Burn #768: Potholders, people!

My internet has been so funky, so I'm just copying and pasting the blog post I wrote in Word last night for dinner.

I took another doozy of a nap… The House of Mirth wasn’t so great, sadly, and I couldn’t help my eyelids from drooping. Betty Ford was nice enough to get me up, though… By sitting on my head and licking my nose!

Dinner was a stir-fry… In the making of which I burned three fingers of my hand by grabbing the panhandle without a rag, dropped my camera on the floor (hitting my toes on the way down), and broke a glass. I’m a little absent-minded today for some reason! I’m going to blame in on Monday.



I had a glass of wine (cabernet sauvignon) someone left at my house on Friday, along with carrots and goat cheese and Manchego on a rye sesame cracker.





Shrimp and Veggie-rific Stir Fry

¼ cup water chestnuts, quartered

1/3 romaine lettuce, cut widthwise (through the head) and chopped into slivers

1/3 onion (I used Vidalia), chopped

½ tsp ginger powder

1/5 cup canola oil

8 oz mixed veggies (I used a frozen carrot/cauliflower/broccoli blend)

8 cooked shrimp, thawed if frozen, tails removed, cut into thirds

1 small jalepeño pepper, chopped

salt to taste

¼ cup red wine

1 cup cooked brown rice

toasted sesame oil for garnish





Makes 2-3 servings

I adapted this recipe from this coming Wednesday’s Dining Out section of the Times (my favorite!).

-Heat a third of the oil in a large pan. Add water chestnuts, tossing with a little salt, and cooking on high until they are brown around the edges. Remove from heat and save.

-Heat another third of the oil. Add lettuce, onion, and veggies, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes on medium-high eat. Stir in a little salt. CAUTION: oil can “pop”, so watch out, it’s VERY HOT. Add about ¼ cup water. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add remaining oil to pain. Add shrimp, ginger, and jalepeño. Cook 1-2 minutes. Return chestnuts, and veggie/lettuce mixture to pan. Add rice, stirring over medium until heated through. Add wine and a few tablespoons more of water, mixing thoroughly. Remove from heat and serve, drizzling a little toasted sesame one each individual portion.


I ate about half of the recipe (which I halved from the NYTimes). I could have used a bit less oil, but I’ll know that in the future. The sesame oil was the perfect finishing touch.

When I was in Paris, I remember flipping through the French ELLE and reading what the “worst” things women who were polled confessed to doing on a semi-regularly basis. The two I remember were “eating Nutella” and “taking baths de temps en temps.” Now that I’m safe from seeing Nutella on every corner (Nutella banana crêpes = a heaven worth every little bite of sin), I’m guilty of taking baths on a semi-regular basis. I do feel guilty about using up so much water, but I guess I justify it to myself by staying in there for a while and using it to stay warm. And, Betty Ford is so intrigued by the bathtub when it’s filled with water (Blue is too jaded to care) that he’s sits on the ledge the entire time, trying to get up the courage to stick his paw into the water. It is so cute! So it almost makes it worth all that waste…

When I got out of the tub, I had my last birthday truffle: hot chocolate. This was SO RICH and ended up leaving my mouth feeling pretty fiery! I gulped a glass of water down afterwards, the ganache was so thick! But delicious, of course!


I’m going to be up bright and early for an 8 AM appointment to get my leg checked out … Wish me luck and good news!

Big Freshness

"Big Freshness" is on the menu on my favorite Japanese restaurant at home. I always ask, but I can never remember what it is! Although it's not particularly "fall" -themed, I am definitely getting sushi when I go home for Thanksgiving!


I was in the mood for a great big salad for lunch today. I'm on sort of a spinach kick, so don't be surprised if it pops up a lot in the next few meals (think stir-fry, eggs florentine...)! I made a salad with about two cups of spinach, 1/5 block of extra firm tofu, 1 yellow bell pepper, and about 1/4 of a sweet Vidalia onion.



I packed some Newman's Own Light Lime Vinaigrette:


This tastes sort of like lemon-lime Gatorade, which is why, although I've had this for about a month, I never use it on my salads. However, because of the freshness of the ingredients, and maybe even the lemon/lime-y colors (strange thought, I know!) I kind of liked it today. I definitely won't be buying it again, though.

With two little apples from the orchard:


An apple cinnamon Luna Sunrise:


Gettin' my news on:



I've had some issues with Luna Sunrise bars before: namely, they're too darn sweet. They'd be delicious without that creamy layer of icing, but I'm usually looking for a little less in my bars.


This one was better than the blueberry and strawberry flavors I've tried. Look at that layer of apple cinnamon goodness! The icing bothered me less after the initial bites, so I'd probably buy this again.

"Sorry, Monday, come back tomorrow"

I'm sure I fell asleep before midnight last night reading Dictee; I might have to re-read the last few pages because I don't remember much of it! Nothing huge workwise in school today, so it shouldn't be too bad. I do need to figure out a way to get down in the basemement to do my laundry... I'm almost out of sock!

I was a little indecisive about what I wanted for breakfast this morning: only after Jalene had rinsed out her oatmeal pot did I decided I wanted some, too. I made mine in the microwave though to save cleanup redundancy.


1/2 cup oats made with 1/2 cup water

1/2 banana

1/4 cup pumpkin

3 pecans

1 tsp brown sugar

splash of light vanilla soy milk



I put some vanilla soy milk in my coffee as well; for some reason it didn't turn as soy milk in coffee usually does. It's pretty good, and just sweet enough.

I've got to finish my French reading before class, and avoid the temptation to do so in bed! Happy Monday!

Let there be heat!

Our landlord came by and fixed the heat; apparently the pilot light on the furnace was out. Unfortunately, although the thermostat is set to 50, the temperature is reading 85! I'm not going to complain, even to myself, because warm and toasty is a whole lot better than freezing.

I had a Z bar in the afternoon:



I took my usual Sunday nap (although it was 1 and not 3 hours today!) so I had to have a pretty low-key dinner so I'd make it to my Russian screening in time. I had a spicy black bean burger with cheddar cheese on a double fiber English muffin, "hippie" spinach (white wine vinegar and sesame seeds), carrots and a Granny Smith apple.



I'm on to my very last Embodi! I think I still have a couple coupons, but I'm going to be pinching my pennies until Thanksgiving so I'm trying to stretch my groceries out as long as possible. I ended up not having time for the carrots and apple, so I brought them and ate them in class.



I also had two two-bite brownies... I love these things!


The film we saw tonight was Repentance, directed in 1984 by Tengiz Abuladze. Very strange, but I liked it a lot... and it's a good thing, because I have to do a presentation on it for Thursday!

I'm going to get in bed and read a little, and take advantage of the time I have to do it before the school week starts. Bonne huit!

Snow in October?!

I'm a little jealous of all the Florida girls in the blog world.... Today I woke up to SNOW outside my window! I had my weekly visit with my grandparents, and the roads were a little treacherous because of the wind and sleet. I tired to get a picture of it, but the snowflakes disappeared in the photo.



Last night I was feeling snacky while watching Munich, (which I loved, and highly recommend) so I made one of Sammie's "messes" and it held me over pretty well. I also had a few of the little apples we picked yesterday.


This morning I woke up on the late side, so I just had a wedge of soda bread toast with Stonewall Kitchen's Wild Maine Blueberry Jam and Emergen-C to take with my vitamins (which I'm running very low on, but it will be so expensive to refill them all!).


The brunch buffet at the Club was good again today. Clockwise from the top: smoked salmon with capers, fruit, beets, sprouts, pickle, gazpacho aspic, cukes, cauliflower, red and yellow pepeprs, all topped with a little balsamic dressing.



Round two: Baguette French toast with a little maple syrup. I've been in a very French toast mood recently! Maybe because it's getting colder and I want heartier, comforting breakfasts. I also had a "cappuccino," which arrived looking more like dark coffee with a little skim milk in it.



I'm still a little hungry, so I think I might have a granola bar or something. We'll see; I have a feeling I just need to drink some water. I had a lot of coffee at lunch!

Just two more days until I get my second x-ray. I'm a little nervous about it, but I have a feeling the doctor will tell me I need to stay on the crutches longer because my leg still hurts a little when I stretch out in bed. I definitely don't want to rush into it and end up with a longer recovery time, it's already starting to be snowy and slippery and it will be a real pain to be hobbling around during a Minnesota winter. Actually, I'm more concerned with going to the airport for Thanksgiving; it sounds like a nightmare! How do I go through security?! Well, no use worrying about what I can't really change, and I won't even know what the next month is going to look like until Tuesday morning. My fingers are crossed...

Pick a little, talk a little

Today we went apple picking for Sarah's birthday! It was so much fun; I don't think I've been since elementary school. Before we left for Stillwater, I had a piece of soda bread.


Kettle corn samples!


When we got to the farm, we were told the orchard was "all picked out." We went and explored, though, and found tons of small apples still left on the trees, practically screaming, "Pick me!" So pick we did.





Do you know how much good, clean fun can be had in an apple orchard? So much! There was apple baseball, knock-the-apple-off-the-Ted-Bundy-stick, Luke tried to catch one in his mouth...



The gift shop in the "Apple Barn" was amazing: mulling spices, gingerbread pancake mix, apple cider donuts (which I've been craving but after last night my tummy does not want anything sweet), local maple syrup, hot cider... There were all different kinds of "butters", from apple to PUMPKIN to cherry. Originally, I was going to get a couple of these, but decided against it since I have so many kinds of jams and have pumpkin in some form almost every day. I am definitely going to be making gingerbread pancakes in the near future, though!

They had an adjoining winery, and I think this may have been my first ever wine tasting! I really want to learn more about wine, and reading about Kath's tastings makes me want to find some in the Cities. These are all from the Saint Croix Vineyards. Hooray for local winemaking! Left to right: Minnesota Orchard Reserve Apple Wine, Vignoles, Delaware (like a Riesling), Frontenac. There was also a raspberry dessert wine, but the bottle disappeared before I could photograph it. I got a bottle each of the apple wine and the Frontenac, but I'm going to save them for special times.


Each pour was only about two small sips worth. I cleansed my palate with half a pretzel twist in between wines, and had a dark chocolate Hershey's kiss with the dessert wine.


Leftover baked shrimp on a bed of angel hair shirataki noodles. NO MORE WINE for me this weekend, so I had the nonalcoholic version instead.


Old school cinnamon toast (Brummel & Brown, turbinado sugar, cinnamon) cut into pieces, just because.


Still no luck with the heat; I'm going to get under the covers and watch Munich, and maybe catch up on some Gray's Anatomy afterwards because I have a feeling this movie is going to be a bit of a downer. An evening at home is just what I need right now!

Operation: detox

Whew, what a night! There were fun costumes, lovely people, and almost everything got eaten. Here was the spread, clockwise from left to right: vegan chocolate chip pumpkin squares, vegan lemon bars, vegan apple peanut butter caramel squares, more pumpkin squares, Boston "scream" cake, Irish soda bread.


Typical party fare and some Halloween candy treats:


Fun photo re-cap:

Cowboy Jonathon and Betty Ford:


I'm not really sure why I look so frightened here, but Jalene looks bee-you-tee -ful as a 1920s photograph.


Happy birthday Kabir! With Carmen Sandiego (Becky).



Andrew, Angry Joe, Carmen:



Megan, Emma, Cowgirl Camille:



Grecian Goddess Anne:

Adam and Katie (as each other!)


Unfortunately, I haven't really been drinking so much lately so I woke up with a little headache and slammed two full glasses of water and Emergen-C, a tylenol, and went back to sleep. Perfect cure-all! My camera was passed around all night so I didn't take pictures of everything I had, but here's the Annie's mac & cheese + tuna I had around 1, and a piece of Boston "Scream" Cake:

I had another smaller sliver of this... I'd nibbled and licked so much of the other desserts throughout the baking process, that this was the only one I hadn't tried in its full assemblage.

This cake is a cocoa/pumpkin mixture with a spiced cream filling and a chocolate glaze. Verrrry decadent! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I'll type it up. It's from the October Martha Stewart magazine.




I was craving protein and did NOT want anything sweet for brunch (I woke up after 11:30), so I made some savory oats. I cooked the oats with salt, pepper, and chili flakes. I mixed in a low fat string cheese, half a cup of low fat cottage cheese, one whole egg and one egg white, and a roasted red pepper.