How-To: Olive Cheesy-Eggs

Plain scrambled eggs live on the long list of things that I absolutely cannot stand to eat, but recently I've invented a new version that I like MUCH better. And felt like sharing.

Olive Cheesy-Eggs: 2 Eggs, 6-ish Manzanilla Olives (the green ones with the orange things inside), Shredded Cheese (the bagged kind), and Kalamata Olive Spread.

1. Chop the olives. I cut them three times in both directions, but it doesn't really matter.

2. Put two eggs, a small handful of shredded cheese, the chopped olives and a half-spoon of kalamata olive spread into a cup. I use this amount as about one serving. (By the way, kalamata olive spread is fantastic on sandwiches, too, so I recommend having it around.)

3. Put a slice of butter into a small pan set on medium heat. Spread the butter around the pan as it starts to melt, and then pour the egg-mixture in as well.

4.  Scramble them! When the liquid mixture starts to bubble, begin pushing it around with a spatula. It'll look cooked after a couple flips, but it's only done when the wet, eggy-parts are gone.

And viola! You have Olive Cheesy-Eggs!

Enjoy :)

Baking Adventure #3

   

Since I've been having a pumpkin obsession recently, I decided I had to make Nutella Cheesecake Pumpkin muffins. Which wasn't as random as it sounds; I found a recipe when visiting my cooking muse, and then I had to make it. It was no longer a choice.

And if you can't tell by the zillion muffin pictures, I'm very proud of them. They actually look like they turned out properly! It's a miracle! They taste really good, too... which is always a plus. 

The recipe was super easy compared to my more recent adventures, and there's even a version with commentary and pictures. Which is this version. Which is probably my favorite version, but it's not exactly easy to print out without creating a small novel. 

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

xoxo

Wednesday Wileys

So it turns out Wiley still hates getting his picture taken, and it apparently had nothing at all to do with the cone. Which is a fact that I find VERY inconvenient when considering the future of my Wednesdays.
In other news, he celebrated Halloween on Monday by pulling all the stuffing out of his bee toys and spreading it around the living room like some nasty bee-murder. The picture I posted isn't what it looked like. It was much worse.

Happy Wednesday!

700!

699 is a big number,

but 700 is even better.

So thank you to all of you wonderful people out there who click on the links I post and make this possible. I don't necessarily know who you are, it may have been accidental, and you may not actually read anything I write, but I still appreciate you.

Over and out.

10 Favorites

1. The CD my gorgeous friend and partner-in-crime Brittany made for me this summer (it's amazing and I'm listening to it right now) <3 I might post a link to the tracks on it. If I don't get distracted first.

2. The Pioneer Woman's blog. I love it to death, probably because a part of me wants to be Ree Drummond. (I can't help it, honest.)

3. Red nail-polish, and the color red in general. Red is basically the best color ever, other than orange, which is just red plus yellow. And speaking of orange...
4. Coca-Cola's new World Champion cans. 'Nuff said.

5. Is it over the top if I say best movie ever made? Probably. But it's definitely up there.

6. Uglydoll Ice-Bats: they're so ugly, they're cute. And these two are Halloween colored, which means one of them is orange, and the other is black...

7. Slipper-boots. GAH! I love them so much. Wait - what's that color on them?? Yeah...

8. My new shoes and necklace. The shoes are cute, and the necklace is a wishbone, which is just AWESOME. Thank you, Sway in Oakland, for existing, and Angela for taking me there and being awesome, too.

8. The relationship between my dog Wiley and my cat. She hates him so much, but for some reason he's convinced she's his new best friend. He actually tries to PLAY with her... and then she tries to scratch his face off. Absolutely adorable.

9. The way Wiley tears off the hair on his new bee toys. It's obviously a show of intelligence, because bees don't have hair on their heads. Good boy.

10. Drinking Yerba Mate tea in a Tigger cup, while wearing fingerless orange knit gloves. And yes, that does count as one thing, because it's an experience, okay? Everyone should try it. Instant Fall.

xoxo

Wednesday Wileys

These days, Wiley refuses to let me take his picture. I'm convinced it has something to do with the complex he's getting from me calling him Cone Head, so hopefully when he gets it off later today he'll be over the running-away thing.

He's also decided that the most interesting thing he can do with his time is find something to chew on. Whether it be my shoe, my leg, the laundry or a tissue box, he'll grab it whenever he gets the chance and run off. Which is amusing, unless it's my leg. Or shoe.

That is literally the best picture he let me take of him today. And as you can probably tell, he was caught by surprise.

My other two (photogenic) pets would like you to know that they very willingly sit still and pose for me whenever I want to take their pictures, even though they don't have days dedicated to them. And since Wiley was being uncooperative, I thought they might as well get to be stars, too.

xoxo

How-To: Fried Chicken

Recently, I've been having serious fried chicken cravings. Why? No clue. But I decided it was worth satisfying with REAL fried chicken (a.k.a. not KFC), and that was what I did this weekend.

Pre-Prep: I started with a whole, raw chicken, and then cut it into the appropriate pieces; but since that's a pretty difficult procedure to explain, for the sake of this post you either know how to do it, or you bought a pre-cut chicken/pieces of chicken. Soak the meat in a bowl of milk for several hours before you want to fry it. 

Ingredients: Chicken, Milk, Flour, Salt, Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Oil.

Materials: Three Bowls, Pan, Stove, Tongs, Plate Covered in Paper Towels.

1: Take two bowls, fill one with flour, and make an assembly line of sorts with the milk-chicken bowl first, then flour and empty bowls.
2: Remove a piece of chicken from the milk and pour a light covering of the two peppers and salt over it. Roll this piece in the flour so that it is completely floured. Do this with all the chicken pieces and place them in the empty bowl.
3: Pour vegetable oil into the pan so that it's approximately 3/4 of an inch full, and set on medium heat. To check the temperature, hold your palm over the oil: when it feels hot, flick a drop of water into the oil. If it sizzles, it's ready.
4: CAREFULLY set as many pieces of chicken as you can into the pan. Try not to move them once you put them in.
5: When the submerged pieces of chicken begin to look brown, lift them to see if the bottom has turned a golden brown. If so, carefully flip the pieces over.
6: Your fried chicken is completely done when both sides are a nice, golden brown. Carefully remove them from the oil and set on a paper-towel covered plate. If you have more chicken to fry, cover the plate loosely with aluminum foil and place in the oven on warm, and repeat steps 4-6 with the second batch. 

And ta-da! You have authentic, delicious fried chicken. Serve warm or cold; it's great either way.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Meet Wiley!

Greetings from the newest member of my family! My baby Wiley was a stray living in the Southwest desert, but now he's an adorable, food-obsessed, vain (yes, he actually DOES like to look at himself in the mirror...) city-dog. And other than the fact that he catapults his body at me whenever I have food, and sometimes he likes to wake me up at 5:44 by whining in my face, jumping up on my bed, and rolling on top of me, he's fantastic.

Unfortunately for him, he has to wear the cone of shame for several weeks due to some surgery. He keeps running into door jams with it (which is extremely funny and sad at the same time), and now whenever I take the camera out, he runs away.

Very self-conscious about it, apparently.

xoxo


P.S. And since I know you're probably thinking it, yes, I do know the word "wily" is not spelled with an E, and yes, I also know Wile E. Coyote is spelled... well, Wile E. Coyote. Wiley is just a combination of the two.