Kate in the Kitchen

it snowed last night…..

November 20th, 2011 | Comments Off

We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday. It wasn’t much, really, just an inch or two, but there was an hour or so in the afternoon where the snow fell hard and the wind blew heavy and it LOOKED much worse than it was, and Minnesotans, even though they are a hearty bunch yew betcha, well, there was a lot of griping and sniping and exclamations of “I don’t have a snowbrush in my car!!” {{ahem…. that might have been from me…. cough cough}}

But in the end, it was just an inch or two. Certainly NOT this again.

This was last year’s incredible 24″ blizzard from about mid-December. Gorgeous and shockingly beautiful {{mostly because I enjoyed it from the comfort of my home}} and the impetus to usher in a Winter that saw more snow, more hassles and more headaches than we anticipated. Now that I am working, and got my first taste of commuting home in a snowfall, I’m not so eager to deal with an epic snowstorm, but I know, inevitably that the day will come where I am at work and the white stuff is coming thick and fast. And the only thing standing between me and the warmth of home is Audi’s legendary all-wheel drive, nerves of steel and a deep well of patience.

Oh the joys……

What’s on YOUR plate this month???

miscellaneous december

January 4th, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Seems that funk I fell into at the end of December included a complete mind wipe of some important occurrences, a few pretty cool happenings that I simply ignored on the blog. That is, until I downloaded the photos off my camera, and at 110 of them, I missed sharing some stuff, people.

Like the mother of all blizzards that socked us in with 20″ of snow.

And left all of us a little bit awed.

A week later, we dragged an enormous freshly cut Balsam pine through that snow for our Christmas tree.

My decades old Jade plant gave us a spectacular display of Christmas foliage.

In the dark of December, the natives got a little restless.

And I drove from the extreme Northern part of the Cities to the extreme Southern end, to spend a Friday night in a bar with some awesome friends, drink beer and sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ out loud with Tim Mahoney. I barely recognized myself.

Then Mother Nature played a cruel trick, sent us a rainstorm to welcome in the New Year and turned the most glorious snow I’ve seen in years into rock hard and useless piles of ice that we’re stuck with until April. Yeah, happy freaking 2011. No wonder I slipped into a funk.

But….. it’s over. The funk, that is. Time to move on…….

quietly weekend-ing

November 14th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

The snow stopped and we received about a foot of wet, heavy white stuff. I was pretty grateful that it arrived on the weekend and about our only need to accomplish was cleaning off the driveway and sidewalks. It was so nice not to have to go anywhere. We spent some time knocking the thick clumps off neighbor’s trees and bushes as it was so heavy that it was bending them nearly in half. We also saw plenty of downed tree branches today on our way to church.

The down time afforded us an opportunity to work up a new ever-changing header for the blog? Like it???

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have the results of the MRI. Kind of curious, trying not to be concerned that anything is seriously wrong. Pretty doubtful on that.

About three years ago, I posted a short little blurb on here about a delicious buttery, crunchy topping that I love to eat on buttered noodles. I almost didn’t even post it because I thought it was the silliest, most mundane thing I could even conjure up, but it turned out to be one of my more steadfast search terms that people use to find my blog. Who would have thought that ‘Buttered Noodles’ needed to be searched?

At any rate, this yummy herbed topping is delicious and simple, and adds the perfect touch to not only buttered noodles, but mac&cheese and all other forms of pasta dishes you can come up with.

Herbed Panko Topping

2 T. butter
2 T. olive oil
1 c. Panko breadcrumbs
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1 t. dry basil
1/2 t. dry mustard powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter and oil in small saute pan. Add crumbs and toss to coat. Add in remaining seasonings and cook over medium-low heat, stirring continually until crumbs are browned and fragrant. Remove from heat and spread on a plate to cool. Add in parmesan/asiago type of cheese if desired. Sprinkle over drained pasta, and toss to coat.

Kate’s Notes: Once the crumbs are nicely browned, you must take them out of the pan to cool. If you leave them in the pan they will burn. Trust me. You can mix up the dried herbs you add as per your individual tastes. Use all butter too, or all oil. I like the combo of both. These keep in the fridge for about a week or so, I’m guessing anyway. They tend not to last that long around here.