Weekend Recap

Sorry for the belated post my friends - but it has been one very busy day.  I've been up since 4:30 and I'm feeling like I should have called it a night hours ago, but the evening has only just begun!  

This weekend was pretty wonderful, to say the least.  We celebrated our anniversary the best way imaginable for our lives at this moment of time and my goodness the cake was good.  Some highlights include ::

• First Friday's along Market - we may not have actually seen any art but we had a great time drinking....
• Saturday brunch at Anchorage Cafe/2 mile walk along the most beautiful of trails - I seriously feel so lucky to be able to hop on that trail any time I want.  The first time I went I had a staring contest with a deer!
• Baking, baking, baking!  I made a rather delicious recreation of our wedding cake that included fresh berries, custard and the best ever homemade buttercream frosting.  I finally got to break in our mixer (that my mom gave us as a wedding present) and it felt so nice to bake in our kitchen and have all that counter space.  
• Drinking our wine + champagne
• Eating dinner/dessert in our screened-in porch (which includes a ceiling fan to keep cool, phew)
• Relaxing + watching You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (pretty good movie)
• Sunday homemade brunch (poached eggs + hollandaise sauce + toast + hash browns)
• Home Depot trip to buy various things but also to buy lumber to make a sweet coffee table
• Hangin' + chillin' with awesome people

What did all of you get up to this weekend?  Something extraordinary, I hope!  Happy Monday, friends!

PS - THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the very sweet comments and congratulations about our anniversary! You guys are totally the best.

Sourdough bread, nom nom

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finally achieved bread-baking success!  We truly tested our patience, (it really is a virtue) and 24 hours later were handsomely rewarded.  We made the best homemade sourdough bread I've ever tasted.  For reals.

Awhile ago, our friend Inna passed on an ancient sourdough starter to us.  Sadly, we neglected it for awhile and didn't attempt to make a loaf until last week.  What were we thinking?!  The mister proofed the starter, let it rise, made the dough, ya-di-ya-di-ya-da but it wasn't perfect.  It was slightly too dense and clearly we didn't have patience to let it rise appropriately.

Fast forward to yesterday and the night before.  He proofed the starter before bed.  It rose overnight and I punched it back down in the morning, formed a loaf on a lightly greased baking sheet and let it rise all day long.  Nearly 12 hours later, we were ready to put it in the oven (I don't think it kneaded that much time, but he did have a holiday work party that kept him out late).  The loaf took about 40 minutes to bake to golden-brown perfection and it took just about that long to cool off.

We followed this recipe but didn't adhere to it with the flour (we used 2 cups) and as you have already read, we let it rise waaaaay longer than this guy did.  But that's the thing with bread baking, right?

Happy Friday!

Badger's seitan recipe of pure deliciousness

Boy has got it going on!   His cooking never ceases to amaze me.  I'm a lucky lady, that's for sure. 

Tonight he was craving chicken.  I'm not opposed to him cooking chicken at all.  But he claims to not like making 2 different meals in a night.  Whatevs, I say.  But it always works out in my favor because now he is in the kitchen whipping us up some chicken-style seitan.  SCORE!

Here is the recipe.  It's the kind of recipe that you can change things to adjust the flavor of the seitan, pending on how you want to cook it.  This always yields about 3 meals for the 2 of us, or works perfectly for a dinner party.  Please, invite me over if you plan on making this!  All in all it takes about an hour and a half to prepare, unless of course, you get distracted by racing your friends in New York at Mario Kart....

Serves 7 - 8 people
1 3/4 cups Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast Flakes
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper - or, to taste
1 tsp. rice vinegar
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground rosemary
1 tbsp. chopped cilantro
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cayenne pepper (you can add more, some like it hot!)

Whisk all of the dry ingredients together.  In a separate bowl, mix the cilantro with the wet ingredients.  Combine into one.  Stir until it forms a paste and sticks together like dough.  Knead 20 times, I kid you not, he says it's one kneady seitan!  Let rest for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, bring a "big pot of water" and 1 cup of dry vermouth (you can substitute with other things, he sometimes uses triple sec) and 1 tbsp. table salt to a boil.  Cut the seitan roll in half, form each half into a hockey puck shape.  Boil for 45 minutes.  If it looks like brains a-boilin', then you're on the right track!
Usually he adds soy sauce, tomato paste, etc. as he usually follows this seitan recipe o greatness.  But he wasn't digging that tonight.  No siree. We ended up having it breaded and fried like scallopini.  He created some type of orange sauce that we drizzled over it, which was chalk full of white wine!  It was delicious.

Since I didn't have the patience to take a picture, this will have to do!

It looked nothing like that but I couldn't resist this picture!  Via Goop.

Scrumdidillyumptious

Last night, my super amazing and talented husband-to-be cooked up the most amazing vegetarian comfort food for myself, Inna and Alex.  Oh my goodness gracious was it good.  As a strict vegetarian of 5 1/2 years, I don't really miss meat but I miss having dishes with meat-like texture.  So one of my favorite things to eat as a veggie is Seitan.  I can't get enough of it.  I love wheat gluten!  I do!  Since it's not exactly convenient to drive several miles to Whole Foods to shell out $3.50 for a tiny block of Seitan whenever I crave it, David Badger decided to take matters into his own hands.  The man went and taught himself how to freaking make Seitan!  For me!!!!  My GOD do I love him.  And I'm reaping the benefits until the day I die.  I'm so lucky! Anyway, on to last night...

Having left work early, he decided to go home and whip up a batch for our dinner and a movie night w/friends.  I came home, browsed around online and managed to find the best idea ever for what to make of the Seitan.  Chicken Fried Steak with white gravy!  I haven't had a meal like that in years and years.  We were both so excited about it.  I mean really, really excited.  And it was SO DELICIOUS - I can't even begin to describe it in a way that truly pays homage to its perfection. It looked a little something like this...

But with mashed sweet potatoes instead of brocolli.  Badger - your cooking skills are phenomenal.  I will never take them for granted! 

We also watched District 9.  Have you seen it?  What a weird but pretty good movie.  I really had no idea what to expect going into it, only knowing that all of the close male friends I have were way into it. 

It really was a good movie aside from the gore!  But I liked the aliens and the plot and the effects and all.  You should see it.

Julie & Julia love

Have you all seen this movie?  If not, please do.  Right now. 

Amy Adams gives a warming performance and quite frankly, encourages me to continue with this blogging and then some.  After all, I did go to school to become a writer!

I can't even begin to describe how amazing Meryl Streep's performance was.  In nearly every scene, Badge and I were laughing and smiling and enjoying every bit of it. 

Not just anyone can take a scene this strange/gruesome/unappetizing and make it charming/appealing/cute.

To be quite frank, I loved this movie.  It was a little long, yes, but it made me feel so warm and fuzzy.  It made me feel inspired.  It made me love my soon-to-be husband (yes, I've taken to calling him that over my "fiancé" now that the time is nearer) even more for cooking me delicious meals all the time.  It made me want to continue blogging and it especially made me thankful for everyone who reads this blog of ours.  Last, it made me want to don an apron while baking sweets.  I think this one shall do:

I don't even LIKE mushrooms!  These seem to be the only kind of mushrooms I can get into.  (Photo via Cup of Jo via New House Textiles).  I smell a lovely Christmas gift... :)

(Julie & Julia stills via aceshowbiz.com)

Mmm....Thanksgiving

This holiday weekend flew by, but it was certainly a good time.   Thanksgiving day was amazing.  Badger's parents and sister came up and our friends Jake & Inna came over as well.  Badger cooked all day long, but his dad was sure to take care of him by feeding him Miller lite the whole time.  I got some amazing flowers and was pretty excited to decorate the table.  It seemed to turn out pretty good!

We had so many dishes.  Turkey (I didn't eat it, but of course), sweet potatoes, macaroni n' cheese, green bean casserole, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pesto-deviled eggs, gravy, etc.  It was all made from scratch and with tons of love.  Seriously.  For dessert we had pumpkin-banana pie and an apple crumble.  It was delicious.  Nothing was made from a can.  I'm so proud of my boy!

It was a great day!