Well son of a...

OMG you guys. This whole, having a full time job thing, is like, way totally hard.

I teach six classes a semester. That's not a typo. I also direct the university's speech team, for which I get exactly zero hours of release time. So, actually...

OMG you guys. This whole, having two full time jobs thing (while only getting paid for one), is like, way totally hard.

In practice, all this means that cooking has turned into a soulless assembly line worthy of dystopian fiction.

From the silent classic, Metropolis, the title of which naturally amuses the hell out of me.

(Image via the Film History and Aesthetics Wiki)

So for spring break I went a little berserk, giddy with the freedom to fix proper meals using proper vegetables. Mostly I went for favorites, which already have pages on this site. Like, beef fajitas, pork chops, and breakfast burritos.

However, I also set myself the goal of cooking something I'd never blogged. I've got it! Chicken Parmesan.

Except...

I am a dumbass.

So I guess I'm off the hook for a detailed rundown of my supposedly ambitious dinner. Instead let me tell you about a couple of products I've discovered in the past year.

Alma's whole grain pasta

  

I switched to whole grain pasta a while ago, but only just discovered this kind. I tried to take a picture of the ingredients, but it turns out tiny text is outside my camera's skill set. So I'll just list them here.

• Whole grain semolina
• Water

Seriously. That's it. 

But what really sold me on these noodles is their flavor. It's hard to describe, but they're delicious. They have a sweet, kind of nutty thing going on. They don't even need sauce. I routinely serve them lightly tossed with basil wilted in olive oils. Oh, and Parmesan cheese. I don't think I've ever served a noodle without some kind of cheese.

They're comparable in price to the name-brand pastas, and so far I've used the spaghetti, linguine, and penne. All. Amazing.

Next up:

Alessi mixed whole peppercorns.

Also, do you love the breading mix in the background? I had such grand plans... 

The mixed peppercorns add a depth of flavor you just can't get out of McCormick ground black pepper. And because you grind it up as you need it, they don't lose their flavor as quickly.

Finally, just because I took the time to take this picture - which was hard because I was freaking starving...

Remember, no points for plating in my house.

So there you go. If I ever have time to cook properly again, I'll do my best to share it here.

---

Pardon Me While I Bask

It's a funny old life, says Doctor Who.

I've always felt a bit -- behind in life. Taking the best part of a decade to finish your bachelor's degree will do that I suppose. And Doug? Damn! This guy...

I can't even... 

Everything he's done for me. Everything he still does for me. Everything he's postponed, sacrificed, suffered, and endured. This guy has earned a little luxury.

Form of, WATER!!

(If you get that joke, I love you.)

In classic Doug and Misty fashion, we worked out a week in Florida on the cheap. Specifically, we spent six nights camping on St. George Island.

Home sweet campsite

Florida was completely awesome, but this post isn't about that. See, a crazy thing happened, like, the minute we got home. Well, I guess not completely crazy. We were planning to buy a car this summer. We weren't planning to buy a car, today.

Mostly, we never dreamed we'd find...

Why, that's a grown-up car!

Meet our (cough) Mercedez-Benz E320. Doug hasn't quit grinning since we left the showroom. He's talked about wanting a Benz for about as long as I can remember. I'm so tickled for him.

(Well, I'm a little tickled for me too. World championship haggling trophy? You bet.)

Spare a thought for our '96 Chevy Beretta, which has served us admirably for nearly 10 years. Tomorrow it will go on to the great salvage yard in the sky, which is to say, the chop shop down the block. *Tear*

P.S. I promise this whole summer of blogging won't be so, "Wooo! Check us out!" Just, probably the next couple of weeks. Then it's back to plain old cooking.

---

Summer Bloggin

 Well!

I had a whole big idea for a  post, and then Blogger freaked out at the exact worst possible moment. So I'm going for the titillating teaser instead.

Doug and I set out for St George Island, Florida tomorrow! We're super, duper, triple stoked.

Yep, we's a-going camping. On the beach. It's either going to be amazing or insufferable, but either way? Epic.

Did I mention campfire cooking? On the beach? I oughta get at least a half a summer's worth of posts out of that...

Okay now seriously, bedtime. Because tomorrow I'll be vacationing. On the beach!

---

Off to the SEC

Doug has been like a kid waiting for Santa the last 2 weeks.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Thanks, Commando!

What a wonderful surprise. I love getting packages! And the "Taste the Rainbow" gags are endless.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

It was my damn birthday

But Doug's the one who scored. A work promotion AND these: tickets to the SEC Championship tournament.

He can't stop grinning, & neither can I.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Who and What

My students are supposed to be writing introductory posts, laying out who they are and what their blogs will be about. Fair is fair. So who am I? And what is Popcorn on a Skillet all about?

I am Living the Dream. I know. Only a jerk would say so. What can I tell you? Happily married suburban schoolteacher, no kids... Life's a party.

Okay that last bit's a lie. I teach, coach, sleep, repeat. I love my job, though. So life feels like a party.

Rather than drag out the old why-I-started-Popcorn yarn, I want to recall how I named this blog. Why and how did I choose Popcorn on a Skillet?

I knew I was starting a cooking blog, so I Googled "food metaphors" and found a few lists. I browsed, and copy/pasted expressions I thought were catchy, or appetizing, or whatever...

"Busier than popcorn on a skillet" stuck out to me. I love the visual. And even better - it's old-fashioned. I imagine my students wondering, what does popcorn have to do with a skillet?

I've always planned to replace that banner across the top with my own custom photo. I have popcorn in the house. I have skillets. One of these days I've really got to make that happen.

---

A Question for my Yankee Confederates

 I know I promised to talk about food media, but frozen Atlanta occupied my mind this week.

Doug captured this Monday, the winter (choke, gag) wonderland stage. This snow gave way to sleet, which fell for another day. The combined effect buried the jewel of the South in three inches of ice.

The Associated Press seems critical of the city's response, though they acknowledge winter storms, followed by extended sub-freezing temperatures, don't happen all that often here.

The AJC carried the positive spin that, economically, the storm didn't devastate the city. Now, tell that to the people stranded on 285 for a day. And that priceless quotation, "I live in Metro Atlanta, not Bangladesh."

This Fox station in Sacramento takes a tone. A "light dusting of snow" overwhelmed the city's "8 snowplows."

I myself appreciated a snow day, but a snow week?

In these parts, a snowstorm means one morning's crummy commute. Whatever falls overnight melts away by noon. So I don't mean to be flip when I observe the city's response has amounted to, let the Lord handle it.

The main road at the end of my subdivision (choke, gag) stayed frozen until yesterday afternoon, when the temperature finally climbed.

It was worse than Peoria.

Worse than Peoria.

At last, my question: Did Atlanta-cicle even hit your radar? Is the rest of the country laughing at us, the way I'm laughing at us inside?

---

Snow Day

I've worked at a breakneck pace to get ready to for the supposed start of the semester today. But instead of printing syllabi, meeting students, and all that jazz, I'm on house arrest.

Oh we tried to get out, but I guess I forgot we live in a place where nobody's heard of a salt truck. Doug made it to the end of the driveway, before spinning wheels put an end to his endeavor. I'm so glad we have food in the house!

Anyway, I've been struggling to build a new identity for this blog. Not that anyone who reads this thing would have noticed. Teaching evening classes hasn't lent itself well to the fresh-from-scratch cooking lifestyle I was recounting here. No kids means no cutesy-pukesy pictures, and I don't feel like my days and nights of Wii and whiskey make for very compelling reading.

But I have an idea I'm going to try. I'm teaching a class in media, culture, and society this spring, and I'm making my students keep blogs to track their term projects. The idea is to try and keep everybody on track, by requiring weekly think-throughs of their term project topics.

For my term project, I'm going to check out some media representations of food and eating. I'm hoping a bit of solidarity will motivate me to keep up with this blog, the way NaBlo helped me out in November.

So... Ideas...

• Food, Inc.
• Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (assuming I can get it on Netflix)
• One of Michael Pollan's books
• Some TV commercials -- like, Happy Meal ads versus healthy eating PSA's
• OMG! Real Food Has Curves! I love Mark and Bruce's blog. Time to get their book!

I'd love to hear suggestions from y'all -- especially on which Pollan book I should read. I'll admit, I kind of despise that guy. His NYTimes editorials reek of smug superiority. Raging douchebaggery, in fact.

Can I type that word on a site I'll let my students read? Surprise, kids. Teacher's got a colorful vocabulary.

I'll be back... No seriously. I totally will.

---

Super Sunday

We started with our regular weekly trip to our favorite donut place.



Then we played Wii until our arms about fell off.



Now we're finally getting with the times, & watching some Dexter on Netflix.

Hooray for Sundays. Even though they mean it's back to icky work tomorrow.

Sweet Potato Secrets

For years I turned my nose up at all things sweet potato. And I can't quite tell you when my tune changed, just that nowadays I loves 'em. Especially this version, which is fresh and home cooked.

Well, except for the marshmallows. Some junk food is sacred.

Anyway here's what you'll need if you want to try this recipe:

• 2-4 medium/large sweet potatoes
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter (need I say, not margarine)
• 1/2 bag mini marshmallows

So this is ridiculously simple, considering the deliciousness that results. Peel your sweet taters and cut them down, roughly into 2 inch cubes. Try to get the chunks as similarly sized as possible, but don't fret about it. Add them to a pot of lightly salted water, like so.

I really oughta fix these more often.

Stick a lid on there and set it over medium-high heat. Once it's boiling, let it go for maybe 15, 20 minutes. You'll know it's done when the chunks start to crack, and you can push a fork into them easily.

When you have about 5 minutes to go, start melting the brown sugar and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once it's made kind of like a grainy paste (and yeah, that pretty much looks just as gross as it sounds), add a little water from your tater-boiling pot. You want just enough to finish dissolving the sugar, which makes a glaze. I generally put in about 2-3 spoonfuls from my big Teflon stirring spoon.

Like this one, but without the holes. Obviously.

Cut me some slack, y'all. That was the only spoon picture I could find. And it sure is making me crave those chicken wings. I digress...

So yeah, you'll want to bring the butter, sugar, and tater water to a boil, stirring frequently. You'll know this is ready when you can take out the spoon, draw a line on the back with your finger, and the line holds. There's a proper word for this which I can't think of at the moment, but that's not important. What is important is that you be CAREFUL drawing that line, because melted sugar is freaking hot.

By now, your taters should be fork tender, so go on and drain off the rest of the water and put the chunks into a casserole. Next pour in the glaze and smash it all together with a fork.

Finish with a half a bag of mini marshmallows, and pop it into the oven until the 'mallows get brown.

Brown, and also crispy. Ye-um, ye-um!

Depending on how hot your oven is, this will take anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes. My best advice is to follow your nose. When you get a whiff of toasty marshmallow, you're good to go!

Like I said, too ridiculously simple for once a year. I think I'm going to make some more of these next weekend. With some chicken wings.

---

Chickstravaganza

A few years back, Doug and I switched from turkey to chicken for Thanksgiving. Even the smallest turkeys we could find ended up being more than we could finish. And considering I don't roast chickens every day either, it's special enough for the occasion.

 Especially with all the fixins.

I've spent a lot of time on this matter under the spotty tutelage of Chef Google. And I still don't have it quite right. So please indulge me as I share what I tried this year. I'm sold on some of these techniques, but I'll be honest about the ones still up for revision.

First, the math. We wanted to eat at about 12:30. I worked out a cooking time of roughly 2 and a half hours (which I think may have been a little long). That meant I wanted to put the bird in the oven at 10:00 a.m.

So around 9:30 I got her out of the fridge and rinsed her off good with cool water. I pulled off the loose fat and patted her dry with paper towels.

Yeah, it's kinda gross at this point.

The next task was to scrub my celery and cut off the leafy ends. (I planned to use the celery stalks for my stuffing, natch.) Then I washed up a pound of carrots and cut the stems off a couple of those. No peeling? Damn right! I also peeled and quartered a white onion, and set the oven for 450°

Now, here's one of those moves I'm not fully sold on. I whisked together a stick of softened butter, half a small lemon, and some marjoram to make lemon-herb butter. 

 Not pictured: marjoram. Obviously.

With help from my faithful sous chef, I salted and peppered the chicken inside and out. Then I rubbed it down with the lemon-herb butter. Outside, inside, and under the skin. In hindsight, I don't think the lemon did any good. Next year I'll probably go back to plain butter -- the way my mama does it!

Next, I stuffed the chicken with half the onion, two carrots (cut in half), a few celery leaves, the rinds of my squeezed lemon, and some rosemary sprigs. I am totally sold on the rosemary. Some folks like thyme, sage, and/or bay, so if you ever want to try this, there are some ideas.

Looking yummier...

At last came time to put the chicken in the oven. I think it's worth mentioning here, if you don't use a roaster with a rack, you can just pile up all those vegetables and set the bird on top of them. I use the rack-and-stuffing approach because I find the rack helps with even cooking.

After about 15 minutes, I cut the heat down to 350°. I also put green beans and carrots on to slow simmer. Because, you know, they ain't proper vegetables unless they've been cooked within an inch of their lives.

Dude. I'm startin to get huunnggrryy!

It all hit the fan starting about 11:30. That's why I only managed to take two pictures of the entire sweet potato and stuffing preparation. But you'll have to wait, because I'm not spilling my sweet tater secrets til tomorrow.

Just before I started trying to gnaw off one of my arms, it was time to take the chicken out of the oven.

Get in my belly!

And since that moment, my life has almost exclusively involved the following: eat, sleep, repeat. Hooray for Thanksgiving.

---

Happy Thanksgiving!

A debilitating case of the food coma prevents me from fulfilling the sacred mission of Popcorn today. But tomorrow, you'll be reading a cooking blog again. For now, a sneak preview:

Roast chicken, stuffing, carrots, green beans, and sweet potatoes

And, is it just me, or is this picture totally vertigo-inducing? Guess I need to work on framing shots with the new aspect ratio. Always something...

It dawns on me how thankful I am that there are people in the world actually interested in my strange ramblings. I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with blessings, for y'all have surely blessed me.

---

Most of all, I'm thankful for this guy.

 Who ran off with me to Las Vegas to get married.

Who busted his ass at a mall job for years, to put us both through school.

Who takes out the trash and does laundry every week, carries all the heavy stuff, and indulges my periodic urges to randomly rearrange furniture. Who faithfully oversees all our grilling.

Who never held my dorkiness against me. Who bravely chauffeurs us around Atlanta.

Who looks this handsome in crappy, low-light photos.

Whose cute picture I took in the grocery store this morning got totally eaten by the new phone. (Dammit.) Who's the world's greatest husband (i.e. sous chef, housemate, best friend, and partner).

I love you baby.

---

In the spirit

Doug snapped the holiday tree at his office today. I love that he loves his cubicle farm.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Really? More pictures of trees?

Yes.

This is the view from my office. I am grateful for the sunshine.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

I realize I'm getting to be a one-note song

But getting this new phone all set up and going has consumed my life! I'm even cross-posting this picture of my neato case, because I hate publishing plain old text.

I am pleased to report, I have defeated the evil campus server, and can now send and receive emails! Partying like it's 1994 up in here, I tell you. It's been four days, but I think I may at last be finished frakking with this phone, and can finally get down to just using it.

Must... Blog...

It's been a busy day today, to the extent I'm near cursing the day I promised myself I'd blog through this month. But it's not like I have real problems.
 
The nonsense I've posted the past couple of days pretty much tells the story. Playing with the new phone, to the extent I've given myself a crick in the shoulder from screen-tapping. Again, not like I have real problems.

In fact, as I (slowly) work through my contacts trying to make sure friends & family have my new number, I'm being reminded how lucky I really am. Pretty much living the dream, is how I've been responding to the "how's life" question.

Yeah I'm overwhelmed with work, but I have a job. No mean feat in this day and age. Doug loves what he's doing. And, if I have to tell a secret, I love what I'm doing too. Everybody should be so blessed.

 Getting in the holiday spirit, perhaps?

I'm grateful we can afford to upgrade our phones. Shallow? Maybe. But that's nothing compared to what I have planned for All Kinds of Pretty tomorrow. I'm grateful for a lot of things, but I'm going to save those for later. You know, just in case this got-nothing-exciting-to-blog-about trend continues.

---

Then again...

One-touch photo blogging is pretty badass!

The miracle tater is just about now filling the kitchen window. Surely it can't survive all winter?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Will this app be worth the money?

Considering I don't think this does anything I can't do in email, probably not.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5