captain plan-it

Oh right, I'm supposed to be blogging more.

I got an old school planner the other day. I'm hoping to keep track of things that I'm working on a day-to-day basis in it because I'm super terrible at making lists and then leaving them all over the place. I also, apparently, suck at google calendar because it always deletes my events and moves them around. Mostly, though, I love paper products and writing with a good pen.

Italian Lessons

Someone told me that I should blog more. Considering that I posted only 23 times last year (which is the lowest since the first year I had my blog, which was started in August), that's not such a tall order. In lieu of the traditional new year self-flagellation, I want to achieve these two goals, listed in order of importance:

1. Spend quality time with Ramona and Colby
2. Finish my thesis

I don't know how this blog will fit into these goals, but I hope that it will provide an outlet for me and to help make 2014 a lot less horrible than 2013.

Austin Bakes for Austin

At the end of October, the Austin area experienced heavy rainfall that lead to flash flooding all over the city and surrounding areas. The storms and floods took the lives of at least six people and are estimated to cost upwards of $14 million. Much of this cost is being felt by the residents of Austin and Pflugerville who lost their homes. Over 450 families have turned to the Austin Disaster Relief Network for help.

We've baked for Japan, we've baked for Bastrop, and most recently we baked for West. Now the Austin Bakes team is coming together for our neighbors and baking for Austin. On Saturday November 30th, we'll be hosting a city-wide bake sale from 10 AM - 2 PM at five different locations. If you're in Austin that Saturday, please come out and join us! We'll have tasty treats that will go towards a great cause. Better yet, if you're able you can also volunteer to help out at one of the locations or even drop off baked goods. If you're not able to come out, there's also an online giving site set up for donations.

Central: Foreign & Domestic
306 E. 53rd Street, 78751

Downtown: Whole Foods Market Lamar
525 N. Lamar Boulevard, 78703

East: Sugar Circus Bakery
2613 E 5th St, Austin, TX 78702

North: Make It Sweet
9070 Research Blvd #203, Austin, TX 78757

South: Crema Bakery*
9001 Brodie Lane, Suite B, 78748

*Come say hi to Ramona and me at Crema!

Meal Plan

This has nothing to do with anything except that my kitchen is in the picture too.

I haven't posted a meal plan since I don't know when. I never ever stick to the meal plan either, but I figured that we needed to get used to trying to eat in more, so I'm going to try to post a weekly meal plan on Sundays.

Monday
Gloria's

Tuesday
arugula + cheddar quiche, bacon, refrigerator pickles

Wednesday
meatballs + pierogi

Thursday (note to self: get some cheese)
butternut squash casserole

Friday 
spaghetti squash + tomato sauce

Jiffy Cornbread Muffins

Sometimes you just need to make boxed cornbread muffins because a) I paid $3 for 6 boxes, b) they bake up awfully pretty, and c) they taste very much like a Michigan childhood.

BoneHeads

Half chicken with medium piri piri sauce served with rice and zucchini 

We were looking for a place to eat lunch today after Ramona's music class and made our way on over to Mueller. I've been looking for new places to eat, so we decided to check out BoneHeads. They serve chicken and fish in various forms with some signature sauces that feature piri piri, or African bird's eye chilies. Since I'm still feeling my way around blogging again, I'll be brief: they can't cook anything particularly well, but the sauces are really good. Colby got a super fishy-tasting rockfish with broccoli. I got the pictured chicken with zucchini that basically had grill marks for show since it was basically raw otherwise. Their medium sauce is on the spicy side, but it's pretty flavorful. They sell bottles of the sauce for $4.99 each, so my next trip to BoneHeads is likely just to get a bottle of it.

Morrocan-spiced Lentils and Beef

Remember when this blog was actually about just me posting my recipes that seemed to work? That was probably like 5 years ago. Let's start that again because I don't have any witty stories or pictures, but this was tasty and Ramona ate it, which is important.

evoo, s + p
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 lb ground beef
2 T tomato paste
1/2 t Ras el Hanout
garlic of some sort
1 1/2 c french lentils, rinsed
28 oz whole or diced tomatoes
2 c chicken stock

Heat a dutch oven and add olive oil until shimmery. Sweat onions + pinch of salt until tender. Brown ground beef and season with salt + pepper. Add in tomato paste, Ras el Hanout, and whatever form of garlic you're using and stir until fragrant (~1 minute). Add in tomatoes and break with a spoon if they're whole. Add lentils and chicken stock as well and then cook for another ~45 minutes - 1 hour until the lentils are tender.