Scary Things & Strawberries

This morning at 7 am I finished up my last overnight shift, headed home to sleep for 7.5 hours & then headed to the gym for some cross training as recommended by my orthopedic PA. I didn't quite make it to 45 minutes on my elliptical. I had to spice things up & split my time with the recumbent bike to keep my sanity. Lots of strength training as well. Fun, fun, fun! After, I headed to Wegmans to pick up a few things. The ONLY benefit of going to a gym on Monroe Ave is that Wegmans is across the street!

On a slightly side note, I was surprised to find Sahlen's hot dogs in the meat section! Whoa! Peter got really excited that these were at our Father's Day outing this past weekend. We explained to my family that we can't get them in Rochester... apparently we were wrong! Rochester hot dogs simply do not compare to Buffalo ones!

Wegmans delivers once again!

Unfortunately, on my way out I spotted a clown in the Wegmans parking lot... epic fail... I'm not going to be able to go back there for a few days. I'd say I'd NEVER return there, but if you are from WNY, then you know that statement would be an impossible lie! I'll just have to figure out how to get over the travesty.... somehow.

Damn clown! I had to snap a picture & send it to KJ to warn him to stay far, far away!

On to the reason I went to Wegmans in the first place: STRAWBERRIES!

YUM!

When I decided to make blueberry zucchini bread the other day, Peter asked if I thought I could use strawberries instead. Hmmm, good idea, but do I use fresh or frozen strawberries? and would I leave them whole or cut them up? I hadn't a clue, so I looked for a recipe & found this one for Strawberry Bread! I have a pool party to attend with some wonderful ladies tomorrow, so I took this as my opportunity to get my baking on once again!

SLICED strawberries!

Typical other ingredients

As I started the recipe I quickly became wary. Despite it's fabulous reviews several things seemed odd about the recipe... but I'm a true believer in following the recipe to the letter the first time, so I humored it & kept my fingers crossed.

Weird thing #1. You mix the eggs, strawberries & oil together. You then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients that are already in the mixer. You mix just until the dry ingredients are wet & then stop. You are then done. This just seemed wacky. I always add dry to wet ingredients. Oh, well...

Eggs... I know, exciting!

Strawberries in lots of vegetable oil

The finished batter was pretty thick. The wet to dry order worked okay. I just had to do a little extra hand mixing since my Kitchen Aid wasn't capable of getting all the dry ingredients up & moving from the bottom (apparently it was confused as well). All in all, it seemed to be a success.

Finished batter ready to bake

Two fresh baked loaves ready to share with friends tomorrow pool side! Fingers crossed!

Well, they look edible...

Mmmm... I hope... I'll have to review it tomorrow!

Mystery Solved

In addition to Fathers' Day this weekend, we also had a housewarming party to attend. Because I have the continued itch to create in my kitchen I decided to take on the task of making blueberry cupcakes, and 2 different kinds of hummus to bring to the party. My Kitchen Aid mixer & food processor have been calling to me & I was happy to oblige!

Love 'em!

I started out with the blueberries

Very light & fluffy...

...and pretty

Whipped cream frosting with fresh blueberries on top!

Lookin' good...

...but next time I might try a pastry bag to put on the frosting...

...would probably look neater/cleaner/prettier that way.

Ready for the cupcake carrier!

Crazy cupcake carrier!

The next task of making hummus was a little scary... for one reason & one reason only...

JALAPENOS!

arch nemesis

You may recall my recent issues with jalapenos. I decided to put our issues aside & use the remaining jalapenos to make a Jalapeno Lime Hummus. I've made it before & it was good, so I decided to just go for it.

Interesting thing happened right around this time in my cooking that is worth mentioning. I checked my mail & as luck would have it my favorite magazine was awaiting me on my front porch!

Oh, how I love getting new issues!

Because I just couldn't contain my excitement I flipped through the magazine & saw this:

Do you see it?!

Yes, that's right!

They are extra big!!!

I was so excited to see this article! I thought it was hilarious since Peter & I were so confused about the size of our jalapenos! Apparently there really are big ones out there. The article said that you could find them at your local farmers' market, but ours were from good ol' Wegmans... now back to the hummus!

Chickpeas

Jalapenos

I used plastic bags on my hands as I dissected the jalapenos before putting them into the food processor. It was a bit cumbersome, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do to avoid capsaicin contamination! (I hadn't planned on making this, so I didn't have a chance to get any latex gloves to use instead). I realized around this time that I also needed a blender for this hummus recipe, so I had to bring out more of the Kitchen Aid collection!

Peter wanted me to choose between the two of them on our bridal registry, but so glad I didn't

Below are the final products. In addition to the jalapeno lime hummus we invented a garlic scape hummus as well. I personally preferred the garlic scape one. The jalapeno hummus wasn't spicy at all! I even put in extra jalapenos! The last time we made it the spiciness was evident, so my conclusion was that after sitting in my refrigerator during the last two weeks, the jalapenos lost a lot of their spiciness. Does anyone know if this is in fact what happens?

Beautiful presentation by my husband!

Thursday Night Yumminess

Today is my day off from work. I love my days off. I know most people would agree that days off are awesome to do things that you normally don't have time for. I just love being productive. Today I...


#1. finished my vacation blogging (finally),
#2. got 1 hour of live CE credit (my registration expires at the end of May),
#3. ran 5 miles at a 9:44 pace with NO knee pain,
#4. got my haircut at a new salon (my normal stylist cancelled at the last second 'cause she's sick),
#4.5. found a new stylist to go to when my regular stylist starts maternity leave in July,
#5. went to Wegmans for some groceries,
#6. made 4 dozen cookies, and
#7. made myself a BLAT for dinner.


Allow me to elaborate on some of that. I really love baking. I'm not great at it (ie guava empanadas), but I love doing it. Normally I don't have enough time during the week to do it though. Also, I'm not a fan of having baked goods in the house. So, today seemed like a perfect day to bake. Why? Well, I'll tell you...


#1. It's my day off (see above if you need more elaboration).
#2. I have a cookie recipe I wanted to try (from Food Network Magazine, of course).
#3. Peter & I are going to poker night tonight, so I can bring cookies to share!


So, after my hair appointment at Scott Miller I headed across the street to Wegmans to buy a few things on my grocery list & stuff for my cookies.

Do you think the lady checking me out thought I had a problem?

The big bags of M&Ms, toffee, chocolate chips & peanut butter chips are all for my Kids Candy Cookies recipe. The Jelly Bellys are for me & the Cadbury Creme Eggs are for Peter.... we have a problem with Easter candy.

Cookie Ingredients

This cookie dough was phenomenal! Baking them didn't seem necessary.

Cookie drops made with my handy scooper from my mom!

It said it would make 25 cookies... it made 4 dozen normal sized cookies!

Excellent!

Since my husband didn't know if he'd be home for dinner, I decided to make something easy I've been wanting for a while... a BLAT. I learned about these in New Zealand, but never got a chance to order one. The BLAT is Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato. I love BLTs (hold the mayo, of course) and I love avocado. This just seemed like a match made in heaven. I bought a fresh loaf of sourdough bread at Wegmans & made a pretty awesome sandwich.

Yummy BLAT!

So pretty!

I took this as my opportunity to attempt avocado growing again. We'll see how it goes this time! Fingers crossed!

My avocado plant (take 2)

ADDENDUM: My super sweet cookies were a big hit at poker night. The boys (& Pooja) must've been distracted by their supreme yumminess 'cause I kicked their butts at poker! Girl power!