It is just so ironic, that the week I manage to get the podcast out about my goals for the year, that I’ve completely fall off the wagon.  So to be honest – here’s how my goals stand:

Weigh less – I’m off my eating plan and haven’t weighed myself in a week.  I’ve also been eating like crap due to the storm.
Knit More – I’ve actually burned through some yarn.  I’m another ball in on my cardigan, and I finished up my hats for the Boom Effect.  And I started a pair of socks.
Stuff in the Basement – last week – instead of exercising like I had intended, I instead emptied five boxes, and filled three trash bags, and bag for donation.  And made sure that stuff was gone.
The Project – I have not been able to bring my self to cook this week.  Time is running out, since I’m going to be going to Farpoint this weekend, and will be in a hotel, instead of in my kitchen.  I’ve got three of the dishes planned out – so since tomorrow is supposed to be a snow day – maybe I can get at least three done.  As for the veggie dish – I may need to catch up with that in a later week.  I’m not sure what I’ll do. Read the rest of this entry

Another week down!  I’m almost 10% of the way there.  Slow and steady is the way to go?  Anyway – today’s dish is a dessert dish called No-Pan Pear Pie.  And pound cake is one of the ingredients.  Now this seems like sacrilege – how can there be cake in pie?  Isn’t there an ancient feud between pie and cake?  Then how can they exist together in the same dish?  It’s a little shocking.  Now AB calls this not a true pie, but a fruit gallette.  So maybe it’s okay for cake to be in a gallette.  But – this is not the whole way that this dish is deceptive.  There are not only pears in the pie.  There are blueberries!  So – the question I ask the great Alton Brown – why not call it No-Pan Pear/Blueberry Pie?  Maybe it was the whole alliteration thing.

20 Recipes down, 188 to go.

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Sigh.  It’s week 5.  Week 4’s dishes were done last night at the time.  I had hoped to go for a gold star again this week, but I had to spend an hour an a half one the phone with Turbo Tax, trying to figure out why my tax information for last year had up and disappeared, since I’ve been using their online service since my 2001 taxes.  Yeah.  So no No-Pan Pear Pie, that actually has cake and blue berries in it.  Yeah – that’s a weird one.  Instead we had a meal, I’m going to call the Big Hot Mess.  Because really – nothing went right.

19 recipes down, 189 to go. Read the rest of this entry

With three hours to go, I managed to pull this week out.  We may have eaten at 8:30pm at night, but I did do it.  Today I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done.  Today we applied for Dan’s passport, almost ate lunch at IHOP, ate at Arby’s instead, introduced the Kid to the wonder that is the roast beef sandwitch, and Dan and I both had eye exams and picked out new glasses.  And then when we got home, we sat down to watch the documentary about MMOPRG players, which was very cool, but at that point, I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done.  It looked like it might be a Gamer Grub night.

But I’d had a plan and shopped while we were out, and the stuff I’d picked were actually pretty simple to make – nothing crazy.  These recipes came from my ‘alternate’ Alton Brown books:  Feasting on Asphalt, and Alton Brown’s Gear For Your Kitchen.  So this week didn’t use use the Grand Trio, but rather the supporting players.  And for the most part it was a success.

16 recipes down, 192 to go Read the rest of this entry

The final dish of the week, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it or not.  The week just got away from me.  But here it is – the Fruit Tart, which is really an apple tart.  I made this to use up the Puff Pastry from last week’s chicken pot pie.  Not much more to say there – it went together pretty easily.

12 recipes down, 196 to go. Read the rest of this entry

It’s a day off from work for me, but I ended up doing more in the one day than I would if I would have been in the office.  Such is life of the working mother with only a day off every once in a while.  I did take advantage of the time to make some dishes for the Project.   Now there is a bit of a cheat, because the main dish actually include two recipes.  But I thought of it as a good way to knock out two recipes, especially since I needed a pie crust for the Pie.  No real snafus these dishes, thank goodness.  Because also today I stripped the bed, finished the laundry, and made dough for shortbread cookies.  Not to mention dropping off and picking up of the Kid to his day of service.  No new techniques either, just honing of old skills.  There was one FAIL – I forgot to take a picture of the Pie.  And it was a pretty pie.  Just imagine it, with cheese on the top, and the top with a nice, yummy brown crust.  Yum.

11 Recipes down, 197 to go. Read the rest of this entry

It’s our first podcast episode!  Sara and I use a free form format to talk about the new podcast, what being a geek means to us, and my new Alton Brown cooking project.  Notes for the next show will be more extensive

Into The Blender

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It’s week two, and I’m purposely not trying to go for a gold star this week.  Though I will cook/bake three dishes today, the fourth – dessert – will wait till the end of the week – hopefully I can send some of those over to my niece’s birthday party so that the family won’t eat them all.

The first dish of the day was for breakfast.  Muffins, which have always been a favorite Sunday morning breakfast for me.  AB does it a little differently than the Betty Crocker recipe that I usually use, but I’m pleased with the result – for the most part.

5 Recipes down, 203 to go.

Read the rest of this entry

So it was Day One of the Project.  I decided to start off with a bang and go for a gold star.  And I made it – all four dishes.  I made Pan-Seared Ribeye Steak, Bean and Garlic Saute, Cheesy Poof and Cocoa Brownies, and did as Alton said and copied off the recipes before I started.  Which is a brilliant idea – my books are still nice, and I have notes of what went on during cooking.  I started off the afternoon making the brownies and then the Cheesy Poof because I knew I needed the same bowls to make that.  Those went off without a hitch (except for me getting over eager and taking the brownies out of the pan too soon).  Then came the cooking of the rest of the dishes – the main parts of dinner tonight.  To say it was hectic was an understatement.  One thing I did learn: When searing a steak, take the batteries out of the smoke detector.  And while there were some failures and missteps, I think the meal for the most part was a success.  Details after the break.

4 Dishes down, 204 to go. Read the rest of this entry