Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Still Love KU!

I was hoping that this post might have a happier conclusion, but unfortunately not.  As an early birthday present, my parents got me tickets to the NCAA regional finals (aka the Elite Eight), so Geoff and I headed downtown on Sunday morning.  We had lunch overlooking the Riverwalk.

And headed over to the pre-game pep rally to hear the band play.  (I think I saw one of my mom's cousins, but there were too many people to be sure.  Also, my mom has a lot of cousins - Thanksgiving with her side of the family has been known to have 90 people.)

The game took place at the Alamodome, which is gigantic.  The court was only half of the arena - everything really is bigger in Texas.

Things started out badly for the Jayhawks and they never really recovered.  I won't rehash it here because it seems that every media source I encountered today was discussing the game. VCU's coach is a real character.  He ran up and down the sidelines like a mad man the entire game.  I could see his sweat stains from our seats 50 rows back.

We took this picture at half time because we already suspected there wouldn't be smiles after the game.  We had a great time though and Geoff was yelling nearly as much as I was.  This was his first KU game, but I doubt it will be his last - he has to experience one in the Fieldhouse!

 Congrats to VCU - it is quite the cinderella story and I'll be cheering for them the rest of the tournament.  But I have to say, when I looked up at the big screen and saw Markieff Morris crying, I nearly did too.

Something's Fishy....or Bivalve-y?

I meant to post this sometime last fall and just found it in my drafts folder when I went to look for the mussels recipe to make with oven-baked frites.

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I've always been a little intimidated to cook seafood.  I blame this on growing up in Kansas, minimally 700 miles from an ocean.  I did catch a catfish once!

Me with Granddad Bill (and a catfish)

As my taste in seafood has grown, I feel like my culinary skills should grow as well.  So these are my attempts to branch out beyond my salmon in parchment paper stand-by.  My first effort was Ina Garten's Scallops Provencal.  I love scallops but had never cooked them myself.  I believed them to be horribly prone to being overcooked and that the Top Chef judge in my head (the mean British one from Top Chef Master's) would sneer at me for ruining an expensive meal.  Turns out, scallops aren't that pricey, or that difficult to cook.  These will be making an appearance again!


Seared Scallops with Roasted Beat and Goat Cheese Salad


Emboldened by my scallop coup, I decided to follow my friend Laurel's advice and make mussels at home.  Laurel has been telling me for years (literally) that mussels are the easiest thing to make at home - just cook some shallots in butter, add wine and mussels, cover for 5-7 minutes, eat with bread.  And it turns out, she was right, very easy!  I tried out a saffron-infused broth from Barefoot Contessa and they were delicious. 

These are the most recent moules with oven-baked frites.

Seeing as I was on a bivalve roll, I decided next to tackle pasta with clams sauce.  Also, I really wanted to use more of the fresh cracked pepper fettuccine I buy at our local farmer's market.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain on Tuesday and I just couldn't motivate myself to go down there.

The linguini in clam sauce was okay, but I couldn't help but think how much more delicious the mussels would be over pasta - mmmmmm.

As an added bonus, all of these bivales can be sustainably produced.  Having overcome my shellfish phobia, what next?  Maybe seared tuna steaks?  I know I want to whole fry a fish.  Anyone have some suggestions?

Is It Worth It? Homemade Ricotta

Ricotta is pretty much the easiest cheese you can make - just heat regular milk and buttermilk together.  The most difficult part is finding the cheesecloth, but I have a houseboy for that.  The second most difficult part is figuring out what to do with it.  I knew I didn't want to bury it in layers of noodles and sauce where it would go unnoticed.  Ricotta goes beautifully with all sorts of delicious spring vegetables like peas and asparagus and the zucchinis and tomatoes of summer; but despite it being 90 degrees this weekend (yes, 90, no, I'm not excited about it), the full flush of the spring harvest hasn't arrived at the market yet.

Then I found this recipe for a ricotta bruschetta with lemon zest and honey and an idea was born: weeknight tapas.  About an hour before dinner, I heated a half-gallon of the tastiest 2% milk I could find with 2 cups of buttermilk until the curds and whey separated.

Why would Miss Muffet want to eat that?

While the milk was heating, I started on the other tapas.  To keep it simple, there would be only three plates, (1) the bruschetta, (2) a roasted beet salad made with local goat cheese and walnuts, and (3) my favorite tapas ever.  Two years ago, we visited our friends Holly and Kevin and they took us and our friend Bren to an amazing tapas place.

The tapas are so good, we're hysterical

Although the sangria may have helped

My favorite little plate contained bacon wrapped dates.  I'm not usually a big fan of dates, they are too sweet for me.  But wrap them in smoky, salty bacon and I'm all over it.  Every time I have seen them on a menu in the last two years I ordered them.  So with some dates from my grandma sitting in my refrigerator and some cottage bacon (one of three types of bacon made by our friendly local charcutier) from the farmer's market, we were ready to go.

I let the curds drain 15-20 minutes which made it quite a bit drier than what you find in the tub at the grocery store.  I seasoned with salt and pepper and piled it onto the broiled bread.  Zest a lemon, drizzle on just a hint of honey, and that is one pretty appetizer.  

We ate as much as we could, but there was still quite a bit of ricotta left over.  Luckily, I had another dish up my sleeve - Spinach and Artichoke Stuffed Shells in a Ricotta Sauce.

I added a huge bag of local spinach to the filling, doubled the ricotta, and layered a spicy marinara on the bottom of the shells.  I was really happy with the results - cheesy but still light and bright.  I took a pan of them over to Veronica and Mike's for a KU watch party.

And KU resoundingly defeated Richmond - coincidence?  I think not.  

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! GO

Yogurt and Memories

I may have set myself up for failure when I decided to make my own yogurt.  You see, I was in search of a very specific yogurt.  My Platonic ideal yogurt is thick and creamy, served from an earthenware crock in a small, dark dining room up narrow spiral stairs on the second floor of a little hotel in Athens, the name of which has long since escaped me.

I ate this yogurt each morning in the final days of 2005 when Summer and I spent a few fleeting days in Greece.

You see now why no yogurt could live up to this hype.  I tried this very basic recipe from the kitchn and it was thin and without much flavor.  Covered in strawberries macerated with sugar and balsamic vinegar, it is okay, but the rest of yogurt will get dumped into smoothies.

The nice thing about making yogurt is that it is pretty easy.  Just heat a half-gallon of milk, do about 30 minutes of yoga (not required, but recommended) while it cools to 115 degrees, stir in a 1/2 cup of active yogurt, then wrap it in all your clean towels and leave in a warm (but turned off) oven overnight.

So is it worth it to make your own yogurt?  Maybe, I'll save my judgement until I give this another try.  I'm not sure my starter yogurt was in great shape, nor did I maintain the yogurt at the right temperature for long enough.  I've heard that you can make it in your crock pot so I may try that sometime soon - I'd be glad to hear any suggestions from those of you who make your own.  For now, I foresee a lot of smoothies - or maybe frozen yogurt - in my future.

You have yogurt?

Gimme.

A Little Green Dress Will Take You Everywhere

I have a little black dress, but I rarely wear it.  It would look unbelievably chic with pearls and a scarf - but most of the time chic just isn't my style.  So the weekend before Geoff and I drove to Houston to meet up with my family for my cousin's wedding, I decided I should make myself a fun new green dress.  A quick trip to Joann's (coupon in hand, of course), and I had all the fabric I needed.  Despite 43 steps, 22 pattern pieces, and hand-stitching the lining in the hotel room the night before, I ended up with a dress I'm really happy with!

I picked a stiffer, slightly shiny fabric for the dress to give it a more structural look.  I am really pleased with the results and now that I see how the dress comes together, I could make another fairly quickly.  I bought some crazy multicolored fabric with a nice drape that I want to use for a more casual dress.  This pattern has a variation with cap sleeves and pockets that I think would be adorable - keep an eye out!

Geoff and Ellen, photo crashers.

Congratulations, Courtney and Jon!!