broccoli, roughly chopped
5 tbsp sour cream
slightly less than ½ lb grated white cheddar cheese
slightly less than ½ lb grated gruyere cheese
a large handful of (yellow) cherry tomatoes
1 pkg whole wheat macaroni elbows,

Preheat your oven to 400F with a rack in the middle. Put a large salted pot of water on to boil.

Place the squash on a baking sheet, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

In the meantime, pulse half the basil, all of the bread, the broccoli and a lug of olive oil in a food processor until you've got a fine crumb. It'll be a bit damp. Transfer to a small bowl and give the processor a rinse.

In a separate bowl, combine the sour cream and grated cheeses.
Place the cherry tomatoes in the food processor with the remaining basil. Pulse a couple times to break things up, then add to the sour cream/cheese mixture and stir well. Can break into bits if you don’t have large processor.

Boil the pasta in well-salted water for a bit less time than the package suggests - you want it ever so slightly undercooked. Drain, reserving a big cup of the hot pasta water for later use.

Return the hot pasta to the pan and add the cheese mixture to it. Add the squash and give it a good stir. Add pasta water to thin the sauce to the consistency of cream. It can be a bit runny as the pasta will soak it up in the oven.

Transfer everything to a large baking dish or casserole. Sprinkle the green breadcrumbs evenly across the top and bake for 20 -25 minutes at 400F or until the topping is crunchy. Remove from the oven, and wait 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 8 - 10.

20 October 2011

Late to the Game

I love Charlie the Unicorn, so despite being late the the game I have given my heart and soul to llamas with hats. It's sort of my kind of humor. The embedded clip below shows episodes one through four. Just for kicks I am going to post my boy Charlie below in case you are one of the five people left who hasn't heard of dear old Charlie.



18 October 2011

Striving for

enjoy it by i enrapture
enjoy it, a photo by i enrapture on Flickr.

DC trip

A long while ago I promised you DC pictures. Looking through my memory card I found far more pictures of the airport and my friends baby then I did of DC itself. Oh well. Here are a few of my faves from the trip even if they aren't quintessential Washington DC.

A shocked babe

Baby Baby

The freakiest store window I ever did see. Whats up with the lil' chipmuks too?

Beheaded mannequin

Hushed

George

On the tarmac

Planes

Preparing for liftoff

Take off

Father son bonding

10 October 2011

Photography shoot

Told you I would be back with some pictures of the shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I haven't finished editing them all yet since I've been a bit lazy, but the goal is this week. Here are some of the pictures I have done:

The lovely couple:


Grandkids 1:


Grandkids 2:


Friends:


I'll have more later this week, but that's all for now.