Nordic Ware Easter Cookie Sheets

Um, are you ready to be jealous or what?

Okay, so I've been wanting some new cookie sheets for a while.  My mother-in-law has these really nice cookie sheets, and they're stainless steel and they're all the same size and she has four of them so that she can more easily bake oodles of cookies.  My cookie sheets, with the exception of one nice Calphalon one, were all busted and gross and mismatched, and I really liked Matt's mom's idea.

But I also didn't want to throw down buckets of money on cookie sheets that were totally a want and not a need.

But then last week I saw these at Target*, and it was pretty clear to me that the cookie sheets had left the want column and entered the need column.  And then, lucky for me, a pretty fantastic former roommate got them for me for my birthday.

Aren't they beautiful?  

*I couldn't find these online, but they are currently at Target along with some other Nordic Ware Easter stuff, and they're only $10/each.  They also have some cute bundt and muffin pans in the same color scheme.

Norpro, You Owe Me a Steak.

So, last week I decided that I needed a new meat thermometer.  We already had one that we'd registered for, but it's digital, and the battery is beginning to die, and it's hard to read.  I decided that I wanted one with a dial, because then I wouldn't have to keep replacing meat thermometers every few years.  Simple enough.

When we were downtown last week celebrating our anniversary, we stopped in this super cute little kitchen store.  Great store. Love it.  The store carried meat thermometers, so we got this one, the Norpro Instant Read Meat Thermometer.

Easy enough.

And then later that day we went to Fresh Market and spent $30 on two gigantic ribeyes (guess we should have been a little more choosy about weight), because that's our go-to celebration meal.  Mmmmmmmmm. 

Now, the steaks were enormous, so big that we only ate one that night.  It was almost like I put half a cow on a cast iron skillet (moooooooooooo!), so I knew that they'd take longer to cook than a steak that was portioned for a normal human.  We saw this as a perfect opportunity to use the new meat thermometer.

And we checked it several times and the steak was taking forever to cook.  WTF?  But we chocked that up to the steak being so big.  We never thought that our brand new pretty thermometer would be defective, or that it would say the steak was at 90 degrees when really it was at 180. 

But it was, and our steak ended up being super well done, and now Norpro owes me a $15 Hereford ribeye from Fresh Market.  Is there a number I can call to get that?

So this week I took back the thermometer and suddenly had $8 to spend in the store.  Could I have just taken the eight dollars and put it back in my wallet?  Yeah.  But then it wouldn't have been as fun, and what was I going to get with $8?  Buy gas?  Soda? 

Neither gas nor soda come close to being as fun as what I bought: awesome cookie cutters for making dog treats (or human treats, I suppose) and cat treats.  I actually bought the dinosaurs to give to Cassie, but decided to use them first before giving them to her, because that's what Emily Post says you should do.

Are you kidding me right now? 

A mouse??

Dinosaurs? 

And  how can I forget my old favorite, the squirrel?

Hell yeah!

But, seriously.  Norpro owes me a $15 steak.

I Scream, You Scream

I'm really against buying stuff for the kitchen that's too gadgety, or too big, or that only serves one purpose. It's my belief that if you're going to purchase something for the kitchen that falls into one of these categories, then it needs to be something that will get a lot of use. So, depending on what you like and what you use, certain exceptions could be made.

The ice cream maker was one of these exceptions for me. I've been jonesin' for one since last summer, when I was reading recipe after recipe for delicious homemade ice cream. I resisted, though, because 1.) I was already completely enamored with the Kitchen Aid mixer, and I was therefore getting fatter by the second, and 2.) I didn't know if I would use it that much.  I passed on it last summer, but this summer couldn't get it out of my mind.  When I saw this recipe for strawberry ice cream brownie cupcakes I knew that the ice cream maker had left the "want" column and entered the "need" column.   (I also pretended that I would make things like sorbet and other healthy snacks with it.  Pfffffffft.)

So yesterday I indulged, printed out a B3 coupon, and went shopping.  And here she is, Alma, our new ice-cream making child.  I  had considered buying the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment, but it was more expensive, would require patience because I'd have to wait for shipping, and I wasn't sure that it would fit my extremely old (but awesome) mixer.

I was debating which type of ice cream to make first.  I narrowed it down to two different flavors, strawberry and chocolate peanut butter.  Matt's mom advised me well, I think, when she suggested that I go with the strawberry since the berries are perishable.  So I did.  I actually used the same ice cream recipe from the strawberry ice cream brownie cupcakes courtesy of Annie's Eats.

It's possible that I neglected to consider the aeration factor of the ice cream process, and that my ice cream runnethed over.  Could be worse, right?

And after hours of planning and churning and licking spatulas (I dirtied five in the process) and dropping ice cream into my phone and onto my freshly-mopped floor, I had a little bowl of heaven.  It's creamy and rich.  The strawberries are like little frozen candies.  I'm salivating thinking about it.

Strawberry Ice Cream (from Annie's Eats)


Strawberry Ice Cream


Ingredients:


2 cups fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed and sliced


3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice


1 cup sugar, divided


1 cup whole milk


2 cups heavy cream


1 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions:


Combine the strawberries with the lemon juice and 1/3 cup of sugar; stir gently and allow the strawberries to macerate in the juices for 2 hours.
In another bowl, use a hand mixer to combine the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream, the vanilla and any accumulated juices from the strawberries.

Turn on your ice cream maker and pour the mixture into the frozen bowl. Let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Add the sliced strawberries during the last 5 minutes of freezing. Ice cream will be soft at this point. For a firmer ice cream, transfer to an airtight container and store in freezer until it has reached your desired consistency.

It's a good thing that I pampered myself, because this week's going to be a doozy.  I'll be using strawberry ice cream as a stress reliever.  Happy week to you!   

Pizza Tracks

Okay, so I've discussed my love of pizza ad nauseum here (and here and here).  Why is it so good?  I don't know.  But I like it hot and fresh, and cold, and stale, and burnt.  It really doesn't matter. 

And, noting my recent homemade pizza kick, my wonderful Matthew returned home today with some birthday gifts from Kitchenware Outfitters.  (Kitchenware Outfitters is one of my favorite stores in Savannah.  It's cute, has great products, and has the best customer service around.)  Among those gifts was a fancy pizza cutter, this one by Rosle.  Apparently this pizza cutter will outlive me and Matt and all of my students.  They're guaranteed for two lifetimes!  Two lifetimes!  Matt said that they had him at "German engineering."  This is the heaviest and sharpest pizza cutter I've ever seen, and in addition to using it to slice pizza, I will be able to ward off any murderer who tries to come into the house and kill me.

So that was super exciting, and I have a feeling that there's some homemade pizza in my future.  (I hope that there's no forced-entry-by-murderer in my future.  But, if there is, I'm prepared.)

What's just as exciting is also pizza-related. 

Generally, I would prefer to eat homemade pizza, or pizza from a local place (like Vinnie's or Screaming Mimi's, etc.).  But, those places don't usually deliver to our house, and if they do, they're way overpriced.  And, I really like Domino's.  Domino's is by far my favorite chain pizza place.  By far.

And I've been a fan of Domino's since childhood, since the Avoid the Noid campaign.  Hell, Jordan and I even rented the Avoid the Noid video game for our original Nintendo system. 

Last night Cassie came over for dinner, and since we didn't have any dinner planned other than leftovers, we decided to order pizza--from Domino's.  And I'm so happy we did.

I'm so happy, also, that I ordered it online, because I had the most fun pizza ordering experience of my life.  The Domino's website is awesome!  You get to pick your pizza and your toppings, and you build your virtual pizza.  Pepperoni?  Just click it and beautiful little pepperoni will appear on your pizza.  Onions on half?  Done. 

Did Cassie and I play with the site for ten minutes before finally ordering?  Yes, yes we did.

But the best part of all was the tracker.  The tracker told us when our pizza was being prepped, baked, boxed, and delivered.  It would say, "April put your pizza in the oven at 7:41 p.m." and "April checked your pizza for perfection at 7:52 p.m."  Hey, thanks, April!

And our pizza got to us in about twenty minutes, and then Cassie and I each ate about five slices.  And then we ordered pizza again just for the fun of it.

In the future, I'm going to have to put in a special request that Domino's leave my pizza unsliced, though, because I've got the greatest pizza cutter in the world, and I want to do it myself.

Come to me, beautiful!

Dear All Clad Chef's Pan:

Please come live with us and allow us to cook up delicious foods inside your shiny, evenly-heated belly. We'll make it worth your while!

Sincerely,

Mandy, Matt, and Mitch

Eye Might Puke.

Matt and I are big fans of the boneless skinless chicken breast. Because we found them on sale for $1.99/pound, our freezer is currently full of them. Like, full full. But that's not my story.

You see, last night, while we were whipping up an old favorite meal, Ana y Jose chicken (cajun chicken breasts with jalapeno cheese melted on top--fancy, I know). I took my nicely thawed chicken breasts and began to trim them up, and to pound them with what I call my meat hammer. I think the official name is a meat tenderizer, but I prefer meat hammer.



And I was pounding away at the chicken, holding my hand up to keep chicken bits or juice from flying all over everything when--I want to puke just thinking about it--a piece of raw chicken flew into my eye. Not my eyelid or near my eye. It flew directly onto my eyeball. As you might imagine, I freaked out and started rubbing my eye. Only, I had somehow gotten cajun spice on my hands, so my eye started to burn. I had to go to the bathroom to flush out my eye with water, and I pulled the eyelid away from my eye to see if I could see the RAW CHICKEN.

Raw chicken in my eye.

Well, I didn't see anything, so I decided that it must be okay.

I was wrong.

When I was getting ready for school this morning, I looked in the mirror and saw a really big sleepie. (What do you call the gunk that gathers in the corner of your eye? I call them sleepies. Others call them sheepshit. Is there a scientific term for overnight eye gunk?) Only, it wasn't a sleepie. It was the chicken.

So, party people, there you have it. Raw chicken in my eye overnight.

Excuse me while I vomit and schedule a doctor's appointment for my eyeball salmonella.