Thing-a-day.com

Although I’m going to continue to finish up some project and try cooking more…

Dinner! The 3 Step Greek Skillet we made was delicious.

Tonight I made scallops in herb butter and pan toasted asparagus for dinner. The recipe for the scallops is basically this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241746

However, they had no tarragon at the store, so I just used parsley, since it’s inoffensive.

Now, the aspragus I would normally cook under the broiler for about 5-7 minutes (coated in olive oil) then sprinkle with kosher salt. Well, still no oven, so I pan toasted them in a cast iron skilled for about 7 minutes, then sprinkled on the salt.

Here is my plate:

Both stega and I enjoyed it. And she did most of the dishes!

 

I helped Gram make breaded pork chops. She uses regular pork chops, nothing fancy. I did all the prep work — dip in flour, then egg then what she calls crackermeal which turns out to be crackers that have been ground finely. The chops are then shallow fried. I don’t know what seasoning she puts in but they’re very yummy and never ever dry. It’s an art.

so why not post it.

breakfast (eggs, toast, leftover vegetable jumble):

dinner (fried sausage wrapped in pancetta over citrusy pasta and more leftover vegetables):

and I turned this honeydew into a swan with a crooked tail full of melon balls which was pretty magical:

tonight i steamed an artichoke for dinner:

i got it from the farmer’s market the other day. i know it doesn’t sound that significant, but i’m not much of a cook, so it was a big deal for me…

This was dinner tonight as I was too lazy to leave the house to buy any groceries and decided to use what I had on hand. Lucky for me we had some multi-grain tortilla chips left over from the Super Bowl last month and some frozen ground beef. I used spinach instead of lettuce and topped it up with an old can of refried beans in the cupboard, some cheese, sour cream and some salsa.

I swear the spinach is under there. It really is. Not a bad dinner at all. Very hearty and tasty.

I’ve been very lax about posting this week. I blame my boyfriend completely. I take absolutely no responsibility. Really, it’s his fault, he’s the one that kept turning on Law & Order…..But regardless, I have been doing stuff, and here it is….

more of my alphabet, letters C and E (C was a bitch, I HATE little tiny circles!) I skipped D because it was another complicated pattern and I didn’t really have time for it. Hopefully I’ll get to it this weekend…..but other factors may prevent me from being too active in crafting for the rest of the month (godDAMN my landlord! I hate moving!)

Dessert for Valentine’s dinner made a day early. Based on Bakerella’s red velvet cake balls. My supermarket didn’t have red velvet cake mix, so I used strawberry. Note to self: never try to make a dessert involving small balls of something rolled in molten chocolate again, it’s just a pain in the butt (but oh-so delicious!)

Here’s the Valentine’s card that I made for my boyfriend. It’s hard to tell in this pic, but the words love are backed with red paper, the rest of the text is a dark brown, and the kisses are silver:

And my final thing for this week was cooking Valentine’s dinner. I didn’t get any pictures of it before we ate, but my boyfriend did. Now all I have to do is try to pry the pictures out of his DSLR-baby. Now, where did my butterknife go, I wonder……

Tonight my boyfriend and I made dinner, and invited a friend over.  I was in charge of the salad and an appetizer.

On the left is spinach with feta, dried dragonfruit, and toasted almonds.  I was really proud of this salad because I came up with it all on my own.

On the right is fried plantain chips with lime and salt.  I bought plantains on a whim at the store and found this idea in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.   These were quite excellent and very easy!  I’ll be buying plantains much more often

Tonight, I cooked something.

I needed to use up some carrots in the fridge, so I cooked them with garlic and glazed them with balsamic vinegar.  I served it over ginger quinoa.  This was my first time glazing much of anything…fun!

More food y’all:

Pan-fried steak with carmelized mango, shallots and avocado “salsa”(?) on top.  Served with more grilled shallots and red bell peppers on the side.  Also a salad with raspberries, apple slices, almonds, shaved parmesan, avocado, parsley and cilantro on top of all the regular players.  I was hungry, thus portions were pretty mountainous today.

I’m also just starting a scarf that isn’t knitted, but held together with knots because…  I can’t knit.

As you can see, there were 4 main strands tied together to create a scarf with a little less width than I normally like.  So, now that I’ve taken this picture- I’m going to pull it apart and start all over with an extra two strands to hopefully fatten it up nicely. Here goes..

Sorry about the light.Kathya and I made this (well, the burger was mostly her, but I did remind her to put an egg in it)… Burger and a salad.


Burger instructions: In a bowl, mix together freshly ground beef (we went to a butcher in Wiesbaden city center), salt and pepper, chopped mushrooms, garlic and 1 egg yolk. Use your hands to shape the meat mixture into patties. Seal the burger patties by searing both sides quickly on a grill pan, then place in the oven/broiler to cook for 10-15 minutes (we like ours rare inside).

After 10-15 minutes, brush the patties with barbecue sauce and add slices of Swiss Emmenthal cheese on top of the burger patties. Return to broiler/oven to melt the cheese. Once it’s melted, place on burger bun. Serve with side salad.

Buon appetito!

I brought some burrata and taleggio from Italy to Germany.Tonight Kathya and I decided to use some of the taleggio for a simple Sunday dinner.Quick recipe for 3 servings:Heat oven to 180C. On an aluminium-covered oven tray, place 3 chicken breasts, season with pure extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until done.Chop up 1-2 handful of basil leaves. In a small pot, make a syrup using sugar and water, stirring often. When the syrup mixture thickens, add the chopped basil leaves. Leave over small fire to infuse for 5 minutes.When the chicken is cooked, take the tray out and add pear slices (we used 2 pears, 3-4 slices each chicken breast) on top of the chicken breast, and layer with a slice of taleggio cheese. Turn on your oven grill and place the tray underneath until the taleggio bubbles and melts.On 3 separate plates, layout 1-2 handful of mixed salads: rucola, songino (lamb’s lettuce), chioggia (beet leaves, I think), endives. Place the chicken breast on top, and add 1-2 teaspoons of the basil syrup+leaves. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the salad if you like.