so much better

How to Make Parmesan Crusted Salmon without Hot Oil

(because if you're like me, heating oil in your skillet scares you.)

Pretty much, here's the deal:

1) Take salmon fillets and douse them with some olive oil
2) Cover them with a mixture that is one part cornmeal to one part parmesan cheese (the grocery store, circular container kind is just fine,) and mix in whatever spices you want. I use a hefty amount of garlic salt and basil. You want them to be completely coated, but not lumpy or thickly coated.
3) Meanwhile, heat up your skillet on medium-high heat.
4) Once it's hot, spray the CRAP out of it with cooking spray. I use butter-flavored. Yum =)
5) Place the fillets in the bubbly, already hot cooking spray. Spray the whole operation with cooking spray.
6) Wait a minute or two, then flip the fillets over and spray the whole operation again. Wait another minute or two before flipping the fillets over one more time.
7) Turn the heart down to medium and cover the fillets, cooking for about ten minutes and turning them every so often. You can spray more cooking spray at this point, if you feel like it.

Once the salmon is cooked all the way through, you eat them. And your boyfriend marvels at you. Oh, and you accompany them with angel hair pasta and roasted brussel sprouts. SOGOOD.

It's wet and disgusting outside, and I actually had more work than I could finish before lunchtime, which is kind of exciting, considering how slow the winter was. With any luck, I'll need to start blogging when I get home!

Also, the other day our fridge crapped out for a brief second, and everything started melting and we freaked out and called/texted/emailed (yes, all three) our landlord. But then we turned up the coldness and it kicked back on and it's been working fine, since. However, last night when we decided to the run dishwasher, it decided to make this high pitched whine-filled clatter about halfway through its cycle. So...now we get to call the landlord about that. Our landlord loves us. Good thing he's a 20-something, pothead. No really...it's a good thing.

Nate's Macro/Wide-Angle lense from for his iPhone (part of his Valentine's Day gifts) from PhotoJoJo came over the weekend -- I had it sent to work, because I'm sneaky! -- so I picked it up yesterday and brought it home for him. The Macro lense works like a charm. Unfortunately, I didn't read the FAQ, and the fact that the iPhone 3G/S is curved on the back causes you to be able to see the Wide-Angle lense in the lefthand bottom corner of the photos when you attach it. Fortunately, it's a miniscule amount of black and my boyfriend can fix anything in Photoshop. It attaches by a small magnetic ring that you stick to your phone, and it comes with two rings, so we will be able to use it with both our phones. All the pics he took are on his phone, so I'll post one when I can get ahold of them.

I got this 'Txting Kills' thumb ring from Allstate Insurance in one of my freebie emails a little while back. You can get up to five, so I got one for me and one for Nate. I like it, partially because it actually fits me (they have different sizes) and partially because it's something I believe strongly in. Phones are hazardous to driving.


Also, I was looking for a water bottle for a while and bought this one (by Aladdin from Target) a little while ago. I really like it, because I can drink out of it like a water bottle or like a cup. And I can fit regular ice in it, because the top unscrews. It's genius!

-C

ridin' the rails

oh YEAH, dinner last night.

It was delicious. It was so good, I ate way more than I should have. And it was so easy, I'm surprised I didn't do it earlier.

Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Onions with Couscous

You need:
an 8 x 8 baking dish, with or without a cover
half a chicken breast (about one pound of a chicken)
one and a half medium-sized sweet potatoes (or the equivalent thereof)
half a large, sweet onion\
olive oil
salt/garlic salt
basil
pepper (optional)

Directions:
preheat the oven to 400
spray the bottom and sides of the baking dish with cooking spray (or grease it with butter...otherwise the potatoes stick)
cube sweet potatoes and place them so they cover the bottom of the dish evenly; pour a little bit of olive oil (probably about a tablespoon or so) evenly over the potatoes and sprinkle liberally with salt and basil
slice the onion into pieces (as big or as smalle as you want. I sliced my half into two halves, then sliced each half into about 4-5 strips length-wise, and then cut those strips in half, so I had little clumps of half-circle shaped onion) and sprinkle those on top of the sweet potatoes; pour a little more olive oil over the onions and sprinkle with a little salt
place the half a chicken breast on top of the veggies; pour a little olive oil over the breast, coat the top with garlic salt (and pepper) and basil. i basically completely covered the part that was exposed.
bake for an hour at 400 degrees
when it's about ten minutes from being done, make your couscous according to the directions!
ENJOY!

It was SO good. The juices from the cooking chicken made both the chicken and veggies stay nice and moist, and the spices on top of the chicken breast were exposed enough to the heat that they made a nice crispy spice crust on top of the meat. So very delicious. The boy's eyes got real big-like when he started eating it. We ate too much, and we paired it with leftover sweet baby carrots (see below for the easiest recipe in the whole world,) so it was kind of extra sweet when paired with the sweet potatoes and onions. Cest la vie.

Sweet Baby Carrots
(this is my Mom's recipe, and it was my friend Brockett's favorite food when he came over to our house after shows.)

You need:
one package baby carrots
1/8 cup of butter
honey

Directions:
Boil baby carrots in water until tender enough to be pierced with a fork (but not mushy); strain excess water from the pot
melt butter over the carrots (with the residual heat from being boiled, you probably won't need any heat)
pour honey over the carrots (to taste. I like mine sweet, so I tend to use a lot of honey =)
EAT THEM

These are kind of like the brussel sprouts -- I could seriously pop these as snacks. I'm not sure if the honey and butter counteract the healthy-ness of the carrots, but it sure does taste good!

-C

eureka!

Put yer balls to the wall, y'all -- here is the amazingness that is my Dad's brussel sprouts recipe. This is a one skillet recipe, and seriously, I could pop these babies as snacks. Then again, you might not share my affinity for brussel sprouts.

You will need:
one pound fresh brussel sprouts, quartered
3-4 cloves of garlic, diced (more or less is fine, depending on how much you like garlic)
one baby lemon, cut into chunks
1/4 cup of butter/margarine
a skillet (any skillet will do!)

What you do:
-put about half the butter in the skillet and melt over medium-ish heat
-once the butter is melted, put the garlic in and turn the heat up a little bit. let the garlic sweat it out for a little bit.

-add brussel sprouts, put the rest of the butter on top, and mix everything around until it melts
-once the butter is melted, add the lemon, and mix everything thoroughly
-sautee brussel sprouts until easily pierced with a fork (but not mushy.)

serve and enjoy!

Ombly nombly, bears and biscuits! The most delicious brussel sprouts. Sometimes, simple is the best way to be.

-C

Gameday!

My friend and I had plans to go out today to the science museum, so I wasn't stuck watching football with the boy, but we're lazy and it's rainy, and she decided to just come over last night instead, so I'm sitting at home. Watching football. Well, Nate is watching football. I'm sitting on the couch, pretending to be interested in what's going on. I'm not very good at pretending ;)

I made dinner last night, which was fantastic, for my friend and myself. We had salmon, coucous and fresh brussel sprouts sauteed in garlic, lemon and butter. Easily my favorite recipe for brussel sprouts. (Really though, who doesn't love things sauteed in garlic and butter.) I felt like the whole lemon was a little too much citrus for the amount of brussel sprouts we had, so the next time I make them, I'll measure stuff out and post the recipe with the correct amount of sprout to butter/garlic/lemon ratio.

Today, we are having our weekend staples: nachos and an easy tortilla soup recipe that I've modified into a bean dip. It's kind of addicting, but also super easy. And you can make it on the stove or in a crock pot!

Ingredients:
1 can vegetable broth
1 can sweet corn (drained)
1 can black beans (I usually try and drain these and then give up, b/c the liquid they're in is so thick)
1 can diced tomatoes (unseasoned, drained)
1 can refried beans
shredded cheese

Directions:
Dump everything except the cheese into the pot/crock pot and heat it up (medium on the stove, high on the crock pot,) stirring occasionally to mix everything together. When it gets to a kind of soupy consistency, add cheese and continue stirring. Once the cheese is melted, you are ready to enjoy with some tortilla chips!

(as a sidenote -- if you don't like cheese, don't eat cheese or you just don't have that much cheese, I'd probably suggest using about half the can of vegetable broth, unless you want to eat it as a soup. The whole can of vegetable broth makes it pretty soupy!)

Nate and I would eat the entire recipe's worth in one sitting, if we didn't care about how FAT we got in the process.

The Hawks lost earlier (our new team to root for, based on geographic location and the fact that they never show the East Coast games here,) but the Pats game is about to start, so it's about to get REAL LOUD up in here.

Who are y'all rooting for? Or are you like me, and just watch because you like the people you live with ;)

-C

p.s. Maybe I should invest in some earplugs...

but not for me

Made those. Last night. All by myself! (well, Nathan helped.)

We don't have a microwave, so I couldn't nuke the acorn squash to soften it for cutting beforehand. So Nathan used his manly strength and knife skillz to hack the thing in half (attack of the acorn squash as big as my head!!!) and then scooped out all the yuckies and seeds in the middle. He's a good boy.

I should have taken more pictures of the prep, but while the oven was preheating to 350 and the 1/4 cup of butter was melting on the stove, I parboiled (a new term I learned...though, I'm still not exactly sure why it was parboiling instead of regular boiling...except that only part of the squash was immersed in boiling water...) the exposed halves of the squash for about five minutes before putting them face up in our 9x13 baking pan and sprinkling them with melted butter (margarine) and just a leeetle bit of pumpkin pie spice. Then, I dumped a bit of melted margarine with about 1/8 cup (maybe less) of water in the hollowed out portion of the squash before piling the stuffing into the middle. Stuffing consisted of: 1/2lb of ground pork, half a diced onion, 1/2 a cup of stuffing, and some marjoram, oregano and salt, all mixed together (btdubs -- EWWWWWW, I hate touching raw meat.) Covered the whole thing in aluminum foil, and shoved it in the oven for about an hour and forty minutes and tada! Baked stuffed squash.

In retrospect, because the squash was so HUGE, I probably should have turned the oven up 25-50 degrees, to cut down the cooking time. I also probably include some celery and/or carrots (or maybe zucchini) in the stuffing, and would drizzle some of the butter/water mixture over the top of the stuffing once it was all settled in its nook in the squash. Things to note for next time!

We each had a quarter of the squash and stuffing for dinner last night, and then a quarter left over for lunch today! I was a little worried, but it reheated in the microwave at work no problem.

We also tried (and failed) to get up early this morning so we could do some WiiFit yoga and actually have time to eat before we left for work, but I guess the alarms woke us up in the middle of a sleep cycle or something, because we were SO VERY groggy at 6:30am. We'll try for tomorrow! And maybe go to bed a little earlier tonight.

-C

it don't break even

So, I find this letter I received from a major beverage company kind of funny and also kind of eye-opening. I applied for a position as a Receptionist at their corporate headquarters right when we got to Seattle (maybe before, when we were still squatting in Nate's sister's apartment in Sacramento, CA.)


January 12, 2011

  

Caitlin O. Nelson

(My Permanent Address,

which was still in NH at the time) 

Dear Caitlin:

We have received your application for the position of Receptionist/Administrative Assistant. After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that you have not been selected for this position.
We will retain your candidate file in our database and may inform you of job openings that match your profile if you selected this option. We also invite you to visit the Career Section on our Web site regularly.
We thank you for your interest in (Name) Beverages Company and wish you all the best in your career.

Best regards,
Human Resources Department
(Name) Beverages Company

If I recall correctly, the job description wasn't anything fancy: answer phones, distribute mail, hand out badges for guests coming into the headquarters. Pretty much the exact same thing I do now. I find this letter kind of funny, because the company I'm working for contacted ME for an interview. They found my resume on CareerBuilder and wanted me to come in. As opposed to this company, which did not contact me for an interview, or contact me at all, until almost four months later, to tell me I didn't get the position. Ya think?

In any case, it also got me thinking about what we would have done if Freeman hadn't contacted me. I did receive another job offer before this one, for a part-time administrative assistant/reception relief position in a building pretty much equidistant, in the opposite direction, but the company, unfortunately, never got the go-ahead from their headquarters to hire me for the position. It worked out better, because I was looking for a full-time position, but I was thinking that I could "get my foot in the door" with these people, and hopefully they'd decide they had a job for me later on down the line. In any case, I was told I had a job with them on October 8, 2010 (which was, I want to say, about two weeks after my interview,) and told them I had received a job with Freeman on October 22, 2010, a full two weeks later. At this point, they still had not received the approval from their headquarters to do the hiring, so I had continued to go on interviews (because I couldn't wait around,) including retail positions for the holidays. It was all a crazy, big mess. So, it ended up that I had the part-time administrative assistant job offer, a part-time, seasonal retail job offer and my full-time job offer contending all at the same time. Obviously we know which one I chose.

The point of all this is that I am our financial security. I make enough to pay for our apartment and basic necessities, so Nate's pay winds up becoming spending (or soon, savings,) for us to do with what we please. But if Freeman hadn't contacted me? We might not be in Seattle anymore. We wouldn't have been able to afford our apartment. We would have had to at least go back to California and mooch off of Nate's sister's hospitality for a while, until we could find jobs there. Or we might have had to beg money from our parents to make it back across the US as quickly as possible to live in Tallahassee (where I always have a job, and I'm sure Nate could have, also,) Charleston (where my Mom isn't even LIVING anymore,) or Franklin, where we have a room set up for us to stay in whenever we'd like, and try to find a job in NH or MA (Nate could have had a job in Burlington, in probably one of two locations, at least for a while, but those would be kind of an extreme commute from his parent's house. As would my job, which I probably could have had back, if I'd asked really nicely, at MiniLuxe.) What a FAILURE that would have been. Broke and right back where we started. It's kind of terrifying to think about, and makes me consider myself extremely lucky.

Enough bad stuff. Nate made biscuit dough yesterday (which turned out AWESOME -- we have his Mom's recipe to thank for that,) so that I could make chicken 'n dumplins for dinner. This is a recipe I've made before, that I found in Southern Living, which normally calls for pre-cooked chicken, a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of chicken broth, which you heat, add carrots, celery and Pillsbury Grands biscuit dough to, and wahlah! Chicken 'n dumplins. Delicious. I discovered however, when I went to make it last night, that I didn't have chicken broth OR cream of chicken soup. So, here's what I wound up doing. It turned out superbly, just ask Nate.

Chicken 'n Dumplins with Cheesy Biscuit Breadsticks (this amount of food fed the two of us, with a little bit left over for lunch for me today. And we may have eaten too many breadsticks in one sitting.)

Ingredients:
1.5 tablespoons flour
1.5 tablespoons butter/margarine (we always use margarine, but butter is perfectly acceptable)
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup of water (or maybe 1.5 cups...I didn't actually measure the excess water I added. Really you just want enough water added to the base to cover all the things cooking in the pot)
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
Some white mushrooms, coarsely chopped (maybe 4 or 5, depending on size? We get ours pre-chopped, because I'm lazy and because it's the same price for a pound chopped as a pound whole at the market we go to.)
1/3 bag frozen corn (I'm sure you could use fresh corn, or canned corn, too.)
~1lb chicken breast (we had about a 2lb whole chicken breast, which I cut in half and tried to get rid of as much fat as possible from)
Half a batch of plain biscuit mix (but make a whole batch, cause you'll need the rest for cheesy biscuit breadsticks!)
Rosemary
Marjoram
Thyme
Oregano
(you can also just skip these four spices and use poultry seasoning instead, which also has ginger and sage in it. We didn't have poultry seasoning, ginger or sage, so those are the four herbs I used. Mine were dried.)
Salt
Pepper (if you like. I don't.)
Garlic (if you feel like it. I have a Garlic spray that I bought at a winery in the El Dorado Hills in CA. I use when I want just a hint of garlicky tastes. Or when I don't feel like chopping garlic.)

Directions:
1) Have you boyfriend/sibling/parent//friend/child/spouse/dog find a plain jane biscuit recipe and make it. Then have them cut it into strips. Ours varied in size from 1" to, like, 3". Don't worry too much about it.
2) Preheat the oven to 450.
Meanwhile....
3) Start your roux base with the butter and flour (easy roux recipe here. But basically, just put the flour and butter in the bottom of your saucepan over medium-ish heat until they're fully combined and look kinda weird and lumpy.)
4) Pour in the milk on top of the roux base. Stir it some, while you bring it to a boil, then reduce to medium-ish heat so it's not quite simmering. (here's a recipe for a cream sauce, if you need it. Though, I don't usually put "vegetable water" in mine, whatever that is.)
5) After the cream base is started, cut your chicken into medallions (or cubes...or, don't cut it at all) and cook over medium-ish heat. At this point, I seasoned my chicken liberally with aforementioned spices. Like, just dumped a whole bunch on either side. Most of it will come off and get cooked down into the liquid base, so you probably don't need to worry too much about over-spicing. Unless you're a crazy spicer. But I'm pretty crazy about spicing, so you'd have to be way crazier than me. My chicken was coated with spice on either side.
6) While chicken is cooking (and you're flipping it, and occasionally stirring your cream sauce, to make sure the roux base is integrated and you aren't burning the milk,) chop up your carrots and celery (and mushrooms.)
7) Once the chicken is fully cooked, chop it finely/shred it with your knife until it's in smaller, bite-sized pieces. At this point, the cream sauce should be mostly lump-less, but shouldn't have thickened too much (if you need to turn it down to low while you fix the chicken, this is perfectly acceptable. It isn't going anywhere.)
8) Put chopped chicken, celery, carrots, frozen corn (if you're using fresh corn or canned corn, you probably can wait to put it in with the mushrooms,) along with about half the biscuit strips into the roux base. Add enough water to cover everything in the pot (you don't need to drown it, just mostly cover everything,) and turn the heat up to medium-ish. Just enough to simmer the pot.
9) Salt liberally (i.e.: salt to taste.) I tend to be light-handed when it comes to salt, but if you're heavy handed, you might want to skip salting the chicken and just salt the liquid base. Then you can taste it and make sure you aren't over-salting.
8) While the pot is coming to a simmer, saute mushrooms in butter or olive oil or medium-high heat until they're nice and brown and delicious looking. Once they're done, and the pot has come to a simmer, add them (and fresh or canned corn, if you're using it,) to the pot. Stir everything, put the top on and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally. This will be enough time to thicken the base, cook the raw veggies, and warm everything up to the same temp. Done and done.
9) Once you've set your chicken 'n dumplins to simmering, have your helper (see first instruction for acceptable people,) hand roll out the rest of the strips to your preferred length. Take two and twist them around each other to make twisty breadsticks. Add A LOT of cheese (or less cheese, if you are not a cheese fanatic,) to the tops and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.

Everything should be ready about the same time! Breadsticks are cheesy and delicious, and chicken 'n dumplins are hot and thick and everyone is happy. Serve and enjoy.

Besides the chopping, this recipe as super easy. Even substituting fresh ingredients, spicing everything and making the base myself, it didn't take more than half an hour to make everything. Especially with the boyfriend helping out with the biscuit part! Turned out ok, I'd say:

As for TPTP, today it is NASTY outside, and I still managed to look vaguely put together. It snowed, then rained last night, so I was hoping for a snow day (like all the Easter Coast-ers are getting today,) but alas, the roads were not icy and frozen, so I was stuck going to work. In any case, I wore more casual cords (and actually brought at extra pair of pants, just in case,) because the last time I tried to walk to work in wind and rain, not only did my umbrella break, but I was soaked from the waist down before I even got 100 feet out the door. It wasn't that bad today,  thankfully, but it was pretty slippery, with all the water, snow and ice on the ground, so going down the hill to get to work was more like skiing than anything else.

It's been sadly slow at work, so I've spent a lot of time favoriting things on Etsy and ModCloth, deciding what I want to spend all my money on (when I have money again.) Love these:



From Bed Buggs Boutique



-C