Orange You Glad I Didn't Say "Green?"

I've always told people I'm not a fan of bell peppers. First of all, I really just don't like the flavor, but I also don't like America's obsession with "roasted red peppers." Yes, they have the bell pepper taste I don't particularly enjoy, but they almost always come on things that would be 100% better if by "roasted red peppers" they meant "sun dried tomatoes." I can't tell you how many times I've been out to eat with people and the ordering process goes something like this:
Friend: "What are you getting? I can't decide. Oh, this looks good."
Me: "Yeah, I saw that too; that does look good. I just really don't like roasted red peppers. I wish they were sun dried tomatoes instead."
Friend: "Oh! They're not? I literally read that and saw sun dried tomatoes anyway. That's what I thought I'd be getting. Oh well. It should be good anyway."

Because, you see, people like bell peppers. So to them, it's not the end of the world when a tomato is really a pepper. That being said, dear restaurants: why not just use tomatoes?!

Anyway, that was a good rant, but the point is that I may be weird in not liking bell peppers, but I know I'm not weird in specifically not liking GREEN bell peppers. They DO have a distinct taste and I know plenty of people like them, but plenty of people don't! Hence the origin of my title. I have discovered that I like, wait for it, orange bell peppers! Isn't that crazy? I know, some people thing they all, even the green ones, taste the same, but I beg to differ and I think they're all gross except for the orange ones. And probably the yellow ones since I'm pretty sure they're the same thing, just different shades of orangey yellow.
So, the other night I was feeling like an "I swear, I'm not anorexic" vegetarian (you know the type) because it was 9:30, I hadn't eaten dinner, knew I needed to, wasn't hungry, and hadn't had a fruit or vegetable in approximately 4 days. So, per usual, I rummaged, and found an orange bell pepper. That's ALL I found or I wouldn't have even gone where I'm about to go. I said to myself, "ok, I can handle this. All I need is some ranch--a LOT of ranch--and I won't even care about the bell pepper." Well, there was no ranch. Only Asian sesame vinaigrette and Caesar. ASV wasn't going to be potent enough so I went with the Caesar. Like always, a pretty plate is always going to taste better than an ugly mess, so I prepared the bell pepper by slicing it into narrow pieces, lining them up on a long rectangular plate, and then I drizzled Caesar and olive oil on top. I also sprinkled on some cracked pepper and some chili flakes.
To my surprise, it was delicious, and if I didn't love bacon so much, I might have become an "I swear I'm not anorexic" vegetarian that night. Oh well. Maybe I'll sprinkle bacon on top next time. Win win.


Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Netflix is for the Weak

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Sometimes, When I Get Nervous...I make a casserole.

SPRING BREAK 2013!!!! And I'm making casseroles. Why hasn't anyone called Girls Gone Wild yet?
This week is spring break and I just decided to come home and spend time with my family (slash hang out with my recently acquired FUTURE HUSBAND but shhhh he doesn't know yet). Everyone (my mom) in Charlotte, however, either has a job (my mom)(and MY FUTURE HUSBAND), a boyfriend (my mom), or goes to bed really early (my mom. and my grandmother), so I found myself coming home from my favorite cafe at around 9:30 feeling terribly bored and lonely. I really like having the house to myself, obvi, but last night my brain was just not having it, so I detoured to the grocery store to get some ingredients for my typical lonely girl fix: the casserole. I know, casseroles are for second-time bachelors, post-ICU patients, and the women of the fifties, but what do they all have in common? These people are the pitied, and by golly if I wasn't throwing a little pity party myself. So, casserole it was. I rallied up the fixins and I was outta there. My oven was preheated in no time, and I was soon-to-be lonely no more.

Ingredients:
Assorted veggies. I bought one bag of assorted baby carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower and one bag of Brussels sprouts. It totaled 3-4 cups.
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 to 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, depending on how much you like them and how many you can get your hands on. I like the dry ones that come in a bag, not the ones stored in oil.
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Olive oil, Lawry's seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, chili flakes, and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice your veggies so they all have a flat side. I'll cut my cauliflower and broccoli into thirds and my carrots and Brussels sprouts in halves. Toss them in enough olive oil so they are thinly but evenly coated, add some of your spices to taste, and pop em in the oven on a cookie sheet. Stir occasionally.
While those are sizzlin, heat up a pan on medium with some olive oil and chop up your onion and garlic. Put the onion and garlic in the hot pan with about a teaspoon of Lawry's and any other spices you'd like. You really just want the garlic to be cooked; you're not trying to caramelize the onions. Remove from heat.
Take out your veggies when the edges are brown or even slightly (ever so slightly) blackened.
On the cookie sheet, mix in your onion concoction and your tomatoes. Let the mixture cool just to the point that you can touch the food without having to throw it down screaming. Mix in about 2/3 of your cheese. That's 1/3 a cup I think. Pour it all into a casserole dish and top with the rest of your cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Using your finger, push any protruding sun dried tomatoes to just below the surface of the cheese. Sun dried tomatoes tend to burn in the direct exposure to the heat.
Everything is cooked, so baking is only a matter of the cheese melting and the top crisping. Just check on it and take it out when it looks good, kinda like my picture below! (Though this is actually of the next day, heated up in a smaller dish.)

Casseroles are your friend; pitied you are not!

Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Forever 21

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST ROOMIE/BIFFLE/SOULMATE EVER!!!

Today is my girl Kelsey's 21st birthday FINALLY. I'm so excited. So I made her this cake. It's based on a scene from a premonition I had last night. Here we come.

Icing is butter/cream cheese icing with not enough yellow food coloring, and cake is dark chocolate fudge from a box, 'cause that's how I roll.
I rubbed a thin thin layer of icing on the mini bottle and on Barbie's bod to make the "confetti" stick.
To write with icing, just put your icing in one corner of a zip lock bag, tape up the corner to make it a little thicker, then cut off a teeny weeny point of the corner to make a hole. This is cheaper and more customizable than one of those piping tools that bakers use. Super easy and makes you look like you know what you're doing.

Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Que Syrah Syrah

It was only a matter of time before I fell in love with wine. Allow me to introduce you to wine jelly. My new go-to for big kid party contributions in my new big kid life. At least, that's how I look at it. In contrast to most of my other recipes, this is less inspired by another dish and really more of a copy. Like my sausage balls, however, I did not have the full recipe (but this time because America's Test Kitchen wants my money), so I had to figure it out. Pretty sure I did.

Ingredients:
One bottle of red wine, falling anywhere between crappy and vintage.
3 1/4 granulated sugar
Pectin powder (I think around 2 T, but sprinkle it in until a film forms between stirs)
3 T lemon juice
1 pat of butter

Pour about 1 cup of your wine into a small saucepan and reduce it (at a simmer/low boil) for 15-20 minutes. In a separate, larger pot, pour the rest of the wine and put it on medium-high heat. It needs to be warm enough to dissolve the sugar. Which is added next. Slowly add the sugar in increments and stir to make sure it is dissolving. After you've added all the sugar, pour in your lemon juice. Bring the wine mixture to a low boil and sprinkle in the pectin. The pectin will not dissolve (in fact it will form waxy clumps) unless the wine is boiling. Once it is dissolved, however, you can turn the eye down and add your pat of butter. This is to prevent a foamy layer from forming on the surface of the wine. If there is still foam build up, add a little more butter. There certainly isn't ever such a thing as too much butter. After you have reduced the heat, a film should form on the surface of the liquid, and there might even be a gel-like build up on the sides of the pot. Finally, stir in the reduced wine that has been simmering in the small saucepan. Remove the mixture from heat, and immediately pour into the container you plan to store your jelly in. Allow the jelly to refrigerate for 24 hours. Depending on the amount of pectin your "film" required, it could take only a few hours, and strangely enough warm jelly is kind of delicious.

Serving suggestion: 

Serve with crackers (I like Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits or these awesome Raisin Rosemary Crisps I found at Trader Joes) and a stinky cheese. If you like bleu cheese, try that--or a creamy gorgonzola. I'm not a huge fan of bleus though, so I went with a goat cheese brie. I love goat cheese, and I think brie goes really well with wine, and I was lucky enough to find a combo cheese at Trader Joes. Delish. You probably won't even need dinner.

Until your time again finds mine,

Julia

But...What are Leftover Solo Cups?

So I was recently inspired by a pin. Typical, I know. Well I have an apartment for the first time in my life and as any avid pinner and future perfect housewife would be, I'm obsessed with new ways to decorate. I don't always follow through with my/Pinterest's ideas, but when I do.. man am I good. Anyway I was feeling patriotic after seeing the pin above, so I decided to try it myself. Who doesn't want the Fourth of July on their door all year round?!

Other than finding white solo cups, this craft was super fun and super easy!

All you need:

Red, white, and blue solo cups

Twine

A power drill. Or if your lame and not accident prone, a sharp knife. 

A paper clip

Enough patriotic ribbon to hang the wreath on your door

First, I just drilled a hole in the bottom of every cup.

You would not believe how gratifying it is to drill through a thin piece of plastic.

Next, I made a nifty little needle by reshaping a paper clip and weaving the twine through the loop I made at the top. Using the needle, I threaded the twine through every cup in the pattern red-white-red-white and a blue streak that is 1/3 the length of the red/white pattern, or 1/4 of the total length of the wreath. 

When you have strung all the cups together (number of cups will vary by the size of your door. I used about 35), space them into a loose stack lying on its side and then slowly work the stack into a circle. I had some trouble with this, but after a few minutes they all just snapped into place quite easily. 

I haven't hung it up yet because I'm not back at my apartment for another few days, but I can't wait! Perfect for college.. hope it doesn't get stolen!!

Until your time again finds mine,

Julia

Imitation is the Sincerest form of Flattery

Since my freshman year, I have been taking the occasional weekend vacay to my friend Caleb's house with a few of our other friends. He has seriously the best house ever, and accommodations aside, he also has the best family! I love them all, I really do, but if I had to pick my favorite thing about Caleb's house, it would have to be his mom's cooking. I could die. Everything she makes.....I can't even put words to how good it is. A couple things are so good that I may or may not dream about them on a weekly basis. So I decided to use my free time this winter break to make some of those fab items. Well I'll just tell you right now I failed miserably at making her biscuits. They are out of this world and I couldn't even make something that could compete with Bisquick. Not even something that could be a debatable failed attempt at making Bisquick biscuits. I'm not kidding. So I may or may not have given up on the whole biscuit thing. At least for now. I think I'll have to eat some more before I can try again... So the next trial was for her yummy yummy sausage balls. They are better than yours. Better than Pinterest's. The. Best. Ever. And I made them! Not as good, of course, but close--if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:
1 brick of Neese's Hot Sausage (trust me, use hot.)
1 bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Bisquick (I know.)
>>It took me MANY trials to get this recipe right, so I'm not exactly sure how much Bisquick, but if you do the sausage and cheese first, add enough Bisquick to make a sticky dough consistency. Each of my batches tasted different (more bread-y, more sausage-y, more cheesy) but they were all good.
Optional: chili flakes, and any other spices if you're feelin' spicy.

I used a KitchenAid mixer and honestly I'm not sure if I could have made this without one. Sad truth.

Anyway, if you have a KitchenAid, or you are up for an arm workout, here's what you do.
Preheat oven to 375º.


Mix up the sausage by itself just to soften it out of its brick shape. Add the cheese. I added a sprinkle of chili flakes because I like my sausage balls a little hot! Then, simply roll the dough-like mixture into small balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. This will help wick the grease away so that the balls can have a better texture and become crispy. If you have a Le Creuset baking dish, that will do the job even better, but it's about $40 more than parchment paper, so... your choice. Bake until golden brown and bubbly.

Immediately transfer them to a paper towel to absorb the final drips of grease. Make sure you eat them warm! So addictive. You'll see.

Until your time again finds mine, 

Julia

Omelette, Anyone?

I know it sounds crazy, but some schools have reallyyy good cafeteria food! My school has really good.... books. The DH, for dining hall, as we call it, has improved drastically since I arrived my freshman year, and wow does it still stink. Bad food or worse food, however, they have a mean breakfast squad. Moreover, they make the best omelettes. DH omelettes made me like omelettes! I always get egg whites with onion, bacon, and mozzarella. Ok, so their ingredients aren't of the widest variety. But that's why it's so fun to take recipes home! Only problem is, omelettes aren't exactly the easiest things to make. First of all, you need some badass teflon, and as a broke college kid, I simply don't have access to such luxuries. What I do have is a kind of okay teflon muffin tin. Let me tell you--not as random and useless as it sounds. May I introduce you to.........

THE MUFFIN TIN OMELETTE! 

You will need:

A pack of deli ham (you can use prosciutto or something nicer than deli ham, but like I said, broke.)

Diced onion (your favorite kind. Mine is yellow.)

Chopped chives (or scallions. They're tastier, but a little big for the muffin tin.)

Eggs

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350º. 

Line your muffin tin with one slice of ham in each hole and then crack an egg into each "ham cup." Then, simply sprinkle your toppings (cheese, onion, and chives) into the cups/onto the egg. Pop 'em in the oven, and pull 'em out when the eggs are cooked to your liking! You can test their done-ness by jiggling the tin with an oven mitt or tongs. You definitely want the egg white part to be white, as opposed to translucent, but other than that, the choice is yours! As are the toppings, of course!

YUM! Happy breakfast!

Until your time again finds mine,

Julia