Risotto Ridiculousness

I love risotto!  It's yummy and you can honestly put ANYTHING in it.  Mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, ham, chicken, mozzarella, basil, rosemary, etc etc etc
I'll show you the base that I make and the vegetables that I added, but honestly you can change up what you add to it.

I start by prepping the vegetables that I'm going to add so they can cook while I'm making the risotto.  Here I'm doing a risotto primavera.  So I'm roasting carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.

For every risotto I make I always add onions.  I make them in the same pan that I'm going to use to make the risotto so I only make one dish dirty AND all the flavor from the onions cooking stays in the pan.

Speaking of pans.  This is our new risotto pan!  I used to make it in a big pot but then I saw this Essential Pan by All Clad from Williams Sonoma.

It's a massive pan but it's a great size for cooking one pot meals.  More surface area too.

And it's deep so nothing sloshes over the sides.  Btw, did you know that All Clad pots and pans are all made in the USA?  I'm always looking for products made in the USA and these pots are some of my favorites.  But they're also expensive so I've been getting my parents one or two for each Christmas, birthday, or mother's/father's day for a year or so.

 Ok, back to cooking.  Saute the onions until soft in olive oil.

Then add a package of mushrooms once the onions are semi soft (mushrooms take less time to cook than onions do).

While you're waiting for the mushrooms and onions to cook, put 5-6 cups of chicken broth on a pot on the stove and start heating it.

Aw, the mushrooms and onions are now soft.   Take them out of the pan and put them in a bowl over to the side.

Now, in the same pan, melt two tbs of butter.

This is arborio rice.  This is a short grain, starchy rice and it's pretty much the only rice you can use for risotto.  It's sold at pretty much every grocery store though so no worries.

Add 1-1/2 cups of arborio rice to the melted butter and stir till all the rice is coated in butter.

Then add 3/4 cup of white wine.  Mix that in (it will absorb pretty fast).  Then add one cup of the hot chicken stock.  This will take longer to mix in.  

Stir until you can run your spoon/spatula through the risotto and it holds a line for a second (one mississippi) pictured above.  Then add another cup of the warm chicken broth and stir until you can run your spatula through and it holds a line, then add ANOTHER cup of warm chicken broth etc.  Keep adding the chicken broth and stirring until all 5 or 6 cups of broth are gone.  I like my risotto creamy not al dente so I add 6 cups of broth.  If you like al dente things you only need to add 5 cups of broth.

 Ah, look at the mess I have to clean up.  Joy.  Not.

By now the roasted vegetables are probably done (roasted on 450 for about 20-25 minutes) so take them out.  Here they are next to the bowl of mushrooms and onions from earlier.

Once all the chicken broth in incorporated you can add another 3/4 cup of white wine.  This is just to taste, so if you don't like wine you can leave it out.  But I like wine.  Yummy!

This is what it will look like when all the liquid has been added.  It looks a lot bigger than it did to begin with!

Here's a really blurry picture of the rice granules.  The one on the left is the uncooked rice and the on the right is the cooked rice.  It's plumped up and it's let off all it's starch.


 

Now you can leave the rice the way it is or you can add cheese to it.  I like to add a cup of Parmesan cheese and 4oz of goat cheese.  The parmesan cheese just melts right in and adds a little saltiness so I'd suggest adding that no matter what.  The goat cheese is more a personal taste preference.  It makes it creamier but it also makes it tangier.  It pairs nicely with the white wine and I love goat cheese (P.S. warm goat cheese on a salad is delicious!) so I add it.


  

Once all the cheese is mixed in, add the roasted vegetables and the onions and mushrooms.

 Look at that yummy scrumptiousness!

Yummy, yummy, yummy!  Enjoy!

Baking Obsession

I'm going on a baking spree.  I don't know why, I think it's because it's Lent and I'm not allowed to eat sweets so I'm overcompensating by making lots of sweets for other people.  Or maybe it's because I won this little guy the other day for the office bake-off. 

Or maybe I'm just in a rough spot right now and need to bake.  Baking is my stress reliever, I feel so happy and calm and centered when I'm in the kitchen baking.  Now I'd feel even calmer and more centered if I was the ONLY one in the kitchen and could just zone out, but that doesn't happen normally. 

Or maybe it's because I saw this book at Christmas for Small One since she brings in cupcakes for her friends birthdays (and when you see that, don't think that she's amazing.  I normally make everything she sends in and all her friends bring in cupcakes for the birthday person.  I feel really bad when she comes home with all these droopy, sloppy boxed cake and frosting cupcakes on her birthday because I know people spent time and money on them, but seriously I'm NOT wasting calories on some unworthy baked good just because I feel bad!) but I didn't end up getting it and saw it in the library the other day and got really inspired to make cupcakes. 
 

Or maybe it's because the cupcakes that I made from the book turned out deliciously but the frosting was rock hard and weird. 

I took that as a challenge.  I WILL find a new recipe for cupcakes and frosting and it WILL be delicious and it WILL look professional!  Or maybe not.  I'm gonna give cupcakes one more chance then just stick to cookies. For some reason I can do cookies.  I don't know why but I've figured out how to bake cookies and somehow my frosting just clicks.  One would think that making a frosting swirl on top of a cupcake would be a lot easier than piping a santa face on a cookie but for me it isn't.  

Those were some of my favorite cookies to date :)

But after some extensive cupcake research on the internet I ran across an interesting recipe.  I'll admit, I like a denser cupcake.  Something more like a cake.  Not those light, airy, insubstantial (yet calorie and chemical packed) out of the box cupcakes.  And before you get all mad at me for saying that boxed cake mix has chemicals in it (I bet you can't pronounce all the ingredients either!) I have to confess that in college I ate boxed cake mix.  Plain.  Normally in the middle of the night.  With multiple hours left to go on projects.  And it was DELICIOUS.  But it's bad for me sooooo yeah. 

Anyway, this cupcake recipe that I looked up promised to be a bit denser.  It was showcased on the Martha Stewart show called Billy's Vanilla Vanilla cupcakes.  The interesting thing about these cupcakes was that instead of creaming the butter and sugar together and then adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, you instead mix all the dry ingredients plus the sugar together and THEN you cut in the butter like you were making biscuits.  But you're not making biscuits so then you add the wet ingredients and it turns into cake batter and voila!  A cupcake! 

They were pretty tasty right out of the oven.  They were a little dry today when I could finally have sweets and try them out so I don't know if the recipe's a keeper or not, but I'll have to make them again to see.  The recipe made a lot of cupcakes though.  As in 41 cupcakes!  So I frosted half of them and saved the rest to experiment with making cake balls.  We'll see how those turn out when I can find lollipop sticks. 

So yes, those were my baking travails of this past week.  Now it's on to more cookie baking and planning for Fake Patty's Day!

Howdy Texas

So I took a work trip to Dallas a few weekends ago.  I had a great time and had to remind myself that I was there for work ;)  Here are a few pictures from my trip there.

This was the car that was waiting for us at the airport!  Ummmmm  let's just say I was a wee bit embarrassed!  Who rides in a stretch SUV limo really?!  Town cars are where it's at people ;)

The inside was just as cheesy!  Look at that super retro tv and the blue light on the drink dispensers!  It was amusing but I must say it was so nice to have the travel all taken care of and limos were a great way to transport lots of people and not have to crawl into the very back of large vans like everyone else we saw at the conference.

Here I am looking out of the window in my room the night I got in.  It was a cool shot :)  And I was on the 20th floor!  Hi Dallas!

This picture set the tone for my entire trip.  I like to drink A LOT of water while I'm traveling.  It's because I get dehydrated fast and when I get dehydrated my ankles swell.  This all started when I flew to Italy a few years ago.  I got to my hotel room and my ankles were massive!  I spent the next hour lying on the ground with my feet against the wall.  If only I had known that I was just dehydrated!  I don't know what it is, but I think it's a combination of the forced air and pressurized cabin along with the fact that the airplane seats are a little too high so that cuts off some circulation.  Either way, I drink water, lots of water, when I travel.  It actually became the running joke of the trip!  I would horde all the free water bottles they gave out at the events we went to.  I always had a water bottle in my purse.  Those limos I was teasing about at the beginning?  Yeah they all have water in them!  I took two mini water bottles each ride we took :)  And no, in case you were wondering, I didn't have to run to the bathroom every two minutes either (which tells you how much I needed the water in the first place!).

Here is one side of my room, and the window seat where I took the window picture.

Here is me on my bed looking at the other side of the room.  So, funny thing about this picture, I sent it to Sarah and she said "wow that's a big mirror in your room!" And if you look at it, it does look like a giant mirror!  But that's just a line in the ceiling creating an optical illusion.  See the chair and the lamp?  They're not reflections, they are actually on the other side of the line and the desk with the mirror and the chair are on the other side.  Really weird :)

My favorite part of the entire vacation?  The hotel bathroom! 

More specifically, THE SHOWER!  I probably spent HOURS in the shower.  I think I took twice as many showers as I needed to just so I could use the shower multiple times.  It was glorious and gorgeous, and there's something sexy about taking a shower in a see-through enclosure ;)  ANYWAY, I loved the shower.  Once I spent half an hour rinsing my hair just looking at the construction and envisioning how I could install one in my parents' bathroom (I don't own my own place so I can't build one for myself).  It actually looks pretty easy . . .

The first night we went to a fancy french restaurant and then one of the guys and I were going to a college reunion party so this is what I chose to wear!  The dress is from White House Black Market and it lacy, and the t-strap peep-toe heels are BCBG.  I thought I looked like I belonged at the expensive restaurant.  Fake it till you make it right!?

Sunday morning I went to church with one of my friends who lives in Dallas, then we met up with some of our other friends (also in town) and went out to eat a delicious lunch.  I then had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the rodeo that night.  The rodeo was held for all the mechanical engineers coming to a product display.  This was one of the bull riders.

This was one of the bucking broncos.  Those were cool events.  Actually all the skills events were fun to watch, the rest of the rodeo was AWFUL!  No really it was awful.  Have you ever been to a rodeo?  Maybe it was different than this one which could have been just a spectacle for show, but between the clown who was supposed to provide comic relief who instead just made very inappropriate jokes and the trick riders wearing camo and the announcer yelling AMERICA every two minutes and the obstacle course they had people from the audience participate in, it was just a ridiculous waste of time.  Oh well, it was free and now I can say I've been to a rodeo.

The next morning I got up and went for a run with the other woman I work with who came on the trip.  Then we grabbed breakfast before we headed to the AHR Expo which was why we were actually on the trip!  But the best thing about breakfast was that I got tea!!!  I drink hot tea every morning and iced tea throughout the rest of the day, so to have gone two whole days without any type of tea was all sorts of torture!

That night we went to two company sponsored parties and this is what I wore.  The skirt actually has golden threads running through it making it sparkle.  Btw, both the top and the skirt I bought that day on sale from Banana Republic!  Did I mention that the hotel we stayed at was attached to the Galleria? (that's a big mall in dallas)  I remember going to the Galleria when we visited my aunt in Dallas years and years ago and now I'm staying at hotels there!  How times change ;)

These parties are pretty elaborate ones for the companies to show off, but they're nice to attend :)  This was the first party of the night on the 69th floor, the top floor!  This is a picture out the window from where the party was.  It was super high!  It was also super windy that night.  It was a bit disconcerting to see the windows shaking every time a gust hit the building . . . I stayed far away from the windows after taking this picture!


 

This is the building in the daytime.  So I was on the top floor of that, a little bit crazy to think about.

Here was the second party we went to.  It was held at the opera house in Dallas and it was a gorgeous space!

Did I mention they had the best chocolate desserts!?  I had five mini desserts :)  And wine, with a light-up ice cube!  It was fun.

These were the stairs up to the second floor.  I felt like such a celebrity walking up and down those stairs.  I think I mentioned to multiple people that I could get used to a life where I got dressed up and went to the opera ;)

The next day we went back to the expo before getting on the plane.  We had to check out of the hotel that morning before we went to the expo, but I managed to take a picture of my recycling bin before I left.  It was completely full of water bottles!  What can I say, my ankles didn't swell once ;)

Random Ramblings 4

Adding to my prince charming quest:  Here's another qualification.  He must go to the ballet with me.  Now I don't want him to adore the ballet and aspire to someday be a performer.  I've always wanted to be a ballet dancer (I took one year of lessons when I was six.  I obviously chased that dream didn't I?)  so he couldn't be a ballet dancer because then our dreams would compete and since my dream failed I'd end up resenting him!  Moral of that triade: he can't be a ballet dancer.  But he does have to take me to the ballet.  And I'm using ballet as an example.  How many times have you asked your boyfriend (or heard people ask their boyfriend) if they could go to the ballet one night and all you hear immediately is the boyfriend say "NO, I HATE the ballet.  THe ballet is STUPID.  Who would want to go sit through THAT?!"  Trust me, I know you'd be lying if you said you'd never heard a guy say this.  The thing is, as soon as a guy says this he's essentially telling you that he HATES your choices, and the things you like and enjoy are STUPID.  And it's not like it's not important to you, you wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important.  So I guess what I want from a guy is for him to support me and my interests.  I know that as a girl I might not enjoy going to watch a nascar race (although why I'd date a guy into watching cars drive in a circle is beyond me) or tailgating in sub-zero temperatures, and I probably wouldn't do either of those things on a regular basis, but every once in a while I'd be willing to go just to make them happy and I'd try my hardest to not complain because that would ruin their enjoyment.  I enjoy the ballet because of the graceful dancers in beautiful costumes dancing to gorgeous music.  If a guy can't suck it up and enjoy himself at the ballet for one night out of the whole year, he's not the guy for me!
   

I hate subway tile.  You know what subway tile reminds me of?  A subway!  A dark, underground, dank space lit by fluorescent lights that reflect off the not-so-white-anymore subway tile and make everything look green.  All these tv shows and pintetst pins "omg subway tile back-splash"  "omg subway tile shower"!  Um NO. 

The bathroom stinks again :(  We had a three day weekend the other week.  Well let me clarify, I didn't but OTHER people did, namely the office across the lobby.  And that day was GLORIOUS!  I could use the bathroom without having to hold my breath or breathe into my sleeve!  Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit but it smells after they use the bathroom.  I understand that there are some times when people need to use the restroom and sometimes it's smelly, but these women must make a conscious decision to be smelly every day if you get what I mean.  They need to stop eating fiber or something.  Essentially they're weird and annoying and it was awesome that they weren't there.  End of story. 

Do you find it as amusing as I do to see old friends from college and have them be all responsible now?!  You'll see them at a reunion party or at a football game at your alma mater and they're all "Hi how are you?!" "How are things going?!" "Meet my girlfriend/fiance/wife."  And all I can do is look at them and smile while secretly remembering some of our shared escapades ;)  We all have memories from college that our present selves would like to conveniently gloss over and will conveniently not mention to significant others in our lives.  Even so, I think those memories create a bond between you and your college friends.  I'll never start a conversation with the new gf/fiance/wife with the subject of "hey so do you wanna know what your boyfriend did one night at that one person's house while it was snowing that included cowboy hats, and a fashion show?!"  (I personally did not witness the fashion show but my friend did lol).  I'll just say "hi, nice to meet you" but when I catch the eye of my old friend we'll both know.  I just find it amusing, but it makes me worry a bit about what my future boyfriends conveniently aren't telling me . . . 

That's it for now!  On to finish watching the latest episode of Elementary!  Dang it I forgot to record the Bachelor!   (I refuse to watch that show but the current one is from my alma mater so I figured I was contractually obligated to watch this season)

Diet Cravings

So I'm heading down to Dallas in a week or so for a work conference.  Of course I decided to use that as an excuse to jump start my New Year's resolutions and try and lose weight.  Now there's not a lot of weight you can lose in two weeks, but at least I can fit into my jeans now!  All I've essentially done is reduce my calories and try to cut out sweets and snacks.  Anyway, as is the case with most diets, I get cravings.

My most recent craving this morning was for scones. 

I used to eat scones all the time in college.  My thought process was if you don't buy it you won't eat it.  So my apartment was devoid of all calorie laden yumminess like chocolate or candy.  This didn't stop me from craving calorie laden yumminess though.  So my solution was to make scones.

Now these weren't any amazing scones or anything.  They were essentially just flour, sugar, baking powder, and some butter.  They were perfect because I had everything at my apartment and didn't have to make a quick run to the grocery store at 1am while studying for a test.  I could just whip up a batch and chow down into the night until I fell into a sleep deprived coma (always praying that I'd hear my alarm and wake up in time for the test (I also had my parents call me on those mornings to make sure I was awake)).  Pretty soon I got even lazier and just started making the strawberry shortcake recipe using bisquik.  So I guess I wasn't eating scones at all but instead shortcakes minus the strawberries!

Anyway, they were simple to put together, quick to bake, decently low in calories, and delicious warm out of the oven or cold out of the fridge for snack the next few days.  Ah how I miss that carby, sugary, buttery goodness.  So here's my craving recipe for you so you can make it if you're trying to be healthy too!  It's ok I won't tell ;)

Here is what you need:  Milk, bisquick (I use the heart smart), butter, and sugar.

Spoon the bisquick into the measuring cup.  If you've ever baked with Bisquick you'll know that it clumps.  So it's easiest to get the right amount by spooning it.

Add the sugar to the Bisquick.  Mix them together before adding anything else.

Next add the milk.

Mix it together till it forms clumps.

Now add the melted butter and mix it together till all incorporated.

Form the dough into biscuits.  You can make 6 for 250 calories each or you can make 8 for about 190 calories each.  

Recipe:

2 1/3 cups Bisquick® mix

1/2 cup skim milk

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons melted butter

Nummy nummy!  They're even better if you refrigerate them.  Happy snacking!