I am so tired.
Really, tonight was exhausting. I seriously considered at some point just saying "fuck it" and telling my family to order a pizza.
At least it turned out alright, or at least the family seems to think so.
Night #6: Monday, March 22. Corn patties and lentils with mixed vegetables. This was pretty complicated, only because the lentils and veggies had to be made separately. It ended up being pretty tasty, though, with a higher proportion of lentils than I expected. I've decided I really like lentils, I'd like to use them more in the future. The corn patties were Indian-tasting, with some curry and coriander...they were good, but I'm not much of a fan of those particular spices. I think I would have preferred more garlic. But, then, I would always prefer more garlic.
Night #7: Tuesday, March 23. Broccoli and sun-dried tomato frittata, mashed potatoes with leeks, and a green salad. It was my first time making a frittata, although I have made scrambled eggs with stuff in them before, which is similar. I minced the broccoli and the tomato really finely...I was worried that the frittata would burn on the bottom, and that maybe it would stick to the pan. Surprisingly, it turned out PERFECTLY. Hooray! As for the mashed potatoes, I really just wanted to use the leek and potatoes I had left over from the colcannon last week. I boiled the potatoes, and put the leeks in with them towards the end. I then took the leeks back out...not too difficult...mashed the potatoes, and added the leeks back in. I also put sour cream and milk in it, and it was pretty yummy. Salad was...bleh. Bagged spinach and greens and stuff, with carrots and tomatoes sprinkled on top. Zero effort FTW.
Night #8: Wednesday, March 24. Crab cakes, corn on the cob and roasted butternut squash. The absolute most difficult thing about this night was the butternut squash. That shit is HARD to peel! And to cut, and to do anything else with. But, thankfully, the actual dish itself was the easiest thing ever...chopped squash, tossed with olive oil, maple syrup and fresh chopped sage, and some salt and pepper, baked on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes. The crab cakes were my mother's request...she wanted me to double the recipe, which meant $60 worth of crab!! It's totally worth it for the jumbo lump crab meat...the recipe I have is from the "Cook This, Not That" cookbook, and it is amazing. Not too much other stuff, besides peppers, lemon, egg and breadcrumbs...mostly crab, which makes it de-licious.
Night #9: Thursday, March 25. Vegetable fritters with fresh tomato sauce, and spinach rice. I just don't know why I thought this would be easy. This was the most ridiculously difficult dinner yet. I had to HAND GRATE the damn butternut squash, potatoes, zucchini, and carrots, because I have no machine that does such a thing. Well, I suppose the Magic Bullet might do it...but I don't know, and I didn't have time to try. The fritters turned out alright...a little bland, I should have added a little more salt and pepper to the mixture. The spinach rice was actually really good...long-grained rice cooked in vegetable broth, with frozen spinach and onions added once it's cooked. Way easy, and very yummy, provided the correct amounts of salt and pepper are added. I think that, overall, the night was successful...the family enjoyed it...but I definitely, seriously need to read the directions more carefully. When it says to squeeze out the grated vegetables BEFORE adding the egg...it's for a reason.
Next week is a short week again, I'm going to a seder service with Jacob on Monday night. : ) It really seems like this week was patties week...ha...I made some sort of patties or cakes on 3/4 nights. Next week will be easier, I think.
: )
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Week #2: March 16-18, 2010
Whew. Just finished cleaning up after dinner tonight. Of course, on Thursdays, cleaning up after dinner turns into changing the cat litter, which turns into doing laundry...and pretty soon I feel like I'm going to drop. "Workout" just about covers it.
This week was truncated a bit, because Mum made spaghetti on Sunday night, and there was a ton left over. She makes a great vegetable spaghetti with fake beef...I'd like to try it at some point.
Night #3: Tuesday, March 16. Cheese (for the veg-people) and chicken (for the carnivores) quesadillas, and a hot salad. Quesadillas are from Dad's recipe...just a flour tortilla with a layer of shredded "Mexican" cheese blend, with a layer of diced bell peppers and onions and minced jalapenos, a sprinkling of chicken breast (I buy Oscar Meyer's Southwestern chicken strips, because I am NOT going to the trouble of making the chicken, too), some seasoning, and another layer of cheese. I tried jalapenos for the first time the last time I made them...they're not as hot as I thought they would be, and they add flavor. The hot salad is just broccoli, cauliflower, red and green bell peppers, carrots, and zucchini, steamed in a big pot with seasoning, and with a little dressing mixed in at the end. Pretty good, if you like vegetables. : )
Night #4: Wednesday, March 17. Colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage and leeks) and baked trout with a spinach-butter sauce. Well, it was supposed to be a spinach-butter sauce...it was more of a realllly buttery creamed spinach. The recipe called for reducing 2/3 cup heavy cream down to 3 tablespoons...and I am just not that patient. So, I got it reduced down quite a bit...then added more cream. Whatever...it tasted fine. The colcannon turned out ok...I don't like the recipe I used, or maybe I just didn't use the right proportions of everything. The recipe calls for boiling 5 tablespoons of milk, and then cooking potatoes in that for 20 minutes...how do you boil 5 tablespoons of milk without automatically scalding it? That's weird. So, I think I'll use a different recipe next time. The fish was pretty good...I think I needed to clean it a little better, though. Also, coarse salt and fresh ground pepper would have been better than the refined stuff I used. Those I cooked in a foil packet in the oven with butter and fennel. It did remind me how much I don't like cooking anything that was once alive and walking or swimming or flying around. Bleh.
Night #5: Thursday, March 18. Caprese salad with pesto pasta and steamed broccoli. Everything was laughably easy in this dish except for the pesto. This was my first time making my own pesto...I think it tasted alright, but I didn't really follow the instructions, and it might have been better if I'd done so. I also think that it would be better with a different blade in my Magic Bullet, which is what I used to blend everything. It ended up being a pureed sort of paste...which may be right, I don't know. Anyway, they liked it. All it had in it was basil, olive oil, walnuts, garlic, and parmesan cheese. My favorite was the caprese...I chopped up basil in long strips, and sprinkled it on thick slices of tomatoes and mozzarella cheese with just a bit of salt and pepper on them. Cheeeeeese goooooood.
Ok, that's my week. I'm sitting on the couch currently, in rebellion against movement. Next week will be a full cooking week, hopefully. : ) G'night!
This week was truncated a bit, because Mum made spaghetti on Sunday night, and there was a ton left over. She makes a great vegetable spaghetti with fake beef...I'd like to try it at some point.
Night #3: Tuesday, March 16. Cheese (for the veg-people) and chicken (for the carnivores) quesadillas, and a hot salad. Quesadillas are from Dad's recipe...just a flour tortilla with a layer of shredded "Mexican" cheese blend, with a layer of diced bell peppers and onions and minced jalapenos, a sprinkling of chicken breast (I buy Oscar Meyer's Southwestern chicken strips, because I am NOT going to the trouble of making the chicken, too), some seasoning, and another layer of cheese. I tried jalapenos for the first time the last time I made them...they're not as hot as I thought they would be, and they add flavor. The hot salad is just broccoli, cauliflower, red and green bell peppers, carrots, and zucchini, steamed in a big pot with seasoning, and with a little dressing mixed in at the end. Pretty good, if you like vegetables. : )
Night #4: Wednesday, March 17. Colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage and leeks) and baked trout with a spinach-butter sauce. Well, it was supposed to be a spinach-butter sauce...it was more of a realllly buttery creamed spinach. The recipe called for reducing 2/3 cup heavy cream down to 3 tablespoons...and I am just not that patient. So, I got it reduced down quite a bit...then added more cream. Whatever...it tasted fine. The colcannon turned out ok...I don't like the recipe I used, or maybe I just didn't use the right proportions of everything. The recipe calls for boiling 5 tablespoons of milk, and then cooking potatoes in that for 20 minutes...how do you boil 5 tablespoons of milk without automatically scalding it? That's weird. So, I think I'll use a different recipe next time. The fish was pretty good...I think I needed to clean it a little better, though. Also, coarse salt and fresh ground pepper would have been better than the refined stuff I used. Those I cooked in a foil packet in the oven with butter and fennel. It did remind me how much I don't like cooking anything that was once alive and walking or swimming or flying around. Bleh.
Night #5: Thursday, March 18. Caprese salad with pesto pasta and steamed broccoli. Everything was laughably easy in this dish except for the pesto. This was my first time making my own pesto...I think it tasted alright, but I didn't really follow the instructions, and it might have been better if I'd done so. I also think that it would be better with a different blade in my Magic Bullet, which is what I used to blend everything. It ended up being a pureed sort of paste...which may be right, I don't know. Anyway, they liked it. All it had in it was basil, olive oil, walnuts, garlic, and parmesan cheese. My favorite was the caprese...I chopped up basil in long strips, and sprinkled it on thick slices of tomatoes and mozzarella cheese with just a bit of salt and pepper on them. Cheeeeeese goooooood.
Ok, that's my week. I'm sitting on the couch currently, in rebellion against movement. Next week will be a full cooking week, hopefully. : ) G'night!
Week #1: March 10-11, 2010.
So, the first night of this business was Wednesday, March 10. Dinner was: salmon, marinated in a bourbon sauce courtesy of Publix; Alessi brand saffron risotto; and carrots with cinnamon and allspice. Salmon was most excellent, sauteed in a pan with a little olive oil and some Emeril's cajun seasoning. Risotto was also awesome...this was my first time with that brand, and I like it a lot. Very easy, too. Carrots were...carrots. Good seasoning, though. Allspice and carrots are good together. Especially with butter. Mmm, butter.
Night #2: Thursday, March 11. Brown rice with peas, carrots and onions, cooked with vegetable broth; sweet potatoes, baked in the oven in foil; and spinach with asparagus. I became concerned while cooking the rice and potatoes that I perhaps didn't have enough food, so I used a bag of spinach that I had in the fridge and some leftover asparagus to do a weird mixture of the two. It didn't turn out badly...I cooked them separately with the same seasonings, since they require different cooking conditions, and then combined them, which worked pretty well. The family seemed to like it...even my asparagus-wary sister dug it. The rice was good, if a little sticky...I wish there was a way to cook whole grain brown rice in a way that didn't make it all sticky, but I have not found that way just yet. Sweet potatoes turned out very nicely...again with a little butter, and they're divine. Thankfully for my arteries, I use Smart Balance.
I forgot to put this in my first entry, but I'm a pescatarian, which means I don't eat any sort of meat except for seafood. I also eat dairy and eggs. Lots of dairy and eggs.
My stepfather is also a pescatarian, so I make all of my meals primarily vegetarian. I sometimes add a small amount of chicken or something to my mother's and sister's meals, but I never like to make meat the centerpiece of a meal. I don't like cooking it...if it weren't for the fact that fish is incredibly versatile and just so darn healthy, I would avoid it as well.
So yeah, there's the first week. More to come. : )
Night #2: Thursday, March 11. Brown rice with peas, carrots and onions, cooked with vegetable broth; sweet potatoes, baked in the oven in foil; and spinach with asparagus. I became concerned while cooking the rice and potatoes that I perhaps didn't have enough food, so I used a bag of spinach that I had in the fridge and some leftover asparagus to do a weird mixture of the two. It didn't turn out badly...I cooked them separately with the same seasonings, since they require different cooking conditions, and then combined them, which worked pretty well. The family seemed to like it...even my asparagus-wary sister dug it. The rice was good, if a little sticky...I wish there was a way to cook whole grain brown rice in a way that didn't make it all sticky, but I have not found that way just yet. Sweet potatoes turned out very nicely...again with a little butter, and they're divine. Thankfully for my arteries, I use Smart Balance.
I forgot to put this in my first entry, but I'm a pescatarian, which means I don't eat any sort of meat except for seafood. I also eat dairy and eggs. Lots of dairy and eggs.
My stepfather is also a pescatarian, so I make all of my meals primarily vegetarian. I sometimes add a small amount of chicken or something to my mother's and sister's meals, but I never like to make meat the centerpiece of a meal. I don't like cooking it...if it weren't for the fact that fish is incredibly versatile and just so darn healthy, I would avoid it as well.
So yeah, there's the first week. More to come. : )
Adventures in Cooking
I love love love to cook.
Unfortunately, I hate hate hate to cook for only myself. There's always leftovers to deal with, and what if I don't feel like eating the same thing 3 days in a row? If it's just me, I'd just as soon have a can of green beans and some cottage cheese for dinner.
Plus, I'm just so not hungry when I finish cooking. Which, obviously, makes cooking for myself a challenge. But, green beans and cottage cheese do not a healthy dinner make.
My sister comes over to my house every Wednesday, and we made dinner for her and my mother and stepfather this last week. My mother commented that night, jokingly, that I should cook for them every day.
I thought about this a bit, and decided that this was the perfect solution to my problem. I can cook every night for a family of 4, send almost all of the food away so I don't have leftovers, eat a healthy dinner, and my mother and family can have dinner every night that is healthier and less expensive than the takeout they usually get. Plus, I burn extra calories by shopping, cooking, and then cleaning afterwards. Perfect!
I wanted to be able to record my cooking experiences somewhere, both to have a list of my cooking repertoire and to record observations on what works and what doesn't. So...voila!
I think I'll probably do one entry per week, with all of the things I've made that particular week. This is more for my own personal record than anyone's enjoyment...but hey, if anyone actually reads it, cool.
: )
Unfortunately, I hate hate hate to cook for only myself. There's always leftovers to deal with, and what if I don't feel like eating the same thing 3 days in a row? If it's just me, I'd just as soon have a can of green beans and some cottage cheese for dinner.
Plus, I'm just so not hungry when I finish cooking. Which, obviously, makes cooking for myself a challenge. But, green beans and cottage cheese do not a healthy dinner make.
My sister comes over to my house every Wednesday, and we made dinner for her and my mother and stepfather this last week. My mother commented that night, jokingly, that I should cook for them every day.
I thought about this a bit, and decided that this was the perfect solution to my problem. I can cook every night for a family of 4, send almost all of the food away so I don't have leftovers, eat a healthy dinner, and my mother and family can have dinner every night that is healthier and less expensive than the takeout they usually get. Plus, I burn extra calories by shopping, cooking, and then cleaning afterwards. Perfect!
I wanted to be able to record my cooking experiences somewhere, both to have a list of my cooking repertoire and to record observations on what works and what doesn't. So...voila!
I think I'll probably do one entry per week, with all of the things I've made that particular week. This is more for my own personal record than anyone's enjoyment...but hey, if anyone actually reads it, cool.
: )
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