Snacky, Appetizer-y Thingies

It's been too hot to cook all freaking summer. I am so sick of spaghetti, eggs, bean burritos and other stupid easy things. Seriously, how many times can a person eat eggs sunny side up on garlic rubbed toast? (Answer: a LOT!) 

The past week we've had a WONDERFUL cold front come through that allowed me to turn on the oven without ratcheting up the temperature in my apartment to 95 degrees. Did I make some unbelievable lasagne (well, I did with friends once) or bake delicious scones and cupcakes? Did I throw in some crazy awesome pizzas? Did I maybe roast a chicken with some veggies? 

Not everything is complicated

Potatoes are so simple. You can do nearly anything to them and it will probably turn out. But all I want is salt so there's really only one thing to do. (And seriously, for some reason a salt lick sounds tasty right now...) With a purple potato that had gone a little too far for baking or roasting and a kitchen mandolin, it took 5 minutes to make the PERFECT snack.

You can see light through these! 

Chips. 

Look, if you need directions for this, I don't know what to say. Slice potatoes as thin as possible. Heat up oil til it's shimmering. Put a slice in. If it takes too long and gets soggy, turn the heat up. If it burns, turn it down. 

Fry the chips, put on a draining rack and hit with salt as soon as they come out. 

Eat. Stuff your face and lick the salt from your fingers. Sigh and enjoy life for those 5 minutes. 

A Sip of Summer

A couple years ago my friends Tim and Betony were having dinner for a bunch of people. I can't remember what the occasion was, but I definitely remember the drink. The drink was awesome. Sure, there was red wine and fancy craft beer - both of which I love. But Tim gave me a glass of summer that night. Seriously, it was like Summer hitting all my taste buds AND getting me drunk at the same time. 


How could it ever get any better than that?


It can't.


Beware, these are deceptively strong. They don't taste like a whole lot except lemonade and a tiny bit of weak beer, but that's the danger. Apologies for the lack of photos, but I don't want to expose the state of my coffee table or provide proof of how many of these this particular Monday night may contain.


So, here it is - Summer in a Glass, or Drinkable Summer, or A Sip of Summer - whatever you want to call it. 


Best served in a pint glass (the kind you'd use for beer). But, let's be honest, red solo cups work even better.


6 oz light beer
2-3 oz  plain vodka (a decent kind - seriously. No Burnetts!) 
Lemonade to fill (nothing too sweet)
1 Lime wedge


Note: the more vodka you use, the better (or worse) off you will be. I use Bud Light, New Amsterdam Vodka and Simply Lemonade. Mix in a glass with your preferred amount of ice and squeeze in the lime. If you're generous with your ice, you can get 2 drinks out of 1 beer.  Give it a light stir and be taken to the middle of July! 


Tim, you have given me a ton of things since April 2009. A community, a purpose, a soundtrack, a teeny tiny baby friend that is almost 3, this, and more. I thank you for all of them and love you so very much!

I have a bit of a crafty side...

This technically happened in my kitchen so I think it's fair game to post here.


Michael's is having a sale on scrapbook paper and I went a little crazy tonight. See, I like putting different papers into cheap frames because it's an easy and inexpensive way to add color to my massive white walls. (Ironically, I tend to like white frames.) They also make cool little message boards with dry erase markers. When the sheets that are normally $.59 are on sale for $.14 each, it's time to stock up. Holiday themed, seasonal, color themed - whatever it is, I bought it. 


I loved this multi-colored stripe, but it didn't really go well with any other sheets I picked up and is too busy to use as a whiteboard background. I had found this great frame with pieces that slide around. You can cut up one big picture to make a puzzle, use different pictures for a mosaic, or do what I did. I cut 8 consecutive pieces of the paper and put them in the frame in order. I figure I can switch it around a lot and give people a little puzzle to work on when they come over. Of course when I placed the tiles, I had the frame turned around wrong and it got messed up when turned up. The turquoise stripe is supposed to go vertical with the blank square at the top left. 


The challenge will be to get not only the stripe right, but the matching sides right. 


This should be fun.  

Sushi! (Bowl)

I get crazy sushi cravings sometimes. They last for about a week and I have to eat it at LEAST once to satisfy my craving. Problem is, sushi can be expensive, especially if the only reasonable sushi place in your town burned down a few months ago. What's left is overpriced and average tasting sushi or driving 45 minutes to a place in Fort Collins. Well, I did that last week but it wasn't enough. 


A couple years ago, I lived next to a girl from Hawaii. She was totally broke all the time and missed sushi something fierce, so we decided to make it together. It was cheaper than ordering out and since she knew how,  it really wasn't difficult. The best part was finding out that, where she's from, it's apparently totally acceptable to wrap sushi rolls and not cut them, eating them like a burrito instead of piece by piece. This cuts down on a LOT of work.


But even making rolls is too much work sometimes. That's when I make bowls. In fancy chef-speak, this would be called a "deconstructed California Roll". In real world-speak, I dumped all the ingredients in a bowl and hoovered it up as only an American can.