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ARCHIVES:
FEBRUARY 2006
Sunday, February
26
The Weekend In Food, in no particular order
MEXICAN FOOD
It's long been a dream to walk to the mexican restaurant near our
house, eat dinner and walk back. Tonight, that's what we did. Its
about a mile one way, I think. No stories to share.
BANANA BREAD
Yesterday morning, when I woke up and saw the rain outside, and
the 3 ripe bananas on the counter, I had no choice but to make some
banana bread. "B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" I used a recipe from the
book my mother in law bought me, How
to Cook Everything. Nice recipe. On pure accidental dumb luck,
I had a small square of cream cheese on hand. Eating hot banana
bread from the oven with butter and cream cheese is truly heaven.
CHOCOLATE CAKE + MEXICAN FOOD
Later that day, we would be heading to a friend's house for movie
night and mexican food take-out at their place. I decided to needed
to make a dessert, so i whipped up a flourless chocolate cake as
seen on Amatuer Gourmet. It truly was easy and I would make it again
except that its WAY too rich for me. Heck, a pure hershey's chocolate
bar is too rich for me. HA! (that's actually true. I do like chocolate
when its WITH something else like nuts, or fruit or wafer crisp
[mmm...kit kat]). Regardless, the cake was gorgeous with a lovely
crust on the top and sides. We served it with vanilla ice cream.
Tonight, Snail and I will have a little taste with some Zergut cherries
on top.
GREEK YOGURT
Speaking of chocolate and cherries, that's how I doctored up some
greek yogurt that we bought to try. I had heard the word "greek
yogurt" on the MARTHA Show and picked it up on a whim. Greek
yogurt is said to have a lot more cream in it than your regular
american variety. I stirred it up with some sugar, honey, chopped
bittersweet chocolate, chopped Zergut cherries and topped it off
with a little granola. I think its definitely thicker and damn good,
but without a side by side taste test with USA yogurt, hard to say.
PASTRAMI
Friday night, we made a quick trip to the store for some dinner
making items, among them, some roast beef for our dinner sandwich.
The store was out of their fresh roast beef, and the lady at the
counter was all gung-ho for pastrami. At that, we went home and
I ate my first pastrami sandwich. I guess i've never been given
the chance to taste it without rye and i don't like rye. "Go
away, Rye, and leave pastrami alone!"
That's seriously all the food news. What a good weekend.
Saturday,
February 25
++Leaving
the grocery store last night, I said to Snail, "Yon Meeda carry
one of those bags?"
"Yon Meeda" ...Nice.
Tuesday,
February 21
++If
you asked me yesterday if I liked butterscotch, i would say "no"
-- as I recall in my mind those cheapy hard butterscoth candies
that always seem to show up in dusty candy jars at doctor's offices.
But, today when the Martha Stewart of my office came around with
a bag of homemade butterscotch and oatmal cookies, dumping a couple
on my lap, at 3:00 in the afternoon (the hour at work when everyone
needs a snack), I said "Yes! Butterscotch is my all-time fav!"
And you know what?!? I DO love butterscotch. It reminds me of white
chocolate except that it has flavor. Clap for butterscotch!!
Saturday,
February 18
I like to figure out who looks like who. I can't help myself. Sometimes
its disappointing once I put the images together.
+++ This morning I made some breakfast using that leftover pancetta
and some scrambled eggs (do you see how I skipped over the part
about waking up and wishing I was dead because my allergies were
killing me so bad?). I decided that pancetta tastes like fried bologna.
With that thought, i should have slapped it on a peice of bread
with some miracle whip. Instead, i just kept eating it and telling
Snail that it tasted like fried bologna and then finally I couldn't
eat anymore.
After that, we got dressed and into the car, in the cold cold weather.
We were headed to the mall to pick up something I had ordered. Along
with that, I bought a few more clothing items and we strolled around
the mall. (we didn't eat a cinnabon or anything from chik-fil-a
or a pretzel.) We left the mall and drove over to the nice Schlotzsky's
by the water. We split an italian panini, which had pepperoni on
it and was tasty. (do you see how there's not really a story here?).
Ever since then, i've been painting and eating random foods. So
far, its been pecan pie squares (my dad and stepmom sent me for
valentine's day, that I was loving over Christmas break, made by
a bakery), cashews, stove-top popcorn and finally, a can of chicken
noodle soup for dinner.) It's fun to eat whatever's in the house,
because its too cold to leave.
(Bun in the oven, you aren't the only one posting
on saturday night! =wink=)
Thursday,
February 16
Nobody's
homemade valentine's dinner came out better than mine. I was especially
proud of myself because I haven't cooked a full meal (without Snail's
keen assistance) in a while and it all turned out great. Frankly,
I was a little nervous to cook for him because his meals always
come out great and I'm just plain ol rusty and sometimes i'm clumsy
in the kitchen. Snail puts meals together without a recipe, which
is pretty impressive and they are always flavorful.
The meal started with some stuffed mushrooms. For the entree, we
had pan satueed grouper, pancetta parmesan and onion flavored creamy
polenta, with a few shrimp. The polenta was to die for and I sort
of made it up after reading about 3 different recipes. For dessert
(also revised from another recipe), I took some pre-made phyllo
pastry cups, filled them with marcapone and cream cheese, topped
with our favorite jarred sour cherries...which i baked to heat.
I finished those off with some bittersweet chocolate shavings and
powdered sugar. I will for sure make those delightful treats again.
Sooo easy and I could eat about a hundred of them. (ssshhhhh...i
like them even more than my own apple pie.)
Ok. Time to go watch DANCING WITH THE STARS and THE OFFICE. (is
this what my life has become?)
Tuesday,
February 14
My
husband brought me breakfast in bed: scrambled eggs, 3 slices of
bacon, a sliced orange, cold soda. When I was done eating, he delivered
a hot washcloth for my face and some coffee.
I went to the store and got all the fixin's for dinner tonight.
It's going to be a three-course meal and all of it will be pretty
easy.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Sunday, February
12
+++I made a boat load of valentines this year. Probably about 30.
Mostly for all of the ladies that I work with. I think i was partly
trying to make up for falling short from Christmas. They were all
small, about the size of a business card and I had tiny vellum envelopes
to place them in. I used generous amounts of glitter and colored
pencil mostly.
+++I am supposed to be leaving for my yoga class right now, but
allergies. Yes. Maybe I should plan on attending an afternoon class
since mornings are typically a problem.
+++I am taking Monday and Tuesday off. Tuesday I will be making
my husband a nice home-cooked dinner. He's made me a lot of dinners
and I think its time that I pay him back, even though making him
one lousy dinner hardly seems to do that. I don't have my menu all
planned out. I guess i have some foodtv.com surfing ahead of me.
Here's the issues that I aim to avoid: a. cooking all day
and wasting my whole day on a complicated meal whose taste isn't
worth my whole day. b. cooking all day, it dosn't turn out
(burnt, dry, uncooked, nasty) and my husband comes home to frazzled
wife in tears. All to say, that I better keep it fairly simple.
++You know that wire cupcake tree that I loved? Well, i had to return
it to the lady who bought it. I was hoping that when i returned
it, she would insist I keep it, but she didn't. and by the time
I went to Target to find one for myself, they were all gone. It's
sad, no?
sunday, February
05
+++A few years ago, I make some cupcakes like this for the super bowl party (sans mini footballs). I am sure you can imagine me piping the icing for the yard lines....10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60.......um...60? Oh, there's no 60 yard line.
I made them again this year, feeling like the tradition had to be continued.
I was pretty happy I was able to find something to use as footballs at the last minute ... some carmelized pecan halves. Perfect. Also, a lady at work picked up this wire cupcake tree from Target for $10 bucks. Perfect again.
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