Dinner and DALLAS

Confession: I LOVE DALLAS! 

Everytime the theme song plays, I experience an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.  Now, my parents don't really remember me ever watching Dallas as a child, but I must have watched it on the sly...because it seems so familiar to me!  Of course, it may seem familiar because I'm a therapist and I deal with high levels of dysfunction on a regular basis...hmm...anyways...

My friend Karin and I have a new tradition of watching Dallas together on Wednesday evenings.  This week we decided that dinner + Dallas > Dallas, so one of my favorite activities began: MENU PLANNING!  Now, what would be Dallas appropriate food?  Hmm...

THE MENU

Pulled Apart BBQ Pork Sandwiches

We learned last week that Christopher Ewing (Bobby's super hot adopted son played by Jesse Metcalf) and Elena Ramos (Southfork's housekeeper's daughter played by Jordan Brewster) were pulled apart on the day of their intended elopement by an email allegedly sent by Christopher's now wife, Rebecca.  Tragedy.  Of course, that is no excuse for Christopher kissing Elena on the day he found out Bobby has cancer...but still, tragedy.

In honor of the tragic parting of this couple, Karin and I feasted on Pulled Apart BBQ Pork Sandwiches.  These things were easy-peasey!  I did a little internet research and developed my own version of this yummy classic!!

Ingredients:

3-4 pound pork shoulder
Seasoning mix
16 oz. root beer
6ish oz Dr. Pepper
A few dashes of soy sauce
A bottle of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's original)
Fresh cracked pepper
Hamburger buns or Texas toast

Place the pork shoulder in the crock pot.  Season with a seasoning mix (I use a homemade mix given to me by a friend.  I have no clue what's in it.  I know there is lemon pepper in it, but that's all I'm sure of.  It does NOT have salt in it.  I'm guessing a mixture of pepper, onion powder, maybe garlic, lemon pepper or whatever you have on hand should work fine!).  Pour in root beer, Dr. Pepper and soy sauce.  Make sure the meat is covered, otherwise you'll need to turn it every few hours.  Cover and cook on low for 6 1/2-7 hours.  Remove meat from crockpot and pour out liquid.  Shred pork, return to crockpot, and pour in BBQ sauce.  Cook on low for 1-1 1/2 hours.  Approximately 20-30 minutes before serving, add a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper.  Serve on hamburger buns or Texas toast!

*Don't be scared of the root beer thing.  It adds sweetness to the meat, and in the end, the meat does not taste like root beer!

Ann Seems Sweet Potato Fries

At this point, Ann Ewing (played by Brenda Strong) is one of my favorite Dallas characters.  She is the sweet, devoted wife of Bobby Ewing, and she seems to be the only Ewing that is untouched by the nasty, greedy, ickiness that runs rampant around Southfork.  Of course, I think it is only a matter of time before she turns to the dark side as well...*sigh*

Ingredients:

2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Olive Oil (I use a spray bottle)
Fresh cracked pepper and salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil.  Place cubed sweet potatoes in one layer on the baking sheet.  Spray lightly with olive oil.  Top with cracked pepper and salt.  Bake for 15 minutes, flip the potatoes over, and bake an additional 12-15 minutes.  I like to serve these potatoes with a homemade spicy dipping sauce.  Yum yum!


Del Sol Spicy Dipping Sauce

Allegedly, Southfork is being sold to the Del Sol Conservency.  Us Dallas watchers know that this is a load of crap, and really that snake JR is in the works to buy Southfork.  Del Sol is represented by Marta Del Sol (liar liar pants on fire).  She's a beautiful, back stabbing JR and John Ross ally.

Ingredients:

Mayonaise
Ketchup
Cayenne pepper
Paprika
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Fresh cracked black pepper

Sorry, but I don't really have accurate measurements for this part of the menu.  If I had to guestimate, I'd say you mix about 1/2 cup of mayo with 1-2 TBSP of ketchup, then season to taste.  I'm pretty heavy handed with the paprika and cracked black pepper.

Last, but not least...

Bobby's Banana Pudding

Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy) is a key element in the Southfork drama.  He's the more endearing and less Satanic Ewing brother, and plays a nice contrast to icky dirty old man JR (In 30 years, he still hasn't figured out how to trim those eyebrows.)  Bobby certainly has a sweet side, especially when it comes to his wife Ann and his son Christopher.

Ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
4.6 oz pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz Cool Whip, thawed
3-4 large bananas, sliced
Nilla Wafers

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla extract until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 the Cool Whip (It'll be really soupy at this point.  Don't worry, it'll set up nicely!)

Line a large glass bowl or 9x13 dish with Nilla wafers.  Top with some sliced bananas.  Spread pudding mixture on top.  Repeat for a second layer.  Top with Nilla wafers and remainder of Cool Whip. Chill at least 3 hours (Overnight is great!)

Now, I usually make a more simple vanilla pudding, but I found this recipe on AllRecipes and decided to give it a try. This banana pudding was DEFINITELY stellar.  I used light cream cheese, fat free sweetened condensed milk, skim milk and light Cool Whip, and it worked just fine.  I think a good Texan like Bobby Ewing might even approve :-)


Please note, I did not name ANY dishes after JR or John Ross...I do not appreciate dirty old men.  JR is the king of dirty old men, and his son John Ross will take over that throne in about 30 years.  Grody.

Happy Eating Y'all!

What Academia Has Taught Me About Real Life

Hmm...nothing?!

Yeah, that was my initial thought when I sat down to tackle the topic of academia mimicking real life. Upon further consideration, I'm not sure that is 100% accurate.  Since I don't want to sound like a disgruntled graduate student (which at times, I am), I have dug a little deeper into my graduate school experiences to gleam some bits of reality/wisdom/whatever you want to call them.

1) Academia (and Real Life) is full of P personality types.

         Since many of you have no clue what this statement means, let me explain.  There is a personality type test called Myers-Briggs Type Inventory.  It describes an individual's personality on 4 different domains, resulting in an four letter identifier for a personality type.  For example, my type is INFJ.  Supposedly, only 1 percent of the world's population is this type.  Interestingly enough, Mark Harmon of NCIS fame is considered an INFJ.  Must be why I consider Gibbs to be my ideal partner...but anyways, I digress...

        The J in my personality is very strong.  J stands for judging (NOT judgmental type of judging.  Also not Judge Judy type judging).  This means, I LOVE LOVE LOVE prefer organization, structure, and stability.  I like there to be clear rules and expectations, and I expect all involved parties to adhere to those rules and expectations.  The other side of that type is P (Perceiving).  These people love flying by the seat of their pants, considered rules and expectations more flexible, and at times may appear unorganized.  ACADEMIA IS FULL OF THESE PEOPLE!  I'm sure over in the science building or the engineering building, there are plenty of lovely J people.  But here in Norman Hall, J's seem to be few and far between.  Unfortunately for me, that means I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown anytime I have to comply with P exepctations. 

       After spending a little over a year navigating the P World that is in full force here, I've learned just how rigid my J side can be.  Life cannot be organized and color coded all the time.  Plain and simple.  (Yes, I color code my calendar.  Yes, my DVDs are alphabetized. No, I'm not crazy.)  My attempts to cling to a J way of life sometimes results in me being perceived as a stick in the mud.  I don't want to be a stick in the mud!  I don't even LIKE mud! So...real life must be somewhere in the middle of the P and the J, and I am still trying to figure out how to live that way.

2) Everything can be interpreted as political.

        Note: I am not talking federal government type political, more like personal politics.  The classroom you teach in, the time your class is assigned to meet, getting published and getting jobs, who your advisor is...it seems like literally every step you take in academia can be interpreted as a political move and/or ploy.  I find this utterly obnoxious.  As someone who is not a fan of playing these type of manipulative games with others, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.  If a person doesn't play along to some extent, they just don't make it.  Meanwhile, I feel slightly icky and gross if I do play along.  I don't say this to prove my moral superiority because I am in no way superior, I say it to voice my discomfort with this fact of life.  I recognize that this doesn't exist only in academia.  I talk to friends in other career spots, and they all agree.  Life is political.  Work is political.  Family is political.  Sometimes friends are even political.  Time for me to just get used to it, I guess?  Or is this an area for growth and development?  Who knows at this point...

3) You can't be good at everything.

       Perhaps it is naive, but for most of my life I have believed that if you work really hard you can be good at pretty much everything you try.  This has some limits of course.  Physical limits may limit your ability to be good at certain sports, but with other things, this was something I believed to be true.  Basically, I'm an overachiever.  Hello, my name is Dayna, and I am an overachiever.  If you don't believe me, look at my life from ages 4-29 1/2.  As I have trudged through the past few years, I recognize that this just is a big, fat lie.  I probably will NEVER be able to back a boat trailer down the little rampy thing.  Big, fluffy homemade biscuits continue to be just outside of my grasp.  I cannot do free writing.  (See the section on being a J).  I thought I could pretty much be good at most things in the academic realm, but I'm seeing that as an unreasonable expectation as well.  Even my committee chair looked me square in the eyes and said, "You can't be good at everything."  She knows a lot of stuff, so I'm guessing that she's probably right.  Of course, at this point, I can't remember what we were talking about that that moment.  It was probably free writing.  Man, I really hate free writing....it's so pointless...anyway, you can't be good at everything.  Thankfully, you can be really great at some things.  As I continue this trek through academia, I'm sure that I will realize many more lessons that I am in need of learning.  Most of them are painful and annoying lessons...the quantitative research and statistics type of lessons, if you will.  Speaking of not being good at things...whew...anyways...next subject...

Cheddar Sausage Muffins

There has been some interesting in the Cheddar Sausage Muffins I mentioned in a Facebook post earlier this week, so I figured I'd post the recipe here on the blog so all interested parties can have access.  I take zero credit for this recipe!!  My sister, Deanne, introduced it to me a year or two ago (I think she found it on the internet.  Or maybe on the Bisquick box.  Or someone gave it to her.  Who knows...), and I've loved it ever since.  It is a perfect addition to any breakfast or brunch menu, especially if you are homemade biscuit making challenged like myself.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of these delicious muffins to share on this post, so use your imagination :-)

Cheddar Sausage Muffins
1 lb. pork sausage (We like hot sausage!)
1 can of Cheddar Cheese soup
2/3 cup water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 cups Bisquick

Preheat oven to 350. Brown sausage in skillet.  After draining sausage, combine sausage, soup, water and shredded cheese in large mixing bowl.  Stir in Bisquick until combined.  Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full, and baked 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  (If you prefer mini muffins, fill mini muffin tins 3/4 full and bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.)  Try to resist the urge to eat 10 of these littel muffins right out of the oven.  They smell SO good, it is often quite challenging to wait until they have cooled a little.  Trust me, the roof of your mouth will thank you for waiting a few minutes to taste test.  These savory muffins are best served warm, but they are honestly equally delicious at room temperature. 

Happy Eats, everyone!

CAMP DAYNA

Hello everyone!

I apologize for my recent blog silence.  As indicated in my previous post, my niece Emma came to visit for about 12 days.  While she was here, I made the choice to ignore just about every aspect of my normal life (blog, school, diet, etc) in order to devote my attention to her.  We had an absolutely perfect visit together, and I was EXTREMELY sad to see here go back home!

Here is a small selection of highlights from her visit:

1) Swimming...lots of swimming...sometimes we swam alone, and sometimes we swam with friends (As seen below!)

2) Beach Day!  There is absolutely nothing relaxing about taking a 5 year old to the beach.  When we got home that night, I thought I would fall asleep standing up.  Thankfully, Miss Priss slept approximately 11 hours that night.

 3) Sea World!  I haven't been to Sea World in about a million years, so it was a treat for me and Emma!  My BFF Mandy and her niece Avary went with us, and we had a fabulous girls' day!!

In addition to these photo documented events, we had several other fun adventures (including a trip to UF and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, a pool party, a cupcake decorating party with friends, and plenty of fun time playing at my apartment). 

Perhaps some of the most precious time we had was when it was just the two of us...ESPECIALLY when I was able to introduce Emma to one of my favorite love stories of all time.  That's right...Emma was introduced to Anne and Gilbert, the childhood sweethearts and eventual husband and wife duo made famous by the beloved Anne of Green Gables book series.  Since I was a little girl, I have always cherished the Anne books and movies.  It was such a sweet experience to share those stories with another "kindred spirit."

To be honest, I suffered a significant 48 hour funk after Emma went home, but I seem to be recovered now.  I hope to return to normal school, work, blog, and kitchen activities immediately. As I get back in the swing of things, you lovely blog followers should hear from me more often.

On this rainy Saturday afternoon, I wish you all the best :-)