Open House

So I had an open house yesterday to christen my new apartment (and for an excuse to try out the kitchen). Andrew, Sam, Tracey, Denise and Gwyn all showed up to have a good time, along with appearances from Skanda, Anna and Andrew (The former two being my roommates, and later being a temporary roommate). It was a lot of fun and very relaxing.

I did end up spending most of the day before 7:00 preparing for the event. Starting with a Costco trip around One-ish with Gwyn for supplies and lunch (yeah $1.50 Hot Dogs!). The I spent the rest of the time preparing the following:

Appetizers:
Pita Chips and Hummos (ok, I didn't prepare, I just laid out)
A Vegetable Plate (ok, I am 0 for 2, Gwyn basically did all of this for me)
Stuffed Mushrooms (half point for me! Gwyn filled them...)
Gummi Bears (we have a HUGE bag of them... we need to get rid of them)

Second Course:
Garlic Asparagus
Bacon Cups
Fried Chicken Specks (also a new adventure for me, basically Chicken Nugget, but not so corny...)

The Good stuff keeping warm in the oven.

Desert:
Apple Pie

A note on the Apple Pie, Gwyn and I were going to make pie the night before, but I decided that the infrastructure for pie is really expensive, I didn't have any pie pans, I don't have a food processor, I don't have a pastry knife, I don't have an apple peeler.... the list goes on. So we got a Costco Pie. It was amazing.

I also got to experiment with my newly formed media center. Don't worry everyone who has a 'Scott's Box' (as Cassie is calling theirs): the one I have is sub par, and set up from a old salvaged computer. It barely runs.... but plays music and youtube videos wonderfully!

Gwyn trying it out the night before.

Well I am off to go work on a mobile robot lab. I am super excited! In other news: it is really hot in Pittsburgh this weekend. Already 81 degrees at 11 in the morning! Again, for those of you not used to humidity, that is like stepping out of a really hot shower.... all day long... even when you are already warm.

Happy Long Weekend Everyone!

Bacon Cups!

I had a little shin-dig open house type party yesterday. Ill post more pictures after this, but one of the creations I made for this was a first in what I hope will be a long experimentation with bacon and muffin pans.

Bacon Cups

Approx Prep: 15 Minutes
Approx Cook: 25-45 Minutes (depending on how much bacon you can cook at a time)

This will make 12 cups

1 Package of Bacon (at least 12 slices)
2 Boxes of Cornbread Muffin Mix (I used Jiffy)
2/3 cup Milk
2 Eggs
2 Italian Sausages  

Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with Pam or other baking spray. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

One of the few pictures of me cooking... Gwyn was helping me out.

In a fry pan, cook bacon. I really like crispy bacon. For this you do not want crispy bacon. You want limp, possibly undercooked bacon (you will get the hang of the consistency you want after a few tries at the later steps).

Mmmmm... Bacon!

When bacon is just starting to hold shape, remove from pan, pat dry, and immediately line the edges of a cup with a strip of bacon. The bacon will continue to cook a little after you take it out, if you leave it out too long it will harden in to strips. This is a little hard as the bacon will still be very hot. And covered in grease. This mean you may burn yourself. Try not to.

The Start of Bacon Cups!

 While bacon is cooking (or in between sets of bacon) prepare the Cornbread muffin mix according to directions. (Mix eggs, milk and mixture together. It should be lumpy). Once you get the bacon in a cup, using a small spoon, fill the center of the bacon ring with Cornbread mix. Don't over fill, as we will be adding more stuff to it in a bit, and the Cornbread will rise a little in the oven. At this point if any of your bacon strips broke, or look funny, use the cornbread mix to push the rebellious bacon against the sides of the pan.

Once the bacon is done cooking, cook the Italian Sausage in the bacon grease. This is where you can have a little fun. If you have never cooked large sausages before, and more importantly if you have never cut a sausage, and then cooked it... you can make some funky looking pieces of meat. It you slice the sausage in half (length wise) and then start to cook it, the inside will puff up, and the casing will not, so you get weird looking crescent sausage pieces. Once these are browned, you can take them out of the pan and cut them up some more to get weirder shapes. Basically cook the sausage. If you want you can cook it normally and then cut it in to strips... but this way was more fun.

Silly Sausage

Once the sausage is done, pat dry it to remove the grease. Then insert sausage pieces in to the center of the Cornbread.

You don't have to use tooth picks. I was worried that the sausage would fall, it did not.

 Once everything is full and complete, stick pan in the oven for 13-15 minutes, or until the tops of the cornbread start to brown. 

OVEGLOVE!! Yeah Grandma!

Remove from oven, let cool a little, remove from pan. Enjoy.

Surprisingly Good.

 Yes they were good. But work still needs to be done here. In this case, you ended up getting two bites of bacon/cornbread and then a bite of spicy sausage. I eventually added sausage bits to the batter, but then the batter fell apart... This is only the first test in what I am sure is going to be a bacony-goodness trail.

More stuff

So this morning I plugged in my camera for the first time since I moved. I found these, which I will present with minimal explanation. I need to go to class in 10 minutes....

At 6:15 in the morning. Humidity on my (old) window. And and intense sunrise.

I found two more Pittsburgh Monsters.... this one and a buddy were in my (old) stairway.

First Day of School! I will always support you James!

My Bed with all of my unpacked stuff. (It does not look like this now...)

My new Ikea dresser. (I love Ikea!)

The current location of my computer!

I will be taking more pictures as all three of us unpack out stuff. It is still looking a little chaotic. Things are going well. Classes are shaping up to be great, Ill post about them later. Hanging out with friends that I have not seen in a while has been wonderful. Going to places that I have not been in a while has been great. The humidity has not... it is still gross.

Clean Cheese

You may be thinking this is a weird name to call the following creation, after you are done with it, it feels nothing like 'clean.' When I was moving out of Larry's place, I was faced with a fridge with a plethora of goods that I needed to dispose of. Hence the following:

Clean Cheese
a perverted take of the Grilled Cheese

Approx Prep: 5 mins
Approx Cooking: 30-45 mins (depends on what is already cooked)

Serves One

At least 3 or 4 Pierogies
2-6 slices of Pepper Jack Cheese
6-8 slices of Bacon
4-8 Breakfast Sausages
2-3 Tablespoons of butter
2 Slices of Good Bread

If you are wondering, I had half a box a pierogies left from general use, the bacon was from green beans I made a while ago, the sausage was from Breakfast Casserole, the Cheese and the Bread was what was left from my lunch supply, and the butter was on hand.

Cook the bacon and the sausage together. Be sure to move everything around a lot, make sure it all gets done. You will have to take pieces out as they become cooked. Set aside.

Thank you whatever pig brought this to me...

In the bacon grease, cook the pierogies until done.

So 6 pierogies were a little over kill.

Cut up the sausage in the small slices (like pepperoni).

Assembling the sandwich in the pan. Drain the bacon grease, add some butter to the pan, on a low heat. Once the butter has begun to melt, add first slice of bread. Then add one slice of cheese. Then lay down strips of bacon, with sausage on top of that. Add another slice of cheese. Add pierogies in one layer. I made sure that the pierogies fit by cutting one of them in half so I had 2 full ones on the 'outside,' with one half one in the middle. Add another layer of cheese. Add more sausage. Add more bacon. Add one more slice of cheese and one final slice of bread.

This is all ready looking great.

Turn up the heat a little to meddium. Let cook to desired chrispyness. Add some butter to the side of the sandwich that is facing you (the uncooked side). Flip the sandwich, and continue cooking. Flipping will be hard. Save for experianced grilled cheese cooks.

...And done!

Once the other side is done, remove and serve on a plate! Enjoy!

And what could make this any more healthy? Fries!

Ladies and Gents, Skanda Mohan

While sitting on the couch this morning nursing his foot:

"Some days I feel worthless. Today I am a god. as he awkwardly stands up to grab his bread.
  A little ego never killed anyone.... well except Hitler."

New Dig

Is that the proper use of 'dig?' I don't really know... Oh well. I moved in to my new place today. It was great. But I would have to say that my back has a slight tinge to it, I guess it is about time for me to start feeling old.

Skanda came hobbling down the street today to meet me. He was just coming back from a Doctor's appointment. Earlier this morning Skanda had a run in with a car while he was on his bike. He is amazed that he only incurred a minor concussion and badly sprained ankle not broken bones or severe head trauma. He is doing ok, and should be better by school.




Tonight Gwyn stopped by to say hello and check out the new place. All three of us played some Carcassone and enjoyed some pizza from 'Bites and Brews.' A place that may be frequenting our door. It was a lovely evening in a poorly unpacked apartment.

Things are looking good. I will attempt to post pictures soon.

This is why I love home.

Me: Maple Bars are unique to the Pacific Northwest!
Danny: Like Huckleberrys!
Danna: .... And Fun!

So very true. I love these guys.