Pot Roast Gone Wrong

We've all seen it happen in the movies.  Girl invites everyone over for a huge turkey dinner, but girl forgets to turn the oven on and at the last minute the turkey, which is the main event, is discovered raw, cold, uncooked, chilling in the oven.

My mom did this a few times when I was a kid, but I had never done this before...seriously, 'forget' to turn on the oven, are you kidding me?

Go figure, for my thirtieth birthday I found myself making this very mistake....

When I was younger and I pictured myself as an adult, I pictured cooking a family style dinner for my friends once a week...we'd have a designated day that we would all gather around a home cooked meal, play games, drink wine, etc....

Now that I'm an adult I've come to terms with the fact that this would be a very expensive pastime, not to mention a huge logistical problem, trying to appease everyone's food likes and dislikes, and food allergies/odd diets would be a huge undertaking.  So instead I strive to do this only as my birthday celebration...

I like the challenge of cooking for a larger number of people, planning out the time that everything has to be done so that it is all ready at the right time, and inviting others to try some of the recipes that I've discovered.

This year I decided to go simple, just a simple pot roast with roasted with the classic potatoes, carrots, a couple types of bread, and strawberry lemonade smoothies...

Everything was going smoothly....I managed to make it to three grocery stores within the hour...got a 3.5 pound pot roast specially cut for me (three tresses to hold the darn thing together...and it barely fit in my dutch oven)...put it into the oven right on time....set an alarm to cut up the potatoes and carrots and add them to the oven an hour and a half before dinner...but when I went to add the veggies I discovered the oven was completely cool....I'd set the temperature but didn't turn the stupid thing on! To make matters worse, I had already set the dinner time a little late in the evening, so now, dinner wouldn't be ready until 10pm.


One by one as people arrived I broke the bad news "I'm so sorry, should we go out to eat or wait out the 3.5 slab of meat in the oven?"  They chose to wait it out (thank goodness...what would I do with all that food otherwise....we ate dessert first, played a game or two then delved into dinner....

However being that dinner was two hours later than I intended, I was a little short on food.....Everyone seemed happy with the meal, but there were no left overs which means everyone was probably a little ravenous and a little bit more of everything would have been better. C'est la vie.... I guess you can't win them all. 

Free for All at the Grocery Store

So last week I got a gift card to a organic grocery store, and I was hoping it would be a fun free for all.  Throwing anything and everything in the cart without a care, but instead I was a penny pincher.

This week I unexpectedly had my moment.  Everyone knows you should never shop at the grocery store when you are tired and hungry...I was tired and hungry and shopping at Whole Foods.  We found bing cherries, and bought them even though we already have sweet cherries in the fridge...but they were so beautiful, and they were bings (the BEST type of cherry that's only around for a small season).  Then we started  scooping out anything and everything from the self serve bins - dried mangoes (that taste kind of like fruit roll ups), cherry vanilla granola, unsalted cashews....

And candy, when your tired and hungry candy is a must.  We bought two different brands of peanut butter cups, some caramel cups....and THE BEST lemon pound cake from the bakery....

It was madness I tell you...but so much fun.  Blair would sheepishly say "I kind of want to try that," and I'd say "then get it, throw it in...I'll split it with you..."  Which was fun and all until I discovered that we spent almost $80 on random junk food.  NEVER go grocery shopping when your tired and hungry!  (Unless your prepared for the consequences.)

Kombucha

On our shopping spree at Natural Grocers we bought some locally made berry flavored kombucha.  I wanted to like it soooo bad since it's locally made, obscure, and bubbly (I seem to love anything bubbly), but I've got to say - not my cup of tea. It's got a strong vinegar taste, that's not bad, but not necessarily good either.

I will admit, I had no clue what kombucha was when I tried it.  The bottle we bought had no label what so ever, just a paper tag on the top of the bottle indicating what was inside. After scouring the internet, I think my hopes were misaligned with reality.

Kombucha is basically/fermented moldy tea. It looks like it originated in China, and according to wikipedia there are loose references to it being referred to as the "beverage with magical powers enabling people to live forever" all the way back in 206 BC....had I known that, I would have expected a sour stinky drink.

So why would someone want to drink a bubbly moldy tea that tastes like vinegar? According to wikipedia this stuff has hundreds of healing powers/health benefits.  Kombucha will:
- Detoxify the body and energize the mind
- Add in cancer recovery
- Increase energy
- Sharpen eyesight
- Aid in joint recovery
- Improve skins elasticity
- Aid in digestion
- Help keep foods like rice and pasta from "sticking" when eating

But, there is no research backing any of these claims, so buyer beware.


I also found it intriguing that just ten days ago Whole Foods pulled kombucha off their shelves because it may be an alcoholic drink.  They ferment the tea just like alcohol, and I guess .5% alcohol content is allowed as non-alcoholic, but they are suspecting the tea continued to ferment while it was shipping to the stores, meaning it could be up to 3% alcohol content, at which case it needs to be marketed and sold as alcohol.  (In Kansas this will be a big deal because they have all kinds of crazy laws about selling liquor - it can only be sold between 6am and midnight, if it's over 3.2% it can't be sold in a gas station or grocery store, etc.)  


According to articles on the net Whole Foods is currently in the process of testing all of their kombucha brands, but that was days ago, and I swear I was at Whole Foods just yesterday and saw a kombucha section in the refrigerated section...but I was unable to find any official statement from Whole Foods on the mater.  Maybe they were wrong and tried to remove all evidence of the questioning?  Who knows?

Regardless of the matter, bubbly fermented tea that is suppose to make me live forever, and may or may not get me buzzed sounds awesome.  (I just wish I liked the taste!)

If your interested in trying it, Whole Foods and Natrual Grocers both sell a brew that is made here in Kansas City "Local Bucha."  http://www.localbucha.com/Home.aspx  and I read that the BadSeed farmers market has some for sale too (I think I'm going to try their farm brew next).  Also note, according to Local Bucha's website, some batches are more acidic than others, and some are more bubbly than others, so maybe I'd like a milder batch?  The search will continue.

Natural Grocers

There's a new health food grocery store in town.  It's on Metcalf right in front of the large Whole Foods (where Boarders use to be).  I received a gift card to this place a week ago, so I was super excited to check it out.

The store has a huge assortment of health and beauty supplies (way better than Whole Foods in that category).  So if you looking for health pills, powders, oils, makeup, shampoos, etc. you need to check out this store, the prices are good and the assortment is wide.

For everything else, they seem to have a little bit of everything, a little bit of fresh fruit, a small amount of frozen foods, etc. (but it's so new, they may not be fully set up yet...the grocery part may get larger in time). For most things the price was better than Whole Foods, but I think Trader Joe's is cheaper on a lot of stuff (but Trader Joe's has their own brand, so it's not exactly apples to apples).

Out of the three health food stores - Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Natural Grocers - Trader Joe's is my favorite because their private brand is cheep and fantastic, but there is something to be said for TWO organic stores right next to each other.  Talk about convenient!

I was given a $75 gift card to Natural Grocers, so in my head my boyfriend and I were going to skip through the isles and throw in all sorts of strange new magical foods, and I'd buy them with my magic card without a care in the world, but I quickly snapped back to reality when I caught on that everything at Natural Grocers seems to be $5.  It's organic, green earth friendly, produced "the right way, not the cheap way," so even if its "cheap" it's still expensive compared to places like Walmart.  My dream of magically being able to buy anything and everything that our hearts could desire with that $75 gift card popped when we found a small box of cookies that we wanted (only eight cookies in the box) for $9! I instantly snapped "no way am I paying $9 for eight cookies!" Sigh, oh how wonderful it would be to not have to consider money...but we did buy quite a few more reasonably priced fun foods.

I hope the place does well, I think I will like having them around, especially for the health and beauty section. (I found a new shampoo that I'm in love with that's not sold at Whole Foods or Trader Joes, but it's cheap, smells fantastic, and doesn't have any 'bad' stuff in it).

P.S. If you go to Natural Grocers, bring your own bags or you'll have to buy bags.

The Kolache Factory - in Overland Park Kansas

Lately I’ve been on the look out for early morning restaurants.  Thanks to groupon, I found a new one to add to our list – The Kolache Factory.  Its way down south (135^th and Metcalf) but it opens at 6am every day but Sunday and they have great breakfast and lunch items.

So a kolache, in case you’re not in the know, is a type of pastry bread that holds fruit or meat.  They can be made into tiny little pie shapes with jam in the middle, or they are made into 2 or 3 inch balls filled with ham, steak, or some other kind of meat.  Since this is a bread based food, the restaurant also has cinnamon rolls, cinnamon twists, and a few other non-kolache pastries.

There are probably 25-30 different kolache’s to chose from, and for the most part they are all $1.39-$2.29...so it’s a pretty cheap meal, you only need two or three to fill up.  My boyfriend got the philly cheese steak kolache and a ham kolache (the philly one was our favorite).  I ordered a mild polish sausage (which was like a high end hot dog wrapped in their soft kolache bread – it was fantastic!) and a strawberry kolache (which was only ok – it was great bread, but the jam onto was only mediocre).

The place isn’t fancy, but it was fun to find something other than bagels, waffles, and doughnuts. 

Being Healthy(er)

Blair and I watched the documentary Unforked on netflix a few months ago, and the movie really moved me. I've always had slightly ill feelings towards vegan people, mainly because I've seen so many malnourished vegans. (Speaking of young adults). But this was a documentary that was arguing for a vegan lifestyle. Scientists talking about their strong beliefs that milk and meat are causing cancers and illnesses, and how they truly believed we should strive to live a life eating low processed whole foods.

Honestly what moved me the most was how beautiful their food looked. It really got me thinking about how difficult it is to "eat healthy." I'm pro food, I hate the idea of banning any food, so I'm never going to completely go vegan, but lets say you wanted to for one week eat only truly healthy foods. Could you do it? I don't think I know enough sin free, completely healthy recipes.

I know lots of pasta dishes, but there's the whole gluttony of starches, and I know how to cook any meat strait up, but there's the whole "how much is too much?"...so what should I be eating instead of pasta or meat?!?!

To answer this question Blair and I decided to buy the book that is tied to the movie, which has 125 recipes. We agreed to make all 125 recipes at least once no matter how scary they sound (and some of them are pretty frightening). We are marking each recipe with our rating of how much we liked it, and notes about what would make it better, or what tips would help next time we make the recipe.

Honestly, we seem to like the deserts and snacks the best, but hey, they are really good for you, and most munchies I eat are not "really good for you," so I still think it's a win. Plus it's a lot of fun cooking with all kinds of ingredients I've never used before. I'm hoping in the end I will have a couple dozen super healthy recipes that I will add to my weekly/monthly/yearly rotation.

So far our absolute favorite recipe is
Frozen Chocolate Banana Bon Bons:

(to make about 50 bon bons)
1/3 cup maple syrup (I use real maple syrup)
1/3 cup plant-based milk (I use real milk)
1/3 cup cocoa power
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 ripe bananas
2 cups of rolled oats (not the instant stuff)
and grape nuts to roll the stuff in

Puree everything except the oats and the grape nuts, stir in the oats, then scoop up a little ball of the mixture (bite sized balls) and drop it into a bowl of grape-nuts and cover on all sides (it will be pretty sloppy, covering it in grape-nuts is kind of what holds it together), then place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper…freeze the entire pan, them move them into a tubberware dish of some sort.

After they are deeply frozen, 5 minutes of thawing can help soften them a little, but they are so yummy…they fulfill chocolate cravings, as well as ice cream cravings.

Oh no!

I have THOUSANDS of superstitions in the kitchen...
- If I cook chicken, every utensil goes directly in the dishwasher, and whatever surface came in contact with the container gets sprayed with bleach
- If anything gets put in the sink, it does not get used again
- Don't cross contaminate your butter, jelly, etc
- When ever using a wooden cutting board I try to clean it asap so bacteria doesn't have time to grow

I could go on and on about my kitchen beliefs. I'm constantly gasping at my boyfriends laid back attitude "Don't do that, are you nuts?!?!" My favorite of these was his genius idea of cooking hot dogs in the toaster...it actually sounds brilliant, until you get the the part about cleaning up. You just cooked a meat in that little metal box, how do you disinfect it?  But I will say, you can buy a specialty toaster made specifically for cooking hot dogs, so he's not the only one that thinks toasters and hot dogs go hand in hand.


Anyway, the reason I mention all my paranoia's is that I just read an article that tops anything I've ever seen - salmon cooked in your dishwasher - published by Real Simple Magazine!  In case your not cringing at this idea, think about how poisonous dish soap is. Just a tiny bit is enough to give a person diarrhea.  Dishwashers have all kinds of strange build up in the corners, bacteria and soap, and now they are suggesting cooking fish in that...YUCK!

Here's the link to "Bob Blumer's Dishwasher Salmon Recipe." -- And if you have the guts to try this recipe, please, please, please, let me know....I wont judge you I promise. 
*mustering best angel face possible*
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/cooking/bob-blumers-dishwasher-salmon-recipe-00000000022899/index.html?xid=yshi-RS-062012-dishwasher-uses