Archive for February, 2010

I have been blogging for a little over four years now, can you believe it? Who knew I would have so much to write about! I thought it was really about time I tried a new look for my site. The problem with this is that I’ve yet to find a background that I love. I settled for this pink and black patterned deal for the time being. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do!

It’s been a fairly productive day. We dropped Andy’s car off for a fairly expensive set of brake fixes, stopped by the gym for a painful run on the treadmill, took Miss Jabberwocky for a nice walk at the park (it’s a gorgeous day outside, we couldn’t bear staying inside), and now we’re hunkered down on the couch watching the KU versus Oklahoma State basketball game.

I am not at all a huge fan of sports, I know you’re probably shocked to hear that. But thanks to Andy’s love of KU basketball, I’ve also gotten the hang of watching the games. However, I really truly don’t have the nerves to watch sports. I want my team (KU of course) to win by a huge number of points! I don’t like all this back and forth nonsense! Andy says this is what makes watching games fun. I say this is what gives me panic attacks.

Right now Oklahoma State is beating KU by 16 points at halftime, and I want to hide under my covers. I like that a Kansas team is in first place! I want my team to stay there after this game! So, come on KU! Work a little harder, jump a little higher, and don’t lose to an Oklahoma team! Rock Chalk!!

People have a very different opinion on what can be considered comfort food. If you’re a true southerner, you’d probably reply that chicken fried chicken with a side of mac & cheese and freshly baked biscuits are the way to go. Or perhaps you’re a junk food junkie that craves a big juicy burger and side of crispy deep fried potatoes of some sort? If you grew up in Texas, I’ve noticed that they simply cannot resist the call of Tex/Mex anything! Give Andy a big bowl of chips and dip (and plenty of napkins) as he waits for his sizzling fajita meats & vegetables and I promise that he’ll be a happy boy!

Though I do love all of these items (and much more), when it comes to true comfort foods for me, there can only be my family’s cooking. That of course, would be referring to true everyday Chinese cuisine. Forget your lo mein, cashew chicken, and fried rice. These are dishes you’re not likely to find in an American style Chinese restaurant. The problem? I have absolutely no idea how to make the foods that I love. I can’t even recognize most of the ingredients I would need! Back when I lived with my parents, this was never an issue. Want something? Just ask mom! Now that I’m living, working, and cooking on my own…I haven’t had some of my favorites in years!

Since my parents were in town last weekend, they took us to our favorite Chinese supermarket (Asia World Market) in Frisco. I was lucky enough that they had the time to show me around the confusing and almost completely written in Chinese aisles (Imagine that! A Chinese grocery store that has products that have little to no English? Crazy talk!) . They helped me pick out the sauces, dried and canned goods, meats, veggies, and spices I would need to recreate some of their easier recipes.

Though I went into this whole process fairly confident that I would succeed, I greatly overestimated the amount of information that I missed! My parents have been cooking for so long, that their directions have no real measure. It’s not a 1/2 cup or 2 tablespoons of something, it’s just add some liquid to about 3/4 of a pot. What size pot? A big one, though not a huge one. It’s not cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, it’s boil for a few minutes until the sound changes. (In case you’ve ever wondered why I always put my ear up to the skillet when I’m cooking pot stickers, that’s why…I’m waiting for the sound to change) Cook the eggplant until soft…how soft is soft? Squishy soft would just be gross! Boil the rice noodles in plenty of water, but be careful because rice noodles tend to soak up a lot of liquid. So don’t use too much liquid and don’t leave them in there for too long. But it’s rice noodle soup!!! If I don’t leave the rice noodles in the soup, where would they go??? I know that the procedure gets easier as I repeat them, but that first trial run can be bewildering!

Sigh…thankfully, I managed to pull off what I deem a successful first try of one of my most favorite dishes, baby pork rib soup with rice noodles. There’s nothing quite like this nice hot soup to warm you up on a chilly night. Plus, it’s extra fun to slurp all those delectable noodles! Yes, it’s considered okay to slurp in Chinese cuisine! So slurp away my friends! (I did go through a few “Oh my gosh, I have no idea what I’m doing!!” moments…but that was to be expected)

The pork, noodles, and soup are topped with freshly cut scallions and my favorite sweet red chili sauce (which incidentally is also very tasty on tamales)

Seeing as how there’s not a drop remaining, I’d say it was a hit and will be adding this recipe to my repertoire. Another long term goal in addition to learning more Chinese dishes? I’d really like to figure out a better way to document my food through photographs. No worries, this isn’t turning into a food blog (though I do love food, I’m not ready to write exclusively about it). But when I’m particularly proud of something I’ve made, I’d like to capture it in a more interesting manner than just me taking an above my plate shot. For inspiration, I’ve been given a few recommendations from a friend that I already love! (101 Cookbooks, Tea and Cookies, and Cannelle et Vanille). Tell me, what dish is it that you wish for when you’ve had a stressful day and just need to unwind?

For yet another crazy weekend, we headed back to Austin with my parents in tow to help Cathy start moving into her new townhouse. That’s right, she’s got a townhouse all to herself! Lucky girl! To say the least, it was a hectic couple of days where we drove all over Austin in a rush to get to the walk through, the closing, meals (without food our bunch tends to get very cranky…FYI: Trulucks is absolutely amazing as far as seafood is concerned!), IKEA, and various other locations.

The townhouse is absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to see everything moved and fully completed. Thanks to the generosity of the parents, Andy and I now have a bedroom to call our own whenever we visit the city of Austin. It’s nice to know you’ve got a comfy bed waiting for you at the end of the day, even when you’re away from home.

Introducing the lovely and shiny new home of Cathy!

And some nice natural light so you can enjoy the view as you wash your dishes...

The pretty little townhouse on the corner...

We headed back up to DFW after a nice meal with Dad Trommer in Georgetown at the Monument Cafe. After a good night’s rest in our own bed, we got up this morning to a disgustingly muggy Texas day. But on the up side, my parents took us out for a delicious Szechwan lunch in Frisco, yum! Sadly, the parents left after lunch for an engineering conference in Norman, OK. And the rest of today was spent catching up on all of our chores and trying our best to relax before another crazy work week begins. Yay for massive amounts of laundry!

Things have been so crazy busy for the last weekend that I think the best way to go about this post is the listing method. It will greatly shorten the post and hopefully keep your attention until the end.

1. I was recovering from a not fun sinus infection when the crazy Texas snowdown of 2010 happened. Fourteen inches of snow in DFW, an unheard of event!!
   

   I thought I left all this snow back in Kansas and Iowa!! It had no business following me into Texas!

2. Though I was still feeling slightly gross, we left Friday evening for Austin. There was simply too much that I was excited to do to even consider staying at home.
3. For instance, spending Friday night celebrating Ethan’s 27th birthday in downtown Austin! I couldn’t miss it! That’s right, welcome to the 27th year buddy!
   

   Happy Birthday Ethan!

   

   Cathy and me listening to a slew of...interesting bands.

4. After crashing in the wee hours of the morning, we woke up rested and ready to meet Kat and Josh for a delicious lunch. I had an amazing grilled chicken sandwich. I think all sandwiches can be made better with copious amounts of avocado and accompanied with garlic french fries. Yum!
5. Next up, the Austin Marathon Expo at the Palmer Auditorium for the boys to pick up their race information and numbers. Saw the cutest reusable shopping bags…when will I learn to go with my gut feeling and just buy the darned item that I want so badly? It wasn’t expensive! Instead, I’ll just sulk and remember how very cute they were and how much I wanted it…
6. Thanks to Kat’s impeccable taste and high recommendation, we then enjoyed a delicious round of birthday doughnuts (much better than a birthday cake) at Gourdough’s. I had the Miss Shortcake, fresh strawberries and a cream cheese frosting. Yum!
   

   Me and my delicious freshly made doughnut! Mmm....

7. Cathy, Andy, Ethan, and I then went to the theatre to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I’ve always had a penchant for Greek mythology, so I thought this film would be right up my alley. Yeah…it was a pretty cheesy film, not that I really had very high hopes for it. We did have a wonderful time making snarky comments throughout the movie though!
8. I made a high carb and protein meal of Kushari (I got the idea from Anthony Bourdain’s show to Egypt) for the runners…and for Cathy and me because we love both carbs and proteins!
9. Played with Cathy’s adorable kitten, Puffkin, before an early bedtime was enforced for those of us who had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the race. This included me…for reasons I still don’t understand.
   

   I love that Puffy has a natural smile, isn't she precious?

10. After a confusing detour around roads that were closed off for the race, we made it downtown just in time for the all the ding dongs in Austin to start running in their extremely short shorts at sunrise.
11. I meandered around downtown as I waited for my own nutty husband and wacky friend to finish their race. Thankfully, the weather was pretty and both boys were done right around two hours. (Ethan ~ 1:43 and Andy ~ 2:03)
    

    Ethan and Andy getting ready to run 13.1 miles in the dark. Sounds terrible!

    

    I was bored and took a bunch of random photos, why not a pretty picture of the pink Austin capital?

    

    Another Half Marathon completed! Congrats to the proud athletes!

12. Lunch with Dad Trommer at Threadgill’s! There is never a shortage of delicious places to eat in Austin!
13. And another three and a half hour drive back to Fort Worth with a sleeping Andy and Jabber in the backseat. Thanks Ethan for keeping me company!
14. Back to the house for a Valentine’s dinner which included a nice heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s. I highly recommend trying Papa Murphy’s if you’ve never tried it. The dough is delicious and not at all greasy.
15. And before you know it, the weekend is over and it’s Monday again!

And there you have it, our hectic weekend in list form. You can click here for the rest of our photos. (Sorry for the massive amount of  pictures of Attila, those were not supposed to be uploaded. But alas, I’m too lazy to delete them from the gallery) I’m sad to announce that next weekend promises to be just as crazy! No rest for the weary or the sleep deprived!

So, with our new fancy camera comes a new set of rules on uploading files to the internet. As, I work to try and wrap my mind around how exactly I am to proceed…here’s a lovely picture I managed to catch of our adorable pets. (Andy uploaded this one before our site crashed…) I promise that interesting non-Trommer pet related posts are coming soon!!

A rare moment of Jabberwocky-Attila affection, they really do love each other!