Let the Birthday Begin

Chris' birthday is Monday, and in true McFarlane fashion, he will begin celebrating tonight! He feels he's entitled to celebrate like a McFarlane after the pear brandy debacle the first time I brought him home with me...I'll never live that down.

Here's the agenda for our weekend:

Friday
5:30 pm: Leave for downtown Denver. Parking then a flight of wine at Cru Wine Bar
6:30 pm: Dinner reservations at The Oceanaire where he can eat his fill of water dwellers and I will have either chicken or pork (steak is tomorrow night!).
8:30 pm: Head back to the car, put on the warm jackets, hats and gloves. Stay for the Denver Christmas Parade of Lights. And Santa is at the end! This is my favorite part! I almost cry every year when I see Santa in the parade. I love him. Maybe it's because I was an adult the first time I saw Santa in a parade!

Saturday: no specific timeline
breakfast in a ramekin with an English muffin, spinach, bacon and an egg.
finish the Christmas lights outside. We need an outdoor bow and 2 floodlights (one for Santa and one for the reindeer)
Whole Foods for dinner fixings. Here's the request:

• Iceberg Wedge Salad with bleu cheese/ranch dressing, cherry tomatoes and bacon crumbles
• Petite Fillet Mignon with an herb Bearnaise sauce and sauteed mushrooms
• Potato and Thyme latkes with thyme and chive sour cream
• Homemade cherry pie

I guess I will be cooking all afternoon!

Sunday, Chris has requested a lazy day of watching Christmas movies in comfy clothes. I haven't told him yet, but he's on his own on that one! I have some shopping and cleaning to do! Although, I am sure I can find time for a movie or two! There are 24 hours in a day, after all.

Sounds fun and festive to me!

Quick Update

Blogging this week has been a little rough. I seem to be at a loss for words...not much interesting going on in the Rowland house. Here's the quick 10-point-update:

1. Fuzzy sheets went on the bed Tuesday night and I couldn't be happier about it!
2. Leaving my house at 5:15 for the gym is not the right time. Their parking lot holds about a quarter of the the capacity of the gym...tough to find a spot. I parked on the road. Others circling the lot left. More exercise for me that way. I had to walk a block just to get there!
   
3. Our first house party ever is on for Saturday. There will be a total of 8 of us, plus one toddler and an infant.
4. I am reinventing the Drunk Cake this week. If you've had the infamous McFarlane Drunk Cake, you know it's pretty perfect. But I am going to make a white version in addition to dressing up the chocolate version. It may be a flop, but I am thinking that it will either be like a spice cake or a coconut cake. I love the coconut idea. Are there some who hate coconut? As for reinventing the chocolate version...think mint!
   
5. We like to sleep with our bedroom COLD. I mean really cold; the colder the better. But my office is in here. I think you could hang meat in here and my hands are so cold they feel like they are about to break off. Good thing I have a fireplace! Or maybe I like to sleep really cold so that I can run the fire while I work. The jury's out on that one.
   
6. Our beagle, Abby, hates the cold. And hates the snow even more. Needless to say, we have to keep the deck shoveled so she'll "go" in the yard.
   
7. My coworker has buried me in achievable deadlines this week. For the first time in many days, my head is above water. But please don't tell anyone. I like it this way and would hate to have more work on my plate right now. An even distribution is a good thing!
8. We officially settled on the pasta bar idea for Saturday. Three sauce choices, three noodle choices and 10 topping choices-everything from capers and sun-dried tomatoes to meatballs and Italian sausage.
9. Our guests are so excited about it that they are each bringing a dish that coordinates with the theme. Who knew this would catch on so well! Pretty cool, eh?
10. I had my hair colored Tuesday night. About 6 months ago my now ex-stylist (against my request) put highlights in my hair and I hated them. Finally, the toner has come out and I looked like bad-roots-dishwater-blonde. It was awful. So, I covered it up. And it's D-A-R-K. Holy buckets is it dark. Like Lauren Graham dark. But I LOVE it! Even the 4th grade kiddos at Junior Achievement yesterday told me that I looked different...I asked how and one kid said, "different like prettier." I can live with that.
    

Almost Perfect Spanish Rice

I love Spanish Rice. And I eat it whenever it's an option. My earliest memory of having Spanish Rice was when I was really young and all four of us grandkids were at Grandma Melanie's house. And Leslie was there but still allergic to everything and she made Spanish Rice for us. I remember thinking "Spanish Rice comes from far away. She must know how to make this stuff because she can speak French too." I was young enough to be clueless to the world of cookbooks.

By the time I was old enough to ask Grandma for the coveted Spanish Rice recipe, she had already been diabetic for years and the flavor of the rice had changed. Needless to say, she probably never really had a recipe anyway. Although, I heard that my cousin Allisongot her hands on it! But I have something that Allison doesn't have. The Spanish Rice "pan." The significance of which was lost on me until I began to love cooking and appreciate really good cookware!

The infamous Spanish Rice pan is a REALLY old red/orange cast iron Le Creuset pot with a lid. It even says "Made in France" on the bottom! And the Spanish Rice that had been baked in it for 30 years or longer that came with it washed right out...Grandma's eyes were pretty bad. She couldn't see to wash the dishes so I think she just wiped them out. Gross, I know!

I have attempted, and failed miserably) at Spanish rice more than a hundred times. Last night was my first attempt in the special Spanish Rice pan. I don't know if it was luck, the lessons I learned from failed attempts, or maybe Grandma working me through it with the special pan, but it turned out almost perfect.

No recipe, no calls for help, and no cookbooks. Just the perfect pan and a million fond, loving memories of Grandma Melanie. She was the only thing missing that made my Spanish Rice fall short of perfect! I miss her every day but know that she'd be really proud of my Spanish Rice and love of cooking. And she'd be tickled that I love her pan too.

And it was so good, that Chris said it goes on "the list." A pretend list of the foods I will serve the the pretend restaurant I will pretend open someday!

Here's what I did:
Cooked 1 cup brown rice in 2 1/2 cups water with a touch of chicken bullion
It said to cook covered for 40-50 minutes. After about 30 minutes I added a cup and a half of chopped onions.
When the rice was done and onions super soft, I added 2 cups of petite diced tomatoes (from a can-Hunts is my favorite). I had drained the water from them but ended up adding it back in.

I let that hang out over low heat and added a little garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, a little chili powder (not much) and a hint of ground red pepper.

After it was all cooked, I put it in the special Spanish Rice pan and squished up 8 saltine crackers and sprinkled over the top and browned in the broiler. It yields about 5 cups of Spanish Rice and was wonderful as a side dish with our grilled chicken.

It was even better today as a main dish for my lunch! And Chris' too! Two dinners, two lunches, and just enough left over for lunch tomorrow for me...as long as I get to the kitchen first!


p.s. Grandma used to say she was "tickled" a lot. I think that expression really spoke to her and perfectly described how she felt. I get it now. It seemed fitting to use it today.