Changing

So I've had this blog for almost 2 years.  Have I been super dedicated to it, no.  Have I liked typing my thoughts into it, yes.  But I know why I haven't had many posts.  I have many culinary adventures every day.  But I get so bored with typing the same thing.  So I am here to say that I will no longer be typing just about food encounters.  I want to do fun things about my life.  About my family.  About my friends.  About my love, TJ.  Yes, I will give out recipe ideas, and talk about yummy food,  but I am looking for a change.  I like what my sister does.  Her blog is so darling!  I check it almost every day because she is so good at expressing herself online just like how you would talk to her in person.

Times have been crazy.  I go to Costco almost everyday.  I love my puppy, Max.  I love my kitty, Brooklyn.  Boyfriend picked me sunflowers the other day.  He is so thoughtful.  Boyfriend has been taking care of me since I got sick.  Hopefully, we can go grocery shopping today, since it is pay day after all.  I heard money when I woke up this morning.  

I recently got engaged to Boyfriend.  Oh so exciting!  We went to Florida, and after 4 days of meeting my parents he asked them for their permission and they said YES!!

I still work at Panera, and I'm really excited to say that I am going on a business trip to Castle Rock for them!  I will help open a store with a new team!  So exciting!

The picture thing on here isn't working so I'll just come back later and post more!

MMMM Bye! =]

Quatro De Mayo

Ok so it is not exactly Cinco de Mayo yet, but I'm to excited to wait to blog tomorrow. I'm pretty sure Mexican is probably my favorite kind of food, besides Indian. I am so excited to eat yummy Mexican food. TJ and I are going to go to Salsa Brava tomorrow for dinner. Oh so excited. Last time I had their Chile Relleno. Oh my Spanish it was good, might have to get it again. Thinking about Cinco de Mayo made me realize how much Mexican food I eat. I eat quesadillas and salsa and guacamole and Chipotle and nachos all the time.
Lately though, I haven't been eating enough veggies and fruits, so I'm not changing my diet, but adding to it. More vegetables and fruits, I say! So far I have been doing pretty well. It's just about the choices. With Cinco de Mayo tomorrow I wanted to make a yummy salsa dip type thing. It's called "Cowboy Caviar". It's my sister Emily's recipe. Check out her blog @ http://emilyandtyhenrie.blogspot.com/. I always make her make it when I see her. It's so simple, and it's full of veggies.

Cowboy Caviar

Ingredients:
-3 avocados, diced
-3 roma tomatoes, diced
-1 tbsp of onion, diced
-Half a can of corn, drained
-Half a can of black beans
-Italian dressing seasoning package
-Canola oil
-White wine Vinegar
-Salt and Pepper
-Tostito's scoops chips

Directions:
-Mix all the veggies together. I don't like beans, so I never use them.
-Follow the directions on the Italian dressing package for oil and vinegar. Some water might be required. Add the seasoning first to the veggies, then coat with oil and vinegar mixture. You won't need the whole mixture.
-Salt and pepper to taste.
-Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
-Serve with chips.
-Enjoy!
See it's so easy and healthy and yummy! Again, I hate beans, but if you need more fiber, go for it!
I hope everyone has an awesome Cinco de Mayo!!!
Adios!

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."
-Julia Child

Starving College Student

Yes, behold, the poor post. I knew this post would come. I am a very starving college student, and it doesn't help that I obsess over food. For the past few weeks, I feel like I have been doing well maintaining my food budget. As Dave Ramsey likes to call it, "Living on a rice and beans." Which I have had rice with almost all my meals. The other day I made one of my favorite poor meals. You buy chicken breast, Picante salsa, pepper jack cheese, rice, limes, and cilantro. Super cheap and you can omit the cilantro and lime juice if you want. You place the chicken in a casserole dish squeeze one whole lime on top and dump a whole jar of salsa evenly on the chicken. Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes. With the rice add 2 limes and a handful of cilantro. With the last five minutes of the chicken place sliced cheese on top of each breast. Put the rice down first on the plate then on top add the chicken and salsa juicy goodness. I spent about $20 and made enough for six people. This was for Easter dinner this Sunday. All of us poor kids sitting on the couch, watching stand up, eating Mexican food on Easter. That's a memory right there.
So there's a little poor recipe right there. And if you make enough rice You can poor salsa on top and cheese. There was a sale at Safeway 2 jars for $5 so of course I got two! So I think I might have that for dinner tonight. Well, just as long as TJ's room mates don't eat my cheese, salsa, or rice, I should be good. Ok vent session: Someone ate my Pumpkin chocolate chip bread over there, and I found out that his roommate ate the pizza I bought on Saturday. There was a whole pizza!!! Ugh I was so mad! Why can't people respect other people's belongings and property. Room mates are the worst! Well, not all room mates. I love my room mate, Shannon. But I just can't stand people who don't respect my property. I spent money and that, not TJ, so it's my things. I'm not leaving my stuff over there anymore. End scene. I feel better.

So anyway, the life of a poor college student. Times have been hard with the lack of money. And I hate getting paid sometimes, which I know is weird, but when I do I want to spend it all. Celebrate, reward myself. Then after two days, half my paycheck is gone. UGHHHH!! It's fine though. I have one more week before my next paycheck and I have to make $50 work with gas and food. Ha wish me luck. I told TJ last night that this week it's going to be a lot of "rice and beans." Thank goodness he understands. So here's to lots of frozen meals, microwave dinners, and Ramen. Oh and speaking of Ramen, here's another good recipe! Cook the Ramen (Preferably chicken) and add one egg. Let the egg white cook. Don't break the yolk, yet! Add lots of hot sauce, I like Smoked Tabasco. Pour into a bowl. Break the yolk and stir! There you have it, Egg drop hot soup. Probably one of my favorite poor people's foods. Too bad I can't afford eggs. Ugh.
Well, time to enjoy the rest of my day off. It's rainy and cold outside, so maybe I'll take a shower and read. That sounds nice. Thanks for reading my post about being a poor college student. I know my mistakes with money, but how else am I ever going to learn? Leave a comment if you have any cheap recipe ideas!!! I'm always open to making yummy food for a cheap buck.

"Poor is a state of mind. Broke is, 'I'm just passing through."
-Dave Ramsey

Viva La Italia!!!

Ciao everyone! It's 7:30 AM and I am so tired, but I can't sleep. So of course, gotta meet me blog deadline. I feeling a little in touch with my Italian roots today, thanks Mom for that by the way. I love telling people my heritage, especially since I'm half Italian or a quarter or something like that, and I love cooking the foods from my heritage. I miss Sunday night dinners with my family because it was always pasta and red sauce! Yum! My mother has had Italian food every Christmas Eve has since she was born. True Italiano! However this past Christmas, my mother threw her hands in the air and said, "This year, we are breaking tradition!!" HHHHHHUUUHHHHHHHHH? Um I'm sorry, what? Every Christmas it's been lasagna, meatballs, homemade sauce, antipasto salad. My mother was ready for a change, something new and fun! So I jumped on the committee to help Christmas Eve dinner. We finally decided on T-Bones, Crab legs, Artichokes, and Baked Potatoes. Oh my it was finger licking good, literally! I was worried at first about this change in tradition and breaking it. I mean don't your ancestors come in while you are sleeping and yell at you telling you that you dishonor them? Ummm I guess not. Doesn't mean I didn't sleep with one eye opened that night.
I love things to have a specific place in life with a little spontaneous moments. However, my mother is one to keep tradition. I looked at her in a way. What we eat every year on Christmas Eve doesn't matter! It's the fact that we are with each other, loving one another, laughing. And good food, no matter it's traditional or not. Thanks for that lesson, Mom. Good food, good people, what else do you really need?

So that was a little bit of a tangent. I made one of my favorite things last week. Spaghetti and meat sauce with an egg on top! Yummy!!!! I made half a bag of spaghetti which was plenty! I bought a jar of fire roasted tomato sauce. For years I was always against jar sauce. Something about it freaks me out so I always made my own sauce. But I tried this one from Sunflower Market and it's amazing. Plus, I add red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to give it more of a kick. Then I brown some ground beef. Now here is the part that always throws people. I make an sunny side up or over easy egg to put on top of my pasta! Think I'm crazy? My mother said people do that in Italy all the time. True Italiano, again! And drink milk (or wine) with spaghetti and red sauce! The egg adds a wonderful creamy texture to the pasta. I love it so much!!! I suggest everyone tries at least once.

I mean really. How good does that look? I want some right now!!!

"Everything you see I owe to pasta."
-Sophie Loren

Yummy 'Bomb'ay Pizza

Ugh hello there bloggity. We meet again. It's been a total love/hate relationship with you. Hopefully, from now on it can be love.
I love to write. About anything. English was my best subject and I aced the English placement test in college so I don't have to even take any English classes, but I probably will since I like it so much.
Life has been so hectic...I know what you are thinking, here come the excuses, but seriously, I work just about everyday and it's hard to make time to do this, and I'm hardly ever alone. Which is fine, but I can't blog when someone is hovering over me.
So blog, let's do this. I am challenging myself to try and post 3 entries this week. So this is number one. I have until Saturday for the other 2. And yes, it's the middle of the week so that should light a fire under my booty patooty.

Ok so last Sunday, I decided that I wanted to try and cook dinner every night of the week instead of going out. It was a total success except for Saturday I wanted to go out on a date with my man. So on Sunday I really wanted to make pizza, but I had the craziest craving for Indian food. So I made 'Bomb'ay Pizza. Cute name, right? Ha, all me right there. The only that wasn't homemade was the dough, but I didn't want to make a big mess and I don't have a dough mixer so I bought some at Whole Foods, $3 ain't bad. So we decided the first night to do 4 little individual pizzas. I made a spicy curry tomato sauce and we topped it with tomatoes, garlic, peppers, green onions, mushrooms, and mozzarella. After it was in the oven, we topped it with prosciutto di parma, which is Italian bacon, and it was amazing. Luckily, there was still some left to put on the pizza. What....we wanted an appetizer. When the pizzas came out I topped it with cilantro and mango chutney. Delicioso!!!! Best pizza I ever had.
So we had a ton of leftover toppings and sauce so we wanted to make it again the next night, except this time we made just one large pizza! I took plenty of pictures on my phone and made sure to remember the recipe for my blog, well and for myself, too!!!

Indian 'Bomb'ay Pizza

Ingredients:
-1 lb of pizza dough
-1 80z can of tomato paste
-1 12oz can of tomato sauce
-1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
-2 tbsp of curry powder
-1 tbsp of paprika, cumin, onion powder
-1 tsp of salt and pepper
-A pinch of cayenne
-2 cups of mozzarella
-1 tomato, diced
-1 bell pepper, diced (bright colors for a prettier pizza)
-8 mushrooms, sliced
-A handful of chopped green onions
-2 cloves of garlic, sliced or diced
-4 thin slices of Prosciutto (optional, but worth it)
-A handful of roughly chopped cilantro
-A little jar of mango chutney

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 450.
-Start by prepping all of your veggies, and put each veggie into different bowls. It's makes for a fun dinner activity for the family, especially little kids. You can do individual pizzas, or just make one large one and everyone can throw stuff on it.
-Mix your cans of tomato sauce and paste, add all the spices and seasonings, and apple cider vinegar. If it needs to be thinned out add a little bit of water.
-Do not be scared of the dough. It is your friend, and tastes pretty good, too! Do not knead the dough. Start out by stretching the dough on a lightly floured surface and add a touch of flour to your hands. Make circular motions by stretching the dough. After doing that about ten times, hold it with your knuckles and just lightly stretch out the dough by moving it from one hand to the other, keep in mind by using your knuckles. If you are still confused here is a link for how to stretch pizza dough. And you don't have to get all fancy and toss it in the air. You want to eat pizza, not floor pizza. http://youtu.be/72oe_j-0gwE
-Now it is time to build the pizza! This is probably the best part besides actually eating the pizza.
-Start out by spreading the sauce all over leaving one inch around the outside, remember we want the crust!
-Place just a handful of cheese on the sauce and the tomatoes. It's better to have the tomatoes under the cheese because they burn easier.-Place more cheese on top then add the veggies, then add the rest of the cheese!

-Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, keeping your eye on it. If you want to, the last five minutes add the prosciutto to crisp it up or add it afterward. We did it both ways and each one is good!
-Add the cilantro, and/or prosciutto.

-Slice it up and drizzle some mango chutney on your big slice!!!

-I hope everyone enjoys this recipe, I know I did!

Welp it's time for work, see busy busy busy.

"Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around. "
-Anna Quindlen

Life and Food

Wow. Hi blog. How are you? Oh I'm fine thanks.
Lord have mercy, it has been almost 5 months since my last post. I decided to take a vacation from the whole blogging thing. I started to feel pressure and I felt like I was writing for others and not myself anymore. I made sure all of my grammar was right, and all the fun fonts were correct. But now I don't care. This is MY blog. If I spell something wrong, or make a mistake, I don't care. I can't obsess over things like that because then I am not enjoying writing anymore. Writing is about expressing your feelings and thoughts and having it mean something, if not to anyone, then yourself.
Life has been a little hectic as well. I moved out of my old apartment and in with my new room mate, Shannon! We have certainly been eating a lot. Between moving, school, work, and running errands, the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and write, which is a bummer because I love to write. Speaking of which, I decided that I want to continue to go to school after I get my three Associates, and go for my Bachelor's in Journalism. I want to go to school in Denver, Seattle, San Fran, or NYC. I want to work for Bon Appetit Magazine. Oh that is the ultimate dream. I noticed that my goals and dreams have changed over the past couple of years. For instance, I wanted to go to the Art Institute of Denver, I wanted to open a Dinner Theater, I wanted to be a personal chef, I wanted to work on a cruise line and travel, and I wanted to open a little delicatessen. Now it's "Big Time Food Writer For Bon Appetit, who appears on Top Chef and The Next Iron Chef to Judge" or something like that.

So Food! Oh glorious food! That's what this really about, right? Wonderful, decadent, scrumptious food! I must say, I have been eating rather well these past couple of months. I have been trying to cook more since I moved in, and so far it's going along nicely. Made pasta and Tikka Masala. As for everything else, it's been frozen gourmet Boca burgers, frozen pizzas, salads, quesadillas, cereal, and frozen tamales. Oh but don't you worry, I always like to spice up my college meals. I have all of these big, beautiful cook books sitting in my cupboard, and I plan on using at least one a week. Just open the James Beard Cookery book, and cook something gammit....gammit is my new favorite word. It's all about time, and really, who has that now-a-days? But I am always wanting to cook. Unfortunately, I took all my cooking classes, and now I have baking classes. BLEH!!! Just got push through it, I keep telling myself.

So more posts to come. I have so much to talk about, food wise that is. Can't wait!
Long live the blogs!!!!!!!

"I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure."
-Anthony Bourdain

Baking

Baking baking baking. Ugh. It is a big love-hate relationship. A few months ago, I was dying to make my delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I never got a chance to because I do not have a fancy-schmancy Kitchen-Aid mixer (maybe for Christmas?). I love making cookies, cupcakes, cakes, anything fun and easy. So I am in a Breads class and Individual Fancy Desserts class. I was super excited because I though it would concentrate around those items more...boy was I wrong. Baking bread is one of the most tedious things in the world! Don't get me wrong, homemade bread is one of the best things in the world, but I don't want to spend 4 HOURS making just a couple of loaves. In my Desserts class, it's all about using different sauces, decorative sugars, petite cakes, flans, pears, eclairs, and desserts in martini glasses. Sounds great, right? WRONG! I am having the hardest time with this class. You see, with cooking I am creative with making sauces, sides, vegetables, and meats. I love being creative with cooking. I really like being creative with desserts, however I am struggling in this class. I want my plates to look sophisticated, and not piled on with 20 different elements. I stand at my station, staring at my plate, hoping that an idea will strike me, and then at that time I am time crunched, and I just through stuff on the plate. A couple of weeks ago, we had to make desserts with pears. My teacher told us we could bake them in phyllo or pastry dough. I prepared for this lesson, and cooked my pear in honey, white wine, thyme, and of course, butter. I made a cardamom whipped cream and paired it with the pear. Was mind blowing. So we have little competitions, and they are judged by other teachers. Really liking mine, I thought I would at least place. Nope. She said it needed more. No it didn't. It had the perfect amount on the plate. So annoying. I take the time to look for something to make, and it back fires.
So these classes have been stressing me out, and I decided to take the week off from them. I feel a lot better, and I have been doing research, and FINALLY I feel more confident. I need to push through this semester, and get it over with. Ha wish me luck, right?

Wanna see the picture I took of my pear? Let me know what you think.

Oh and everyone should check out this awesome website for food decorations, it's mostly for cakes and such, but they do a lot of fun, different foods. It's http://cutestfood.com/ so check it out. It's very inspiring.

So for this post I could not choose between these two quotes, so I decided to share both of them with you.

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists." -Leslie Moak Murray
"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!"
-Author Unknown