Happy Birthday, Sugarbomb!

Oh lawd. The one year anniversary of this blog (September 4) came and went and I did NOTHING TO CELEBRATE!!!! Am I the worst blogger ever, or what?
I guess I could say that I unknowingly celebrated by going to the movies, a wine bar, and a ginormous dinner at a French restaurant with a big group of friends. My subconscious was celebrating. That's why I drank so much champagne, obviously.
Anyway, my first post is worth a re-read.  I was sort of giggling as I read my first few posts because I really had no idea what was going on.  Let's do a little "then vs. now" comparison, shall we?

• Ginormous, unflattering chef outfits: Yeah, I sprung for it and bought the smallest ones they had. It only took two times falling down after catching my gigantic pants pocket on a doorknob to make this decision.
• No makeup rule: I got over it. Sometimes I snuck on a little mascara if I looked extra exhausted. Don't tell anyone. I probably saved hundreds of dollars last year by only wearing makeup on the weekends.
• Wearing name tags is weird: Still true. But it made me feel great when the dean of the school "knew' my name. I actually just had to order a new name tag today for France, because I dropped mine in the parking lot on the last day of school. Some crazy person is probably wearing it while wandering the streets, masquerading as me.
• Irrational fear that my chef coat will catch on fire: Uh, turned out to be not so irrational! My partner caught her hand on fire when we were pulling sugar roses one day.  I nearly flambeed my eyebrows off when making bananas foster (I guess I had a heavy hand with the booze. Shocking).
• Too lazy to get my chef pants hemmed: yep. I realized that if I pulled them up super high (urkel-style), I wouldn't need to get them hemmed at all. Score!
• Too cheap to buy a real ironing board: also yep. I used a miniature ironing board from Target ALL YEAR LONG. I didn't realize that big ironing boards cost like fifty dollars!!! Um, excuse me, but I don't have a special bank account devoted to clothes beautifying. This is probably because my wardrobe consists of yoga pants and wife beaters.
• Fear that I would gain 40 pounds: I didn't!!! I didn't gain any pounds! I actually lost weight in the first few months of school, because I wasn't sitting on my booty drinking pumpkin spice lattes for 12 hours a day. Eventually the scales evened out, but I think replacing actual meals with cupcakes might be new diet fad.  I don't, however, recommend it (see also: I have six cavities).

Today, September 7, is actually the one year anniversary of my first day of school, so at least I didn't totally miss the boat of commemorating myself. I was feeling a bit envious of my friends who are still in classes. September 7 is also the first day that you can get pumpkin spice lattes. Get yourself to a Starbucks, pronto.

Pulled Pork Pizza

Geez louise… it's been a dessert free life around here. Mostly because I've been busy wrapping up work, so there's no time to bake. Most of my cooking has been actual meals.

I did make some killer pizzas last night. Pizza in our house is like garbage night - a good excuse to use up leftovers. Since throwing away food gives me panic attack (no seriously, it's becoming an issue. I almost cried when I had to clean out my apartment refrigerator to move out. I WAS going to eat those frozen strawberries from a year and a half ago, I swear!!!), this is my go-to dinner. Plus, spinning pizza dough. Duh. My favorite.

Last night I did a whole wheat crust (2/3 bread flour, 1/3 whole wheat is my favorite ratio).  The first pizza had a barbecue sauce base, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, fresh corn kernels, pickled red onion, and pulled pork. When it came out of the oven, I garnished it with cilantro.

This might sound like a weird combination, but it was pretty tasty. My dinner companions (two dudes) went crazy for this. Here in North Carolina, people eat pulled pork on practically anything.  Eggs? Pimento cheese fries? Sure.  Well, apparently NC knows what's up. BBQ on pizza is no joke.

 

The second pizza is my personal favorite combination and the one that I make all the time. A garlic and oil base, mozzarella, figs, prosciuitto, and arugula. Slightly more sophisticated and kind of healthy, right? LIke a salad pizza? I feel very classy eating this.

Get in my belly! Also, if you are wondering why I make square pizzas instead of round pizzas, it's because I bake them on the back of sheet pans (which are rectangular).  The pizza stone recently cracked in half due to overuse at extreme oven temps (for real), and sheet pans are the next best thing. Pizza stones are expensive, yo! Just wait until I build a brick oven in the backyard. Then things will get serious.

And yes, in case you were wondering, those two huge pizzas were for three people. Stop judging. We had (a few) leftovers.  On that note, maybe I'll have just one more slice...

Sugarbomb's worst enemy

WIthout a doubt: the dentist.

Let's be honest here… I haven't been exactly, um, diligent when it comes to going to the dentist recently. Since I'm going to officially be unemployed on September 1st, I've been turning over a new leaf and making appointments at all sorts of doctors before my health insurance runs out -- I have no clue when I'll have insurance again, so I might as well go crazy and soak up as much healthcare as possible.

ANYWAY, six cavities later, and I'm here to tell you that eating desserts all day is bad for your teeth. Shocking! My dentist actually told me that he treats several chefs and they all have the worst teeth, probably because they are tasting food all day without brushing their teeth in between bites. Apparently I'm in for a world of hurt. And by "hurt" I mean "crowns and route canals".  Meep.  I failed to disclose the gallons of coffee and wine that I drink on a daily basis…the poor guy seemed horrified enough without the gory details.

Though we are natural born enemies, I actually like my dentist. After my third appointment this week, we still had plenty of things to talk about while my mouth was filled with 800 pieces of equipment. He's a fan of that show Cupcake Wars, which I've actually never seen.

I did notice a big bowl of lollipops on his windowsill and found this highly ironic. Sugar is what got me into this mess in the first place!  He didn't offer me a lollipop though. Maybe you only get them if you have no cavities, or if you are under the age of seven.

Anyway, to celebrate my journey to a decay-free mouth, I'm presenting a NON-DESSERT post. (gasp).

 

My house had a new year's resolution to eat more vegetables, and to boost this goal, we decided to join a CSA. If you're not familiar with the concept (Community Sustained Agriculture), you basically get a box of produce from a farm once a week. It's definitely a grab bag. I've eaten more kale and chard in the past four months than  I have in my entire life. Also, eggplant. Oh, the eggplant.

I usually hate eggplant because of its mushy texture, but I've been on a ratatouille kick lately. Ratatouille is my "oh crap - this giant box of vegetables is going bad at exactly the same time" dinner. It's a great way to use up summer produce - zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, basil, onions, and peppers.

After it chills out in the pan for about 30 minutes, you're left with this:

Yum. It's really good served over egg noodles. I loosely used a recipe that I found on epicurious, but the basic gist was: sauté everything in a bunch of olive oil with a ton of garlic. Let it mellow. If it's looking dry, add some more olive oil or some (plain) tomato sauce.

Another plus about ratatouille: it's easy to eat when your jaw is numb from excessive amounts of dental work.