I use peanut butter in a variety of ways. Over the next few weeks, I think I'm going to be posting a few of the applications I've had for peanut butter. But before we get to that, I need some peanut butter! Instead of buying some from the store (let's face it, I've got a million containers of the stuff already), I decided I would try to make it myself for the first time ever!
It's actually very simple. I googled TONS of recipes and decided just to wing it and add a little bit of oil at a time until I got the right consistency. I started by roasting 2 cups of shelled peanuts at 350ยบ for about 12 minutes.
Next I ground a fourth of the peanuts, so one half cup into the food processor.
After the peanuts were still somewhat chunky (I do not like creamy peanut butter!!!), I added 1 teaspoon of almond oil and pulsed some more in my processor. Note: Almond oil was all I could find in non-Costco-sized-quantities at the grocery store. And I couldn't taste the difference! You could use peanut oil if you had access to it, and I've even heard olive oil will work just as well. I'm kind of skeptical about that, but it's always an option.
Another side note: everything I found said to pulse half the peanuts and add half the oil, then repeat. However, my cheap processor couldn't really handle that. The second time around I did all the dry ingredients first, then added all the wet. I also put in one tablespoon of honey, along with two more teaspoons of the almond oil in addition to the remaining half cup of peanuts. So here's the final tally = 1 c peanuts, 3 t almond oil and 1 T honey... pulse til blended at desired consistency.
As you can see, I had two one-cup containers so I decided to get a little crazy! In addition to honey peanut butter, I also made coconut peanut butter. Same exact recipe as before, plus one cup of coconut flakes and I added an extra teaspoon of oil to go with the extra cup of dry ingredients (1 c peanuts, 1 c coconut flakes, 4 t almond oil and 1 T honey).
The verdict?! I love them both! I can't wait to get creative and experiment with other flavors, textures, etc. If you have any tips for me, let me know!! :)
Now that I have two cups of homemade peanut butter, be on the lookout for more peanut butter-laden recipes to come on this blog in the next few weeks!
The past few days of my life have been FILLED with sports. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way :) After my first day with the D-backs, I actually scored a pair of passes to the Phoenix Open (PGA) from my boss. I don't think I've ever really been to a professional golf tournament before. I mean, I worked a few at my old university's athletics department, but I haven't ever spectated before.
So on Sunday morning, J.D. and I drove up to Scottsdale and caught a few hours of the tournament. Um, if you've never been to one before, let me just say: THEY'RE AWESOME! Everyone there was boozing, enjoying the sun and basically hanging out. Pretty typical of the Arizona State area anyways :)
Phones and cameras weren't allowed at the course, so I snapped a quick photo on top of the course
J.D. advised me not to partake in any alcohol at the PGA stop, because we were only a few hours away from Super Bowl festivities. Since we still don't know many people in the area, we reserved a table to watch the game at a local bar and grill we've been wanting to try for quite some time.
Nevermind the crazy big game atmosphere, this place was amazing! The food wasn't really anything I'd imagine stumbling across in a bar. And since we'd reserved a spot, they gave us a whole bunch of goodies to take home including: beer glasses, a hat and a cocktail shaker. I think I've admitted before that I like to steal glasses from bars... This was like the best of both worlds because I got to stuff glasses inside of my purse, but didn't have to feel guilty about it, haha.
Watching a game at a bar with 30+ TVs is something else. Since I'm not a huge football fan I decided to continue my tradition of rooting for the team with the hottest QB. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers it was then! Agree with me, ladies?!
Everyone in the bar clearly had a side, so it made the game that much more fun being able to choose a side and root for it! And in keeping in the spirit of Super Bowls past, I saved my bathroom breaks for AFTER the commercial breaks :) The VW Darth Vader one was for sure my favorite... followed closely by Roseanne being knocked out in a Snickers ad. The one downside to celebrating a game at a bar is the chatter inside made it difficult to hear all of the commercials. Then again, it might have been the booze...
We started off with some delicious edamame...
I was in the mood for Mexican, so I ordered carnitas tacos with queso dip and lime rice...
Savored the BEST girlie drink of my life (frozen Hurricane/margarita mix)...
And for dessert we decided to split house-made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies. They were AMAZING -- even if I could only eat two, haha. It was a ton of fun; I'm glad I finally got to experience a Super Bowl bar party since all I've ever been to were house parties before this season.
And now that the football season is over, I may just be the happiest girl on the planet. Because that mean's BASEBALL is hereeeeeeee! Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Sunday, but as an employee, I reported today :) I got a sneak preview tour of the Salt River Fields facilities in Scottsdale -- the newest Spring Training facility in all of baseball! And I set to work for about half the day. I'm so giddy I can't even contain myself.
I am a HUGE baseball fan, I hope you guys know this by now. I played softball my whole life and have tried to work in baseball as much as possible. Ever since I was little, I wanted to work for my local (aka favorite) team, the Oakland A's. But that was never in the cards for me. Instead, I covered some collegiate softball for the UC Santa Barbara student newspaper as a writer in college. I worked for a semi-professional team as an intern in college. Then when I graduated I worked for MLB.com, covering professional beach volleyball. After that I went back to working collegiate athletics and worked for a Division I school in the Big West Conference traveling with the baseball team, writing articles for the website and broadcasting for a local radio station. Along that time I also had the fortune of working as the official scorer (holy pressure) for the A's minor league Single-A affiliate, the Stockton Ports.
But I never was able to snag a job in Major League Baseball. Until now!!!!!!!
Monday I officially started my "first day" with the D-backs, working a little, attending my new hire orientation, getting ballpark tours and of course, enjoyed a staff lunch. While I've seen the underbelly of minor league and collegiate stadiums, I've never been inside the bottom areas of a professional stadium. Except all the interviews I've racked up through the years. While I still haven't gotten a super official tour yet, it will happen! And I start back up again next week, working from the Diamondbacks' brand new Spring Training facility in Scottsdale.
I'm stoked out of my mind. Especially when you think that Spring Training kicks off in less than three weeks and the season officially opens in APRIL (Happy Birthday to me, right?!).
J.D. took me out to dinner to celebrate my first day last week at a local Italian restaurant by our house. I've been wanting to try it out for a long time and it surely didn't disappoint :)
Pinot Grigio with roasted red pepper bruschetta
Sea bass poached in Mediterranean butter
The next night we had plans of either seeing a movie or going bowling, but they were foiled by the late-night league going on. Instead, I happened to notice a wine tasting room and cupcake shop nearby!! I would, right?! So we each decided to order a three-glass wine flight, along with baked brie in a raspberry chipotle sauce. I think the choice turned out to be MUCH better than bowling anyways. However, I still want to see Black Swan!
And while the cupcake shop was closed, I definitely made a point to check it out the following day. It's brand new and supposedly once a month they do a wine and cupcake pairing with the wine tasting room next door! Very much like the American Cupcake experience I had in San Francisco before moving to Arizona. That was a super fun outing and I cannot wait to see how the places here in AZ pair cupcakes and wine :) Guess we'll have to wait and see, huh?!
This week has been busy socially and also professionally. In addition to having my first day, I've also subbed at an elementary school, a high school and I've tutored close to eight hours after school this week. Man, working several part-time jobs is really tiring :) But let's not end on work, let's finish on a high note here! I leave you with peanut butter cup and red velvet cupcakes. Such a tease...
And don't forget, you can keep tabs on all my new weekly endeavors here!
It's no secret that I LOVE sushi. Actually, I didn't always. I hated the idea of raw fish up until -- you guessed it -- college, when everyone ate sushi and drank coffee at co-op coffee houses. What can I say, I'm a slave to the trends...
I pretty much eat sushi everywhere I go. I even once had it in Nashville (please don't judge, I know it's NOWHERE near an ocean, but imitation crab is readily available anywhere). I've tried so many different kinds, fish, textures and sauces, but would you believe I've never actually made it myself?
Which is why I decided to read up on sushi making and prepared my very own California Roll for my new thing this week. Looks like I'm chugging along pretty well with my "resolution" huh? The biggest surprise is how easy and delicious sushi-making can be! The hardest part was probably finding all the specialty ingredients.
Clearly I need to work on my rolling and cutting. But give me a break, it was my first-ever try!
After looking up how-to videos on YouTube (click on the link and it'll take you to the wealth of sushi-rolling knowledge YouTube has to offer), I got the general idea of the roll down. My next task was finding a place that sold sushi rolling mats. I looked at a few kitchen and home good stores and couldn't find it. Luckily a quick Internet search back at home pointed me in the direction of Sur la Table. A kitchen store I probably could live in. Kind of like Where the Heart Is, but less white trashy ;)
Next up, the recipe. I went with Alton Brown's California Roll recipe. Lucky for you, he also provides a sweet how-to video to brush up on sushi rolling skills.
Ingredients:
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/4-inch thick pieces
4 sheets nori (seaweed wraps)
1/2 batch sushi rice, recipe follows
1/3 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchstick-size pieces
4 crabsticks, torn into pieces
Pickled ginger, for serving
Wasabi, for serving
Soy sauce, for serving
(I omitted the sesame seeds and pickled ginger, can't stand the stuff)
Sushi Rice Recipe (start here first):
2 cups sushi or short grain rice
2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear.
Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi.
Directions for the sushi roll:
Squeeze the lemon juice over the avocado to prevent browning.
Cover a bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap. Cut nori sheets in half crosswise. Lay 1 sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the plastic covered mat.Wet your fingers with water and spread about 1/2 cup of the rice evenly onto the nori.
Sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds. Turn the sheet of nori over so that the rice side is down. Place 1/8 of the cucumber, avocado and crab sticks in the center of the sheet.
This was for J.D.'s "man roll" -- I wouldn't suggest making yours this size. Follow the directions and cut the nori in half, otherwise you'll be so full you won't be able to finish your roll. And there's also a logistical problem with fitting one of these bad boys into your mouth [[that's what she said]].
Grab the edge of the mat closest to you, keeping the fillings in place with your fingers, and roll it into a tight cylinder, using the mat to shape the cylinder.
Pull away the mat and set aside. Cover with a damp cloth. Repeat until all of the rice has been used. Cut each roll into 6 pieces. Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.
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The rolling part took me a while and I didn't quite master it. When I make sushi again -- and trust me, I plan to soon -- I'll try to roll it super, super tight. It also needs a liberal spread of rice on the outside of the roll, that's why mine looks so tiny. And that's probably why it was sort of difficult for me to cut. Either way, it was delicious! I can't wait to play around with new flavors and fillings.
Next time you're craving sushi, why not try to make some yourself?! :) And be sure to catch up on all of my new weekly things in 2011!
This past week was kind of a rough one on me. I'm activated in the substitute teacher call list for a school district about 25-30 minutes away. After a few weeks, no one had been asking for subs and I felt like that was all just a colossal waste of time and money on my part to get certified (after six months here, my only income has been infrequent tutoring and working a couple of college games here and there).
Anyways, I got a call Wednesday night to sub for a first grade class and accepted on the spot. School started at 9:05 a.m., and subs have to check in 30 minutes prior to obtain keys, lesson plans, etc. So basically I had to leave my house at 8 in order to arrive at 8:30 a.m. It was alright, the kids were fun but stretching out lesson plans to fill the entire day was overwhelming and exhausting! Luckily she had a student teacher who helped me get my bearings and taught the math hour of the day. All the coloring, singing and clapping really had my head spinning ;)
Then after school I had another call, I could choose between a sixth grade (elementary school) class, or 7th-8th grade (junior high) science. Without hesitation I opted for the junior high class. However, school starts at 7:20 a.m. at both the middle and high schools in that district. Ugh, that meant I had to check in at 6:50 a.m., leaving my house at 6:20 a.m., and thus waking up around 5:45 a.m. after showering the night before.
Needless to say I was exhausted. And now I think I'm getting a little sick from all the sick student teachers, co-workers and kids. Just two days and my body can't take it, ha! But the real reason I wanted to sub is coming soon! I'm on the primary call list for the ONLY French teacher in the district and I will be filling in for her in February. I can't wait! High school makes me nervous, but the middle schoolers all kept telling me how pretty and nice I was, and kept trying to guess my age... I remember my substitute teacher experiences in middle school to be horrendous. At least I didn't suffer the same fate as many of the fill-in teachers we had back then.
So all this talk about kids and education and learning... I just want something adult to eat and talk about :) Which is why I bring you my recipe for Ginger Basil Salmon with Garlic Roasted Broccoli & Peppers!
Ginger Basil Salmon
Ingredients:
1 medium salmon fillet
1 t minced garlic
1 t fresh minced ginger
2 T olive oil
1/2 t red wine vinegar
4 T chopped basil
salt and pepper for seasoning
Directions:
Make hash marks on both sides of the salmon, season with salt and pepper and set aside. Mix all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the salmon and coat both sides, stuffing the marinade into the cuts on the fillet. Cover and let sit for one hour in refrigerator before grilling.
Garlic Roasted Broccoli & Peppers:
Ingredients:
5 c chopped broccoli
1 c sliced red and yellow peppers
2 1/2 T olive oil, divided
2 T minced garlic
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss broccoli, peppers and 2 T olive oil in large bowl to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Transfer to baking dish. Roast 15 minutes. Top broccoli and pepper with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir vegetables well until coated. Roast until broccoli is beginning to brown, about 5 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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I served my salmon over a bed of quinoa and enjoyed the meal with a glass of Pinot Grigio :) It was heavenly. And on the bright side, I start my job with the Diamondbacks NEXT MONDAY -- in EIGHT days!!! I cannot wait. Until then, I'll be doing a lot more tutoring, subbing and working college athletic events. I'm a busy girl :)
NBA games kind of bore me. Ok, that's a super broad statement to make. I dislike watching the NBA on tv; I find it monotonous and I feel like it's the longest of all the professional sports seasons (this is coming from the girl who loves Major League Baseball and its... 162 game-season). To be honest, I prefer college basketball MUCH more than professional basketball. But maybe that's because I've worked more college basketball games than I can count. I'll admit that I have been to a few pro basketball games (Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings) and enjoyed myself. Heck, I even worked a few Kings games as a radio statistician when I was living in Stockton...
...and made it on tv. Thanks to my cousin, Kevin, for taking that picture back in 2008 :) That's me in the bottom left corner, happy as can be!
But my point is that I've never actually purchased NBA tickets on my own, just to go to a game. Nor had I ever gone to a Phoenix Suns game, despite living in the Phoenix metropolitan area for over six months. Until now.
Phoenix's local Groupon-esque site had Suns tickets for about $16 a pop I think, for sometime later this week. I was curious as to how much tickets actually cost and found a few decently priced tickets on Stubhub for last weekend's game against the Portland Trail Blazers. For a whopping $22, I bought two tickets. Even better, the Metro here is FREE for anyone who has a ticket to any event at the US Airways Center. And parking is free on the lightrail too. So, $22 for transportation, a game and parking... can't beat that anywhere!
For $11, we didn't have bad seats. I've never watched a basketball game from on top of the action before. Admittedly, I was a little bored at the beginning. There were so many turnovers, fouls and technicals, I couldn't help but want to wander around the arena. But by the second half, the Suns came back and started to make a game of it! They finally pulled it out, after flirting with sending the game into overtime, 115-111. I enjoyed the experience immensely. Even if it was well past my bedtime after we got home (tip-off was at 8:30 p.m. and waiting for/riding the metro took over an hour). Plus, anytime you get to see Steve Nash and Grant Hill is a night well spent.
I'd do it again... for more free/cheap tickets. Even if the Suns didn't hire me after interviewing for a PR job haha :)
In case you missed it, here are the other two parts: Part 1 | Part 2
Sunday, Jan. 9: I'll spare you all the details, but I woke up on Sunday not feeling good at all. The thought of walking the Mall and going out to eat, etc., was too much for me. Plus, I have tons of pictures of all the D.C. monuments from my last trip when I went with my family in 1997. Instead, Michelle and I watched a bunch of movies and some tv, ordered in and made a good little day of it. I was back to feeling like myself by the end of the day.
Monday, Jan. 10: I'Luckily, my flight didn't leave until 4 p.m. and I was able to print my boarding pass online. That left just enough time to hit one more museum, grab lunch and then send me on my way to the Reagan airport via metro. I'd never been to the Portrait Gallery before, so that was our final stop of my trip!
I'm not a huge art fan, but I heard good things about this gallery. My favorite part was how each portrait had a plaque adjacent to the image, stating who the person of interest was and a brief biographical paragraph explaining the subject. Some of my favorites were the Presidential Hall, the 20th Century Americans and naturally, the sports wing. I'm a big modern history nut, and snapped a few pictures secretly with my phone :) The following is some of what I saw:
Signed Lance Armstrong portrait
The 60s rock concert poster art was seriously one of my favorites!
Reggie Jackson in an OAKLAND A'S jersey (can you tell who my favorite team is?)
Combined Hepburn sister Oscars
The beginning of the sports exhibit & museum's architecture
Remember how I fell in love with the Elvis displays at the Newseum the day before?! Well there was an entire hall of portraits dedicated to Elvis and the photographers who followed him around the year of his 21st birthday. He is a very attractive and interesting figure in Americana. I still want to learn more about Elvis and plan to someday pick up his biography!
Eventually we had to part ways, but I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. However, there were massive snow storms in Georgia and in the northeastern US states that day. As a result, Delta's hub in Atlanta was shut down for several hours and flights all over the country were affected by that. Luckily, my flight to NYC was only delayed about 45 minutes. However, once the plane was on the runway, we actually sat there for close to 30 minutes. I was nervous I'd miss my connection in NYC.
But when I did land in New York, I found out that flight was also delayed over an hour, leaving me plenty of time to explore and find some dinner. After eating out all weekend, I was not in the mood for any fast food. Instead, I found a cute little French bistro called Croque Madame and ordered up some chicken pesto with a salad and water bottle.
I ordered at the to go cart and decided I had enough time to sit down in the dining area. It was then I realized just how big the "restaurant" actually was. And the BEST part?! Instead of menus and waiters, you order from an iPad and it sends a message directly to the kitchen!!!
No joke, this was the most high-tech dining experience I've ever had! The food was amazing and I nestled myself into an individual, one-person dining pod, complete with European/US compatible outlets and of course, the iPad. It did cross my mind to play with the iPad, since each one came stocked with hundreds of apps, but my hygiene-obsessed mind got the best of me. Who knows how many people touch those each day, all of whom end up eating, touching money, food, their faces and possibly mouths. Not the most pleasant realization to have mid-dinner. Instead, I just enjoyed the idea from afar. I'm also not kidding when I say this restaurant literally has hundreds of tables, so imagine how much it must have cost to order that many iPads.
It was a really cool end to a frustrating day of travel! I finally made it home, in bed, sometime after 1 a.m.
In case you missed it, here's the recap from my first two days in D.C.: Part 1
Saturday, Jan. 8: When we came back from the bar on Friday night, Michelle told me it was starting to snow! The forecast predicted snow for about half of my trip and I was ecstatic to wake up to a very small dusting of snow and frost on Saturday morning. However, it didn't last long. In fact, it melted as soon as the sun came out pretty early in the day.
Michelle and I decided to go explore some more museums on Saturday, because we had big group plans for Sarah's birthday night. First up, in what turned out to be my only trip to the Mall the entire weekend, we headed out to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. I had memories of going there with my dad when I was 13, stopping at ever single exhibit, reading every single piece of information and watching movie after movie on aviation history and war aircrafts. Blahhhhh.
We had other plans! Michelle found out that the "guy who killed Pluto" (the planet of my youth, honest what good is the mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies" mean without Pluto?!?!), was going to be talking at the Air & Space Museum that afternoon. Being the astronomy geek that I am, I didn't need to be told twice. Except, to our dismay, he was just signing books for two hours. How lame! And I was not about to spend what little money I had funding the guy who killed the dwarf planet!! We went exploring instead and pretty much stayed in the space portion of the museum.
You can't just cover up my childhood with a big black square!!
Next we were off the Newseum since Michelle picked up two for one admission on Groupon. I'd never been and if you know me, you know that I'm a big news/journalism geek. So onward. (Noticing a theme here?)
The museum was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was super poignant and emotional. We were actually starting at the top, sixth floor, looking at an overwhelming exhibit on Hurricane Katrina in the news and its aftermath, when I received a text about the shooting rampage in my own state... The irony was the exhibit was about how instantly we can access news now with the Internet and cell phones. I definitely teared up right there on the spot.
The entire museum was a mix of fascinating, terrifying, emotional and basically mind-blowing exhibits to me. I loved every second of it and would definitely go back again, or recommend anyone to go see it who hasn't yet!!!
Exhibit honoring Elvis' 75th birthday
Largest intact section of the Berlin Wall
Sports journalism exhibit
The media antenna from the collapsed World Trade Center and a three-story wall of front pages from newspapers around the world
After the surreal and somber experience of the Newseum, we headed back home after it closed -- spending close to three hours there. We got ready for Michelle's roommate's sister's birthday (Sarah, as I've mentioned before) and headed off toward an awesome restaurant in Georgetown called Thunder Burger & Bar. Touted as an edgy, rock & roll restaurant, I literally got the vibe that I was dining in Wonderland. Maybe this'll help shape your opinions on the matter...
I tried to get a good shot of the menu, but again, it was dark and edgy. The grass on the walls really made me feel like I was in a completely different world. I even joked to someone that when my beer came out, I half expected it to have a tag that said "Drink Me."
To boot, I was insanely excited about every song they played on the speakers. Bush, Killers, 30 Seconds to Mars, and more pretty good tracks I generally listen to every day. When it came time to decide, I made an absolute game-time decision and decided to go for the "Rock the Casbah" burger (House Made Falafel Burger, Topped With Diced Onions, Tomatoes & Herbed Cucumber Yogurt Sauce) over the "Learning to Fly Burger" (Herbed Ground Turkey Burger, Topped With Swiss Cheese, Avocado, & Granny Smith Apples). Neither it, not the seasoned fries, nor the winter citrus beer, disappointed.
I was pleasantly full and enjoying good conversation meeting new people as we went on to our next stop: Mr. Smith's of Georgetown. Another first for me -- I'd never been to a piano bar before! While crazy busy, Mr. Smith's had the beer of the month club for $3. Basically everyone in there was clutching $3 (decent) bottles of beer and singing raucously to the banging of the keys and the Irish-sounding singer. Unhappy with being squeezed into a small area in the back, I took initiative and scribbled down on a Post-It note that we were here with a birthday girl! And thus, the entire bar burst into the Birthday Song to Sarah. It was pretty entertaining. Later, I got him to play one of my fav songs, "Your Love" by the Outfield.
It was a really, really amazing experience (the crappy iPhone video does it zero justice). I'd totally go to a piano bar again, provided I was with a large group of people! And that's saying a lot, seeing as how again I did not have a single drop to drink at the bar. Ok, that's a lie, I tried a sip of the $3. That's how I made my informed opinion that it was decent beer ;) We eventually closed out the night in the back dining area, listening to a group of guys tell joke after joke after joke.
I am totally jealous of all the amazing things to do in D.C.!!! Stay tuned for the final recap in my next post.
