While frozen bananas and cornballs are most certainly the leading food characters on Arrested Development, we can’t celebrate this week’s lead-up to season four without drawing your attention to some of the show’s food-related honorable mentions.
This original recipe, which comes from George Michael’s girlfriend Ann, wins the award for “Most Creative” and “Least Appetizing.” Ironically, Ann’s nickname is Egg.
It’s T-Minus 5 days until season four of Arrested Development airs this Sunday, and we’re celebrating by sharing some of our favorite recipes from the show. Up today: a Bluth family favorite…Cornballs!
When you saw the title and first picture of today’s post, you immediately fell into one of two groups.
Group One members said: “Frozen bananas? How is that, in any way, seasonal?”
Group Two members simply said, “There’s always money in the banana stand.”
Owen and I are on spring break. See, a few weeks ago, I found round trip tickets to Chicago (which isn’t too far from my family) for only $70…so I jumped on those tickets, because driving eight hours, by myself, with a sometimes-screechy baby in the back seat? Ain’t nobody got time for that. Plus, Eric’s up to his neck with a freelance deadline, and getting out of the house for a few days will allow him to work without my constant wheedling to just stop for the day and come outside for a while. #weneedasoundproofhomeoffice
Everyone’s got their rituals to celebrate the arrival of spring.
For some, it’s the first time they slip on a pair of sandals. For others, it’s the first tulip to pop up in their front yard, or maybe it’s the first time you have to take an umbrella with you as you walk out the door.
Or, if you’re from my family, it’s the first sunny, 40* degree day that has you wrapped up in a blanket, tucked into a windless corner of the yard, Vitamin-D starved face turned towards the sun. (I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that four out of the six members of my family texted everyone else about their first time out in the sun this season. #itmustbegenetic).
This is my mom…with a much tinier, much darker-haired Owen. Isn’t she pretty?
Simply put, my mom is a gift. I find a reason to call her most days, and there is not a day that goes by that I’m not thankful for the fact that we get along so well. In fact, there are only a handful of people in my life who are almost guaranteed to make me pee a little each time I see them because they get me laughing so hard. My mom’s one of them, and usually it happens when we’re trying to move a large piece of furniture together.
I’m not sure if 2013 really understands the meaning of the word spring. So far, we’ve had unseasonable snow and unseasonable summer – as we’ve gone from late April blizzards to grilling out in tank tops – all in the same week. To top it off, all three of us have pretty stubborn colds this week.
So let’s look at this playlist as a summons to spring. A call to cool mornings and warm days filled with crisp blue skies…or even to those warmish rainy days. A beckoning of tulips and spring-green leaflets on trees.
This playlist is a pretty good sampling of what’s been on repeat at our house lately….a little Bon Iver because we will have them played at our funerals, a little local flavor with Jeremy Messersmith, a little throwback with Landslide, and of course, because you’ve come to expect it…a few songs with a little bit of banjo…plus a whole lot more.
Head on over for a listen.
To Spring! Enjoy!
I don’t really consider myself much of a food snob for as much as I think, talk, and write about food. I’m not above a DiGiorno’s frozen pizza or a (family-sized) bag of Doritos now and then. But there are two items I’m totally and obnoxiously particular about: coffee and maple syrup.
The coffee one’s a no brainer. Bad coffee just isn’t worth drinking. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not going out and spending $4 a cup at the local cafe…but I make my own coffee, grind up my own relatively fresh beans, and (politely and secretly) turn my nose up at coffee that’s been around too long.
We’ve made no bones about the fact that we’re Mexican food lovers over here! But this year, I’m having kind of a hard time getting into Cinco de Mayo because…well, it’s snowing. It’s literally snowing right now, on May 2. And there’s more rain, sleet, and snow predicted over this festive weekend…which means a few more days of scarves and sweaters instead of the colorful skirts and sandals I usually associate with outdoor picnics on this, the 5th of May.
So, despite my snow-induced grumpiness, I bought the $.77 avocados at my grocery store and will for sure be making this guacamole salad this weekend, if nothing else.
…for schizophrenic spring weather.
On Tuesday, April 22nd, Minneapolis looked like this:
On Saturday, April 28, I took the same walk…in a tank top.
It’s a well-established fact that after months of winter, some Minnesotans will don shorts and t-shirts on the first 40* day that’s even a little sunny. It’s a little embarrassing, I know. But this past winter, especially, has felt endless, with two late-April snow storms. So like the Minnesotan I am, I am typing this outside today, shoeless, jacketless, hatless, as the temperature climbs towards 70*. Did you hear me? Seventy. It always makes me laugh that a 70*-day will bring out white winter legs in Minnesota while it causes Floridians to put on another jacket.
Anyway, in honor of what feels like spring actually coming to stay, we’re totally grilling out tonight. I’ve got bacon and ground beef thawing, because I’ve been totally jonesing for some bbq-bacon cheeseburgers. And because today is a day dedicated to celebrating the return of the sun, I started looking around for some homemade barbecue sauce…I thought I’d share the recipe I’m using with you, as well as a few summer’s-coming sauces that you can make at home on the cheap!
#1. Farmgirl Susan’s Homemade Barbecue Sauce from Farmgirl Fare
image from farmgirlfare.com
Let’s talk chutney.
I started thinking about a fruit chutney when I decided to Indian-ize my goat-cheese-stuffed roast chicken. Goat cheese and fruit go together, well…like this April and snow.
taken just days ago. for real.
Let me tell you the story of this chicken.
A few months back, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, and as usual was thinking how great a friends the author and I would be…I’m sure of it…even though I would struggle knowing that I was the less funny of the two of us…but how even that would be okay because she’s hilarious and makes great foods and because she too is uncomfortable when things don’t include cheese.
All of this snow has left me not knowing whether I want to laugh or cry.
I almost cried yesterday because, well, a good friend had offered to watch Owen so that I could have an afternoon out, all to myself. In my afternoon of freedom and fun, I had planned to buy these shoes with the cash we got back from using our credit card to pay for Owen’s birth. Baby-pushing shoes. That’s right. Then I was going to follow up this reward purchase with an hour at a coffee shop, reading this book.
I had big plans for my afternoon out. But apparently so did the weather.
Carpé Season, Schmarpé Schmeason, you might be saying to yourself right now.
It’s April. Graying snowbanks are still haughtily sitting atop grass that hasn’t even started to think about growing again, and you’re making blueberry pie? There aren’t even ramps at the markets yet, and you’re filling pies with summer berries?
And my response is yes. I know that it is April and that it is entirely possible that this winter will never end, if the forecast of six inches of snow tomorrow, the 18th, is any indication.
This past weekend, our friends Sarah and Brad hosted a meet-the-author event for the author of one of our most recent favorite books – The Exact Place. And we happily attended.
We’re wrapping up Guilty Pleasures Food Week with a classic:
Let me see the Pizza Roll!
This guilty pleasure is brought to you by Eric, who is pizza’s biggest fan. I’m serious. We live in a city with highly diverse restaurant options, yet almost every time we talk about getting take-out, his response is “Wanna get some pizza?”
So, a few weeks ago, when he emailed me the link to these pizza rolls, having written only the word “yumface” in the subject line, I knew they had to be made for our Guilty Pleasures Food Week.
Since we’re talking Guilty Pleasure Foods that make us feel better this week, I thought it only right to continue with what is also quickly becoming Snake Week and tell you about the great Snake scare of 1991. Because it’s possible that I’ve never felt worse in my life.
After my debacle with the nature-center snake in kindergarten, I was pretty scarred. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I refused to look at snakes in my science books at school. And once, when my sisters made me a fort to sleep in and used a striped sheet over the top, I woke up screaming from a nightmare about snakes. This is true.
Welcome, friends, to Guilty-Pleasure Food Week here on Carpé Season. While most of the time, I try to bring you good-for-you, real-food recipes, the recipes you’ll see here this week have very few redeemable qualities about them other than being awesome.
Maybe you’re about to get rocked by the IRS for the freelance work you did last year, so you are downing Skittles like they’re tax deductible. Maybe you simply need some O-Ke-Doke Cheesy popcorn to snarf during commercial breaks of Parks & Rec.
Or maybe, like me, you’re just cognizant of the fact that snakes are real.
What? Snakes? What do snakes have to do with Cool Ranch Doritos?
Well, every guilty pleasure has a story, and I’m about to tell you one that got me started on my go-to guilty pleasure: Cool Ranch Doritos.
I decided to dedicate this week’s Frugal Friday to hummus because it’s a staple at our house, and I eat it with veggies, chips, pitas, and spoons. Hummus, by definition, is inexpensive because it’s mostly made of a frugal can of garbanzo beans; it’s easy to make and is an awesomely cheap protein filler. Here are three fun hummus variations that are easy on the old wallet.
#1. Roasted Garlic Hummus from Healthy Seasonal Recipes
Hummus. Zestified.
image from healthyseasonalrecipes.com
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