Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: "Coffee"

Today I'm grateful for decaffeinated coffee because, even though it tastes like crap, it gives me an excuse to sip a hot beverage in a cold climate and pretend to get some work done.

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: Michigan State University and The State Room

On Monday, Colby and I celebrated our third anniversary.  We decided to spend the day in East Lansing, home of our alma mater, Michigan State University.  Mostly, we went around the city and did some mundane errands, but we had lunch at The State Room in the Kellogg Center on campus and then dinner at Dusty's Cellar.   I managed to forget the camera for Dusty's and Colby didn't want me to go get it.  Something about food blogging being weird.  Pshh... what does he know?  It ended up being okay, though.  The meal at Dusty's was, unfortunately, forgettable, but we fared much better at lunch.

Today I'm grateful for Michigan State University.  Aside from the education, networking, and friendships I acquired, I would never have the cutest little baby in the world in my life without it:

Turns out my Kimchi fits into 6mo onesies. :)

Prior to this lunch, I'd only been to the State Room once before, despite living in East Lansing for four years.  This was right after our induction into Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society and courtesy of a lifelong learning student who was also being inducted.  She was old, her husband made lots of money, and she bought about 15 of us a fancy dinner.  I don't really remember much of it, except that Colby wouldn't let us get dessert because one of our fellow undergraduates (who was given the not-so-affectionate nickname of douche bag) was getting dessert, so he wanted no part of it.  This time, the food was much more memorable and delicious.

cheesy bagel chips

Pistachio-encrusted walleye covered in a dijon cream sauce with roasted potatoes and green beans

Asian Lettuce Wrap with spiced pulled-pork and Thai curried mayo and fries

I'm still waiting on that dessert, though.

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: December

Oh hai, internets. I sort of forgot about you.  At the end of our 1400 mile road trip to Michigan, we ended up at my in-laws' house (aka the land with the slowest internets).  We're currently at my dad's wife's house in Port Huron, complete with wireless internet and water that doesn't come from a well.

Today I'm grateful that December has 31 days, because apparently posting 12 times is a challenge.  I've started a post about the Austin to Boston swap, though my super-on-top-of-things partner Halley beat me to posting about what I sent.  You can see her post here.

Meanwhile, I'm going to slink away to sleep because apparently the third trimester woes (the crazy tiredness, heartburn, backaches, pelvic pain, etc.) have attacked me in full force.  And, just for fun, I was going to post a picture of my hugely growing belly (holy crap, I'm 29.3 weeks preg), but it's not cute and it just kicked my computer again.

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: Colby

We've been married for 3 years, as of right now.  Time flies, eh?

Happy anniversary, Colby!

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: On the road again

It's been a bit quiet around the blog lately. This is mostly due to the flurry of activities that accompany the convergence of the end of the semester and Christmas.   In my haste, I left most of the pictures I took on a computer in Austin that I wrong be able to aces until after Christmas.  Once that happens, I'll be sure to have some fun posts about the Austin to Boston food blogger swap, my favorite dog-themed restaurant in Austin, and much much more.   Until then I may post about some of the stuff we do in MI

We're currently in transit to Michigan, making our way though northern Arkansas/southern Missouri.  We stayed in a hotel last night and I found this in the bathroom:

Today I'm grateful for passive aggressive notes that make the 24hr drive even a little bit more amusing.

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: DSLRs and Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Here's another ugly meal that not even natural lighting and a DSLR could fix.  However, this one is crazy tasty.


2-3 strips bacon

2-3 T olive oil

1 lb chicken (I used boneless skinless breasts since I'm lazy, but chicken thighs would work equally well)

1/4 medium yellow onion, diced

8 oz cremini or button mushrooms, wiped and sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/3ish c chicken stock
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c cream or evaporated milk
salt+pepper, to taste

In a pan, heat olive oil, season chicken with salt+pepper, and pan fry until cooked through and golden.  Slice the cooked chicken.  In a separate pan, render bacon until crisp.  Set aside the bacon and crumble.  Leave at least a couple Tbs of bacon grease in the pan, which might mean not removing any of the rendered fat.  Saute the onions with a pinch of salt until at least translucent.  I usually try to caramelize them a bit.  Add in mushrooms and season with salt+pepper.  You may need to add a bit of oil if you've used most of the bacon grease for the onions.  Saute the mushrooms until they've released their liquid and start to brown a bit.  Stir in the garlic until fragrant.  Add in the chicken stock and stir to pick up any browned bits of mushroom and onion and let the chicken stock reduce a bit.  Turn down the heat and stir in the sour cream and cream until combined.  Don't let this boil because things will separate.  Add in the crumbled bacon and chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over rice or egg noodles.

I guess conventional wisdom says that I should use the pan that cooked the chicken to make the sauce, but I wanted a fast dinner, so I cooked the chicken simultaneously with the sauce.  After the chicken was out, I remembered that I wanted to make asparagus, so the chicken-y goodness didn't all go to waste.  I added a bit of stock to the pan to stir up the browned bits, added in my asparagus and cooked them until tender-crisp.

So  yes, I am thankful for my DSLR because with a little bit of natural light, I'm able to take foods that weren't actually that tasty and make them look delicious.  Similarly, they elevate ugly dishes to things that maybe look palatable.  While this dish is pretty gnarly, it's actually really tasty.

zucchini fritter with way too much onion (way more pretty)

chicken and mushroom dinner, with the chicken-y asparagus (way more tasty)

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: Kimchi

Ahhhhh, that was a nice break from posting, but I'm back.  While November was National Blog Posting Month for many of the members of the Austin Food Bloggers Alliance, December has become 30 Days with a Grateful Heart, as led by Austin blogger Jote of Bless Her Heart.  I know of a few people participating, but decided that 30 more days of blogging would be too much, especially with the holidays, my impending committee meeting, and a cross-country road trip to Michigan and back.  It seemed, though, that this was something that could help me foster personal growth, especially since I've had a hard time feeling gratitude for much of anything lately.  I've decided to post 12 things for which I am grateful instead of 30.

Blame it on the hormones, but to say that I haven't exactly enjoyed pregnancy is a massive understatement.  This was a huge surprise and I'm still coming to terms with the reality that between now and March, I need to grow up a lot.  That's not to say that I didn't want to expand my family, it's just that in my immediate future I saw a baby dog, not a baby human.  And why is it that I want another dog?  It's because of this face:

So today, I'm grateful for Kimchi.  She always seems to know when I need attention and love and she loves food nearly as much as I do.