Curry times two.

I rarely make enough portions of a meal to have substantial leftovers. I cut recipes in half or thirds or whatever, just to avoid having food that’s going to sit in the refrigerator. I usually make enough of whatever we have for dinner so that Matt can have another serving for lunch the next day, but it’s my personal philosophy that leftovers are gross and can kill you.

What? That’s totally logical. BACTERIA, PEOPLE. It grows. Plus, our fridge stinks. So there you go.

But last night,  I made a gigantic pot of Zucchini/Chickpea/Tomato Curry from Eat, Drink, and be Vegan. It has a real name but all of those components are in it, so if you have EDBV, you should be able to use your deductive skills to find it.

Which I would recommend. Because it’s major.

It’s got pretty much everything I would ever want from a curry: chickpeas, red potatoes (I subbed these in for sweet potatoes), zucchini, spices, a nice tomato base. Matt was also pretty into it, so even though I was worried at first about what we’d do with all the leftovers, we ended up polishing the whole batch (”4-6 servings” according to Dreena Burton) in two nights. Not bad. We had it with Brown Basmati rice, which is really good. I think the company is RiceSelect, and I’ve heard they make a whole wheat orzo, as well. And I’m all over that, so hopefully it’s not just a rumor.

Also - I went to the gym and I did not ride the bike. I hit the Arc Trainer and managed to stick with it for 40 minutes, when my toe got kind of numb and I had to quit to walk the indoor track for a while and then lift in the weight room, aka, the dude section. I hate the way guys at the campus gym lift weights. They go way too fast, they’re always yelling at each other (COME ON, MAN, YOU CAN DO TWO MORE REPS), sharing stores about getting food poisoning from eating raw eggs, and at least once during every trip to the gym, I am convinced that one of them is in labor because of the way he’s grunting. Honestly. Nothing should hurt like that.

There was only one other woman in the area, and she was doing bicep curls with 40 pound weights. Is that normal? Because I don’t think I can do that.

Anyway, the point is.

With all of that activity and weight room anxiety, plus the fact that I spent five hours cleaning and organizing this morning, I was starving for dinner, so the leftovers actually worked out nicely. We also just took a walk because it’s unseasonably nice outside, and now I’m hungry again. LUCKILY, I happened to buy some delicious soy ice cream today with a gift certificate to People’s (thanks, Tara!). And now I’m going to eat it.

Why am I awake?

I hope that being unable to sleep past 6:30 on a Saturday morning is not a symptom of my new life as a married lady. That would be uncool.

Yesterday, we got married, and it was the best day ever. I got to marry Matt AND there was no weird weather, no timing issues, no one forgot a ring or anything, I only laugh/cried once during the ceremony, dinner was great, and the cake was awesome.

Since it was my wedding day, I felt fully comfortable taking food pictures at dinner. Here’s some Prosecco and our table’s bruschetta appetizer. Both were amazingly good.

My first piece:

There were many more. Hey, it was my day.

Dinner was Rainbow Trout with red pepper aioli and pecan foccacia breading. So bascially, the greatest food ever.

The fish actually isn’t as big as it seems. I did not eat a whole fish, they just slice the filet or something and lay it out, kind of butterflied. Anyway, I ate half of the fish, some rice, and all of my asparagus. I’ll finish the rest in a few minutes today.

Matt had the Alakan Halibut special:

And there was a decent bit of this:

And after all of it, I looked like this:

(full)

But I still found the strength to come home and eat our AWESOME cake, designed and executed by Donna.

PB&J cake:

Sorry for all the extras in the picture. I probably should’ve at least put away my oat bran. But I wanted you to see the scale of it, compared to our microwave.

I told Donna we liked chocolate and fruit and she came up with this wonderful cake. Each tier is chocolate cake with two layers of filling: one raspberry jam and one peanut butter based. All topped with buttercream and raspberries. THE GREATEST WEDDING CAKE EVER. Also, HFCS and trans fat free. Unlike my birthday cake will be next week. We froze the top tier for our first anniversary but we still have almost the whole bottom tier. I wonder if it’s bad luck or anything to eat it now?

I hope not. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

If you don’t, what I mean is that I might need it for breakfast. To round out the trout.
Speaking of breakfast, I think I’ll go eat that now. If I’m going to be up at this ungodly hour, I might as well eat from my swanky new married dishes.

Super green shrimp curry

Yep. That’s what we had.

It’s a variation on the recipe I made here, I just switched out asparagus and tofu for sugar snap peas and shrimp. It could’ve used more shrimp. Here it is with rice:

It could also have used more calories or something. I’m still hungry. LUCKILY, Matt got some ice cream while I was at work. So, yeah. That’s next. Then, the Wash Palace. That’s right. Our Laundromat is actually a palace.

Enchiladas

Wow, what an inspired post title. I bet you’re all “NOW I remember why I read this blog.”

Today was dramatic. I knew it was supposed to storm, and I went into a meeting at 9 and the sky was kind of cloudy and weird. When I got out of my meeting at 10, the sky was totally black. Seriously, I was confused about why I was working in the middle of the night (I only had one cup of coffee this morning so I wasn’t totally alert). I called Matt because it was raining really hard and I wanted him to check the new air conditioner to make sure no water was coming in. While we were on the phone, we could hear the tornado sirens, but they test them on Mondays, so no big deal.

Then, the building manager at work came on the PA and was all “THIS IS NOT A DRILL, GO TO THE FIRST FLOOR.” And so, of course, I freaked out and called Matt back and said “THIS IS NOT A DRILL. GO TO THE BATHROOM. IT IS NOT A TEST. GO TO THE BATHROOM!” The bathroom is the safest place in our apartment during a tornado, in case that wasn’t clear. Then, it turns out that they were running the tornado sirens because it was hailing so badly and they wanted people to stay away from their windows. Softball-sized hail or something ridiculous.

Right now, my entire family is saying “MOVE BACK TO NORTH CAROLINA.”

Anyway, I went to kickboxing after work and it was so hardcore that I was really afraid someone might have to scrape me up off the floor at the end. So, I was really hungry and wanted something that would fill me up. So, here are some bean and avocado enchiladas from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan:

You may not be able to tell, but they kind of fell apart. But it didn’t matter, because they were some kind of awesome. Pinto beans, mushrooms, cashews, onions, and some mashed avocado. I used much less avocado than the recipe called for (like 3/4 of one instead of two). That was a smart move, because otherwise it never would have fit in the 12 tortillas I had left. Also, it meant I had room for dessert.

Then, we went to do laundry in the basement of the house next door, and while we were loading the machine, something totally started MAKING NOISE AND MOVING in the garbage can. I can’t even begin to imagine. So, being mature and tough, I ran away and screamed “take the laundry out, TAKE IT OUT.” And then I had to wash stuff in the sink.

Luckily, I rediscovered my jar of Nutella when I was looking for pinto beans, so I turned to it for comfort in my time of stress.

And now I’m going to go read a report about Integrated Library Systems.

Jealous?

In a hurry

Tonight’s dinner was Heidi Swanson’s In a Hurry Green Curry and it was pretty delicious. Of course my photo won’t be as aesthetically pleasing as hers, as I don’t have tulip bowls and I don’t think we have a piece of actual wood in the whole apartment to serve as a food styling surface. A girl’s got to have something to aspire to. To which to aspire? Whichever sounds right to you.

This was my first curry, and I’m glad I went with a springtime theme instead of starting out with a heavier, wintry kind of curry. Next year, though, I’m all over it.

I served this with some Texmati American brown basmati rice. I’ve never made that before either, but I was really proud that I didn’t somehow ruin it, as I am wont to do with rice. Seriously, I usually get the boil in bag kind because I just can’t hack it when it comes to cooking totally normal things. Have you seen my grilled cheese sandwiches? No.

Exactly.

Anyway, the name of that recipe was pretty appropriate, as I am in a hurry to finish this up so that I can set up my brand new Wii Fit, an early birthday present from Matt. He risked life and limb going to buy it for me. He’s just that kind of guy.

Here it is, waiting for me:

Right there with some of my shoes, a poster we need to re-hang, a bottle of detergent, and it looks like there are some comics back there, too. Just a little window into our rich and complex lives.

Wherein I cook chicken. Again.

Tonight was another Ellie Krieger special - Tuscan Roasted Chicken and Vegetables.

We got the recipe from her cookbook, but I think it’s probably also on the Food Network website somewhere. I could Google it and find a link for you, but come on people. I’m a librarian. I Google things all day long. I blog to find solace from my day to day life.

I don’t travel much, so I have no idea what made this “Tuscan,” but I do love a good roasted tomato. Roasted zucchini is also a winner. The recipe called for fennel as well, but we are not fancy like that, so I just ignored that line. I’ve gotten excellent at that. I also made some rice. That Uncle Ben’s 90-second microwaveable stuff, because I fell asleep while dinner was cooking and woke up when the oven buzzed. The rice is kind of creepy. But I think I like it. As much as one can like shelf stable rice in a bright orange pouch.

In other news, it is almost the end of the semester, which means that next week at this time, I could potentially be having a beer in a virtually student-free environment for the first time since early January. And then, it was too cold to leave the house.

Wow, I almost just teared up with excitement. Living in college towns can be challenging. Fortunately, I’ve chosen a career path that will keep me in them for the next forty years.

Good move, Jenny. Good move.

What can brown do for me?

A few weeks (months? time flies when you’re Dutifully Serving the Public) ago at work, we did a customer service forum thing, where we were all handed a slip of paper with a slogan, and we had to sit at the table of the company our slogan represented. I think I made that sound more complicated than it is. So, I got “Can you hear me now?” and sat at the Verizon table. One of them was “What can brown do for you?,” which, having only recently re-entered the world of television not originating from DVD format, I didn’t really recognize. Apparently, it is the “catchy” slogan of UPS, and…

Oh god, it’s happening again. Ever since I came down with my current ailment, I’ve been having trouble staying on message.

So, dinner was brown:

Although, there are a few nice splashes of color. This is a lentil salad, inspired by Couch Cubicle. It’s basically lentils with red peppers, mushrooms, spinach, grape tomatoes, feta and a little balsamic vinegar. I had it with brown rice and some crushed up cashews, which I have been hiding from myself since my last bender. After I took this picture, I threw some curry powder on, which actually made for a nice contrast to the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar.

Then, I did some frantic cleaning to prepare for my mom’s arrival tomorrow. The whole apartment smells like gardenias. It’s kind of giving me a headache. After I finished, I had dessert:

I cut up a pineapple for the first time today, and I didn’t even hurt myself. There’s some of that under there, and then some yogurt, flaxseed, Target cereal, a few sliced almonds, and some frozen blueberries. I thought they would make it taste like ice cream. They did not.

I have no idea why my hand looks so red and shiny. I think I need to use some of my tax refund to get my own camera, because I clearly lack skill with Matt’s. I also need to use some of it to get a bike, so I can be like this hipster girl we saw outside the grocery store the other day, with her Pumas and rolled up pants and a box of Corn Pops displayed prominently in her bike basket. I thought I was suddenly on the set of Juno or something. Which, for the record, was an okay movie, but DO NOT read Diablo Cody’s memoir. Seriously. I can’t stress this enough.

Remember what I said about losing the message?

No pictures from last night’s dinner, because I was feeling lightheaded at the end of the workday and somehow decided that the best way to remedy that would be to take a 2 and a half mile walk to eat Chinese food. We always love Happy Valley, but last night, it tasted like mall food and, because I am ruthless, I have stricken from the list of acceptable restaurants.

The rest of yesterday was stupid, and I’m pretending it didn’t happen. Oh, except for the part where we watched the first episode of VH1’s Miss Rap Supreme, which Matt DVRed for me on Monday. The White Rapper Show was my favorite show of 2007, and this has even more venom and cursing, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow, I’ll be picking my mom up in Kansas City at 5ish, and hopefully we’ll be able to eat at Ingredient in Lawrence. Nothing cures a mall food experience like a giant salad with salmon and chips in it.

Something fishy

I actually planned ahead and selected all the dinners we’re going to have this week, because I’m running dangerously close to breaking my grocery budget for the month. Several of these dishes involve fish. I blame the Cooking Light I got at the library yesterday.

Tonight’s meal was based on CL recipe from the January (I think) issue for Salmon Croquettes. I switched a few things up and I’m from The South, so I’m going to call them Salmon Cakes. Here they are with steamed broccoli and some brown rice:

My salmon cakes didn’t stay together very well at first, which I attribute to my substitution of plain yogurt for mayonnaise (because mayonnaise is gross). But all in all, they turned out really well. I split the recipe in half and made four small patties.

And for dessert, a Fage with honey:

We’re about to fire up the Wii and play some tennis, so I’ll probably have a traditional Easter dessert of a Reese’s egg after that.