New Year's Resolutions, Really?

Does McTatty make New Year's Resolutions? Kind of. Sort of. But not really.

Goals? Yes - usually money related. This year:

Save money.
Cut back on cable.
Read more books from the library (and avoid late fees).
Photograph more street stuff, and join the Bloomington Photography Club
Make a budget and stick to it.

So far, that's all that I NEED to do - but the list usually gets longer as the year goes on.

We'll see what happens!

PSH

MONSTER Mastercard Rip Off

Gas to g0 home for one week: $150
Christmas shopping: $362
Dog booties & dog jacket for MONSTER's first snow: $40

MONSTER pooping on my mom's carpet AFTER FIRST SEEING SNOW: Priceless

The cost of MONSTER: $85
Hookworm & eye infection treatments: $248
Doggie kaopectate: $8.99

Giving MONSTER's kaopectate to another vomiting dog: Priceless

Does that sort of sum up our trip home for Christmas? I'll have more stories later, but at this point, I just can't help laughing! The things that happen can only happen to McTatty & Bimmer Man!

PSH

Cous Cous with Mushrooms, Green Beans & Lemon

Cous cous. I love it. Green beans, love them too. And mushrooms. The love of my life. Besides Bimmer Man who has seemed nonexistent lately thanks to Law School (Note: if you like being alone, marry a lawyer, it's true, they do spend a lot of time at the library).

Lemons, cous cous, mushrooms, green beans, olive oil, salt & pepper. Ignore the Pomegranites. I photographed them.
I love the yellowy orange of the lemons. They're a little green too, but that's ok!
EVOO. Why in the world did that come from Rachael Ray? People have been using extra virgin olive oil for quite some time now... EVOO... I think I'm in a mood...
Saute sliced mushrooms in the olive oil for a few minutes - til they're nice and brown. Do NOT add salt yet, the salt draws out all the moisture.
But you can add pepper. Just enough to taste it throughout the mushrooms.
Add the green beans and 2 cloves of garlic (minced).
Green beans get all gross and squeaky in your teeth if cooked for too long.
So they only need to be sauted for MAYBE 2 minutes at the most. I only had them in the pan ONE minute.
I always add lemon to cous cous. It's habit that I will never break. I had oranges, so I juiced a few of those and added a splash of orange to the cous cous too. It wasn't too bad! But, don't be like me. Stick with the lemon.
Mmm... Oranges...
Combine the beans, mushrooms & cous cous.
Put on a plate very nicely. And eat. I would serve this with grilled chicken. Or salmon. Whatever's in the fridge. I've been on a money saving kick lately. You'll probably hear about that in my next post.

HAHA! Me? Save money? Yeah, right...

Enjoy!

Winter Red: Pomegranites

What the heck do I do besides salads and ice cream toppings?

I did dig through a very large container to find the prettist ones at Walmart. One guy even called me picky. Ugh. Perfection? Well, no, that's not me. I just wanted the brightest red ones that I could find.

I'm really not that picky...

PSH

White Pizza - McTatty's Version

This is easy - the usual pizza dough, store bought alfredo sauce, caramelized onions, basil & just a few slices of pepperoni.

The dough recipe I have memorized.

One packet of yeast

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons olive oil (Ok, so I use more like 3)

1 tablespoon honey

And then to change it up: 1 tablespoon dried herbs of whatever you like

1 tsp salt

3 - 4 cups flour

Mix the water with the yeast, let proof for 2 minutes then add all other ingredients - the flour 1 cup at a time. Knead dough for 7 minutes. Put in oiled bowl for 30 minutes to rise.

Then PRESS out dough with fingers (NOT WITH ROLLING PIN) on a baking sheet that's been sprinkled with corn meal.

Top with all the toppings and bake for 12 - 17 minutes at 425 degrees.

Voila! The perfect pizza.

Enjoy!

PSH

Happy Holidays!

Love,

McTatty, Bimmer Man & THE MONSTER

Snack Time

I love Mexican food. This is my version of a quick snack. That's not really Mexican but it has cheese. And I love cheese. And I love salsa and I love tortillas. Generally you can use any combination that you want - but for some odd reason, wheat tortillas don't wrap very well for me so whatever, I use flour tortillas.

Step 1. Microwave 2 tortillas for 30 seconds.

Step 2: I only had slices of sharp cheddar (usually it's 1 tablespoon shredded cheddar), in the middle of each tortilla.

Step 3: Top with white cheese of sorts, like Jack or spicy cheese or whatever. Mozzarella isn't the best, but then again, this is a snack. So, whatever.

Step 4: Use any kind of salsa. I prefer black bean salsa but since we just got back from vacation I could only see Taco Bell packets in the fridge. Bimmer Man saves them for I'm not sure what. Me? (Did you see that he commented on my last post?)
Step 5: Put salsa over the cheese, right in the middle.
Step 6: Wrap, burrito style leaving one end open so the melty cheesy goodness will show.
Step 7: Do the same to the other tortilla. "Ahh.... We meet again." I love Taco Bell's Chili Cheese Burritos.
You'll have twin cheesy tortillas!
Step 8: Microwave for 1 minute. It takes almost exactly 3 minutes to be in cheese Heaven.

Enjoy!

PSH

10 Random Things About Me

1. I left my cell phone at work last night and Bimmer Man was stranded at school for two hours until he checked his e-mail on his faux iPhone.

2. I HATE picking up dog poop but we use Bio Bags so it makes me feel a little better.

3. Every time I want to cook/bake/do something in the kitchen, Bimmer Man has decided that we're doing something else. I'm ready to get back to the kitchen.

4. I don't have springform pans, but I want to make cheesecake. There's 4 in my Amazon.com cart right that I'm tempted to click on the "checkout now" button.

5. I'm a huge dork. And I get my books from the library. And the DVD's to watch movies.

6. Don't ever mess with my Diet Mountain Dew.

7. Comcast stopped sending me bills in the mail, so I stopped paying the bill. Our cable got shut off - they were sending the bills to our old apartment. I was hoping that person would pay them.

8. I lost my address book and can't send Christmas cards until I find it.

9. I joined a Pedometer Walking Whatever Tracker at work and I've only taken 2,314 steps today. And I walked the dog - I don't think the stupid penny pedometer was working correctly becase we walked for 45 minutes and that's almost 3 miles. I'm not going to win any prize soon.

10. All the presents I'm giving away are going to be my homemade photo cards. I'm cheap and we spend $400 on booze on vacation.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Good luck Holiday shopping.