Archive for January, 2008

Okay, I couldn’t take it anymore. Yes, I could very well have made 5 dinners in 5 nights. However, the leftovers were getting overwhelming! So, all our meals yesterday were spent eating some very tasty leftovers. Just in case you were wondering, we did finally manage to finish the food and I made a new dish tonight (Onion Soup with Fontina and Thyme). Sorry, no picture, we were too hungry and cold.

In other news, our puppy has gotten rather…how do I put this delicately…chunky? Tubby? Chubby? Rotund? Any way you call it, she’s gotten rather round over the last year. She is, however, still very energetic and hasn’t eaten any more than usual (2 treats a day and 2 cups of food).  So, through my highly developed sense of deductive reasoning, I have come to the conclusion that it must be a lack of exercise that is causing her weight gain. Of course, we recognize that this would be entirely our fault, not hers. We RUINED our dog!! In an attempt to help the entire family get in shape together, we took Jabby to Bear Creek Park this weekend for a nice long walk.

We saw a loud, old, very strangely people friendly goose…

And plenty of other more normal geese, who are fleeing the arrival of Jabberwocky, the Terrible…

And it’s Jabberwocky, the Terrible herself…completely oblivious (and quite squinty) to the fact that there is wildlife nearby. What a ferocious hunter of balloons this dog is! (yes, she’s still barking at the birthday balloons, even as they lay deflated on the dryer) Beware!

Me and Jabber exercising together

Other than the significantly longer walks, our weekend has really been pretty low key. We spent a lot of time at Barnes and Nobles yesterday. I have a strange affliction, where the longer I wander around a book store, the sorer my arm muscles get! I picked out stacks and stacks of books that were potentially necessary for my survival. My friend Kat has been suggesting I read The Other Bolynn Girl by Philippa Gregory for ages! I saw it on an end cap and had to add it to my stack. Andy and I are visiting LA in March, so I picked up a couple guide books for research purposes. Of course, I also picked up a couple bargain books that were so well priced, I was willing to skim through their sheer horribleness just to see if they were worth buying, thank goodness they weren’t. We managed to walk out of the book store with just a couple purchases and a couple cups of coffee.

Also, in the last week (I had a couple days off due to the last weekend I worked), I’ve been working on a HUGE project. You may think I’m slightly scary, have too much time on my hands, and am totally OCD…but I’ve finally managed to put an organizational scheme to my old magazines. Throughout the years, I’ve been collecting old In Style’s, Real Simple’s, Lucky’s, Pottery Barn catalogues, and who knows what else. There are usually a couple articles per magazine that are worth saving. However, the rest of the magazines are filled with advertisements and bad smelling perfume samples. I had magazines stashed on shelves, in my nightstand, in random bags/boxes (from the move), and even in my old college backpack and laundry hamper! We’re talking about magazines from 2003! I finally sat down (partially because the magazines were taking up too much space, and partially because everybody else was at work/school, making me very bored indeed) and organized the stupid things. I tore out the articles I wanted to keep, and recycled everything else. Yay for being able to see tabletops again!

I’m very proud of the work I’ve done, and will most likely be showing it off if you come to me for…let’s say…make-up advice? Or perhaps…which pair of jeans would work best for your body type? Looking for the perfect birthday present…I’ve got shopping guides all lined up and at your disposal! I am now fully prepared, organized, and I’ve got you (and more realistically, myself) covered! For more pictures of Jabber’s weekend adventure to Bear Creek, or anything from the month of January…please click here!

It’s going to be a short post tonight, I’ve got a million things to finish before going to work tomorrow morning. On a chilly night (yes, even in Texas it can be chilly) it’s a good thing I’m serving…

Orechiette with Sausage, Beans, and Mascarpone

(also a recipe by Giada…noticing a trend?)

It turned out pretty tasty, though the dish and I had a few…disagreements during our collaboration.  First off, we buy all our pasta (whole grain preferred) in giant variety packs from Costco, orechiette was not one of the three pasta varieties. So, I substituted penne pasta instead. In addition, there seems to be a Keller wide shortage of Italian sausage this week. I tried several stores throughout the week, but everybody was out of stock! I ended up just purchasing a small batch of turkey Italian sausage. I figure it’s probably more healthy that way anyhow. On top of all that, when cooking the dish tonight, it seemed to be lacking in veggies (an important part of a dinner meal, just ask my mom). So, I threw in a couple extra vegetable ingredients of my choosing (red peppers and zucchini…yes, there was sale on zucchini this week, which is why it keeps reappearing in my dishes this week. I want to be creative with my food, not completely broke because of it!)

So, after day 3 of the dinner challenge, our refrigerator is completely stuffed with leftovers. I’m thinking everyone else in this challenge has more than 2 people in their household. I’m not sure if I can keep up with everyone else’s speed, a dinner per night! It seems like such a waste to let such good leftovers go bad! We’ll see how much our fridge can hold tomorrow night before deciding if we need to drop out of the race…

Before we begin the dinner talk, in non food related news, I finally went and got my haircut today. I haven’t had a haircut since my birthday…last year. The lady at Beauty Brands did a less than desirable job, forcing me to keep my hair pulled back till the cut grew to an appropriate length. I finally caved in and made an appointment at Toni & Guy. However, this was not a rash decision. I made sure to do a little background and ratings searches beforehand. This brand of salon seems to give their stylists extensive training and experience before they’re allowed to work on actual customers. To top that off, all beginner stylists have to get an okay from a senior level stylist before they can proceed with the haircut. Their attention to the customer’s needs and desires definitely paid off in my opinion. I ended up with a haircut that I really enjoy. I think I’ll probably end up going back…in six months. (I don’t see a need for me to get haircuts very often, my hair is long and straight, a good haircut with a decent shape will last me half a year.)

Me with old hair

Me with new hair…while cooking dinner. Like it?

So, for dinner tonight, I’m presenting…

Broiled Zucchini and Potatoes with a Parmesan Crust,

Italian Baked Chicken Pastina,

and a basic green salad with vinagrette sauce (no picture included, nothing special, just your basic everyday salad)

Both recipes are Giada‘s, both very tasty, and both VERY filling.  We barely ate 1/4 of the food I made! (Yes mom, we did finish the salad. Nobody likes a second day soggy salad) So, I suppose these would make a nice dinner party dish. Either way, we’ve got plenty of leftovers for lunch this week! Bet you can’t wait to see what I’ll whip up tomorrow night…

I was flipping through the blogs that I check frequently, when I discovered this. For those of you too lazy to check the link, let me quickly summarize the awesomeness of Carrie‘s idea. When it comes to cooking a homemade, healthy, and original meal after a long day at work, what seems like a necessary and easy thing to do, often falls short. I always plan on cooking, but after a particularly hard day, I will end up asking Andy if we can just go out to eat instead. Or order a pizza. Usually after eating something horribly greasy or fattening, we’ll just lie on the couch watching television till bedtime. This, my friends, is how unhealthy lifestyles begin! If I have the energy to cook after work, then I’ll usually complete all sorts of other tasks. (i.e. going to the gym, walking the dog, cleaning the house…etc) Back to Carrie’s proposal, she has challenged herself (and her readers) to cook dinner for 5 days straight. The meal has to be something you haven’t made in awhile/new, and can’t be a pre-made dinner in a box.

I’m always up for a good challenge, so here’s my first night’s post. For dinner tonight we had…

Whitefish with Lemon Vinagrette and crescent rolls stuffed with pesto (no recipe for pesto, I just made up my own)

And Grilled Zucchini Rolls!

I was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network last week to make the fish dish. However, I was probably even more inspired by the Central Market coupon I received for $10 off seafood. I admit, I am a complete novice when it comes to cooking any type of seafood. I haven’t any clue how to peel shrimp, don’t want anything to do with any dead animal that has tentacles, and the scales on a non-filleted fish makes my skin crawl (Seriously, last time I bought salmon with its skin on, I took it out of the fridge, placed the bag in the sink, reached my hand in to pick it up, got so creeped out that I had to wait for Andy to come home and de-skin it. Don’t worry, I dumped buckets of ice on it to keep it cold! *my parents are probably shaking their heads in disbelief right about now*). So, the Central Market fish guy must have seen the confusion in my eyes, and upon his advice I bought 3 completely boneless, skinless Tilapia fillets. I like the fresh lemon flavor of this dish, quite tasty! The crescent rolls were just easy to make, and I wanted something additional to round out the meal.

The grilled zucchini rolls, however, are a completely different story. I saw this Ellie Krieger recipe on Food Network HD (ooooh fancy!). She made it look so healthy, so simple. However, in my hands…it was quite a mess. The grilled zucchini slices are stuffed with low fat goat cheese, lemon juice, basil, parsley, and spinach. The picture above are the 8 rolls that were barely successful. The rest of the “rolls” were eaten like a casserole-ish mess. I’m sorry, but zucchini isn’t exactly the most flexible of materials, even when grilled! It was very tasty, pretty decently healthy, but I’m afraid I won’t be making this one again anytime soon. Be sure to check out what’s for dinner tomorrow night!

Thank you to everyone for sending me birthday cards, gifts, wishes, phone calls, text messages, and happy vibes. It was definitely a nice, mellow, and very happy birthday.

Andy surprised me when I got home from work (yes, birthday girls do still have to work) with a birthday balloon bouquet and a puppy wearing a festive birthday hat. He bought a mylar balloon that said “21″ on it, and 4 more pink and purple balloons surrounding it. It was a funny idea. Unfortunately, Jabber saw the balloons as her number one enemy. An enemy she HAD to protect the house and its occupants from. Every single time she saw those darn balloons, she would growl, bark, lunge, bark, and bark some more. She would fall asleep, lazily open her eyes, suddenly realize the balloons were still in the room, and jump up to start barking at the balloons like they were against everything she stands for!! I finally couldn’t take the mayhem anymore, and put my lovely and thoughtful birthday balloons in the laundry room. However, every time we open the laundry room door and Jabber gets a peek inside, the growling and barking begins anew. That’ll teach any more balloons from invading Jabber’s territory!! Balloons beware! You are not welcome at the Trommer house!

It’s Jabberwocky, mid-bark against her foe, the birthday balloons.

Jabber thinking to herself, “Must watch the balloons, must decipher its evil motives, must outmaneuver its secret tactics…Vigilance!!!”

I’ve discovered that the older one gets, the less fun birthdays have become. Now, this may be an awfully apparent statement for most people, but it’s a truth that has just occurred to me. Friends have spread out all across the country, people’s lives are just too busy to remember such small occasions, and birthdays have started to pass by without much fuss or hoopla. Of course, I appreciate everyone that has kept me in mind, and this is certainly not a ploy to make anyone feel guilty for forgetting. It’s just the fact that after turning 21…the birthday years kind of melt together till you hit 30.

So, with that said…the weekend was rather mellow. Andy, along with his pal the iPod, accompanied me to several of my favorite stores to use a few birthday gift cards. We met up with Anni, David, Ethan, and Eric at Buca di Beppo for dinner on Saturday night. For those of you who haven’t tried it, Buca di Beppo is a nice family style Italian restaurant. Everything you order is shared with everyone at the table. The food is decent, the decor is hilariously random, and the atmosphere is fun. We ordered stuffed portobellas, veal marsala, macaroni rosa (I felt veggies were necessary in this pasta and meat fest), and the stuffed pasta sampler platter.

Here we are about to stuff our faces with tasty food.

After dinner, everyone was *supposed* to come back to the house for games, drinks, and cake. Alas, everyone kind of scattered for various reasons (i.e. tired from long overworked week, other parties to attend…etc) and that was that. However, I would like to report that the cake Andy purchased was delicious. It was a mascarpone torte with chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate cake, and layers of mascarpone cheese. No, mom…we did not eat the whole cake, nor do we intend to. I generously delivered the rest of the cake (we kept a couple of slices for my actual birthday) to the deserving folks at the pharmacy that had to work this weekend.

Me and my cake

Jabber was sweet enough to give me an early birthday present by keeping my hands warm, since it was rather chilly Saturday night.

Sunday was spent running around completing chores, organizing (which I love to do, I’m a nerd and proud of it), and just relaxing on the couch. And that, my friends, is another year of Angela! I personally hope that there will be many more. ^-^

For those of you that have had the pleasure of trying out Guitar Hero or Rock Band, do I have a treat for you! Make sure you try out this version…of course, it would have been much more appropriate if I had found this site in time for Christmas. Alas, it’s a little past the season, but hey, still hilariously fun!

I read in the newspaper during my lunch break that China has decided to ban plastic shopping bags to help reduce litter and improve the environment. Andy says the international community is waiting to see exactly how this ban will be enforced, and whether or not it will do any good. However, this makes me wonder…should I also be trying to reduce the number of plastic bags I bring into my house? Granted, I do like using said bags for trash bags, defrosting meat, and other handy chores…but I really only use, at maximum, 7 bags a week. When I go shopping, I can easily bring home 7-8 plastic bags in a single trip to the grocery store! People, supermarkets in particular, seem to be extra liberal with bags these days! I do really like these…(found at the same nifty site where I found the above game) but am still unsure of whether or not I’m committed enough to make the change. Yes, the environment is important to me. I suppose I just need to find the motivation to move forward and stop being lazy. Just add it to my list of goals for the year I suppose. It’s late, I’ll post more (and pictures) *hopefully* tomorrow!