Chicken Alfredo and an Italian Garganega

Firstly, we are post-post-procrastinators. *Cues Devo* *Cuts Devo Immediately*

Secondly, a few musings on health, fitness and waking up.

Today, I read a neat article on great ways to wake up in the morning. Most notably to me was this bit.

The King and The Pauper Way Of Eating: The way our bodies function optimally is if we eat like a king in the morning and a pauper in the evening. This means that it's best to eat heavier, bigger portions in the morning because these meals will give us high energy throughout the day and then burn off. Eating like a pauper, meaning small light meals, in the evening allows us to go to sleep on an empty stomach. If your body is functioning normally, and you don't have stomach ulcers, going to sleep on a mostly empty stomach will allow you to sleep better. This nightly fast allows your body to take it's focus away from digestion and put it towards repair and rejuvenation of the body's cells.

# Work That Body: In number 1 above I mentioned that our bodies adapt around a 24-hour circadian rhythm. This works for sleep, eating, exercise, and many other bodily functions. We're a pretty efficient physiological machine when you think about it. This is why getting a dose of exercise is optimal in the morning. It gets the blood flowing and stimulates you to function on a higher level. "Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." - Edward Stanley Once you're used to this routine, your body will prepare by providing you with high energy before you start to work out. As you can see, if you wake up with this high energy, you're going to just pop out of bed.

Thats good to know about the latter. I am such a heavy sleeper I wake up to three alarm clocks. And after pouring my coffee (so that it does not burn on the warmer), I do a workout with a ham and cheese english muffin sandwich afterward. To be honest, I've never had more energy in my life. Actually, only one alarm was good enough this morning and in fact I did go right into the pushups.

However, on the former. Well, tonight we had Chicken Alfredo with an Italian Garganega.

The Chicken Alfredo was a basic recipe we searched for on All Recipes. I know, eventually we'll begin to stop using pairing tools to make such meals, but that is how we did it. We already had this Garganega in mind, and that is how it goes.

Firstly, the meal was alright, nothing special. When I feel audacious enough to make it again, I'll use half & half instead of heavy cream, more seasonings like parsley (oh parsley how avant gaurde.)

However, I use very few introductory statements.

However, It excelled at buffetting and calming how utterly dry and tart the wine was.

Giordano Garganega/Pinot Grigio 2006 80% Garganega 20% Pinot Grigio.

• Color: Awesome. Golden and deep.
• Nose: TART mix of Grapefruit and Pinapple with a bit of cat pee and copper.
• Taste: DRY!!!! but delightful. Like somepeople, obnoxious but no one minds. At least for awhile.

The Meal in total complimented wonderfully. The chicken alfredo was able to keep the wine calm enough to allow your palette to get used to it's obnoxiousness until after you had already finished the meal and half a bottle was left. The meal was able to prepare you for this AWESOME blend.

Over all though, it wasn't fabulous, but it was delightful. I'd say the wine was an 89.

(Insert Charlie Brown Yelp here)

Today was my first attempt a Large Holiday Dinner, and I botched it.  Not utterly but botched none the less.  My former roommate and his girlfriend came up to have dinner and receive our gifts to them.  They ended up receiving the gifts first, then dinner in take out containers due to time constraints.  At least they liked the gifts.

The meal was Roasted Chicken with Honey Glazed Sweet potatoes, Stuffing (out of the box), Carrots (from a bag), Cranberry Juice, Gravy (packet).  Courtney was expected to be home anytime between 9:30 and 10 PM so I started with cutting the Sweet Potatoes at 8:20.  (I appear to have turned German by capitalizing all or most of my Nouns).  This takes not the five minutes I had predicted.  and the glaze (which was a mixture of honey, a pinch of salt and melted butter) took even longer to make.   By the time I had the chicken in cooking, it was already 9:00,  After starting on the other listed Items, I had them on the burners holding their own heat until the potatoes were done at 9:30.  We sat until about 10:50 for the bird to cook to 187 degrees.  I had the oven at 350 F, but at 10:20 ish I turned it up to 425.

I feel horrible for not being able to eat with them,  but in the end,  The food is still warm, and it still tastes good.

On another plus side, We're having it with a Chateau Cambon La Pelouse 2004 from the Thanksgiving Gift pack distributed from Wine Library.

And the other good note was that it was the first time making my own seasoning for the chicken.  An impromptu combination of olive oil, seasoned salt, balsamic vinegar and ground pepper.

It's too bad that we are really tired.  Merry Christmas!

Home Made Chop Suey

"Mixed pieces" is basically what Chop Suey means. An American Chinese dish of a little of this and a little of that. I saw a Food Network special on Thanksgiving telling of how Chinese chefs in San Francisco would basically do this, throw whatever they had together and cook it, making Chop Suey. Especially popular during later hours when people were getting out of work and extremely hungry. Tonight, I basically threw some stuff in a pan and cooked it up. Total crap shoot. Steve wanted some stir-fry type dish, so we had some vegetables. At the store today I picked up some chicken and marinated it in soy sauce. Threw the chopped chicken and veggies in a pan later on with a mix of olive, sesame and hot pepper oils. Threw together a sauce made with some soy sauce, teriyaki marinade and plum sauce, added a dash of red cooking wine and chili sauce and some sesame seeds. Thickened the sauce with a bit of corn starch. It came out pretty good, I think I over cooked the vegetables, there was no crispness. The sauce came out well though which I'm glad about, it was edible. The veggies were just a bit limp. Had it with a white wine from Goose Watch called Snow Goose. Steve didn't like it, but I think it's rather enjoyable. Then again he's more of a fan of dry reds and this is a somewhat sweet white. Doesn't say what kind of grape is used, but it's a nice sweet wine. I can say I did well for one of those quick throw-stuff-together-and-be-experimental dinners.

Thanksgiving

Haven't updated in a while, been taking a bit of a "break". Well more like work, school, appointment scheduling, cleaning for the holidays, etc. We spent Thanksgiving at my Father's, live we've been doing for the past several years. It sort of became tradition, my Mom normally goes out of town, and there's really nobody left on my Dad's side of the family, so I spend Thanksgiving with him. It was like a lot of previous Thanksgivings, which I'm glad about since I enjoy the low-key nature of the holiday, at least for me. No huge crowds, much as I love my family I prefer the small get-togethers. It's easier to talk with everyone, stress is normally low on Thanksgiving. Arrive around 10:30 in the morning, Dad already has the turkey in the oven. Chill and watch the Macy's parade like I do every year. As silly as it gets I still enjoy watching it. I convinced Dad to let me make the broccoli casserole mentioned in the previous post. It's sort of a compromise, he always wants to do green bean casserole and my sis and I really don't like mushrooms. So broccoli casserole it was. I think I made it better this time around. I tweaked the recipe a bit, added more chicken bullion and more cheese on top. Instead of toasted almond slivers I used bread crumbs . It came out much better, the sauce had more flavor, it was nice and cheesy and the bread crumbs were a nice touch. When it came to dinner time we started with some fruit cocktail. Dad takes the basic stuff and adds some strawberries and a bit of orange liquor to the juices to balance the sweetness out. Steve, the guy who hasn't eaten fruit in years, tried some. He enjoyed it but put himself into a state of shock at eating the fruit. Dinner itself was great, the turkey was nice and moist. Had mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, my broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. I love stuffing, I know it's not the healthiest part of the dinner, but I love the texture and the herbs. Dinner overall went real well, I'm glad to say everyone liked the broccoli. We had it with an Argentinian Torrontes to drink. Only needed one bottle of wine for how small a group there was for dinner, but it went so well with dinner. I found out my sister likes wine too, but she's also one of those party-loving college girls too. Don't worry, nobody got hammered. After dinner we spent more time either napping or watching the History Channel. There was a very interesting program on about popular American foods. Would have watched more of it if Dad hadn't woken up and put on the game. I know football is a crucial part to many on Thanksgiving, but I'm really not that into sports. Back to the program, it was very enjoyable. Learned about the history behind Chinese take out, BBQ, Chef Boyardee pastas, old fashioned soda shops and ice cream treats. I was getting antsy around dessert time, much as I loved hanging out I did have to work. Such is the life of a convenience store worker, if you're not going out of town on a holiday work is mandatory. I had to rush through dessert, Dutch apple pie with tea. Very delicious as well, I think my sister's boyfriend may have made it. He's a culinary student, and couldn't be with is at all this year because of work. He started his new job at the Mirror Lake Inn, training under apparently one of the best chefs in the country. My sister took some leftovers home for him though. I'm hoping everyone else has a great Thanksgiving too! Now we have to tackle Christmas. I know I'll be making a bunch of sweets like I do every year. Cookies, fudge, and peanut brittle, oh my!

Spontaneity!

The past few days have been quite creative for me.  Unfortunately it's put me in a sort of an odd haze.  Courtney has had real trouble keeping my attention on things and such.  Last night though, after a long day of work (where we did no business), I got creative with dinner.

Many weeks back, one of my coworkers recommended a few wines to me, one of which was a Fish Eye Shiraz 2003, and now I'm seriously considering her tastes to be lacking, or she's using me to test out wines before she buys them.  Actually the other two weren't that bad (New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (I got a Nautilus) and the Fish Eye Pinot Grigio)

The label on the back said to have it with grilled meats and vegetables like chicken and peppers with onion and such.  For whatever reason though, I was in the mood for Pizza.  We went to the grocery store and picked up some dough, cheese, some sauce, precooked chicken strips (because we couldn't find any raw ones to sauté) and green peppers.

I had all of this planned in the beginning. After chopping half a green pepper, half an onion and a few garlic cloves, I sauté-ze-zizzled them (f*** you spell check, sauté is a word and so is Sauvignon Blanc) in our huge enamel pan.  Normally if the store had raw chicken in stock, I would have thrown those in with the mix.  Adding pepper never hurts too.  Meanwhile I prepped the pizza. A few weeks ago we had a wine and cheese party, and we brought some Munster, and we never got around to using it. In all we used Sharp white Cheddar, Shredded Mozzarella, the Munster (I know your humming the theme song), a three cheese blend of Parmisian, Asaigo and Romano, and to top it off some Feta.

Oh yeah and before I forget, Courtney decided not to eat a lot of the chicken in her curried chicken take out last night.  We added some of that too.

It ended up looking like this. Upon cutting though, it ended up being a fork and knife pizza since I added too many topping and I stretched the inner dough too thin.  Everything  was okay, wasn't too bad.  if I had more time to plan it would have turned out awesome, but it was pretty good for an experimental pizza with substandard dough and sauce.

The wine though, was CRAP! Drink it to know what lack luster, thin, zero dimensional wine tastes like.  This tasted like typical red wine fruits (cranberries, rasberries, etc.) with a shot of vodka.  It finished horribly with old cheap chocolate, that rasberry taste ended up turning into gushers with a hint of cheap sour apple candy.  It's like they wanted to make an ultra dry fruit bomb.  The Nose wasn't that bad, it actually smelled delightful, but the actual consuming of the wine was a chore.  I didn't even finish my glass, I went to bed with a full stomach under the effects of alchohol and woke up to a half empty glass.  But the pizza made up for it.  I do miss that pizza.

Steak!

Last night, Steve's boss was supposed to come over for dinner. Nothing fancy or business related, he just wanted to have some of our cooking. Like last week (when he said he'd be over for dinner as well), he never showed up. Well that meant more steak for us then.

I've always enjoyed steak, ever since I was little I liked having steak. For years I didn't eat steak for some reason, but as of recent have been eating it more. I'm picky when it comes to meat really. I don't really like gristle, the texture bothers me. Meat has to be just right pretty much for me to enjoy it. Yet almost anything fruit or vegetable related I'm willing to try. I'm just picky with meat, and really don't like seafood.

For last night I tried a teriyaki marinade on a London Broil style steak. With it I made roasted potatoes with balsamic vinegar. I also tried a broccoli casserole, it was a recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I picked up for a dollar at a local thrift shop.

I've gotten better at steak, normally Steve will pan-sear it, but I broiled the steak last night. I think I have it down, before I would end up overcooking it and the meat would be dry. This time it was nice and juicy. I can't really count how many times I've made the balsamic potatoes, they're just so good. I love the tangy taste of balsamic vinegar, which complimented the herbs well. It's even better how the vinegar will carmelize over the potatoes, which soak in some of the flavor.

I discussed making the broccoli casserole for Thanks giving with my Dad. He thinks it sounds like a good idea, but we have to get the approval of my ultra-picky sister first. The ironic part is she's living with her culinary arts major boyfriend. We'll see how she feels about the broccoli though, rather than just plain steamed broccoli. The sauce it's in is a creamy, stew broth like sauce with lemon juice, and there's shredded cheddar and toasted almonds topping it off. It's quick and easy but brings some good flavor. Of course to top it off for a good meal, we had wine. This time it was a 2005 Fat Bastard merlot. It tasted sort of like fall in a glass, crisp and earthy. It was very delicious though. In fact as I'm typing this I'm having more of it with cheese and crackers. Steve's boss really missed out.

Pasta Primavera and Spur of the Moment Meals

We're really trying to post more here, can't guarantee how frequent posts will actually be. Both of us are fairly busy, I have work and school, Steve has work and his frequent distractions.

It's been one of those days, more like one of those mid-weeks? Things have been odd lately. It's been snowing all day so I didn't bother planning ahead for dinner, didn't want to go to the store. Make do with what we have right? Okay, have some food, have some wine. Decided to go with a pinot grigio and brought up the nifty applet from wine answers.

Pasta primavera it is! I have made this previously and I found a nice, simple recipe that doesn't require enough food for feeding a small army. It was something I could throw together at nine in the evening. Grocery store was closed, Steve was having a tense moment on the phone with a friend of ours.

As usual, I deviated from the recipe, instead of the vegetables listed I used some frozen ones I had in the freezer, and chopped up a few cloves of garlic. It really didn't take that long to make. While it was simmering I threw together a couple simple salads. Used multi-grain spaghetti, for the pasta. Overall it came out very nicely. Nothing big or fancy, but as a meal it was good.

Sometimes it's more fun to just make things spur of the moment. A few nights ago we had pancakes on a whim. Some days I like planning ahead for meals, other days I like that spontaneity. Usually it's more apparent in the summer when days are longer and there's a farmers' market to supply fresh produce. Spontaneity is enjoyable, it jazzes life up a little, breaks away from the humdrum. Tonight we could have just run to a convenience store and grabbed some chicken nuggets or a frozen pizza. Or we could have just made spaghetti and used sauce from a jar, or maybe we could have just had Pop Tarts or something. Instead we decided to take some time to cook dinner, even if it didn't take long it was still something thrown together that had good results. I'm not going to say that the sauce recipe I used was the greatest, it's okay, but it's something that can be thrown together quickly with things we usually have in our fridge. Damn I love ingenuity.