Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tasty Tuesdays: Gingery Pork Meatballs with Noodles


Tonight is my fantasy football draft.  I am soooo excited!!!  It means that not only is the fantasy season underway, but that football season is finally here!  Soon enough Saturdays and Sundays will be spent celebrating your favorite teams with family and friends.  I don't know about you, but I am running out of go-to finger food recipes.  

I made this dish for dinner Sunday night, and it was DELISH!!!  It really was perhaps the best Cooking Light recipe I've tried this year.  The meatballs were plump and juicy and incredibly flavorful (and that was the case even though they were eggless because I forgot to get eggs at the store).  The noodles were a great side filled with the fresh taste of peppers and snow peas.  For a little extra flavor, I added grated ginger and soy sauce.  What a great combination!

These would be such a tasty addition to your next pigskin party.  I plan to make them and serve them with a ginger/sesame/soy dipping sauce.  Any suggestions or recipes for a sauce like this??

So are you ready for some football???

Gingery Pork Meatballs with Noodles


Ingredients

  • MEATBALLS:
  • 1/2  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/4  cup  dry breadcrumbs
  • 1/4  cup  finely chopped red onion
  • 2  tablespoons  lower-sodium soy sauce
  • 2  teaspoons  grated peeled fresh ginger
  • 3  garlic cloves, minced
  • 1  pound  lean ground pork
  • 1  large egg, lightly beaten

  • NOODLES:
  • 8  ounces  uncooked wide rice noodles
  • 1  tablespoon  dark sesame oil
  • 1  cup  red bell pepper strips
  • 1  cup  julienne-cut snow peas
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/2  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
  • 1/2  cup  thinly sliced green onions

Preparation

1. Place a foil-lined jelly-roll pan in oven. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; stir gently just until blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Divide pork mixture into 20 equal portions; shape each portion into a meatball. Arrange meatballs in a single layer on preheated pan. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until done.
3. Cook noodles according to package directions; drain. Rinse noodles under cool water; drain. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, peas, salt, and crushed red pepper; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add noodles; toss. Place 1 3/4 cups noodle mixture on each of 4 plates; top each serving with 5 meatballs. Sprinkle each serving with 2 tablespoons green onions.

Nutritional Information

Calories:
506
Fat:
15.4g (sat 5.1g,mono 6.2g,poly 3.3g)
Protein:
30.6g
Carbohydrate:
58.8g
Fiber:
3.7g

Monday, August 30, 2010

Emmy Fashion Review

Did you watch the Emmy's last night?  I was so happy for Modern Family!!  Don't get me wrong, I love Glee, but this last wasn't as good as the first, and I think Modern Family is the absolute funniest show on tv!!

Now on to the important thing - the fashion...
We'll start with the gentlemen first.  Bryan Batt looks so handsome here in his cream jacket.  And is there anyone cooler than John Hamm - only Don Draper, I'd say.

Kiernan Shipka looks like every little girl should - positively darling!!

Speaking of little, this beautiful light pink frock with its impeccable draping was indeed my favorite mini of the evening..

Julie Benz looked stunning in this white one shoulder number.  Her hair and makeup were sleek and modern and the metallic details of her dress really added a certain sparkle to an otherwise simple piece.

Claire Danes was my second favorite leading lady of the evening.  She glowed!  Her gown was absolutely gorgeous, and it fit her just perfectly!

For a little color - Jayma Mays wowed in this beautiful navy gown and Kyra Sedgewick looked wonderful in this deep rose hue. 

I never get tired of a LBT - long black dress!  I thought Kelly Osborne looked incredible last night!  And Julie Bowen was beautiful in black ruffles.

Lea Michelle's necklace was by far my favorite accessory of the evening.  Just look at that sparkler!!

For my overall favorite look - I chose Eva Longoria Parker.  In a cheesy homage to her basketball playing hubby - her look was a slam dunk!  I loved her soft up-do paired and smoky eyes.  And that train - just wow!

Who were your favorites???

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Katrina: Five Years Later - Out Came the Sun


A year ago (HERE), I made myself promise that I would let go of the anger and resentment I still carried in my heart for the events that caused and that followed Katrina.  I vowed to see things through rose colored glasses and find peace in that while what happened was tragic, there has been so much good to come from this disaster.  


And while I know that finding that peace and seeing the light that has come out of this darkness is healthy, I cannot but feel incredible guilt in doing so.  I know that my family and Mark and I have so much to look forward to.  We have so much to be grateful for.  But there are times when I feel that moving on and fully closing the hole Katrina left in my heart indicates that everyone affected by the storm is also whole again.  And I'm just not sure that's true.


 Perhaps the incredible loss we all shared, many more than others, would be even more tragic if we as a people and a community didn't find peace.  That the true tragedy would have been to allow Katrina to swallow us whole.  To take our pride, our culture, our way of life from us.


And that we have not done.  We have stood together and rejoiced in the spirit of New Orleans.  It is a resilient spirit.  One that saved us from the storm.  One that made the new New Orleans a vibrant and thriving community.  


It's amazing how sometimes you find a lesson in the simplest of things.  Like a nursery rhyme.  That even though the rain may wash you away, the sun will rise, and so will you.


The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.



Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.



Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,


and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Katrina: Five Years Later - The Day We Left

One year ago today, I wrote the following entry describing our last day in New Orleans before we evacuated to escape the path of Hurricane Katrina:

Today is August 27th. For most people, unless it's your birthday or anniversary, it's just any old day in the peak of the hottest time of year. For me, it is the day we said goodbye to the New Orleans we always knew. It was on August 27, 2005, that after a long morning of volunteering in City Park with my accounting firm, Mark and I decided we should get a head start on evacuating just in case more people decided to leave on Sunday. At the time we decided to leave, we weren't really even worried about this storm they called Katrina. In fact, I sort of chuckled to myself when my friend and co-worker (who being from California was petrified of hurricanes) wasted no time and told us as we were packing up our volunteer supplies, that he was heading to Houston, he'd see us at work on Monday. Since you know how this story ends, it's not hard to realize that Monday never came. That was the last time I saw Kris - he didn't return to New Orleans.

A little shaken by his decision to leave, I think everyone else there that morning started thinking "Gosh, maybe we should go too." So we went to the grocery (Robert's in Lakeview) and picked up water, flashlights, and snack foods, and we readied ourselves to head to New Iberia, LA where we figured we'd party for a couple of days with our gracious hosts, the Pellerins. We stopped by the house my parents had just purchased and tried to talk them into evacuating with us, but they were comfortable in just going to stay at a hotel downtown if things got too bad.

We straightened up the house a little. We put my wedding dress "high" on top of a dresser about six feet tall, and we pulled my VW Passat (my first car and graduation gift from my parents) a little further up in the driveway just in case there was street flooding. After all, my Uncle Sam's house had been through Betsy and it didn't flood, so we didn't have anything to worry about. Why take two cars - it only clutters the roads - that's what I told Mark that day. Just as we were about to leave, I joked with Mark "what if this was the big one?" I ran back in the house and grabbed our wedding albums and all of my handbags. Ha - if it does come and we don't have jobs, I could sell them off one by one I teased Mark.

We chatted and laughed as we drove through the streets of Lakeview and off on our little weekend getaway. I didn't look around. I didn't stop to cherish the memories I had made on the streets and in the homes of that quaint piece of heaven we call Lakeview. I didn't even notice driving by the home I had grown up in that my parents had just sold. I just sat in the car as my world went by and I didn't even see it.

And in the gut wrenching days that followed August 29th as we realized that our sweet Lakeview had been filled like a bowl with ten feet of water, I wished I had taken the time to really look around. I wished I had not taken for granted that the places I loved would be there when tomorrow came. And although four years later, Lakeview is on the mend, it is a different place. The streets that you knew like the back of your hand are lined with different homes. The pecan tree in the backyard of the house I grew up in that still had Mardi Gras beads in it from a game we played at my 8th birthday party called "throwing Mardi Gras beads into the pecan tree" is gone, as is the home itself. If I could only see it one more time. Just to really take it in. I would do anything for that.

So I guess my thought for this Thursday August 27th is not to walk aimlessly through your day. Enjoy every minute of it. Truly appreciate everything you see today that is something so normal you'd only know you missed it if it was gone tomorrow. Really see your world and all of the people and places in it.
Long Live Lakeview!

It is hard to believe that one year has passed since I wrote this.  It is even harder to believe that it has been five years since the day we left. That it has been five years since we lived in a world not tainted by the realities of The Storm.  Five years since we stood in line at Robert's that Saturday and shouted "stay dry" to the checkout girl as we walked to my Passat.
 
About two years ago, we were home for a Saints game, and I needed to pick up some mascara.  Robert's had just re-opened that weekend, and it was the most convenient pit stop on my way to my parents' house.  I had expected to walk into a new and improved version (a mini locally owned Whole Foods, if you will).  And I did.  What I had not expected was my reaction.  It hit me that at that moment I was standing in the last place I stood before we dropped off my car and drove away.  It was as though, just for a moment, it was still August 27, 2005.  Before the levees broke and the water rose.   It was as though in that moment, all was right in the world.  And  I couldn't move from that spot.  And I started sobbing.  Me. All by myself.  In front of the floral aisle. 
 
In any other place in the world, I would have looked crazy.  But here.  Here we all knew that feeling.  Of knowing how much was lost.  Our town, our businesses, our homes, our innocence.  A lovely gentleman around my dad's age saw me and came over.  He put his hand on my back and said, with tears in his eyes, "it's ok baby, we all feel the same way." 
 
And as I walked through the store, I saw that he was right.  I was not the only one whose eyes showed the signs of raw emotion.  And maybe we were crying out of sadness.  We all mourned the lives we lost.  But I think we were also crying because finally, we were home again.  We stood in a place that was familiar and good and rebuilt.  And if one family could re-open their business, surely others would follow.  There was hope in that. And there was promise that one day our lives would feel whole again.  That slowly, the pieces of our broken lives, of our broken hearts, would mend.  


And while my heart still aches around this time of year, it is most certainly on the mend.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Pink and Green Thursday: Paint the Town

Mark and I spent some time last night on the Benjamin Moore website.  They have a feature that allows you to select a room by type (living, dining, kitchen, etc.) and then choose a paint color, trim color, and accent color.  It's amazing!!!  You are able to transform any room of your choosing in just seconds.  I have found a few colors that I think will be perfect in our new house.

I like Fallen Timber for the living room and Newburg Green for the dining room.  Both rooms have a lot of windows so I think the trim to wall color ratio and the light coming in from the windows will balance out these darker shades nicely.

For the master bedroom, I like Woodlawn Blue because it feels serene and spa-like.  And for the guest bath, I think Charcoal Slate would be a fun color.  Imagine the punch you could give the room with brightly colored towels!

Can you tell that all I've been thinking about is paint colors????  I thought it would be fitting for this Thursday to paint the town Pink and Green...
 
 
 
 
  
 
 

Be sure to play along with Trish at Pink Preppy Lilly Lover.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Trendy Wednesday - White Looks Before Labor Day

All week, I've been reading about the White Party being hosted over at Desperately Seeking Seersucker, and I thought it was about time I joined the party.


I picked up a few really great white items this summer including a classic Ralph Lauren sheath dress from TJ Maxx, a great pair of white cuffed pants from Banana, and the perfect white pencil skirt from Ann Taylor.  The bad news is that they have to go back on the self in just a few weeks, but the good news about Labor Day being just around the corner - you can find some fabulous white wearables at really low prices!

Here are a few items that I think would make a fantastic addition to any White Party outfit.

Basic Straw Fedora

P Diddy/Puffy/Sean Combs (I can't keep up) - the original host of the White Party - would most certainly approve of this adorable fedora.

One More Time Tank

Isn't this bow accented tee just the cutest.  Throw it over a seersucker skirt for summer, or wear it under a blazer for Fall!

Petal Vine Shell

I like a shell that can be weekend and work wear. This one could be worn to an end of the summer party, but it's dressy enough to wear to work as well.

So this may not completely qualify as a white accessory, but it was close enough and I LOVE it!  The pearl clusters are extremely ladylike and the grey ribbon detail is just so feminine.

  The layered eyelet is a sweet touch to this adorable mini.


White Patent Leather 'Scorpion' Gladiator Sandals

Pitter Patter!  My heart skips a beat when I see these sandals!  I love the double ankle straps and the gold hardware!

Laundry by Shelli Segal Pocket Detail Ponte Knit Shift Dress

Because this shift is a warmer white, it is a great piece if you're looking for something that can transition to Fall.  I'm picturing it over black tights and boots!

For the girl who likes to close out her summer in style, I would choose this BCBG dress.  It's a fantastic and flattering shape, and the floral appliques are simply whimsical!
How do you plan to "clothes" out your summer?  Any big Labor Day plans?  And what's your take on the no white after Labor Day rule? 

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