Date Night

Friday was a good day. Other than finding myself at the office an hour later than expected, which meant I wasn’t going to get my 4 mile run in before my date. Oh well, worse things have happened. And fortunately, since I ran out the door in a mad dash yesterday, I still had some groceries at the office. So I didn’t go hungry!  Last month I cooked up some  turkey and black-eyed pea stew. Delish! So I froze it in single serving Tupperware and have one for lunch about once a week. I may have to make a new pot of stew this weekend. Any suggestions?

Turkey and Black Eyed Pea Cassoulet
6 slices applewood smoke bacon, chopped
10 oz turkey (shredded)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped garlic
1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
6 cups fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
6 cups black eyed peas
2 T chopped fresh thyme
2 T chopped fresh parsley

The recipe actually calls for duck, but I found turkey to be a good alternative. Love that white meat. Cook bacon until crisp. Remove from skillet and crumble. Season turkey with salt and pepper and brown in same skillet. Sauté onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, mushrooms, celery, carrots. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add broth, peas, thyme, parsley, turkey. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 80 minutes. Remove turkey, shred, and return to pan to cook for another 20 minutes, or until meat is tender and juice thickened. Top with bacon.

Nutrition: 307 cal per serving (1 1/4 cup). Carb: 27g Protein: 24g Fat: 10g

This is a perfect fall/winter stew. I got the recipe out of the Cooking Light magazine December ’08. Never throw out old cooking magazines! They are full of jewels. I go back over and over, always finding something new. My greatest accomplishment from this magazine (so far) was shrimp and cilantro pesto tamales. Mmmm… but tamales from scratch turned out to be a big job for one person!! Easily two days of hard work. But they freeze well. I overnighted Christmas packages last year stuffed full of tamales, and uuhem, No-Bake cookies. A family fave. What are your family faves around Christmas? Or your most cherished magazine recipes?

So, on to my Friday night date. We had no plans set for the evening, and I’m a planner. There must be a plan. So when there wasn’t one I took things into my own hands. We saw Twilight.   I was sworn to secrecy, so no name dropping. Apparently 26-year-old guys don’t watch Twilight. Hehe… well this one did. It must have been the way I batted my eyes! I met the ’unmentionable’ back when my roommate dated his roommate and we all played on a put-put league. (P.S. if you haven’t played on a put-put league you don’t know what you’re missing). We dated briefly back then but it seemed we were in different places and decided to keep things friendly. So since then we Facebook, bump into each other at the gym, and very occasionally end up at the same get togethers. I have to share a couple photos from back in my put-put days. I laughed out loud when I just pulled these up to reminisce..

Sports Fan theme

Nerd Night

Now doesn’t that look like fun?! I love how the guys wore shorts with elastic waistbands.. and tape around their glasses. We definitely had spirit!

I keep getting sidetracked. Back to our date. So the movie was good but not great. I never read the Twilight books but I did see the first movie. I had friends lining up to see the midnight viewing on Thursday and so I thought it must be worth seeing on opening weekend. Turns out I could have waited. We had a fun night though. After buying tickets for the 11pm show we went down the street to the Tap House. They have oodles of beer on tap. Everything from local microbrews to Belgian, German, and Japanese beers. I can’t even remember what I had. It was a shot in the dark. I really am a wine girl. I know how much the ‘unmentionable’ is a beer guy though so it was a thoughtful suggestion on my part. While he was away I whipped out my camera for a couple photos. I felt so sneaky. Maybe I should have made a scene like “It’s okay, I’m a blogger!” Mmm.. or not!!

As for today I’ve been quite busy. I walked to QFC in my sweats this morning to buy a bag of apples, vanilla yogurt, and the new holiday Cooking Light magazine. Then I thumbed through each page while sipping my Starbucks espresso roast coffee and nibbling a juicy Gala apple. MMmhhmm… what a weekend! Let me tell you just a few highlights that I intend on cooking pronto. Dijon and Herb Crusted Standing Beef Rib Roast, Pear Crème Brûlée Tart, and Herb Asagio Rolls; not necessarily in that order. As of yesterday I decided that I will be staying home (at my home) for Thanksgiving, so these dishes may very well be included on my holiday menu.

So after talking with my youngest brother who lives an hour away (by ferry boat), and my cousin who also lives on the coast, I learned that neither of them were going to be able to join our family for Thanksgiving this year. Weather, work obligations, and so on.. so I invited them to Seattle. Then I found out that my roommate has no plans for leaving either. So that settled it. We will be hosting Thanksgiving at our house. Cooking up a non-traditional feast and all friends are welcome. The more the merrier!

Tonight I kept dinner simple since it was so late by the time I got around to cooking. Studying, running, relaxing.. where did my day go? Not to get off subject again but I did get another glorious run in outdoors this morning! Yayy me. Okay, so dinner was an open-faced pesto chicken on toasted wheat. I sprinkled a little Asagio cheese over the bread, layered it with spinach, roma tomatoes, and topped with pesto chicken. I love my Foreman Grill. It makes grilling so quick and easy.

Now I’m off to a girlfriend’s place to watch Christmas movies! One of my favorite movies is While You Were Sleeping. Sadra Bullock, do you know it? I saw Four Christmases last year in theaters. That was a really cute movie too. I’m glad I’m not the only one getting in the spirit early this year. Only three days until my tree goes up! Yahoooo….

My questions to you are:
1) What are your favorite Christmas dishes? Sweet or savory.
2) Favorite holiday movies?
3) Is it okay to play Christmas music and put up a tree before Thanksgiving?