Foodmomiac

Going Gray

About 1/2 an hour ago, I popped into the restroom, and as I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror. The rate at which I am going gray (quite suddenly) is astounding.

I don't think I'm that upset about going gray. My hair is so dark that I've never been able to dye it. (Well, never been able to dye it WELL. There were obviously many sun-in experiments back in the 80s, but let's try to forget those, shall we?) In my mind, going gray is my hair's way of finally letting me play around with hair color. I am a bit concerned with texture, as I realize that gray hairs are much more coarse, and if the ones showing up every day (hour) are any indication, mine truly will be quite insane. They are longer and more wild than my black hair. They're not mild mannered at all.

I like that about my new gray hairs. They might very well be in indication that I need to slow things down a bit, but I don't really have any intentions to do that. It would be fabulous to find more time to write and cook (and those are both goals for 2010), but I like that my job is high pressure and that my kids are crazy and that my life is filled with speed bumps. I don't do well with boredom, and my punky new gray hairs are kind of symbolic of that for me.

Revisiting an old favorite: Leftover Pot Roast Bolognese

I've now made this dish (and blogged it) twice; in 2005 and in 2006. And tonight I made it again, using leftover Brisket from our Sunday night Hanukkah dinner. I almost skipped it and wasted all of the leftovers. I didn't leave work until 6pm, which meant I didn't get home until 6:30 or so (after a stop at Walgreen's for Hanukkah candles, because we somehow ran out). But... I persevered. And wonder nanny Sammy gave the kids appetizers, so they weren't completely insane with hunger.

Each time I make this dish, I riff on it more and more. Tonight, I didn't use any wine or stock. I used a can of tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes. AND, I used sour cream instead of heavy cream, because that's what I had in the house. If you use sour cream as well, remember to temper it a bit so that it doesn't curdle and get all clumpy. To do that, spoon out some of the hot liquid into a small bowl. Add the sour cream and mix it well. Then, add that mixture to the pan.

Tonight we had the sauce over egg noodles instead of spaghetti. (the picture above is from 2006)

Easy and Impressive Broiled Chicken

Last week, I got home relatively late from work, but decided that I still needed to make a home cooked meal. We had a ton of groceries in the fridge, and I think everyone is getting sick of delivered food in this household. One of the food items in my fridge was a whole chicken, cut up, so I pulled out Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" and started searching for the easiest option.

Broiled chicken it was! I preheated the broiler, brushed a large casserole dish (you can use a broiling pan) with olive oil and placed the chicken in it in one layer. I then mixed together about 1/2 cup of dijon mustard (I used a combination of coarse grain and regular) and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. The chicken was salted and peppered and placed under the broiler for a minute or two, until it started to sizzle a bit. I then brushed the chicken with some of the mustard mixture and put it BACK under the broiler. In a couple of minutes, I pulled it out, flipped it, basted it again with the mustard and put it back. I repeated this process (broil, pull out, flip, baste) about 3-4 times until the chicken reached a temperature of about 165 degrees and was nice and crispy. Served with leftover cheesy potatoes and a salad, this was a simple and elegant meal that everyone enjoyed and that took just minutes to prepare. Awesome!

Merry Hanukkah

Friday afternoon was a bit disastrous for me. It's a really long and boring story, but the key takeaway is that at 4:30 pm I found out that none of the kids' Hanukkah presents had shipped. And Hanukkah started at about 4:30, with both kids fully expecting a bounty of eight presents (one per night). Michael had left work early, and I had already promised to pick up his dry cleaning (I KNOW - I'm wife of the year, I tell you), so I ended up walking to Border's with my laptop, my purse, and the dry cleaning.

I then schlepped through Border's in my winter coat, with my laptop, my purse and the dry cleaning, grabbing up appropriate presents like a madwoman. After almost falling down the escalator, I managed to check out and then I headed outside to try to find a cab. Hahhhaaaaaaaaa. Yeah. There were no cabs in the middle of downtown Chicago at rush hour. I had little choice at that point, so I headed to the el. If you are keeping track, at this point I was wearing my winter coat, with my laptop, my purse, the dry cleaning and now two giant bags of presents. I was also sweating profusely and I think, maybe, crying.

Did I mention that the el doesn't go right to my neighborhood? Oh no. That would be too easy. I have to take the el to the bus. And then walk two blocks over icy sidewalks. By the time I walked in the door, I was a wreck, but managed to run upstairs and wrap the presents.

We lit the menorah, each kid got a gift (very well received), and then we started decorating the Christmas tree. It was a festive night in the Wiley household. For dinner, we didn't do latkes (those were eaten last night). We sent out our amazing nanny Sammy for wings. Yep, buffalo wings, Christmas carols and menorah lighting. A festive night for all.

Running, running, running

What have I been up to lately? I can't even figure it out. I have certainly been running, which is surprisingly amazing. I am still going strong in my training for the New Orleans half marathon in February. My long runs are up to 5 miles, and I feel really great. I get up for my weekday runs without much grumbling (even though they are on a treadmill, and MAN does that suck), and my weekend runs are a blast. I'm sure as the weather gets colder, and colder, and colder, I'll be singing a different tune, but for now I'm feeling great about it all.

Work is also feeling a bit like a marathon these days. So much to do, and it just keeps ramping up and up and up.

Apologies for not posting more, but I need to figure out how to fit it all in.