The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

BBQ Meatballs

My wonderful boyf, PDubbs, has graciously agreed to write a guest post recapping tonight's cooking adventure. Take it away, PDubbs! -MegJo

So today I woke up feeling very crummy from my allergies. I was congested and had a sore throat. But, Megan took care of me preparing breakfast and coffee, and later some hot tea. We watched the series premiere of Pioneer Woman’s new cooking show on Food Network. The show was great, and I can’t wait for next week’s episode! Inspired by Pioneer Woman, we decided to make a dish from her cookbook for dinner. We agreed on her BBQ Meatballs, and it was definitely a good choice! I started off by preparing the potatoes for the side dish, while Megan prepared the meatballs. She formed them into perfect sized balls.

After a quick 10 minutes in the freezer, the meatballs got covered in flour.

Then they were ready for some sizzling in our new cast iron skillet!

After lightly browning them, they got covered in the yummy tomato sauce Megan prepared and baked in the oven for 45 minutes.

They came out hot and sizzlin’.

We served them alongside “Polish style” potatoes (just plain boiled to perfection potatoes), as well as a nice “Baja Corn Medley” we picked up at Sams Club the other day.

The meal was perfect and tasted amazing! There’s nothing better than doing the things you love with the person you love.

-PDubbs

Dinner for Two

In honor of moving into our new apartment (pictures to come!), PDubbs and I decided to make a fancy dinner. Something new and adventurous and fresh. During our shopping trip to Publix, we spotted beautiful asparagus bundles that we couldn't turn down. While thinking of something to do with our first ingredient, PDubbs mentioned a shortcut recipe for risotto using short grain rice instead of the typical (expensive) arborio variety. Asparagus risotto it was!

I perused Tasty Kitchen when we got home and found a recipe for Simple Asparagus Risotto from Erica Nicole of Pearls in the Kitchen. We substituted a few ingredients for what we had on hand and browned up some spicy mango with jalapeno sausage we had in the fridge. Nom nom nom!

To start, we poured in 4 cups of broth (we used chicken) to a saucepan and cover. Heat the broth over medium-low to low heat. Keep it warm throughout the cooking process to help your little rice soak up as much juice as they can.

In a separate saucepan, we added about a tablespoon of butter over medium-low heat. Once the butter melted, PDubbs added 1/2 an onion & garlic. We opted for lots and lots, about 5 cloves but we would probably add more next time for a richer garlic flavor. Like I always say, it's not enough garlic if you don't wake up the next morning to garlic breath. Just kidding, girls don't get garlic breath.

After about 5 minutes, add all 1 1/2 cups of the short grain rice and stir to coat with that delicious buttery-garlicky-oniony juice.

Once the rice is coated in yummy, add 1/2 cup of the warm broth and all of your asparagus.

And commence the stirring!

And stir and stir and stir. Once the rice has absorbed all of the liquid, add another 1/2 cup of the warm broth. Continue until all of the broth has been added to the pot. Our asparagus was still a little undercooked so we added our last 1/2 cup and put the lid on to let the asparagus cook by steam.

While the asparagus did it's thing, we browned up some sausage. We bought the fully-cooked variety so it only needed a couple of minutes on each side.

Once the asparagus was nice and tender, we stirred in some shaved parmesan and salted to taste. Then just spoon it in a bowl and plop some sausages on top. I'm not going to lie, risotto has always intimidated me with the constant stirring and after seeing Jyll's risotto disaster unfold on Next Food Network Star, I had my doubts. But this recipe was super easy to follow and the results were delicious! The short-grain rice plumped up beautifully and released it's starches to make that signature risotto consistency just like arborio. Plus, with just a splash of water, it reheated beautifully in the microwave the next day. And it's significantly cheaper - win-win! This recipe is also a great base for a variety of add-ins.

Tomatoes & basil? Yum. Lemon & rosemary? Mhmm. Black olives & sundried tomatoes? Yes, please!

Now it's time to prepare for my last fall as an undergrad. Where has the time gone?

Harry Potter: A Reflection

That's it, it's over. My childhood has officially ended.

I spent it surrounded by gleeful young adults donning round spectacles, makeshift wands & magic-markered lightning-bolt shaped scars on their foreheads. Most of them were complete strangers. But Luna was there and Mad-Eye Moody, too.

At 12:40 AM, the lights dimmed for the last time. As the Warner Bros. appeared on the screen around 12:41 AM, my eyes blurred with tears (This would happen periodically throughout the night.). Just as when I opened the first page some 14 years ago, I was instantly sucked into the incredibly complex fictional world of wizards, witchcraft & wizardry. And for the next 130 minutes, I tried to absorb every detail of every minute of the 130-minute finale. I wanted to make it last.

And I was not disappointed. I thought the movie perfectly captured the action-packed finale of the series we've grown to know and love. The thing I love most about the movies is seeing the director's imagination come to life. And to see how far the actors and technology have come since the first film - WOW! What a difference 10 years make!

I distinctly remember the first time I laid eyes on the Harry Potter book. It was the summer of 1998 and I spent a few days visiting my Aunt Amy in Massachusetts. I was an avid reader at the time so we stopped in a local book store on one of our excursions. I probably spent 30 minutes perusing the shelves before my aunt picked out a thick hardback with a colorful cover, adorned with the illustration of a boy with disheveled hair, round glasses & a lightning-bolt shaped scar:

"Oooh, Megan! Have you heard about this Harry Potter book? It's about a normal boy who goes to a wizard school! I've heard great things about it. What do you think?"

"Hmm, that's cool, but what about this book about horses..."

Ok, so I didn't jump on the bandwagon right away. I actually don't how I first started reading the series. But I do know that once I started, I was hooked. I read for hours upon hours as reality dissolved into the imaginary world that J.K. Rowling created so flawlessly. The Harry Potter series was my first true literary love.

Fortunately, I was surrounded by other Potter fans. My mom & I took turns reading the books as they came out. My best friend and I wrote each other letters of acceptance into Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for our 11th birthdays. In 6th grade, I wore round glasses to school & got signed out early with friends to see the first movie (thanks, Mom!). I attended a Harry Potter-themed birthday in 8th grade, complete with a Quidditch cake and customized wands (thanks, Becca!). My same group of high school friends preempted midnight premieres with movie marathons. The summer before my senior year of high school, I stayed up all night reading the last book because I could not put it down physically or emotionally.

I essentially grew up with the main characters. In my humble opinion, Rowling did an incredible job creating such realistic and complex characters. When Harry broke his arm, I broke my arm. When they were on the rocks with friends, I was on the rocks with friends. When they were struggling with hormones, I was struggling with hormones. When they were riding dragons, I was driving cars. Ok, again, not exactly the same but you get the picture. Through her masterful use of words, I felt like I knew Rowling’s characters as well as I knew my own friends.

And they were real. They made their share of mistakes but everyone does. I believe what made them different and endearing was that they continued to make conscious choices for GOOD. And not just for their own benefit or even the benefit of their friends, but for a greater good. They stood up to peer pressure and never backed down. They weren’t afraid to make the unpopular decision or stand up to bullies. They realized at an early age even though they were still kids, they had the immense responsibility to save the wizarding world. And although I can't personally relate to their quest to save the world, I think their mission reflects a more noble value: choosing to make the right choice. And that is the most powerful message Rowling has granted our generation.

And although my generation makes up the majority of the readership, the Harry Potter series resonates with all types of people across the age spectrum. In my lifetime I don’t know if another book series will affect so many people. But I hope it perseveres and continues to spark a love of reading in young people as they become pulled into the lovely fantasy world of Harry Potter and his friends again and again like it did for me.

So thank you, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint & so many other talented actors & crew that have taken these characters from words on a page to real-life role models.

Thank you to my friends and family who have imparted on me a happy childhood filled with fun memories that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for creating a phenomenon, a common thread for so many, and a great story about loyalty, love and doing the right thing.

Cheers!

EDIT: I have been informed that my grandma Ownie bought my first two Harry Potter books. So, thank you, Ownie, for opening up my little 9-year-old world to the magical world of Harry & his friends!

Wordless Wednesday - Give a Kid a Camera