Recipe Tuesday: Grilled Veggie Meatball Wrap

My mom came up with this recipe: she bought a new George Forman grill a few weeks ago, and she's been having fun trying out new sandwiches.

Ingredients:
1 serving vegetarian meatballs (about 6)
1 whole wheat tortilla
1/4 cup tomato/marinara sauce
1 oz string cheese

Heat the marinara sauce in a small pan. Cook the meatballs in the microwave and add to the marinara. Pull apart the string cheese and arrange in the center of the tortilla. Add the meatball on top and cover with the marinara. Roll the tortilla like a burrito and place on a warmed George Forman grill, seam-side up. Close the top and grill for about five minutes.

Use a knife and fork, because it can get messy!

New York and Dewey's Knit-a-long

Casey came over tonight to plan our upcoming New York trip. We purchased our plane tickets, made reservations at a seemingly-nice hotel, bought tickets to Coraline for almost half off, and got most of the week planned out. Coney Island! Strawberry Fields! Sardi's! We are really excited!

Also, I finished the Coraline-themed octopus/squid/kitty thing and gave it to her. I owe Casey, as the "Gryffindor Lion" I started for her last year is languishing in WIP-Hades. It turned out pretty cute!

I made the button eye out of Sculpey. It was my first time using it, and I loved how easy it was. I'm going to try a mini-version next.

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Recipe Tuesday: Green Pea Cilantro Spread

Today's recipe is green, in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I found it on Chocolate and Zucchini, an amazing foodie website.

Ingredients:
10.5 oz. shelled green peas, frozen or fresh but not canned
1 drop cilantro essential oil for cooking, or a small bunch fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons whole almond butter
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1 dash Tabasco sauce
Salt, black pepper

Steam the peas, then mix everything together in a food processor. You can add a bit of water if it's too thick. Store in the fridge, and serve on crackers or wheat crispbread.

My mods: I didn't want to shell out the $11 for a jar of almond butter, so I used peanut butter. It gave the spread a peanutty taste, which I tried to cover up by adding more of the other ingredients. I used a bit more Tabasco (I use the green sauce, which is milder than normal Tabasco) and some lime juice, in addition to more cilantro (which I LOVE, so I always over-use it anyway) and garlic (ditto). It actually made a pretty interesting spread. My roommate loved the bite from the Tabasco.

It's not my favorite thing I've ever made, but it makes a pretty decent appetizer.

Even if it does look like baby food...

Pie update: Mom loved it, but she's borderline diabetic and didn't want to keep the rest of it in the house. I took the leftovers (about 3/4) to work with me, which made my fellow teachers very happy. I did realize, though, that it needs to be refrigerated after it cools. I can't wait to bake another one!

Sunday Salon 15 March 2009: New York, New York!

Good morning, fellow Saloners! I come to you this morning with a plea for help. My friend Casey and I are planning a trip to NYC in June, and we need suggestions!

One thing that we're definitely seeing is the Coraline Broadway show - it was the whole reason for the trip in the first place. I've been to New York a few times, so I've seen the majorly touristy things. Casey, however, has never been on a plane, let alone to NY, so I want to make sure she doesn't miss anything. We're going for a little over a week, and I want to cram as much in as possible.

Other things we have tentatively planned on:
Shakespeare in the Park - Twelfth Night starring Anne Hathaway
Yankees game - possibly vs. the Mets
Central Park - including the zoo, Strawberry Fields, and Alice in Wonderland
Empire State Building
Times Square
China Town
Greenwich Village
Harlem
Daily Show/Colbert Report taping - if we can get in
92Y Tribeca

My question to y'all is: If you've been to NYC before, what sights would you recommend? Do you know of any hidden gems that could be fun? And, just to make this book-related, what NYC-set books would you recommend reading before the trip?

Registering for the Peachtree

So, I did the Peachtree Road Race last year and it was amazing. I was really looking forward to doing it again this year, especially after my friend Jen (a veteran of 4 PTRR's!) told me the secret: pick up the Early Edition of the Sunday paper (which is sold on Saturday) and get the application in the mail the same day. Genius!

It would have been, had not the Atlanta Track Club decided to modernize the race with online registration. When the AJC first announced the news, there was a general outcry of displeasure and a lot of naysayers predicting server crashes, disappointed runners, and other sorts of sad things. I decided to withhold judgment until the day of reckoning...which was this morning.

I woke up bright and early at 6:45 to make sure that my computer was on and that my credit card was ready for the 7 am registration opening. There was this neat little countdown on the AJC's Peachtree page, and I eagerly watched the numbers reach 0-hour. Clicked on the registration button, and was rewarded with this:


Like, duh, Atlanta Track Club. OF COURSE you're going to be busy this morning - thousands of people are attempting to register for this race. Like a trooper, I kept reloading the page. After about 5 minutes, I got to the actual registration form. Filled it out, clicked submit, and -

I got a page full of JAVA/server errors. According to the page, the only cure was to register again, which brought me back to the busy page. Reload, reload, reload...another five minutes passed, and I got the registration form again. Filled it out again, clicked submit, and -

Right. Error page.

This went on for about 40 minutes. I kept checking the Peachtree main page at the AJC and the fan page on Facebook to see if I was the only one having problems. I wasn't.

Then, a wonderful person named Chris left a comment on the AJC page, telling us all that when we got the error message, we just needed to hit Refresh/Reload until we got a confirmation number. Dubious, I gave it a try. Actually, about 20 or so.

Lo and behold...


I have FINALLY, successfully, actually registered for this year's Peachtree. Hallelujah!

Now I just need to start training. But first? I'm going back to bed.

Happy 3.14 Day!

It's Pi Day! Last year, I celebrated by participating in a Pi Run. I would've done it again this year, but the weather's been finicky lately and today was drizzly and rainy. So instead I decided to bake a pie!

The day wasn't my only inspiration: tomorrow is my Mom's birthday and I wanted to make something sweet for her; also, I had a recipe for a pecan and walnut pie that I really wanted to try out. The recipe came from Katie Brown Celebrates, which I won from Bethany a few months ago.


Ingredients:
1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 (10-inch) deep-dish pie crust
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and salt in a bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and mix well. Spread this mixture into the pie crust. Combine remaining brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs with the syrup and nuts. Pour this mixture over the cream cheese layer. Bake 40-50 minutes.


This is the completed, but unbaked, pie. It's much prettier than the baked-and-cooled version, which puffed up and oozed over the sides. Good thing I had it on a baking sheet!

More Pi fun:
* a collection of pie recipes from Cake Spy
* pie songs
* Simple As 3.141592 t-shirt

How are you celebrating?

Weekly Geeks: Saturday's Quote

Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons.
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Weekly Geeks: Friday's Quote

"Some things have to be believed to be seen."
- Madeleine L'Engle, Many Waters

Well, if she can't be Veronica Mars...

at least Kristen Bell can be A Veronica: she's currently reading the lead in a new musical based on awesome 80's movie Heathers. And Christian Campbell is reading J.D! There's no guarantee that the same actors doing the reading will tour with the musical (if it happens), but it would be so boss if they did. This musical has the potential to be completely amazing. From the article:

The film offered many over-top-moments as well as choice lines, something Fickman is eager to bring out musically.

" 'I love my dead gay son," Fickman quoted. "If you can get that into a song, then that is just perfect."

Indeed. Other quotes from the movie I'd love to hear set to music:
"Well, f*ck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Theresa? "
"Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?"
"Es-ki-mo..."

Man, now I really want to watch it. Time to go dig through the VHS pile...