Dear Darla Diaries

cooking, clothing and perhaps a little random

Tonight I whipped up a batch of delicious goodness taken from a recipe posted by Carol from Songs of Joy at BlogHer, based on an original/age old standard from a recipe by Ree at PW. (You can also do Pico De Gallo and Guac if you prefer.)

Restaurant Style Salsa

• 1-28 oz can Whole Peeled Tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel Tomatoes (I think there are three varieties, I have used them all but usually stay with Original)
• 1 Jalapeño, Sliced & Diced (seeds & all)
• 1/4-1/2 Onion (approx 1/2 cup), chopped
• 1/2 Lime, juiced
• 1 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt (or to your taste)
• 2 pinches of Sugar
• Cilantro (as much as you'd like)

Season to your taste - if you prefer more Chili Powder then add more, if you're not a big fan of Cumin (what is wrong with you???) then reduce it (please don't leave it out...I might have to cry).  

Pulse all ingredients together until the salsa is the texture you like...chunky, smooth...oh the choices...

source: BlogHer article

Let me tell you it is awesome and right up my ally of very little ingredients, very little time and huge results! PW and her allies rock the kitchen as normal. I have done the pico a million times but never a puried salsa like this.

Courtney Carver posted a thought provoking article on the subject of style and a thing she created called Project 333, also on BlogHer.

[Project 333] The Basics

• When: Every three months (It’s never too late to start so join in anytime!)
• What: 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes.
• What not: these items are not counted as part of the 33 items – wedding ring or another sentimental piece of jewelry that you never take off, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear,  and workout clothing (you can only wear your workout clothing to workout)
• How: Choose your 33 items, box up the remainder of your fashion statement, seal it with tape and put it out of site.
• What else: consider that you are creating a wardrobe that you can live, work and play in for three months. Remember that this is not a project in suffering. If your clothes don’t fit or are in poor condition, replace them.

She mentions 7 ways it improved her life including timeliness, money saving, self esteem, healthiness and her sanity. I would highly recommend reading the whole piece and consider doing the same.

Ryan is covering a trip through the wine country over at ThisIsReverb. He made quite the thought provoking statement that reverbed through my soul.

Ryan Detzel is the name, amatuer photography, parenting, spousing, witnessing, cooking and many other things the game.

"As I look upon the stars, remembering every now and again that earth is such a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena – I am once again aware of this blip called life. It’s shorter and shorter the longer and longer in the tooth you’ve become. With age comes wisdom, but time also speeds up. Before we know it the end is here unless the end isn’t really the end at all."

I would highly recommend the BlogHer ap for andro.ds and iph.nes for all you geek reading tech heads. It's a very thorough conglomerate of women bloggers covering many topics like geekery, children, healthy, food, money, exercise and the like. It also lends itself to crossweb blogfodder, as previously seen.

 

little sparrow dumplings

My coworker MarvelousMark and his lovely wife Suze wrote me their personnel recipe for "spätzle" a popular German dish. It is so incredibly great to me that my new German American friends are so friendly and helpful to all my wacky curiosities and inquisitive nature. I mentioned wanting to take a cooking class and they surprise me with a recipe. If that don't beat all. I'll still take the class I'm sure, and drag the MIL with me, but I definitely am not complaining about a great new recipe to try. I wanted to share with you, as it was given to me:

 

spätzle (or "spaetzle")

[the dough]
500 gr floour
4 eggs
1-2 teaspoons salt.

Mix the flour, the eggs, the salt and 1/4 L water (handwarm)
Then boil 3 L water and add some salt.
 

For the next step you need:
a) > a spätzle vogel    or
b) > a spätzledrücker    or
c) > a small cuttingboard & a sknife with a large straight blade

If you take c:
Put some dough on the cuttingboard & scrape small pieces into the boiling water.
The spätzle are done when they float on the surface [of the water.]

Variation:

If you want kaisespätzle with cheese:

Grate 200 gr emmentaler [swiss cheese] before you make the spätzle. Also cut some onions in small rings. [DANGER! Use Safety Goggles!]

Heat up the oven / turn on the oven up to 200* C.

Melt some butter in a pan & throw the onions into the pan. Till they are golden.

Put the spätzle (once cooked) into a casserole & spread some cheese and pepper over it. Put in into the oven until the next spätzle are done. [Put the spätzle mix in the oven to stay warm between layers] Repeat this step until there's no more dough or the casserole is full. [Layer spätzl, onions and cheese like lasagna, sauce and cheese in the pan.]

Brown mixture for 5 minutes.

Serve salat! [salad] For the health.

epicurious had good notes on the matter:

spaetzle
[SHPEHT-sluh, SHPEHT-sehl, SHPEHT-slee]
Literally translated from German as "little sparrow," spaetzle is a dish of tiny noodles or dumplings made with flour, eggs, water or milk, salt and sometimes nutmeg. The spaetzle dough can be firm enough to be rolled and cut into slivers or soft enough to be forced through a SIEVE or COLANDER with large holes. The small pieces of dough are usually boiled before being tossed with butter or added to soups or other dishes. In Germany, spaetzle is served as a side dish much like potatoes or rice, and is often accompanied by a sauce or gravy.

sweet and spicy mouthwatering shrimp goodness

It's another cross link to PioneerWoman but what can I say, Ree is just that good in the kitchen. I broke out her Spicy Shrimp recipe last week for a deployment sendoff party. It was worth every finger licking bit. I hadn't realized how perfect a shrimp cooking sauce of Worchestire sauce, Tabasco, butter and shrimp could be. 10 minutes in the oven and it's crispy, crunchy perfection with the juice of the gods to dip toasty french bread in. Trust me, it is that good and if you don't believe me you should believe our friends who helped polish off every last bit of it. (One of whom rarely ventures beyond the basics of food anything and won't touch spicy with a ten foot pole. I'm pretty sure his wife was speechless when he dove into a second piece and actually said "this is good!") When paired with MrD's famous Korean inspired teriyaki infused barbecued short ribs and beer and barecue marinated tri tips, it's better than Outback with a fraction of the cost.

oh sweet and fluffy

Without a scrap of bisquick or pancake mix in the house and craving the little flapjacks like mad, I sought the old school scratch advice on Google. Much to my delight I found a winner that produced happy fluffy little disks of gold like mom used to make.

Delicious Pancake Madness

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of white sugar
1 1/4 cup of cold milk
1 egg
3 tablespoon of melted butter

Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat - or cooking pan of choice.

Step 1: Sift all dry ingredients together

Step 2: Stir all wet ingredients until blended in separate bowl

Step 3: Pour wet ingredients into center of dry ingredients. Stir until blended

Step 4: To cook scoop a 1/4 - 1/3 cup of batter onto hot, buttered skillet. When bubbles begin to bubble and pop on surface, and edges begin to brown, flip pancake. Cook another 1-2 minutes or until both sides are golden brown. If unsure, test pancake by cutting into center of pancake.

Recipe makes about 8-10 pancakes if using a 1/4 - 1/3 cup measuring cup to dole batter on pan.

oh delicious lover

One of my all time favorite comfort foods is mac-n-cheese. The ooey gooey delicious melt onto my tongue cheesiness coats my throat and soothes all the crinkly irritation in my tummy. I'm not sure if it's because it evokes memories of my family gathered around a triple box of the old school generic kind and a side of a fried chicken or my first home made batch with a yummy crispy topping.

Ree, who I've been a long time fan of over at Pioneer Woman, posted a great recipe of this addiction:

I highly recommend you go check it out.

baked pasghetti pie

You know they love your food when they swarm around it like overweight malnourished kittens begging for the last drop in the gallon of milk.

Baked Spaghetti Pasghetti Pie
[Makes 1 11x17 baking dish]
Food:
2 lbs hamburger, cooked and drained
2 jars spaghetti sauce (cooks choice)
1 can rotel (stewed tomatoes with peppers)
3 cups shredded cheese
(I broken it down as 1.5 cups shredded parmesan
and 1.5 cups shredded cheddar) (Once again cooks choice)
2 lbs of long spaghetti noodles

Cookware:
1 large skillet
1 large pasta pot
1 glass 11x17 baking dish
1 broiler pan and tray or 1 cookie sheet

Other stuff:
Nonstick cooking spray or olive oil
Garlic powder
Italian Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Butter or Margarine
1 loaf Thin Italian sliced bread

Cook It Up!
Brown hamburger and drain. Put hamburger back in skillet along with the spaghetti sauce and rotel. Toss in spices of choice (garlic, italian seasoning, salt and pepper perhaps?). Simmer on medium low heat while noodles cook.

Heat giant stock pot of water for 1.5 lbs of long noodles. Sprinkle salt and a dab of oil in water to keep noodles from sticking together. Bring water to boiling. Drop noodles in pot. Reduce heat to boil and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until al dente. Drain.

Pull sauce off heat. Set drained noodles and sauce on prep counter.

Heat oven to 350° Spray glass pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In pan layer noodles, sauce, 1/2 to 1 cup of cheese (I LOVE cheese. No really, I have "I love cheese" tattoo'd over my heart. Right next to "D-I-E-T is an evil word".) noodles, sauce, cheese and once again, spices of choice.

Cover the pan in foil and toss gently set in oven. Cook 20 minutes. (This will meld the flavors.)

While the pasghetti is cooking prep the garlic bread.

Spray cookie sheet or broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place a flat layer of bread across the entire surface of the pan. Spread thin layer of butter on top of each piece of bread. Sprinkle whole pan with garlic salt, salt, butter and if you like parmesan cheese.

When pashetti is done remove from oven and switch oven setting to broil. Let heat for a few minutes than put bread in oven. The bread will only take a few minutes to toast. If you ignore it, it WILL burn. (I'm just saying, I might have killed a loaf or two.)

Voila!

Recipe feeds 4 starving adults and allows some leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day. All the peoples at the office will be so jealous.

it burns!!! oh man it burns!!!!

Dear Darla. Why are you such a retarded cook? Why can't you stick to mac-n-cheese or ramen like the rest of the lazy people? - Alfalfa

I'm a groupie. I have to confess it, because I love to confess things on this blog. I've fallen in love with Pioneer Woman's cooking. She has a blog chock full of delicious yummy  simple recipes for things like tiramisu, sinful cake, bread pudding, brisket and cream cheese-bacon-jalapeno bites that always leave my taste buds tingling from the imagines alone. Not necessarily new foods but simple takes on complicated recipes that make a country girl like me very happy.

As is my sometimes habit, I like to cook from scratch, not just from a box mix. I caved tonight and decided I had to attempt to cook and try her blog's stuffed jalapeno bites before Shaun gets back in two weeks. I bought soft cream cheese, jalapenos and bacon from Safeway and headed home with the hopes that these little tidbits along with fresh cantaloupe, watermelon and perhaps a side salad would satisfy my hunger monster. I hadn't planned on singe-ing the flavor tasters on my lips and tongue. My thought was that the cream cheese would calm the pepper bite and sweeten with the bacon flavor. Unfortunately, my brain neglected to remind my mouth that the hottest part of the little green bastard is not the veggie but it's juices.

To start off the cooking I followed the recipe by cutting the peppers in half and scraping out the guts. Then I stuffed them with cream cheese, wrapped a bit of bacon around the mix and popped them in the 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. The sweet spicy flavored filled the living room and teased both owner and puppy alike. I was thinking sweet spicy chili sauce not texas chili pepper hot. As I chewed into my first pepper I instantly realized my mistake as the sweet hot juices squirted down my throat searing the edges of my lips, tongue, palate and sinuses. And since I'm a glutton for punishment I had to try another ... and another ... and another. Screaming, panting, gulping lemonade and dabbing my face with a towel time and again. No amount of patting, washing, scrubbing or drinking is soothing the burn. Some foods are just worth the pain.

The only downfall with this dish isn't even the hot spicy decadent side effects. It's the fact that I may get to sleep in my contacts instead of trying to sear my corneas with my juice infested finger pads. This really truly sucks because my brain refuses to shut down if I can see. The only exception to that rule ever is camping, road trips or emergencies and even then it's extremely difficult. The nights I sleep in my contacts I tend to wake up feeling like a character from a zombie movie as my eyes are crusted wide open and I can barely move my eyelids. Seared corneas or sand gritty exhausted corneas. The heavy decisions I make each night.

tasty temptations

If I had the energy I would share the delightful reviews from a new little gem I've discovered, courtesy of a co-worker, called Blue Spark. I might tell you about the fantastic monkey whacking game that resides on the bar counter. Or perhaps I'd give you details about the fantastic huckleberry liquer drink or the little blue cocktails that BartenderPat whipped up. Yummm. He even had me downing pints of Summer Ale. Considering bitter beer and I get along like alcohol and babies that says quite a bit. Since I'm not talking about drinks that I also won't make your mouth salivate with the description of the RawSushi bar across the street from Blue Spark. A young 30-something ITT graduate owns and operates the very clubby and palate cleansing locale on Howard and 1st. He has accomplished quite a bit and it's easy to appreciate it from the couch lounging dinner tables and comfortable bar stool settings.

However, I don't have that energy so please don't beat me too thoroughly while you check out the sites I linked too.

baking my way into employment and another 15 years of marriage

Edited to add: American Idol note at the bottom*

Well aren't I just a little Izzie Stephens from Grey's Anatomy. The boy makes me cranky so I bake. I could attend a spin glass, or the gym or walk or do the bills, watch TV make a phone call and do I? No. I bake. Little delicious bite size blueberry, strawberry creme, banana nut and apple cinnamon muffins.

He is better than sugar in one great big aspect. He doesn't come with big blood sugar downer. Instead, after the drama queen (me), the tears and the communication he brings a salve of love, understanding and comfort. Wow, come Sunday and 18 days apart I might just need to get me some, and I'm not talking about a paternal hug. Yes, Mom and Dad, I just told the whole wide world I need me some matrimonial sex. Funny thing is I can already hear a big fat OH YES YOU DO!

— — — — — —

In TV news, my girl Jaslene just ROCKED America's Next Top Model, Cycle 8. I nearly cried when Renee got bumped from the top three leaving the crazy ditzy Natasha with spicy Jaslene. It's not her [Natasha] fault that she talks in broken English but the girl tends to always looks completely disheveled when not in front of a camera. The biggest heart is also a very notable thing but from plenty of job experience I can tell that it won't make you a successful person, just loved. Jaslene brought the pizazz, jazz and spunk. She also proved you don't have to make the cut (she didn't even get into Cycle 7) to be able to come out a winner.  You go girl!

— — — — — —

Nothing like the night before your first job interview in 6 years to make a girl a little week in the knees. In my mind I'm trying to psyche myself up by rerunning many conversations in my head with my former Boss*. He was probably one of the biggest influences in my adult life. I grew up in that job. I walked in the door in 1999 the innocent teenager wanting to be the best I could be. I didn't have the smarts to say no to certain tasks and he'll be the first to admit it was a bit painful to watch. My second go round from 2002 to 2006 was a bit of a different story. I went through employees, relatives and many job changes. He stood by coaching me through maturity, communication flaws and learning to work like a responsible adult. I hope tomorrow I will make you proud sir, even if it is unfortunately not working for you.

*Name deliberately withheld for deliberate anonymity purposes.

— — — — — — —

Everyone knows everyone. Just check out tonight's im chat between my neighbor and I:

Me: who's out on American Idol? that blake kid needs to suck

Her: haha he's my fave ... but I guess I'm biased cause I know him ... he's my sisters ex

Me: seriously ?? THAT'S CRAZY!!

Her: i know lol

Me: I'm soooo blogging that ... harhar

(This also shows that once again nothing is safe from my crazy blogging fingers!!)

brews and mutant freaks

Friday night we ventured out like big kids for a good beer, scary movie and than some early morning game time of Risk! and Taboo. We began our jaunt at the Northern Lights Brewery off Trent Ave. in Spokane. The owners are fairly smart and relocated the brewery from Airway Heights too almost on top of Gonzaga University and spitting distance from the frat row and student housing. For anyone not living near Spokane you have to realize 'Zags fans are rabid! Even with Eastern Washington State, Washington State, Spokane Falls Community and multiple tech and smaller private colleges in the area, in basketball season the airway is heavy with GO ZAGS! (This year it was a little hard to keep the excitement confined when our Oregon Ducks went a little further in the NCAA playoffs than the Zags.) Friday night the restaurant was maybe half full but the staff says come game night it's a packed house.

After reading an online review my friend A'Lonn and I were interested to see how this Spokane establishment measured up to our homegrown expectations. A'Lonn and her Vegas friends are used to the Boiler Room. It has $.75 draft nights and a great location. You can get a little sloshed than wander down the strip to enjoy yourself without having to buy overpriced drinks. In our home town of Roseburg Shaun and I enjoy the Oregon chain of McMenamin's brew and pub. They serve plenty of good dark ports for the Shaun man in all of us along with good food and a generally crowded atmosphere.

To start our experience Shaun ordered a porter, A'Lonn a pale ale and a I a blueberry creme´. Yes, a blueberry brew. I like alcohol, even beer, I just don't like it to taste like beer. Funny, hunh? Yep, at a brewery just don't like brew. Well, Shaun's tasted like old coffee grounds. (Defend it if you love it — you dark beer drinkers you!) A'Lonn's probably tasted like Bud Light, she liked it. (I didn't try it - I'll admit - but it wasn't my first pale ale to nib from someone.) I'm not much of a connousieur so the bitter flavor tends to blend together a bit. I decided to go out on a limb and get the fruity variety. I liked the fact it didn't taste like beer and actually polished off THE WHOLE PINT. If you read the pub reviews you'll find that not everyone thinks that it tastes so well. A'Lonn I think labeled it as 'weird.' I will label it 'decent.' For food we ordered scrumpious cajun chicken alfredo. Nice and creamy with a touch of spicy pizazz. The giant breaded cod in Shaun's fish and chips were decent, he thought it a bit greasy. The service was nice, quick and fairly efficient. The ambiance was smoke free, always a plus, and pretty open and airy. I'm sure we'll go back again.

After the brews and food we went and watched The Hills Have Eyes II. Now if you know me you are probably thinking WTF? I know this because I've already received numerous text messages with almost that same thought. WE WENT FOR A'LONN! A's husband recently got shipped off for a three month training out of state. Since we hung out with her boy and did things for him for a month when he was without her we figured the least we can do is go to a scary movie for her. That is huge because Shaun almost wouldn't let me see The Village until I drug out the entire plot line from my sister, rented the movie and than had to sneak it into the DVD player. It's really not his fault, it's for my own good, and for his need to get sleep more than one night a week. I just tend to have a horrific and overactive dream imagination as I've mentioned before. For some reason he doesn't want to wake up and find me with a butcher knife in my hands and stabbing the couch while screaming DIE ZOMBIE DIE!! Whatever. For the record this little bloody heinous slightly startling jem wasn't nearly as bad, gore and fright-wise, as I first imagined. Granted *movie spoiler about to start* it did begin with a very graphic birth of dark blood soaked fetus half-crawling half being ripped from between the legs of it's laborous and beaten mother. And there we a couple of scenes that were craazy: wallet lodged in the radioactive-mutated skull of bad guy AND girl twisting her fingers through the brain matter of another gorish mutated freak to get him to Let Her Go that were a little gruesome. Post the horrendouse death many carcases just resembled victims found in CSI, Criminal Minds. It was also a good thing most of the scary people looked like a combination of Sloth from Goonies and Tolkien's orcs. I think I jumped the farthest when bats flew out of a cave because I was STARTLED and only covered my eyes about three times because I didn't want to see the actual impact of a boulder slammed repetitively into someones squishy pulpy face. Let's just say though it doesn't measure up to 90% of the movies we've seen lately it was a tad more entertaining than the three hours of dancing penguin in Happy Feet. (That movie would've been so much better about 30 minutes shorter!))

The entire movie can be summed up in this IMDb quote: "A group of National Guard trainees find themselves battling against a vicious group of mutants on their last day of training in the desert."

After the movie we went back and playing Risk and Taboo at A's house. Risk was all fun and games until Shaun got butt hurt because I am a little competitive, irregardless of the hour and quantity I've had to drink. And I may have been taunting him with things like, Jow long DOES it take to move all your little men around the board? Do you need a chess timer so the rest of us can play? Hey A'Lonn and Bruce if we can just demolish Shaun we can call it a game! Why are you crying and where have all your armies gone?  We finally stopped the game for time and attempted to play some Taboo. At 2 a.m. the reality of our, or at least my age, seemed to kick in when I almost passed out in the car driving across base. That's like a whopping two miles.

THE RATINGS OF THE NIGHT:
Overall Movie rating: D+. I wouldn't want children under 15 anywhere near it.
Movie gore rating: B+. I hear the first Hills Have Eyes is a tad better
Food taste rating: Alfredo: A.     Fish & chips: B
Food cost rating: A little high for a brewery that sells $2.50 pints.
Beer rating: A- (per Shaun since I've already established the fact that I don't tend to drink it and therefore cannot call myself an "expert.)