Gastronomy

I haven't posted in a few weeks, not because I've forgotten (which is usually the case) or been too busy (which also happens a lot), but because I haven't felt that I've had much to share.
I haven't found any amazingly inspirational ways to motivate myself.
I've made some good food, but only based on Pinterest recipes.
I've been eating well (mostly!) and working out, but haven't seen much progress.

I guess you could say that I'm in a lull. I've been focusing on getting a real "big-girl" job and traveling all over the state to go to interviews, but I haven't done much when it comes to creativity or things I felt the need to share.

But now I have a thought worth sharing:
For a couple of years now I've been toying with the idea of learning about gastronomy ("the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food"-Google definition). I'm particularly interested in the science of food. Like, "why am I putting in 1/4 tsp of salt into this batch of cookies- surely that amount won't do anything!" I'm not quite sure how to get started with this unless I want to shell out a bunch of cash in order to take classes about it. And I'm just graduating college- paying even more money to take even more classes already doesn't sound so appealing.
Hopefully I'll find some way of learning this stuff online. I'll probably start with the ever-helpful Pinterest and go from there.

Do you have any experience with gastronomy? Know any good sources I should check out? Let me know in the comments!

The buckeye pie I made for Pi Day (3/14)-- holy cow was it sweet!!

Approved Recipes

Throughout the summer, I've tried several new recipes. I still have a couple planned for what little bit of summer I have left.

I made some Pizza Pocket Crescents for supper. I modified the recipe given to match what I wanted to eat. I've made them twice now, and I am a super fan. I ended up finding some squeezable pizza sauce that worked great to dip them in!

 

The next meal I made was Mac 'n' Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Shells. I made it for my family, and we all liked it at least a little. My dad and I both loved it. The main problem was that the recipe made way too much stuffing for how many shells we made. I would definitely make it again, but I would make more shells.
 

The next recipe I'd like to share wasn't actually from Pinterest. In fact, it wasn't really a recipe. I had been experimenting in order to make great nachos. I finally found a combination that tasted very much like Old Chicago's Nachos Grande! A thin type of nacho chip, layered with Mexican blend shredded cheese and shredded mozzarella. I also included taco seasoned hamburger and anaheim peppers. If I had had tomatoes, I would have included those as well. I put all this on a plate and microwaved it. Easy and delicious!

Next, I made myself some Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti. My crockpot was WAY too small for the recipe. The picture below shows just the sauce without the noodles added. I ended up putting in a few noodles, letting it get warm, eating those noodles, and adding in more until all my noodles were in the mixture. It made enough for me to have several meals. I got a little sick of it by the time it was all gone, but it was good!

Finally, my sister and I made Oven Fajitas. I was very happy with how they turned out. They were very easy, but it took longer than I would have spent on a meal just for myself.

Pinterest and the Summer Holidays

I still have quite a lot of catching up to do with this blog. Oops...
First, for Father's Day, I made this. Not a Pinterest craft, but I was still pretty happy with it. I made the design for the letters using Microsoft Word, and cut them out. Cutting them out was the hardest part.

I made this bracelet for the 4th of July. It obviously isn't perfect, but I was still pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

 

I made the mistake of making all the threads the same length. Since the blue is showing most often, it got used a lot quicker. The bracelet barely fit because I ran out of blue way too early.

It's a tradition for my family to make s'mores for the 4th of July.This year, I tried different combinations of bite size chocolate bars. My favorite by far was the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! Shown below is the s'more with a KitKat. It didn't get melted enough to be as good as the Reese's.

I also convinced my mom and sister to make Campfire Cones with me. Apparently I never got any real pictures of them, though. Mine got pretty burnt, so part of the cone just tasted like burnt sugar!

Here are some other pictures I took from our celebration!

 

Sister Weekend

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog! I've done a lot of Pinterest things that I have to post about, but I'll keep it to only a few per post.

About a month ago, my sister spent the weekend with me. We made an itinerary and everything. Luckily, that meant we planned ahead about what we were going to eat, so we started the weekend by getting groceries. Apparently my mom told my sister that she would've loved to be able to follow us around to laugh at us trying to find all the stuff we needed. We managed rather well, though!

Saturday morning began with a Cinnamon Roll Cake. We used the optional "begin the night before" directions. That was a good idea because it still took a long time to finish on Saturday. Definitely not a "wake up and have breakfast right away" kind of breakfast.

It was a little bit dry, but it still turned out super delicious, and we both agreed that we would make it again, but we would probably make extra icing!

After going to a movie and introducing her to Cherry Berry frozen yogurt for the first time (which I'm happy to say she loved!), we made Jalapeno Popper Cheesy Stuffed Pretzel Bombs. I'm glad that we were both working on it. It went much smoother when we started working in an assembly line style.

We both really liked them, but we ended up freezing a lot! They're better after being microwaved anyway because otherwise the cream cheese was a bit overpowering.

By the time we were finished with the Jalapeno Pretzels, we were ready for a real supper. We made Spicy Chicken Poblano Risotto, which my sister was glad to find out was rice, not pasta. We couldn't find some of the ingredients, so we improvised. My sister used gloves to cut up the hot peppers (and jalapenos from the previous recipe)- I would highly recommend this! Instead of cooking wine, we used a Barefoot brand Pinot Noir. That meant that we had a wine to accompany dinner that perfectly complemented the meal! The arborio rice that the recipe suggested was a little expensive, but I've used it since then to make other basic risotto meals.

This meal definitely passed our taste test, but we decided it was a lot more effort than it was probably worth. Nonetheless, I ended up with leftovers so that I didn't have to cook the next night!

It was a great weekend. We were both surprised at how well we got along, and she seemed surprised that she didn't die from my driving (I'm a great driver! She just doesn't trust her baby sister).


What kind of things do you do to spend time with your siblings? Let me know in the comments!

Yummy idea

I recently saw a pin on Pinterest for "Lasagna Grilled Cheese." The picture did not look very good, but the idea of having pasta on a sandwich stuck with me.
I had a handful of frozen raviolis left in the freezer from making a ravioli casserole for a Christmas gathering. I boiled them up and put them on bread with some cheese. After toasting it, it was judgement time.
I don't usually like grilled cheese, but I used cheddar instead of American and used minimal butter. I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the sandwich.
It was a little messy because the ravioli weren't stuck to the cheese well enough, so next time I would maybe add some shredded cheddar that would fill the gaps between the pasta. I would also add a little bit of marinara for some added flavor.

I was rather proud of myself for experimenting with food and being successful!