This (Three) Weeks' Eats (August 15-September 4)

I am extremely disappointed in my failure to post lately. With my starting my last semester of college, which honestly has meant non-stop outings with friends that are now back in town, I have not only been beat to a pulp tired but also failed miserably at cooking an significant meals to share! HOWEVER...it's the best season of the year: FOOTBALL! Which means tons of finger foods and crock-pot recipes will be being produced (and shared of course) to take to tailgating. As my "senior gift" my parents and I worked out a deal that they would purchase a Clemson tailgating/parking spot for our enjoyment and my inebriation. If you have not been to a Clemson football experience, which includes the an entire day of cornhole, grubbing, drinking, and socializing with other awesome Tigers followed by The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football and the loudest stadium in the country packed with 80,000 of the best fans in the world, the Orange, the Purple, feeling the stands shake beneath your feet during a kickoff, standing all 4 quarters/60 minutes of game play/100+ minutes of actual game time, the cannons and Tiger rag at every score, Cadence's Count and singing "...that the Tiger's roar may echo O'er the mountain height" while swaying, arms around your closest friends to lift your hand, thumb tucked, and wave to the Gods you have not lived life to it's fullest!

Before getting to the actually food for the past three weeks, I want to mention my first visit (which  brought such success, resulted in a follow up second visit the next week) to Clemson's Farmer's Market! My purchases were from three local vendors: Yummy Blueberry Preserves from the Happy Berry Farm out of Six Mile, SC which I have slathered on numerous things because I can't get enough! Out of Central, SC Missy Sassy's Original BBQ sauce which was used the first time on my BBQ nachos below and is definitely going to be used in Crock Pot Pulled Pork within the next few weeks for football. And finally an immediate indulge of a massive cinnamon roll from Artisan Breads out of Greer, oh my gracious!

This Week's Eats (August 8-August 14)

Jambalaya, Corn Bread, Grilled Zucchini & Squash and Peach-Pie Cake

Wednesday was my third, and final Physics test, so I lured Kyle with the traditional Louisiana Creole dish, Jambalaya. Although my cooking was fairly short of authentic, Zatarain's gave me a delightful, quick, at home variation of the Spanish and French inspired meal.

Although this is a TERRIBLE picture, in terms of quality, the actual food in the pictures was so awesome

Making Jambalaya and Corn Bread

I always thought that family box meals weren't really meals, but I have discovered its not about how much effort you put into preparing a meal but rather how the meal turns out. So I have feel victim to making a few box meals lately (this is in addition to my regular mac-n-cheese, hamburger helper, ramen noodles and ready rice that I don't detail in my posts) and make sure my side dishes always compliment (in this case corn bread and grilled zucchini and squash). So go scoop up a box of Zatarain's Jambalaya Family Meal and Jiffy Corn Bread Mix and follow the instructions on the back! For the jambalaya I used sausage and added a little cilantro to the mix and because Kyle and I both preferred moist corn bread over dry corn bread I reduced the baking time by a couple minutes.

top row: Jiffy Corn bread, Zatarain's Jambalaya and Kyle diligently working on physics (and enjoying an adult beverage)

second: prepartions, chopping red potatoes, cilantro, and sausage and distributing corn bread mix

bottom: all finished corn bread with awesome tigermit and jambalaya in process

Making Grilled Zucchini and Squash

This Week's Eats (August 1-August 7)

Well it was quite a week, one which ended in 2 encounters with law enforcement in 2 days (one is detailed in this post, the other to remain untold as it is not my story to tell) in addition to my blackberry deciding to go for a little dip in a porcelain bowl of water named Loo. But nonetheless food was plentiful and definitely tasty.

Tuesday was a day of leftovers! For those of you who know me well, you know I don't do leftovers often; the doggie-bags I do bring home from restaurants are very carefully combined (only certain foods are worthy of reheating or are satisfying after initially prepared—which is my same philosophy for homecooked meals). Of the foods that I take the initiative to get Tupperware out of my very organized, strategically place Tupperware cabinet, when eaten are merely only picked at. (I would also like to note here that I do not like to end sentences in a preposition but was unable to reword this particular sentence to work for me and Grammar Girl has just informed me that it is actually OK to do so.) Back to leftovers...Tuesday I enjoyed leftovers, not prepared meal leftovers but rather leftover ingredients from Last Week's Eats were crafted into new exciting creations! Of my leftover ingredients that I utilized were Nutella, Bell Pepper, Red Onions, and Tomatoes.

Nutella Banana Graham Crackers
With my new jar of Nutella, used in last weeks Oreo Nutella Truffles, I have be exploring unique uses. This simple snack lacks in the unique department, but does not fall short anywhere in the yummy department. This idea came from some stumble or pin or gawk that I cannot locate at this time.

Banana Nutella Cinnamon Graham Crackers I hope you don't need directions for this but just in case: Break Graham Crackers in half, spread Nutella, place 2 slices of banana per graham cracker and enjoy. ...don't forget your glass of milk!

And while I'm on the snack subject you must try some of these alternate toast combos! Thus far I have tackled 2: Tomato and Chicken (instead of Tuna) Salad, 4:Hummus and peppers, 6:Cream Cheese and Blueberries, & 9: Jam (I used Strawberry) and Cream Cheese. I'm excited to try 7: Laughing Cow Cheese Spread with Ham and Cheese and 1:Veggie cream cheese (yum) and cucumbers! And And while I'm still obsessing over Nutella: I am disappointed I missed his year's Nutella World Day in February, however next year I think I will refer to the Nutelladay.com recipe list and surprise my future classroom with some yummies. And And And I must find these "Nutella&Go"s. OK enough about Nutella.

Hashbrown Casserole & Individual Monkey Bread!
Here comes my high regard of breakfast foods again...Wednesday night Cell and I decided to have Breakfast for Dinner, which has turned into a bi-weekly event together. She made her amazing Hashbrown Casserole and handled the Turkey Bacon and Sausage while I popped in some Cinnamon Rolls in the oven (easy-

This Week's Eats (July 25-July 31)

I have found, over the past few weeks, that my interest in cooking a quality meal (both tasteful and visually appealing) has skyrocketed. My biggest issue, as a single college student with only a single roommate (two if you consider her other half), is that cooking actual meals tend to fall by the wayside due to lack of people to eat the food. In addition,  I have been previously frustrated with my inability to cook impromptu and thus have always strayed away from the kitchen. On the other hand, my natural ability to be concise in all that I do led me to realize how great I am at following a recipe. Therefore, with my addiction to Pinterest (feel free to follow my boards; user name JLD2) in addition to my discovery of FoodGawker (also refer to CraftGawker) I have enjoyed experiencing with the heat. To battle the issue of overwhelming amount of leftovers I try to stick to recipes that serve four or less and have adopted friend Kyle as a food critic in exchange for physics homework help. In addition, I have been encouraged to bring sweet treats into the hospital on my Wednesday volunteering days, which helps with my not eating everything when I cook in bulk!

With all that said, my plan is to post every week my major "eats." For the meals that I prepare I plan to provide pictures galore (at this point, poor quality pictures taken with my blackberry, because once again I am between cameras; I have gone through about 12 in the last 4 years) in addition to a break down of pricing from the grocery store (I will actually begin next week because, of course, I have misplaced this week's receipts). And after this week, it is evident I will definitely be starting to clip coupons on a more regular basis.

Honey Sesame Chicken & S'mores Cookies

On Wednesday, I went over to Kyle's for homework help and, bribing his time with food, gave him the choice between Honey Sesame Chicken and Taco Muffins, both new recipes found on FoodGawker and Pinterest, respectively. The decision for the Chinese dish was made and off I trotted to the lovely orange Bi-Lo. For those of you who are unaware, my adored university is Clemson and it is only fit that my exuberating town has orange every where; it's quite lovely (pictures of the orange Bi-Lo will come in next week's post). As sides for my chicken I made the executive decision of steamed asparagus and brown rice.

 Unfortunately, I only took a few pictures of my Wednesday night delicacy, but don't worry, I made up for that Sunday with 40!

Making the Honey Sesame Chicken: For the most part I followed the instructions from the "My Kitchen Snippets." For the ingredients, listed in (italics) are the particulars that I purchased at the Orange Bi-Lo. And in bold are the main parts to each step if you're in a hurry and don't want to read all my side notes.