A little snippet of life lately

• Relax
• Forget Folger's, this is the best part of waking up.
• My patient made me an Easter egg! Cutest thing ever.
• I spy a jones soda.
• Woody's Pizza cannot be beat. Our favorite place to grab a Boston pie and chat.
• A jaunt about town for date night.
• Craft time.
• 3 cheers for actually doing things you pin on pinterest!
• Fresh Asian noodles and veggies, one of my favorite "go-to" dinners.
• The new yoga position Job learned the other day and came home to show me. Impressed wife here!  (image)
• "I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling"
• You know, just another chair meal.

You know what? Food.

It is a goal of mine to invite people over for Sunday dinner more. I just selfishly think that I don't want to mess with what we have going. It's pretty darn low key and wonderful. It usually involves either

A) picking up the Italian dinner waiting outside our door from our landlord, dividing amongst plates, adding veg, and done.

Or B) Making homemade Mexican food together, lots of taste testing, and eating it from our living room sofa (a dining chair makes a lovely little makeshift table).

I mean, we think it's great, but I don't know if others would go with the whole eating off a chair thing for Sunday dinner. And then I think, "well maybe they {guests} only like sitting on the floor and eating cheerios for their Sunday dinner" and I of course don't want to mess with something great like that.

However!! I shall overcome my love of lazy Sunday afternoons once in a while so we can share a meal with our friends. Because whenever we do I end up loving it too. It's so fun to share a meal with friends!
And local friends reading this, please don't think I'd rather be sitting on the couch eating tacos when we invite you k? We really do love to have people over, promise :)

New goal. I wrote it here, it can't be undone. ;)

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Seven

On the seventh date of Christmas, I had a sister date! :)

Kristin and I got down to business and made some delicious things for our stockings. Our stockings have a sort of old fashioned theme with fruit, nuts, molasses cookies, etc... (of course ours also included some not-so-old-fashioned things like twix and VS eye shadow ;)

Anyways, baking up some homemade cookies with a good friend is just so fun! And molasses cookies are my new favorite, seriously, give them a try!
We also candied some nuts and found a new favorite recipe which I just have to share. So.darn.good.

I present to you:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Toasted Pecans

{via www.simplyscratch.com}

ingredients:
16 ounces Pecans
1 Egg White
2/3 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1 pinch Ground Allspice

preparation:
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I lined my cookie sheet with a silpat, but you could also grease with butter or coconut oil.

Mix the sugar, cocoa powder and all the spices in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg white until it is thick and frothy {small peaks} and add in the pecans. Stir to coat. Next, add the cocoa mixture and combine until the nuts are evenly coated.

Scoop the nuts with a slotted spoon onto the prepared pan and place in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove, toss and place back in the oven for twenty more minutes. After the first 40 minutes, check your nuts to see if the cocoa/sugar doesn't crumble off of the nuts. If it does, place it back in the oven for 20 more minutes, otherwise let cool slightly and serve!

Gourmet Night-November

More gourmet goodness coming your way. You really should start one of these groups with some friends. A 6-12 course dinner party every month where you just have to cook one little thing? Hellooo, yes! Fancy, fancy.


November's theme: Pinterest. Good life choice. (that last part was my little addition)

My inspiration pin:

 {via}

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage 

So, of course I snapped a picture of the ingredients but not the finished product. Let's just say it looked as good as the picture above. <----fib. But it did taste really yummy, and looked decent too ;)

 

  It was a nice and quick recipe. Honest. Betcha didn't know nee-oak-ee are easy to make! I didn't before this. 

 The ladies. In addition to food we enjoy talking. There are always plenty of interesting conversations to be had at gourmet night ;)

Gourmet Night-I hosted! :)

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the gourmet night last month, which I got to host at our home. It was so fun, there was a great turn-out, and I had the BEST co-host in the world. Jessica, you are a lifesaver. Most of these pics are hers too (thanks for letting me steal use these! ;)

The women all brought amazing dishes! The theme I chose was Apples and Cinnamon, and it turned out DELISH. We had salad with apples, warm braised chicken and apples, a spicy African chicken dish, amazing spiced stuffing, to die for goat cheese, apple and honey tarts, and many more awesome dishes we all got to try. (no pictures of food sadly. We are always too busy eating to think of that! ;)

As a little thank you/party favor I sent the women home with some homemade caramel apples. I dipped them in all sorts of things and they were fun (and messy) to make :) I don't have a picture of the finished product but I wrapped them up with clear cellophane, raffia, and a cute thank you tag.

Jess and I had a ton of fun with the decor as well. We made cinnamon covered candles, apple votive holders, leaf garlands, a leaf chandelier, and pretty fall foliage place settings. 

Can't wait for this month's dinner party! This time someone else gets to host so I just need to find an awesome recipe to try :)

Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

This event was super crowded, but a lot of fun. We found some new recipes, new restaurants, and new encouragement to eat healthy. We are not vegetarians, but we try to eat meat sparingly, and many of our meals are vegetarian. It just feels good to have a nice balanced diet, and for me that includes utilizing interesting grains, proteins, dairy, fruits and vegetables to make meals satisfying but not overly heavy on any one thing. We are not perfect at eating healthy by any stretch, but it is fun to try and continually be better at it.

The loot.

Our tastes

We had friends over for brunch on Sunday and Job and I debated on what to make. He wanted cinnamon buns, I wanted quiche. So we made both of course.

This is an indication of what we usually crave. Job is a sweets guys (and a sweet guy, hehe ;) and I will go for savory almost every time. Pass me the roasted broccoli!

So yay for brunch consisting of cinnamon-nut buns, and broccoli quiche with a potato crust. Our combined tastes make for a nice "balanced" meal ;)

That holiday in October

Halloween has come and gone. Here's some hard cold facts about the Salazar family on this slightly odd, slightly fun, slightly creepy, and slightly sweet holiday (in no particular order): But first, you have to look at us.

1. Ward Party! Highlight of this aforementioned holiday. It's always a good time to see your fellow ward members (who you usually see in dresses and suits) rocking crazy costumes.

2. I put together Job and I's costumes (I made Job's shirt). I was a #2 pencil (note the green socks and pink eraser shoes ;) and Job was a piece of notebook paper.

3. Little announcement: I won the chili cook-off at the party! :) Ok I know this is tooting my own horn but I just had to throw that in there. I wasn't expecting to win and it was a fun surprise. I'll have to post the recipe here sometime. It was Chocolate Chipotle Chili. Yum. Oh, and I won a legit apron for it! Nice huh!

4. We passed out candy from our trunk to the kids from church which was fun. I made some flour-less PB cookies with kisses and reese's on them, wrapping them up all cute, but I underestimate the amount of kids so we ran out of those really quick. Primary president to the rescue with back up candy :)

5. At work on the 31st we went around the hospital and the kids did trick or treating. My patient suffered through it, frequently asking about Christmas haha :) Halloween is not his favorite ;)

6. I actually don't like sweets all that much. Only in small quantities and spaced out. WEIRD-O. I know.

7. We sadly didn't get any trick or treaters at our flat that night. We had a bowl full of candy all ready and everything. Oh well.

8. Our scary movie for this Halloween-The Witches. Remember watching that as a kid? Yeah I know, CREEPY! Though not as creepy as I remember it being as a kid. I guess because I am not longer a kid and out of danger of being turned into a mouse.

9. It snowed a few days before Halloween which made for some shivering trick or treaters. What? Last year we didn't get snow until December. It has been odd weather. (luckily the snow didn't stick)

10. Happy Halloween. Belated. (I just had to have a #10)

Obsessed? Really Rach?

The other day at church I saw a girl who came back from summer vacation looking very much more pregnant than when she left (much more? Sounds good). Her and a friend of mine who is also pregnant (True fact: About 95% of the women in our ward are currently pregnant/just had a baby.) were chatting it up when I came up and bombarded them with a,

"HI! Welcome back, you look cute! I am obsessed with pregnant people!" (that's really what I said. I know.)

She was sweet and gave me a polite smile and then started backing away slowly.

"No wait, I'm not going to steal your baby or anything! Wait!"

So the truth's out. Except maybe I should re-phrase it to "the miracle of birth" instead of "people". Because being obsessed with people freaks them out a tad. My neighbor upstairs is also currently pregnant so she has to deal with my love of baby bumps on a daily basis. Poor girl. But she's awesome and puts up with my personal pregnancy questions, and me talking and singing to her belly and such. Today's the day she and her husband find out if they are having a boy or girl (my guess: boy). In keeping with my obsession I made them this for when they get home:

Just got to fill in the blanks when they tell me haha :D Oh and that extra square is for an !, because it's gonna be a boy.

So my obsession may be a little odd but really, when you think about it, pregnancy/birth is amazing so I'm rolling with it.

Oh, and as to whether I am pregnant.... WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW!

no. I just like when other people are :)

'Twas my man's birthday

We kept it chill. I wanted to be super wife and do a lot more, but alas I got as far as shopping for fun decorations and such but didn't find/make the time to actually put them up. But Job is relaxed and just wanted a simple birthday anyways so hey, my bad party planning skills work out o.k. I did make time to wrap his present at least :) Lace make it too girly ya think? haha I was having too much fun making the pom poms and using up scrap pieces of fabric.

The lowdown: Dinner at Not Your Average Joe's, watched Contagion, Gipsy Kings c.d., cake and ice cream with some friends (I made some German Chocolate icing that turned out pretty yummy, yay!).  Simple and fun. 27 is a great age. So I've heard. This guy pulls it off quite nicely.

Distinguished, but still loads of fun ;)

 Happy Birthday Jobito! 

I love you.

Restaurant Week: Salazar Style

Restaurant week has been going on in Boston. It is on our Bucket List and I have been dying to go try some of the amazing restaurants here in Boston. As anyone who has spent any amount of time with us knows, we love food! However Job and I both agreed that we could skip it this year to save some money. But that didn't mean we had to go without good food! I decided to create a few fun 3 course meals for us to eat at home, using only ingredients we already had. It was a fun challenge and we got to enjoy some yummy meals together. I even busted out the candles ;)

Here's the lowdown on our menus. I didn't take pictures (gasp) because I decided to just sit back and enjoy the meal rather than stress about that. So go make some fancy food and share it with someone. They will looovvvee you {more}.

Night One

Starter

Spinach and spring greens salad with a homemade lemon and agave vinaigrette topped with herb feta

Main

Slow cooked pork loin with mango sauce

Buttered leeks

Sweet potato medallions

Desert

Chocolate swirled banana bread

Night Two

Starter

Steamed artichoke with homemade chipotle aioli

Main

Lentil bolognese over spaghetti rigati (vegetarian)

Fresh Parmesan bread sticks

Desert

Strawberry basil soup shot, garnished with whipped cream and fresh mint

Night Three

Pizza ;)

Tid-bits for today

• I am reduced to using paper towels for loo roll today since Job took the car and I don't want to walk 3 miles carrying a big ol' thing of toilet paper. But maybe that's just because I'm lazy 
• I am bringing dinner to a friend who just had her baby. What do women who just had a baby like to eat?!
• I am realizing that my birthday is one day before Job's concert, so he will probably be very busy. Oh well, new plan! ;) (my old plan was to do a whole day of service in different places. 21 acts of service for each year of my life. I will probably just spread my service out over a few days instead because I am too selfish to do all that service alone without Job ;) 
• I am currently trying to make the New York Times recipe for No Knead Bread. I'll let you know how it turns out :) I put garlic and rosemary in mine and it is smelling so good!   
• We haven't gotten a new computer yet. We have been taking advantage of some wonderful friend's kindness as they let us use an extra laptop they have. We decided rent was probably more important to spend money on than a new computer. Darn my practical side.  
• Aren't these silly girls just adorable :) Love them.

Enjoying some hot New England Clam Chowder. Melia and Maren, May 2011

In other news...

Nope, not pregnant. Looking back at my post that is kinda what it sound like. Except make no mistake, when I am pregnant it will be exciting not only for Job and I, but for every person we've ever met as well ;) Nope, that is not the news. I am not trying to be a tease or anything, 'cause that's annoying :) Trust me, it is not that exciting or big for anyone else. In fact, it is bittersweet for us. But I just want some dang pictures anyways.

We currently have two students living with us for a couple of weeks. Job and some of his classmates are putting on a benefit concert in honor of the people of Japan and what they have gone through recently. So our living room floor is currently made up of airbeds and suitcases. Hey no complaints here, one is from Italy and one has Vietnamese roots, so we are enjoying some fun meals ;)

I have started getting involved in a couple of cooking clubs that some women from our church group here has put together. One is Italian Cooking lessons, and the other a Gourmet Cooking group. We learned how to make a broccoli rabe dish last night and the next theme for Gourmet night is strawberries and rhubarb. Helloooo good food! I will have to start taking pictures once I get a new camera.

Here's a picture anyways, totally unrelated.

On top of the tower at Mount Auburn Cemetery

 I love my girls! This is from when my mum and three little sisters came to visit.
Happy day :)

Tuna and Chickpea Salad + plus a cute Job quote :)

This salad is great with some baked wheat tortilla chips, wrapped in a fresh pita, or just on its own! Super quick, easy, healthy and inexpensive.
I told Job we were having chickpeas for lunch and he said,

I get why they are called chickpeas. Because once the outside layer is gone they do look like little cheeks :) (he thought they were called cheekpeas hehe. I could just die, that man is so cute :)

Anyways, here 'tis for your eating pleasure:

Tuna and Chickpea Salad

• 1 (5 ounce) can tuna, drained
• 1 (16 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
• 1 (2.25 ounce) can black olives, chopped (optional. Job doesn't like 'em but I do)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese, or more to taste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Stir the tuna, chickpeas, olives, parsley, red onion, lemon juice, and feta cheese together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Forgive the messy bowl. Any food blogger would be horrified ;) But this is really is just a "throw and go" recipe which I like.

Basil-Walnut Pesto

I have always wanted to try and make pesto. But pine nuts are pretty expensivioso am I right?! But we always have walnuts around so I found this recipe and it is to die for. We ate it with chickpeas, on our sandwiches, over plain whole wheat pasta, with grilled chicken etc... I also froze some for later. I am so looking forward to busting that out and eating more of it :)

 Basil-Walnut Pesto

Servings: 6
6 6

Servings Size

• 
  

• 2 cups packed basil leaves (approx. 2 oz)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons softened butter (optional, I didn't use it)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Place basil, olive oil, walnuts, garlic and salt (if using) in food processor.
2. Blend until thoroughly combined.
3. Add Parmesan and butter (if using) and blend 5-10 seconds more.
4. Just before serving, add 2 Tbsp of hot pasta water from cooked pasta.
5. Serve over pasta with bread and salad.

Recipe Source

 Yay, more green food! :)

Food, Food Glorious Food!

Because taking pictures of your food is like, in the bloggers handbook obvi.

I wanted to actually share a few recipes because they are delish. But how should I do that? Share the whole recipe(s) here and make a loonngg post? Just give you the link? Not just give you the link because I changed some things? Do one recipe at a time? Do many at a time?....Sheesh, blogging's hard.
My remedy is to share none recipes I guess (a billion points to whoever caught on to that obscure and altered movie line. A billion. That's a lot.) I'll share my recipes later. Just to keep all 6 of you who regularly read in suspense ;) ha.

We had friends over for General Conference on Sunday and Job and I cooked like we do occasionally. Or really I should say Job cooked and I just dabbled around the kitchen ;) Anyways, it was good stuff and made me long for two weeks in Mexico this summer where I can eat tacos every day (*sigh*, someday...)

I spy with my little eye--product placement.... ;)

Don't you wish you had my camera skillz? Yes they are skillz which = ghetto. I want to take a class sometime/get a really good camera. (*Sigh*, Someda...ok I'll stop. I seriously am just grateful I have a camera that works :) Thanks Jobito!) We like any excuse to make tacos but usually wait to do so for when we have people over so...come on over!! :)
____________________________________________________
Now for story time.

Once upon a time Boj* and Rakel* went to the grocery store via bus because their car broke down (again! I know! Ahhhh!). They happily skipped into Stop and Shop to pick up a few needed items for dinner. Stopping at the deli counter there was a line but they disregarded taking a number and just smiled at the guy instead who assumed it was their turn. Nice. The deli man (we'll call him Alfredo) asked Boj what he would like. Provolone 1/4 lb, no prob. Then Boj asked for prosciutto. 

"Which kind?" asked Alfredo, "$12/lb or $18/lb?" 

"Uh, $18/lb." Said Boj. 

"WHY?!" asked Rakel. 

But it was busy and loud so their $18/lb prosciutto just got rang up. Luckily they didn't need even close to an lb but still (thought Rakel). So Boj and Rakel walked back to the bus and Rakel was being silly about how Boj asked for the expensive kind. Boj said he had slightly misunderstood the man because it was loud and busy, he didn't want to change it after Rakel told him what he had done because the amount they got only meant they spent an extra 50 cents or so, and that Rakel should have just been bossier and made him change it at the counter, and they had a coupon on top of all that. But Rakel was hungry and slightly grumpy and said she doesn't like to be bossy, she just likes to be annoying after the fact, and mostly it was the principle of the thing. So they rode home on the bus, still holding hands because they just can't help but love each other a lot, dinner fixings in hand (their other hands). Boj told Rakel to just relax while he made dinner. He made her this:

A fresh homemade pesto, prosciutto, and provolone sandwich (PPP!). Rakel loves sandwiches a lot. She suddenly was glad they got expensive prosciutto and gave Boj some serious props for a job well done. And they live happily ever after. Because how could you not after eating a sandwich like that?!

(*names have been changed to protect privacy ;)
_____________________________________________________
P.S. Make Falafel someday soon. Just do it. You'll thank me later.

 

For Health and Strength and Daily Food

I'm baaacckkk! Did you miss me? What? You didn't even notice I was gone?! oh, ok yeah...I guess it wasn't that long....

My very short absence from blogging has made me want to get right back in and post some catch ups today. Because babbling here does this girl some good.

First off: Check out the good start to our new way of eating (Basically just more fruits and veg, less meat, more whole grains, more natural, less processed, more whole foods etc. Basically the Word of Wisdom! :) More on our little "diet" later...if I remember that is.)

I checked out this book from the library and liked a lot of the recipes and ideas. So we are trying to implement some of them into our eating habits.

(source)

Job made roasted red pepper hummus, I blanched some veggies, and we used up some whole wheat crackers we had laying around. Super good!

I bought whole wheat flour to bake and cook with this time instead of white. I obviously need practice with making whole wheat bread as this loaf was too dense, but it tasted yummy and was nice and hearty :)

Anyone have some great healthy recipes they want to share with moi? Or just great whole foods we should try? I am wanting to try quinoa and see how we like it. Do share people, I love new ideas! :)

New Favorite Snack-Kale Crisps

I think this is one you'll either love or hate, but I am on the love side! :) It is healthy, inexpensive and super quick to do. I always love finding ways to replace traditional bagged chips because I love the crunch but know they are not the healthiest for me. These give me crunch and are healthy so, win-win. I didn't think dark greens like this would get so crispy but they really just fall apart in your mouth with a delicate crunch. O.K. I'll stop sounding like a commercial and just tell you the dealio:

Kale Crisps

• bunch of kale, washed and dried well
• olive oil
• kosher salt
• Other spices if desired (garlic powder, chipotle, cayenne etc...)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with tin foil. Tear kale into pieces, discarding the thick rib in the middle. Place pieces of kale on cookie sheet and drizzle or spritz with olive oil. Season with a small amount of salt and any other spices you might want (really good just with salt too). Cook for 10-12 minutes but WATCH CAREFULLY. They can go from looking limp to black and burnt quickly. They should be crispy, a teeny bit browned on the edges, but mostly dark green still.

Remove from oven and crunch away! :)

This was my second batch. Those caps up there were for a reason-I burned my first batch ;)

Linked to:iheartnaptime

I now have pineapple preserves in my refrigerator

Happy Empanada Maker

Happy Empanada Eater

That's all :)

Baking Beauties

Mid-December my friend Jessica and I decided a Christmas cookie extravaganza was in order :)

We had a ton of fun and cooked up fluffy sugar cookies, snowballs (or Mexican wedding cakes, or Russian tea cakes, or....they have a lot of names), and molasses spice cookies.

I think the molasses cookies were my favorite. Nice and spicy! :)

I was able to give some cookies to the ladies I visit teach, we ate some ourselves, and Santa put some in our stockings ;) I think this cookie day will become a tradition!