Photo Catch Up/Mish Mash: Tonight’s Dinner Party, Valentines, Tamale Lady and Closet Cleaning

I’ve got a bunch of pretty random photos from the past few days that aren’t very cohesive, but I’d like to share.  None of them feel important enough to warrant their own post, so I am going to throw them together in a big ole mish mash for your random scrolling pleasure!

Lucy Valentine’s Package Montage
Kitteh loves “crinkle-y.”  Ergo, after Earl unwrapped his Valentine’s Day Present, she was gifted the tissue paper and also played with the ribbon (and for our amusement, wore the bow):

Valentines Cat

get that ribbon

the ribbon, it shall be mine

Action shot!

bow flying off

A handsome man bestowed upon me some simply scrumptious Teuscher Truffles

truffles!

and a dozens of far more delectable smooches

smooches

Valentine’s Eve: I made some apricot & honey-glazed porkchops, rosemary olive oil fingerling potatoes and a walnut apple arugula salad.  The porkchop to potato ratio here, as you can tell, was way, way off (too many taters, not enough chops!!).  As a fledgling cook I am kind of still learning about portion sizes and how much of what two people really eat.  It’s a learning curve I hope to progress beyond soon.

too many taters, not enough chops

on VALENTINES DAY: THE ESSENTIAL BEER AND WINGS!!!

traditional valentines beer and wings

note: these were darn-good but not GREAT and wtf is with the carrots?  Carrots?  Feh.  wings should come with celery, blue-cheese and that’s it.  Maybe wet-naps.  But carrots???  Freaking Californians.

Rainy Sunday Project: Ceej VS. Hall Closet

We were having company stay over tonight, so I knew I had to find the air mattress, which was somewhere- SOMEWHERE- in the back of this thing.  Unfortunately, when we moved into the SF apartment, we were just so sick of moving and packing and unpacking that by the time it came to putting things in the hall closet we just sort of shoved it all in there, as you can see below.  It was a mess, and sometimes when you were looking for something in the back everything would avalanche out on top of you.

BEFORE v1

BEFORE v2

So, on Sunday I attacked!! Pulled EVERYTHING out, organized it all on the floor, and put it all back in.  Doesn’t look that much different, huh   But, at least things are in like categories now, and at least I know where everything is now!

AFTER v1

AFTER v2

The Tamale Lady
Today I was at Trader Joes to get some pomegranates for our dinner party tomorrow (yes that’s two dinner parties in two days!), and I saw the Tamale Lady hawking her wares out of a cooler in the parking lot.  I grabbed a bunch of Tamales, brought four to Earl at his office to treat him for lunch, and noshed on two when I got home from class.  Yu-hum.  Maybe not as good as the Tamales we had at Abes in Clarkesdale, Mississippi, but still pretty freaking good!  I’ve heard the Tamale Lady is pretty elusive, so was happy I jumped on the chance to nosh

Tamale Lady Tamales: Pretty Darn Good

Dinner Party: Good Luck Send off for Amy
“I miss Amy,” I had lamented to Earl this weekend when we were hanging around.  “You just saw her at ski camp last week,” came his reply with mock exasperation.  Well, what a stroke of luck, because later that very day we found out Amy was accepted to interview at Stanford’s PA Program, and guess where she asked to spend the night beforehand!  We don’t have a couch just yet, but we do have an air mattress, and also in her honor I prepared a very healthy, high-protein, high-veggie meal!   Hopefully we are sending her off tomorrow in style and with lots of luck!!

I cooked Roasted Olive Oil & Marjoram Chicken, served on a bed of steamed bok-choy and topped with a caramelized tomato/lemon vinaigrette and a side of sweet and sour brussel sprouts. Everything came out yummy.  Would TOTALLY cook the chicken dish again, but I think I just like plain old brussel sprouts- they’re good enough on their own, maybe roasted with some salt and olive oil, no need to schmance them up like this.  Not worth the effort, and I feel like maybe all the extra “pizzazz” sort of took away from the yummy, brussel-sprout-y taste they naturally have.  Maybe “sweet and sour brussel sprouts” should be reserved for people who don’t really like brussel sprouts to begin with.

Prepping cherry tomatoes for the vinaigrette

tomatoes

steaming bok choy (we always get lots of bok choy in our FFTY box, and it the #1 veggie we are likely to let go bad in our fridge… so I am making a concerted effort to actually use it all now)

bok choy... finally

tomatoes + olive oil + salt and pepper + zest of lemon + fresh lemon juice ===> saute for 10 minutes

carmelized tomatoes

hey, check out my neat-o new vacuum cleaner!

amazing new vacuum!

it’s great, it’s self-operated, self-powered with it’s in-system spill location device and patented licking food removal technology

it really works!

only drawback to the new vacuum cleaner is that the new vacuum cleaner likes to park itself smack dab in the middle of my tiny kitchen, hoping for more opportunities to vacuum.  the new vacuum cleaner is reluctant to be moved away from potential spill zones and thus, despite its astonishing lack of a cord, still can result in tripping.

vacuum's overeagerness and constant readiness to assist with potential spills can be a tad annoying

sweet and sour brussel sprouts = 1 red onion + olive oil + honey + tarragon + 1 red pepper + bay leaf + mustard seed + veggie broth, bring to boil

sweet and spicy brussel sprouts

add brussel sprouts (also from the FFTY box, and suuuper fresh)

super fresh brussels

plate chicken on bok choy, top with tomato vinaigrette

ta-da! final product

Guest of Honor looks happy

The Delightful Guest of Honor

the un-noteable brussel spouts.  I don’t know.  Everyone ate them.  But… meh.  For all the work, I wouldn’t say these were all that great.

"meh" brussel sprouts

After dinner Amy and I caught up and actually went through a bunch of college photos, laughing at how silly we used to be.  There were a few of us all decked out ready to go out dancing at Mohegan Sun.  Heh.  I gave a few to scan so they may just be making an appearance on Facebook sooner or later, embarrassingly enough!

Hope she does well tomorrow- she already kicked ass at the UC-Davis PA Program interview, so I bet she will do just as well at Stanford tomorrow.  GOOD LUCK AMY!!