Smoked Brie Potato Gratin - Tasty Tuesday!

While this isn't the most interesting recipe I've made this week (technically, that one wasn't for humans), I realized that I'd promised on my other blog to post a recipe I tried with my Brie. And I know me. If I don't do it now, I'll forgt!

This was one of those recipes where I fell in love once I ate it, but cooking with Brie wasn't something I would have thought to do on my own (much like the meat puffs I made one night that were a HUGE hit but I can't quite bring myself to post here).

As always, so easy, so yummy... and so staying in the rotation.

Smoked Brie Potato Gratin

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb potatoes (I used baby reds unpeeled, but feel free to use the big Idahoes and peel them)
2 T oil
1 t garlic, chopped
1/4 t nutmeg, grated
8oz Brie
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the oil and garlic, and cook for a minute until fragrant. Add the potatoes and cook for two more minutes.

Pour in the mlk, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Heat the mixture to a slow simmer and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat, and pour half the mixture into a shallow oven proof dish. Slice the smoked Brie lengthwise about 1/4 inch and layer on top of the potato mixture. Pour the remaining potato mixture over this and place the baking dish in the oven for fifteen minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

Personally, I cooked it a little longer. And I saved some of the cheese to place on the top layer, too. I also used a mandoline to make sure that I had very thin and very even slices of potato, which I think made a difference. This was wonderful, and so much more complex than your "normal" potato au gratin.

Enjoy this and more over at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace. And head over to my other blog for an Alouette giveaway (it's small but fun!).

I'm Easily Amused

Ok, I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera's battery is completely dead at the moment, so you'll have to pretend. My plan is to charge the camera overnight, so fingers crossed you'll get to see pictures tomorrow! ** Pictures have been added.

My husband and I spent the last several days in the Tampa area, as Northwestern was playing in the Outback Bowl. We had a great time there, and man is it cold back in Chicago now. There were several very bizarre things that we saw while there, however, that just made me giggle. And my husband a little bit, too.

My dad was nice enough to drive us to the airport. Of course, this meant that we got to the airport about an hour and a half before we needed to. My dad is a bit of a nervous nelly. It did give my husband and I plenty of time to eat before our 6:30pm flight though.

Having never been to the Macaroni Grill, my husband requested that we eat there. I was fine with that, and we were quickly seated with menus in hand. As I scanned the menu, I noticed a couple of menu items with a chef's hat next to them. I verified at the bottom of the page and saw that the little chef hat means it's a restaurant favorite. I also saw an icon for the more healthy fare. Next step, I checked for all the items with the healthy icon.

Then I checked the next page. And went back to the first set of pages. That's when I started giggling. There were two icons on the menu, but for whatever reason, there were no menu items that correlated with it. Silly, but it made me giggle. And no, I didn't take a picture of this one, although I later regretted it.

The following night, my husband and I went to the hockey game (they were playing the Habs, and the Habs won in overtime - yay!). During the first intermission, we hung out in the mezzanine with our companion who joined us, as he was in search of food. I looked to my left, and I saw someone who was just not ready to buy a new jersey, although he really ought to have. Apparently the man kept growing and growing (out, not up), and he eventually put a slit into the seam of his jersey on the side so that it "fit" once again. I couldn't keep my eyes away after noticing it. Creative way to ensure that your wardrobe expands with you.

And lastly, my husband and I were walking in the area near our hotel when my husband discovered a Penthouse Club. Granted, I know Tampa is somewhat famous for its many and randomly located strip clubs, but I wasn't expecting to walk past one.

My husband first joked that we should stop there for lunch (we were headed for a restaurant at the time) and have a steak. I laughed it off. Until we got closer and realized that there was actually a steak house in the Penthouse Club.

And even better? Said Penthouse Club is immediately next to and sort of attached to an Extended Stay America hotel. I actually think it's a brilliant bit of marketing. You've got your business traveler staying in Tampa for an extended period of time, knowing few people and bored once he finishes his work day. But look! There's entertainment mere steps from his door. It's just too perfect.

Ironically, I didn't take too many other pictures while I was there. We were having too much fun. Except for the pouring down rain during the bowl game. Fortunately, we both had ponchos by the time we made it into the stadium (boo to the stadium for not selling them inside, the stores near our hotel that were sold out, our hotel gift shop that was sold out, and the merchandise stands outside the stadium that weren't selling them).

However, my poor purple Pumas were soaked within the first two minutes of exiting the cab at the stadium. By the time we got back to the hotel, I had a solution. I simply removed my shoes and socks (which were also soaked through), plugged in the hotel hair dryer, and proceeded to dry my socks and shoes. It worked. Slowly, but it worked. Then again, maybe that's a picture I'm glad I didn't take!

I hope you had a great New Year's as well -- and no, I don't need to recap the bowl game, thank you very much.

Add Me To The Bandwagon

It's that time of year, and I've seen so many resolutions that people have offered up in the past week. Generally, I shy away from resolutions knowing that they tend to be quickly broken and so often forced - if you're to believe what you read from the "experts" every year around this time.

Last year, my resolution was simple: to do something just for myself once a day, no matter how small that thing was. It could be reading a chapter in a book or having a piece or chocolate or snoozing the alarm clock - whatever tickled my fancy. I didn't do horribly at this, but I definitely wasn't focused on it after awhile. It was too vague in some ways, although the intention was right.

This year, I've spent a lot of time figuring out that really what matters is being happy, so I'm concentrating not on the nebulous goal of "being happy" but rather on some of the concrete things that I think should help to push me further in that direction on a regular basis. Fortunately, it's not like I'm *un*happy now the majority of the time.

My first resolution is that I need to either fish or cut bait. I've complained previously, both here and to friends, about how I don't enjoy my job anymore for a number of reasons and how I'd love to quit and stay home. Yet I haven't submitted my resignation. It's really hard to walk away from a job in this economy, as I've pointed out before. But no one wants to hear someone complaining about something and not doing anything about it -- including me. This year, I either need to a) fix my job, b) quit and stay home or c) deal with it and say no more on the topic.

Secondly, I want to spend more time doing things and less time thinking about how much work they're going to be. (Ok, so this one is somewhat nebulous. Deal with it.) I'm the queen of making commitments and then procrastinating because I know how much work it's going to be. Then I actually do whatever it is that I've committed to, and it's never so painful as I've made it out to be in my head. I'd rather just be done with things and avoid the stress.

Along those lines, I really need to organize a couple of key things:

The first is the office in my house. It's become the repository of Things That Don't Really Have A Home, and whenever the cleaning ladies come, more items migrate in that direction. I have a folded up Northwestern rug that I received for Christmas three years ago sitting on an old entertainment center. Both need to be removed. I have a volcano science experiment of Mister Man's sitting on the same entertainment center, and I should really just do it one day. The list goes on and on -- I have a plan of what I want to do in that room, but there is probably three or four days of solid work to be done in that room to get everything sorted and organized, and to get that entertainment center cleared off enough that I can get it donated elsewhere to move in some appropriate furniture instead.

I also need to organize the wee ones' baby books. I have notes here and there on many of their firsts, and more are in my head (such as Mister Man's first words of "NO NO NO NONONONONO" when we were in the hospital day three of four at seventeen months for rotovirus). None of this is captured in a baby book, and I want to do this for them as much as for me. Ditto on photo printing and arranging. I have photos starting with a 2001 trip to Seattle that are still sitting in digital format on my computer. You can only imagine how much work I have ahead of me on that one.

The other big thing that I resolve to focus on is not saving things. I tend to be a collector of things rather than a user of them. I've only recently started to figure out why it's so hard for me to "waste" something special - ignoring the fact that some things are only good for a certain amount of time before they're worthless (witness me doing my marathon free coupon day earlier this week for items that all expired on December 31). Again, being able to take pleasure in things - and I'm talking about everything from "fancy" linen replacement napkins that I received as a sample from a vendor in 1998 (literally) to gift cards to restaurants to bath salts. The pleasure I get from them shouldn't be in the receiving of them but in the enjoyment from using them.

It's ironic, but all the things that I am resolving to focus on are items that create stress in my life. Why I allow those areas the power to put stress on me when it's all in my control is beyond me. But I think I really just need to deal with them. All.

So cross your fingers for me as I hold my breath and ask for a leave of absence when I return to the office on Tuesday. Hey, it's a step in the right direction, right?

So what are your resolutions for 2010?

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

For the day and a half before Christmas last week, it rained here. And by rained, I mean it poured. Had it been snowing instead of raining, we would never have made it to church -- or anywhere else. On Saturday, it turned into snow. Light, puffy, fun snow. And it kept snowing. In fact, we ended up with over a foot.

(Yes, I had to take the picture through the screen door, as there was enough snow, and the snow was heavy enough that I could no longer open the screen.)

We ended up shoveling multiple times during the snowfall to try to keep the driveway at a reasonable level, and the wee ones had a blast "helping" us out by using their shovels. Of course, their version of helping usually entailed shoveling snow from the grass onto the driveway, but they're learning.

We decided to go sledding after awhile, and it was weird. As we walked to the "hill" near our house (really a detention pond), it was silent because the snow absorbed absolutely all sound. And oddly, there were no other children outside playing on the day after Christmas.

Us? We were out. We played. And we had a blast! We played outside and sledded on Sunday and on Monday and ... well, you get the picture. It's cold, and we need hot cocoa when we come in, but that just makes it all the more fun.

And for me? The proof is in their faces.

Better Late Than Never

I seemed to run out of time for a lot of things this December. Our tree was up late, our cards went out later, I wrapped presents Christmas Eve at 11pm... and I never got a chance to make the gingerbread house that the wee ones kept asking about.

My mom has a gingerbread house that we bought ummmm four years ago at IKEA (hey, we don't actually eat it, so I'm not worried about it going bad). She kept mentioning that we needed to make it, and we kept not quite having time to do it.


So this afternoon, I finally made the time. Who cares that it's after Christmas? Who cares that most people are taking down their Christmas decorations? We spent a good hour having a blast putting together our gingerbread house.

Ok, so that's really a picture of the box.

Apparently that's what our gingerbread house was supposed to look like. Except for putting on the icing (which is a somewhat delicate job), I let the wee ones decorate the house however they wanted. I let them tell me where to put blobs of icing, and then I did their bidding.

We had lots of smiles, and they were so proud of themselves.

Look, Mommy! I made a door handle. And it's red!

Look, Mommy, I made a doorbell.

Look, Mommy, my gingerbread man is throwing a snowball!

Look, Mommy! I made a wreath for over the door!

Seriously, why didn't I do this weeks ago? How did I not make the one hour of time to spend with them to do this? Granted, it was one hour of time because the house umm came pre-assembled (thank you, Costco!), but still... next year, we're making our house the first weekend of December!

Tasty Tuesday!

Every family has their traditions, and mine is no different. For Christmas Eve, I host dinner, and I always make the same thing: Caesar salad (for which my husband is primarily responsible), lasagne, and baguettes. It's always good and filling -- especially the lasagne.

The recipe I use is loosely based on what an ex-boyfriend made way back when. I think it's the first and only time I dated a guy who even came close to really cooking, and he taught me a few things. The fact that he was Italian didn't hurt! His lasagne is similar to many "normal" lasagnes except that it includes a bechamel sauce to make it extra yummy and rich, and he always used pepperoni in place of ground beef.

Since I love creamy, and I don't like meat, this recipe works out perfectly. It's hard to be exact about having a half meat and half non lasagne when using crumbly beef. Pepperoni, on the other hand, works quite nicely.

Bechamel Lasagne

Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil
3 14 oz cans diced tomatoes (look for a low sodium one)
1 T dried parsley
1/2 T dried basil
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t pepper

Directions:
Heat saucepan on the stove until it's hot. Remove paper skins from garlic and chop. Add the olive oil to the pan and heat a minute or so until shimmery. Add the chopped garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the tomatoes, dried herbs, and pepper. Simmer for 10-15 minutes while you make the bechamel. Use an immersion blender to puree to the thickness you prefer.

Bechamel Sauce
Ingredients:
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 c milk
1 bay leaf
1/2 t nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 t pepper

Directions:
Turn the stove to medium and heat a heavy saucepan. Add the butter and flour and whisk to combine. Stir constantly until it just starts to get a hint of brown color. Add the milk all at once and whisk until thoroughly combined (this will help you avoid lumps). Grate the nutmeg into the milk mixture, and add the bay leaf and pepper. Simmer, stirring periodically, until it has thickened (usually about 10 minutes). While the bechamel is thickening, make the filling.

Filling
Ingredients:
12 oz ricotto cheese, part skim
6 oz mozzarella, part skim - shredded
6 oz Parmesan, grated (NOT from the green can)
6 oz Koskisko or other solid cheese like Gruyere
2 eggs
1/2 t dried parsley
1/2 t dried oregano
1 t dried basil
13 lasagne noodles, uncooked

Directions:
Mix the ricotta, 4 1/2 oz Parmesan, all the mozzarella, 4 1/2 oz of the other solid cheese, eggs, and herbs together in a bowl, and use a spatula to combine well.

Combine lasagne in a 13x9 pan. Use a ladle to spooon about 3/4 c sauce onto the bottom of the pan to cover (you may need a bit more or less, depending on your pan). Add a layer of lasagne noodles. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of the filling mixture at a time, and press into the noodles to cover, using a bout half the mixture in total. Add half the bechamel sauce (after removing the bay leaf!). Add more ladles of sauce to cover.

Repeat the layers, ending with the sauce. Atop the last layer, add the remaining shredded cheeses to form a crust.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. Let it sit for about 20 minutes before serving or it will fall all over the place (not that I know from experience).

Enjoy this and more at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace.

Now *This* Is Some Serious Shopping

I realized earlier today that I had a few coupons that were going to expire. And by a few coupons, I mean a good twenty-five coupons for free frozen items that I received when I bought my deep freeze back in February of last year. They expire on December 31, which is shockingly ummm this week.

I decided to be productive today and get some errands run -- including redeeming said coupons. Hwoever, I think I've ruined shopping for myself forever after this trip.

My first stop was Target where I returned two presents for the wee ones and a pair of shoes for Little Miss that I bought back in October that were two sizes too small (what, she has small feet, and I forgot to check to see what size she was). Two people ahead of me, two lines open, and I got my money onto a new gift card in no time.

Into Target I headed, looking for a returned Crayola Crayon Maker, a gingerbread house kit, and possibly a new kitchen garbage can. I struck out on all of those, but I did manage to buy five 5x7" picture frames (they're in the dollar section, people!) and a new pair of dress shoes for Little Miss in a size 12 that were on clearance for $6.48. I used a gift card I had already, and I found that I still have $76 on that one. Needless to say, I have about $100 in Target gift cards remaining. Score!

The next step was Costco to buy more oatmeal and flax. I found a returned pre-built gingerbread house for $4.97. I'm still up money from the returns at Target. I'm happy. Unfortunately, no Costcos in my area have had a Crayon Maker returned yet. Nor does the JoAnne Fabrics I visited. Nor the Wal-Mart. That's ok though.

The next stop is Gap where I remembered that I have a coupon for a free pair of jeans that expires ... this week. Amazingly, the first pair of jeans I tried on fit nicely, so I'm set there. Except for the line that takes forever because a woman who is getting a price adjustment for $9.88 insists that she receive cash for her return instead of having it credited to her debit card because "I don't know that I'll get the money back there. I only get a statement, like, every three months, and I won't know for another two and a half months if the money even shows up there. Everywhere else I go gives me the option of getting cash back. Paying with your debit card is paying with cash, you know." And on and on she went. The woman in front of me and I kept glancing at each other and giggling. Fortunately, a manager came over to help with the debit exchange, and I walked out with the jeans that cost me $0.00.

Bed, Bath & Beyond is the next stop, where I'm planning to use my 20% off coupon to buy that garbage can, a jewelry holders that I saw there last week when comparison shopping, and a cookie dough scoop. Sadly, the jewelry holder is now only in a rubbed brass instead of silver, so I pass on that. And apparently they no longer carry cookie dough scoops. And I refuse to pay $119 for a garbage can. I walk out having spend $0.00 again... albeit with no packages this time.

It's about this point that I realize a) that I'm hungry, b) that there's a Chipotle nearby, and c) that I have a gift certificate for a free burrito from Chipotle that expires on December 31. I happily munch on my free lunch as I drive over to the grocery store.

While it takes me a good forty-five minutes to find all my frozen items, I'm at least smart in my shopping. First I chose the veggies that are ok if they get a little melty. Then I got the potatoes and garlic bread, then the pizzas, and finally the ice creams. I check out, and I somehow get a refund of $4.01. The original price of all the groceries? $131.95. I'm not quite sure how I got money back, but I'm not complaining. Both my regular freezer and my deep freeze are now absolutely crammed full with the six bags of items that now live there.

My final stop was to Aldi. Really, I didn't need anything from there, but that's where I got the Bakugan for the wee ones' stockings, and Little Miss broke her Bakugan within four minutes of my opening the package. I decided to check to see if they had it again. Not only did I find that Bakugan -- now for $1.99! -- but I found three others that they didn't have previously that for less than two dollars I felt pretty good about buying and handing out to the wee ones on days that I feel particularly happy with their behavior. Oh, and on the way to the cashier, I spotted HDMI cables. For $6.99. And one of my Christmas presents was a Blu-Ray player that needs an HDMI cable. Total score.

When I total is all up, I was paid just over $9 to shop today. And I came home with five frames, a pair of shoes, a pair of $70 jeans, six bags of groceries, lunch (with leftovers for lunch tomorrow -- no one can eat a whole Chipotle burrito in one sitting!), and presents for the wee ones and myself.

Like I said, it's only downhill from here. While I enjoy shopping -- especially grocery shopping, I think I've peaked. How can it ever be this much fun again?

Although... I do mysteriously have almost $100 in Target gift cards. Maybe I can get a bunch of storage bins the next time they go on sale for my decorations for all the holidays and Mister Man's Legos and maybe even get a decent start on some of the items we need to turn the playroom into a homework room.

Oh, and speaking of gift cards -- don't forget that I have a giveaway for a $200 VISA gift card going on through New Years Eve here!