You can't miss them: Cupcakes. They popped up everywhere a few years ago, and people are crazy about them! Who can blame them? Cupcakes are cute, clever, guilt-light (because they are portion-controlled, but really, I live by the mantra "These are small, so I can eat more"), and just plain fun! There are entire little shops devoted to specialty cupcakes. I've eaten strange, strange flavors in the last few years, mostly delicious, but there is only so much chocolate and chili or lavender and lemon can do together in a dessert. Cupcakes are also cheap, which, in my humble opinion, has helped maintain their trendiness. Well, move over cupcake.
Hotdogs: I have eaten them (I thought) in every way imaginable. Beanie-weenies (gross, I might add), corndogs (ok, shockingly delicious even in adulthood), pigs in a blanket, little smokies simmered all day in a crockpot of BBQ-sauce love (also gross, but people love those things), grilled, camp-fired, boiled, microwaved and even cold out of the fridge. I've never been all that crazy about them, but I can get behind this new trend because, like the cupcake, it's all about fun. And it also takes something beloved to the next culinary level. And, cheap, cheap, cheap! Check out this fun hotdog party:
http://www.hwtm.com/themes/everyday_parties/memorial_day_summer_bbq/tabletop
If you'd asked me 10 years ago what coleslaw goes with, I would have said the little corner pocket on a partitioned picnic plate; delicious but not a team player. Now, I'm pumped to try it with some other fun stuff on hotdogs. The Carolina Dog with Chili, Coleslaw, onions and mustard sounds insane.
This is the start of a revolution, people, I can feel it.
Again, feeling inspired (although with no party in my immediate future) I forged some gourmet dogs for lunch at the Riley house this week.
Philly Cheesesteak Dogs
Grilled hotdogs (this is important-all other cooking methods for hotdogs are inferior)
Toasted buns (I tried to make this healthy, so we did turkey dogs and whole wheat buns, which I toasted on the grill the last couple minutes)
Sliced onions and green peppers
Melty white cheese, I used Swiss
Mustard
MMMMMMMMM sounds (also an important ingredient)
To cut the cooking out of this recipe completely, I wrapped the onions and green bell peppers in a foil packet and grilled those, too. Bye-bye hot kitchen, hello delicious.
So, once everything is grilled to perfection (I could have done the peppers and onions a lot longer, say 15-20 minutes in the foil pack) assemble bun, add grilled dog, top with cheese (I was so hungry I got distracted and forgot this part, but I feel confident it would be delicious) then top with onions and peppers then a good dose of mustard, or if you're Andy, Ketchup (also, just gross.) Then add the MMMMMMMMM sounds and enjoy!
Similarly, The Cubano Dog
Substitute bread and butter pickles for the onions and peppers (or add to onions and peppers, equally delicious) and even more melted Swiss cheese.
Feel free to say "Delicioso" in your best Cuban accent for affect.
Coming soon: The Riley Garden 2.0. We've learned from our mistakes, and we're back for more homegrown action. Things are just starting to really look like more than dirt, so I'll have pictures soon.
Stay cool,
Kelli
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Cool treats for summer time
Now that we've soared over 100 degrees, it's summer, June 21st or not. Feeling clever for owning my own ice cream maker, I set to work.
Melon Sherbet
4 cups melon, cubed. I used 3 cups cantaloupe and 1 cup of watermelon
3/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream (normally I use something lighter, like fat-free 1/2 & 1/2, but hey, life's short)
2/3 cup sugar (I did only a fuzz under 1/2 cup and it was perfect with the sweet ripe melon)
Blend melon (I discovered it was easiest if you load the watermelon first, then then the cantaloupe because of the water content. Maybe your blender is more industrial-strength than mine). Feeling too lazy to wash extra dishes, I added all the other ingredients to the blender and gave it a quick whirl.Then pour into the ice cream maker according to directions. No ice cream maker? Try freezing it in a cake pan for 3-5 hours, then scraping it with a fork to get a more shaved-ice style treat.
If you've ever had a melon paleta from one of those little Mexican push-cart Popsicle vendors, this is like that, only better.
While I was feeling inspired, I whipped up another cool dish. I swiped the idea from a show I watched over the weekend with my friend Molly called "Mexican Made Easy."
Cucumber and Radish Salad
1 medium to large cuke, thinly sliced (peeled if you prefer)
5-6 medium radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 cup (good size handful) chopped cilantro and/or fresh mint (I was going to do both, but it was pouring buckets so I was not going to chance it running to the garden for mint.)
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Toss cukes and radishes in a medium bowl. Add cilantro/mint. In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and olive oil and a pinch of salt. Taste, then add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over cukes and radishes. Chill until ready to serve, up to 4 hours. I had some of the leftovers the next day, and while tasty, the radishes turned the dressing and cukes pink, which grossed Andy out. Your call.
Stay tuned for my next post "Why Hotdogs are the new Cupcake"
Melon Sherbet
4 cups melon, cubed. I used 3 cups cantaloupe and 1 cup of watermelon
3/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream (normally I use something lighter, like fat-free 1/2 & 1/2, but hey, life's short)
2/3 cup sugar (I did only a fuzz under 1/2 cup and it was perfect with the sweet ripe melon)
Blend melon (I discovered it was easiest if you load the watermelon first, then then the cantaloupe because of the water content. Maybe your blender is more industrial-strength than mine). Feeling too lazy to wash extra dishes, I added all the other ingredients to the blender and gave it a quick whirl.Then pour into the ice cream maker according to directions. No ice cream maker? Try freezing it in a cake pan for 3-5 hours, then scraping it with a fork to get a more shaved-ice style treat.
If you've ever had a melon paleta from one of those little Mexican push-cart Popsicle vendors, this is like that, only better.
While I was feeling inspired, I whipped up another cool dish. I swiped the idea from a show I watched over the weekend with my friend Molly called "Mexican Made Easy."
Cucumber and Radish Salad
1 medium to large cuke, thinly sliced (peeled if you prefer)
5-6 medium radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 cup (good size handful) chopped cilantro and/or fresh mint (I was going to do both, but it was pouring buckets so I was not going to chance it running to the garden for mint.)
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Toss cukes and radishes in a medium bowl. Add cilantro/mint. In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and olive oil and a pinch of salt. Taste, then add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over cukes and radishes. Chill until ready to serve, up to 4 hours. I had some of the leftovers the next day, and while tasty, the radishes turned the dressing and cukes pink, which grossed Andy out. Your call.
Stay tuned for my next post "Why Hotdogs are the new Cupcake"
Friday, June 17, 2011
A mouse in the house
You all know how many fun adventures our kitty, Marcelle, brings to our lives. Last summer, we discovered that mice climb the rain downspout up to our 2nd story deck and, having brains the size of peanuts, decide that is a good place to hang out. Our cat spends hours on the deck watching the birds, soaking in the sun, and now, hunting. The other night, I was getting ready to call it a day and climb in bed. Marcelle was on the deck, and pawing at the door to come back inside. "Perfect timing," I thought, since I was ready to wind down. I let her in, turned off the TV, and the lights, and then heard crashing and banging coming from the kitchen. I turned and saw my cat leap across the kitchen floor cheetah-after-a-gazelle-style and thought "crap."
It didn't even occur to me to start checking her chops again for "guests". After the first time last summer that this had happened, I'd been so diligent about making her open her mouth and say "Ah" before letting her in the house. Now I'd have to delay bedtime and get the new friend out of my apartment.
It didn't take long for Marcelle to get bored of flipping the mouse in the air, chasing it and then re-capturing and re-releasing it before she wanted to show me how grateful she was. She picked it up by a hind foot and dropped it in my shoe. Once I saw that it was hunkered down by the toe of my sneaker, I put on oven mitts, grabbed the shoe, and headed for the door. Just as I was opening the door, the mouse leaped from the shoe and scurried under the couch. Marcelle was elated, and I was annoyed.
I stood and watched my genius cat focus on the couch while I thought up my next plan of attack. Just then, the mouse skittered out the back side of the couch and down my hallway toward the bazillion places to hide in our bedrooms, closets and bathroom. Marcelle, meanwhile, couldn't be convinced that the mouse was no longer under the couch and just looked at me like "Shut up, I'm working!" as I tried to show her it had gone down the hall and even picked her up and dropped her near its last known location. I was on my own.
Deciding the oven mitts were definitely insufficient now that the mouse was on the ground, I added a pair of knee-high rubber rain boots. These aided my courage greatly as I went from corner to corner kicking the mountain of stuff we have on our floors (which, oddly, I'd never noticed before I had to search our home for a mouse the size of a circus peanut) hoping to flush the little monster out.
It was 103 degrees on this particular day, and I therefore did not last long at wearing oven mitts and rain boots while working up a sweat running and kicking. I decided to call someone decidedly more seasoned in these matter than myself: Dad.
He said, "Go down to 7-Eleven and buy some old-fashioned mouse traps and put peanut butter on them." I informed him I had a mouse trap; it just turned out to be the catch-and-release variety. He got a hearty chuckle out of my joke and said there was nothing else that could be done. I was exhausted, and Andy was expected home any time, so I decided to roll my bed a foot away from the wall, take my rain boots to bed, and see if a better solution came to me in the morning.
Andy then spent the wee hours of the morning researching, and evidently equally uninterested in going to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night, came up with this:
Bucket
wire with pop can threaded on it suspended over center of bucket like a log-rolling competition
peanut butter on can
ramp, yes, ramp up to the top of the bucket
Then, in theory, the mouse goes up the ramp, jumps on to the can to get the PB, slips or rolls of the can and falls in the bucket. Andy said, "Now what you put in the bottom of the bucket is up to you. Maybe you're humane and put food and some shredded paper down there; maybe you put 3 inches of water." I accused him of created "Rodent Abu Ghraib", but decided the mouse could only be tortured if it actually fell for the trap. The thing is still in my kitchen, now a week later, and still no mouse.
I'm sleeping fine believing it found a hole in the wall and left of its own accord. Or that my cat ingested it. Either of those two options is totally viable, right?
More on our latest, greatest adventures soon.
All my love,
Kelli
It didn't even occur to me to start checking her chops again for "guests". After the first time last summer that this had happened, I'd been so diligent about making her open her mouth and say "Ah" before letting her in the house. Now I'd have to delay bedtime and get the new friend out of my apartment.
It didn't take long for Marcelle to get bored of flipping the mouse in the air, chasing it and then re-capturing and re-releasing it before she wanted to show me how grateful she was. She picked it up by a hind foot and dropped it in my shoe. Once I saw that it was hunkered down by the toe of my sneaker, I put on oven mitts, grabbed the shoe, and headed for the door. Just as I was opening the door, the mouse leaped from the shoe and scurried under the couch. Marcelle was elated, and I was annoyed.
I stood and watched my genius cat focus on the couch while I thought up my next plan of attack. Just then, the mouse skittered out the back side of the couch and down my hallway toward the bazillion places to hide in our bedrooms, closets and bathroom. Marcelle, meanwhile, couldn't be convinced that the mouse was no longer under the couch and just looked at me like "Shut up, I'm working!" as I tried to show her it had gone down the hall and even picked her up and dropped her near its last known location. I was on my own.
Deciding the oven mitts were definitely insufficient now that the mouse was on the ground, I added a pair of knee-high rubber rain boots. These aided my courage greatly as I went from corner to corner kicking the mountain of stuff we have on our floors (which, oddly, I'd never noticed before I had to search our home for a mouse the size of a circus peanut) hoping to flush the little monster out.
It was 103 degrees on this particular day, and I therefore did not last long at wearing oven mitts and rain boots while working up a sweat running and kicking. I decided to call someone decidedly more seasoned in these matter than myself: Dad.
He said, "Go down to 7-Eleven and buy some old-fashioned mouse traps and put peanut butter on them." I informed him I had a mouse trap; it just turned out to be the catch-and-release variety. He got a hearty chuckle out of my joke and said there was nothing else that could be done. I was exhausted, and Andy was expected home any time, so I decided to roll my bed a foot away from the wall, take my rain boots to bed, and see if a better solution came to me in the morning.
Andy then spent the wee hours of the morning researching, and evidently equally uninterested in going to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night, came up with this:
Bucket
wire with pop can threaded on it suspended over center of bucket like a log-rolling competition
peanut butter on can
ramp, yes, ramp up to the top of the bucket
Then, in theory, the mouse goes up the ramp, jumps on to the can to get the PB, slips or rolls of the can and falls in the bucket. Andy said, "Now what you put in the bottom of the bucket is up to you. Maybe you're humane and put food and some shredded paper down there; maybe you put 3 inches of water." I accused him of created "Rodent Abu Ghraib", but decided the mouse could only be tortured if it actually fell for the trap. The thing is still in my kitchen, now a week later, and still no mouse.
I'm sleeping fine believing it found a hole in the wall and left of its own accord. Or that my cat ingested it. Either of those two options is totally viable, right?
More on our latest, greatest adventures soon.
All my love,
Kelli
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
10 Steps to Understanding the Law Student in Your Life
Life at NYU Law » 10 Steps to Understanding the Law Student in Your Life
Click on this link (the part above that starts "Life at NYU") to see everything I wish you (and I) had known about law school before I started!
I so wish I could take credit for this, but thank you to the clever NYU Law student who sums it all up. And thank you to all my loved ones who've supported me, even without the insights of this helpful primer, and to all my dear friends here at law school for the interventions, the commiseration and the weekly baked goods.
This seemed like the perfect sendoff into my 5-day vacation!
Kelli
Click on this link (the part above that starts "Life at NYU") to see everything I wish you (and I) had known about law school before I started!
I so wish I could take credit for this, but thank you to the clever NYU Law student who sums it all up. And thank you to all my loved ones who've supported me, even without the insights of this helpful primer, and to all my dear friends here at law school for the interventions, the commiseration and the weekly baked goods.
This seemed like the perfect sendoff into my 5-day vacation!
Kelli
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