Blue-Rugula Burgers

I made this days ago and have been way too lazy to post. Grad school tends to do that to a person. Totally stole the whole recipe from Rachael Ray, who I'm not normally a huge fan of. (Her crazy level of energy just makes me feel bad about myself- I can't muster her normal level of energy after like 12 hours of sleep and 2 red bulls). I am, however, a huge fan of burgers, blue cheese and arugula, so I just had to try.

Blue-Rugula Burgers

For once I actually tried this recipe out almost exactly as is (I didn't have her fancy rolls, so I just toasted some 99cent burger buns). If I had to do it over I think the amount of Worcestershire sauce was a bit much, next time I'd probably cut it down by a tbsp. But all-in-all the burgers were pretty delicious. I'd definitely make this again.

Quick & Easy Tomato Sauce

So I found a new food blog today and discovered that my quick and easy tomato sauce that I have been using for years was on it! The funny thing is that I actually got this recipe from reading Nicolas Sparks' Nights in Rodanthe. One of the scenes has the two main characters cooking and they share this secret sauce. After reading I thought to myself, "Hey why not, this sounds easy and yummy" and subsequently tried it out. It was delicious and is ridiculously easier than cooking your gravy all day like I'd previously learned from my Italian family members. Anyway, just thought it was funny that apparently this is not just some weird figment of Nicolas Sparks literature that I decided to take seriously and an actual recipe that's going around the net. (Oh and using San Marzanos is not optional- it is the magical ingredient!)

My Grandmother's Sausage Gravy & Biscuits

So my grandmother is one of the funniest people I've ever known. She can seriously have us all laughing hysterically with tears streaming down our faces and she's 89 years old. (Although she looks like 65 due to her superior Native American skin- which unfortunately I did NOT inherit. Of course.) My grandmother also happens to make the best damn sausage gravy ever. She is from Arkansas after all. I attribute much of my love of food to her since she has passed on her ability to eat food super slowly while savoring every minute to me. (Of course I get that and not the great skin).

Side story- As a kid a cousin of mine who ate super fast was told he could have his third slice of pizza after I finished my first... Two hours later I was still nibbling on the crust and he was eyeing me with as much hatred in his eyes as a 4 year old could muster.

Soo regardless of how fast you eat it, I am about to share my grandmother's southern sausage gravy recipe and it is delicious. It is the best Saturday morning breakfast ever! (Aside from my cousin Francis' homemade cinnamon bun recipe which perhaps I will share some day.)

Pop some pre-made biscuit dough into the oven (I like the Immaculate Baking Company's All Natural Biscuits)

In a pan cook 1lb of country sausage (I used First Place Premium Country Sausage)

Once sausage is cooked through add in 1/3 c of flour and mix in with the sausage

Add 2 c of water and keep stirring

After a few minutes the gravy will thicken up and you can slather the gravy all over the biscuits you've just baked.

Mmmmm. (They taste better than they look. I'm aware that this pic looks scary.) BTW I am making this as my Saturday night dinner, so clearly this is an anytime food!

Ahhh the Weekend...

So I have about a bajillion things on my to-do list this weekend, including cleaning the apartment which took up the entire morning. (Yea it was that messy... OK fine, dirty). Ugh. I hate cleaning. My goal in life is to find a life partner that will clean up after me. Unfortunately my life partner really hates doing that. Pshh. Anyway, so in spite of all the crap that I need to get done I am determined to keep trying out new recipes. For lunch I'm going to try to make pasta salad:

I made up my own recipe, but used this site for a template.

Cook 1 lb of bow-tie pasta. Drain and let it cool by spreading it out in a large baking sheet.

Chop up 2 lbs of veggies. I used cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and onions. ( I also tried to use cucumbers, but my cucumber had frozen in my stupid fridge.)

Add in 2 tbs. of Italian (flat-leafed) parsley.

Add in 1/2 c of blue cheese, 1/2 c of walnuts, salt and pepper

Finally stir everything together with 1 c of balsamic vinaigrette (I used Ken's Steakhouse Balsamic Basil Vinaigrette).

Enjoy!

Home for Lunch!

I had supervision at 8:30am this morning and had originally planned to stay at school and get some paperwork during the day... However, I had much difficulty waking up this morning and did not get up early enough to get properly ready to spend a whole day at school (i.e., didn't have time to get properly dressed to teach a class or make lunch). So I rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes, went to supervision and then came home. Now again, I should be working on my dissertation or manuscript, buuut I figure that can wait for tomorrow (now do you see the total lack of research motivation!).

Anyway, that left me time to make lunch. I'm a foodie if you cannot yet tell and often crave very specific things that I need to have right away. Kind of like a pregnant woman, but like all the time. So this morning I woke up with a craving for a sandwich and so I decided to make a gourmet grilled cheese:

I toasted 2 slices of sourdough bread.

Made a garlic mayo: 1/3 c of mayo, 1 tsp of garlic, 1tsp of paprika, salt & pepper to taste.

Broiled some provolone cheese on top of the sourdough with the mayo spread across.

And topped with sliced cherry tomatoes & arugula.

I might try it again with a less powerful cheese. The provolone kind of overpowered the mayo. But it was delish- especially with the side of Ruffles Sour Cream & Cheddar Chips. It would have been totally complete with a pickle, but I didn't have any. Darn. Now I am totally craving pickles...

Monday Mealtime

So I went into school today thinking it would be a full day and came to realize it was MLK Jr. Day. Thus our clinic was closed, there was no chance I could schedule a client and I couldn't go down and make copies for my class tomorrow. I did come to realize that I had a meeting scheduled today, which I did not have in my planner- so it's a good thing I showed up. But needless to say I got out mid-afternoon, ran some errands and then came home to work. (OK fine- procrastinate).

I ended up trying out some new recipes: Stuffed mushrooms and arugula salad with a homemade vinaigrette. I got both recipes from Giada on the FoodNetwork.

Arugula Salad:
I used her exact vinaigrette recipe (minus the white wine, since i didn't have any), but used different ingredients in the salad itself. I tossed the vinaigrette with arugula, raisins, almonds and parmesan cheese.

Stuffed Mushrooms:
I used her exact recipe (minus the mint, since I didn't have any). I also didn't have 28 mushrooms, so I used a bit less of each ingredient, which worked out just fine.

Once school starts I have a feelings it's going to get harder to cook, but I'm going to try to keep it up. The last two day's of recipes have been delish!

Realization...

So apparently I only write on this blog when it's time to do research... I was looking at old posts and realized that I started doing the blog when I was working on my master's, tried again to work on the blog when I was working on my dissertation proposal and am now trying AGAIN to work on the blog when I am supposed to be starting to analyze my dissertation data. Coincidence? I think not! If I hadn't already realized this awhile ago- this would be a pretty big wake-up call that research is clearly not my passion in life. I do enjoy it once I get into it, but it's really not something I can do all the time. There will be no pumping out of manuscript after manuscript for me. One every year or three is more like it. Oh well, luckily I love my clinical work more than enough to make up for this lack of research drive...

Lots of big changes have been happening over the past few months. The BF is opening up a restaurant in about a week, I've been interviewing for internships in the Northeast, and this should be my last semester down here in Texas. I'm having trouble believing my 4 years here are coming to a close forever. At this point my life is kinda up in the air. I have no clue what I will be doing (or where I will be doing it next year), hence I'm not sure if Chris and I will be able to start living together or not. Frankly at this point I'm not even sure when I'm going to see Chris again, because he's going to be so busy with the restaurant over the next few months. In case you don't know, not having a clear plan for the future year, let alone next few months is not fun for me. I am a planner. I do not like uncertainty or having a lack of control over my life. So it's a pretty anxiety filled time for me right now. Hence I am trying to come up with things to do to manage my anxiety and try to grow from this experience.

One of those things is trying out new recipes and today's recipe is Chicken Chili. The idea for this recipe came from watching the Barefoot Contessa yesterday, but I've played around with it a bit:

In a big pot saute 2 small (or 1 large) onions and garlic in olive oil
Add 2 chopped peppers (I used green, can use any color)
Add 2 cans of San Marzano tomatoes (I bought them whole and then crushed them in the blender)
Add 1 shredded roasted chicken (I bought the already roasted one at the grocery store- it makes this recipe super easy!)
Add 1 can of Cannellini beans
Add a package of Chili Seasoning (I used McCormick), Salt, Pepper & Red Pepper flakes to taste
Simmer until all the flavors have blended together nicely (or until the football game you're watching goes to half-time...)
Serve with shredded cheese broiled onto the top and tortilla chips- yum!