bluecu.be

Warm tortilla and black beans; eggs scrambled in homemade enchilada sauce; salsa and grated swiss cheese.

Lunchbox Madness. Decided to try a new recipe. My rendition of pork medallions with a coffee molasses glaze. It was a pleasing, comforting taste. The glaze reduced well on the stove. Carrots and turnips from the weekly produce box.

I’ve been rewatching Friends (on 7th season now) to get the whole story. Have you ever noticed how they always have time before work to go to Monica’s apartment to have breakfast? I always thought, “How do they have the time?” Well, one morning before work, I went over to Cristina’s house and made pancakes for breakfast. No particular reason, just felt like it.

I might not have mentioned it before, but after (finally) watching the movie ‘Julie & Julia’, I couldn’t help myself but to go out and buy Julia Child’s ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’. Since I got a healthy shipment of cremini mushrooms last week, I decided to try a simple cream of mushroom recipe. It was fun actually using mushrooms to make this soup from scratch (especially the part that told me to squeeze the juices out of the mushroom stems). The result, a hearty yet creamy mushroom soup with plenty of body owing to the copious amounts of sliced mushrooms used.

One night, I planned to cook some different things, but I ended up with way too much food for my roommate and me. Made a zucchini, kale, avacado and cashew salad, to accompany blackened chicken on simple couscous.

With all the gourmet burgers I’ve had the gastronomic privilege to sample these days, I decided to try my hand at making my own burgers. Since I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer now, this was fortunately a simple task to undertake. I took ground chicken and added some finely diced mushrooms and onions, tossed in a couple of egg yolks and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce nad mixed it all together before pan-frying them. Picked up a few freshly baked buns at the corner bakery and also sauteed onions with yellow peppers. Threw on a few pieces of romaine lettuce and drizzled on ketchup. Voila! Now I know the presentation is a bit lacking (my cooking never was plated very well…) but the tastes were well layered. I’m definitely going to try this again with other variations.

I went to the supermarket after work last night to pick up some meat since all we had at home were vegetables and fruits. In the meat department, I spotted that baby-back pork ribs were on sale. I thought it’d be a nice challenge for myself since I seldom cook red meat and have never even attempted cooking ribs before. All we had was ketchup at home, so I decided to make my own barbecue sauce by adding a bit of honey, lemon juice, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. After popping the rack into the oven…I remembered the cornucopia of potatoes we had so I whipped together a quick scalloped potato gratin and popped it in the oven as well.  Instead of breadcrumbs (which I had none of), I sprinkled oats on the top to get the same crunch factor. Obviously, the ribs were nothing compared to those at restaurants like Bâton Rouge, but they came out surprisingly tender and tasteful for my first try.

Tonight, I went over to Cristina’s house to cook dinner and just hang out. It was very nice to cook and chat while she worked on her garments. I made fajitas and ratatouille, nice winter fare in my opinion. Cristina cut up quite a few different types of cheeses and we put together a little cheeseboard; brie, cranberry goat cheese and jalapeno gouda were among what we had. It was nice to have an evening eating in and catching up with an old friend. It always feels a bit surreal when I meet with high school friends away from Richmond. Can’t wait to see Cristina’s finished line of clothes and attend one of her shows!

I decided to make fajitas one night and found out they’re extremely easy to make and taste great!

So one of the items my organic produce box this week was turnips. I’ve never cooked with a turnip before. Looking at what was in the fridge, I just whipped together this slaw of potatoes, butternut squash and turnip. I added a bit of honey and cinnamon and it actually turned into something pretty tasty. I can see this being a winter comfort dish I’ll make again soon…