The final product was much less picturesque, but darn tasty:
Saturday, March 29, 2008
some dinner pictures
We actually started out this dinner looking all organized and stuff:
The final product was much less picturesque, but darn tasty:
The final product was much less picturesque, but darn tasty:
whenever I get a day at home...
...I end up cooking all day!
I started today with an apple-and-raspberry cobbler for breakfast. YUM. Yes, we already ate the whole thing. I'd show you a picture of the dish all scraped clean, but it's already in the dish washer.
Then I made a loaf of bread and some Parmesan-and-italian-seasoning rolls.
Alex and I teamed up for dinner. We decided to go all-American, having cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion. Also kettle chips (instead of french fries) with onion dip, and some baby-friendly decaf Coke. And of course, we used some of the aforementioned rolls for buns.
Incidentally, we discovered while making the burgers that lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle make a really good snack all by themselves--there's almost no need to even add the burger.
And as a closer, what would this fabulous dinner be without a little chocolate pudding for dessert? Yummm. I keep telling Alex that all he has to do is earn a million dollars and I will SO stay at home and cook delicious things for him ALLLL the time!
I started today with an apple-and-raspberry cobbler for breakfast. YUM. Yes, we already ate the whole thing. I'd show you a picture of the dish all scraped clean, but it's already in the dish washer.
Then I made a loaf of bread and some Parmesan-and-italian-seasoning rolls.
Alex and I teamed up for dinner. We decided to go all-American, having cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion. Also kettle chips (instead of french fries) with onion dip, and some baby-friendly decaf Coke. And of course, we used some of the aforementioned rolls for buns.
Incidentally, we discovered while making the burgers that lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle make a really good snack all by themselves--there's almost no need to even add the burger.
And as a closer, what would this fabulous dinner be without a little chocolate pudding for dessert? Yummm. I keep telling Alex that all he has to do is earn a million dollars and I will SO stay at home and cook delicious things for him ALLLL the time!
woo, gardening!
I got together with my mom this week and talked over my plan to commandeer some of her yard space to expand her garden. We are agreed about the idea of expanding her garden area and maybe even making a raised garden bed!
My next task is to figure out exactly which kinds of veggies and herbs I want to put in there, anyway. :)
My next task is to figure out exactly which kinds of veggies and herbs I want to put in there, anyway. :)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
real vegetables
I am in LOVE with fresh, GOOD produce. We got some tomatoes from Stop & Shop (which turns out to be kind of 2/3 of the way in quality and price from a Market Basket to a Hannaford, for those of you who have any idea what I'm talking about).
Anyway, the tomatoes were so ripe and perfect that the whole display of them smelled like REAL tomatoes--the kind you can pick off the plant and just gobble down. MMMmmmmm.....
(ASIDE: I am SOOO sick of "vegetables" and "food" that are in fact not truly edible at all! For instance, supermarket cucumbers are a joke. They are foamy plant fiber and water, and nothing else. A home-grown cucumber is a thing of flavorful beauty. I NEED to get some garden space!)
Anyway, it's a couple of days later now and the tomatoes still smell like that, and every time I smell one I just want to dig in!
Eating these delicious tomatoes reminded me that my mom grows tomatoes when the season is right, and that they are invariably damn tasty.... This combined with my general state of disgruntledness at bad veggies, and resulted in me hatching a plan to see how I can earn a supply of Mom's tomatoes for myself, and maybe get some more kinds of fresh veggies to boot. :)
Anyway, the tomatoes were so ripe and perfect that the whole display of them smelled like REAL tomatoes--the kind you can pick off the plant and just gobble down. MMMmmmmm.....
(ASIDE: I am SOOO sick of "vegetables" and "food" that are in fact not truly edible at all! For instance, supermarket cucumbers are a joke. They are foamy plant fiber and water, and nothing else. A home-grown cucumber is a thing of flavorful beauty. I NEED to get some garden space!)
Anyway, it's a couple of days later now and the tomatoes still smell like that, and every time I smell one I just want to dig in!
Eating these delicious tomatoes reminded me that my mom grows tomatoes when the season is right, and that they are invariably damn tasty.... This combined with my general state of disgruntledness at bad veggies, and resulted in me hatching a plan to see how I can earn a supply of Mom's tomatoes for myself, and maybe get some more kinds of fresh veggies to boot. :)
family time :)
Alex and I love cooking together. We are working on cooking together every day, and have been doing pretty well at it! We don't do something hugely fancy every day, but it's always nice to spend some time hanging out and making something we both can enjoy.
Today we made a salad with REALLY good tomato, salami, grated cheddar and Italian dressing. We tossed it in a big salad bowl, and it looked so good that we just grabbed a couple of forks, sat on the couch together and ate the whole thing out of the big bowl. :)
It was so yummy, I made seconds for tomorrow!
Today we made a salad with REALLY good tomato, salami, grated cheddar and Italian dressing. We tossed it in a big salad bowl, and it looked so good that we just grabbed a couple of forks, sat on the couch together and ate the whole thing out of the big bowl. :)
It was so yummy, I made seconds for tomorrow!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
back on the (sea)horse, ha ha ha
Today I ate three shrimp with a yummy cocktail sauce, and several crackers with lobster dip.
I even ate them on purpose. :)
This marks the first time I have even remotely been around lobster-as-a-food since when I first smelled it (around 10 years old) and literally almost threw up. I am proud of myself!
I even ate them on purpose. :)
This marks the first time I have even remotely been around lobster-as-a-food since when I first smelled it (around 10 years old) and literally almost threw up. I am proud of myself!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Easter dessert decided
I'm going with a sort of ice cream/sorbet hybrid. Unless it totally sucks, in which case I'll go to the (delicious) standby of apple pie. :)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
perfect pizza topping
Okay, so the absolute BEST cheese combination to put on a pizza is mozzarella, sharp cheddar and a sprinkling of Parmesan over the top. I am not kidding--it's to DIE for!
Friday, March 14, 2008
yummy, yummy bread
I've been having some trouble with my bread: Every time I got to the kneading part, the dough would end up tough, with holes busting out all over it, and yet seemingly under-kneaded rather than over-kneaded (because the bread wouldn't hold a rise properly).
It was a BIG mystery, and no matter what I tried, I kept getting the same weird, unhappy result.
I finally pulled out the big guns by asking my mom to make bread with me and show me what I'm doing wrong. Yaay, mommie!
It turns out that in the beginning, when you first mix together the yeast with some sugar and flour, there is some heavy stirring to be done, to activate the gluten right then.
There is also a very successful family kneading technique, but it can't really be explained in writing--you just have to watch someone do it. I can say that it involves leaning on the dough from the shoulder rather than trying to knead it with the wrists.
Needless to say, these two elements have greatly improved my breadmaking!
The next development is that now, with these two elements in, I find that I can add much less flour to the dough before going on to kneading, which handles a lot of the toughness that I was encountering.
Woo!
It was a BIG mystery, and no matter what I tried, I kept getting the same weird, unhappy result.
I finally pulled out the big guns by asking my mom to make bread with me and show me what I'm doing wrong. Yaay, mommie!
It turns out that in the beginning, when you first mix together the yeast with some sugar and flour, there is some heavy stirring to be done, to activate the gluten right then.
There is also a very successful family kneading technique, but it can't really be explained in writing--you just have to watch someone do it. I can say that it involves leaning on the dough from the shoulder rather than trying to knead it with the wrists.
Needless to say, these two elements have greatly improved my breadmaking!
The next development is that now, with these two elements in, I find that I can add much less flour to the dough before going on to kneading, which handles a lot of the toughness that I was encountering.
Woo!
Monday, March 10, 2008
beautiful new bowl :)
My mommie got me a gorgeous big dark brown ceramic bowl for making things like bread and pie in. I'm breaking it in with a batch of bread tonight!
Monday, March 3, 2008
food today
I had some extra time today so I did some cooking.
YUM, as it turns out. :)
I started with potato soup, since Starbucks had some whole milk that was expiring, so I took it home to cook with. Don't worry, I made sure it hadn't actually spoiled before I threw it in the soup.
Alex and I ate the whole pot of soup in maybe half an hour. :) AND I am thinking about making a whole extra batch tomorrow. I made it from a recipe that was pretty bad, so I wrote in my changes for next time (more potatos, add cayenne pepper, things like that...).
I am really happy because in Oregon you could pull cans of potato soup off ANY grocery shelf, and in New England you just can't find potato soup without YUCK CLAMS. AKA clam chowder, which people around here are crazy about despite the presence of, well.... clams.
And then, I was having such a good time cooking that I made a chocolate cake. But chocolate cake is so much better with fruit sauce! So I made some sauce out of a bunch of mixed berries, and the cake soaked up a bunch of it really nicely. It was deeeelicious.
Just when I was running out of steam and couldn't face cooking for myself, Alex made TWO grilled cheese sandwiches for me in the knick of time. :)
YUM, as it turns out. :)
I started with potato soup, since Starbucks had some whole milk that was expiring, so I took it home to cook with. Don't worry, I made sure it hadn't actually spoiled before I threw it in the soup.
Alex and I ate the whole pot of soup in maybe half an hour. :) AND I am thinking about making a whole extra batch tomorrow. I made it from a recipe that was pretty bad, so I wrote in my changes for next time (more potatos, add cayenne pepper, things like that...).
I am really happy because in Oregon you could pull cans of potato soup off ANY grocery shelf, and in New England you just can't find potato soup without YUCK CLAMS. AKA clam chowder, which people around here are crazy about despite the presence of, well.... clams.
And then, I was having such a good time cooking that I made a chocolate cake. But chocolate cake is so much better with fruit sauce! So I made some sauce out of a bunch of mixed berries, and the cake soaked up a bunch of it really nicely. It was deeeelicious.
Just when I was running out of steam and couldn't face cooking for myself, Alex made TWO grilled cheese sandwiches for me in the knick of time. :)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
epic project :)
Somewhere along the line I noticed that I have collected up about a million (conservative estimate) handwritten/magazine clipped/mail order/etc. recipes that hang out with my cookbooks.
Their main function in life seems to be "look messy and be really hard to sort out". They have been sitting on the counter in a pile with my cookbooks, looking like crap and basically hindering everything.
Well, well, well. What is a girl to do?
I don't remember if it was my idea or Alex's, but the idea came from somewhere that these loose recipes need to be captured and put in a binder between those neat-o plastic sheets (which I love because I spill egg on EVERYTHING when I cook).
Well, I'm doing it and I'm actually almost done. AND everything is getting sorted by category, so my seventy five bread recipes, for instance, are all actually hanging out together!
This project has been a long time coming, and I'm so glad to finally be doing it!
Their main function in life seems to be "look messy and be really hard to sort out". They have been sitting on the counter in a pile with my cookbooks, looking like crap and basically hindering everything.
Well, well, well. What is a girl to do?
I don't remember if it was my idea or Alex's, but the idea came from somewhere that these loose recipes need to be captured and put in a binder between those neat-o plastic sheets (which I love because I spill egg on EVERYTHING when I cook).
Well, I'm doing it and I'm actually almost done. AND everything is getting sorted by category, so my seventy five bread recipes, for instance, are all actually hanging out together!
This project has been a long time coming, and I'm so glad to finally be doing it!
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