Kitchen Adventures; Five Cheese Mac

Husband has had to travel a lot for work lately. He usually cooks. He is responsible for making the most delicious things in our house. I was recently told by a friend that we should host dinner parties so that others can come over and share in our his glorious food inventions.

I am a dessert person. I bake... but he has even managed to tinker into my realm with the most amazing cinnamon rolls.

With him gone, I am responsible for feeding myself. This is good and bad. A typical weeknight slightly lazy Alyssa means I have chicken and veggie stirfry again - no rice because who needs those extra carbs in LA, or I would rather have dessert.  A lot lazy Alyssa means I scrounge around for something I can microwave - frozen burritos or eggrolls, or those awesome teriyaki chicken bowls they have at Costco - not the most amazing thing ever, but more food groups are represented than in a frozen burrito.

So, when I'm only a little lazy, I eat really healthy, but when I'm a lot lazy or not lazy at all, I tend to make less awesome for my body food choices.

This week with hubs out of town, I A)had a lot of free time and B)needed to cook for myself.

So Monday night I made Five Cheese Macaroni...

First let me just say roux's scare me. I've made them before, but I am always always apprehensive. How much butter do I need? When do I add the flour? How do you know if there is too much flour? How come my roux doesn't look like Alton Brown's?

After staring at the instructions for roux making for far too long, I just dove in. It worked out. I just made a simple nothing special roux, added milk and spices and then threw in a ton of cheese. I didn't really think about the flavor combos before I shredded my cheese. I just went for it.

Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar
White Cheddar
Honey Goat Gouda
Dubliner
and a sprinkling of Iberico.

Oh, and I totally forgot to buy milk when I was at the store right before I made this, so I used up what I had and then added about a half a cup of Vanilla Almond Milk. I had no idea if it would work. Almond milk sometimes has a sorta slimey consistency. That's the best way I can think to describe it. Plus it was vanilla flavored, so this was a total shot in the dark.

And I used shell pasta... because who wants elbow mac when you can have shells. Seriously, now.

I also took an amazing video of the cheese bubbling and popping when I took it out of the over. Not gonna post it because that takes to much time/energy, but it was so yummy looking. 

I made a whole batch of mac. Was this a good idea? Probably not. I ate about 1/6th of the pan for dinner that night and continued to have mac n cheese throughout the week - lunch the next day, dinner the day after that. I almost ate some for breakfast but thought better of it.

I did not ruin it by adding the almond milk. I can't even tell the difference.

To balance out my meal a bit, I sauteed some broccoli and baby zucchini.

I washed it down with some Hoegaarden and sat down to watch Gross Point Blank, which I realized I had never seen all the way through before. It's a great movie, FYI. So much awesome.

John Cusack was wonderful in the 90's.

Baking Adventures; Lime Ricotta Raspberry Muffins

I have a mini just-for-fun cake business. Sometimes - like many folks do - I just like to bake things - try new flavors and come up with something delicious that I have zero intention of selling to anyone.

This was inspired by With Style & Grace's recipe for Gluten-free Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Muffins. I saw this recipe and wanted to eat them. I told my husband, "I WANT TO MAKE THESE MUFFINS...only, ya know, with regular flour" ;)  And he said to me, "why don't you use raspberries instead since they're your favorite? and lime, because that would go great with raspberries."

...

He knows this already, but the man is a genius. He's more of a lime person than I am, but I can definitely appreciate the subtle flavor difference between the lemon and lime when you turn these two citrus fruits into baked goods.

I didn't have quite enough ricotta or lime zest, but I'm not so much into measuring. I just threw it all into some bowls and got to mixing.

I always think of taking pictures of the process, but then I never go get my camera. My hands are sticky or I am too involved in what I'm doing, whatever.

Instead, I took pictures to quell my impatience while they baked...

You can see that I forgot to top with sugar before I baked them. Oh well. They didn't really need it. It just would have added a nice little crunch.

I tried to add some sugar after. I crossed my fingers that because the muffins were still super hot, it might melt the sugar a little. No such luck.

There was more impatient waiting to follow.

Don't my countertops look pretty underneath the muffins. This makes me so happy. *sigh*

Once they cooled, which felt like an eternity because I wanted to try one before they were even out of the oven, I dug in.

The raspberries I put in were GIANT, so I had a hard time getting 3 berries in there, but I am so very glad I did because the berries make this - the tangyness of the raspberries plus the subtle citrus of the lime muffins work so well together. I could eat these things all day. They are so yummy.

After I ate a bunch of these, I was inspired to create a slightly healthier option. So, I will definitely have to get to work on blending in some cardboard components to create something healthy and delicious - flax or whole wheat or sum'n.
Plus side: these muffins are made with olive oil instead of butter, but there is cheese in there, so its a bit of a give and take.

Yoga Teacher Training - Want some makeups?

Wow, I can't believe it's August already. I think it's time to do a little update on becoming a yogi.

First of all, this is happening, like, for realsies.

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with my husband and really talked about it - where the programs were, how much they cost, when they start, how long they run, would I be happier/more fulfilled in life, how our lives would change when/if I went through with it - and we decided F*CK IT. We have the money. It's not going to be easy to say goodbye to, but I know it will be worth it, and I know I'm sick of waiting around for people to order enough cake and makeup to pay for it.

I already know I'm good at talking in front of a group of people. I did it competitively for four years. I should be able to talk pretty while walking around folks and guiding them through asanas. ;)

I've been contacting yoga studios to find the right fit. I love yogis. They're such wonderful, warm, genuine people. They make me want to take my training at all of them. Every single person I've talked to has been so helpful and so excited that I contacted them.
Unfortunately, a lot of it is coming down to when and where the programs are - Fall in the valley versus Winter in Santa Monica? Fall in the Valley wins.

I posted a few months ago about yoga and putting cake and mark. sales towards teacher training.
Here's the thing about that. I feel like an a-hole constantly self-promoting about that. I did it for a while. I felt like an annoying a-hole, so I stopped. I still, technically, sell mark., but it's turned too much into just buying stuff for myself, when I should be saving that money and putting towards getting into a career that will make me happy. The point here is that I've decided to sell off my overstock - trying to recoup some of my losses and not take such a financial hit when I go ahead and do YTT anyway.
I made up a whole list of everything and I'll be selling it for super cheap. I don't really want to put the whole thing up on my blog, so let me know if you're interested in some cheap mark. products and I'd love to email it to you.

To sum up, I love yoga. I am so excited that this is actually happening and the best choice is to proceed. Please help a girl out. No pressure. ;)

On a totally random sidenote: how come all bloggers are also professional photographers? All my photos look like garbage compared to some of the other stuff out there.

Kitchen Remodel; Part 3

The kitchen is done!!!! ...mostly

It's as good as done anyway. Look at some pictures of it and then I'll tell you what's not done. :)

What you see when you walk in. Tadaaaaa!

This baker's rack is a lifesaver. It's extra counter and storage space without eating into the kitchen. Also, its a place to keep the wine. ;)

Ah, the shiny appliances! Please also note that the wall behind the fridge is actually part of the pantry. It goes into infinity, but its not usable space since neither of us are Gumby. We decided to treat is as a wall and paint it blue to tie both sides of the kitchen together a little better

My lovely lovely drawer organizers and new flatwear. (The flatwear was actually a wedding gift, but I didn't want to put it in the drawers while they were still gross)

WE HAVE A CEILING FAAAAAAN!!!!!

"Whaaaat?", you say? "This is incomplete?" you say?

Yeah.

*sad face*

Here's what's missing...

* A window covering - We bought blinds at Home Depot, but they are too long and we need to take about half of the slats out before we can hang it. I've asked my husband to do it before he leaves me for four days, so I can close the kitchen blinds while he's gone. (It annoys me that the neighbors can see straight into my kitchen all the time). He's just going to put them up at their current length and I MAAAAY attempt to remove the slats while he's gone.

* Pretty knobs and handles on the cabinets and drawers - We bought these too. They're in bags, waiting to be installed. They only haven't been because we've been busy. They were supposed to go up yesterday, but we ended up having a really busy day, so no knobs for me...yet.

* Switch plates - We have these too... and a couple of them are even up...but the extra half inch of wall made putting them up a slightly more complicated task than we anticipated. I think we ran out of bolts of some kind? I don't know. Ask my husband. He was doing it. *shrug*

And then we're done... Done done, like, for realsies.

And now to close, here is a picture of our dog, Panda, helping me put everything away in the kitchen.

Kitchen Remodel; Part 2

I feel a little more like writing today, so here's a little background and some other stuff you might like to know about our kitchen/house.

In September 2010 we bought our little townhouse with "good bones" and we've spent the last year and a half slowly making improvements one room at a time.

First my husband cleaned, repainted and installed new fixtures in our master bathroom. It went from gross to not gross in a period of 2 days. I wanted to do a different room first, but he insisted - since I refused to shower in the master bath because of the grossness. I appreciated it. There are only so many mornings in November someone can walk to the downstairs bath barefoot on cold laminate when they'd rather be in bed to begin with. ;)

Next we tackled the living room, which was a month long process of painting and patching and waiting for carpet, all the while using the dining room as a living room, before finally buying a new couch and curtains.

My husband surprised me somewhere in there by taking a day off work to repaint the downstairs bath.

Then we did the patio. This one's an ongoing process. Plants die. Pots break. I like to move things around.

Then we revamped the 2nd bedroom. It needed paint and some major organization.

Then we had the dining room repainted - couldn't do this one ourselves, stupid 20 ft ceilings - and my hubs and his dad magically put up a new chandelier. It's a whole new room.

* * * * *

Which brings us up to now. We are remodeling the kitchen. In case you didn't see this, which I posted less than a week ago.

My aunts, uncles and grandparents all pitched in and got us this amazing set of Frigidaire appliances as a wedding gift last August. HOLY AMAZINGNESS!!!! Of course, I wanted to install them all right away, but I was told we needed to wait until we remodeled the kitchen to put in the microwave and dishwasher since we'd be repainting the cabinets and installing new countertops. So two of these four beautiful appliances sat in their boxes in the garage for 11 months while we figured out the best time to remodel the kitchen. The other two (fridge and range) we started using right away - and they were gloooorious.

Two weeks ago we finally started to empty out the kitchen to get ready for the remodel. Everything was put in boxes and stored in the dining room and living room, where it will stay probably until Thursday. : /
Then my husband went around and took off all of the cabinet doors while I started scrubbing down all of the shelves to prep them for painting. This took far too long. Tim also decided to tackle the fluorescent light box on the ceiling and take off a small chunk of old countertop.

Goodbye bizzarro 1975 light box. Love, A & T

The next weekend (last weekend) sh*t blew up. My in-laws came up and the demolition/reconstruction project officially began. Hubs and his dad tore out the existing sink, composite countertops, the old wobbly microwave, and old dishwasher while my MIL and I were down in the garage cleaning and repainting all 1,000 cabinet doors and drawers - no, we don't really have 1,000 cabinet doors. 

The biggest projects for the weekend were, of course, tackled by my husband and his dad. They had to cut the shiny new butcherblock countertops to fit our little kitchen, then fit the new sink - and cut a giant hole for said sink - then reconnect all the plumbing, pull out the old heavy slimey microwave and the temperamental dishwasher. They also took down the entire old weird/gross light fixture and replaced it with a ceiling fan, which will be SO fantastic when we're cooking and trying to keep the smoke alarms from going off (because they're too close to the kitchen).
Then Tim and his dad put in the shiny new microwave and dishwasher before the in-laws hit the road last Sunday afternoon.

This weekend the adventures continued sans in-laws. It was time to paint and tile.

Saturday was just painting - inside and outside all of the shelves and cabinets. It took all day and was exhausting. Especially the climbing into the pantry part. Our pantry wraps around the fridge. It's weird, I know. We wanted to make sure we were doing it "right", so I had to climb inside to paint the deepest depths of the pantry even though no one will ever see or appreciate my work.

Sunday was tiling for me and more painting for Tim. Instead of using traditional adhesive to stick the tiles to the wall, we used simplemat. Tim found it on the interwebs and it ended up being my savior for the weekend.  It's peal and stick with tiling - completely baffling and completely amazing.
The killer part of installing tile was the grout. I think I hate grout. It's my nemesis. Timing it so that I did a big enough chunk to be worthwhile, but small enough that I could wipe off the excess before it dried too much was brutal and exhausting. It took me between 2 and 3 hours just to grout the backsplash. My arms/shoulders were crying.

That was the last thing we did yesterday - until I ran up to the kitchen to put up one of the cabinet doors just for kicks. It was already 11:30pm at this point, so I wasn't about to put up all the doors, but I liked the idea of putting up one. So, I did. :)

The next four days we'll be finishing and cleaning the kitchen. My birthday's on Friday, so we're having some of my family over to see the kitchen and celebrate my existence. : P

So, we have to be done.