Nom nom nom

That’s right. Those falafels were damn tasty. (Of course, I had to come back and tell you.)

Today’s menu:

figs stuffed with mascarpone, wrapped in prosciutto (mildly smoked)

honey mustard and fage pork chops (pork was braised in the liquid)

garlic and herb barley

beet and chevre salad

Not posting recipes for these tonight, too much to do. But if you want them, email me.

More importantly… what am I going to do with my MLK day?? Three day weekend and no plans yet…

Hey, that fage is still good…

When did this turn into a cooking blog? I feel like it was sometime last year. I don’t mean for it to be, but usually, the cool recipes I try are my most favorite part of my day!

I do a lot of cooking. I’m really, really sick right now and I’m still crazy cooking. (What is wrong with me?! That seems to be another story) Today’s recipe isssss….. yep, you guessed it, Greek yogurt based! I bought a big container of it and occasionally I like to play the game “What can I make for dinner tonight?” based around an ingredient. I also picked up a can of chickpeas and somehow, the seasoning gods smiled upon me and while I was searching for my big ol’ container of cumin, I found a bunch of coriander seeds!

So yep. Falafels it is. Mandy’s never had it, but I know she’s going to love it. What is it, you may ask? It’s a chickpea patty that is amazingly delicious from Pita Pit, something I had thought of trying soon but hadn’t yet gotten around to trying.

I can’t report on how it is yet, as I’m still waiting to make them (in about 20 minutes, that is!) but you  may be asking, where does the greek yogurt, or Fage (“fa-yeh”) come in? Tzatziki sauce, of course. I’m making a standard one (i.e., with cucumber) but you can use other ingredients–the NYT made one with beets–and even make a bunch of Naan if you want. [The link is already almost two years old, so if it's gone in the next couple of months, I wouldn't be surprised.]

Here’s a quick recipe–and it’s onion and food-processor free!

Falafel:

• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 clove garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds (don’t need a spice grinder… I used my garlic press, but it’s the kind with a removable basket)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour (can use whole wheat, but throw a pinch of all purpose and a pinch of cumin in there)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• serve with tzatziki sauce (see recipe below)

Mix all the ingredients except flour and oil. Using a fork, crush the beans with a fork. This will mix the spices in at the same time. When you’ve got a paste that sticks together mostly, form into little flat patties about an inch and a half in diameter and dredge in the flour. Let sit ten to twenty minutes to let the flour totally bind to the patties, and then fry in the oil (you may have to add a little more oil as you go along). You should get 10-12 patties from the mix. Serve as you would any meat in a pita pocket.

Tzatziki sauce: Mix 1 cup greek yogurt (I used Fage 0% from TJs) and 1/4 cup minced cucumber. Let sit for 15 minutes at least before serving and stir to keep flavor even throughout.

What a doozy.

First a cold, then severe nosebleeds, then kidney stones… OMG! What a freaking week!

I haven’t done much by way of cooking, but I am assembling a colorful version of this beauty… and maybe a bigger scale one, too, if the cricut has a lot of flower cutouts.

I found this beauty on 100LayerCake, one of my favorite wedding blogs ever… and I am pretty sure with the number of flowers I have, there are enough to do a wreath the size of a freeway loop. Haha.

Holla if you know me, because I plan on organizing my craft stuff soon and there’s a lot of stuff left in there that I do not use (I’m talking about YOU, 10 pointless inkpads I have and NEVER use… or all the chipboard cutouts that are now pointless thanks to the cricut)… and it’s free for you if you live in the upstate of SC! (The catch: you must meet me in Clemson to get it.)

Also, Chad has been cooking dinner, and what a great cook he’s been! I’ve only helped a teensy bit. Last night, he made the best baked penne I’ve ever had! It had tons of mushrooms, green onions and spicy italian sausage and a crusty gooey cheese layer on top.  And of course, the night before was tacos… I couldn’t taste those very well. And tonight we just had the most amazing glazed pork chops, blanched asparagus and mashed potatoes from scratch… SOOOO good! I don’t mean to brag, I am just so thankful to have a fiance to take such good care of me when I’m sick. I appreciate him tons!

Finally, I started my LAST SEMESTER AT CLEMSON! This makes me so happy… I am so ready to be out of Clemson. Remember when I talked about getting out early or even transferring to get a degree from elsewhere? I don’t even care anymore, I’m so ready to be done. That reminds me… I should definitely get on that ePortfolio requirement.

Okay, homework time. And I have a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, goat cheese and a loaf of french bread… coming up tomorrow, bruschetta recipe!

Kitchen-ing.

It’s been an inspired week cooking-wise–I’ve really been kickin it!  Well, first of all… we went to Trader Joes, which always gets me thinking of delicious recipes…especially all the cheap pasta sauces. And that brings me to…

I made homemade pasta. As in, from scratch noodles–yep! Two kinds, but you can experiment to your heart’s content as far as herbs/flavors go.

Homemade pasta, SB style:

• 2 cups flour (I believe you can sub 1 to 1.5 cups of the flour for whole wheat flour, but you might want to play with it–it depends on the flour brand. I know that I can probably safely sub in 1.25 cups Trader Joes Whole Wheat flour, and I’d like to try this with buckwheat flour soon)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp + 1/4 cup olive oil
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp basil (sub in whatever you like here, if you’re not a basil fan. the basil was the tastiest, though!)
• 1/2 cup water

1. Mix the flour, salt and basil, and then slowly mix in the eggs, 1 tbsp of the oil and water. The water should be warm. Flour a flexible cutting board and turn your dough out onto the floured surface.

2. Knead for about 10 minutes–if the dough doesn’t stick together while kneading, keep adding oil 1 tbsp at a time until it finally sticks together with a little bit of elasticity. Let rest for 10 minutes, covered by a wet paper towel.

3. Separate the dough into 4-6 different pieces, rolling out with a rolling pin or running through a pasta roller. Cut into the size you like. If you’re not using right away, put in a ziploc and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for 3 months. Drop pasta into boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Ideas for fillings if you’d like to try to make ravioli:

• 1 cup cooked chopped spinach, all water squeezed out, with 1 cup cooked hot italian sausage, in very very small ground pieces.
• 1/3 cup ricotta plus 2 tbsp chevre plus 2 tbsp marinated roasted red pepper (jarred)
• 1/2 cup pureed acorn squash plus 2 slices finely chopped bacon, crispy cooked.

Good luck with your pasta making–and more new recipes to come, like chevre and spinach stuffed hamburgers or a garbanzo bean salad.

resolve.

List of 6 that I am 90% sure I can accomplish this year:

1. Plan a wedding, get married and move to Dallas/Athens (hopefully Dallas. Pray for us that Chad gets into school there!)… and start life as one half of “The Morgans.” Getting to this goal involves: patience, understanding, prayer, faith, love, compassion and organization.

2. Actually do the 30 Day Shred for 30 days. Figure out if it works. If it does, repeat. Getting to this goal involves: patience, hard work, determination, willpower, healthy eating and sleeping on a normal schedule.

3. Stop spending money and start saving. No more eating out all the time, no more random purchases. This goal requires me to be more content with what I have, how I use it and how if I am not using something, someone else may be able to do so.

4. Recenter my friendships. I’ve been building some great friendships after a whopper of a drama this past year, and I want to continue to grow in my friendships with those people. I think meeting new people would be great, too. Basically, I hope to do more to be a better friend–and reaching that goal will require patience, devotion, being happy with myself and giving more to others.

5. Be clever. I know, that sounds weird, doesn’t it? But I mean it–on all counts. I want to be clever in how we spend, so that we do have great times with friends without going out and spending a fortune. I want to be clever at work, finding more ways to get my job done easier and to help my bosses. I want to be more clever in finding ways to spend time with people–getting a workout buddy, having “healthy family dinners” with friends once a week, studying together or just watching our favorite tv show with a glass of wine. I think it’s a good skill, and one that takes work. I was inspired by the fact that I always find a way to decorate our christmas tree, and I always spend $15 or under to do it, or how I planned 7 healthy meals a week out of only $60 of groceries. I mean, it can be done–and it always is better to find a clever way to do it! To reach this goal, though, I need to be on track, better at communicating, dedicated, patient, observant, strong and resourceful.

6. Take more pictures. I know, I know, this one seems so easy… I mean, take more pictures, you just have to load the camera in your purse and keep it charged. But it’s so easy to get caught up in the moment, to not enjoy what’s in front of you or where you are, and to just keep pushing through. I think this could be just as easily titled “don’t take things for granted,” but I truly want pictures. I want the memories of each photo, to be reminded of all the opportunities that I am fortunate enough to experience each day. I think this will truly be the hardest (if you’ve ever seen my camera, you know why!) but I think that the task of taking a picture for each day of the year would be awesome. I don’t truly mean one each day, but I mean at least 365 pictures next year, and at least one batch a week. I have two flickrs and I’ll post the links up here when I start.

SB

PS-if I made a seventh, it would be to always back up your work, always, always. Computers fail/get stolen/broken/fried/rendered useless all the time. I wish I had saved more pictures from last year… and will definitely be saving more this year. Plus, mandy just got a TB of space on her external hard drive… and she’s willing to share. So yeah, no excuses this time.

10 not-so-secrets.

I know, I’m a slacker, that’s no secret of course. Really I haven’t wanted to log in because this wedding crap is becoming a mess. (No, really. I promise it’s that. NEVER LINK YOUR BLOGS, people.)

Anyways, since I feel like you google-readers might want to read me, I’m going to post 10 “not-so-secrets…” mostly because I doubt that you know me unless you know me in real life!

1. I pick out every single gift Chad gets me. In fact, I’m really excited about my Christmas gift this year! I don’t know if I should tell you what it is, though.
2. I have no idea when I’m getting married. Oh sure, there’s a tentative date set. But I’m at the point where I hate my own wedding plans. Can’t we all just elope?
3. I have a love-hate relationship with starbucks. What’s the deal with not being able to make a nice thick hot cocoa? Come on, sbux, get with the program.  I’m tired of your crap.
4. I like decorating for christmas. It’s seriously possibly my most favorite thing to do. It’s soooo… warm and christmas-y.
5. I hate the idea of dividing up holidays with different families once we’re married. My mom’s family got the brilliant idea years ago to do the family thanksgiving/easter/christmas the weekend before. I just know it’s going to be a major fight with his parents about what we do for the holidays.
6. I’m a total softie. When ambulances pass, when I hear calls go out on my dad’s work walkie… I always say a prayer and get a little sad. And I can’t even watch the animal abuse commercials… don’t get me started.
7. I want to cook like a mid-atlantic paula deen meets ina garten. Maybe someday, right? (Also, I hate the Neelys on the Food Network. The groping is not cool.)
8. I sometimes wonder how much time slips past all of us. Do we all live in the moment enough? Do we make the right decisions? Hard to say.
9. If Tiffany & Co ever offered me a shopping spree, I’d probably leave the Atlas jewelry, and some of the Frank Gehry stuff. Does that make me a total lame girl?
10. I don’t have a twitter or skype. My life continues just fine. I’m actually very happy with this situation.

Freebies to make up for my absence!

Oy. With the whole wedding switching date thing, It’s been a busy couple of weeks! Plus, I haven’t had much to blog about… I haven’t been cooking too much!

But… I do have something for you, since you’ve waited patiently. Close your eyes. Now open them. Now pull up my flickr here and download, for yourselves… HOLIDAY RECIPE CARDS!

Doing these free. Not even attaching a “copyright sociallysb 2009″ to them like I did the freebies on my wedding blog. Nope, I didn’t put a lot of work into these, so if someone takes credit for them somewhere… lol, I’m sorry. But really, you might find you like them. Two sizes, 4×6 and 3×5. So yeah… there’s your update. Keep your eyes peeled for some matching tags or something, if I get spare time in the next week or so.

Expect more after Christmas, when I get my tablet and hopefully Adobe Illustrator! (I’m going to be cricut-ing stuff like you wouldn’t believe with that bad boy.)

My crockpot has a first name, it’s Y-u-m-m-y!

I’ve been crock-potting it up lately, mostly because it is fall and yet still so hot! The crockpot gets less hot than my stove or oven.

This weekend we had a dinner party and the first course was a delicious butternut squash soup… it tastes like fall in a bowl.

How to make it (simplified for 4-5 people)!

• 1 large butternut squash
• 1 24 oz container low fat no added sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• pinch nutmeg
• garnish (not optional–really changes the soup!): lowfat sour cream

Cut the squash into 1″ cubes, and put it and the liquids into the crock pot for 8 hours on low. Using a stick blender, puree the squash in the pot. Add the spices and let simmer on low for about 30 minutes. Dish up and add a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Wow, haven’t been posting in a while!

Sorry it’s been so long! Between wedding, school and weekends my life is FILLED!

First of all, oktoberfest at Sugar Mountain… it rained! but it was still pretty cool, we picked up some homemade fudge and of course, we had bratwursts (well, I had a burger.. lol) and streudel!

New recipe! In an attempt to go meatless twice a week (we got to the point where we were eating a LOT of meat. And meat is good for you, but so is other things!), I’m going to start posting some meatless meals for you to try.

Today’s meal: Black Bean Burritos!

I know, it sound simple, right? Except it is tons of work–but I wouldn’t skip anything, because these turned out amazing!

• 1 small bag black beans
• 6-8 cups water (probably more like 6)
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1 tbsp Weber seasoning’s “Kick’n Chicken”
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 small pinch cayenne pepper (ground): this is important, get the freshest spice you can. Mine came from the produce department, where theirs tend to be more fragrant
• 1 package corn tortillas
• pam
• lettuce
• sour cream
• cheese (we used ff cheese + sour cream; you could sub in greek yogurt for a bit more zing instead of the sour cream!)
• pico de gallo

For the pico de gallo

• 3 tbsp minced cilantro
• 1/3 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/3 cup diced onion
• squirt of lemon juice (optional)

Okay, first for the beans–I soaked them for about 3 hours, since they’re dried. I threw them in the crock pot with all the seasonings and onion and let them cook overnight (10 hours). If you still have water in them, continue on “warm/low” until the water is gone.  This is crucial! If you go and buy canned beans, they have added sodium, so don’t add as much salt. They won’t be as flavorful either, since they’re packed in water. If you wanted to do this with canned beans, I recommend Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Black Beans–they’re the only black beans we’ve found with significant flavor.

Next step, make pico (and let sit overnight, too): dice your tomato and onion, mix it with the cilantro. The key is to make sure it tastes like YOU want it to taste–more or less cilantro, onion or tomato. Strike up the right balance for you; for us, that means more cilantro.

Now, it’s approximately dinner time the next day–what do you finish up with? The tortillas and the pam. I know, sounds weird, right? Spray small skillet with pam, heat, throw in tortilla and spray top of tortilla with pam. Flip when golden brown in spots on one side. Then, (making sure your oven rack is clean) preheat your oven to “warm” –mine gets to about 170 degrees. As you make the tortillas, when you take them out , put them over one of the bars on the racks in the oven–it should hang down into a taco shell shape. Keep them warming in here like this until you’re done with the last one (I did three per person) and then stuff to your heart’s content!

I have to say, this recipe was a labor of love, but it tasted so amazing in the end that I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Next up as far as meatless goes–making your own veggie lasagna!

Boone, ho!

This weekend, Chad & I will be setting out with five friends to go spend five days in Boone, NC at his family’s cabin. It’s exciting, because I’ve been there before and it’s a really pretty place! We’re also taking engagement photos there, but I’m really excited for:

Sugar Mountain Oktoberfest! YEAH! Unfortunately, our trip to Boone means we’ll be missing Fall for Greenville and the Pumpkintown Pumpkin festival, but we think that being in the mountains makes fall a little more authentic! We’ll also be going to the one in Helen, GA the weekend after–how exciting.

Meanwhile, around here we’ve been eating healthy, but no new recipes for me to share yet. I have quite a few marked off to try, so later this week I’ll post one that works out!

In the meantime, how about we enjoy this classic favorite, which can also be used with artificial/non-sugar sweetener and lowfat cream cheese: Pumpkin Cream Cheese.

Also, I got to IKEA again this weekend, one of the many things I did (and boy, were there quite a few things to do this weekend)! We picked up some new candleholders and apple & cinnamon scented tealights, along with a dish for the balls of yarn idea found here, but in fall colors. Along with my fall wreath and the weather, I think I am so ready for fall to be here!