Dinner By The Seat Of My Pants

Let me start by saying how easy and delicious this recipe was. In fact, it was so easy, I made it up on the spot as I was cooking dinner.

You'll need:

• enough pasta for the table; I used fettucine
• about 6-8 shrimp per person
• 1 packaged grape tomatoes
• a good handful of fresh chopped basil
• chili powder or other seasoning for the shrimp
• olive oil
• butter
• garlic

First, you want to boil the fettucine. While it's cooking, heat a couple of tablespoons of butter in a small skillet (I used Smart Balance, for less fat). Add 1 clove of smashed garlic, and just before the butter is completely melted, add your shrimp. Season the skillet with chili powder.

Once the pasta is ready to be drained, toss the basil and tomatoes into the skillet with the shrimp. Drain the pasta and drizzle with olive oil.

Toss the pasta and serve, topping with the shrimp skillet mixture. Make sure you get plenty of the melted butter along with shrimp and tomatoes.

**If you're looking for a less carb-a-holic alternative, you can make yourself feel better by using whole wheat pasta, which I meant to buy but accidentally didn't. 

Enjoy!

Etsy-Bitsy

Are you one of those people who just falls into a big ol' pile of mush when you see teeny tiny clothes for teeny tiny humans? If you're not, stop rolling your eyes at the rest of us, because you will be soon. My friend Bria recently (as in within the last 3 years) had her first baby and subsequently became even more of a genius and began designing her own toddler fashions. She makes all sorts of unique and, to be quite frank, CUTE things for tiny people. Here are some of her creations:

Suspenders, which come in all sorts of colors

Bow tie, which is also available in a variety of colors

Cloth diapers, which come in so many designs

If you're enjoying the feeling of melting to mush and you want to keep looking at Bria's creations, go to this link where you'll find her Etsy shop. Everything there is handmade by her, so if what you want is a unique style, you're sure to find it. And for those lovely ladies out there looking for baby shower gifts-- ta-da!

You're welcome.

Goodwill

Today I donated 8 bags of stuff to Goodwill. 8 large bags. Full of stuff. Stuff that I no longer use, that doesn't fit, that I never used but felt guilty about ditching, stuff I wish I could use but don't have the space for. Just all kinds of stuff.

Now that stuff is headed to some place where families who CAN fit into and use it will be able to do so. Now, my stuff is ready to be someone else's purchase of the day. Now my stuff is going to be recycled into the economy, rather than dumped in a landfill.

I've always donated to Goodwill throughout the years, after periodically purging my closets and drawers, and I've always done so without getting a receipt. This time, however, since I had such a large donation and finally have some sort of understanding of how taxes work, I decided to take the deduction. When I first decided to try to do this, I was sort of overwhelmed. Would I write down my estimated value of each item? Would I stand at Goodwill for an hour while the worker wrote down the estimated value of each item? Then I talked to my mom and all questions were answered.

My mom referred me to this website: Its Deductible

This is a site powered by TurboTax where you can create a free account and keep track of all your donations throughout the year. You enter the charity to which you're giving, and indicate whether it's a donation of stuff, money, or mileage (as in, if you drive around for Meals on Wheels). I was able to enter all my items into a system which has already categorized and priced everything for me-- all I had to do was indicate how many things I had in each category. At the end of the process, the site told me the estimated value of my donation and the estimated tax deduction from the donation. I was able to print out this inventory and take it with me to Goodwill. After dropping everything off, I received my receipt from Goodwill (just a piece of paper with the date, my signature and the worker's signature) and stapled it to my deduction inventory. Now, when tax season comes around, I'll be ready to enter the amount and I'll be less likely to get audited by keeping track of my inventory and the charity receipt.

This was such an easy way to get my deduction, and after seeing just how much money those things were worth, I realized how much “money” had just been sitting in my closets, not being used. Now, that “money” is on the shelves, ready to be bought by people and families who will appreciate it for what it's worth.

Dare yourself to see just how much “money” you have lying around the house, unused. How much of that can you donate to someone else? See if you can beat 8 bags.

I dare you!

Fancy Food Made Easy: Meatballs!

Meatballs. Meat and balls. Could that get any more phallic?

I recently made a batch of meatballs from Martha Stewart's recipe book, Dinner at Home (You can find it here). This recipe calls for some unusual and slightly expensive ingredients, and as no one has yet named me heir to their fortune, I chose to improvise a few substitutes based on what I had in my kitchen. I also changed a few elements to cater to my tastebuds, so this is my adaptation!

These meatballs came out with a wonderfully light and zesty flavor, and because the main ingredient is 99/1 ground turkey, they came out with very tiny waists. Even Eric approved of these, and that man has a very sophisticated and particular palate. I'm proud.

Here is what you do:

Combine 1 pound ground turkey, about 4 strips of bacon chopped finely, 1 egg and 1 yolk, ½ an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 tbsp rosemary in a large bowl. Feel free to use your hands and enjoy that weird, squishy feeling. This helps to really blend all the elements.

Next, add a pinch of salt, a pinch or two of black pepper, and 1 tsp lemon zest. This time you can use a spatula to combine everything, if using your hands is too freaky.

Everything will feel a bit slimy, so this next part can be a little challenging, but it's oh so fun. Mold the mixture into 1-inch balls; you should end up with about 20. More or less is fine, depending on what size you're going for.

Once the balls are all formed, fry them in a skillet with olive oil, about half an inch deep. They'll take about 10 minutes to cook all the way through.

Once you're done, you can serve them solo (which is what we did) or use them in pasta, or served as appetizers with barbecue sauce.

Here is how we ate them, with cheesy bread and green beans:

I Like to Move It, Move It--- Wait, No I Don't

Come August I will be migrating north, to Chicago for grad school. This is all very exciting as I have recently procured an apartment, I've enrolled in classes, and I have figured out that a trip to Target on the red line is only 10 minutes long. People, it's Target. I needed to know.

However, did you know that moving is a pain in the you-know-what? If you didn't know, now you do: moving is a PAIN. It requires boxes-- so many boxes. And tape, and newspapers and skillful wrapping. It requires cleaning out old closets and donating craploads to Goodwill. It requires finding a place, finding mover, and apparently finding a million dollars to pay for both. It requires saying goodbyes and see-you-laters to many people that I'd rather not say those things to.

Moving is a hectic, highly emotional process.

The worst part is probably not the money or the hassle, but knowing how I'm going to feel when those goodbyes come. Or at least, what I think I'm going to feel. Sort of hollow, scared, full of anxiety.

But I'm also going to feel hopeful. In all the tears, I know I'm going to see all the love that exists between me and my loved ones, and know that with that much love, distance can suck it.

That's right. In the middle of all that lovely sentiment, I found a way to include "suck it".

Let's Salsa!

No, we're not dancing. But you might want to after you try this easy recipe for homemade salsa. The great thing about it is that you can adjust any of the ingredients to accommodate your palate. Obviously, you can adjust the jalapeno amount to fit your needs; you can also add different spices that you may like or substitute different types of peppers for slightly different flavor.

For this recipe, you really want some sort of food processor or blender in order to release the full flavor of all the ingredients.

Here goes:

Mince 2 cloves of garlic.

Next, cut up 3 roma tomatoes to 1-inch sections.

Cut up ¼ bell pepper (preferably green) and ¼ onion into small pieces.

Slice up 3 green onions, discarding the tops.

Place all ingredients into your processor and carefully pulse until it's just a little thicker than what you want it to be.

Next, for mild-hot salsa, cut 2 1-inch sections of a jalepeño. (You can add more or use less depending on your taste).

Add about ¼ cup cilantro leaves.

Lastly, sprinkle 2 pinches of salt and squeeze a whole lime into the processor.

Pulse this mixture to your desired consistency.

Now heat up some chips, brag to your friends, and enjoy!

Shopping Day!

Today is shopping day!

I wish I was talking about shoes. Instead, I am talking about grocery shopping. Grocery shopping, while satisfying in a very non-starvation sort of way, is far less satisfying than shopping for shoes. But I guess I'll settle.

This week I have ventured out of my comfort zone and made a few dishes for dinner that I never would have attempted before. I made baked flounder, seasoned with basil, lemons and onions; served with scotch-steamed potatoes and salad. I also threw together some meatballs last night which are stuffed full of onions, garlic, bacon (for flavor), lemon zest and rosemary. As meatballs are something completely off my radar, I was quite proud.

Food has become a new area for me. It used to be that I would sit down to an elegant bowl of spaghettios on a regular basis; I still do that, but not quite as often. Instead I'm opting for more time-consuming and satisfying recipes that stretch my imagination and test my prowess. And I'm finding that I LOVE it.

I hope to be sharing recipes on here soon of dishes that I've loved for years, as well as the ones I am just getting to know. While I lack a fancy camera to document the process, I may stick a few pity photos here and there for a general idea of what everything should look like.

If you had told me 5 years ago that I would love being in the kitchen cooking for my family, my boyfriend, my friends-- pretty much anyone-- I would have laughed in your face and blared my emo-rock even louder. But things have changed and, surprisingly, so have I.

I like this new-ish me.

Not a Blog Virgin

I have a secret.

This isn't my first time to be publishing on the interweb. About 5 years ago I had a blog on another website, rife with teenage angst, weird pictures, and lots of prose which I usually wrote while feeling angsty. It was wonderful at the time-- I got to vent and throw my 15-year old sized tantrums for all to see; usually my fellow 15-year olds would join in and we would commiserate together.

This is not that kind of blog.

In fact, I haven't decided what type of blog this will be yet. I've been toying with the idea of publishing for some time now, but have always shied away because I could not for the life of me decide what would be interesting enough or funny enough to share with everyone. Some of the blog theme ideas which have been floating around:

1. Everyday blog
2. Food blog
3. Craft blog
4. Gardening/Decorating blog

These are all options. The problem is that I am no expert in any. I think this will be more of a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blog. That sounds good.

Any questions?