Chicken parmesan

When I met Rich, he was deeply entrenched in a love affair with chicken parmesan. Nearly every time we went to a restaurant, he would order his favorite food or a variation on it (like a chicken parmesan sandwich). His tastes have since broadened, but he still occasionally craves his old favorite. Thanks to an Italian-American cookbook I received for my birthday, I can appease him. Here's how:

1. You'll need 4 chicken breast cutlets, or just over a pound of chicken breasts, ¼ inch thick. While you're out, pick up a little Parmesan cheese and a jar of your favorite marinara sauce (or mine). Make sure you have eggs (2), flour (½ c) breadcrumbs (1½ cups).
2. 1. Set up 3 shallow bowls (or pie plates). Put a handful of flour in the first, beat two eggs in the second, and a couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs in the third. At the end, set up a couple cake racks. This is your assembly line.
   2. Dry a piece of chicken by patting it with paper towels. Dip the cutlet into the flour, covering both sides and patting to remove the excess. Then dip it into the egg, carefully turning it to avoid rubbing off the flour. Dip both sides into the bread crumbs and pat them so they adhere. Set it on the cake rack and repeat with the others. Let them settle for at least 10 minutes, but up to an hour before cooking. The can rest in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 hours, but let them return to room temperature before you cook them.
   3. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with extra-virgin olive oil and heat it to medium-high. Check the oil by dripping some water into it - if the water sizzles, it's ready, but if the water crackles and splashes, turn down the temperature. Fry the cutlets in batches (I usually do 2 at a time), so that they do not touch each other in the pan. Cook about 3 minutes on each side, until they are golden brown and do not hold on when poked in the center with a sharp paring knife or cake tester. Drain the cutlets on paper towels and top each one with some Parmesan cheese, allowing it to melt.
   4. Serve over pasta with warmed marinara sauce on top.

Thanksgiving #2

This time, we used the same turkey recipe, but our turkey weighed 17 pounds rather than 12 and this time we got an organic broad-breasted white rather than a heritage turkey. We rinsed it off better after brining so the turkey and gravy weren't unbearably salty (as they were last time) - in fact, we didn't taste any extra saltiness. And adding 15 minutes for each pound over 15 (we added 15 minutes at 400° and 15 minutes at 350°) and flipping the turkey over about halfway through the 225° part. The juices at the bottom of the pan looked a little pink, but I think that was just juices running along the browned bottom of the turkey after flipping it over.
Dried Cherry and Italian Sausage Stuffing from Real Simple
Green Bean Casserole
Creamed Corn
Twice Baked Potatoes courtesy of Lynn
Roasted Stuffed Tomatoes
Cranberry and Dried Cherry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes with brown sugar and butter courtesy of Rich's mom
Berry and Banana Terrine
Apple Pie with a Ginger Graham Cracker Crust - I was using a smaller pie pan than the recipe calls for, so I left out 2 of the apples (using only 6) and sprinkled the remaining "crust" on top of the pie.

Thanksgivings

It's been two Thanksgivings since our last post - which should help explain why it's been so long. We hosted Thanksgiving this year, but since our families weren't both available on the same day, we decided to host two feasts - one on the 11th and one on Thanksgiving Day. We tried to make everything from scratch and use interesting recipes - so I thought I'd list them here, in case anyone want a tried-and-tasty recipe.

Thanksgiving #1 (for 8)

Turkey and Gravy - we used a Free Range, Grain-Fed American Bronze turkey, which we picked up at a farm just east of Madison. The American Bronze breed of turkey is what they call a "heritage" breed - meaning that they are traditional American turkeys that were almost extinct a few years ago, but are gaining popularity as people are preferring more flavorful natural birds over those that have been bred to have more breast meat and fed to become plump at a young age. They are also much leaner and are supposed to cook more quickly. We followed the recipe linked above, taking 30 minutes off the cooking time to account for our smaller bird. Though the thermometer indicated doneness, the turkey definitely not done, so we had to throw it back in the oven.

Trader Joe's Apple, Sausage & Chestnut Stuffing
1. • 1 medium Granny Smith apple, cored and diced into 1 inch cubes
   • 1 medium Gala apple, cored and diced into 1 inch cubes
   • 2 shallots, diced (we forgot to put these on the grocery list and used about 1.5 tablespoons diced onion instead)
   • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
   • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
   • 1/2 cup dry white wine (we ended up using Sherry cooking wine)
   • 6 ounces dried cranberries
   • 1/2 tablespoon sea salt & 1 teaspoon black pepper
   • 1 1/2 pounds Cantella's Cooked Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Sausage (we used Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage)
   • 7.6 ounce Trader Joe's Whole Natural Chestnuts, roughly chopped (orange box, about 4" tall and 3" wide, we found it stacked near produce)
   • 3/4 pound day old Trader Joe's cornbread, kernels removed, cooked according to package directions (we forgot to remove the kernels and weighed it at roughly half a 8"x8" pan)
   • pinch, red pepper flakes (we left them out)
   • 1 1/2 cups Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock (or any other stock)
2. 1. Preheat oven to 400° (or whatever the turkey is cooking at - since everything in this recipe is already cooked).
   2. In a medium sauté pan add the apples, shallots, 1 tbsp oil and 3 tbsp butter and cook over a medium low heat for 10 minutes to soften apples. Add the wine, cranberries, salt and pepper; simmer for about 5 minutes more. Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to cool.
   3. Remove casing from sausage (ours didn't have casing). In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil and sausage. Break up sausage with a wooden spoon and heat through for approximately 5 minutes.
   4. In a medium bowl toss together the fruit and onion mixture, sausage, chestnuts, cornbread, and red pepper flakes. Gently mix well. Add the chicken stock. Place mixture into a glass baking dish and dot top with butter, as desired. Place dish in oven on middle rack and bake until top is golden brown, about 30 to 45 minutes.
   5. Serve with roast turkey and giblet gravy or pork chops. Serves 6.

Cranberry Sauce

Rosé Gelatin with Blackberries adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe in Martha Stewart's Healthy Quick Cook

3 Tbsp unflavored gelatin (about 3 envelopes)
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons rosé wine
1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons sugar
4 cups blackberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Pour 2 cups of cold water into a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the top and let stand 5 minutes to soften.

Bring 4 cups of wine, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of blackberries to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Strain out berries and pour the liquid into the gelatin. Discard or eat the cooked berries. Add the lemon juice to the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin dissolves.
Place the remaining blackberries into 8 3/4-cup ramekins or one large bowl. Pour the mixture over them and chill, covering until set, at least 5 hours.

Mashed Potatoes don't require much of a recipe, but here's one.

Arugula and Pear Salad with Maple Vinaigrette from Real Simple

Turkey-Tail Rolls from Martha Stewart

And of course, Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Graham Cracker Crust

And that was Thanksgiving #1! Recipes from #2 are coming soon.

Halloween

Rich and I are feeling pretty clever after coming up with this idea for his costume:

He's a MAILER-DAEMON. You know, that process that runs in the background on a mail server, delivering all the e-mail that comes through? You may be more familiar with MAILER DAEMON@domain.com as the address that sends back your message when you mistype an e-mail address. In any case, that's what Rich is. You can't see it in the picture, but his messenger bag is full of scorched envelopes. Fun times.
Quite possibly the coolest part of his costume is that the only thing we had to buy was the pitchfork. But we needed one for the compost pile anyway. We were thinking about getting the postal service patches embroidered somewhere, but we never got around to it. So last night, I had the idea that we could get one of Rich's old white undershirts and cut out a few pieces. We taped them to a fairly stiff piece of paper and just printed on them, like they were paper. They turned out really clear, and we just stuck some duct tape to the back to keep them from stretching. We were glad we didn't spend like $5 apiece to have them embroidered. The only downside was that it was a pain to sew the patch to the cap with duct tape backing...

Road trip!

Rich and I spent this weekend on a little road trip to southern Illinois. I don't have many pictures, so I don't feel like narrating, but you can ask me about it, if you like. Here is a panorama of the wind farm, taken from the rest stop off I-39 near Paw Paw, IL. It looks small, but it's really a huge file - I just Photoshopped a bunch of images together...

In any case, Rich and I camped, hiked, scrambled over rocks, came within inches of our lives (not really... but still) and finally made it to the Great Fire Hydrant in the middle of the woods. We were baffled. We were amazed. But most of all, we were on top of the bluffs we had been tackling for an hour or so. And then we realized that there was a trail there. Good times.

Puzzle

I made a puzzle. Check it out.

A giant wasp doing cartwheels on our front porch.

Sweet, huh?

Toe fights

I feel like I need to explain already... let's see if I can. Ever since my sister and I were little, my dad would pick things up between his big toe and his second toe. If something fell to the floor, it was more natural just to use his foot to pick it up. He would also have toe fights with us. This usually involved him grasping one of our pinky toes between two of his toes and twisting until we agreed that he won. Now that Rich has sort of become a part of the family (and because he has REALLY long toes), he's partaking in the glorious tradition. Here are some pictures:

Warming up.

The approach.

A "toe lock", if you will.

Dad goes for the second toe...

...and twists until Rich gives in.

Cats.

Here's a post devoted to all the cats we saw this weekend.

Pixie (mom's cat) is the oldest. She's 10. This is her Halloween costume, courtesy of Jan (my sister).	Bubs (dad's cat) has many names. Holly is her original name. She's 9. She's getting antisocial in her old age.
Blaise (my cat) is 1. She likes it when I tie a string to a fan blade and turn the fan on. Check out her mad jumping skills.	Charlie (Rich's cat) is Blaise's brother. He can never hold still long enough for a picture, but he did here. Like how his eyes match the newly-painted wall?
Murphy (Jan's cat) is probably 1, but Jan only adopted him a couple months ago. He's cross-eyed.

Premarital moniversaries

For years now, Rich and I have been celebrating anniversaries. Contrary to the definition of anniversary, we celebrated our first on January 4, 2001 after having been dating for 6 months. Every month, I'd get a phone call or an e-card commemorating another month of dating. Conveniently, we got engaged on our 3-year dating anniversary, so "engagement anniversaries" and "dating anniversaries" weren't distinguished. Just after Rich had moved to Cincinnati, we were deciding whether to cook or eat out on a certain day and thought, "Hey! It's the 4th! A month anniversary! Lets go out to celebrate!". So began the use of our month anniversaries as excuses to do something special and out-of-the-ordinary. Just a few months ago, we were talking about this phenomenon and Rich decided to dub the 4th of every month a "moniversary". What a creative one, he is.
The trouble arose today. It was the 4th of the month, and thus what we called a "moniversary". But we realized that this term was no longer correct. Since we were married on the 8th of a month, our moniversaries are now on the 8th. But we were still looking for an excuse to go out to eat, since we didn't have a meal planned for the night and were already planning on going shopping and possibly seeing a movie. So out came the new term: "premarital moniversary". That's today. Our quarter-of-the-way-to-twenty-five-year premarital moniversary. Boy, are we nerds. We couldn't leave the house until we had a proper description of the event. And all it turned out to be was a dinner of calzones and a drive across town trying to exchange a clearance-priced t-shirt. Just wait until the real event: our 3-month moniversary, this Sunday. Maybe we'll actually see a movie this time.

Wet paint

Just a few pictures of our dining room - the (yellow) living room is in progress...

It's a little brighter than I expected (perhaps too much white below the chair rail?), but overall Rich and I both like it. Next step: pulling up the smelly, pet-stained carpet and replacing it with new bamboo flooring...

Ribs

Last Sunday, Jess and I caught a show called Bittman Takes on America's Chefs. We'd seen it before, and the gist is that this Bittman guy visits top chefs and cooks with them. While the chefs tend to use expensive ingredients and complicated techniques, Bittman tries to make a comparable meal that is completely attainable by the average non-chef. In last Sunday's episode, Chris Schlesinger (the chef) made his famous slow-grilled ribs, which can take up to 6 hours to cook, while Bittman countered with a much quicker version, which he finished in less than an hour. Jess found the recipe online and bought some back ribs to make this week. We finally got to making them today. Here's how:

Chris Schlesinger's Rib Rub
makes ¼ cup and takes 5 minutes
1. • 2 tablespoons paprika
   • 2 tablespoons sugar
   • 1 tablespoon salt
   • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
   • 1 tablespoon black pepper
   • 1 tablespoon chili powder
2. 1. Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl, then transfer the mixture to a covered container. Keeps for at least one summer.

This made enough for 4-5 racks of back ribs (ours was about 1.5 lbs). I lit the charcoal, and went back inside to massage the ribs with the rub Jess mixed up. Then I went back outside to watch the fire die down and push all the coals to the back of the grill. The ribs went over the un-charcoaled front half of the grill and the lid went down and both vents got opened for 30 minutes of indirect cooking (following Bittman's recipe). After that, I moved the ribs over the coals and left the grill open for 15 minutes of direct heat. I made sure to watch them, since the fat kept falling onto the coals and flaring up and I didn't want the ribs to burn. After that, they came in side and rested for a few minutes before we ate. We were a little too hungry to think of taking a picture, so here's one that looks like how our ribs turned out.

Perpetual motion

"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

- Homer Simpson

When I was eight or nine, I was very concerned about the environment. "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle." was my slogan and I promised myself that my first car purchase would be an electric (now I'm leaning toward a totally clean hydrogen car). When I was a little older, I got an M.C. Escher calendar for Christmas and was pretty fascinated by the idea of creating a perpetually flowing stream. I tried to "invent" one that used a mill to capture the energy, but never got it to work. When I started seeing articles about an Irish company that seems to have created a perpetual motion machine using magnetic fields, my interest was piqued. There's a good chance it's a scam, but we'll know the truth once scientists test it. I mean, the first law of thermodynamics is empirical, so there's no reason why it couldn't be proven wrong. Decide for yourself.
Here's a video from Steorn explaining their find:

the way interfaces should be

When I was eleven or so, my dad flew overseas for a week over the summer to visit his family. Since my mom had a full time job, our grandmother (her mom) stayed with my sister and I during the day. Though we spent most of our time riding bikes with our friends down the street, we would come inside for lunch and to spend time with Grandma. We had bought our first computer with Windows, so my sister and I spent hours playing solitaire and minesweeper on it. Grandma had always played card games with us, so we thought it would be fun to show her how to play on the computer. We didn't realize that simply understanding how to use a mouse would be so difficult, since we had been using them for years. A simple game of solitaire became impossible for grandma, since the interface was so difficult to learn. Since then, I've been pretty interested in movement away from interface-based computing. Touchscreens seemed to be a step in the right direction, but I couldn't fathom what the user experience would be like with even less interface. Until last year. Rich and I were sitting on opposite sides of his apartment, each teetering on top of a precariously stacked pile of furniture, trying to get the best wireless signal possible. Rich happened upon a reference to Jef Raskin and began reading. We eventually started learning about Archie, a much more human-friendly interface that the creator of the Apple Macintosh had been working on just prior to his death. The core principles made so much sense, and I couldn't help but think about how important and appealing accessibility can be, in everything from architecture to web design. Just last week, I ran into a video that shows how interface has nearly been eliminated:

How cool is that?! And it just dawned on me that this should be the direction we move towards - away from the agony of constantly having to learn and re-learn how to interact with your computer. I mean, if computers are to be such a help, shouldn't they be intuitive enough that Grandma can play solitaire without having to learn how to interact with a computer first?

The future of search engines

So I have all these technology news things on my Google page and even though most of the headlines don't interest me, almost every day there's something really cool and new to read about. I think I'll start sharing those things. Today's article was about the future of search engines (click the title of this post to read the article) - they're moving toward a more intelligent kind of searching that will be able to do much more than the keyword searches we have now. The websites the article talks about are still being tweaked, but you can play with them to get an idea of how they work: Medstory focuses on medical information, and what makes the search intelligent is that it finds webpages and groups them according to what information they provide about your search. For example, searching "arthritis" brings up groups of results that address Drugs, Conditions, Nutrition, Procedures, and People that have something to do with arthritis. Riya is even cooler. With a Google image search, you search for a word and your results are all photos with your search term wither in the name of the image file or somewhere near it on the webpage. This means that when you search "dog", you're not getting all those pictures that are still named "DSC74394" from someone's digital camera, especially if the word "dog" isn't on the page anywhere. Riya, on the other hand, uses an algorithm to scan the image itself and compare key features with those of other images. This is much like the facial recognition software you see on your favorite primetime crime drama, but it does "places" and "things", as well. It also lets you specify a location for the photo (using Google Maps). When you upload photos (you have to download a program that will upload photos for you, but it can only upload from a folder, not one image at a time), they're stored an made available as results for other peoples' searches. This scared me a little, considering that there are so many photos of kids, tagged with the kids' names, and some even specify a location. How much easier could they make it for a pedophile? In light of that, I tried uploading some photos of cats, but it didn't recognize anything in them so the search was pretty useless. Oh well.

in the kitchen

the week after we got back from our honeymoon, Rich decided to solve our problem of not having enough room for all the wine and champagne glasses we received as gifts. he quickly designed and cut pieces to go under our kitchen cabinets. here's a picture of his latest pride and joy. I've been doing a lot of cooking recently. I've been pretty hesitant to attempt Indian cooking after failing every attempt I've made so far. my lamb korma always ends up as a pasty, sawdust-colored mush that didn't taste remotely like the real thing. However, my cousin (and godmother), Maureen, gave us an Indian cookbook at a wedding shower. the recipes looked fairly easy, so I had Rich pick a recipe and I added a couple others for vegetables. while Rich was crushing spices by hand, I broke up several dried chili peppers and forgot to wash my hands before touching my face. so i spent the rest of the afternoon feeling like my cheek and nose were in flames. by the end of it, though, we had a really delicious meal. thanks Maureen!

We're married.

Life is getting back to normal. I keep having moments where I think, "I should post about that," but then I start thinking I should post about the wedding before getting into whatever else is going on. But it's really too big a thing to summarize in a post. So I won't try. Suffice it to say that Rich and I are now married. Now to get on with the posting.