Lazy Leisure Weekend

I could probably prep for Tuesday today, but I'm not feeling it. Instead, I jogged today, g-shopped (78 oz. of veggies for $8.66= SCORE!!), and hung out with Mama Rhino. I could do more today, I just needed some major leisure after my long week. I shall post again post-Tuesday. In the meantime, here are a few of the major dinner components for tomorrow. What's on the menu this week? Vegetable tortellini bake ( :

Andrea's Birthday Tuesday and the Work-Filled Week that Followed

Tuesday Night Dinners always bring a diverse crowd. Some people dominate dinner with their stories, others tease and taunt, and one super hero guest does not even sweat. However, everyone can agree that Andrea is pretty freakin' amazing! She's so kind and funny that she can almost pull off a poison ivy break out. Almost.


So, on Tuesday we all celebrated the awesomeness that is Andrea with quinoa, roasted chicken legs with thyme and lemon, guaca-hummus, mashed potatoes, and coconut cake with cream cheese frosting (per Andrea's request), and homemade mojito ice cream. Indeed, I am fortunate to be friends with such fine foodies. I just wish everyone could all sit around the same table because there tend to be a number of rings of conversation. No worries though, I think the pictures show a pretty happy crew... for the most part.


Given the last couple of days, I'm glad that I snagged a few of the leftovers for personal consumption. My long Tuesday run down Eisenhower to the Van Dorn Metro back up the Avenue to Old Town and then looped back up Duke and up to my roost... Followed by a premier 15 minute jog with Mr. Parker (Yay!), left me with a "feeeed me" stomach and a little less prep time than usual. Luckily, my Greek quinoa salad satisfied my appetite quite well. The next day, I transformed a leftover chicken leg into a "pimped out" (to quote Mary) chicken salad sandwich that provided a little perk during 12 hour R-Chives day numero uno. Today/last night at one am, I shredded up the other leg and used it in one of my signature loaded salads. I admit that I may put a tad more time into my meals than most, but when I'm working two twelvers in a row, you better believe I need some tasty food to pull me through.


Yes, shockingly, my week has been rather busy. Combine a bustling TND with two OTs and two nights of coming home to work for another two to three hours of toiling on the Application of Utmost Proportions (AUP), and Miss Rhino is ready for the weekend!! The good news is that AUP is on its way to St. Louis *fingers crossed.* Unfortunately, I still must drag my raggedy rhino rump out of bed early again tomorrow for another eight hours of archival fun. Go Soundexing!!

I really need to go to bed. NOW.

Are Cookies and Milk the New Ice Cream?

Apologies for the delay in the latest TND post. I'm working on a BIG as in potentially super-important multi-position application. For those cozy with the Feds, I finished up the crucial KSAs (Knowledge, Skill, and Ability questions) tonight ( : Afterwards, I awarded myself with a bunch of Cate's yummy chocolate on chocolate cookies dunked and washed down with multiple servings of milk. Yay!

Tomorrow: 12 hours at the R-Chives, searching out an up-to-date SF-50, creating a new 612, and possibly a TND posting.

Coconut Cake, Bacon Stir-Fry, and Basking With Sar Sar

Before, I start detailing more food prep, I want to acknowledge the awful Metro crash that occurred at approximately 5PM EST today. I've lived in this area my entire life and nothing like this has happened apparently since before I was born in 1982. I cannot imagine how horrific being in an accident like that would be and I feel for all those affected. It also again makes me appreciate all the EMS and emergency staff that assist victims in these emergencies.

My relaxing weekend continued today with a visit to Sar Sar's in Potomac where we chatted around her pool and I bought a couple uber-discounted books at a local used book shop. I loved EVERY part of my afternoon ( : When I got home, I set to work on the coconut layer cake. I creamed sugar, shortening, and butter and then mixed in five egg yolks (I'm feeling a BIG egg white omlette in my near future). Next, I alternated adding a flour and baking soda mixture and buttermilk into the batter. Notice, I used baking soda rather than powder because the acid in buttermilk provides a leavening alkali for the cake (Thank you, What Einstein Told His Cook). I folded in the pecans and coconut flakes, poured the batter into two greased and floured 8-9" pans and stuck them in a 325 degree oven for about 45 to 50 minutes. Man, I love making cake!




With my cakes rising in the oven, I worked to alleviate my own hunger. So, I put together a variation of an old stir fry favorite. I sauteed onions and garlic, added in all the eligible veggies in my crisper (tonight- zucchini, tomatoes, and spinach), fried up bacon for my protein, seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, and leftover fresh basil, and covered the whole mess with a mound of tomato sauce. After a quick simmer, I topped my stir fry with a blend of five shredded cheeses, nuked my plate for a fast melt, sprinkled (okay, showered) it with shredded parmesean, and voila! Dinner!!




I'm still a little weary of my frosting skills and cake assembly, but I also wanted to whip it up tonight and not tomorrow. So, I made up the cream cheese frosting to top the coconut cake after dinner too. Cream cheese frosting may be my savior. Tomorrow will be the test and Andrea's birthday!! Happy TND and happy birthday, Andrea!! Very excited and ready to tackle chicken tomorrow ( :





Tomorrow: Roast Chicken Legs with Savory and Thyme

Quinoa is a P.I.T.A.

I decided the other day that the ideal work week would be three and a half days. A few days of labor, a day or so of fun and relaxation, and another day or so to get one's life in order (maybe), yeah, I worked just enough this week between a half day Friday and taking off Saturday. Since the half day holiday Friday commemorated the R-Chives 75th anniversary, I'm not expecting many other similarly shortened weeks...Except next month having both July 3rd AND 4th off! Awww, SNAP!

On to the weekend, post-work Friday, I finished up a grad school job application, solved the Express' crossword puzzle, and created the week's g-list, ALL before a night of pasta carbonara and Turner and Hooch with my boyfriend. The boy's organizational skills far surpass mine and so he offered to clean up my cascading tower of cookbooks and mess of spices. As evidenced from the photos, he clearly killed at clean up. Unfortunately, he failed to alphabetize the cookbooks, but I guess I'll give him a pass there.





Saturday, I woke up ultra-early, considering that I took the day off, to run the Alexandria Waterfront 10K Road Race. Anders drove his friends, his cousin, and yours truly to the race course, we waited in the hot humid weather for my 10K and the others 5K, and then less than a minute into the race, it rained. Then it stopped and then it rained. This pattern continued the whole 6.2 miles. Typically, I prefer not to run in drizzling to pouring rain. However, since the air quality made it difficult to catch a full breath, I welcomed the rain. Most of the race covered my usual jogging routes which allowed me to pace myself fairly well. About .1 from the finish, a random runner challenged me to a sprint to the end. I pumped it out and ran out strong with a net time of 58:57, one minute below my last 10K time. Solid!

Sunday, I woke up hungry for BEEF. My boyfriend and I went out to the famed Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, the home of 10 oz. burgers, a long list of standard and fancy-shmancy toppings, and Obama and Biden's controversial burger lunch (they ordered the beef medium well 0 : ). I enjoyed the freshly ground beef and my sauteed mushrooms and onions, but I'm not sure if I'd agree with all the burger hype... pretty good.. not the greatest but DEFINITELY the biggest burger I've ever devoured (slowly as always but not a scrap left). Dairy fills me up faster than meat, but I can honestly say that the Ray's burger kept residence in my belly for a solid seven hours. Oof!

Sunday night, after g-shopping at Trader Joe's, the Teet, AND Whole Foods, I set about tackling the quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I bought the natural aka not rinsed version, so I first sifted it in and out of to two bowls as cold water poured over the seeds and repeated the process again and again and again until the water around the quinoa seemed fairly clear which took forevah! I'm aware of quinoa's high protein content and nutritional superiority to the average bowl of rice, but quinoa's a pain in the ass. I'm not a fan of rinsing food bits smaller than the holes in my strainer and a glut of the tiny white beads escaped the bowls and spread all over my sink. Grrr. Thankfully, the rest of the preparation proceeded smoothly. I brought six cups of vegetable stock to a boil, dropped the rinsed quinoa in, turned the heat to low, and let the pot go for 20 minutes as the quinoa soaked up the stock. Meanwhile, I chopped red and green onions, olives, bell peppers, and cucumbers, and tossed in a cup or so of feta in a big bowl. In a medium bowl, I whisked together lemon juice, olive oil, basil, oregano, and black pepper to form a dressing. Finally, I tossed everything together to complete the Greek quinoa salad. I resisted sampling the salad, but I think the salad dressing is a keeper (it smells like light, lemony love) and the finished product looks promising as well. Is quinoa the new couscous? Can quinoa redeem itself after initially aggravating the Rhino? Stay tuned.



Tomorrow: Coconut Layer Cake

Brownies even the Rhino Couldn't Resist

Jill's Pizza Party offered a perfect excuse to take out my butter, sugar, and hand mixer, and bake a batch of brownies. I love the flexible nature of brownies. I can make them cakey or fudgy, plain, with chocolate chips, with Bailey's or with pretzels (though I still haven't perfected that one). Last night, with chocolate and peanut butter chip as well as peanut butter in my pantry, I set to work on creating peanut butter swirl brownies.

Hatched from the same blend of butter, brown and white sugar, eggs, and a touch of milk, I divided the batter between two bowls. To the first bowl I mixed in cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and mini m&ms (sensing a shortage of Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips, I purchased a few emergency rolls of minis). To the second bowl I beat in some peanut butter (the recipe asked for smooth, but I used the superior Trader Joe's Natural Crunchy Salted Peanut Butter) and folded in peanut butter chips. Then I checker boarded an 8" pan (no 9" in my artillery) with the two mixtures, swirled them together with a knife, and slide them into my oven for a 30 minute tan at 350.

As much as I love making brownies, I can usually resist the urge to eat them. I find them overly dense and fudgy many times, and I'm not a raging chocoholic. However, as I stirred the peanut butter portion of the batter, smelled it in all its delicious glory, and then saw its chocolate twin next door, I realized that I was falling for the brownies. So, as soon as I tucked the pan into the oven, I married up my peanut butter mix spoon with the cocoa batter and licked the spoon (and the bowls and beaters). Sooo good and especially good at a quarter to eleven o'clock at night

This morning, after cutting the brownies into squares/rectangles, I taste tested a stray piece and again marvelled at the genius of the chocolate peanut butter combination. Some say these bars are simply blondies in disguise. All I have to say is that they are brownies even the little Rhino couldn't resist. Impressive.

The Four O'Clock "Dinner" Crew's Pizza Party

As a child, I always thought that people worked Monday through Friday roughly from eight or nine in the morning to five or six at night give or take a few hours. Summers in college, while my friends worked weekend or night hours at retail jobs, I enjoyed a pretty standard government work week (albeit one with a crazy long commute). I assumed that after I graduated, I would again be working a "normal" schedule. So far that hasn't happened.

After weekday weekends and holiday pay with NPS (National Park Service), I thought my work week might normalize when I started working at the R-Chives. Not a chance. Currently, I work Tuesday to Saturday with regular working hours on Tuesday and Saturday (if working on a Saturday in it of itself is normal) and from noonish to nine the three other days. I also eat "dinner" at four in the afternoon on late days. Dinner at four seemed odd at first, but over time it has grown on me like mold on cheese...Not entirely welcome, but not without its benefits either. It's blue cheese for a reason, yah?

I particularly enjoy the four o'clock "dinner" posse that I belong to at the R-Chives. We squeeze into a table three nights(?) a week, socialize, make fun of each other, and generally admire each others' culinary ingenuity. When the crew learned that one of our charter and favorite members, Jill, would be leaving for New Mexico, we knew that we needed to celebrate Jill "dinner" posse style. So, today we ordered three XL pizzas (white, cheese, and pepperoni), drank diet soda, and desserted on my peanut butter swirl brownies. I also brought in veggies and light ranch dip to even out the grease and garlic butter. As you can tell from the leftovers, the dinner posse devoured most of the pizza and a fair share of the veggies and dip to boot. Good job, team! Goodbye, Jill ) : I will miss you A LOT.

*For more on the brownies and their preparation, please read my next post*

TND 06/16/09

I may turn into bread or pasta by the end this week. After a Lean Cuisine chicken caesar pasta salad for lunch on Saturday, a pesto pasta side on Saturday night, triple pasta salad tonight (Elizabeth put together a yummy homemade chicken caesar pasta to add to our starch-a-thon), pasta leftovers tomorrow night, pizza Thursday, and MORE pasta on Friday (to carb-load for the Waterfront 10K), I think I'll definitely be craving a big slab of protein come Sunday.
Tuesday night as usual brought an overflowing bounty of food and drinks (this week's specialty: the margarita) and a lot of laughing. Thank you for your candor, boys.
With the leftovers divvied out and a heavy duty run awaiting me in the morning, I'm calling it a day and giving my pasta pot a break.

Tomorrow: Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Pasta Prep Continued

I planned to wake up at 8:30 today, but as usual I gave myself another hour because sleeping avoids reality and the willpower waned. When I mustered the umph to push my rump out of bed, I knew I needed to get moving and get a lot done..pronto. Car inspections, cooking, and assorted errands loomed.
Feeling quite sly and clever, I drove my car to the local Exxon station and then jogged while the mechanics checked it over. Check! Check! I even remembered sunscreen which I most definitely needed today with the hot and humid weather. Mmmm..I love a sweaty workout particularly when it's followed by chugging down lots of water and sports drinks. I suspect that the inspection lacked too much precision since my car still flashed its check engine soon sign post-Exxon, but I'm not overly concerned (probably should be). My car is officially ten years old with the dents, scratches, and a slightly broken rear tail light. Some places won't pass it, this place did. I'm happy that I'm in the clear.
After a refreshing shower, I pasta-prepped the Mexican macaroni salad which barely fit into my largest bowl. I'm glad that I decided to put the tomatoes on the side for that one. I subbed regular olives for the nasty canned black olives the recipe called for and swapped the kidney beans for black beans . I also doubled the dressing to use up all the ranch dressing and to have a more saucy salad in general. Unfortunately, covering the salad required the rest of my plastic wrap. BLT pasta salad would need to wait until after the bank and lunch.
I usually dislike cooking bacon and never feel like I do the piggy justice. Surprisingly, by using two pans and staying vigilant, I fared pretty well with the bacon and it made my apartment smell delicious (of course). Leaving some grease in the pan, I heated up the tomatoes, garlic, and thyme, seasoned the mixture with some salt and pepper, tossed them into the pasta, added mayo, sour cream, and some plain yogurt for good measure, and BLT pasta is rearing to go (just gotta add the L tomorrow).
So, three dish washes later, two pastas pretty much complete, and one state inspection passed, I'm feeling fairly accomplished for the day, and I'm hungrily awaiting another TND aka Tuesday Night Dinner.

Pasta Salad Showdown

It's finally going to be warm enough to make a cold dinner for Tuesday night. So, I've decided to make both a BLT pasta salad and a mexican macaroni salad. The BLT salad is from my latest Food Network magazine. The mexican salad comes courtesy of my Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook that my sister's boyfriend gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. My boyfriend and I also made two frozen lemonade pies and berry sauce. I've been itching to make this pie. It's sooo summery, creamy, easy to make, and it's my first Neely recipe (gotta give every Food Network star a chance).

I'm feeling pretty on top of things so far. I cased the Teet today, so I'm done with my g-shopping and pies and berries are on ice. After a Pasta-palooza tomorrow, I'll be just about finished with my prep and hopefully I'll still have some room in my fridge. Sweet.