A Weekend Without Cooking

You may be wondering why I am writing a blog post if, in fact, there was no cooking done this weekend. Well, truth be told, I did cook a little bit. I don't know if Friday night counts but that's when it happened.

Friday:
So I got home around 10:30 or so from Video Gamer's Club upon which I took a shower and got started on cooking my "Veggie Pizza." There isn't a lot involved in this. Basically, I used croissant dough and baked it in the oven for about 12 minutes at 375 degrees (I've made a few croissants in my day, let me tell you). Then, after that had cooled basically, all you have to do is spread some cream cheese on top with cut up broccoli and carrots. It was a good way of using up the veggies that were about to go bad in my fridge. Next time, I'll make it from scratch and it will be a little more exciting. The cream cheese could have used some herbs or something. It was kind of bland. Also, note to self, I should probably refrigerate it instead of leaving it in my car all day. It would've tasted better if it had been cold. I had been making this for a party I was going to on Sunday, by the way.

Sunday:

So yesterday was Easter. I had no involvement in the meal that was made except for maybe helping put things on the table which really doesn't count. Somehow I got stuck working yesterday mostly because I was being nice and not making my dad work yesterday. Well, I missed getting to go to church so I was a little bit pissy especially when customers kept trying to buy things around the time I was trying to close up. Anyways. We had ham, green beans, croissants (did I tell you), tossed salad, mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes. The scalloped potatoes really didn't turn out that good, but I'm not surprised. My mom doesn't really like cooking with cheese which I don't understand at all. But anyways. This is why I should have been there helping. Somebody needed to be the one to add the cheese, butter and milk (most of which my mom avoids).

So anyways. I did make a little something for my lunch today last night. I made tuna salad. It's actually quite good. Basically it's tuna, celery and onions with special mayo. The sauce includes mayo, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, pepper and sugar. So yeah. It turned out really good. And all I had to do this morning was spread it on a couple of slices of bread and voila! Tuna salad sanwhich to go.

So anyways. I haven't gone grocery shopping this week, but I do wanna make a couple new dishes. I was thinking about doing fish again. We'll see, though. I kind of wanted to make stir fry, too. We'll see what happens.

Happy cooking!

Eat Dessert First

So the other day I was actually able to make dessert (I think it was Saturday. Not sure). It actually turned out really good. I made mixed berries compote. It's basically sugar, water and frozen fruit cooked on the stove. It turns out to be this amazing warm syrupy goodness that went really good on my icecream. The only thing was that it kind of melted my ice cream a little too much. Maybe next time, I'll let the compote cool before pouring it on my ice cream.

So yesterday, I went grocery shopping. I know it's been less than a week, but my dad wanted me to pick up a couple things and I wanted to get a couple things anyways. So one think I picked up was croissant rolls because I was going to make a veggie pizza for the Writing Center party I'm going to this weekend.

So I left my groceries out. I didn't put them in the fridge because I didn't think it would be a big deal. I figured yogurt and cream cheese could deal for a couple hours. When I was putting away my groceries, I found the croissant rolls had popped out of their canister. So I ended up making croissants. So that means I'm going to have to go to the grocery store again. It's kind of frustrating.

So after I made croissant rolls, I made chicken noodle soup. I had bought the stock earlier this week. It basically consisted of chicken, noodles, stock, onions, carrots and celery. I also put parsley and thyme in there (dry). It turned out okay. Whenever I get store bought stock, I always am disapointed. This is what makes me want to make my own homemade chicken stock. It's kind of a lot of work, though. I don't really want to buy a whole chicken. I feel like I would end up throwing away a lot of stuff after the stock is made afterward.

Dessert

So yesterday, after showering and doing the dishes, I attempted to make bananas foster. I had bought bananas and ice cream for the occasion specifically, forgetting the vanilla of course. So first, I attempted making the sauce. Since I was only making one serving, I quartered the ingredient list. This did not work somehow. Each time I ended up burning the butter/ sugar mixture. I have no idea what I was doing wrong. I will attempt it again though since I still have bananas and icecream.

What I ended up doing was eating fried bananas with ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was good but it wasn't that good. It may have been because I got the cheap ice cream. Oh well.

Today:

So every week my mom and I go out to eat. Today I suggested this Mexican place, Casa Real, on Miller. I'd only been to the one in Oxford and had never eaten there so I thought we could try it out. Immediately, I could tell something was wrong once I sat down at the table. My mom, instead of drinking her margarita, was asking for more water. It was weird. Apparently it wasn't as good as Nuevo Vallarta's margaritas (which was actually true). Another problem was the chips weren't hott. This is a necessity at an authentic Mexican restaurant. They just taste better.

I ended up ordering a chimichanga which was good. It was really big though and I mostly just ate the rice and beans. I ended up having a lot left over. I also didn't leave enough room for dessert for which I was sad. Oh well I guess. I'm sure I could just make flan myself. What is it, like, eggs and sugar and milk or something? It sounds easy enough at least.

All right, well, more food adventures to come...

Healthy Food

The last time I wrote on this blog was New Year's Day. I know. Pathetic. I don't know where the time went. It seems like yesterday was the first day of the semester and now we're almost into finals. But anyways.

In my last blog I mentioned possibly doing something with this blog involving food. I'm going to attempt to do that from now on. I'm not sure how often I'll post but I'm hoping a couple times a week at least.

On to my food adventures.

Wednesday:

I was inspired to make chicken salad and sweet potato fries. I found both of the recipes online quite easily. When I was at the grocery store, I only needed a couple extra things. For the chicken salad: walnuts, dried cranberries, celery and onions. For the sweet potato fries: sweet potatoes. I kind of simplified the recipes to ease the affect on my wallet.

When I got back home, lo and behold, I had forgotten the dried cranberries. It was too late to go back so I had to do without. Basically the salad consisted of chopping vegetables up, cooking the chicken and mixing mayo and white vinegar together for the sauce. One problem I did run into was toasting the walnuts. I somehow managed to burn them but they were still salvageable so it was okay.

The salad turned out good and I accompanied it with sweet potato fries. The only thing about these was having to peel the sweet potatoes. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I chopped them, covered them in oil, salt, pepper and cinnamon. After a half hour in the oven, they turned out really well. They tasted like Thanksgiving and I regretted not having pumpkin pie to go along with them. Oh well. I was happy with the finished product so it's okay.

Thursday:

Not as exciting.

I made sloppy joes and spaghetti (sauce from a jar with ground beef). The only actual cooking skill that was needed for this meal wa s chopping onions for the sloppy joes. The sloppy joes that I make include beef, onion, ketchup and mustard. Nothing else. I know it sounds to simple, but try it. It's amazing. Then, I made spaghetti with meat sauce for today's lunch and early dinner (I usually eat dinner twice).

Friday:

So today was yet another grocery day. This is what happens when I get ideas for recipes: I shop a lot. More money out of my pocket that I don't have much of (thanks to having to pay my taxes). So I bought the stuff I needed for (hopefully) all of the week's meals including today's meal: shrimp scampi. I bought shrimp. That's it. That's all I needed for shrimp scampi.

Basically to make the shrimp scampi, you melt butter in olive oil with chopped garlic. Then, you cook the shrimp in that sauce. The linguine (spaghetti) is cooking while this is going on. Then, you add parsley, crushed red pepper, lemon juice (white wine vinegar) and I added a little parmegan for good measure along with the cooked spaghetti. Voila! Shrimp scampi. It was amazing. It was so refreshing to eat something besides: spaghetti, chicken quesadillas, or chicken alfredo. That's one of the reasons I'm doing this blog. I'm hoping to get a little variety in my cooking. It's gotten to be a bit boring eating the same thing week after week.

All right. I'll keep you updated any and all meals. Til next time.

Salud!

New Years

So I don't know why, but I felt the need to make New Years resolutions this year. I tend to make resolutions every semester so it just happened that this time it is also a new year instead of just a new semester. So here goes:

1. Exercise more
2. Eat healthier
3. Try cooking new recipes each week
4. Continue doing well in school
5. Go to another Spanish-speaking country

I know a couple are kind of vague, but I tend to break them easily if I make them too specific. Another thing I'd like to do is dedicate myself more to my writing. I'd like to continue with this blog, but I'm not going to have the theme of music anymore. I might do something with food, but I'm not sure. We'll see. I'll let you know when I figure it out. All right. As you were.

Post Christmas Blues

I love Christmas. I question the fact that the Christmas season starts November 1st. At that point, there's already Christmas music playing on some radio stations. Also, all the stores are stocked with Christmas decorations galore. I don't understand why this is, though. Advent only starts four weeks before Christmas. I don't usually feel the need to start Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I'm a last minute person, what can I say?

Are there other holidays that we start preparing that early before? Am I missing something or is it just me who notices this? Oh well. I feel like this does happen in other aspects of our culture, though.

People who get married usually are engaged for about a year before the actual wedding happens. The preparation that goes into a wedding is amazing. I can't imagine why people need to do that much work for a one to two-hour ceremony. It just seems so silly. I can't imagine what compels people to spend so much money on weddings either. I'd much prefer to spend that kind of money on a house or a nice vacation to Europe. That's just me, though.

I guess it has to do with Americans being very ceremony-oriented. We like to make big splashes when it comes to birthdays and anniversary's also. There are those people who get married twice. That is the most absurd thing to me. I guess it's probably because I'm not married. I feel like once is enough. Well, if we're not including divorce at least. It'd be nice if once were enough, but that doesn't seem to be the case these days.

Anyways. I hope you had a good Christmas. Enjoy the rest of your vacation.

Mi Guitarra

I just wanted to let you know that my guitar now has strings. I know, it's quite amazing. The thing is that I didn't have strings on it for a few weeks now. I was too busy with school to be able to go to the music store and get new strings so it was kinda naked for a little while now.

Now I can practice. Today, my dad asked if I had been performing at all lately. I sadly have not. I don't know what's keeping me. I blame it on the nudity of my guitar, though. Now, all better.

Yayness.

Merry Christmas everyone! And happy New Year!