April 2009
1 post
woops
Clearly I’ve fallen off the wagon.
I was sick for awhile and then my sister had her baby … and this leads not only to not posting, but to not really trying new things.
Tomorrow night I’m hopefully going to try a Weight Watchers recipe for mediterranean sole. Of course it includes feta cheese, yum! I’m hoping to get started on trying new things and posting about them...
February 2009
4 posts
What have I been doing?
Well, it’s been more than 2 weeks since my last post. Shortly after my last post, I made baked mac & feta. It was good. The recipe calls for 6 eggs, which I found to be a little shocking. I used 4 eggs and 2 whites. It was still pretty eggy. I like eggs but I’m not sure I <3 them in this recipe. We had a lot of leftovers and I’ve been enjoying them reheated with some...
Baked Ravioli
Made this Martha Stewart Baked Ravioli dish last night.
Variations - I didn’t have an onion so I just put in some dehydrated onion. Used 2 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes instead of a 28 oz can of whole tomates.
In short - delish. However, I used thyme (recipe calls for thyme or oregano) and I think next time I will use oregano. The thyme lent a sort of sweet-ness to the sauce and I...
Chicken Tacos - YUM
We had 3 chicken breasts thawing in the fridge yesterday but no specfic plans to use them. Midway through the day I realized I was in the mood for tacos. I read on Martha Stewart about a taco bar which called for poached chicken. First of all, I’ve never poached chicken. Second of all, this told you how to poach a whole chicken. Anyways, it got me thinking so I looked up some simple...
Product Review - Alexia Oven Fries
Last night we tried the Alexia Olive Oil, Rosemary & Garlic fries. I’ve been excited to try them - I love the Alexia wheat rolls (tasty, not bad for you, easy to throw in the oven) - and these sounded so good. Unfortunately, they were pretty dry, and we ended up dipping them in ketchup. Not sure how to remedy that … cook a little less time, maybe a little spritz of cooking spray...
January 2009
6 posts
Mac & Cheese with Cauliflower
Made this Real Simple recipe last night and I have to say I really didn’t care for it. I think I also had really high hopes for it which makes it more difficult to live up to them. It sounds good, right, a somewhat lightened up mac & cheese - healthier with the cauliflower in it (also covered in cheese, yum!). But I felt like all I could taste was the sour cream (and the onions,...
last night - chicken broccoli and rice in one pan
So one thing I’m looking for in recipes right now is recipes that are pretty simple so I can either pre-prepare ingredients or not spend a lot of time cooking. We’ve been going to the gym afterwork which means we start dinner a lot later. Also, I’m looking for recipes that provide easy to reheat leftovers I can take for lunch.
Last night I made a recipe from this Kraft...
lots of cookin' - catching up
We’ve been trying really hard to cook almost every night (save the weekends) and I’ve been trying to make satisfying healthyish dinners with leftovers I can take for lunch.
One of my faves from last week was this one.
I used mini bowties instead of shells and my walnuts were ground up much smaller (leftover from Christmas cookie time). Delish, delish, delish. The nuts made it...
NY Times Mac & Cheese
Last night I tried out this recipe http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/04/dining/042wrex.html?_r=1
With a few slight twists … instead of 12 ounces of sharp and 12 ounces of regular cheddar, I used an 8 oz block of 75% reduced fat sharp cheddar, an 8 oz bag of “seriously sharp” shredded cheddar, and an 8 oz bag of (orange) shredded mild cheddar. I also used 2% milk and added 12...
Resolutions & A Tasty New Meal
My dear friend Adrienne resolved to make 6 new recipes/dishes a month this year. We got a head start on that Friday by making a great meal from Everyday Food from Martha Stewart — Skirt Steak with Crispy Garlic Potatoes. The directions call for slicing the potatoes one inch thick … which we didn’t do. We had small round red potatoes which I sliced about 1/4 of an inch thick...
Christmas Dinner - Spinach
Surprise, surprise, another Real Simple recipe graced our dinner table.
I halved this recipe for Baked Spinach and Gruyere. Even half the recipe wound up being more than enough with everything we had. Luckily, the leftovers were tasty for days. It had great flavor, I can’t wait to make this again.
It was really pretty simple to make, and the ingredients were easy for me to find (I...
December 2008
4 posts
Christmas Dinner - Potatoes
For potatoes, I made my new go-to — sour cream mashed potatoes. I made them for fake Thanksgiving, and for real Thanksgiving, and now for Christmas. They are delicious, and super-easy. Also, the presentation is great, and they look really special with a few scallions sprinkled over the top.
The fun twist this year was another Real Simple recipe. I had just enough left over to make...
Christmas Dinner - Roast Beef
I decided to do a roast for Christmas, having never done one before. We did a “trial run” a week prior with a Top Round Roast. It was pretty good but difficult to cut with a vein of fat running right through the middle. At $2.59 a pound it was a steal, but we decided it might be worth going up a level or two. For the real dinner we decided to go with a sirloin roast, which...
christmas dinner = fun + leftovers
Lots to write about this week. Christmas dinner was a big success, and we’ve successfully used leftovers in a variety of ways.
More to come, lots to tell, and I’m definitely back in a cooking groove … now if all those dirty pots & pans could just magically wind up clean and in the cupboard….
bad girl
i have not been on the ball with trips to the market.
i have not been cooking new or interesting things.
i have been going to bed at 930
yawn
November 2008
4 posts
finds at the asian market
There’s a store in town called simply “Oriental Market” - and they have some great stuff. We love the pork & chinese spinach wontons, but the shrimp soup base is kind of gross - we use chicken broth & garlic instead. YUM. Frozen scallion pancakes are also delish, and our Saturday night feast was rounded out by Trader Joe’s chicken gyoza and gyoza dipping sauce -...
holiday-ish muffins
Last night I made Krusteaz Orange Cranberry muffins. All you need is a cup of water and a strainer (I love things like this, because I almost never have eggs on hand when I need them for something spur-of-the-moment). 18 minutes later you have 12 yummy muffins. They smell DELICIOUS while baking and are a great dessert or breakfast (maybe a thanksgiving a.m. or day-after turkey day breakfast...
my first mashed potatoes
We had our annual “Fake Thanksgiving” Saturday night. I wish I had taken some pictures of how glorious everything looked but it all went by so fast. The house was beautiful — it was tight so the 2nd table got set up only when we were ready to eat, and the first was there, filled with our new china (yeay for auctions), serveware, silverware, and napkins, all gleaming under the...
spanish rice - take it a little farther
Spanish Rice is a go-to that we get into every now and then. We like to mix-in baked chicken that we’ve chopped up, along with some shredded Mexican cheese. Recently, we mixed in 1 cup of Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn (thawed before mixing in) — it adds a delicious flavor to the rice! I’m not a fan of the corn on it’s own, but it’s the perfect mix-in for...
October 2008
5 posts
review: birdseye steamfresh meals
Last night’s ultra-lazy dinner consisted of one of the new Birdseye Steamfresh Meals (grilled chicken in roasted garlic sauce), and pillsbury freezer to oven whole wheat rolls.
Pros: required no actual work, and no dirty pans (huge plus in my book).
Cons: did not look as good as they show it — it came out all smooshed looking, not cheap.
Pro: full of veggies, and pretty tasty.
...
Tortellini soup
It’s time to bring out some cold-weather favorites, and find a few new ones (I’m looking for easy, tasty, and healthy chicken & dumplings … I’ll let you know when I get that one figured out). Monday night with homemade bread we had Tortellini Soup — a recipe I first found from weight watchers and adapted.
Here’s my faborite way to make it …
...
new gadgets
A few weeks ago I picked up a bread machine at a yard sale for $5. We are admittedly carb-addicted and love to buy fresh bread at a spot down the road, especially the sourdough batard. Yum. Anyways, the bread machine lets us bake bread at home, for $1 or $2 less than anything we’d buy. Plus once we get used to using it we can get more experimental with what we add in. Last night we used...
Roasted Cauliflower - my new favorite side dish
my new favorite side dish - so easy, and so delish I can skip carbs with dinner (I am a carb addict) — is Roasted Cauliflower with Parmesan cheese. I found this recipe on the Weight Watchers site.
now you could get some nice fresh cauliflower, but as much as I love to cook, I sort of hate prep work. So I picked up a bag of frozen cauliflower (cheap, too), thawed it in the microwave for 4...
fall
Well, spring & summer have passed without a post from me. Let’s get back to it.
It’s getting cold and I want to make things in the oven. I’m on the hunt for comfort foods. The other night it was the campbells classic chicken & rice bake.
We got this pretty baker as a wedding gift — but what to make in it?
February 2008
8 posts
new comfort foods
My kitchen cupboard standbys: canned artichoke hearts, canned diced tomatoes Maybe to most people these are not strange things to have in your cupboard or pantry but to me, they are not things I grew up with and I’ve only come to lean upon them in recent years. I recently found a great deal on an 8 pack of petite diced tomatoes at bjs (later to discover that half the pack is flavored with...
minute steaks ... not as good as I remember
Growing up I loved when we had minute steaks for dinner. We usually had these on a night where dinner had to be quick — maybe we had dance class to get to or something. I loved minute steaks with a slice of swiss cheese. Yearning for comfort food, Tim & I went to the store last night to make just this for dinner. Tim also picked up tater tots, a very nice call. Unfortch, and maybe...
I
I am finally reading Comfort Me With Apples, the memoir by Ruth Reichl that comes between her other two that I’ve already read (Garlic & Sapphires and Tender at the Bone). I love it and am flying through it and hope she writes more soon. I was left craving Thai after her travels to Thailand but the soonest I could pull together a Thai lunch with my work lunch mates was Friday 2/29...
do you panko? from jan 23 08
My husband introduced me to panko early on in our relationship when we tried to re-create Tonkatsu, which his friend’s mother always made for the two of them. Tonkatsu is essentially tenderized pork breaded in Panko flakes and fried, served with Bulldog sauce. Our attempt was “okay.” Over the holidays I was fortunate enough to try the original homemade dish that he loves so much....
Parmesean Chicken -- from jan 16 08
Monday’s dinner was more interesting, aided by the fact that I had the day off, watched The Barefoot Contessa, and then looked at her recipes on the Food Network site for ages. I settled on Parmesan Chicken (not at all the same as chicken parmigiana). Not having a well stocked kitchen I made a few adjustments — normal salt instead of Kosher, typical Kraft grated Parmesan/Romano blend...
originaly posted jan 08
I have become enamored by all things food and foodie. I’ve always been interested in cooking, but lately I’ve read a few things that have me wondering if food (and cooking) can fit into my life in a way that is bigger than “what’s for dinner?” First, I read Julie & Julia. I picked it up at a local bookstore on a whim, it sounded interesting. It’s...
dreaming of my own kitchen
I’m so tired of the kitchen in this place. The cupboards that don’t fit anything, the drawers that fall in all the time, the bad fridge, no-shelf freezer, and the general lack of storage space.
they call this a rut
We’re stuck in the easy & unimaginative. Hopefully I’m in the last days of this never ending (2 week) battle against a cold and will be cooking new things again soon. Tonight I did try one slight variation … had my spinach & cheese tortellini tossed with olive oil/butter/garlic/parmesean. This was great because you could really taste the tortellini. I mean obviously it...