My personal chef

I’m thinking of hiring my sister as my personal chef seeing as she’s already becoming my personal assistant. (I’m gonna pay her $25 to organize the explosion of TG stuff that’s taken over my room, my bro’s room and the basement.)

She and her boyfriend made recipes from PostPunkKitchen.com for dinner.

Jerk Tofu

prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 16 minutes | makes 6

Ingredients
1 lb Extra Firm tofu, pressed for at least an hour*

For the marinade:
1/2 large white onion, roughly choppped
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
juice of 2 limes
zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (or one if you don’t want it too spicy)

Directions
Puree all ingredients for the marinade.

Slice the pressed tofu into long triangles like this:
Slice into eigths width-wise
Slice each eigth in half into a long triangle

Marinade tofu in a bowl for an hour covered adjusting slices once.

Prepare the skillet with a thin coat of olive oil and turn heat to medium high. When pan is hot, lay tofu in a sigle layer. Cook for 8 minutes on each side.

Serve!

*To press tofu, wrap in paper towels or a clean dish towel and press under the weight of a heavy object, such as a skillet with a heavy book in it. Turn over after 1/2 hour. This will get the water out and allow the tofu to soak up more of the marinade.

Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables

prep time: 20 minutes | cooking time: 45 minutes | makes 6 – 8 servings

Ingredients
1 lb parsnips (about 2 average sized)
2 large carrots
1 butternut squash
1 lb sweet potatoes (about 3 medium size)
2 heaping tablespoons grated ginger
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil
pinch cinnamon
pinch allspice
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wash and peel all veggies (get the seeds out of the squash), cut into 3/4 inch slices. Line baking sheets with tinfoil and lightly grease them.

In a large bowl combine all ingredients, and make sure all veggies are coated. Doing this with your hands works best.

Line veggies on the baking sheet in a single layer. If there is any extra liquid pour it over the veggies.

Put one sheet of veggie on the middle rach and one on the upper rack of oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and flip veggies. Return to oven, but put the one that was on the lower rack on the upper rack now, and vice versa. Bake 20 or so more minutes, until veggies are tender inside.

Sister, Sister

My sister and I went on a date tonight to see SATC. We headed into the mall first because I need to find shoes to wear to the MI Emmys on Sat. (I was hoping I wouldn’t get wrangled into going, but alas I did. Black tie events are just not for me…at least I already have a dress.) I bought a pair of super hot gold pumps which I think I’m going to end up taking back…when the hell am I gonna wear them? I also ordered two pairs of shoes online because it takes a lot to find shoes to fit my little feets. (<3 Zappos)

Then we drove down to the theater and bought tickets before walking over to Stir Crazy for dinner. We were cutting it close on time so we got dessert to go and ate it in the theater during the previews. Best idea ever! The movie…amazing. I need to go shopping NOW! I almost cried a little at the end.

Kate and I have never been super close. We get along and hang out sometimes, shopping or something, but not like this. Not dinner and a movie and quality sister time. I’ll admit I was not the nicest older sister growing up and I think we’re now just getting past that. We are a lot alike (we generally look like twins and dress very similar) and I’m glad she’s home from college for the summer so we can bond.

Blue dress, red dress

1. Guacamole Pringles are my new fave…wish I hadn’t eaten all of them in the first 5 minutes I was at work this morning.

2. Kate and I are finally going to see Sex And The City tonight. Yes, I know, we’re the last people on earth to go see it. At least I won’t have to fight for a seat with teens in sparkly floral dresses and heels they can’t walk in.

3. I know that movie is going to make me hate every piece of clothing I own. I made sure to dress extra cute today, so I don’t feel totally schlumpy all night. (yes schlumpy is a word…I learned it from my aunts)

In an attempt to force me to take the yoga class on my 101 list:

B: your mind is like a hungry octopus
B: theres so much going on
B: and you spend so much time worrying about other people
B: id like to do things to help you worry about you

He’s amazing

Get yo race on

I finally finished all the shirts for tomorrow and they turned out awesome. I only had to go buy iron-on transfers three times! Sat down and started printing them today and my ink cartridge runs out. So I called Kate to have her stop at Kinkos and get one before she came home, which totally saved the day and my sanity.

I tried to get them done in advance this time, but my lack of interest in reading directions really screwed me.

Brian is trying to figure out blogging and I’m coaching him through it over the phone. It’s very cute.

Duh!

So far I’ve spent the day trolling blogs looking for something interesting at add to my reader so I can waste time at work. My sister is upstairs straightening her boyfriends hair, which I’m sure will look hilarious when it’s done. She even managed to use a couple unnecessary purple hair clips, which just makes it even more funny to watch.

Talked to B all morning on aim since he has the day off. He always manages to ask the right questions and give the right prompts to help me have some sort of epiphany about my mental state. This morning’s topic – mommy issues.

He also made me laugh for the first time in a couple days by declaring my MySpace friends list to be a sham and then remembering that he wanted a sham cloth we saw on an infomercial once.

I’m still trying to find the motivation to get off the couch, get dressed and go pick up supplies to make our Race For The Cure shirts. Still kinda hoping printer cartridges and iron-on transfers will randomly appear in my house.

Spring Cleaning

This morning I half-jokingly told my sister I’d pay her $10 to clean my room, which has looked like an explosion for the past two months. She’s a college student and job hunting so she was interested.

I had completely forgotten about the offer until I came home from work, walked into my room and stopped short because it was SPOTLESS. I can’t remember what all was on the floor, but I’m sure I’ll be searching for a few things in the next week.

I’d say it was 10 bucks well spent. I wonder what else I can pay her to do…