Fabulicious Weekend

Is that a word? Fabulicious, I mean? I know weekend is a word cuz I am smart!

I had a wonderfully awesome weekend, starting with beer at Ashleys (Red's Rye off the tap, which is like heaven +1), then off to Grizzly Peak for a Golden Ale and dinner. Saturday began with a walk in the semi-decent weather, where I discovered the magic of the Ann Arbor library's bookshop...how the hell did I never know about that? I also went to Kiwanis for the first time...again, where the fuck have I been? I got three textbooks for my kiddos for $2.25. As they say, you can't beat that with a stick. (Yes, I'm stuck buying most of my own textbooks any which way I can...it's very hard to get things in Braille or large print and since the kids usually aren't on grade level, I'm often left in the lurch. I make up their math books by hand and print things out from the 'net, but that gets old for everyone). Then, back to Ashley's for a Burning River pale ale from Great Lakes Brewing.

We had sqwook , Mr. Sqwook, Cindy and the General over for dinner wherein I made my semi-famous macaroni and cheese. We also had salad, quinoa salad (I still can't pronounce the word, so I just call it the Q salad), Locavorious broccoli and corn and strawberry shortcake featuring Locavorious strawberries! Oh yes, and we had beer. Cindy brought over different kinds of stout and sqwook and the Mr. kindly brought two growlers with them. Yum! A good time was had and I think the two couples liked each other...and hopefully certain people whose LJ names begin with a SQ and end with WOOK will buy a Corner Brewery mug club membership!! :) (Also, sqwook mentioned something about helping otterkin and I with my front yard garden. Irrespective of whether or not that was the beer talking, I will remember it. Heeeeeehehhehehe!)

Today was the first meeting of Preserving Traditions, the brainchild of otterkin . It was teh awesomez! We made homemade noodles. Homemade noodles, bitches!!! Just 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 eggs and water. The lady who was leading the session said my dough was perfect! That was thrilling because I'm usually the problem child in any class that I ever take. Jeff and I had them for dinner, topped with my canned tomatoes, Locavorious red peppers, onions, garlic + leftover green salad = a 5 point dinner. W00T! They came out really good...I think I'd like to make them in chicken noodle soup, next time. For tomorrow, we'll have the "pillow" noodles (I don't know what else to call them...they are folded over and crimped, with cheese inside...they look like little noodley pillows) that I made today.

One of the defining highlights in a very good weekend was reconnecting with a high school best friend on Facebook. That thing is truly magical...I am so glad to hear from her! I hope that Facebook sticks around and doesn't go the way of MySpace. I guess time will tell on that one.

Hopefully you all had a nice weekend, too!

'Za!

This past Monday, Jeff and I had homemade pizza with red peppers from Locavorious. Yummity yum! Here is how it looked:



Yes, that is ham on half of the pizza...not MY half! Jeff loves ham and only gets it in the form of lunchmeat. My half has kale (awesome on pizza), the red peppers and some tomatoes that I had canned this past fall.

I tried a new recipe for the crust, courtesy of Cooks' Illustrated:

For two crusts (I halved the recipe and only made one), you will need:
1.5 cups of half and half, heated to 110 degrees
.5 cups of water, heated to 110 degrees
2 T extra virgin olive oil
4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
2 1/4 t of rapid rise or instant yeast
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t sugar
1 1/2 t salt

Combine the half and half, water and oil in a measuring cup. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix flour, cornstarch, yeast, baking powder, sugar and salt until combined. With mixer on medium-low speed, add the half-and-half/water/oil mixture until dough comes together (about one minute). Continue mixing about 5 minutes, until dough is uniform in texture. Transfer dough to a greased bowl and cover. Let rise for about an hour.

After dough has risen, divide in half. Transfer each half to a round pizza pan and press dough into shape. Cover with sauce (I used the tomato sauce that I froze last fall + tomato paste to thicken it up), cheese and toppings. Bake about 15-20 minutes at 450.

Easy, Cheesy, Enchilada-y

Last night, I went to a bad movie girls' night with booniverse andlunargeography . The movie was baaaaaaaad. But the food was goooooood! In all of her wisdom, booniverse create this awesome and easy recipe for easy cheesy enchiladas. To wit, you begin by mixing black beans (or, said the Boo, you can use chicken or beef or whatever you want), corn, onions and garlic. When I make it this week, I am going to use leftover black beans and the Locavorious corn that stares at me hopefully every time I open the refrigerator door. Next, you put salsa in the bottom of a glass 11x7 pan. (I am going to use my salsa verde...we'll see how it comes out). Put 6 corn tortillas on top. Now spoon in your bean/corn mixture. Put more salsa on top of that. Top with six more corn tortillas. Sprinkle with CHEESE wonderful CHEESE. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Boo put foil on top of the pan for 30 minutes and then removed for the last 15. Since she is smarter than me, I would recommend heeding that advice.

It was lovely evening and I'm delighted to be part of the Smithee crew! Enjoy the cheesy goodness of this dish!

In the good ol' summertime

Last Saturday, we had another MLFB get together which was, delightfully, themed as a "summer get together". To that end, we had mojitos (mmmmmmmm), berry themed dishes (strawberry shortcake, blackberry pudding), gazpacho (which I inexplicably confuse with borscht which in turn I inexplicably think has tongue in it), delived eggs, gelato and homemade cones, biscotta, sunflower cupcakes, a green bean dish, a tofu dish, two kinds of dip (pea-based and beet-based), bruschetta...what else? Help me out here girls!



It was an awesome time, as MLFB events usually are. I brought blackberry pudding, which I made from the blackberries that I picked and froze this summer. It is a simple recipe--you just combine 1/2 c sugar (I used local beet sugar) + 1 t butter (I used local here as well). Then, you blend in 1 c flour (again, I was fortunate to have some local Westwind flour), 1 t baking powder and a pinch of salt (drat! no locals here!). Add 1/2 c milk (Guernsey, my personal favorite) and spread into the bottom of a greased, 8x8 pan. Cover with blackberries...there is no amount listed and I just basically filled the pan up with them. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle about 1/2-3/4 of a cup of sugar on top and then bake for 5 or 10 minutes longer.

Here is another picture of my food tribe in Sarah's beautiful house:



Also of note: for those doing Weight Watchers, a mojito is only 2 points. So say Alex, Cindy and I, so say we all. Enjoy!

The Oompa Loompa Beer

This past Saturday, Jeff & I ate dinner at Sidetracks in Depot Town (Ypsilanti). It's an awesome place, located (interestingly enough) along side of some railroad tracks. Get it?!?!! They have super food--I recommend the hamburgers, or anything, really--and a nice selection of local beer. They were having some sort of hoppy-ness specials on Saturday, so Jeff got a Bell's Hopslam and I tried something new, called Short's Huma-Lumpa-Licious IPA. It was DE-licious (see what I did there? Genius). It had a decidedly bitter taste of hops (as opposed to the Hopslam, which is more floral). The aroma is awesome--nice citrus smell and gentle hops, inviting you to drink up.

Naturally, I couldn't remember the name, so I have been calling it (to Jeff's chagrin) the Oompa Loompa beer. The website explains where the name comes from, but doesn't offer a pronouciation (Jeff says it's hume-a lupe-a, with a long U and long E sound, short a sounds on both). This all just makes me yearn for a trip Up North to visit Short's in person. I'm hoping the my "teaching math to the visually impaired" teacher training gets reschedule up in Traverse City, because I'd love a side trip after 2 days of the Nemeth Code.

Cheers!!

Cross-posted to Chicks Dig Beer

It was 11 years ago....

Last night, I had a variation of a horrible, recurring dream that I have: I am back in a law office. Last night, I had just been hired and my desk was in this huge office full of other lawyer's desks. And the boss man was telling us that we couldn't even listen to radios. I spoke up and said, "That's ridiculous! I always play a radio in my classroom" and The Man looked at me and said, "You aren't a teacher any more."

Yikes!

Phew! Just a dream.

Eleven years ago today began my law nightmare. It was MLK Day, 1998. I was about to begin my first real law job in a real law firm (after spending a wonderful year clerking in the prosecutor's office in Detroit). From Day One, it was fairly obvious that it was not a "good fit", as they say. I remember getting there before 8 (hours were 8 until "at least 6"...taking a lunch was frowned upon), dressed in my little suit with my briefcase.

The Ho's-Beast who was to be my boss was rude and nasty from the first second. For my first day, she had me read a bankruptcy horn book for 10 hours. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. I did take my lunch break (gasp!!) and managed not to fall asleep for the other 9 hours. You cannot learn bankruptcy from reading a book...at least I can't. When I left at 6pm that night, she frowned at me, as if I was supposed to stay until 8 reading something that was, excitement-wise, the equivalent of reading the instructions to a porta-potty written in Pict.

The job just went downhill from there until, 5 weeks after I started, I was swiftly and mercilessly "let go". I should have let go the whole law idea, but I'm a trooper and found the next job, and the next, and the next. Each one sucking more and more and more.

On the plus side, I did write a book about it!! For reals, Homes. It'll never get published, but it's on my laptop if anyone wants to see it.
On the double dog plus side, Ho's Beast got fired from that firm (she was a partner and was still asked to leave) and also seemed to be fired (or laid off) from her subsequent job. It is also interesting to note that this beast made many comments--in the five weeks I knew her--about how much she hated kids. And her husband didn't like kids. And they weren't having any. Trust me, the beast hated kids with a deep, dark passion. Yet, she still bred years later. She could have changed her mind, I suppose, but still she bred. I fear for that kid because when you stand by this beast, you are standing by pure evil. (That's a quote from another lawyer, btw).

As I said, this was 1998 and the work week was at least 50 hours. For this suffering, new lawyers were paid $40,000 BUT there were no benefits! No health insurance, no retirement. For the privilege of having health insurance, you had to pay "a couple of grand" (so said the fat, smelly, Funyun-breathed multi-millionaire head partner).

And this was one of the better paying firms, Homes. I'm not frontin'.

Why do I love teaching? Let me count the ways....

I like Pie!

I know this is all sorts of wrong, but when I speak of pie, I have to think of the scene in Revenge of the Nerds when Takashi goes, "Oh! Hair pie!" You see, this is why I like middle school...I really never evolved beyond.

Anywho, this month there is a pie challenge over at the MI Lady Food Blogger blog. I cannot make or eat pie because the fuckers gals over at Weight Watchers have me on 1400 calories a day and a piece of pie is like 7000 calories and so I couldn't eat the rest of the week. BUT, I can still post my pie crust recipe because posting on a blogburns about 16 calories, or so they say.

Adapted from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters.

Sheila's Pie Crust (makes dough for 1 double crust 9" pie or 2 single crust 8" pies)

2.5 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 t salt
1 c cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/4 cup ice water

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse a few times to mix. Add butter and pulse until crumbly. Add water. Pulse until the mixture "comes together, right now, over me".

Remove the dough from the processor, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Roll it out. Put in pie pan and bake pie according to directions.

I won't get into how to put this into a pie pan, as I kind of use the "roll out and pray" method. If it doesn't quite make it, I just put the pieces into the pie pan in sort of a haphazard way. It still tastes delicious.

If you have extra crust, put some butter and cinammon on it and roll it up. Bake alongside the pies for a lovely little treat.