Wandering Wells: Cooking

Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts

5.06.2011

Baking FAIL (and a win!)

Every once in a while, all of the stars align and we have the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. And when that happens, we like to take advantage of it! This makes it twice as disappointing when it turns into a giant FAIL.

Why so smirky?

Yep, that would be the ENTIRE egg in the mixing bowl. I even dropped it in WHILE the mixer was running, to make sure it really ::got:: in there.

Now you may be thinking, "But Arianna, it doesn't look like you were that far along in the process. Why not start over?" And I would say "We totally started over. Absolutely nothing was going to stop us from enjoying delicious, chewy chocolate chip cookies." HA! Except that we, as evidenced below, can ruin any recipe.

Want a crispy-flying-cookie-saucer of doom?

On a happier note, I did get a big WIN later in week. In trying to be more self-sustaining (and all-around awesome), I made my very own biscuits! From scratch!

And, yes, you do need a butcher's knife to make rolls. I'm almost certain I read that somewhere...

These suckers turned out delicious!

Rainy Day Pottery

Last Friday Laurie came down to visit for the afternoon. Tim got to have lunch with us prior to work, but the afternoon was ours to fill. Anything that would take place outside, was out of the question (if you can't tell from the title of the post). I suggested pottery painting and it just so happened that Laurie had been wanting to do that for a while!

Laurie chose to decorate a pasta bowl...

Her finished product...

After the fact, Laurie realized that when the bowl is full, it goes from saying "Eat." to "Fat." We figure it will be the best diet supplement ever. :-)

And I worked on an oversize mug for Tim's daily tea...

If you can't tell, I was trying to do an argyle pattern. It started out so well. And then it just went downhill...

My blue diamonds turned into random blue lines. If you know Tim, you know how precise everything has to be with him, so it went from being Tim's tea mug to a family mug.

Here's the inside...

I'll pick up the finished products sometime this week!

Healthy Learning

Tim and I have been very bad at eating well in the past. I will admit to more than a few "frozen food buffets." (But I won't apologize for them, because...well, they're delicious. Even if it means an upset stomach the next day.)

Slowly, but surely, we've been changing our habits. Japan was a blessing and a curse. What's familiar in such a foreign place? Fruits and veggies...and American junk food.

To get to the point of this entry, I signed us up for a produce box! So far, we've gotten three boxes. They're delivered every other week, and it's been a huge learning experience.

They come looking like this...

And then you start to peel away the greenery and you get to more of the goodies...

I'm a big fan of the kiwis, tangelos, fresh garlic, and red potatoes. Tim loves the pears, celery, carrots (straight from the ground) and the greens. Of course, there's different produce in each box, but we do have veto power. We realized we weren't really using the cremini mushrooms, so I switched them out for celery in our latest box.

In our first box, we got this red chard.

But this time we were able to order a salad mix. It saves space in the fridge!

To be perfectly honest, there were some things that we had no idea how to store, so I whipped out our big Good Housekeeping cook book and found an entire section devoted to the identification, storage and preparation of produce.

It has been a life-saver!

Tim is already being adventurous. He managed to cook a spinach quiche for the first time and he said that it turned out really well. (And before you jump to any conclusions, it wasn't the spinach that kept me away, it was the eggs. I'm just not a fan of eggs.)

I've also rejoined the Y and I have tried to make it a point to go regularly. It helps that I have overcome my fear of classes and now I'm going to kickboxing class 1-2x a week. Even though I really want to sit down 90% of the time I'm in the class, I feel a lot better at the end. I guess the phrase "no pain, no gain" really is true. :-)

365.12

I was craving cupcakes today...

yummmmmmmy!

Tarheelin' through Chapel Hill

We did eventually get to North Carolina for our trip to visit friends. That night is a bit of a blur, we were exhausted, but the next day is when the fun really started.

Tim and I were both excited to see Jessica's new campus, tour the Chapel Hill area and, most importantly, spend time with our friends. Our first stop was an amazing neighborhood near the UNC campus, which features a real castle!

Gimghoul Castle has quite a few stories associated with it, including rumors about secret societies and a being the home of the ghost of a man killed in a duel out front. Evidently there is still a rock covered in his blood on the grounds, but we didn't get out of the car to go and look.

These other houses are one that Tim and I loved! How much do you think we'd have to shell out to live here???

Our next stop was downtown Chapel Hill. Meal time was approaching, so after wandering down the main street a bit, we settled on a Chapel Hill establishment: the Carolina Coffee Shop.

Supposedly, this is the oldest restaurant in North Carolina.

After leaving, we headed towards campus and passed a large mural featuring scenes from UNC...

And we headed towards Carroll Hall, a communication building and home to Jessica's office.

It's good to know that even on the East Coast, WSU is represented...

Of course, we had to see Jessica's office and where her portrait is on display!

After hanging out for a few minutes (mainly spent raiding the candy jar), we continued our tour of the campus. Here's the main library on campus...

And then we headed towards the Pit, the Student Center and the Bookstore. Tim and I had to buy some Tarheel merchandise! Side note: This was my first piece of college apparel that wasn't from WSU...Nice job raising us as Cougs, Mom & Dad!

Our tour finished up at the Old Well, the iconic symbol of UNC, which is actually now a drinking fountain.

Seeing as how most of the campus was closed for Fall Break, we headed back to their house to make dinner and relax. Of course, we had to play with their new puppy Bella.

And Shawn showed off his mad pizza making skills.

It was delicious!

Pancake Paparazzi

Last week I made some delicious Rocky Road Brownies for Tim to take to work and the recipe called for buttermilk. Well, what do you do with leftover buttermilk?? MAKE PANCAKES!