The Television Show EVERY American MUST Watch

...is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It's an unapologetic (not exactly polite) look at how Americans eat. The first episode is available for free on Hulu.

Jamie's mantra is that every American family can eat delicious, healthy, inexpensive meals, and can the processed junk. Let's help prove Jamie right!

Here is the first episode: http://www.hulu.com/watch/136381/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-episode-101

Here is a link to Jamie's Food Revolution website: http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

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Ranch Dressing, Stepford Style

As Husband said, store-bought ranch dressing is "Gooey and tasteless."

I can do better. Much better.

Here's the ingredient list.

Mayonnaise

Sour Cream

Olive Oil

One (or two) small lemons.

Kosher salt (regular is fine)

Black pepper--fresh ground will provide a much sharper flavor

Onion

Garlic

Bell Peppers (I used red, yellow, green)

Fresh herbs (I used dill, basil, cilantro, and flat leaf parsley)

jalepeno (if you want)

Basically, you chop up whatever proportion of the veggies that you like, and stuff it in your food processor. Add the lemon, and pulse until it's kind of pasty, drizzling in some olive oil as you go.

Open the food processor, and dollop in equal amounts of the mayo and sour cream. Spin again until it's a fine paste. Add more olive oil or lemon juice (depending on taste) until it's thin enough to be a dressing. Or keep it thick for a dip. Whatever.

Sorry this recipe isn't very precise, but honestly it's up to your taste. You can also add things as you like to change the flavor.

Example: Greek Olives, feta cheese, fresh dill to make a greek dressing (maybe substitute some yogurt for the mayo or sour cream)

Cilantro, jalepeno, cumin, and tomatoes to make a fiesta(!) dressing.

Go crazy. Have fun. Don't buy your dressing from a store ever again.

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Orienteering, Take Two

Went orienteering again this weekend-- this time it was at Chico State Park in Louisiana. Competed in two different events.. The Motala, which is a bracket tournament-style event featuring successively shorter courses after each elimination. Somehow, managed to come in 5th place on this, which is amazing.

Even more amazing (To me, at least) is my first place finish on the classic course on Sunday. The husband finished first, too, on his course. How exciting!

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Orienteering...

So I went orienteering this Saturday. It was my first go at it-- Husband does it fairly regularly, so he dragged me along not-so-unwillingly.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, orienteering is basically running (in my case, walking, huffing, puffing, crawling, and trudging) through the woods with a map and a compass. The map shows a series of "Control points" which you have to go to in order. At the point, you punch a card with a pin puncher that makes a series of tiny pin-sized holes in the correct square of the punch card. More advanced courses use a nifty little electronic thumb pad.

Mostly due to my husband's insistence that the easiest course, White, was "for little kids", I was running the next easiest course, yellow. Again, I'm using the term "running" quite loosely.

As far as the actual map reading and locating skills went, I did fine. Didn't get lost, and only had a small amount of trouble finding one point.

As far as the physical skills required to walk 3-4 miles through woods that seem to predominately consist of steep hills... well, I wasn't quite prepared. I discovered this as I was clinging to the edge of a gully, frantically trying to scramble up as my fingers and feet slipped through the mud and grass.

I made it, though. Covered in mud, wheezing like an asthmatic octogenarian, and swearing that I was going to kill my husband, I came up over the last hill and enjoyed a leisurely (flat) walk to the last two control points.

The results haven't been posted yet, but I'm fairly certain that I placed first in my category owing to the fact that I was the only one in my category. If there was another 19-35 year old female running the yellow course, well, I didn't get first. I can just about guarantee that.

All in all, it was fun. I should probably be in much, much better shape, but I survived and finished, so that should be something at least. There's another meet in two weeks, but it's larger. The suggestion was made that perhaps I should run a white course this time around. I'm not arguing. Read More......

Something New to Love

Just arrived from our Netflix Queue: United States of Tara.
A half-hour showtime comedy about a woman with dissociative disorder, her family, and her three (later four) alternative selves. I'm crazy about the theme song; unfortunately, the whole song isn't available for download. The song is, incidentally, by Tim DeLaughter of Polyphonic Spree.

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King Cake!

In case anyone was wondering, this is what a King Cake looks like before all that colorful icing. It looks...kind of like bread. Which is pretty much what it is.





Anyway, the basic process is that you make the dough, roll it out into a rectangle about 6" by 30" -- the longer it is, the thinner it will end up being in the middle. You can tell that my cake is kind of fat. Then, you spread the filling out on top of the dough. I used cream cheese. Next year, I might put some chopped pralines on top of the cream cheese-- yum! If you don't like cream cheese, you can brush the rolled-out dough with butter, then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. It'll be like a great big cinnamon roll! After you spread the filling on top, you roll the dough long-wise, crimp the edges, then bring the roll together into a circle-- like you see above.


The exciting part is where it's iced, and I know you're eager to see the finished product:







Yummy! Get me a knife!







Here is a link to the recipe I use for my king cake. Keep in mind that you can do pretty much whatever you want with your filling. This would probably make pretty good cinnamon rolls if you used the cinnamon/sugar filling and made some cream cheese icing...

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/dessert/king-cake.html

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Football!! (A bit late)

Like everyone else in Louisiana, (or at least, like everyone else in Louisiana SHOULD have been), I was rooting on the Saints last Sunday.

Also, like everyone else in Louisiana, I spent most of the Sunday before the game making food. Lots and lots of food.

The menu included: Black and gold cupcakes (the black iced cupcakes were chocolate with white chocolate icing, and the gold-iced cupcakes were yellow cake with lemon icing), oatmeal white chocolate cookies, Twice baked potatoes, meat pies, chips and tomatillo salsa, and a cheese tray.

I've included pictures of the twice baked potatoes, cupcakes, and cookies, since those were the only things I actually made myself.

Today, I lucked out and found some Meyer lemons at Whole Foods, so I'll be making something with those... I'm also in the process of making a King Cake for Mardi Gras, so there will naturally be some pictures of that later, too.

One last note: for Valentines Day, the Husband got me a DVD of my Big Fat Greek Wedding, a Charm Bracelet from a cute little boutique here in town, and these:

Aren't they beautiful?

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