Cooking During a Recession & Eating Black Truffle Risotto

The only food blogging session at the BlogHer conference last weekend was about food blogging during a time of recession, which I didn't attend but read online. At dinner on Friday night, Elise of Simply Recipes asked a few of us what we would like to hear about during the discussion. I couldn't really answer, because I don't have a strict budget for food. I splurge when it comes to eating. It's pretty much the only thing I really spend money on. In fact, I made black truffle risotto for a weekday meal last week (recipe below).

But, if black truffles aren't in your food budget (they are not in mine either; one was given to me by a friend) or you don't have time to stir risotto, you don't have to sacrifice when it comes to eating well. All you have to do is plan your meals, shop smart, and take just a tiny bit of extra time to prepare healthy, tasty dishes for you & your family.

1. Stay away from pre-packaged meals and those meal-in-a-box things. They are expensive! It really doesn't take that much longer to make your own. For example, instead of buying that boxed mac -n-cheese, simply boil & drain some macaroni. Return it to the pan with a bit of butter, a handful of shredded cheddar cheese, and a splash of milk. Stir until the cheese is melted. That doesn't take any more time than making the boxed stuff. It's so good...and so much better than powdered cheese sauce.

2. Buy whole chickens & cut them into pieces yourself. Freeze parts to use later. Or, better yet, roast the whole chicken & use the leftover meat for a second meal (soft tacos, maybe). Not into chopping & roasting? Try chicken thighs...they are less expensive yet more delicious than boneless/skinless breasts.

3. Buy fresh veggies. If you only grocery shop a few times a month and worry about fresh food spoiling before you use it, buy frozen veggies instead. They are both better tasting--and cheaper--than canned.

4. Canned beans are fine to use, as is canned tuna & tomatoes. Jarred marinara sauce is okay, too.

5. Make soups or baked dinners (and bake bread) on the weekend, then eat them during the week.

6. Use a crockpot. Fill it before you go to bed, store in the fridge overnight, then in the morning set it to cook while you're at work. There is nothing better than coming home to find dinner ready & waiting for you! Check out A Year of Slow Cooking for recipes.

7. Encourage your kids to eat what you're eating. It gets pricey making separate meals for picky kids. If you have small children who are just eating solid food, start them out eating real foods (steamed & mushed veggies) instead of baby foods.

8. Most importantly, cook as a family. Make dinner time a special time that you spend together. It will make cooking seem less like a chore. Give your older kids a night each week when they have to plan & cook a meal.

Or, if you're like me...believe that since there is nothing more important than the foods we eat and feed to our loved ones, it is worth time and money to give them the best meals you can make. This is why I made black truffle risotto for Jerad last week. He is worth my time.

Black truffles smell rich and only slightly earthy...like chocolate.

Black Truffle Risotto

4 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small white onion, finely diced

1/4 teaspoon truffle salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup risotto rice

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)

1 black truffle, thinly sliced

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated *

* It's imperative that you use a good quality Parmesan that you grate yourself. Don't skimp here. Homemade chicken stock is nice, too (and easy to make if you save those chicken bones!).

• Heat the stock in a sauce pan over medium heat until simmering.
  
• Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion, truffle salt & pepper and cook onion until soft, stirring frequently. You don't want them to brown at all.
  
• Add the rice and cook until all grains are coated with oil. Deglaze with the white wine and cook until evaporated.
• Add in ½ cup of the hot stock. Stir until the rice absorbs the stock. Add another 1/2 cup of stock and cook, stirring frequently, until absorbed. Keep adding & stirring until the risotto is cooked through & the sauce is thick.
  
• Remove the rice from heat. Stir in half of the cheese.
• Garnish each plate with truffle slices & a sprinkling of Parmesan.

Black truffles are also delicious shaved (with a Microplane) and mixed into soft scrambled eggs.

BlogHer '09 & Espresso Muffins

So, I went to Chicago for the BlogHer conference this weekend. There's not much I can say about it, because I ditched most of it (except for Rick Bayless's cooking demo & the evening cocktail parties) to explore the city.

With Chef Rick Bayless

From the beginning, I smelled incompetence (after hotel room check-in & conference registration hassles), and that's always a turn-off for me. Plus, I didn't feel part of a community like I had hoped; I didn't feel welcomed & accepted. At first I thought it was mostly my fault, because I only attended the first session and didn't make a real effort to socialize. But after I read about things that went down like babies getting elbowed in the face, swag craziness, sponsors getting threatened by bloggers who wanted more swag, police breaking up hotel parties, & cat fights, I'm glad I didn't get involved in all that. It seems I'm not the only one to have thought that there was a "clannish & evil" vibe.

BlogHer '10 will be held in New York City, and I considered registering and suggesting a few panel ideas. I may end up going simply to score a cheap trip to NYC ($199 hotel rooms!), but right now I don't feel like going to another BlogHer event again.

The best part of the trip, though, was hanging out with the girls. Kelli, Steph, & Jaelithe met at my house Thursday morning, then we piled into the car and took off. I made espresso muffins (recipe below), "crack corn" (popcorn with truffle salt), & strawberry vodka for the trip.

Once we arrived in Chicago, Kelli, Steph & I decided to head over to The Tattoo Factory to get our much anticipated new ink. The people at the Tattoo Factory were awesome! They were nice, professional, quick...and generous. They gave us free tee-shirts & aprons!

My new tattoo

As usual, the trip was all about food for me. The four of us had an awesome dinner Thursday night at Blackbird, where we shared five appetizers, four entrees, & two desserts (instead of each ordering the tasting menu). I had a Greek dinner with the other food bloggers on Friday, where I got to meet Kalyn, Elise, Jaden and several other women whose blogs I read.

On Saturday, Steph and I had lunch at Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium, where we happily waiting in line for over an hour (causing me to miss the only food bloggers' session at the conference) to eat a Corned Beef Sausage, a Burgandy & Citrus Pork Sausage, and a Foie Gras dog...with duck fat fries and our own soda pairings (ginger beer with the corned beef, orange creme soda with the citrus pork, cherries & mint soda with the foie gras).

Me & Steph with Hot Doug himself
(Steph is so slyly showing off her new tattoo.)

Since I survived the scariest cab ride of my life after that, I decided to splurge and buy myself something at Tiffany's.

Kelli & I went to the BlogHer cocktail party on Saturday evening, while Steph had dinner at Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill...but, she was nice enough to bring us back some of his beef tongue tacos (the dish he made on Top Chef Masters).

Check out more photos from the weekend, most of which I ganked from Kelli & Steph.

* * *

Espresso Muffins

from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

Moist and flavorful, these make a great on-the-go breakfast. I am not typically a huge muffin fan, as they are often dense & dry...but these are very light and not too sweet.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper cups.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, cinnamon & salt. Stir in brown sugar, making sure there are no lumps.
• In another large bowl, whisk the coffee, melted butter, egg & vanilla until well combined.
• Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a whisk or rubber spatula gently but quickly stir to blend.
• Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin.

Julie & Julia Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 85

Result: 29

Comment #29 was written by Maria of Fresh Eats!

Maria, please email me your address--kelly [at] barbaricgulp [dot]com--so I can send the books to you. Congrats!

Fried Baby Squash with Blossoms

I bought these cute little patty pan squashes with their blossoms still attached at the farmers market a couple weeks ago. My initial plans was to open & stuff the blossoms before frying, but I decided they were too little for that. So, I simply fried them whole & ate them with a marinara sauce.

To prepare the squashes, you have to first snap off the stem on the bottom.


Then, gently open the flower and take out the orange & white pistil in the center. You can eat these, but they are bitter.


I used Anne's "better batter" recipe from the Kitchen Conservatory blog. She mixes 1 egg with 2 tablespoons of baking powder. At first, this won't look like it will work but after a while it creates a foamy batter that fries up to a light and crispy coating that sticks well to your food.


Dip your food into the batter, then coat it with seasoned flour. Fry in 350 degree oil until well-browned.

This is the first squash we fried; notice that we didn't remove the pistil on the left.

My Hollywood Moment

WOW! What a whirlwind of a week I've had! My trip to Los Angeles was amazing. (Thanks AGAIN to Jaden for offering the trip, Kamran for selecting my comment in the top 10, & Sony Pictures for their hospitality!)

The big event for food and film bloggers on Thursday began with a screening of the Julie & Julia movie. Based on Julia Child's memoir My Life in France and Julie Powell's blog-turned-book, the film juxtaposes the story of Julia learning to cook at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and writing her tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking with Julie's story of cooking all 524 recipes in Julia's masterpiece in just one year. I'm not supposed to discuss details of the film just yet (I'll post a review the beginning of August), but I will say that I thought it was very good! As you can tell from the trailer, Meryl Streep as Julia Child is dead-on.

After the movie, we watched a cooking demonstration by Chef Brian Malarkey (executive chef of The Oceanaire Seafood Room in San Diego and Top Chef 3 finalist) and Julie Powell. Brian and Julie put together a Boeuf Bourguignon and a chocolate cream pie, dishes from the film. During their playful banter, Brian asked Julie about cooking. Julie admitted that she was a "masocist" who "likes submitting to someone else's recipes."

Then, we were introduced to Susan Spungen, a culinary consultant who worked as the food stylist on the film. Susan explained that all of the food you see on scene is real food (though, they did not really kill any lobsters on screen) including the burnt Boeuf Bourguignon, and apparently it's real good food as well. She tried to stay true to Julia Child's recipes (except for the apple tart tatin, which was her own recipe), making only minor changes when needed. For example, for an onion soup eating scene the script called for the cheese to "extend from the soup to her lips." (Interestingly, French onion soup was Julia Child's last meal.)

Susan said that while "boning a duck may have struck fear in the heart of Julie Powell," accomplishing the stringy cheese feat scared her. She was able to achieve ultimate stringiness by adding mozzarella to the dish. Susan also demonstrated how she prepared the soup for the film. She finished each bowl ahead of time, let it cool, then remelted the cheese on set using an electric paint remover. You can see an exclusive clip of that scene on Hollywood.com; it's pretty incredible, and I even wondered if it was real cheese!

Besides preparing all of the food for the film, Susan worked with the actors before and during the cooking scenes. She taught Meryl Streep how to flip an omelet, and everyone on set learned how to bone a duck. (Another interesting fact: When you see Adams boning a duck on screen, those are Susan's hands doing the boning in the close-ups.)

Food on film was the subject of an interview with author Julie Powell and actor Chris Messina, who plays Julie's husband Eric. Chris said that the food was very good, but it was difficult to eat so much of it take after take. After eating seven or eight bruschettas, he had to put a bucket next to him. But, Chris does a fabulous job of eating with gusto in the film. It will make you hungry.

The highlight of the day for me was meeting Julie Powell. I've said earlier that her book inspired me to start trying new recipes and blogging about it. I asked her what changes were made to her story for the film that she didn't like. She said that she is portrayed as a "sweetened version" of herself for the PG-13 rating. She didn't like that her character says the phrase "the F-word" because in real life she would never have said that; she would just say the word. She also didn't like that her character shopped at Dean & DeLuca, another thing she would never do. (She calls the store "Grocery of the Antichrist" on her original blog.)  Nevertheless, she seems genuinely thrilled with the film. Her next book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, will be available in December. It's about her learning the art of butchery.

After the interviews, we were treated to a meal of Boeuf Bourguignon, watercress soup, and chocolate cream pie...all dishes that were featured in the film.

 

If you've never made Boeuf Bourguignon, I suggest you do so! It's a slow-cooked stew of tender beef, pearl onions, mushrooms, and red wine. The chilled watercress soup, a variation of a classic vichyssoise (cold leek and potato soup), is perfect for a warm summer evening. Both recipes can be found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

My Trip to LA & A GIVEAWAY!

My trip to Los Angeles was a bit surreal, since it happened so quickly and since I was treated like a rockstar by Sony Pictures, who paid for everything...my flight, transportation, hotel, and "incidentals" (ie champagne from the minibar).

I flew first class on the way out Wednesday afternoon. First class is nearly just like you see in the movies...warm nuts, warm towel, free booze, handsome & charming guy sitting next to you. Victor was his name. He was actually very nice to me. I got a little scared on takeoff and shed a few tears. Afterwards, Victor made a point to talk to me the entire flight to keep me distracted. He's from LA and was returning home after doing some business in St. Louis. He showed me a picture of his gorgeous family, and we talked about food.

Flying over the mountains of California

When I got to LAX, there was a driver with my name on a sign. It made me giggle. He drove me to the legendary Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, birthplace of the Academy Awards. It's decorated in a minimalist rock-n-roll/Hollywood theme. My room featured a huge black and white photograph of Debbie Harry and a funky shower with no curtain, only a small glass partition (s0, yeah, I got water all over the bathroom each time I showered).

The hotel is on Hollywood Boulevard, right across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theater, where they have all the stars' handprints & footprints. I was touristy for about 15 minutes while I walked around.


I took only one picture there, Meryl Streep's square. I thought that was appropriate for the trip since she stars as Julia Child in the film Julie & Julia.

I then saw a huge crowd of people all huddled together on the sidewalk. I got closer and realized they they must be crowding around Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I am very glad I missed the fiasco of his memorial the day before.



In the hills across the street looms the Hollywood sign. I took a quick picture, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.


I met Amy from Cooking With Amy that evening (she was the only other blogger who flew in for the event), and we ate at Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza. Dinner was wonderful:

Fried squash blossoms with ricotta

Bone marrow al forno
(I finally understand why people go ga-ga over this stuff.)

Margherita with mozzarella, tomato & basil

Rapini, cherry tomatoes, anchovies, olives & chiles

Before the big event on Thursday, I woke up early to have breakfast and read out by the pool.


I met Matt of Matt Bites at lunch, then we (along with Susan of Food Blogga) were chauffeured off to the Arclight Theater to see Julie & Julia. (I LOVED it. More details about the film will be posted later; I'm not supposed to talk about it yet.). But first, we had to do these awkward on-camera interviews as we walked into the theater. That was so not my thing. I hated it. But, I did get to meet another food blogger there, Nicole of Baking Bites. All of these other bloggers are pretty well-known in food blogging world, so it was like meeting celebrities to me since I read all their blogs. I also felt pretty out of place.

After the movie, we walked over to Le Cordon Bleu for a cooking demo, a food styling demo, and an interview with author Julie Powell & actor Chris Messina. (Details of all that is posted HERE.)

The highlight for me was meeting Julie Powell. As I've said before, her book inspired me to start cooking new recipes and blogging about it. I was absolutely thrilled to get to talk to her. She signed my book (I think I was the one of the only people there who had actually read the book!) and we chatted for a while. I really liked her, even though some of the other food bloggers didn't (more on that later, too!).

photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

I always look like such a goon in these kind of pics!

At the hotel after the event, I took it easy...had a glass of wine in the hotel lounge and digested the day. It was such an experience! Since I wasn't leaving the hotel until the later the next afternoon, I ate breakfast in bed then got a massage & pedicure at the hotel spa (incidentals, indeed!). The "massage garden" is a private outdoor patio. A massage under palm trees and blue skies...so awesome.


For lunch, I walked down to Hollywood & Vine for sushi at Katsuya, where they were filleting whole fresh fish right at the sushi bar! It was so good that I'm now ruined; I'll never be able to eat sushi in St. Louis again.

To top the trip off, I got a ride back to the airport in a limo...another thing that made me giggle. I felt kind of silly actually. The flight back was a little more difficult for me. Four xanax and a beer didn't seem to calm me much, especially since there were lots of clouds and bumps and no Victor to provide a distraction...just a dry Boeing guy who didn't seem very happy to be sitting next to a sobbing, shaking girl.


But, I made it home saftely. I am proud of myself for flying alone to make this trip! All in all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me that held personal, sentimental value. I can't thank Jaden enough for offering it.

And now for the giveaway!

Sony Pictures gave us each a gift bag after the movie, including copies of Julie Powell's novel and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (vol. 1), which I'm giving away to one reader!

To win, simply leave a comment here. I'll pick a random winner next Tuesday.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Katherine Hepburn Brownies

I actually made this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe last weekend, but with all the "I'm going to LA" excitement, I forgot to post yesterday!

Instead, I was busy buying those tiny travel-sized toiletries, getting a haircut, picking out new shoes, deciding what to wear, fretting about getting on a plane, charging camera batteries, downloading music & movies from iTunes, finding my iPod earbuds, printing my itinerary, doing laundry, packing...

But, I think I'm ready to go now. I'm excited and nervous, trying to think all good thoughts for the plane ride (I can't explain how terribly AFRAID I am of flying)! Please send good vibes my way!


Lisa of Surviving Oz, who designed the new TWD logo, chose Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies as this week's recipe. Go read her post; it's hilarious!


Apparently, Hepburn used to make brownies like these. They are SO good...thick, rich, gooey, fudgey, and full of nuts.

GREAT NEWS!

Earlier today, I posted a comment on Jaden Hair's blog Steamy Kitchen to win a trip to LA for an exclusive screening of the new film Julie & Julia. The film is based on Julie Powell's blog-turned-book, which inspired me to cook more and create my own food blog.

When I left the comment, I never thought I would win. In fact, I almost DIDN'T post a comment. But then I thought "what the hell" and wrote about how when I separated from my husband and was living alone for the first time in 13 years (without television or Internet), I started cooking and blogging as a form of entertainment and therapy.

Tonight, when I got home from dinner at a friend's house, I learned that I had WON THE TRIP!

So, I'll be flying to LA on Wednesday, attending a variety of movie/food-related events on Thursday, coming home on Friday, then posting all about it on Steamy Kitchen.

As soon as I found out, I quickly replied to Jaden's email and sent a few messages on Twitter, including a link to my original blog post about Powell's inspiration on me. Someone replied with this: "Awesome beginning! I see your post was over 2 years ago. So, what has your food blog done for you?"

What had it done for me?

Well, most simply, cooking and blogging has been my saving grace. It gave me something creative to do, something with instant gratification, something satisfying.

You see, I am an English teacher. After 8 years of teaching college composition and literature, I went back to teaching high school because I couldn't support myself on a college adjunct's pay. While I absolutely LOVE teaching English, high school is very challenging. It was a trying year, a year of many doubts, tears, and ENDLESS hours of planning and paper grading. (Whomever says that teaching is easy because teachers are done at 3:00 each day and get weekends & summers off is FREAKIN' CRAZY.) Cooking, on the other hand, was...IS...my solace.

Since I've started blogging, I've also gotten a job working part-time at a cooking school/chef's shop in St. Louis called Kitchen Conservatory where I teach cooking classes. I've gotten involved in the St. Louis food scene, joined the local Slow Food chapter, met some of the best chefs in the city (including Gerard Craft of Niche, who was named one of Food & Wine's best new chefs last year and was nominated for a James Beard Best Chef Award this year), spent a day in the kitchen at Monarch with the genius Chef Josh Galliano, who was also in the running for a James Beard Award this year. And, I was asked to write an article for Sauce Magazine, St. Louis's food magazine.

So, my food blog saved me. It defined me. I know it sounds corny, but it's true. I've found my calling, and for the first time I am truly happy with where I am in life right now.

Now...let's see if I can get over my very serious fear of flying!!

Cooking Fails & Roasted Carrot Dip

Not all of my kitchen experiments are successful.

For example, on Friday I decided that I wanted to do some cooking to use up the produce I bought at the farmers market on Wednesday. So, I invited people over for an impromptu party and planned on trying a few new recipes.

MENU

Roasted Carrot Dip with Cumin & Feta, Pita Chips
Green Tomato Tart with Caramelized Onions & Mozzarella
Roasted Garam Masala Chickpeas
Sticky Sesame & Soy Cocktail Sausages
Truffled Popcorn
Assorted Olives
Brownies
Strawberry Limonade Cocktails

I also planned to use the tiny patty pan squash with blossoms still attached, stuffing the flowers with herbed ricotta & deep frying them squash & all. But, all the other cooking took longer than I had expected so I never got around to making those.

I had wanted to try roasted some chickpeas, a recipe I keep seeing, and I had been eyeing Nigella's cocktail sausage recipe for a while. The green tomato tart was an idea I had to use up some of the green tomatoes in the fridge.

And, I wasn't too happy with any of these recipes.

Despite my roasting the chickpeas (which were coated in olive oil & garam masala seasoning) for over an hour at 400 degrees, the beans didn't get crunchy. Sure, they tasted okay, but I hoped they would be really crunchy like nuts.

Nigella's sausages (standard cocktail weinies baked with a glaze of sesame oil, soy sauce, and honey) tasted good but they too took longer to cook, to get sticky with the glaze, than I expected. And as they cooled on the table, they became encased in a pool of congeled fat...not the kind of appetizing snacks I had planned to serve my guests.

The green tomato tart was soggy in the middle, mostly because of my errors. I parbaked the puff pastry, like I recently did with an asparagus tart, to prevent it from getting too soggy once I added the toppings. However, I forgot to dock the dough so that it didn't puff up in the middle. Nevertheless, I pushed the dough down after about 10 minutes of baking (though, I should have let it bake for 15 minutes), added caramelized onions, thin slices of green tomato, a sprinkling of salt/pepper/dried oregano, and fresh mozzerella cheese. While the tart looked good, the middle was so soggy it was difficult to cut & serve. I think I sliced the tomatoes too thickly, and their juices made the tart too wet. I should have used a mandolin to get paper-thin slices instead.

But, at that point, I was a few strawberry vodka & lemonades (and at least one "dirty Palmer") in to care all that much.

Out of all the dishes I made that day, the best ones were the roasted carrot dip & the gooey brownies (check back tomorrow for THAT recipe).

I bought some gorgeous purple & orange carrots at the farmers market. Some of them were a deep purple all the way through, while others were purple outside but orange inside. I wanted to make something that would showcase the vibrant colors, so I decided to make a version of a roasted carrot dip I found on A Veggie Venture.

Roasted Carrot Dip with Cumin & Feta

1 pound carrots, trimmed & peeled
2 tablespoon cumin
1 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons orange juice
4 tablespoons plain, nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
extra-virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
toasted pita chips

• Cut the carrots into larger pieces & place in a roasting pan in a single layer. Season with 1 tablespoon of cumin and a sprinkling of salt & pepper. Add the chicken stock. Cover with foil & roast at 400 degrees for about an hour (or until the carrots are soft). Remove from oven, remove foil, and let cool to room temperature.
• When cool, pulse the carrots (without the stock) in a food processor until smooth. Add the remaining cumin, orange juice, yougurt, oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper and pulse until combined. Taste as adjust seasonings as needed.
  
• Continue pulsing as you drizzle in some olive oil until the desired consistency is attained. Keep in mind, though, that the carrots will not get completely smooth like hummus.
• Transfer the dip to a small bowl, top with feta cheese (and another drizzle of olive oil if desired). Serve with toasted pita chips.

Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes

My mind is full of rambling thoughts lately...

It's the 4th of July, which to me means summer is half over and I'll have to go back to work soon

I can't seem to motivate myself to complete the projects I said I'd get done this summer, like cleaning out my home office.

I need to organize my school stuff and start planning for fall semester.

There are so many recipes I want to make with fresh summer veggies, but I'm tired of making dinner for myself when Jerad's working late.

I hope I have enough money for my Chicago trip at the end of the month.

We need to get a hotel room for the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, WI, next month.

I really need to get up to Springfield to visit my grandmother.

I hope my Sauce Magazine article is what they wanted and not too long.

I really shouldn't have eaten White Castles at midnight last night.

It's ironic that I ate fast food 6 hours after joining the Slow Food group.

I wish my cat would stop pissing and pooping on the floor.

I need to read more often, so that I can make a dent in my summer reading list.

I'm excited to see the new Harry Potter movie.

I haven't been to the movies in over a year.

I need to make an eye doctor appointment.

I need to get my yearly blood work done.

I wish I could sell my house and move to the Soulard Market Lofts.

I love blueberries, particularly fresh from the farmers market blueberries.

Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes
(adapted from Martha Stewart’s Original Classics Cookbook
via Smitten Kitchen)

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups plain, non-fat yogurt

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

DIRECTIONS:

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the eggs & yogurt and whisk to combine.
• Heat a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-low heat. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the middle of the pan (or pour two pancakes if you have a big pan); be careful, though, this batter spreads. Arrange some of the blueberries on top of the pancake.

• When the pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. If any batter oozes or blueberries roll out, push them back under with your spatula. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
• Repeat with the remaining batter. You can keep the finished pancakes on a heat-proof plate in the oven at 175°F.
• Serve with a drizzle of melted butter and a sprinkling of sugar.