Coffee's On!

Dear Twitter Friends,

Thank you for being some of the best friends around, even if I don't know where you are... or what your first name really is.


Thank you for taking an interest in how many pairs of shoes I have and how I feel about that number.


Thank you for suggesting blogs you think I'll like and for letting me know that sometimes you like mine too.


Thank you for updating so often that each time I check back (no matter how often I do it), one of you has said something new and worthwhile.


And today... thank you for letting me know several times over that today is National Coffee Day. Without you, I'd have missed it completely.


This homemade pumpkin spice latte is for you, tweethearts.

Love and 140 characters,

Amanda Fiercehair

P.S. Did anyone else catch that *the* Jillian Michaels responded to me today?! Yep! She did! I told her she was a cruel mistress, and she said... wait for it... wait for it...


"thank you."

*Swoon*

Thank you too for understanding how excited I got about that.

Bagel Brunch!

I don't know what it is about bagels, but I love them.

Love, love, love them.

What else do I love?

Well, a lot of things. But for the purposes of this post... BRUNCH!

So, this week I picked up some bagels and this weekend, I had an Aha! moment.

Why can't I french toast a bagel?! Well... boys and girls... I can now tell you without any hesitation that there is no good reason why I (or you) can't french toast a bagel.

Walk this way.



Step 1: Turn on Grey's Anatomy (oh hai, Arizona!) and slice your bagel at least once. I sliced mine into 4 pieces. 3 would be perfect... but my bagel was pre-sliced. So... 4.

Step 2: Crack two eggs into a big, shallow bowl. Whisk them up with 1/2 tablespoon of milk, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon extract, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.


Step 3: Dip a slice-o-bagel in the egg mixture, and fry it up.


Step 4: Reassemble the bagel as the slices are fried. Place in front of Grey's Anatomy episode still in progress.


Step 5: Add butter and syrup to taste. Enjoy the bagelly goodness.

Mmmm... I wholeheartedly approve.

What would be better? Some sort of fruit topping. Or filling. Or cream cheese filling with a fruit topping. Just saying.

Those bagelly layers are just screaming for something colorful and tasty. Hmm... I'll keep you posted.

Carry on, brunchers!

That Time April Rubbed Her Meat and I Watched

I almost feel like I should leave the post at that.

You could gasp. Or laugh. Or cringe. ...And then we could all go on our merry ways and look elsewhere for either a good recipe or a good ol' NSFW post.

But... because we all know I'm not good at leaving well enough alone (shut up, Alicia), I'll write out a post that will drag out the joke until you don't so much as remember that it was ever even a little bit funny in the first place.

Eeeee... I can't wait!

We'll get to April in a minute, but first... another Southern lady. THE Southern lady, if you're asking me.



See... Paula Deen is always saying, "Rub your meat, rub your meat, rub your meat." Though I love Paula, I do not love raw meat. I might even hate it. I might even be making an ew face as I type this.


(By "might" I mean that I am. And it looks exactly like this.)

Anyway... so how am I to prove that my meatloaf is no ordinary meatloaf when I would really rather not touch the meat myself? Well... this time... I started by chopping up a bunch of really beautiful vegetables.



Frying them up with some spices and such...


And then I let April loose on the meat.


Do you guys remember the ew face? Because it comes back when I look at these pictures too.


So much meat touching.

Blech. In the end though, we ended up with a lovely spread.


A spicy cajun meatloaf and bacon, cheddar, jalapeno biscuits. Oh yeah, and a salad.

Mmm... so... meat touching... not great. I do it. But with the ew face.

These recipes, on the other hand, really are great. Try them. Like now. And don't forget to rub your meat, rub your meat, rub your meat.

Or find a friend who is willing to rub it for you.

Salmon... Hot Pockets?

Put your Golden Girls hat on, because (like Blanche) I'm about to set the scene...

Imagine you've had a long day. About as long as they come for you. Perhaps it was a long day at the office. Or running around after the kiddos. Or... you know... darning your cats' sweaters. I'm not judging; you do you. The important part of the whole thing is that your day has been long. Good... Surprisingly good... But still long.

You're chilaxin' all groggy-like in bed after a quick little nap. A nap marred oddly by one of those dreams in which you're inexplicably naked. In a room that starts out awkwardly small and shrinks until it's touching you on two sides at once.

You're lazily playing around on your phone when a friend calls in. Turns out her day has been longer. And more stressful. And it may have included tests. She asks about your plans for the night. You tell her you have none. She asks about dinner, you mumble something about checking the fridge. Three minutes later, you've offered to make her dinner and uttered the supremely casual "come over whenever," as if you weren't laying in bed, playing on your phone, nearly naked and still half asleep.

Tell me, dear readers, what are you thinking right now. Right now as you lay on the bed, knowing what lies ahead of you in the next 20 minutes? (The amount of time the friend said it would take her to get your place, btdubs.) Go ahead... I'll wait here while you go leave your answer as a comment. I want to know.

Because what I was thinking was twofold.

1 - What the hell am I going to make for dinner?

2 - Do I put on real clothes for this friend. Or will pajamas do at 7pm?

I answered the second question first when I decided that, yes, this friend merited real clothes. I'll have to ask her if she appreciated (or noticed) that detail.

The first question though... was slightly more involved. After taking stock of the fridge and pantry, I decided that roasted broccoli (a crowd favorite... as long as the crowd is me) would happen.


Done and done.

And what to go with? Let's see... frozen pie crust... some thinly sliced ham... 10 eggs... banana cream pie yogurt... whole wheat linguine... this was not going well. Until... I saw them.

A can of refrigerated crescent rolls. *cue singing angels*

I rescrounged with a new purpose and found frozen salmon burgers and pepper jack cheese. I cooked the burgers in a skillet per pkg instructions, topped each with a piece of pepper jack cheese, and wrapped each in a rectangle of crescent roll dough.

And voila. The long day salmon hot pocket of goodness was born.


I know, I know. You're impressed. As you should be.

But you're also curious. Just because I wrap something in a crescent roll doesn't mean it's automatically going to be tasty. Well... if that's what you think... then you have some more thinking to do. Because that pretty much is what happens when you wrap something in a crescent roll. It goes straight from okay to... okay wrapped in golden, buttery, crescent roll. Which is... hella good.

Overall, we decided the salmon hot pocket was... a lot of salmon. It needs something to jazz it up and cut the... salmon-ness a bit. The friend mentioned something about orange slices that she saw on a pbs cooking show. I threw my hands in the air.

And then she cut up a peach that we ate... with the skin ON. I know. Very Georgia of us.

So help two tired girls out. What does this salmon hot pocket creation need between the salmon and the crescent goodness?

Naany-Naany-Boo-Boo...

Pssst...

I toasted half a piece of my garlic naan Monday night to go with my eggs and facon.

Gurl.

It was so good.


Eggs, fluffy and cheesy. Naan, warm and garlicky. Facon, umm... well... facony.

Just... wanted to let you know.

*slinks back into the blog shadows*

Don't Tease Me with a Naan Time

Today as I was wrapping up my trip to Walmart for essentials like drain clog remover and mascara, my eye caught sight of the... bread section.

And when I got closer, I saw it... Garlic Naan. From the Walmart bakery.

I flipped the package over and read a list of things I could do with my (oh yes, I had already committed) garlic naan. And on the list of things I could make... tuna melt naan, pizza naan, naan wraps, naan dippers, naanwiches, naantons, naan toast and... wait for it... PANINI NAAN.

Well. Didn't have to tell me twice.



My panini naan was simple enough. I used a collection of stuffs from the fridge. Ham, sour cream, and feta, actually.

Random, yes. Delicious? You betcha.

So... I share this naan goodness with you not so you'll buy my random ingredients and duplicate it. What you should do is... strike out and trust Walmart with something fancy. Apparently they can handle naan. (And drain cleaner. And mascara. And torture devices.)

Happy Monday, lovelies.

Busy Day and Awkward Blogging. Oh, and a Burger.

Harumph, dear readers. Just... harumph.


(ground turkey... for the weak at... stomach?)

I uploaded the pics for this blogpost last night. I'd been saving this blog post all day as my reward for doing real work.

So last night when I realized that I had done my work and was completely prepped for Tuesdays teaching marathon, I dutifully selected the few pics that would actually make it from my memory card to this post.

By "dutifully selected", I most nearly mean that I narrowed each shot down to a couple of options and quizzed a semi-willing friend on "which is better?" Small beans... the pictures were selected by someone.


And then they were uploaded.

And then they were put in order.

And then I stared at them.


I... had nothing. No words. No inspiration. No motivation even.

I bugged the same semi-willing friend for a topic. She... was no help. She even compared some of my pics (the only things I had going for me at that point) to dog food.

Yes. Yes, I know. We're no longer friends.


So... I metaphorically shelved this blogpost for the night. I closed the laptop. I walked away. I slept on it.

(Who am I kidding? I slept on my bed.)


But then something funny happened at lunch today. Or... more accurately... in the small portion of time in which I should be having lunch.

Something about eating poptarts from a refrigerated vending machine just... well... made me remember everything that was wonderful about the burgers I couldn't bring myself to post last night.


So there you have it.

A glimpse into the inner workings of my bizarre little mind, and a new twist on some leftovers that you may recognize from the Easy Gyro Pizza.

Here's the rough recipe: (I'm blogging from the office, remember?)

.5 lb of ground turkey
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste (meaning I didn't measure)
half a red onion, chopped
pat of butter for sauteeing onion
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
sour cream
feta cheese
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 egg

1. In a small skillet, brown up the red onion in butter.
2. In medium bowl, combine ground turkey, oregano, salt, pepper, and red onion. Mix.
3. Form into three patties, filling each with a bit of mozzarella cheese.
4. Cook patties in a medium skillet.
5. Lay out thawed puff pastry sheet.
6. Dollop sour cream in the middle of each sheet and top with feta. When burgers are done, place on top of feta.
7. Wrap puff pastry around burger and seal edges.
8. Brush pastry tops with egg wash.
9. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown.

I hope your lunch was better than mine. Two hours later... I'm already hungry.

Pizza and a Movie

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might remember my excitement a while back over getting a new neighbor. You might also remember that we had dinner a few weeks back. You might even remember that at this dinner we both confessed to being Twitter nerds and... well... tweeting about each other.

If you don't remember any of that, then I'd say you're either not reading or not retaining. Both things you should work on. Until then... I'll show you some pretty pictures and flashy videos and catch you up on what April, Amanda, and Amanda (mmhmm... we share a name) did last night.

We made Pillsbury's Easy Gyro Pizza and found that it was easy and definitely yum:


(if you're not about to click through that recipe link, I'll give you a heads up on the main ingredients: refrig pizza crust, sour cream, mozzarella, ground turkey, cucumber, tomato, feta, red onion)

While we digested, we gasped and cursed our way through Session 9:



A good time was had by all. We also exchanged Twitter info so that we can be real (internet) friends.

What did you kittens do on Friday night?

Oh, and who wants to be my Twitter friend? ; )

Spaghetti Squash, Shmaghetti Squash

Hey, guys.

*shuffles feet, looks at ground*

Didja... miss me?

*crickets*

Well... whatevs. I missed you suckers.

So I'm back. And I've made you dinner. Alright... fine, I'll be straight with you: I made myself dinner. And I took pictures of it for you.

So what are we am I having?

only Spaghetti Squash!

I forgot to take a picture of the whole squash, but you can probably imagine what it looked like. Annnnd... you can probably imagine the epic struggle that took place when I had to cut that squash in half lengthwise...

I grunted. I strained. I took breaks. I might have even broken a sweat. I don't remember now.

Anyway, this is what I came up with.


Two halves. One gutted, one not. For comparison purposes.

Now, I first thought "this is will be my first and last experience making my own spaghetti squash" when trying to cut the damn thing. The second time I thought that was when I cracked it open and caught sight of what looked an awful lot like pumpkin gunk. Ew.

Luckily it's much easier to rid spaghetti squash of their gunk than it is pumpkins.


Once gutted, the spaghetti squash halves got the spa treatment with some olive oil, salt, pepper and a 350 degree oven.


See how handy I am with a knife? Take note. I had A LOT of control of what was going on with that knife.

*over-dramatic eye roll*


After about 30 minutes, the squash looked like this. Almost falling apart into its spaghetti-ness. I took a fork to it, dumped it into a bowl with a bit of butter (alright, it was vegan "buttery spread" but it worked), parmesan cheese, and bit more salt and pepper.


It was... so delicious.

I do think it was bit overcooked, because I've had spaghetti squash that was firmer. So... ugh... I guess I will have to make another date with the knife in the near future.

This next time, though, I'm going to send out a text to let someone know that I'm taking my life in my own hands. Just in cases.