Kitchen Adventures; Coconut Mango Fro-Yo

Monday I was playing around on twitter when this happened...

I think my brain exploded temporarily. All I could think about for the rest of the day was Coconut Mango Frozen Yogurt and making it as soon as I got home.

Of course the evening got away from me with exercise, movie watching, and amazing macaroni & cheese. I even went to the store after my workout and picked up all the ingredients I knew I didn't have; mango, coconut milk, coconut water.

Fro-yo was not meant to happen on Monday, but I had plans with a friend on Tuesday, so I thought we could try to make it together. :) Yay!

...it turns out, I know nothing about ice cream makers or the fact that mine doesn't magically freeze itself - you have to store it in the freezer for a MINIMUM of 15 hours before you try and use it. So, I got home on Tuesday, read the instructions, and was sad.

To make up for not being able to make fro-yo for myself, I made fro-yo for my pup. Here's what you need: Blender, yogurt, peanut butter, banana, tiny plastic cups, and plastic wrap to cover the cups when you freeze them. Go!

Freezer was rearranged to make room for the ice cream maker and fro-yo plans were moved to Wednesday when I was having another girlfriend over (have to keep company around when hubby's gone) and I invited girlfriend #1 back over since she and I shared excitement over Tuesday night fro-yo that never happened.

I left the Kitchenaid mixer out. It's heavy and I didn't want to move it two extra times. ;)

I didn't follow the instructions from Food&Wine exactly. I'm bad about that, but I did take this lovely picture of some of the ingredients the way fancy food bloggers too.

I feel so fancy.

Mangos were chopped and pureed...

...and I might have eaten a few of pieces, but I only bought one mango. Note to self: buy more mangos

Sugar was mixed with coconut water and made into syrup while puree was mixed with NF greek yogurt, lemon juice, and coconut milk...

Coconut sugar syrup was cooled and mixed, then poured into the ice cream maker. The recipe doesn't call for an ice cream maker. I just wanted to use it because I thought it would be faster. And it was...

...but I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of my ice cream maker. This was the first time I used it. You have to freeze it for at least 15 hours and then you only have a half hour to make your ice cream. So, this was about 20 minutes into froyo making...

And then is it started to melt. I thought it would stay frozen longer, but I was wrong. I ended up having to transfer it to a bowl and put it in the freezer while we watched Bridget Jones's Diary. Then in the last 10 minutes we grabbed the froyo from the freezer. It was still pretty liquidy, but we sprinkled on some strawberries and toasted coconut. It tasted like magic.

I refroze the rest of the yogurt overnight and came back to make a prettier dessert on Thursday.

Ahhhhh, much better.

Yum.

Too Much Free Time; I Miss My Husband

*written on Wednesday, 8/15

Every marriage is different. Every couple has a different dynamic that works for them. Some couples are around each other all the time, others have more time apart, and others barely see each other during their waking hours.
My husband is my best friend. Duh. He makes me laugh the most and he makes me feel beautiful and intelligent. We try to spend as much time as possible together without spending every waking moment together.
We both have full time 9-5(ish) gigs, and we both like to workout about an hour 6 days a week - sometimes 5, sometimes 7, we see how we feel ;)

So that leaves the weekend and a few hours each evening. Then there's the usual evenings-worth of stuff to to do - make dinner, clean up dinner, run the laundry, fold the laundry, take out the trash, etc. When you think about it, that doesn't leave much time to just hang out. I shudder to think what will happen if/when we have kids.

Lately, he's been traveling a lot for work. Two days here, four there, a day trip here. He works in education technology, so with school starting, he's been super busy. This time he's been gone since before the sun came up on Sunday.

Right now this is my favorite picture from our wedding. I look at it and I see us.

I've always considered myself to be a pretty independent person - I think it's a middle child thing - but here I am, four days into hub's 2nd work trip in a two week span and I just flat out miss him. Yeah, I miss his hugs and smile and all the things he says that make me snort at the ridiculousness, but I also miss the TV always being on. I miss the sound of sports news guys in the other room while I wash the dishes. I miss the yelling and cursing at the television, and I miss the way the floor thuds when he walks up to the kitchen to get a pop.

I also can't believe I just said 'pop', but I'm leaving it there.

Having him gone for so long makes me feel like I take him for granted when he's home.

So, today is Wednesday. Wednesday wednesday wednesday. Nothing like Sunday sunday sunday.
Friday friday friday will be one month until our very first anniversary of husband-wife-dom.

We're going on a mini-break. Isn't that what Bridget Jones called a weekend away in her Diary?

When we're on our mini-break, we will take more pictures like this...

And then we will eat one year old cake and I will tell him that now I think I could make a better rum cake... and it will have more pecans and more joyful custard, and he will agree.

We will kiss and it will be better than now because he will not be away.

*Wedding photos by Eight20 Photography 

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.