Snow Benny

When I hear snow day, I immediately think of college.  Snow days were the best in college.  We'd order tons of greasy comfort food, stock up on 30 racks, throw on sweats, watch movies, and have the best parties ever.  It was so much fun.

Now, snow days mean working from home with your computer on your lap, dialing into conference calls with spotty iphone service, and scavenging the house for something to compile into an actual meal.

Just as I was about to heat up some soup, I had a brilliant idea!  I realized I had some leftover potato latkes from dinner at my moms house on Saturday night and decided they would be the perfect base to a delicious eggs benedict.  

Snowy Eggs Benny

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 potato latkes

Sprinkle of mozzarella cheese

3 Tablespoons hummus

1 Tablespoon yellow or dijon mustard

Hot sauce

a few squirts of lemon juice

salt & pepper

Directions:

Make "hollandaise": Combine hummus, mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste and set aside

Heat latkes in toaster or oven until warmed through

On stove, fill sautee pan with water until boiling.  Reduce heat, add a dash of white wine vinegar, and add eggs. Cover for 3 minutes.

Top latkes with eggs.  Drizzle with "hollandaise" and cheese

Grab a fork and devour.  YUM!

Chrismakkuh

Over the past week, I dove head first into the holiday spirit with some serious pre-holiday cheer.  I celebrated a late Hanukkah with the fam, participated in a yankee swap with my team at the office, attended my company holiday party, met Santa at work, came in 2nd place for ugliest costume at an ugly sweater party, and did lots and lots and LOTS of eating.

First up, Hanukkah w/the fam...

My mom made pork tenderloin, green beans w/toasted almonds, potato latkees, and a caesar salad.

My brother clearly had no problem scarfing up every bite...

(That's the momma... isn't she cute!)

And for dessert, I made chocolate chip banana bread.  Not necessarily a Jewish tradition, but my brother's favorite, and delicious!

A few days after celebrating Hanukkah, I ran into Santa at work.  Not knowing that I'm bias towards Hanukkah Harry, Santa made me take a photo with him.  Too bad he didn't let me sit on his lap and tell him all of my hopes and dreams...

That night, we had our team yankee swap followed by the company holiday party the next day.  After resting up on Friday night, my roommate and I went to an ugly sweater party on Saturday night and came in 2nd place for ugliest sweaters! Once we found out prizes were at stake we really had to step it up...and boy did we ever....

Lovely, isnt it?

Anyway, I usually dread Sunday evenings because it means Monday is looming, but for the first time in a long time, I'm actually looking forward to Monday.  I have a short three day week and then I'm off until Jan 3rd!  My boyfriend comes home on Friday and I can't wait to just enjoy some time off with him and my friends and family.  

So, with that - I'm off to do some work before I head into the office tomorrow but I hope everyone had great weekend and is looking forward to a nice long Christmas weekend!

Fievel Takes Fenway

There's a mouse in my house.  A big, grey, hairy, fat, gross, long-tailed mouse.  I first noticed the pesky little creature Friday night as I was enjoying a relaxing bottle glass of wine on the couch, but I thought I may have been seeing things so I went to bed and hoped for the best.  I woke up early Saturday morning for the gym, and saw him as I was walking out the door.  This guy isn't playing!  Then he remained in my apartment for the greater part of Saturday afternoon.  I was cooking up a storm (that will come later) in the kitchen and the mouse proceeded to play at my feet.  After I picked my roommate up at the airport, we decided to set up some traps.  My kitchen is now boobie trapped with sticky pads loaded with peanut butter, traps filled with peanut butter, and plug-in sonar detectors that omit sound-waves that scare the mice away.

After fully "mouse-proofing" my kitchen, the pesky little bugger came out to play and avoided all of our traps (I told you he wasn't messing around)!  These jerky mice proceeded to come out and play all week long.  I caught two on the sticky pads on Wednesday and another one on Friday when I got home from work.  Woof! Get OUT.  We're having our second exterminator of the week visit us on Monday, and hopefully he'll knock these suckers out.

Now that I've completed my rant, I'll share my recipe for the best soup I've made yet...

Sausage Minestrone and Orzo - YUM!!

1lb sweet italian sausage
1lb hot italian sausage
3Tbs oilive oil
1 large spanish onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 ribs celery, sliced
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes, cut into pieces
12 cups chicken stock, plus additional as needed
4 cups tomato juice
2 bay leaves
1 can (16 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 oz) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 large zucchini, diced
1 large summer squash, diced
1/2 cup dried orzo
3tbs chopped fresh basil
kosher salt and freshly group black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet or roasting pan with parchment paper or foil.  Place the sausages on the pan and bake for 25 minutes.  Let cool on a plate lined with paper towels.  Cut into 1/4 to 1/2 - inch slices.

**I bought ground sausage and sauteed on the stove top until just browned.  I let cool and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Heat a stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil, garlic, celery, and carrots.  Saute' for 8 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stock, tomato juice, bay leaves, chickpeas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, and cooked sausage.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pot, and simmer for 40 minutes, adding more stock or water if too much liquid evaporates.  Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Add the zucchini, summer squash, and orzo.  Cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Stir in the basil, salt, and pepper.

Can you say YUMMO?  YUMMO!

Walkin' in Memphis

On Weds & Thurs of this week, work brought me to Memphis for some focus group testing.  Naturally I took this opportunity to bring myself to the best BBQ joint in town!  We asked our hotel bartender for his best BBQ recommendation and he sent us to Central BBQ.  He told us we had to get the dry rub rack for 2 (comes with 4 sides) and a 1/2 dozen chicken wings 1/2 wet, 1/2 dry.

For our sides we chose Mac & Cheese, Potato Salad, House made BBQ Potato Chips, & Green Beans.  Needless to say the beans remained untouched.

We sat down with our paper towel napkins and dug right in!  We tried to ignore the stares of the other diners while they watched us devour our ribs and wings in record time. 

After we ate, and let the BBQ sit in our belly's like a pound of bricks conducted about 5 hours of focus groups, we headed downtown to Beale Street.

We ended up at the Rum Boogie Cafe for some beers and live blues.  It was awesome! Since it was a Thursday night, we were lucky enough to catch the house band who were truly great.

We only stayed for a few hours since we had to get up early for our flights, but it was great!  Good times were had by all.  Especially the super drunk guy who fell off his chair and flipped over his table filled with beers as he was trying to catch his fall.  

xoxo Memphis.