30 Day Picture Shenanigans - Day 10

30 Day Picture Shenanigans - Day 10: Love Boats

Today's picture shenanigans has very little to do with me, other than the fact that I am left wondering what I have ever done to deserve my amazing family.

This afternoon I received a call from Mr. Sty while I was at work.  He asked what my plans for dinner were tonight and said that he had a "surprise appetizer" that he wanted to make.  A few hours later I received the following texts:

 (This would be our new arrival in the house...a half barrel of Bell's Oberon.  Possibly the best summer beer ever.  You may now start feeling twinges of jealousy.)

Mr. Sty: BE AFRAID!!!

Me: Yum to the beer and uhhhh...omg

Mr. Sty: Hahahahahaha...muahahahahahaha!!??!?!?!!

I walked in the door to this:

Those would be halved jalapeno peppers stuffed with slices of beef tenderloin and wrapped in bacon.  Remember a few posts ago when I said we have been hardly eating meat?  And then I wanted fried chicken?  Apparently this is Mr. Sty's fried chicken.  (He one-upped my food craving!  Jerk.)  He explained that a friend he was working with today mentioned having something similar to these somewhere last night and Mr. Sty said that once he started thinking about them, he couldn't stop. 

  (Holy crap, delicious.  But spicy.  They needed something, so I blobbed (that's a technical chef-term) some whipped cream cheese on top.  It was a delicious complement.)

Mr. Sty tasted his creation and then proceeded to state how awesome he was every few minutes for the next hour.  I actually agree.  I don't know what I ever did to deserve coming home to this.  Also, I don't know why he's been cooking so much lately (not that I'm complaining)...this blog (in it's mere 12 days of existence) has managed to capture 2 of 3 of Mr. Sty's solo cooking endeavors.  (Unless you count random hunks of meat thrown on a fire, but I don't.  Or chili...he's pretty good at that.  But that only happens once every two years.)  Anyway, we were trying to come up with a name for these tidbits of goodness.  The peppers look like boats, so we were thinking of goofy stuff like the S.S. Awesomes.  We settled on "Love Boats".  

When asked to describe them, Mr. Sty said, "It's the best damn appetizer known to man.  Period."  

Me: "Okay, describe what's in it."  

Mr. Sty: "It doesn't matter, that's all you need to know.  But if you'd like to know, it's a big huge ball of awesomeness that includes jalapeno, bacon, and "fillett miggnon".  And, to think, like, that appetizer alone will make me never fully stop eating red meat.  Because it is that awesome.  Cutting back is good.  Everything in moderation.  If there is red meat that I eat, it is because of these.  AND THAT'S WHAT'S UP!"  

Mr. Sty may have been slightly under the influence at the time of this statement.

My contribution to dinner ("dinner" was not needed since 20 beefy-bacony-spicy skewers is like an appetizer only to the Jolly Green Giant) was grilled vegetable skewers (because I needed to counteract the meat intake with something).  There are vidalia onion chunks, red cabbage, mushrooms, zucchini, and bell peppers.  I threw on some olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled until tasty.

So now we are very full.  Also, Oberon goes down waaaaay too easy, especially when you are eating spicy things.  So now we are also a bit (a lot) tipsy (drunkish)...on bacon (on beer). 

30 Day Picture Shenanigans: Day 8

30 Day Picture Shenanigans: Day 8 - Lazy Night Dinner (Take Two)

The weather today was perfect.  It was sunny, 70ish degrees, and breezy.  We took the opportunity to clean out the garage.  Last February (no, not this last one, but the last one...over a year ago) I went on a cleaning binge and put a bunch of stuff (like, 2 carloads) in the garage with the intent to take it to Goodwill.  Today, we took it to Goodwill (after we unburied it from a year and a half's worth of crap).  My dinner plan was to make stuffed shells, but frankly, that sounded too heavy after a day of activity.  Plus, I felt lazy.  (Noticing any trends yet?)  For today's Picture Shenanigans I am going to share what we had for dinner after a day of hard work.  Stop rolling your eyes, it's not the leftover fried chicken from last night.  (Mr. Sty ate that for breakfast, remember?)

(Looks delicious, doesn't it?  Didn't know I had it in me, did you?)

Lazy Night Dinner for Reals (or Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad with Wheatberries)

(serves 4)

Okay, so, wheatberries...the name reminds me of the word "dingleberries", which is gross, but they are delicious and awesome and full of nutritious goodness.  However, they take approximately half an ice-age to cook.  (Okay, they only really take about an hour to cook, but still...)  So, get those going first, go have a beer (or two), then come back 40 minutes later to start preparing the rest of the dish.

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked wheatberries (I like Bob's Red Mill Red Wheatberries)

1 can of black beans, rinsed

2 ears of sweet corn (or 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn if you're feeling lame and/or lazy)

1/2 small red onion

1/2 red bell pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved)

1 mango

1 avocado

1 lemon

Cook the wheatberries according to the directions.  (For mine, I combined 1 cup of dry wheatberries (rinsed) with 3 1/2 cups of water and some sea salt in a saucepan.  Bring the water to a boil, then turn down to a low boil and cover.  Let cook for an hour-ish or until you're so starving that you don't mind eating little grain-balls that are slightly crunchy.  Just call it "al dente".)

After two beers, (er...40 minutes), finely chop the 1/2 red onion and the 1/2 red bell pepper.  Cut the kernels from the 2 ears of corn.  Dice the jalapeno (come on, throw the seeds in too).  Heat the olive oil in a nonstick frying pan on high-ish.  Add the onion and saute for 1-2 minutes.  Add the sweet corn and cook until it starts to brown slightly, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the jalapeno, bell pepper, and the juice of 1/2 the lemon and cook until the peppers become slightly tender (another 2-4 minutes).  The vegetables should still be crunchy, just slightly cooked. 

In a serving bowl, combine the rinsed black beans and the cooked corn mixture.  Add the halved cherry tomatoes.  Peel and dice the mango and stir into the bean/corn mixture.  Dice the avocado.  My wheatberries were tender after an hour of cooking, but they hadn't absorbed all of the water, so I just strained the excess water.  Spoon some wheatberries into a bowl and top with a bunch of the corn mixture.  Add 1/4 of the diced avocado.  Squirt some juice from the remaining 1/2 lemon on top.  (The child did not want anything mixed together and she doesn't really dig beans, so I set aside some of the corn mixture for her before I added it to the beans.  I added the mango and tomatoes to hers.  I gave her some wheatberries on the side with a little bit of butter (just call me Paula), because that makes everything awesome.)

So there you have it.  There really isn't too much work involved for this meal and you don't have to turn on the oven, which is a bonus on hot days.  Yum!

(A meal the whole family can enjoy.  Sparkle Pig seriously wanted my dinner.  We discovered that he apparently looooves black beans.)