-41 with the Wind Chill Means Hot and Sour Soup, Y'all!!!

Butterballs, butterballs,
The forecast today calls for a major wind chill warning, and I quote, "Long term exposure can result in hypothermia, frost bite, or DEATH."  Cheery, no?  That last part is my favorite.  What that means for us is no time outside, and my tolerance for getting in and out of the car is at an all time low.  THAT means, I had to get gas for carpool, so that used up my "getting out of the car" quotient for the day, so that means, Refrigerator Roulette!  Here's a rough summary of Matt and my week night thought process:

Matt: The new Bon Appetit came yesterday!

Katie: Oooooooo, what's on the cover?

Matt:  Fancy chicken and dumplings!  With mushrooms!

Katie:  Oohhhhh, we have mushrooms!

Matt:  We could make this!

Katie:  Okay, I'll thaw some chicken!

Matt:......reading

Katie:  *Googling hot and sour soup because the cover photo looked more like hot and sour soup than chicken and dumplings*

Matt:  This takes two and a half hours and you have to own a pressure cooker.  Also what's a morel?

Katie:  That's okay, I'm already making hot and sour soup!  Also, I'm not thawing chicken, because I will probably eat all the left over pizza while our shitty microwave takes ten hours to thaw all the chicken. 

So the long and the short of it is that we made hot and sour soup with left over breakfast sausage. 

Hot and sour soup is something that you only buy the morning after one too many 7 and 7's in a Chinese restaurant (you can infer the kind of Chinese restaurant by the fact that this story takes place in the morning...), and you only have $15 in your bank account (i.e. college).  It is full of meat, egg, mushrooms, and grease, and can usually be purchased in near-gallon-drum quantities for a little less than dirt cheap.  While this does not aptly describe our circumstances this evening, since we haven't been 21 now for several years (read: I drink a glass of wine, make some sort of creation for dinner, and fall asleep watching Dr. Quinn in bed at 9 p.m. nearly every day), and we have to get up in the morning for silly things like work, and feeding the fur babies, and drinking coffee, this turned out particularly well.   I also didn't use any of the recipes I found, since most of them required things like tofu, so here's how to make my faux hot and sour soup!

To make my week night savior Hot and Sour Soup you will need:
 1/2 pound shitake mushrooms sliced
6 mini bell peppers, for color, sliced in little rings
1 head broccoli, chopped 
1 small onion halved and sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 green onions, chopped
a few tablespoons olive oil
3/4 lb. browned sausage (or any kind of protein, chicken or pork would also be great, Matt usually doesn't define a dish as dinner unless it contains animal)
4 eggs, lightly whisked
2 cans (4 cups) Chicken stock
2 cups water
1/2 cup white wine
5 tbsp corn starch
3 tbsp sriracha
1 tsp chili flakes, or to taste
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 tbsp. soy sauce (I always use low sodium)

Brown the onion, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms and peppers in olive oil in a large stock pot.  Add in the sausage, stock, water, wine, sriracha, chili flake, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Bring to a boil, add in the corn starch, simmer for 15 minutes to thicken.  Bring the heat down to medium, drizzle the egg into the hot soup, stir lightly.  Stir in the green onion.  Serve with egg rolls (which I did not, in fact, have.  If it were payday, I would serve this with egg rolls...).  Although the picture might suggest otherwise, you should not share this with the furry children.  Unless you are fond of cleaning spicy, spicy carpet stains. 

Enjoy, because it's mighty cold out there, friends.  Remember, don't prolongedly expose yourself, because of that whole "death" thing.  Really it makes far more sense to make yourself some soup and drink a glass of whatever.  As always, love and best fishes!

Happy "Mew" Year Lo Mein!

Howdy Y'all, Butterballs!
Happy New Year!  I hope you and yours had a fulfilling, and filling, experience over your holiday season!  Matt, myself and the cat spent our time, sleeping, entertaining, and of course, eating.  We were lucky enough to spend a week in Dillon with both of our respective families over the break, followed by two days of Megan Peck time, and a dubstep dance party on New Years Eve.  We were both back to work on Wednesday, and soon discovered that our time off was socially exciting, though not exactly the most restful nine days of our lives.

Now, I am not one for New Year Resolutions.  As close as I got this year was resolving to get all my laundry done by the time school started on Wednesday.  I did, in fact, get that done, so I am a big fat success, be jealous.  Butter's resolution was to be more comfortable with his body image, and since he really couldn't care less anyway, our family is two for two.

During our time of entertaining, we fully took advantage of our house's proximity to McDonald's, Arby's, and Taco Bell, so we were... resolute, perhaps, to cook this week.  As soon as we made this decision, my car crapped out, and we had to spend two evenings trying to get it towed to the car guy.  On Wednesday, we thought that if we couldn't eat at home, we'd at least try to eat healthy, so we decided to try a local fresh sandwich shop.  This ended up being about the worst culinary decision we've ever made.  Between mine being soaked with (unrequested) vinegar, and Matt's club sandwich being slathered in hot Chinese mustard, we had to go eat a cheeseburger to get the taste out of our mouths.  Friday, we took advantage of roughly $75 in free Outback steakhouse money we got for Christmas, and Thursday, I made this healthy lo mein.

Now, in addition to our usual secret cheap grocery spots (read: Walmart), we've also been frequenting Costco, also known as Senior Citizen Heaven and "I just have one thing to get because bulk shopping makes almost no sense for two people" Hell.  "What could you possibly need at Costco for a family of two that won't be so stale you could use it as paving tile by the time you use it up?", you might ask.  My answer would be: roughly ten thousand pounds of whole wheat spaghetti.  Now, we didn't end up with this much pasta intentionally.  Due to some health factors that were brought to my attention last fall, we've been cutting back on our refined carbs, and our dairy products, so naturally we were super excited when we saw that all this fancy pasta (if I have to give up dairy, there is absolutely no way in the world I am giving up pasta) for like, $1 a pound.  So naturally Matt bought ten pounds, then one month later, with the best of intentions, bought ten more.  Pretty much the only thing we have yet to do with spaghetti is make those little smokey octopus things on Pinterest...

To make Butters' Mew Year Resolution Lo Mein you will need:
3/4 lb whole wheat spaghetti
2 large chicken breasts, thinly sliced on the bias
1/4 cup (or more to taste) low sodium soy sauce
enough olive oil to cook your veg, chicken, and finish your dish
1 and 1/2 large carrots, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced into strips
1 head of broccoli with the heads cut into bite sized pieces
4 bias cut green onions for garnish
salt and pepper to taste for chicken

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan or wok on medium heat, add in carrots, yellow onion and broccoli, cook until the onions are translucent and the other veggies are tender.  Remove vegetables to a bowl, add a little more oil, and add in chicken.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until slightly browned. While your chicken is cooking, boil your pasta until al dente.  Add vegetables and (drained) pasta into pan with chicken.  Drizzle with soy sauce and olive oil, and toss.  Garnish with green onions.  Serve with eggrolls or potstickers.

Enjoy, my sweet Butterballs!  This New Year I am grateful for friends, family, and of course, all of your pretty faces!  Best Fishes for a prosperous and well fed New Year!