30 by 30

On my 27th birthday, I challenged myself to lose 28 pounds by my 28th birthday.

I almost did that. I'm still 9 pounds away, but what's 9 pounds after 19?

Today is my 28th birthday, so it's time for a new challenge.

I'm hopping on the bandwagon of 30 by 30 challenges. That is to say, by the time I turn 30 I will have baked/cooked/made all the following semi-ambitious dishes. 95% of them are fattening, but I'm thinking that by starting with a 2-year lead time, I can make one per month (doubling up closer toward the big 3-0) and consider these fattening, ambitious dishes a monthly treat.

In no particular order, I will attempt:

1. Fresh pasta
2. Lobster rolls
3. Duck (suggestions on how to prepare welcome)
4. Fried calamari
5. Bananas Foster
6. Mozzarella cheese
7. Candied bacon
8. Spanakopita
9. Filled cupcakes
10. Queso fundido
11. Lemon meringue pie
12. Soft pretzels
13. Cured meat (thinking pastrami, salami, or chorizo)
14. Potato chips
15. Guiness chocolate cake (made brownies, same thing).
16. Sticky buns
17. Croissants
18. Graham crackers
19. Flavored margaritas
20. Chocolate pudding
21. Potato bread
22. Crepes
23. A whole fish
24. Naan
25. Beef Wellington
26. Buckeyes
27. Gnocchi
28. Fried yeast donuts
29. Empanadas
30. Clam chowder

Specifying "by 30" may make it sound like I'm freaking out about turning 30. I'm really not - I still have two solid years of my twenties to be a twentysomething, dumb at times if the situation warrants. By 30, I hope to have children, and some of these recipes will be great to have under my belt by then. Needless to say, I'll be blogging along the way in an attempt to hold myself to these challenges.

Cheers to my twenties!

New Page: What's For Dinner?

More often than not, my dinners are inspired by other bloggers, when I have a chance to read blogs on breaks throughout the day. When I don't have time, I sometimes find myself at a loss. For my own purposes, I think in a year from now it would be helpful to have a comprensive list of everything I cooked and ate over the previous year for those nights that I just don't know what to cook - even listing trips to restaurants, and linking back to blog posts with recipes - if I have deemed the dish blog-worthy, of course.

Additionally, I thought this page may be a better glimpse into my every day, after several comments referred to me as a "rich cook" and asking "how are you not as big as a house?" Because I only post sporadically, what I post is not representative of what I eat every day! When I have a recipe that is special, that is unique or different from what I eat every day, that is when I deem it blog-worthy.

What do you think? Would a list like this inspire your next dinner?

Restaurant Detox: Part One

I stared at my July bank account statment in complete shock, adding the numbers up in my head as I scrolled down the list of transactions from familiar names - restaurant names.

Taco Bell - $12.38
Unique Flavors Cafe - $16.06
Hardees - $13.42
Hard Rock Cafe - $23.74
Sweet CeCe's - $2.39
Calypso Cafe - $18.40
Jackson's Bistro - $22.43
South Street Smokehouse - $23.70
PM - $31.71
Calypso Cafe - $12.61
Unique Flavors Cafe - $7.87

Gah! On top of my regular grocery budget - you know, the excessive one that keeps my pantry bursting at its seams - I'd spent an additional $185 on restaurant meals. How did I allow that to happen? Do I do that every month? How many pairs of shoes would $185 buy me? How in God's name did I spend almost $13 at Taco Bell?

Flummoxed, I rifled through my bank statements for June and May and found the same ridiculous truth: I spend way too much money on restaurant meals, always on top of my grocery budget. The worst realization is that for many of my July restaurant meals, Josh and I went Dutch. How much food was I eating? How much was I drinking?

I vowed to myself that during the entire month of August, I would not buy a single meal at a restaurant. If somebody wanted to foot the bill, I'd let them treat, but I would not plunk down my evil debit card once at a restaurant, cafe, creperie, bistro, bakery, greasy spoon, or bar.

So far, I've stuck to it. I bought $28 worth of groceries last night and our first big shopping trip of the month will be this Friday (payday). I cooked for Missy's birthday instead of meeting her out for dinner, Josh's parents took us out for Chinese buffet on Sunday, my boss is taking me to lunch on Wednesday, and I've gone home for lunch every day aside from that.

But the month is still young. I'm obviously loyal to certain establishments - they know me at Unique Flavors. My friend Ashley has invited me out for Zumba and frozen yogurt on Monday. I've mentally made an exception for $2 worth of frozen yogurt, as a reward for both reaching the halfway point and attending my first Zumba class.

Perhaps I'll find a couple pairs of shoes so worth having given up restaurants for a month that I might even keep it up through September...provided somebody wants to buy me a cupcake for my birthday. In the meantime, I'll think some more about the opportunity cost of a month's worth of meals out, versus the shoes, concert tickets, extra car payments, night of bowling, magazine subscriptions, day trip out of town, great bottles of wine, new blender, etc. I could have been buying instead.

Eek.

Note: not a single picture in this post came from my camera or belongs to me in any regard. All pictures are from the Attribution License Flickr stream, and are simply for representative/example purposes. Credit has been given where credit is due and all pictures are linked back to their respective owners.

I just joined the Daring Bakers and the Daring Cooks, as a means to stretch out my usual repertoire with new and interesting dishes and desserts. The Daring Kitchen is sort of an online phenomenon - hundreds or maybe thousands of food bloggers and non-bloggers alike participate in a monthly challenge to recreate the designated recipe exactly as-is, and post their successes or failures, along with photos and thoughts on the recipe - good or bad.

A little fear has set in, I must say. There are strict deadlines and guidelines, for starters, but some of the past dishes are a little intimidating. For a few examples, The Bakers have tackled:

 Croquembouche

http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangelimey/

Chocolate eclairs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/misbehave/

 Cannoli

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37601286@N06/

And macarons, the thought of which make me shake in my stilettos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10918289@N07/

The Cooks have taken on:

Greek Mezze

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32356625@N00/

Vietnamese Phở

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m500/

And Gnocchi (The Cooks are a relatively new inception; I couldn't find nearly as many examples).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcofedele/

Just slightly intimidating, no?

Thank you to my longtime friend and perpetual supporter Angela for the inspiration that led me to joining the group! I can't wait to share some new dishes and desserts with my friends. Wish me luck as I muddle through this new adventure, and please stay tuned for Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks posts - I'll post one of each every month among my usual posts. Maybe you'll be inspired to play along also!

New Life and a Black Thumb

I am so smitten with these tee-tiny baby eggplants. This one can't be bigger than my thumb, but it's already vibrantly purple. I check up on it every day, thrilled with its progress as it progressively increases in size.

 

Same goes for these - they're called Jellybean Tomatoes. They grow on a chain, like grapes. I'm willing to bet that the majority of these adorable little babies won't even make it into the house.
 

Why did I accept a bag of 21 cucumbers from a co-worker? I don't even LIKE cucumbers - I feel like they make everything else on my plate taste like cucumbers. But I do like pickles...guess this is as good a time as any to learn how to pickle and can.

I accepted 21 cucumbers from a coworker. Even though I don't like them. Even though we have our own growing in the backyard.

I should let you know that this garden is Josh's handiwork, by my request. "I don't want to have anything to do with it," I told him. "I'm a jinx and I'll kill everything." He laughed of course, but I don't think it's far from the truth to call myself a jinx.

My dad has always remarked on my "black thumb," reminding me every summer I tell him that I'm giving gardening yet another shot, of when I was little and so excited about the prospect of food growing in the back yard. One year he offered to put aside a little patch of soil just for me, and I planted strawberries, flowers and string beans. Needless to say, none of the plants yielded, due to my inattention (forgetting to water) or excessive attention (drowning them when I remembered I forgot to water), and as probably anticipated, they all very quickly shriveled up and died in the hot Texas sun. My plant slaughter wasn't exclusive to that one summer, otherwise I might think differently.

Alas, it holds true to this day. Last Saturday while it rained and rained and rained, I found myself desperate for cilantro. Despite having a new rational fear of rain, I ran outside to pluck a few sprigs from the already-fledgling plant. In my haste, I managed to pull the whole damn thing out of the ground, roots and all. I briefly considered re-planting it as I stood there soaked and bewildered, but dejected with the realization that my father was right, I instead returned to the house wet with a fistfull of dirty cilantro, knowing that I'd have stay far away for the rest of the summer, lest I harm any more innocent vegetation.

Is it possible that people really are predestined to have either a green or black thumb? Or am I just clumsy, forgetful and impulsive?

I miss my cilantro.