Penne Ala Vodka for a Snowbound Soul

I thought that when I posted about the blizzard in December that would be the biggest snow of the season. However, it would seem that December's snowstorm was only the tip of the iceberg (an all too true metaphor). On Friday around noon, it began snowing for about the umpteenth time this year and the snow kept going through a large part of Saturday. When I finally ventured out that afternoon, the snow came up to my thighs!! Now granted, Little Rhino has rather short legs, but still, that's pretty unprecedented.

After letting the sidewalks clear (kind of...my street isn't even close to driveable), today I trekked literally through slush, snow, and ice over to the Teet. I came back with a few more supplies and with the desire to try a new recipe. Firmly planted in my apartment once again, I came across a recipe for penne alla vodka using leftover marinara sauce and so that is what I made tonight (using 1% milk).

I liked it pretty well, but I'm not sure if I would make it again. It did feel good to make something new though and with a another storm brewing and promising 10-15"....There may be more new recipes to come!

Beefy Chili TND

Sorry for the delay in posting, though I don't have much to report on the culinary front since the last TND which was Tyler Florence's beef chili. I grew up eating turkey and beef chili made with ground beef, but Tyler's "Ultimate" chili takes the dish up a notch by using cubed beef shoulder. I upped the ante by buying organic beef from Whole Foods. Oh la la.

Though the chili took awhile to prepare, but I didn't find any of the steps overly complicated. Basically, all I had to do was sear off the beef, puree the veggies and chipotle peppers, add it to beef in the pot, add some water to the pot, let it run for a few hours, thicken it with some masa harina (suggestions of other masa harina using recipes would be much appreciated), and I added some beans for good measure. Since I prepped the recipe in advance, I simply plopped the pot on the stove and let it simmer til the guests came on Tuesday.

With Anders' cornbread and a Jessika's coolwhip/pudding concoction, Tuesday night came out deliciously once again. YUM. YUM.

Wacky Turkey TND

So, this Tuesday marked the return of TND after a holiday hiatus. Using defrosted turkey leftovers, I made the craziest turkey remix dish... Thanksgiving leftovers stuffed shells. Basically, they're pasta shells stuffed with a mixture of turkey, stuffing, cream cheese, mozzarella, mayo, and parmesan cheese ALL blended together. The mixture wasn't pretty and it didn't look any jazzier after I covered the shells with gravy and more mozzarella. I guess not all my dishes can be lookers.

Luckily, despite their appearance, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. Jessika's crab dip helped out with that too though ( : All told, I really loved reconnecting with everyone and hearing their holiday tales. Here's to the New Year and many more terrific TNDs to come!!

Bonus pics: Restaurant week food from Art and Soul including ahi tuna over fried green tomatoes, salmon with braised cabbage and pickled beets, and our group's trio of desserts (cinnamon chocolate cake, banana bread pudding, and almond cheesecake). The salmon was my favorite.

Happy New Year, Happy Brunch

To kick off 2010, I drank some champagne and slept like the dead. Then, my best friend Jason and I went over to MD to brunch with Sara and family. We created quite the spread..albeit a semi-homemade one. I put together blueberry pancakes, Sara's sister Sheila made yummy cheesy eggs, and Sara and Jason baked up some cinnamon crunch muffins. Sheila's hubby was nice enough to clean up post-brunch. Along with the fresh fruit I bought from the Teet (had to include something semi-healthy), it made for a delectable start to the year. After filling ourselves with brunch and mimosas, we played spirited games of Taboo and Apples to Apples. All parties agreed that the brunch should become a yearly tradition.

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!! For the first time, little Rhino hosted the Rhino crew plus future rhino Josh at her roost. As mentioned previously, I prepped some homemade cranberry sauce, a fairly manipulated version of Alton Brown's baked macaroni and cheese, and an adhoc version stuffing with Whole Foods stuffing mix as a base and pecans, craisins, celery, apple, onions, sage, and thyme as add-ons.

I found the turkey to be a slippery, leaky, and obnoxious bird. I did not enjoy meddling in its innards nor did I enjoy how it strained my temporary roasting pan. Oh well, at least it turned out to be tasty and gave way to delicious leftover holiday sandwiches when it combined forces with the stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and obviously bread. BEST SANDWICH EVER!!

I used the same cranberry sauce recipe that I did for Thanksgiving and found it equally delicious, the decadent mac and cheese received rave reviews, and Papa Rhino loved the stuffing. With Mama Rhino's scones, baked stuffed potatoes, and apple scotch pie, peas, and gravy it was an amazing feast. Of course, seeing all of my Rhino relatives was the best part. Happy Holidays, crew!

Snow-mageddon Boredom Leads to Baking

After being trapped in my apartment complex confines for a couple of days, I decided that I'd break the boredom by making more cookies. I don't mind making cookies, but I prefer baking cakes, brownies, and other baked goods with one solid cook time. I always burn my first batch of cookies and these cookies were no different. Little Rhino hates cashews, so I substituted Reese's Pieces that I had leftover from Mexican brownies I made for the NWL holiday party. They didn't turn out to be lookers, but that's all right.

I ate a couple and then passed the rest off to a visiting high school friend on Tuesday who seemed quite pleased with the morsels. Good for Rhino because she didn't need the temptation.

Today, I started preparing cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, and stuffing for the Rhino family's Thanksgiving re-do Christmas dinner. Snaps to follow in my next entry!!

In more disturbing news- Check this out!

Deviled Eggs and Heavenly Cookies

Apologies for the lack of post in the last few months. Here's quick recap of the Rhino's Fall.
Late September- Live in the moment by running the Ragnar Relay... End up injured.
October- Spend most of the month believing I have a bruised bone in my foot...Change Facebook language to pirate "ARRR".... Bone Scan on footsie and small kitchen fire that afternoon..."Bruised" bone is really stress fractured cuboid bone (rare and retarded)..Computer hard drive FAIL...Complete first major grad school paper
November- Enjoy work "vacation" in NWL (figure that out non-govvie!!)....Roboboot= conversation piece...Conquer short ribs on a rainy Veteran's Day... Is this grad school thing supposed to be easy?....Why does my right foot still feel the same as it did two months ago?
December- The stationary bike hurts my butt...Oh geez, final paper...FYI- Your teeth still suck..Finish paper draft, Is it hot in here? No, I just have a fever (SLEEP 11 hours).. Nice, only a cold.. Edit paper..FINISH GRAD CLASS!!..Downgrade to black boot...Downgrade to SNEAKERS!!...EPIC FOOT OF SNOW!!

Now that I'm finished with the grad class, my blog can live again. So, this week for my work holiday party that I will miss (oh well) I made deviled eggs and to thank the unit I've been cross-training with for the last two months at work, I made these fancy-schmancy white chocolate, cranberry, macadamia nut cookies (I swapped cranberries for the recipe's candied cherries). I'm an ace at making deviled eggs and can't wait to tote them to work in my deviled egg caddy. That's right, a deviled egg caddy! How's that for a stylin' rhino? The cookie batter tasted delicious the day before, but my oven burned a good ten of my first baking batch. I blame my less than state-of-the-art oven and Paula Deen's faulty baking directions. Oh well, we'll see what the NARA folks think of them tomorrow ( :
Here a few pics from last couple of months of baking including Aaron Sanchez Mexican brownies with Reese's Pieces to wow the cross training crew at their Halloween party, one of Jessika's super- delicious desserts, and Elizabeth's birthday cranberry-peach cobbler and frozen limeade pie (see my summer frozen lemonade pie and sub frozen lemonade for limeade). .
Stay tuned for holiday-themed food and fun featuring macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, and my favorite sister and future brother-in-law ( :