Smoothie Goodness.

My favorite treat this summer... Smoothies.  I make them as my recovery drinks for after training.  It's an incredibly easy way to get your fruit servings for the day.

I just grab one cup of whatever flavor of yogurt, pour either a 1/2 c. of milk or 1/2 c. of orange juice in the blender.  Then I add a scoop of my chocolate protein mix and frozen fruit... whatever frozen fruit is on hand.  I like blue berries, or strawberries, or raspberries.  Blend it all together and pour in pretty glass. Or pour into two glasses, one for the boy and one for me.  Oooh!  And add a little honey if you want, so yum!

Rain Celebration!

It rained!  It rained and we were so excited!  It rained Sunday morning and we were so excited!!

We were so excited that after we woke up and saw that it had rained Shane started cooking a yummy breakfast to eat outside on the deck.  It was glorious.  It was chilly.  And it was still sprinkling.

This is fried eggs, pulled pork, tomatoes and toast.  Oh yeah and mimosas!  That new smoker is starting to pay off.  Underneath the eggs is smoked pulled pork that was reheated in the skillet and crisped-up on the edges.  Does that make sense to you?  I don't know, but we use very technical culinary terms around our house.  :)

A Boat & Breakfast.

Last weekend we packed a bag and left on a jet plane.  Shane had a photoshoot for a client in Rochester, NY.  So, we flew from Tulsa to Chicago.

When I'm in an airport I like to sit near a window and look at what's going on out there.  It's nice to see when your plane shows up and I like to watch the guys load the luggage, or throw the luggage, whichever.  So on Saturday when we arrived at O'Hare, we had a while to wait before our next flight so we stopped in a little restaurant near our gate.  And we sat near a window.  And we ordered Stellas on draft.  And personal pizzas.  This was our first meal of the trip.  Little did we know what it would lead to.

So we finally landed in Buffalo, NY.  From there we picked up our rental car, and realized that Shane left his debit card in the restaurant in the Chicago airport.  Yes.  This happened.  So while driving to Rochester we took care of that little snafu.  

Did you know that Rochester is home to Kodak?  This is the Kodak building in downtown Rochester.  It's an amazing building and the entire thing is surrounded by scaffolding because they are in the middle of restoring the whole building.  What a landmark of a building. 

It's also the home to High Falls.  High Falls is located in the Genesee River which flows through town.  We had a great time in Rochester, catching up with old friends and drinking good beer, but on Saturday afternoon it was time to head a little further North.

So we hopped in the rental and drove to Niagara Falls.  We crossed the border into Canada where we checked into our hotel. Shane had never been here before and i had once when I was about 13 with my dad, stepmom, and aunt.  My only criteria for hotels was that it wasn't a Ramada Inn.  I had already stayed at a Ramada Inn in Niagara lol.  

The boy did pretty well. This was the view from our room.  Not too shabby, eh?  We were on the 11th floor of The Oakes Hotel .  Since we were only staying a night we decided to splurge a little.  Splurging equals hot tub.  :)

So once we checked into our room we decided to check out the falls.  We ended up walking A Lot.  We also bought tickets to ride the Maid of The Mist .  

See all the people in blue?

Here they are up close.  Everybody who buys tickets to ride the Maid of the Mist gets a "souvenir poncho."  It was about 85 degrees this day.  When they handed everybody the ponchos there was an employee yelling, "Don't put the ponchos on until you get onto the boat!  It's too hot!"  Well, you can see how well most of the people listen.  

This is the picture I took of the American Falls while on the boat.  The boat where I put on my poncho.  

This is the picture of the American Falls that Shane Bevel took.  Can you tell who the pro is in our family?  Shane got several more awesome shots.  I however covered my face in the clear blue plastic poncho hood because I can't handle water being sprayed in my face and I can't see through my glasses then either.  Yes, I'm awesome.  The boat ride was really cool, there was lots of water.  :)

We hiked it back to our hotel room after that.  And I took a 3 hour nap.  Because that's what I do when I'm on vacation.  I nap.  I nap at home, too, but we won't get into that now.  

Did you know that during the summer they shoot fireworks every night from the Canadian side?  They also light the falls up the colors of the rainbow.  Did you know that the bridge that takes you from the US to Canada is called the Rainbow Bridge?  It is.  Did you know that they cut back the flow of water to the falls at night to make electricity?  They do.  Then they light them up for the tourists.  Personally I'm not a fan of the multi-colored lighting of the falls.  The white made it seem more natural.  ha.

Did you know that Niagara Falls is REALLY expensive?  When we snapped this shot of ourselves, we didn't know either.  

 

It finally hit us when we went to IHOP for breakfast Monday morning.  IHOP.  We were seated by the nice Canadians.  I opened the menu, saw the pictures and though, "wow, an omelette would be perfect!  Oooh!  A spinach & Mushroom omelette would be the Best!"  So I read the description....get to the bottom and see the price.  The PRICE.  $18.99 for a freaking omelette?!  That's right.  So I got a meal where I got as many options as possible.  The pancake combo with eggs, bacon and hashbrowns.  I saved a whole dollar on that one.  

And this is the $60 breakfast.  Shane's blueberries cost a little extra...

We got back to Tulsa Monday night.  So yes, we literally took a weekend trip to Niagara Falls.  lol.  And it was nice.  Will we go back?  Sure.  But we'll probably stay on the American side where it's a state park and far less touristy.  And probably not when it's the Canadian Civic holiday when all the Canadians are off work.  Yeah, we didn't know that one until right before we left.  :)

Peaches!

So, a new girl started at work last week.  Our team liked her alright.  :)  Hi, Jill!!
Then we learned that her husband's family has a peach orchard, Thompson's Peach Orchard.  And he brought us fresh-off-the-tree peaches!

And they were the sweetest peaches I've had in a long time....

When I say sweet, I mean that there was not even a hint of sour in there.  It was pure peach goodness.

Jill is also part Polish, too, so she's cool.  Thanks for the peaches, woman!

CAKE!

One of the several things that happened early this summer was a very special wedding.  That's right, my mom got hitched!  It was very laid back and small with only immediate family.  During the planning stages,  I was talking to my mom on the phone and asked if there was anything that I could help her with.  ANYTHING???  She finally asked if I would make an Italian Cream Cake.  It's Gary's favorite.  My sister-in-law was making cupcakes and this would be the other dessert for the celebration.  I quickly said that I would, of course, do it.  I didn't even have to think about it.

When I got off the phone, however, I thought about it.  I thought about the fact that I had never made a cake before in my life,  non-the-less an Italian Cream Cake.  I thought about the fact that I didn't even own 3 cake pans to make a layered cake... How I had gotten through almost three decades without making a cake, I have no idea.  It's in my blood even.  My dad, uncle, and aunt owned and ran a bakery for years and years and years.  I used to sit on a stool and watch my dear aunt decorate cake after cake on Saturday mornings.  So this was my final test?  Did I get the cake baking gene?  No pressure, it's just MY MOM'S WEDDING CAKE! ha!

So I quickly emailed my friend Beck, the baker.  I told her my scenario and that I needed a good Italian Cream Cake recipe.  I knew that if anybody knew of one it would be her.  And as I predicted, she delivered!  She quickly emailed me Southern Living's Italian Cream Cake recipe.  The week before the wedding I did a trial run.  It was awesome.  I brought most of it to work and was told by people who don't like cake that it was the best cake they had ever had.  Thank God, because the wedding was in a week!  The real cake... I baked the layers 3 days before the wedding, wrapped them individually in foil and put them in the freezer.  I made the icing the night before we drove down to Louisiana, put it in a container with lid and refrigerated.  We transported the cakes and icing in an ice chest.  I finished decorating the cake before we left for the church.  To make it fancy I used crumbled pecans and 1/2 pecans to create "piping" along the edges.  I was told that this was the best Italian Cream Cake that anybody had ever had.  And I finally had a purpose for that cake stand I got as a wedding gift!
It's so good that you just can't keep this recipe a secret.

Here are the ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened                        2 c. sugar
5 large eggs, separated                   2.5c. AP flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda                          1 c. buttermilk
2/3c. pecans, finely chopped
1 can flaked coconut, 3.5oz (I couldn't find it in the can, so used the stuff in the bag in the baking aisle)
1tsp. vanilla extract                        1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3 T. light rum (I didn't even use this)

So what do you do?
1.  Grease and flour the sides of three 9-inch round cake pans (I also lined the bottom with wax paper, the cake pans I had to run to the store to get! ha).
2.  Beat butter until creamy; add sugar, beating well.  Add egg yolks, one at a time beating after each addition.
3.  Combine flour and baking soda; add to butter mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry.  Mix at low speed after each addition.  Stir in pecans, coconut and vanilla.

And it will look like this.  Yum Yum!!
4.  Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy.  Add cream of tartar, beating until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold egg whites into batter.  Pour batter into prepared pans.

This is the creamiest substance I have ever dealt with.  So good.  Oh wait, I almost forgot, you really need to bake it for the best results...

5.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, use the toothpick test!  Then cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then remove from pans.  Cool completely on wire racks.

6.  Before frosting, level the cakes with a big bread cutting knife.  You want to make sure that both the top and bottom of the cakes are flat.

The step that I skipped was brushing the rum over the top of each layer to seal the crumb coat.  I didn't feel it was necessary :)  That's all.
7.  Frost and stack the layers.

Because this was my first cake, I had to borrow the frosting knife.  I feel that if I owned one I would make more cakes though.  I wonder how credible that feeling is...

I think the clenture to this cake is the frosting.  It's soooooo healthy.  NOT.  Per the advice of Beck the baker, I doubled this icing recipe to make sure there was plenty of butter, I mean frosting, for the cake.

Deluxe Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting: (I doubled all of these ingredients for the wedding version)
11oz. cream cheese, softened (8oz. + 3oz. pkg)      
3/4c. butter, softened
16oz. powdered sugar, sifted                    
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. pecans, chopped

1.  beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy.
2.  Stir in vanilla and pecans.

This Photo by Shane Bevel .
This is probably the only cake you'll see me blog about for a while.  I just don't have many reasons to make a big cake for two people at the house.  My co-workers might beg to differ...

Well hello, Mr. Sandwich!

Today I asked Shane what he was going to have for lunch.  He said he didn't know but that he wanted something light because it's so hot outside and he didn't want to crash mid-afternoon.  Made sense to me.  So I left the office and thought I'd head to our go-to sandwich shop to get two 3-cheese and avocado subs, one 6 inch and one 12 inch.  I thought it would be a nice lunch for such a hot day.  There was a problem though.  When I turned into the sandwich shop's parking lot it was completely packed.  I had left for lunch late and arrived after 12:20.  My mistake.  My bad.  I just rolled through the parking lot and exited immediately, heading to the house, thinking there HAD to be 'something' in the fridge.  Don't we still have some turkey meat and cheese?

Why yes, yes we did.  It was only enough meat for the boy, but I didn't mind.  I put together this scrumptious sandwich of sliced avocados, roma tomatoes, muenster cheese, a lil' mayo and honey oat bread.  Slice it in half (the only way to eat a sandwich), add a side of the sweetest watermelon....

I was kinda glad the sandwich shop was too packed for my business.

I'll Take Two Satisfaction Tacos Please

We live in a place that offers an amazing choice of authentic (really) mexican food restaurants.  Needless to say I've grown a healthy appetite for some Mexican food.  If I'm not careful I might find myself eating cheese and onion enchiladas and fish tacos every day of my LIFE.  I love them so much.  So.  Much.  When we're bored with cooking and I'm craving some fish tacos... okay this happens quite regularly... I find myself at El Rio Verde.

It may be a little hole in the wall, but by golly if it's not completely packed if you go at key eating times.  You know, the lunch and the dinner.  This is why I eat dinner at 5:30 at El Rio Verde.  To beat the crowd.

I've had the wet burrito that made them famous.  Do people still say "it's the bomb!"??  Well if they did, I might say that about the wet burrito.  Pretty amazing stuff.  And given the fact that it's bigger than my face, I'm not ashamed to say I've managed to put a whole one down all by myself.  It's THAT GOOD.  It wasn't soon after that occurrence that I realized it wasn't necessary to eat burritos that are larger than my forearm.

I've had friends who used to order fish tacos when I lived in Louisiana.  I thought they were crazy.  Why order a taco if it doesn't have meat?  Well I know why.  Because it can be the most amazing thing you've ever put in your mouth.  And they are not all the same.

These are El Rio Verde's fish tacos.  They are the simplest fish tacos I've come across that don't incorporate seasoning that catches my mouth on fire.  They are rather pleasant fish tacos.  Can food be pleasant?  They are $2.50 each.  I don't even look at the menu anymore.  They are simply breaded white fish, fried to perfection and covered with cabbage and guacamole sauce, served with green salsa.  That green salsa may be my favorite part.  I dip every single bite into that green salsa.  And the cabbage?  Well it adds just enough sweet to the guacamole sauce and salsa combo.

I took this picture when I was on my blogging hiatus.  But I did just eat this meal not 2 and a half hours ago.  I think they ran out of the guacamole sauce, but the  substituted real guac tasted just as good and the green salsa....  ahhhhhhhh.  Satisfaction.

Easy Schmeezy Beautiful...GUACAMOLE!

I love guac!! Yep.  I love to order the overpriced guacamole at any mexican restaurant we visit.  AND.  I love to make it at home for much, much cheaper.  You can buy one avocado for 50 cents at the grocery store after all!

So when I sought out to find the best guacamole recipe I found all kinds of interesting concoctions.  I never knew you could make it in so many ways.... to be honest the whole "making it at home" thing is a pretty recent discovery of mine.  Anyway.  So all the recipes consisted of avocados but the rest of the ingredients varied.  Here are a few random ingredients from some different guacamole recipes:  salsa, sour cream, chilies, cilantro (LOVE cilantro!), cumin, onions, that crazy powder mix at the grocery store... I could go on and on.  You know what?  The best guac I've made to date, I made up myself.  And you know what else?  It has 3 ingredients.  Yep.  3.

Ingredient #1:  2 Avocados

ice cream! ha!  just kidding....

Ingredient #2:  1 Roma tomato, diced

Ingredient #3:  Garlic Salt.

The process is all very easy.  First cut the avocados around in half, twist the two halves apart and then spoon the seed out.  I also read some crazy stuff about whacking the seed with a sharp knife, but I'm not crazy.  Then spoon the avocado out of the skin and into a bowl.  I just use a cereal bowl.  Then get your fork and mash the avocados til they're kinda creamy.  Then add the diced Roma tomato to the mashed avocados.  Keep mixing with that trusty fork.  Then take the Garlic Salt and sprinkle it over the mixture until it's lightly dusted, I'd say about 1/2 a Tablespoon if you're the measuring type.  You can add more or less garlic salt to your taste.  You want just enough for it to bring out the wonderfulness of the avocados...  

BAM!  

That's some guacamole!  It's really the easiest version I've found.  It's easy and oh so fresh.  There's not so many ingredients that you lose sight of what you're eating.  :)  But there are enough ingredients to make you appreciate each and every one of them.  Hello, avocados, your garlicy friend makes you taste so goooooood.  Hello, Roma, I love your color and texture....

And I'm done!  You should always be done when  you start talking to your food...

Egg in a hole? YES PLEASE!

Something amazing that I had never experienced before I met shane was a simple little dish called "egg in a hole."  I'm a big fan of breakfast food.  I may be the biggest fan of breakfast food.  I love me some breakfast!  Hey, have I told  you how much I like breakfast?  oh yeah... So I could eat eggs for almost every meal...

So this is egg in a hole.  Have you ever seen something so delish?  I don't think you have.

How the heck do you make egg in a hole and what is it?  Well first you take a piece of bread, then you take a drinking glass (or round cookie cutter), then you push the rim of the glass in the middle of the piece of bread to create the hole.  Then  you can either spread some butter on both sides of the bread or put some vegetable oil in a pan.  The vegetable oil makes it more crunchy.  Crunchy=YUM.  So you put the bread in a pan over some heat.  Think grilled cheese, you don't want to burn it.  Then you crack an egg open into the hole in the bread.  Now, think fried egg.  You want to flip it over when appropriate.  I love the runny yolk... you can dip the crunchy bread in it on the plate, like above.  Totally one of the best things in life.

Shane says he can flip the egg in the hole with his mind, but I wouldn't listen to him if I were you.  He also says he  has perfected the art of Egg In A Hole.  This I will agree with.  It's the perfect weekend morning breakfast.

So I made this...

Braised beef short ribs...

This was the result of my touching them with my fork.  Can we say OMGTENDER!  They literally fell off the bones.

So those naked bones in the pot?  Yep, the meat fell smooth off 'em.

I served them with mashed yellow potatoes and the gravy from the pot.  mmmmmmmmm!

We bought some beef short ribs with my intention to use an awesome recipe by Sean Shannon, the Assistant Director of Culinary Services at the Food Bank.  By the time I finally decided to cook them, I didn't have the recipe cards at home so I googled any recipe that included reducing a bottle of red wine.  And this is what I found: Braised Beef Short Ribs.  Wowza!!  Let's just say I almost made Shane cry, and I almost cried in return when he said it was the best meal I'd ever made him.  That's what I'm talking about!  This was a 2 day process.  Sean's recipe is not.  Which recipe will I probably make in the future? Sean's of course.  I don't think I can take being up until 2 am again waiting for the ribs to cool off so I can marinate them in the fridge over night.

~Fran