Schooled

One of my birthday gifts from the husband was a cooking class at Sweetwares, which is a little baking shop in our ‘hood, owned by the fantastic people from Baker and Spice.

This was a great present, because it forced my husband into an apron

I’ve never made pasta. Partly because I’m one of the messiest cooks you’ll ever meet. Me + the classic volcano of flour with the egg in the middle dough making? It would just end poorly. And probably with at least one cat coated in flour.

But I learned in our class you can actually just make it in a food processor! Win

We made an egg dough and a spinach dough

Not going to lie, I dug on how play-dough-y the dough was. So bright!

Oh and see the bottle in the back of the picture? Totally had drinks while we cooked. Best sort of cooking.

We rolled the dough through the machines

And eventually had noodles!

Hand cut egg noodles

And spinach that we ran through the cutter

After we finished with our pasta making, it was time to eat!

See how this class involves dinner and alcohol? My husband did well.

Our instructor Jeff showed a few sauces, and then cooked up some pasta

Fresh pasta cooks absurdly fast. Like, we’re talking 30 seconds. Jeff called it “Italian top ramen” because it’s so crazy fast to cook.

Uncooked tomato sauce

and “stray and hay”-spinach and egg noodles, with fresh peas, prosciutto, and cream.  Pork + fat + pasta? Heaven.

And then, since clearly we hadn’t eaten enough, there were berry teacakes

With whipped cream. From Baker & Spice.

Best part? The cooked noodles were all Jeff’s. Ours came home with us. We have an awesome stash of homemade pasta in our house right now.

Now I just need a pasta machine so that I can do this all the time. And an apron to make the husband wear at home.

You ever taken a cooking class?

Sign from God

Today, I want to teach you guys about signs from God.

Did you know God gives us lots of signs in our life? If you watch, there are constant signs from God.

In high school I would when I’d find Pringles (reduced fat sour cream and onion because they mysteriously had more of that awesome sour cream powder than the full fat ones) on sale? Sign from God to buy some.

Turns our Pringles go on sale a lot. Because God wanted me to be happy.

And this Sunday when I was stumped on what to make for dinner, corn tortillas for a dollar at the co-op were clearly a sign from God to have tacos for dinner

Delicious idea God!

God doesn’t just speak at the grocery store though. When you run 8 miles and there’s a pancake breakfast in your hood?

Sign from God to have pancakes for breakfast!

God loves both carbs and not doing dishes.

Today though, I got what may be the best sign from God yet. It came in two parts.

First, a text from my husband

(yes, he really is “husband” in my phone. Baby Brother is labeled as Baby Brother in there too. I like descriptive names)

And then when I got the mail

My debit card for our joint account showed up.

(also, Bliss totally understands what’s going on, clearly)

The same account that has our ballin’ tax refund in it.

If that’s not a sign from God to go shopping I don’t know what is.

What has God told you to do lately?

That Darn Leprechaun!

You won’t believe what happened in my classroom!

I’ve been teaching kindergarten this week (a BLAST. Kids are hilarious. Did you know God has a girlfriend? Learned that this week. Also, with a hundred dollars you could by a lot of cars. And strawberry yogurt mixed with chocolate milk “tastes like vanilla!”. These kids teach me a lot.) and it seems that every year on St Patrick’s day a leprechaun comes and visits the classroom!

That darn leprechaun!  He made a mess!

Chairs overturned, crayons spilled, books everywhere.

He even left paper towels all over the bathroom. “Mrs L he’s killing the trees!”

That darn leprechaun!

He left footprints all over too!

Even on the windows! “Mrs L! How did he DO THAT?!”

That darn leprechaun! He’s tricky I tell you.

My day was spent hearing “Mrs L! Mrs L! Guess what else the leprechaun did!!!”

I emerged from kindergarten with a slitting headache, a bag full of crayon pictures, a kiss on the cheek from a 5 year old boy and green paint all over my arms.

Then I made the mistake of mentioning soda bread to my husband. Because what you should do after leprechaun wrangling all day is bake.

Labor of love my friends

It was insanely good. Worth it.

Classic St Patrick’s day dinner

Corned beef, colcannon, carrots, and soda bread.

And for dessert?

Our leprechaun friend lost his gold while he was in the room, and the leftovers came home with Mrs L.

That darn leprechaun knew I’d need it.

A Spudnut Moment

Know what I haven’t done in a grip and a half?

Posted a whole day’s worth of food.

So, here’s a day in the life.

I woke up exhausted and I downed two cups of unpictured coffee.

I’m an idiot and that was way too much liquid in my tummy, so I wasn’t digging  breakfast.  But I was off to teach and I knew if I didn’t eat something by calendar I’d be ready to eat the class pet.  So I ended up sticking one of these suckers

(Fact:  these are better if you call them La vache qui rit.)

On some Dave’s Killer bread

I adore hummus and toast in the AM (totally normal, right?), but I ate all the hummus last week and need to cook more chickpeas.  So this worked.

I grabbed my lunch

Weird mishmash of stuff.

Two kiwis, an apple, peanut butter (for the apple),  a hunk of Sin Dawg, crack oranges, and beef jerky.  I’ve been eating yogurt for lunches (and breakfasts) like it’s going out of style.  It’s kinda hit the point where it did go out of style.  Whoops.

(I ended up not eating the oranges, but I always aim to overpack-24 children + low blood sugar = hell)

And guess who I found in my class!  My friend from last year!  He switched schools!  Thankfully he’s less of a “friend” this year.

I got home from work and munched on some of these

These are crack.  I would possibly birth your children for a lifetime supply of these.

While I munched I threw together dinner.

1 can diced tomatoes + back beans I cooked the other day + chicken + brown rice + corn + spices = soup

More chips on there.  Way more.  But I hate soggy chips with a fiery passion so I add them as I go.

And for bed dinner

Popcorn

Which was disappointing.  Not because I don’t love popcorn or anything, but because I watched my girl Sarah give a shoutout to my hometown (first min and a half is all you gotta watch)

And since watching that?  It’s all one big Spudnut moment.

And by “Spudnut moment” I mean I would kill for a spudnut right around now.

What’s a food you want and can’t get?  I want spudnuts.  And more of that PB ish from Trader Joe’s.

Pulled Pork

It’s been a while since I’ve put up a recipe!

I am not much of a pork eater.

I’m not much of an eater of any meat that requires me to use a knife to cut it.  I have meat issues.

But slow cooked super tender pork?  I have learned that is delicious.  And Lisa blogged about eating some last week the night I was making this.  So I figured it should share!

We got a recipe for pork rub from my husband’s boss.  I then proceeded to make it very different, because that’s what I do.  But the one thing I did keep is the little bit of cinnamon.  It gives the meat a fun little sweetness, but it’s not overwhelming.

For the rub you just mix:

• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t smoked paprika
• 1 1/2 t  cumin
• 1 t chili powder or red pepper

Ideally you wanna put this on the meat the night before, so that it soaks up the flavors and and gets delicious.  This is enough for 1-2 lbs of meat.  To cook it you have two options; crockpot or oven. I usually do the oven, but either way works. If you’re doing it in the slow cooker it wouldn’t hurt to double the spices.

If you do the oven you wrap the pork in foil and cook at at 300 for abou 3 hours.  If you do it this way, put a pan under the meat in case your foil wrapping skills are less than stellar (like mine!)

In the crockpot simply put it on low, add enough liquid to cover (I used beer, if you’d rather you can use stock), and leave it for at least 6 hours.

Either way when the meat can get pulled apart with a fork (no knives friends, no knives) it’s good to go.

We like to mix it with BBQ sauce.  BBQ sauce is one of the things where I’m lazy and buy it.  It’s cheap (especially in the summer-I think I paid 50 cents a bottle for this?), yummy, and sometimes you gotta be lazy.

It also has HFCS.  Details.

We eat it on buns

Or make nachos.  Either way, it’s delicious.

This sauce has a nice smokiness, and the smoked paprkia adds in more smokiness.  So you ge the wonderful smokiness of BBQ without buying your husband the $800 smokers they have on roadshow at Costco.

What’s your favorite way to eat pork?