Currently

HBO.com

Watching: Six Feet Under, my hands-down all-time favorite show.  I've been slowly re-watching the entire series (five seasons) over the past year, and it is still just as moving and overwhelming as the first go around.  Seriously... THE best show ever.  If you haven't watched it, I strongly suggest you do so as soon as humanly possible.  As naive and teenager-y as Claire is for most of the show, I can't get over how many remarkable ideas she comes up with.  I could quote her for ages.  To sum it up, the show is a beautifully written depiction of family dysfunction, birth, death, love, the ups and downs of relationships, the search for beauty and truth, self-actualization and growth, survival and impending finality.

Anticipating: the release of Catching Fire this coming weekend.  I probably won't be able to see it until sometime next week because I have to work Friday and Saturday.  I remember really liking the book, but I think Mockingjay is still my favorite, and I am really excited to see how it translates to film.  Also anticipating Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course.  Casseroles, pies and rolls, oh my!  I would like to get all of my Christmas shopping out of the way early this year.  I did pretty good last year, but I always leave a few things for the last minute, like those impossible-to-buy-for family members.

Eating: lots of rice.  I've never been a huge rice-eater, but lately I've been making a couple of different rice recipes as a starch for meals.  This Mexican rice recipe and this orzo-white rice blend are both really delicious components in any weeknight feast.  Last night I baked some chicken, spinach & feta sausages and served them with carrots, broccoli and the orzo-rice mix.  It was pretty delicious and very filling.  Tonight, I'm probably going to make chicken and dumplings in my Crock Pot!  It's a little chilly outside today, so why not whip up something that is sure to warm our bellies?

Wondering: if it's lame to give homemade Christmas gifts when you're an adult?  I've had the crafting bug as of late, and I have a few ideas that would make good gifts, but I'm not sure if that's something that people still do in their twenties?  I don't want anyone to think I'm being cheap and thoughtless!

Listening to: the new Arcade Fire album, Beck, Michale Graves, Warpaint, Interpol (always), Daughter, the Arctic Monkeys new album, Cults and Chris Isaak.  I'll post a playlist sometime this week with my favorite songs from these artists so you can check them out for yourself.

As always, many thanks to Danielle for providing the inspiration for these Currently posts.

xoxo

Easy Breakfast Recipes

In case you missed it (shame on you), I shared a couple of my favorite go-to quick breakfast recipes on Sarah's blog last week while she was away galavanting in NYC...

I've never been much of a breakfast person.  Weird, I know.  I totally enjoy eating breakfast foods, just not usually at the typical breakfast time.  I have worked in a hotel for the past three years.  The first two years I pretty much always worked the morning shift, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and I never ate breakfast before work because that is just too early for me to be eating.  I'd much rather hit the snooze button a couple thousand times. The past year, I have been working more evening shifts where I don't have to be at work until mid-afternoon, so now, I almost always eat breakfast and I've gotten pretty crafty with it, if I may say so myself.  Two of my favorite easy breakfasts include french toast and yogurt parfaits.  

Now, my french toast isn't just any french toast.  Ideally, I like to use a good quality, thick white bread that will soak up lots of the eggy liquid.  French bread is especially nice.

Ingredients (for 1 single serving):

2 slices thick white bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or almond milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Berries
Powdered sugar

Method:

Whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Set aside.
Heat an oiled skillet over medium heat.
Dip the bread slices, one at a time, in the egg mixture and place on the heated pan.
Allow the bread to cook for about 1 minute on each side, until lightly browned.
Serve topped with berries and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Just like my french toast, I like to use certain kinds of components to make a truly delicious yogurt parfait.  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vanilla honey greek yogurt (I like the Greek Gods brand)

Berries or a fruit of your choice

1/3 cup vanilla almond granola (I get mine at HEB)

Method:

Simple - just layer it up & devour!

I hope these recipes appeal to you and that they inspire you to try a new thing or two with your breakfast routine!

xoxo

Last Night's Dinner: Salmon + Lemon Kebabs

Last night was one of those rare evenings that neither Jason nor I had to work so we were able to partake in one of our favorite activities - cooking dinner and actually enjoying a meal together at home.

Chicken and salmon are two of my favorite lean meats to fix as a main course, so I did a little online research and collected some new recipes to try out.  I was especially anxious to try these Grilled Salmon + Lemon Kebabs from SkinnyTaste, and they turned out marvelously paired with Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans, dairy-free corn pudding and a California Red Blend wine.

I was surprised by how easy it was make all three of these dishes simultaneously.  After pre-heating the oven to 375 degrees, I assembled the green bean bundles and wrapped them in a half-piece of bacon.  I placed them on a foil-lined baking sheet sprayed with 100% pure canola oil cooking spray.  I sprayed each of the bundles with cooking spray before sprinkling them with cracked sea salt, black pepper and a little garlic salt.  

Next, I mixed up a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, a can of whole kernel corn and a can of creamed corn with two eggs and poured the mixture into a small pyrex baking dish with melted Parkay in the bottom.  Since the corn pudding takes 30 minutes to bake, I put that in the oven first, and then began cutting the salmon into small chunks for the kebabs.

Each skewer (soaked in water an hour prior to cooking time) fit four pieces of salmon and three folded lemon slices.  Once the kebabs were complete, I sprinkled each of them with a spice mixture of dried oregano, garlic salt, sea salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne and sesame seeds.

By this time, the oven timer was down to about 15 minutes remaining, so I went ahead and added the green bean bundles to the oven, and then started prepping my George Foreman GRV120GM Electric Contact Grill.  My grandparents bought me the grill a couple of years ago for Christmas, and we have gotten some serious use out of this sucker.  I constantly refer to the little manual it came with to see how long I need to grill different foods according to how well done I want them to be.  It's really quite convenient for those who love to grill, but don't want to combust outside during those sweltering Texas summers.  The grill takes all of five minutes to completely heat up, so I quickly threw on the kebabs, and they were done in four minutes.  

I did run into a slight issue when my kebabs were done, but sadly, the corn pudding was still pretty runny in the middle and the bacon around the green beans was still raw.  I rapidly fixed my mistake by turning the oven up to 400 degrees and letting each dish cook for about 10 more minutes.  That seemed to do the trick because everything tasted perfect and made for the perfect weeknight dinner.

*For full recipes, click the links I have provided in my post!

The Best Salsa Recipe Ever

For years upon years, I have wandered the earth searching for the perfect store-bought salsa.  Just recently, I realized there is no such thing.  Thanks to The Pioneer Woman, I learned that in order to put salsa in a jar, make sure it stays fresh and sell it in stores, it has to be preserved, typically using vinegar as a preservative.  YUCK!  I mean, I like vinegar in some things, but not my salsa.  That totally explains why I am never satisfied with store-bought salsa!  So again, thanks to that food goddess, The Pioneer Woman, I tripped upon an amazing recipe that I've been making now for almost a year.  I don't really use exact measurements, so it has a slightly different taste each time, but it still always turns out delicious, like a fresh, just-brought-to-the-table restaurant salsa.  

What you will need:

Blender

Can opener

1 can of whole tomatoes

1 can of Rotel (diced tomatoes & chilies)

Half of a medium-sized white onion, roughly chopped

Your choice of pepper --> I typically use 1-2 jalapenos, depending on their size

1-2 cloves of garlic --> I like LOTS of garlic, but you have control

Cilantro --> I am obsessed with cilantro, so I pretty much use 1 whole bushel (sans the stems)

1 tsp. sugar

Salt, pepper & cumin to taste

The instructions are simple:  Just throw it all in a blender and blend until you're happy.  I blend it up pretty good, but some people probably like their salsa a little on the chunkier side.  

That's one of the great things about homemade salsa...you have all the control.  If you wanna get creative and throw in some crazy extra ingredients, by all means, do it ya daredevil.  I have even made a green version of this salsa using canned tomatillos instead of canned whole tomatoes.  

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do, and remember, YOU have the power, my friends.

xoxo

Currently

Watching:  Gossip Girl, still.  I'm about halfway through season five, finally!  Hopefully I'll be all caught up by the time season six airs live on the CW next month.  And tonight is the much-anticipated season premiere of Boardwalk Empire.  I'm itching to see what Mister Nucky Thompson is up to now.

Eating:  Tonight I'm making spiced cod cakes and scalloped corn for dinner.  I made the corn dish for Christmas dinner at Jason's parents' last year, but this will be a trial-run on the cod cakes.  Here's hoping they turn out edible!

Anticipating:  Some possible upcoming changes.  Lately I've been feeling sort of stuck in one place, paralyzed, immobile and frustrated with the inability to make things better for myself.  As cliche as it sounds, life really is way too short to waste time not doing what makes you happy.  I've got to make some changes before I end up in that awful place I was in a few years ago.  On a more chipper note, I'm also eagerly awaiting my favorite time of year, Fall, as well as my favorite holiday, Halloween.  I've been exploring costume options.  As of now, I'm thinking either a sailor girl, a fortune teller (complete with crystal ball) or Olive Oil.  We shall see what I decide on.

Reading:  I finished The Hunger Games trilogy and was planning on diving into the Fifty Shades of Grey obsession, but I temporarily changed my mind and started Sourland by one of my favorite writers, Joyce Carol Oates.  It's a beautiful collection of short stories about death and darkness, just what I need for a little perk-up, huh? 

I think I'm in love with today.  It hasn't stopped raining.  I can't remember the last time it rained this much.  There's no better feeling of comfort than being indoors with the one you love while it's rainy and chilly outside.  Hope you all are enjoying your day as well.  Love and more love.

Pad Thai Recipe

Top of the evening, folks.  I thought I would take some time tonight to share one of my newest favorite recipes - Pad Thai.  This has always been one of my favorite dishes at Pei Wei and other various Asian restaurants, but I had never attempted to make it on my own, or any Asian dish really, until just recently.  The ingredients always seemed super foreign to me (duh) and I thought I would have to shop at specific little weird markets to find the stuff.  I mean, come on, what exactly is fish sauce?  It sounds, looks and smells disgusting, but when mixed with a bunch of other flavors, it's actually quite delish.

So, I'm going to share my personal recipe with you that I adapted from this base Pad Thai recipe I found on Allrecipes.com.  This recipe makes about four servings.

Pad Thai
Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 lb. total)
10 oz rice stick noodles (prepare as per package instructions)
olive oil
minced garlic
3 eggs
6 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
12 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp peanut butter
sesame oil
soy sauce
hoisin sauce
crushed red pepper
paprika
cayenne pepper

Toppings:
green onions
lime juice
cilantro
crushed peanuts

Instructions:
1.  Pour about 2 tbsp olive oil in a large stir fry skillet or wok, and saute chicken breasts with minced garlic until lightly browned and cooked through.  Remove chicken and set aside.
2.  Add about 1/4 cup olive oil to the skillet/wok, heat over medium-high heat and cook the eggs until firm.
3.  Chop the chicken into bite-size pieces and return to the skillet/wok.  Add prepared noodles, along with the rest of the ingredients to taste.  (Note:  This is definitely a taste as you go type of dish.  I just started throwing stuff in a little at a time until I achieved that taste I wanted.)
4.  Served in bowls and top with squeezed lime wedges, chopped green onions, cilantro and crushed peanuts.
5.  Enjoy!