Rachael Ray's Minestrone Soup w/Garlic Bread Croutons

Made this soup for lunch today and I'm so looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch this week :) For me, this is the perfect combination of broth, noodle, and vegetable that just gets my ooky sit in a blanket and fawn over all things amazing feelings going.

Plus, I love how easy broth based soups are to make. It's basically dice, saute, boil, eat. Rachael's recipe doesn't call for garbanzo beans, but to me, it's not minestrone without them.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound zucchini
2 ribs celery
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
34 ounces (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock
15 ounces cannelinni beans (white beans), rinsed
15 ounces crushed tomatoes
15 ounces garbanzo beans
1/4 pound penne pasta
basil

Croutons:
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic
4-6 slices of italian bread
1/2 cup grated parigiano-reggiano (or parmesan)
parsley

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Chop your vegetables: Quarter the zucchini and carrot and dice; finely dice the onion; cut the celery into strips and dice; mince the garlic. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a big pot. Add vegetables, salt and pepper, and bay leaf, then saute for 8 minutes or until vegetables are softening.

Add broth, tomatoes, and beans and bring to a boil.

Add pasta and simmer over medium heat until al dente. Add basil and keep on low. Add 1 cup of water if you want it to be more soupy.

While the soup is simmering, melt the butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add 1 clove garlic and swirl for 30 seconds. Toast the bread slices under the broiler for a minute on each side. Remove and lower oven to 450 degrees. Brush toast on one side with butter, and top with cheese and parsley. Return to oven until cheese is melted.

After I used all the butter, I scooped the leftover garlic into my pot of soup. No need to waste it :) Adjust seasoning to your liking.

Serve with croutons in shallow bowls.

Beefy Mac 'n Cheese

 Hey there buddies! I made some macaroni and cheese tonight and it let me take pictures of it :)

Mmm... cheesy

If you want to make it, it turned out creamier and cheesier than any other mac n cheese I've ever made :) Not grainy, not floury.

I started with a recipe from here for some pretty standard home made mac n cheese, and made do with some stuff I had around the kitchen haha :) Trevor and I have made a decision to try to eat only organic meat (you know, due to all the horribleness that happens to animals nowadays when they're being raised). So we got some organic ground beef from cows that are free-range, grass-fed, etc. We're eating less meat, but the meat we do want to try to eat will be happy when it was alive :)

Moving on.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

12 ounces macaroni noodles
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
ground pepper
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 heaping teaspoon ground mustard powder
ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 cups (1 can) evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups of shredded cheese (gouda, cheddar, mozzarella)
1 cup more shredded cheddar

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Boil your noodles, silly. Put 2 teaspoons of the salt in with the water to make them taste good. Cook al-dente--for real. You want them to be AL DENTE so that when they finish cooking in the oven, they don't get mushy.

Brown your beef with salt and pepper. This is super easy.

Preheat your oven to 375.

Drain the noodles. In your empty noodle pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir, stir, stir. Cook the roux until it gets a little brown. If you learn how to do this, you'll be able to make a bagillion different sauces, and you can tell all your friends you cooked a roux.

Add the salt, mustard, paprika, and pepper. And then add the evaporated milk and regular milk. I actually really enjoyed the substitution of evaporated milk, it was creamier and harder to over-heat the cheese. Be careful when using lower fat milk because you can't heat it too high or too quickly or it will scald, and your cheese will separate. This is what causes the sauce to feel grainy.

Stir with a whisk until it's all combined. Keep stirring with the whisk over medium heat until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and mix in the 2-3 cups of cheese. I had 3 slices of gouda, a cup of cheddar, and a cup of pizza blend cheeses--any good strong melting cheeses would probably do just fine :) Although, the more cheddar you have, the more it will taste like traditional yellow mac n cheese. Make sure not to heat it or boil it after this point or the cheese will separate.

Stir the cheese in slowly until it's all melted. Remove from heat. Combine the noodles and beef with the sauce, then poor everything into a 9x13 baking pan. Top with another cup or so of cheese, preferably cheddar, and a 1/2 teaspoon of paprika.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Aaaand here's a few more pictures of the same thing since I love taking pictures :)

A whole bunch of stuff I thought I posted but never did: June-August 2012

This post is a bunch of stuff I thought I already posted, and a bunch of other stuff.

This year was one of the best vacations I've ever had, and we didn't really even do much. We usually don't have boatloads of money to go on a real vacation so, as many of you know, we take a periodic stay-cation. We didn't get one last year because of new jobs and not having any vacation time, but this year, we made it work.

We took 10 days off in May/June and packed it pretty full of whatever we wanted :)

Friday-Sunday we attended CONduit again. We attended as many panels as we could that were actually worth while for writers. Apparently, there was a new group of people in charge, and they decided to add a bunch of panels about non-writing topics, like "Is Indiana Jones Really an Archeologist" and panels on costume making. I'll be honest, I pay to go to CONduit for the writing panels, not the "fun" panels. So it's kind of beside the point if those other panels would actually be interesting. We did attend a few panels that were very informative and got our minds working, specifically panels on YA fiction outside the most popular series, non-medieval European fantasy, using mythology and religion effectively in fantasy, point of view, and a few others. The best parts are actually getting to chat with other aspiring authors, and published authors. I'm always amazed at how willing people are to talk. They have a masquerade contest, so lots of people showed up in costumes, and I got a picture with Vader. Life long dream, complete ;)

 

There was a super cool batman costume, and this impressive Chewie. 

Stalker cam.

Here are some of the new people I learned about, some people we chatted with, and some people I already knew about but for whom my interest was rekindled; you should get to know them too:

Tamora Pierce YA author

Jane Lindskold mythology guru, author of all sorts

Carter and his wife from The Zombie Nation webcomic
Bryce Moore YA author

This is also where I was introduced to the Ticket to Ride iPhone/iPad app. SUPER fun game :)

On Monday, it was Memorial Day, so we had a barbeque with Trevor's family. The weather was great, there was shade, and we made a fire. Couldn't ask for more--except maybe not having to clean up after.

The only picture on my phone of Yellowstone.

We also took a spontaneous adventure up to Yellowstone! We decided to go on a Thursday night at about 7pm, and were out the door by 9pm. We arrived at our hotel in Yellowstone around 1am. We spent all of Friday driving through the park, seeing the sights. We even got to drive LITERALLY through a heard of buffalo and take pictures. We got sunburned way bad waiting for Old Faithful, and stayed in Jackson Hole that night. Got home Saturday. 

And since this post is 3 months late, I have no idea what else we did on our stay-cation! Haha :)  

 Except for I know we went to a park and read on a blanket for a while. We did that few times in the summer.

I took my nephews to a little fair my brother-in-law did for school. It was pretty fun. They made bottle rockets, and did a bunch of crafts like painting, rock painting, shaving cream art.

We also had a big birthday party for them at my house. Almost my whole family came over and it was intense. I'm so grateful for those times though--a lot of my family lives far away, so it's pretty special to me when we all get together. 

 I got a guitar :) I was diligent for a couple weeks, grew calluses, and then got busy, haha :) I've played like twice in the last month. I don't intend to give up forever. 

This is how sucky I was the first week. 

 Trevor finished his second draft of ONLY GINGERS CAN BE WITCHES, got through a second round of beta readers, and started submitting queries to agents :) It has been stressful, exciting, infuriating, and extremely hard for him. But it's a huge step! This week he was asked by an agent to send his full manuscript so she could check it out--we're waiting to hear back. The querying process is, frankly, absurd. Basically, you write a couple paragraphs about your book that are supposed to hook an agent's attention. You're supposed to sum up everything about your book in one short email, and hope it's enough to get someone interested enough to ask to read your manuscript. They get hundreds a day. How anyone gets published, ever, is beyond me. But Trevor is good enough--I think it will happen. We just have to learn how to manipulate the situation :)

I made this super sweet duck tape wallet for Trevor using the skills I learned at the fair with my nephews. 

I found this spider on the towel I'd just used to dry my hair. Good morning!

Trevor forced me to organize our office closet--which has been overflowing with photography equipment, disc supplies, manuscripts, school books, and basically everything else we don't know what to do with. We did it all for less than $30, which is actually a miracle. Shelving is so over priced. But now our office feels nicer and I know where to find everything!

I convinced Trevor to let us do a puzzle! And now we've done a lot :) The one we're doing now has been abandoned because it's TOO HARD. But I think we'll get a new one next week for our anniversary. We even got a folding table to put in our office. It's surprisingly fun to puzzle and watch netflix. 

Trevor finally convinced ME to get Nerf guns, which we then proceeded to Steampunkify. The dudes at Lowes were all in a flutter over what we were doing with their hardware.

Most recently, we celebrated our 8 year dating anniversary, which I've already talked about. But here's us, 8 years later. We revisited the location of our first date--Arby's by WJ High, and reminisced being incredibly young and without responsibilities. We took a stroll around Gardner Village, where, by the way, they had super cute lambs and calves. Also, we checked out some Halloween decorations, and got motivated for our Halloween party at the end of October. 

Julia Child's Beef Saute with Cream and Mushroom

mmm

I just made another Julia Child recipe. Oh my goodness, that woman. My book club decided to read a cook book this month, and we came to a concensus on Julia's Mastering the Art of French cooking. For our meeting, we all made a recipe from the book and shared. I chose something fancy, but simple as the main entree, and everyone loved it. It was easy and fast--warm, creamy, and even kind of delicate :)

Here's what you need:

MUSHROOMS:
2 Tb butter
1 Tb cooking oil
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
3 Tb diced shallots
Salt and pepper

BEEF:
2 Tb butter
1 Tb cooking oil

mushrooms are my favorite

2 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin
salt and pepper

SAUCE:
1/4 cup of some kind of red wine (which I didn't use, just replaced with more broth)
3/4 cup of beef broth
salt and pepper
1 cup cream
2 tsp cornstarch
2 Tb butter

garnish: parsley

cow

Here's what to do:

Saute-ing the mushrooms blew my mind. I've never sauteed mushrooms dry before! I'll be doing it this way from now on.

Add the butter and oil to a non-stick pan (Julia says to use an enameled pan, but who has those?) over medium high heat. After the butter stops foaming, add the sliced DRY mushrooms and flip and stir until they soak up all the oil. Continue to saute for 2-3 minutes until they're lightly browned.

Add the shallots to the mushrooms and saute for a minute or two. Season. Remove to a plate.

Cut up your beef in 2 inch cubes and dry it off with a paper towel. Drying is super important. We watched part of Julia's first TV episode of The French Chef, and she demonstrated--it makes it so the beef sears instead of steams.

coolest thing to see it actually searing like it's supposed to :)

Add the butter and oil to the pan over medium high heat, and wait for the froth to go away. Add half the meat and let each side brown for a few minutes. The insides will be rosy red--very rare--, and the outside will be a deeply seared brown.

Do your second batch and remove it all the a plate.


Remove the oil, and add the broth. Deglaze the pan and boil down the broth until it leaves about 1/3 cup remaining. (I"m sure this dish would be mind-crushing instead of just mind-blowing with the wine, but I prefer not to waste my money on something I'm only going to use a 1/4 cup on. Since we don't drink alcohol, we try to substitute as often as possible, even in cooking.)

getting all thick and stuff.

Mix cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of your cream. Add the remaining cream to the broth, and your cornstarch mixture. Stir and bring to a simmer. Season.

Add the mushrooms to the sauce and simmer for a couple minutes until it thickens a little bit. Add the beef and keep warm. Mine kept for 30 minutes while waiting for people to arrive, and it was still fine. When you're ready to serve, turn up the heat for 3-4 minutes, basting the beef with the cream sauce. Add that ever-present final French touch of 2 tablespoons butter. Garnish with parsley sprigs. Serves 4-5.

Serve with rice, potatoes, noodles, anything your heart desires. Goes well with green veggies :) We had it with Julia's frozen peas in butter sauce, and one of her vanilla cakes with strawberries for dessert! Best book club month ever!

8 years together

Let's see, what have we been up do? Not much really. The last few months I've had my appreciation for Trevor and our marriage grow. We've seen each other through a few successes and failures, and gone through a few as a couple. Every September I remember how I felt when I met Trevor for the first time. It was 8 years ago, and if I close my eyes, I can still remember the instant I knew I felt something more than friendship for him. I can still remember the excitement over our similarities and our differences. I was surprised I liked someone so different from myself, but who also complemented me so well.

Knowing Trevor has made me step out of my shell, right from day one. And it's made me stand more firmly as MYSELF. Our relationship has gone through so many different phases--dating, engaged, newly-wed, and all the subsequent years--each adding new levels of love, and frustration :)

Our 6 year wedding anniversary is coming up in less than two weeks. The other night I realized that I've only spent one night away from Trevor since we got married. He's been my companion and best friend. He's seen me at my worst, and hopefully my best.

I want to remember our 8th year together as the year we relearned how to show each other the appreciation and love we have for each other. Our journey is our own, and I'm looking forward to where we're going--but I'm also learning to remember it's not all about the destination. That seems like something everyone should know--"it's not about the destination, it's about the journey" blah blah. But it can be applied to our lives on so many tiny levels. I don't want anyone else on my journey but him.

Church: 7 months

I guess it's time for another update. I've been putting this one off because it's less positive than the last. But whatever I guess. It's not negative, I just don't have that same gung-ho feeling I did. And reading back on my 3 month post, I was anticipating the feelings I'm having now. I've been expecting it; does that mean I created it? ...I wonder if I created a paradox...

When I'm there, I am comfortable, I'm peaceful, I feel the spirit. Monday-Friday, I am planning on going, I want to go. When Saturday comes around, it feels like Sunday came too soon. And when Saturday night comes, and Sunday morning at 7:45 AM I don't want to wake up, I seem to forget my reasons for wanting to go. I've been going 3 out of 4 weeks of the month. So it's not horrible. But I have a hard time wanting to go 4 out of 4 weeks, haha :)

I'm setting some specific goals for myself for the coming 2 weeks. I thought I'd share them here:

• Read scriptures daily. I'm studying from The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, I think it's an institute manual. It's pretty good. I like that it's a combination of scripture reading and manual reading, so I don't get bored with scripture after scripture. I've been doing pretty well at this; I've only missed a handful of days. 
• Add in extra reading on slow weeknights. On weeknights where I have time to watch 2 hours of TV, I have time to do something productive. I want to read extra in my study manual, or some other publication. I have Ensigns, some temple prep materials, and the interweb. 
• Pray. Seriously, this is hard. I need to find space to pray out loud, and not mind-wander. 
• I'm going to make it to the next 4 consecutive meetings. Entire meeting blocks.

I have other goals, but these are the ones that will affect me the most spiritually. 

Okay, so... This sounds weird, but I believe in God. I might just be one of those people who believes; I might just be one of those people who it works for. But everything to me says, "God exists." This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's important for me to remember that. Sometimes I think it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day or weekly things a church has its members do. But there is a reason behind what I'm doing, and I need to remember that. I'm not reading scriptures or praying because I have to. I'm praying to remind myself of my greater goals. I'm praying to feel connected to my creation and greater purpose. I'm studying written text because I can trust they will teach me more about my purpose, and how to accomplish my lifelong goals, and how to be a better person. 

And right now, (and probably for a long time) I'm praying to learn how to be more patient, more humble, and more kind in everything that I do. My husband, my family, and my coworkers are not exempt from my kindness just because they're around me more often than strangers. They deserve it most. I believe I can be more forgiving, and that I can learn how to be less controlling and less bitter if I remember the example, and reason behind the example, of Christ. My actions should be my behavior; not just something I do every now and then, but something I do all the time. Broken relationships I have are formed by my own poor choices.

I have other regular people goals I'm working on right now too: 

• I'm learning guitar. I'm practicing a lot (I'm shooting for every other day), and taking lessons from my brother via skype. Not only is this integrating music into my life more, but I get to chat with my brother who I don't get to see very often :)
• I'm editing a lot and have deadlines to meet, and locations to scout. Scouting CAN be fun.
• I am trying to spend more time with family I don't usually spend time with. 
• I'm trying to be a better neighbor. I suck at this. And I'm awkward. 
• I'm trying to read and finish books. I don't know what it is with me lately, but I have a hard time starting one book and finishing it before starting another. I quickly find myself in the middle of 4 books and don't know which one to go with so it seems to take forever to finish any of them. 
• A bagillion other goals I don't want to write down, which may include keeping my kitchen clean, laundry not on the floor, garbage not stinky, car's check engine light not on, etc. 

Self Portraits

A few weeks ago I took some self portraits for the first time ever. Let me just tell you, that was the most embarrassing thing I've done in a log time--in all facets.

First, I had to go find a place outside that was pretty, yet within walking distance of my apartment. That pretty much narrowed it down to a couple grassy areas by the main road. So I set up my tripod, set my camera on a timer, and smiled to no one while tons of cars drove by staring. The sun was pretty though.

Self portraits are hard! Normally, if I was going to take your photo, I'd have you stand where I want you, and then focus on you with my lens, making minor adjustments as necessary. But when I'm not behind the lens, I can't focus on myself! So I had to pretend, and use sticks to simulate where my face was going to be so I had something to focus on. Then I'd set the timer, run around the the other side, and pose for 10 shots. Repeat.

Kind of a crazy hour.

8 out of 10 shots didn't turn out because they were blurry; 1 out of 10 I was pulling a weird face or blinking; and the final 10th looked possibly usable. It was REALLY weird to edit pictures of myself, removing blemishes, fixing lighting, that kind of thing.

I'm excited that I get to use them on my new website. That's the main reason I took them. I needed and updated picture for my bio section anyways, and I also thought it'd be nice to have pictures that reflect my own editing style rather than another photographer's. It was a lot of effort though, so I definitely won't be doing it again anytime soon!

It kind of made me realize though, that everyone is so lucky they don't have to look at any of the "bad" photos of themselves that get taken during their shoot. Even I felt embarrassed looking at pictures of myself where I looked like a goober, and I KNOW to expect it. I feel like I should let all my clients know I don't laugh at your blinky pictures or anything :) I just delete them, I promise!

There's me.