It's Not All Sweets and Treats Dad

I do make other things besides just desserts[occasionally]. Last night I made one of my favorites, Chicken and Spinach Risotto. Risotto is an Italian dish where rice is cooked in broth until it's creamy. I think it's kind of tricky to make [I've never tried the traditional ways] but the recipe I have is super easy. It's hardly any work since it all goes right into the rice cooker.

Chicken and Spinach Risotto

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb chicken breast cut in 1 inch pieces [I don't use as much chicken as the recipe calls for, I think it's a little overkill]
4 cups spinach, washed and drained
1 cup rice uncooked [for risotto you want to use a short grained rice that's round or semi-round]
3 cups water or chicken broth [I use water and add chicken bullion cubes]
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese [I use shredded, just a personal preference]

Heat a sauté pan with olive oil and cook the chicken. Set aside. Add spinach, rice, and liquid to rice cooker and turn to "cook". When it switched to "keep warm" add chicken and cheese, mix, and replace the lid. Let the rice steam for 5 minutes on "keep warm". Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper if desired.

Crater Face

Another of my favorites


Crater Face from Skyler Page on Vimeo.

New Car

2007 Toyota Carolla 59,000 miles 

I am the Winner

My Prize!

I'm taking an entrepreneur lecture class as a follow up to my business minor. We had a guest speaker in on Monday who owns a toy business. He brought in tons of his products. After the lecture if we asked good questions he gave us a toy. His company is doing all the toys for the Harry Potter theme park and he had prototypes there. I wanted one sooooo bad. I had a plan. Before I asked my question I was going to let him know I LOVE Harry Potter. But when he picked on me [there are about 200 students in the class] I got all flustered and forgot. I just asked my question about outsourcing which apparently was a good question and I got.......a lego toy. Legos are still pretty cool, but I would have loved me some pygmy puff.

Gas Leak

Steve took me home after babysitting for him and Jenny tonight. We opened my apartment door and an overwhelming smell of gas hit us. We found the RAs in my complex and they helped us out. After many unsuccessful tries to contact management we called the non-emergency number for the police. They promptly sent over a fire engine and the crew inspected my apartment and the surrounding ones. During all of this [and still now] Dylan is at work so Steve sticks around to help me out and ask the questions I don't know to ask. We get Queststar out here and he inspects the apartment. Turns out our pressure regulator on the stove was faulty and caused leaks. So my stove is now shut off. It means there isn't a leak but it also means I can't bake. I have to wait for management to replace the faulty part.....and based off of what we know about them this may take a while. Luckily two of the RAs are going to help us push it so we will hopefully have it fixed tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

On a happier note this incident helped me meet a lot of people in the complex. On the downside they all think I'm married to my brother, as Steve was there helping not Dylan.....

Sticks

The newest addition to our living room. The sticks are from the wedding reception. Dylan says he doesn't get it.

A Tasty Treat

Carly [my sister in law] sent me this recipe [which she got from her friend Rachel's blog] and told me she just made them and they were delicious. I love delicious. Needless to say I had to try them out myself. And you want to know what? They are delicious. Super delicious.

September Bars

• 1.75 cups flour
• 1.5 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• .5 tsp nutmeg
• .5 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup cold butter, chopped into 1 in squares
• 1 cup jam (we used peach but any jam is amazing!), really just use as much as you want, enough to coat.

1. in a big bowl, stir the flour, oats, brown sugar and spices until blended.
2. cut in butter (either with pastry blender or two knives) until the mixture forms course crumbs the size of peas
3. remove two cups of the crumb mixture, set a side.
4. press the rest of the crumb mixture into your 9x9
5. spread the jam over the pressed mixture
6. sprinkle the rest of the crumbs over evenly.

bake at 325 for about 45-50 minutes

let it cool

But really. Let it cool. You might want to gobble them up right then, and go a head a snitch a bit, but you will be quite delighted if you let them cool.

Cacure San Valentine

Being in the art department at school when we get together we like to discuss animation shorts, internet videos and such we like. I loved this one.

Cacure San Valentine from Paparalla on Vimeo.

Courtship by Poladroid

Midnight Brownies

I had been diligently working the whole night (it now being 11:30pm) and I smelled.....brownies. Dylan decided to make a midnight treat. So once they come out of the oven I head to the kitchen to enjoy. We have a bottle of EVOO (that would be extra virgin olive oil) by the stove. I noticed it was looking suspiciously low. Dylan pointed to it and laughed. "Look Heathers! Glug glug glug glug!" Yup. He used it in the brownies. He didn't realized we had different oils for a reason. Silly boy. No worries they still are pretty tasty!

Dylan's puffy brownies

Mmmmmmm

Going Bananas

I took a much needed break from my homework and made banana bread for the first time in my life. It was easier than I thought it would be. I'm still not sure how it tastes.....I can't wait until Dylan gets home from work so we can try it!

I've been working on this "super shape" project for too many hours

mix mix mix mix mix

Ta-da!

There you have my face Dad (Isaacson)

My New Toy

Dylan LOOOOOVES his apple crisp. I don't mind making it for him but it takes a while to peel and cut all those apples! So he got me an apple peeler/slicer/corer. It took practically no time at all to get those apples into perfect pieces.

Here is the recipe, which I got from my mother-in-law Glenda!

In a 9x13 pan mix:
1/2 c hot water
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Peel and slice thin about 8 tart apples (I like to use granny smith. Also you don't need as many if you get the giant ones, the way Washington sells them ;). Lay them in the pan.

Topping:
1 1/2 c white flour
1 c sugar
12 tbls margarine (3/4c)
Cut margarine into flour and sugar until crumbly. Cover apples with topping and bake at 375 until golden, about 1 hour.