Pop Over for a Popover

Behold my most excellent new popover pan! Note, this is a *professional* grade pan (it says so on the cardboard wrapper thingee), and I am here to tell you, there is nothing like a professional popover to get you going. The first batch came out golden brown, soft in the middle, and quite lofty.




I had to double the batter to fill the huge cups, though, so I need to play with that a bit. I don't really see a need for gigantic popovers that are the size of your head, since they're best warm, and I already have to share a batch of normal ones lest I take on the actual shape of a popover (minus the loft).

BTW, here's the recipe in case you're too cheap to buy my cookbook (haha).

2 eggs
1 cup milk (soy milk works too)
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk eggs with a fork, then add the flour, milk and salt. Mix together, disregarding lumps. Don't over mix. Batter will be fairly thin. Fill well-greased muffin tins 3/4 full if using standard muffin tin. If you use the fancy popover pan, Alton Brown and other say to just fill them 1/3 to 1/2 full. Put in a COLD oven set to 450. Bake for 30 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door, or they'll lose their poof.

Serve hot with butter, honey and jams.

Other culinary efforts included rosemary bread, chicken soup (just in time for another damn head cold) and sweet potato & chickpea stew. I know -- it sounds strange, but it's delish. Flavors in that soup included curry, cumin, and coconut milk. You know you want some.






Also, I finally posted some new faces on the face blog. I've been seeing a lot lately (am I lonely?), but I didn't have a camera handy, and now I can't remember where they all were...but I caught a few.



In movie news, Beth and I watched The Road. Wow. It was dark, pretty true to the book, and fairly riveting. Kind of makes you want to learn survival skills though. Or maybe the best way to off yourself in a pinch. We watched an episode of Glee afterwards, which was almost as cleansing as a Veggie Tale.

Ready for My Closeup

Just wanted to give a plug to my friend and former co worker turned photographer, Ryan, for taking these great pics of yours truly. We had to have portraits taken for our departmental brochure at work, and we hired Ryan to do them. The guy has a gift. Seriously, these pictures look like ones that come with frames -- they're that good. Guess what everyone got for Valentine's Day! Behold a few of the proofs.

Not Back in the Swing

I kind of lost interest in blogging for awhile...so this is an attempt to get back into the swing of it. I've been seeing faces all over the place (and me without my camera), so I took that as a sign that the Internet was calling. Or, maybe it was just a prank call.

I'll report now on my latest obsession, which is finding new cross country skis. It started with a desire to have a "backup" pair of my sweet Revolution skis (no longer made), which I love, but, it turns out, not as much as I love the new mid-length wide-body skis (which I rented just for kicks) that are all the rage. It was kind of like riding in a Lincoln after driving a go cart.

So then I decided maybe I should sell off some of my obsolete equipment, and promptly unloaded three sets of skis, boots and poles via my employee newsletter at work (well, 1 of the ski sets was Lenore's, but still, I was feeling pretty successful).

I was poised to buy...and had my heart set on the new Fischer Desire skis that are alleged to be strong enough for a man but made for a woman (even though they looked girly and were not red like the boys' skis, grrr). It became an obsession when it started proving impossible to find skis in my size or boots that didn't suck. Then, when I finally found some, the guy didn't want to make the sale. Seriously. I was all set to fork over $200+, but he didn't have boots that fit me. I was willing to pay full price for a USED pair of rental boots, and he didn't want to do it. Whatever. After much googling and almost resorting to a spreadsheet (the horror), I finally found skis and bindings that I hope will be the same if not better online at REI. Since boots in my size appear to be few and far between, I had to buy them separately. Fortunately, most stuff is on sale now. I found a pair at Village Cycle Sport on sale and two pairs at L.L. Bean that were $20% off, then Beth got me another 15% off, so that was a sweet deal (even though they charge like 10% sales tax...don't get me started). I'm currently "testing" all three -- two pairs of Rossignol (36 and 37) and a pair of Alpinas.



My goal is to find something that won't give me blisters and that keep my feet warm. It's a pretty tall order. So I've been wearing them at work and took the Rossies on a test ride today on a treadmill in the fitness center. People think I'm odd, but then again, that's nothing new. What I really want to know, is what is UP with manufacturers putting goddamn flowers on everything that's for women?



It drives me nuts. If it isn't flowers on my ski boots, it's fucking bows on my long underwear.

Case in point: Here's Addi, who didn't even realize her jaunty red bow was peeking out of her new Xena robe.



ENOUGH with the prissy shit already, do you hear me, lame-ass manufacturers? Also, pink and other pastel colors? Really not necessary. We get it. We're girls. We can still kick your ass and make a batch of popovers all in the same day.

Speaking of popovers...(recipe found in the Pseudo Gourmet)



I forgot how fabulous these little pockets of eggy joy were. I recently made some for Beth to prove my point, and she's joined me in the obsession (yes, another one -- did I mention she also bought new skis?). I just ordered a new popover pan from Amazon (I will be so sad when my free year-long Prime membership expires in August!) and almost considered paying $3.99 for overnight shipping. I know -- it's that serious. Note the assist above by a Perky Potholder, though Beth made it, so I'm not sure if it's really perky or not. These buggers did NOT want to come out of the pan. Hence the need for new designer non-stick cookware.

In addition to getting back into the swing of blogging (which I may not be, to be honest), I unleashed my inner soup nazi last night and made two vats of delicious soup: chicken noodle and sweet potato & chickpea stew. My freezer is filled with soup, homemade bread and cat food. Bring it on, just don't turn off my electricity.

In other mundane news, I'm still addicted to Glee and Weeds and looking forward to getting re addicted to Dexter. My interest is waning in Bones and Chuck. I may need to branch out and view programming with multiple-word titles. Not anytime soon though. There's only so much time one can devote to Netflix and still get in an adequate amount of this.



Gracie thinks she's a tiny lap dog, which she is most assuredly not.

Let It Snow. OK, That's Enough. Seriously. Stop Already.

This is what it felt like my house looked like. It was actually worse. Not really. But I'm thinking of getting a plow attachment for my Mini.

This was the view out my front window Tuesday night. Kind of ominous!


The blizzard of 2011 was, I think, much more exciting for the media than anyone else. Barring a little anxiety over the power going out (which, thankfully, it didn't), I rather enjoyed it; although, my snowblower could have picked a better time to crap out on me. Over the course of the 2.5 snow days (woot!), I baked several loaves of bread, made pumkpkin bread pudding and pea soup in the crockpot (not at the same time) slept late, did a tiny bit of cross country skiing and snowshoeing, and learned that if the little screw-in gas drippy thingee on your snowblower gets clogged, the snowblower won't start. That little lesson cost me 50 bucks, but I'm grateful that the small-engine repair guy made a house call.

Then I got sick, which kind of put a damper on the weekend. However, with the snow days and sick days, I will get a six-day weekend, so it's not all bad.

Here are a few not-so-dramatic shots from the snowfall. I'm guessing we got about 20 inches or so. Hard to tell with all the drifting.

I had several cardinals flitting around the bird feeder -- this was the only decent shot I was able to get.


The squirrels quickly re established their favorite pathways.



This may not look all that impressive, but I shoveled this by hand after the snowblower died. I think the snow was about knee high and kind of heavy.


Shortly before the snowblower gave up...


Tuesday night, it was snowing inside and out. Think I might need to get a new porch door!


Most of the windows had that "winter wonderland" look about them.


The sights on Wednesday morning.




Friday I was finally able to return the skis I rented (to see if I wanted to buy them, which I did), though I have yet to try them due to the chest cold, which I believe is a special gift from my boss. Nice. What makes people think they are so indispensable that they have to come to work sick? Seriously. If you're that critical to the organization that it can't function without you for a couple of days, maybe you should be asking for a raise. Since I'm pretty sure I won't be 100% by Monday, I am totally taking the day off. Hopefully I'll feel well enough do the stuff I couldn't do while dripping over the weekend -- namely, skiing on my new skis and grocery shopping (note to self: add Kleenex to the list). And napping some more. That goes without saying.

This evening is superbowl 45 (?), which I don't feel obligated to capitalize, though I'm somewhat rooting for the Packers, even though Odie is, I think, still a Steelers fan. I like the Packers' colors better and their small-town roots.

Speaking of TV viewing, thanks to Netflix and Hulu, I'm catching up on Glee and Weeds. I also watched an old (1948) movie called The Boy With Green Hair, which stars Dean Stockwell (Al from Quantum Leap, one of my favorite cheezy shows) as the little boy. I wonder if that was one of his first roles.



The film was somewhat odd, but captivating in the way it delivered its message (war is bad for children). I suppose that was a brave message to impart for its time, given all the pro-war propaganda in that era.

Happy Birthday!

81 years young and a great excuse to make this fabulous carrot cake. Delicious, if I do say so myself. Recipe available in the Pseudo Gourmet, BTW. You can make it healthier by substituting half the oil for 3/4 cup of drained, unsweetened applesauce. And use low-fat cream cheese for the frosting.




I was excited to find an organic, free-range egg connection (check out the blue-green egg!). This lady treats her "girls" right and agreed to deliver eggs to MCC as long as I ordered at least four dozen. I have about 12 people ordering already. But we're limited to 15 dozen, so it's now an exclusive club. Kind of like Fight Club, only without the fighting. This must be what it's like to deal crack...only without the scuzzy people and gunfire. Very exciting.



It's about 2 hours out from "the storm of the century" hitting IL. So I'm told. We're closing at 2:00 today, and I'm gearing up for a (hopefully) great snow day of reading and playing in the snow. Woot! As long as the power doesn't go out, I think I'm stocked and ready. AND I'll get to try out my new Xmas snowshoes. Double woot!

It's a little crazy, though, how much this storm is getting hyped. Is this something new, or was it like this during other blizzards? Seems a little excessive. But you know there will *still* be people trying to drive and getting stranded out there. I like to keep a bottle of booze in the car for occasions like that...