Ebay Find

Look at the cute watch I found on Ebay for $10. I love tortoise shell accessories. So I did a search on Ebay and came up with this watch. What a steal! I don't usually care for Vera Bradley but I didn't realize they did accessories.

Comprehensive Exams

Just a thought on the torture that has taken over my life right now. Why are they called comprehensive exams? One would think that the exam would cover your knowledge based on what you've learned so far...right? Not assign you book lists where 20 of the 30 or so books are completely new to you. Nevermind the fact that you have to review the books that you have read and make new notes condensing things down. Now times that fun by 3. Because I have 3 committee members each assigning me a set of essay questions on the day of the exam. Yay!

Oh yeah...and it doesn't help that I am a professional procrastinator. :-D

Homemade Pizza Dough

I am so proud of myself. I have been homemade dough challenged for the longest time. But thanks in part to Earthfare pre-baking their crusts and no longer selling their dough coupled with a fairly easy recipe from America's Test Kitchen; I was able to make pizza dough. And the result was A-MAZING! Seriously...if you like pan pizza at all, you must try their recipe. It's the best pizza (outside of Italy) that I've had.

Normally I make just plain pepperoni but David requested mushrooms and olives.

Check out the crust action!!! Soft and chewy yet crispy due the olive oil coating in the pan.

Cooking Light meets America's Test Kitchen

What a great combination! The meatloaf muffins are from Cooking Light. And the sweet potato casserole is from America's Test Kitchen. I cannot say enough about this sweet potato casserole. It's the best I've ever had. But not very low fat. So the healthy meatloaf muffins help to balance it out. Served with a little roasted asparagus. Delicious dinner!

Big Step...

So this week I have to turn in my application for graduation. If I do that, there's no going back people. I have to commit myself to reading all those stupid books and finishing my boring paper. Can I do it? I hope so. It costs $60 just to apply to graduate. I don't even want to know the cost for a cap and gown! Most likely a lot and that's money better spent on our trip to the UK.

Please keep up all the love and support guys!

Dinner Tonight 1/12/10

Tonight I tried America's Test Kitchen's take on Indian food. Tandoori Chicken. Now real Tandoori Chicken is marinated for at least a day, skewered and cooked in a Tandoor Oven. America's Test Kitchen did a great job replicating the flavors and the sporadic browned edges. I think perhaps I cooked my spices a little bit too long because it didn't have the slight (although not the bright orange from Tumeric) orange color shown on my recipe. But it tasted amazing! And the chicken was super juicy. To compliment the chicken, I also made their recipe for Cilantro-Mint Chutney. Delicious! I think I'll use some of the leftover chicken to make an Indian flavored chicken salad. Or make Tikka Masala.

Delicious and Nutritious! And I cheated a little with instant couscous since I worked so hard on everything else.

Super Scary!!!

So um...who thought it would be a good idea to give Sarah Palin regular access to television spots? (didn't anyone watch her footage during the election???) So glad that I don't have the "good" cable so I don't even have to worry about running across Fox News. Although it might provide good entertainment value...

What is the world coming to? Wow. Sorry this isn't a usual post sometimes I just have to wonder about things out loud.

New Year, New Recipes

It's been a while but I'm back now. And thanks to some lovely Christmas presents I'll have some wonderful recipes to share. I received many new cookbooks for Christmas. And the first recipe I tried came from a book called The Silver Spoon (or Il Cucchiaio d'argento). This is a ginormous resource on Italian recipes. David was particularly interested in the potato pizza recipe b/c we both still wonder at the amazing pizza we had one rainy day in Bergamo, Italy. So this recipe was as close as I can find. The real pizza didn't have cheese or pancetta on it but one can never go wrong with those two ingredients. So I gave the recipe a try.

Pretty simple. Yukon Gold potatoes. Olive Oil. Rosemary. Pizza Dough. Cheese. Pancetta.

Mmmm!