Birthday!

Its that time of year again! Some people make resolutions in January. I prefer to think of my birthday as the starting place of a year. After all, my year runs on a school schedule, so May is a pretty perfect place to begin. :) Last year's list of 29 before 29 had some tough/big items on it (I'm looking at you, scuba certification) so some of them will roll on...

I'm continuing the tradition of the last few years and making a list of goals to meet before my next birthday. This year's list sounds scary... 30 before 30! Eeek! Luckily I'll be totally used to the number by the time it gets here, right? ;)

Totally kidding. Its just a number. Life is all about how you feel, right??

So, today I plan to spend time with people I love, celebrate the 29 fantastic years I've had so far, and eat a big piece of cake. Thanks for being here to share it with me!


Your turn!  What's your favorite way to start a new (birth) year? Best birthday traditions?

Olympics drinks

Just a quick post to share my opening ceremony celebratory drinks! This will absolutely work for any Olympics party you may have planned. The trick? Rimming sugar. Aka, colored sprinkles. ;)

Blue drink ideas:

Blue Hawaiian 

Blueberry vodka, blue curaçao, seltzer

Really, blue curaçao and anything XD 

Black drink ideas: 

Black Russian

Rum and Coke

Rum and Coke and chocolate (add godiva liquor or chocolate extract)

Red drink ideas:

Cape Codder

Cosmopolitan

Bloody Mary

Malibu Bay Breeze

Yellow drink ideas:

Jameson and Ginger ale 

Vodka and pineapple juice

Frozen Mango Daiquiri

Harvey Wallbanger

Green drink ideas:

Midori Sour

Green Apple Martini

Midori Mojito

To serve: Rim a glass of your choice (champagne for smaller sips, or white wine glasses or martini glasses for larger servings, assuming your glasses are anything like mine!) with colored sugar. I used cheap crystals for the green, red, and blue. The gold sprinkles are fancier here, but you could use simple yellow too. 

Pour a little bit of sprinkles in a shallow dish. Just wet the rim of the glass with a slight ring of water. Drip it in the sprinkles and spin to coat. 

For the chocolate rim; melt some semi-sweet or dark chocolate chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 20 second bursts. Mix in a drizzle of oil (canola is fine, or something fancier like coconut) to make it smoother. Dip the glass in and spin to get an even coat. 

My pick for the night? A modified green apple martini; vodka, apple martini mixer, ginger ale. 

My darling husband chose the Jameson and Ginger. Isn't it an epic gold? 

Your turn! What would be your pick? Please share if I missed a favorite. Also, what sport are you most excited to watch? I am all about some figure skating and ski jumping. 

Busy summer!

So, its been a few weeks. So much for hitting the blog hard this summer, eh?

Really, this is just a quick check in. I'll be along with some food in the next week or two.

What have I been up to?

Honeymoon!

We went to St. Lucia for a week at the beginning of August. Talk about AMAZING. We realized while there that this is the first "grown-up" vacation I've ever taken. I only ever went home for school breaks, and we've only done 2-3 day weekend jaunts before. I guess the Boston trip last summer counts for something, but that was more visiting friends and family than getting away just to unwind and sightsee. This was sleeping in, eating out, catamaran touring, ocean swimming, rum drink sipping relaxation. I've got some food posts to share out of this one, trust me! My favorite food memories? Eating at a hotel where the chef had made the reservation for us, perfectly cooked rack of lamb, fried plantains (I made those!) and creole breakfast with salt fish and floats. Also the Chairman's reserve spiced rum. Makes the most delicious rum and coke... you can taste and distinguish actual spice flavors, which is so cool. :) And the Piton beer reminds me of meals with my Farfar, who's beers of choice were Carlsberg and Heineken... it had that kind of flavor to me.

Reading!

The books on the left are ones I've already finished in August (three were on the kindle), and the ones on the right are my "next up" stack. :)

Reading. TONS. I read 10 books in the month of August. Instead of defaulting to "what do I want to watch" and grabbing the remote, I've been reaching for my book. Its been AWESOME. If you check out my 29 by 29 list (see tab above) you can follow my list. Just finished Jurassic Park today, only took me three days (and this, after school has already started!) Earlier this week I read Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson, which was so phenomenal I read it in just TWO DAYS. I got the book from the library Tuesday and finished it Wednesday. I thought about it every time I had a break at school Wednesday too. XD

New classroom!

Started a new job! I am now at a middle school (again) teaching 6th grade science and social studies. So far I LOVE IT. My kids are great, my team is great, my principal is great. I'm really happy to not have the super long commute, it makes such a huge difference to the day. I actually have time and energy left to be helpful and interesting at home. This week I helped make dinner last Monday, cleaned up from dinner a couple times this week, did general chores including a load of laundry on Wednesday, etc. It doesn't sound like much, but its a move in the right direction from it being mostly Brian handling everything to me being human enough at the end of a work day to take some of that off his shoulders. Even if it is just cleaning up a meal instead of grouching that the kitchen is messy, its big steps here. I am so happy to be at a place where I can serve a group of children and my own family in such a balanced and fulfilling way. Now I'm just looking at keeping that balance once the paper grading starts!

New haircut!!

(Terrible pic, but I'll get some better ones this weekend, whatwith labor day festivities.)
I swore I would do it someday, and I finally did. I went with some slightly conservative side swept bangs, since I was a little nervous to make the leap, but they are super cute. Finally I love pony tails on me! Now I just need to get the gym thing happening again so I can rock that look in public. Usually, pony tails are reserved for cleaning, super hot sticky weather, and ugh I can't deal with you (which happens less right after a haircut!). The inspiration pictures ranged from Victoria Beckham (extreme end) to Sandra Bullock (conservative end). My stylist nailed what I was talking about. :)

What was your favorite way to stay busy this summer?

Welcome to NC Baked French Toast

I've officially moved. Not the usual blog announcement kind of move... I'm on the same host site and server, all the usual. In fact I've been reminded its time to renew my domain name, so I may actually get around to linking that up soon.
No, this time its the good old fashioned move. The kind that requires lots of boxes.



Two days of driving later, Goodbye Boston! Hello North Carolina! Its hot, its humid, but hey it is August... its all down hill from here!

First night was the traditional order pizza and colapse sort of evening. Day two we... well, Brian and his brother... emptied the truck. Brian's sister and I started unpacking! So we had a fair amount of the kitchen out of boxes by dinner, and Brian made us a lovely Chicken Parmesan. I got adventurous and made a soak-overnight-bake-in-the-morning French Toast.



I've done one/two slices at a time in the frying pan French Toast. I've done stuffed French Toast. But this was new. I really like how it turned out! I started with a pretty basic recipe, and modified it based on what we had on hand. Brian stuck it in the oven before I got out of bed, so I didn't do the final "flip the bread over" step to make sure it was evenly moist. I liked the effect though... the crunchyness was not overwhelming and gave a nice texture contrast. Especially after pouring the melted butter and brown sugar on top. Mmmmmm. It was so good, we didn't even use the maple syrup.

Baked French Toast
modified from recipes of assorted contributors on allrecipes.com

loaf crusty bread (can be a couple days old!)
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar (approximately, anyways...)

Cut crusty bread diagonally in 2in slices. (My bread was pre-sliced at the bakery, this time.) Arrange bread in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish, such as pyrex.
In a medium bowl, beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon until combined. Pour over the bread, making sure to drip it down all parts of bread that are showing. Cover (my pyrex has a matching lid, or you can use foil or plastic wrap) and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, take the pan out of the fridge while you heat the oven to 350*F. This will let the pan warm a little so you're less likely to shock the pyrex (and break it). Turn the bread over to make sure both sides are moist. (I mentioned before we skipped this step - still turned out fantastic!) Bake covered with foil for 20 minutes. (I think we had it uncovered... oops? Again, loved it anyways!) While it is baking, heat the butter in a small saucepan. Once it is melted through, remove from heat and mix in the brown sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Pour as much as looks good over the french toast and bake for another 20 minutes uncovered. Serve with maple syrup if desired, but I found the brown sugar butter was syrup enough! :)




Possible modifications;
* sprinkle with raisins before baking.
* use a mix of milk and cream or half and half (original recipe suggested 2 cups milk and 1 1/2 cup half and half or using JUST half and half. I modified it partly because milk is what I had on hand and partly for the calories!)
* make it in the morning, if you forget the night before! Stick it in the fridge for an hour or two, turn the bread a couple extra times to be sure its soaking in, and bake like normal!
* use as much sauce as looks good! I cut the amount down a good bit and still didn't use it all. Top it till you like the look.
* alternate sauce; I didn't have corn syrup and that looked like too much butter! A phrase I'll have to unlearn here in the South ;)
3/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture.


Anyways, everyone claimed to enjoy it, and I had a blast cooking it. It felt really nice to be set up in a new kitchen - that I don't have to share! ...besides Brian. ;) - and back to playing with food. I miss it a lot during those hectic school months. I've got a couple of weeks left before the school year starts. I don't know yet if I'll be at the front of the classroom or the back (Masters degree still lurks...) but I intend to cram as many posts in before it starts and life gets frantic again as I can!

Joyfully,
Kristen

Anticipation

I have been dying to share my big news with you all!! I have had a ton of excitement.

My dad was in town for most of a week.
I had something like 5 interviews while my dad was here. It rained and poured interviews the first few days of November!! I had 4 total since last Thursday!!
I flew home to see my Farfar for his 90th birthday. I was so blessed to get to fly home and share it with him.
The job I wanted the most (and had a second interview with, the morning I flew to AZ!) said they would call Tuesday night (the day I flew). So I spent the whole flight expecting a voicemail on the other side! YIKES. Let me tell you guys, this airplane ride was the longest since the one to visit Brian in Hawaii when I only got to see him every six months. What a miracle… God sure does work in mysterious ways. All those interviews right before my trip, but late enough that I didn't have an offer yet and I still got to go still! Amazing.

SO! I didn't find out until Sunday evening... but they offered me the job!! I wanted to wait until after I signed paperwork, but everything wound up moving so fast that I wound up completing my first week before I've had a chance to sit down and post this!!

So in case you're skimming at this point, since I've babbled a lot and there are no pictures in sight...

I got a job!!!!! I'm teaching 8th grade math, and have three levels of classes, 5 periods total. My kids are awesome, and I am having a blast. It is exactly what I've been wanting.


I've been planning my celebratory "I HAVE A CLASSROOM!!!!!!" meal since… well, its been at least a year and a half, probably more like two years. I went to this restaurant during restaurant week back in college with a friend and it was one of the best meals I've ever had. You'll have to forgive the gaps in remembering… this was several years ago. I will review the place again after a more current visit! (Hopefully in the next two weeks...)

The Wine Cellar
Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA

The waiter was very versed in the expensive wine list that entitles the place to its boastful name. We were quite new to wine at the time, and leaned heavily on his recommendations. My friend had recently discovered that she liked Reislings, but we decided that wouldn't go with the food. Instead we selected a Cabernet Savingion. I would have no hope of telling you the vineyard or… well, anything specific about it, but it worked very well with the dishes. We nursed the one bottle through the whole meal and giggled all the way home.

First Course: We split their cheese fondue starter. It is a two person minimum, but we had agreed in advance. :) It was served with bread for dipping. I will visit the website and report on the cheeses more specifically, but this was the kind of dish you wanted to curl up inside of. YUM. I mean you really can't go wrong with melted cheese (unless its American, eww).

Second Course: I had the fondue main course as well. This was a broth served with meat, which you let sit in the hot broth to cook it. I had never seen such a thing! I was in love. My friend had something non-fondue, but I have no idea what.

Third Course: Chocolate Fondue. I think we had dark chocolate with Grand Marnier mixed in. They serve it with cookies and fruit and pound cake and marshmallows to dip in it. I'm pretty sure we licked the thing clean.


So when Brian and I started planning for our grand somedays I went to the website to see if it was something we could afford to do as a non-restaurant week date. We can… but only as a special occasion. So I declared when I got my job I would go to The Wine Cellar with Brian. That day may finally be just a week and change away!! They have a fondue based dinner for two that looked very appealing… I hope there is still something like that.

I have tried on a couple of occasions to make an acceptable fondue on my own at home. I do have an actual fondue set now (…in the basement, I think) so I will share some of my attempts. And future successes. ;)

Mini Pancake Bites and Apple Picking!

Yesterday was an exciting day for me, cooking wise. My new apron (by Boojiboo on etsy) arrived this week, so I got to wear it to make Mini Pancake Bites!

I've been looking forward to these since I first saw the
post on Bakerella about a month back.


Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins
from Bakerella

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
Bake for 8-9 minutes.
Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.
Serve immediately with warmed butter if you like or even just with maple syrup.





Of course, I forgot to sprinkle chocolate chips on the first two pans. So they look a little more boring. Still taste great!!


Brian decided that he could fix the missin' chips issue.

Look, its happy to see you!

Fill the mini muffin cups about two thirds of the way. They're small, so its hard to be exact. I wound up with four extra minis, but I won't complain. ;)

---

After that excitement, we went apple picking!! SO there are apple recipes to look forward too!! Like my 5 star apple pie. And apple cobbler. And baked apples. And apple and cheese stuffed chicken. I am so excited!!!
It was however wicked hot for apple picking. It was forecast to be 83 degrees, so we were sweating. No shade, no breeze, definitely not your expected fall weather.

We did see some pretty awesome stuff though, despite the heat.

Pears! They were out of season already when I went last year. This was the first fruit picked of the day.


We stood in a pretty amazingly short line for apple cider donuts and carmel apples.



A teeny tiny apple that Beth picked.


The bunnies were really feeling the heat. Too hot to move! Though we did witness one sit on top of another... who was too hot to move. XD



I just love this dragonfly that Brian got some awesome shots of;



All in all? Some very happy apple pickers.


Joyfully yours,
Kristen