This, oddly enough, may actually be one of my favorite holidays.  A day of sitting around, eating Mexican and drinking Tequila… what could possibly be better?  These are a few of my favorite [...]]]> Happy Cinco de Mayo, Everyone!  I hope everyone is celebrating with a giant margarita!  But Kate, it’s only 10 AM…  Exactly!  

This, oddly enough, may actually be one of my favorite holidays.  A day of sitting around, eating Mexican and drinking Tequila… what could possibly be better?  These are a few of my favorite things (queue Julie Andrews… boy that would be a different song if I wrote it: Red Wine, and Tacos and Cats that might hate me…)

Anyway, I thought this would be a great day to share my basic guacamole recipe.  It’s delicious and comes together in just a few minutes, which is good, because you don’t want to waste any precious time that could otherwise be spent drinking!

Ingredients

2 Ripe Avocados

1/3 Cup Red Onion Diced

1 Jalapeno Seeded and Diced

1 tsp Minced Garlic

1 Lime

Salt 

Place peeled Avocados in bowl and mash up with a fork. Add diced Red Onion, Jalapeno and Garlic.  Squeeze in juice of one Lime.  Mix together until smooth.  Add Salt to taste.

Enjoy!

You know those people who are always running a good hour late, and time just seems to slip away from them?   And when you make plans with them, you know to tell them to be there a good half hour to an hour before you actually need them there?   Well, that’s [...]]]>

You know those people who are always running a good hour late, and time just seems to slip away from them?   And when you make plans with them, you know to tell them to be there a good half hour to an hour before you actually need them there?   Well, that’s a large portion of my family.   They run on Czlapinski time.  It’s different from the time system followed by the rest of the universe, and it’s OK because we love them and we’re used to it.   We all have our flaws, and to love someone is to accept them in their entirety – flaws and all.   And while I typically do not run on Czlapinski time,  my blog totally does.  I don’t post about things until sometimes a good month or so after they’ve happened.  I must apologize, because once again, my blog is running on Czlapinski time… I’m posting a recipe that I made for Easter which, according to my calendar, was a good 3 weeks ago.  Where did the time go?  Since i’m fairly certain my reader base consists mainly of my family, I think they’ll forgive me.

Like most holidays spent with my family, there was a ton of food, and the dessert table was absolutely out of control.  My contribution to the table this year was this White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake, pictured above.  It might not have been the prettiest cheesecake I’ve ever made, but it was pretty tasty – light, not too sweet, and the raspberries add a lovely tartness.

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 cup slivered almonds

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter,  melted

Filling:

• 8 ounces fine-quality white chocolate

• 4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

• 4 whole large eggs

• 2 large egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 cups fresh raspberries

Crust:

Grind almonds and crumbs in a food processor and add melted butter, blending until combined. Press over bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch springform pan.

Filling:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Melt white chocolate in a  metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth, then remove from heat and set aside.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, then beat in the sugar. Add whole eggs and then the 2 yolks, 1 at a time at low speed, scraping down the bowl after each addition.

Beat in flour and vanilla until combined, then slowly mix in the melted chocolate until filling is well combined.

Lay berries in 1 layer over crust and pour  the filling into the crust. Bake in middle of oven 45-55 minutes – until filling is set, but center is still wobbly when pan is shaken.

Run a thin knife around edge of cake to loosen, then cool completely in pan on a rack.

Serve room temperature or chilled.

While you’ll no doubt consume a sufficient number of calories [...]]]> As I’m sure you’ve heard, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving and, if you’re like most of us, you will be engaging in a gluttonous turkey fest, which will then be followed by seventeen pieces of pie, maybe some football and a long nap.  It will be super healthy.

While you’ll no doubt consume a sufficient number of calories to last you through the holiday season, you should probably have a little breakfast in the morning.  It is the most important meal of the day, after all.  I would suggest you keep it light, but that’s just me. 

Recently, I made these Vegan Whole Grain Sweet Potato Muffins, and I think they would make the perfect Thanksgiving breakfast item.  They were adapted from Mark Bittman’s Sweet Potato Muffin Recipe that was featured in the November issue of Runner’s World.  I decided to make them vegan, because I’m just crazy like that and enjoy the challenge.  If I were to make them again, I might substitute some of the whole wheat flour for some white flour.  I also made them a little lower fat by using apple sauce in place of the oil.

Bittman also suggests trying banana nut or pumpkin coconut variations if you’re not into sweet potatoes.  I think the pumpkin coconut option sounds just divine, and would be great if you feel that the seventeen pieces of pumpkin pie you’ll be eating later just aren’t going to fulfill your pumpkin needs!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsps. baking powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread

1/4 cup apple sauce

1 cup mashed sweet potato

3 tbsps. water mixed with 2 1/2 tbsps. flax

1/2 cup almond milk

Heat oven to 375° F. Grease 12 muffin cups or add paper liners.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt.

In a  separate bowl, mix earth balance, apple sauce, sweet potato, flax/water mixture, and almond milk.

Fold wet mixture into the dry; and stir until just combined. Batter should be pretty thick.

Fill muffin cups three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Now, how was everyone’s Tuesday, July 5th?  ::Groans::  That’s what I thought… it’s going to be a long 4 day week!

This Easter was just like any other holiday spent with my family.  The amount of [...]]]> I know it’s a week late, but hey, I’ve been busy… and lazy!  I was out running a few errands with my mom yesterday afternoon and she subtly reminded me that I hadn’t yet posted about Easter.   Thanks Mom.

This Easter was just like any other holiday spent with my family.  The amount of food was fairly ridiculous – especially considering that we’d all been told by the hostess, my Aunt Debbie, NOT to bring any extra food (especially desserts) this year, because she wanted to cut down and we always have way too much left over Blah, blah, blah…  And that’s exactly what I heard, and apparently what everyone else heard – specifically the “blah, blah, blah” part.  We all brought dessert – lots and lots of dessert.  This is just what we do.  If you tell us we can’t bring anything, we’ll probably show up with a dessert.  If you also tell us we can’t bring a dessert, we’re just going to be very confused.  We are Polish, after all :p

The Dessert Table

As always, it was a really fun day, with lots of food and wine shared and enjoyed with the family.  I took a lot of photos, playing with the new lens I recently bought for my camera.  These are just a few of my favorite shots from the day.

It ended up being a beautiful day even though storms were predicted (and did eventually hit us in the late afternoon).   Here’s my dad out enjoying the sun!

Dad on the Deck

This is my Aunt Annie sitting with Alyssa in the living room before the big holiday meal.  Not sure what they’re looking at here, but it looks like I caught a nice moment.

Aunt Annie and Alyssa

My cousin Kim had a baby in November and I got a lot of pictures of him on Easter.  This is my favorite of Peyton with his mommy.  And yes, she always looks this good.  It’s actually kind of sickening

Kimmie with Peyton

Of course, I also got a bunch of pictures of my dad with the baby.  My dad is a baby magnet.  Babies always love him – and, really, what’s not to love?

Peyton with my dad

It just wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t include a picture of a cat.  Aunt Debbie’s cat was crazy friendly and I was really tempted to stuff him in my bag and take him home with me.  Next time I’m coming with a bigger purse.

Oliver?  Aunt Debbie has had a few cats over the years that all look similar.  I can never remember which one’s which.  I think this is Oliver.

Oh, and it looks like someone had far too much wine!  And for once, it wasn’t me! 

Drunken Lamb!

So overall, it was a great day with the family.  I’ll be posting the recipe for my dessert table contribution later this week, so stay tuned!

It always makes me sad when I hear that someone plans to not celebrate their birthday or, even worse, just completely ignore it.  As we get older, this seems to be a more and more common occurrence, and I don’t think it’s right!   It’s not as if by not acknowledging the day, the [...]]]>

It always makes me sad when I hear that someone plans to not celebrate their birthday or, even worse, just completely ignore it.  As we get older, this seems to be a more and more common occurrence, and I don’t think it’s right!   It’s not as if by not acknowledging the day, the aging process won’t continue.  We’re getting older every single day whether we like it or not.  You have this one day a year that’s your day… shouldn’t you make it special?  Embrace it!  I actually usually celebrate multiple times throughout the month of February.  February’s my month – I’ve claimed it. 

Anyway I’ve decided to make a small list of things that I like to do every year to make my birthday extra special and also re-cap what I’ve done to celebrate so far this year.   These are just some suggestions… your day should be about you and what you want to do!

1.  Spend time with the people you care about.

I always have two parties every year – one with the family and one with my friends.  The family one is usually a joint birthday celebration with my brother since his birthday is about two weeks before mine.  We usually celebrate the weekend in between- often for the Super Bowl. Some people might not like having to share a birthday party, but I actually like it better this way.  I like sharing and I think it just makes it more fun.  I also like that the celebration is a week before my actual birthday, because it kind of gets things started and serves as a sort of kick-off for my birthday season. 

This year, for my friends party, I had all the usual suspects over (Tom & Heather, Jenn & Dan and, of course, Kevin) plus my BFF Andrea and her husband Ryan , which was awesome and extra special, because I normally only get to see them a couple times a year.  This was great.  I prefer to keep my parties on the smaller side just because it’s easier and less stressful (and my house really can’t fit that many people!).  I probably could have had a few more people over, but in the end, these are the really important friends that I wanted there to celebrate my special day with me.

2.  Take some time off from work.

Please don’t work on your birthday if you can help it.  Take at least a day off.  How can your day be really special if you’re going to work?  There’s nothing special about going to work – you do that every day!  Work is going to totally cramp your style and potentially even make your day a bad day. That’s just unacceptable. For the last few years, I’ve actually been taking a whole week off for my birthday.  I highly recommend it.

3. Buy yourself a birthday gift.

I always like to buy myself a gift for my birthday every year.  I work hard all year and I deserve it.  Now this is partially because my birthday falls around tax refund time, so I have a little extra cash to buy myself a toy – usually a fairly expensive toy.  I do understand that this may not be feasible for everyone.  I do think, though, that everyone should treat themselves to a little something special – even if it’s something small.  You deserve it!   This year, I bought myself a new camera – my first DSLR.  I got a Canon EOS Rebel T1i, and because I took a week off from work, I have plenty of time to play with it!

4. Overindulge.

If there were ever a time to overindulge this is it!  There is a ridiculous amount of chocolate in my house right now, and I won’t lie, I’ve eaten it for breakfast a few times over the last couple of days.  I’ve eaten out a lot over the past week and on my actual birthday, Kevin and I visited a couple of beer bars and started drinking at 2pm.  It was my day and that is what I wanted to do.  There has been a lot of beer, wine, chocolate and fried food consumed over the last few days. Eventually I’m going to have to go back to my old routine, but for now, I will eat and drink whatever I want.  It’s my week.

So that’s it!  Those are my rules for having an awesome birthday.  As I stated above, these are just some suggestions.  Heck, if you really want to go to work on your birthday, I guess you can go to work.  I just wouldn’t recommend it.  The main thing is that you should just enjoy the day!

Here are a few photos from my week!

Oh, hello February, welcome back!  I almost didn’t see you there – you came in so quietly.  I see you’ve brought with you my normal month-long head cold.  Thank you!   How thoughtful, what a positively delightful birthday gift!

You know, February, nobody is a bigger fan of yours than I am.  I like [...]]]>

Oh, hello February, welcome back!  I almost didn’t see you there – you came in so quietly.  I see you’ve brought with you my normal month-long head cold.  Thank you!   How thoughtful, what a positively delightful birthday gift!

You know, February, nobody is a bigger fan of yours than I am.  I like to celebrate with you from the 1st through the 28th.  Once every four years, we even get an extra day of celebration.  How cool is that?  No other month has that awesome feature.  I even love Valentine’s Day, and always have – even when I was perennially single!  What’s not to love? It’s Katesmas Eve!  It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Oh Dear February, as much as I do adore you, perhaps we can rethink this whole head cold thing next year.  I mean it’s a lovely gift and all, but it kind of cramps my style…  I mean, we celebrate pretty hard, and I would prefer to not have to do it through a cough suppressant induced haze and a sea of phlegm.   As wonderful as it all is, it makes it a bit difficult for me to really enjoy all the awesome food and adult beverages I plan to consume.  And should one really be mixing cold meds with copious amounts of alcohol?  Silly question, of course they should if it’s their birthday (month…)!

So I was just thinking, maybe next year, the head cold can be like a going away gift that you present to me on the 29th (yay, a leap year!).  I mean, I don’t really need to be Kate at a Ten for March.  March sucks.  It’s crazy busy at work, and while it claims to be “in like a lion and out like a lamb”,  it is normally far too leonine for me even at months end!  Really, I think I would rather be a little groggy for it…

Anyway, welcome back February!  You’ve been missed – even with your stupid head cold!

It was [...]]]> So it’s really a belated happy birthday, as Kevin’s birthday was last Sunday, but we didn’t do much celebrating until this weekend (we spent last Sunday night at a wake), so I feel it’s actually perhaps more appropriate to wish him a happy birthday now than it was last week.  Right?  Right. 

It was good to get out and socialize a bit.  I work from home a lot and with all the snow we’ve been having lately (and I hear there’s more to come this week!), I definitely wasn’t going into the office, so I hardly left the house all last week.  By Friday, I was just itching to get out of the house and see people. Maybe I really am an extrovert…

On Friday night,we went out with Kevin’s parents for his birthday celebration.  We went to Smokin’ With Chris in Southington, which was awesome as always.  I think I’ve probably mentioned here before that I really don’t eat a lot of meat as a rule.  I’m not quite a vegetarian, but I probably keep my diet about 95% vegetarian.  I’ve always found, however, that it’s worth making an exception for Smokin’ With Chris.

I had the pulled pork sandwich, which was awesome as usual, and well worth the exception.  Although, I do have to say, that it wasn’t quite as good as it normally is.  The pork wasn’t quite as pulled as it normally is, and maybe a little drier.  It was still quite tasty, though.  I took half home with me, which will probably be lunch one day this week.

(probably worth mentioning that this is not the sandwich I had on Friday, but a photo from a previous visit – didn’t feel like taking out the camera)

Last night, we went out with Tom and Heather for more celebrating, since we didn’t get to see them last weekend.   We ended up going to Plan B Burger Bar in Glastonbury, so another exception night for me.  They actually have a really good veggie burger, but their real burgers are pretty amazing, and I just couldn’t pass one up.  Again, it was totally worth it.

We started with an order of the Jalapeno Poppers, which were less like a popper, and more like, as Kevin put it, “potato skins with jalapenos instead of potatoes”.  They were good, but I don’t know if I’d order them again.   It was kind of too much…

For my dinner, I ordered the Pretzel Burger, which is a favorite of mine.  It’s on a pretzel bun, with spicy mustard, lettuce, pickles and cheddar.  It’s one of the simpler burgers on the menu, which I really appreciate, because it doesn’t take away from the flavor of the beef.  And while I’m not normally a big fan of beef, when it’s done right, it can be really excellent, and Plan B definitely does it right.

On the side, I had the Truffle Fries, which were quite good… definitely Truffley.

Heather had the Disco Fries with her burger, which were covered in cheese and gravy…  I think the consensus was that the cheese was too artificial tasting – like cheese from a can or something.  Oh well…

After Plan B, we went back to our place and had a few beers. I think, overall, Kevin had a pretty good birthday – even if it was almost a week late