Dumdeedumdeedum. It’s Sunday night and my modem is broken. What better way to pass the internet-less time than with creating a blog post on ecto?! I have no idea when I’ll be able to press publish, but there’s no harm in working ahead 🙂

Last Thursday marked the final day of work for the nursing supervisor at my agency. She was retiring after 13 years! On Wednesday night, we had a party to celebrate the amazing work she has done at my agency.

We had music, thanks to DJ Jose:

But, more importantly, we had food (obviously, since we cannot have any sort of event at my office without it)!

A couple of things in particular caught my eye, such as this giant tray of roasted vegetables with hard-boiled eggs:

And this stunning dessert selection, including Heather’s pumpkin chocolate chip bread, Pansy’s ambrosia, Pura’s coconut flan, and a special bakery custard fruit tart (my favorite dessert ever):

When we got the go-ahead to dig in, I was not quick enough to be first in line. The boys beat me! But then there was some confusion about who got there first …

… and they had to step away to resolve the dispute:

When the boys got a grip on their drama, I was finally able to fill my plate and park at this elegantly set table:

My plate had roasted veggies, Greek salad, roast chicken, Mediterranean pasta, and maduros (LOVE THEM!!!!!!):

While we ate, we listened to several moving speeches and witnessed the presentation of this retirement quilt. Everyone on the nursing staff decorated a square, and Dorothy put them all together in one quilt. The finished product was a beautiful work of art!

And then dessert was served!

Since I’m working on not dropping dead due to a heart attack/diabetes, I took it “easy”and filled a baby plate with teeny slivers of coconut flan, custard fruit tart, tres leches cake/frosting crumbs, and more maduros:

Mmmmmmmmm, dessert perfection:

There was a ton of food leftover, so we all ate it for lunch on Thursday. After lunch, there was STILL a ton of food, so I packed up as much as I could possibly carry to bring home in this giant H&M bag:

Inside:

The loot included pasta, roast veggies, roast chicken, lettuce, and maduros:

Different angle to better display volume:

I put one container of veggies and one container of chicken in the freezer, and the rest is just about gone! Quite a significant portion actually went to fuel the New Years Eve fun run that Erik and I did in Prospect Park at 11:15 Thursday night. Before:

(I was obviously soooooooooo excited to run three miles in freezing slush in the middle of the night through a pitch black park in Brooklyn. I was maybe more excited to be taking these pictures with the help of my new gorilla-pod, a present my dad gave me for Christmas so I could attach my camera to random things like the back of a chair in order to get a better angle for the self-timer.)

Pre-race support from roommate etc. cheering squad:

We finished the race just in time to gulp down some free hot chocolate (the best thing I had ever tasted) at Grand Army Plaza and watch the dazzling fireworks display as the clock struck 12.

After:

Attempted tough faces because we braved the elements and survived:

I have a hard time with tough …

(Notice the soaking wet attire and beads of melting snow on our hats.)

And that is the story of how I ended 2009 with two of the best things that ever existed: delicious free food and exercise-for-fun.

By the way, do any of you know of someone who needs a spacious furnished room in a gorgeous Brooklyn apartment from now until 4/30 for $700 per month??

It’s been a while since I have posted about my own kitchen adventures! Let’s fix that 😀

Remember when I snagged an ice cream maker at Joey and Nicole’s party?

As soon as I got home from the party, I broke out the instructions and set to work:



Behold the magic globe.



I filled one end with ice and salt and filled the other with my own special blend for pumpkin pie ice cream:



The instructions told me to shake the ball for 20 minutes, but I got bored and had places to be, so I just threw it into the freezer …



… for four days:



While I let my solid block of pumpkin ice cream thaw a bit, I set to work on my other new toy, a gift from step-grandmama:



That’s right, a veggie spiralizer!

I really didn’t know what I was missing all those times I used a carrot peeler to shred things for hours on end.

In went a zucchini …



And out came zucchini spaghetti!



It’s a miracle!



While I was spiralizing zucchini, carrots, yellow squash, and broccoli stalks, I had tofu baking in the oven and slathered with this gift from mom:



I tossed all the “noodles” together in a bowl …



… and then added my crispy tofu, steamed broccoli, and tons of spices and herbs:



Voila, veggie spaghetti!



For dessert, I shoveled out some pumpkin ice cream, made it creamy with the immersion blender, and served it on top of a hot vitabrownie:



That was a fun meal. I’ve missed playing in the kitchen!

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget?

As I was saying, the plan on Saturday was to have dinner at my dad’s house with all of the parental figures (dad and Rae Ann, mom and John) and Aunt Mary, and that’s exactly how it worked out. We arrived at my dad’s house to one of my favorite sights in the entire world: cheese and crackers!

I had a few of these to keep me going until Rae Ann came out with her stunning masterpiece: Cornish game hens stuffed with brown rice and veggies!

That platter was as heavy as it looked!

I had half a hen and a ton of RA’s salad with craisins, walnuts, feta, and mandarin slices:

And then I broke out MY masterpieces, the pies:

I made sure everyone had a little slice each of apple and of pumpkin ricotta.

Obviously, I did the same.

And then I napped in front of the fire for hours while the grownups broke out their guitars and played music all night 😀

What is your favorite way to spend time with the “grownups”?

You may remember Chris, my sister Allie’s boyfriend, from when I was in California for Chad’s wedding this October. Chris raved to me about his brother’s stromboli, so I asked him to document the process for guest posting purposes. Nearly two months later, I’ve finally gotten it together. Enjoy!

These pics were taken at my house, soon after Sarah was there. My brother Dave was the chef, and his experience comes from cooking for a ton of kids at scout camp and spending time learning to bake in the kitchen of a local college growing up.

You can see the ingredients in the first photo: olives, cheeses, Italian sausage, onions, pepperoni, mushrooms … anything you want really. Experiment!

After cooking the sausage, Dave put a bit of olive oil down on the table and then rolled out some dough. He said that Italian bread dough works best, but he had to work with what we found in the frozen food section of our local grocer.

Next step is to load on all of the ingredients …

… and then roll it up into a log:

We ended up with two of them:

He popped it into the oven and waited for it to turn a golden brown…

(We  just baked the third package of dough as bread.)

Once golden brown, Dave took it out, sliced it up, and … STROMBOLI!!

It was yummy — you can ask Allie if you need a witness!  Blog on!!!  Chris

Thanks for putting this together, Chris! I REALLY want some stromboli NOW.

And yay for guest posts 🙂 Anyone else have contributions for me?

By the morning after Christmas, I had pledged to stop getting full!! However, I had breakfast plans at 10am, and breakfast doesn’t just eat itself. Sarah Whiting picked me up at 9:45, and we headed over to Goochie’s to meet Kerri, Katie, and Katie’s husband John.

John ordered a taco omelet, and I thought it was beautiful:

I ordered a large egg white omelet with spinach and mushrooms and a fruit cup on the side:

It was delicious, and I did not feel overstuffed and ill when I finished it. Imagine that!

Once I got back home, I set to work making two pies for the big group dinner at my dad’s house (just like last year!).

I worked on the pumpkin pie (two cups pumpkin, 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta, 1.5 cups fat free ricotta, 2 eggs, 7 figs boiled and blended, agave and spices to taste):

While Sarah Whiting and mom worked on the apples:

I made a millet crust for both pies (recipe here) and topped them with cranberries:

The pies went into the oven for 45 minutes at 375. To be continued (if I feel like it) …

Do you ever get tired of eating?