Dinner Last Night

Dinner last night was mostly a success. Not just because it was tasty, but because I took pictures!

Last night's dinner was kind of made up. Well, not entirely, but it was kind of random. But, we got some chard from our CSA. The Pedant and I wanted to make the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Assertive Greens with Kielbasa that we made last week with soy chorizo. But, it wasn't going to be enough for dinner. Plus, we had some leftover Roquefort that's been calling my name. So I decided to make a pasta dish with a sauce using bad wine in our fridge as a vehicle for the cheese. The tasty, tasty cheese.

Step one: clean greens. Please note the before.
Step two: put in pot of water.

Please also note my very favorite Le Cruset Pot. I love it so much.

Then, drain chard. Please notice the after.
So little left! Greens are funny that way.


Anyway, step 2 of the recipe is cook "kilbasa" in the pan and add the green.
Also, this is in one of my favorite pans. It's super huge and lovely.

And I swear, it's tastier than it looks!

Then, I made the pasta.

It was pretty simple. I chopped up an onion and sauteed it in some oil. I added a bit of garlic and then about a cup of the terrible wine and let it cook down. Not sure why it was terrible. It was probably very good at the winery or wine festival we bought it at. I used some frozen asparagus that I steamed in it's neat-o bag. Probably should have just added them in without the steaming. They were a bit overdone. Oh well. I then added some frozen peas (lots of fun spring vegetables! In Summer!) and let that cook. I finished cooking the pasta in the sauce, because Lidia tells me to, and voila.



Then I put the stuff on plates and added the cheese:



The verdict: the greens were tasty (I used MUCH more chorizo than last time, but I was trying to finish it). The pasta was fair. A bit tasteless, but a great vehicle for the cheese.

Weekend PLUS PICTURE!

The Pedant (while cooking breakfast): Oh, did you want to take a picture of it?
Sherbs: Oh, right.

(Taken with iPhone)

This is basically about 1/2 of the cooking we did all weekend, which is unlike us.

Friday night, we ended up ordering in Chinese food, which we haven't done in ages. It was warm out, we had little food to cook and we were really happy watching TV.

Saturday, we ended up eating at Subway for lunch and then had dinner with friends at Not Your Average Joe's. Dinner was good. Nothing fancy, and well priced. The portions were also really reasonable, which is sometimes hard to find in chain restaurants (where they overcharge you for HUGE portions...Cheesecake Factory, I'm looking at you...)

Sunday, we made this for breakfast. It was a fun creation:

• Leftover rice from Chinese food
• 1/2 a can of black beans
• Salsa
• 1 egg
• Taco seasoning

TP did most of the cooking and I took this token picture.

We ended up having Costco pizza for lunch. Which was tasty. Tasty, tasty, tasty.

I did cook for dinner (but 100% forgot picture...will work harder). We had gotten greens from our CSA so I improved on a Cook's Illustrated recipe for Assertive Greens with Kielbasa. We used soy chorizo instead of the kielbasa. Quite tasty. Paired with roasted mini peppers and a low fat cherry muffin (random, but...) that TP's sister made up the recipe for, it was great.

The best part of dinner: caramel sea salt dark chocolate from Trader Joe's. Mmmm...

Tonight's plan is sushi. I was supposed to go out with friends and that feel through, so TP and I will go out together instead. We've eat out a lot lately (we usually just eat out 1-2x per week, not 4+ times), but things change.

Appologies

So this plan of taking pictures of what I cook is a great idea...but I keep forgetting to take pictures!!! I think about it as I put the dishes into the dishwasher. And, while our plates are pretty, there is no need to have a dirty plate picture.

I will try harder tonight to remember. I'm making a Kale Lasagna for dinner. Yum

On Droid

Just trying out the Blogger app from my smartphone. Went to DC today, walked for long enough that I could justify a gyro at Zorba's in Dupont Circle.

I think they put olive oil in the tzatziki sauce. It's smoother than most.

We're Back!

Well, we will be back soon. Both The Pedant and I got smartphones in the last month and not only are we entering the 21st century, but we will try to post more about our eating adventures with pictures. There may be a few test posts this weekend...especially since we just got our first CSA box of the year!

Breakfast Rut

I've been having issues with breakfast lately. I usually don't have time for something fancy, plus I want something healthy and filling. In the summer, it's often Greek yogurt and fruit and in the winter it's often oatmeal. Lately, I've been having the same breakfast (well, 3-4 times per week):

Oatmeal (with cinnamon and brown "sugar")
Apple with about a tablespoon of peanut butter

It's tasty and I end up not getting hungry until noon. Plus, it's super fast. I used to combine it all: dice apple and microwave it with cinnamon and sugar, add oatmeal and peanut butter. But, dicing the apple took time. And I got bored.

The new problem: I am SO bored with oatmeal. But it's SO fast. I love eggs for breakfast but I've been having trouble getting out of bed in the morning so I never want to take the time.

Today: I took the time. And it was worth it.

I made 1 serving of egg product and put in 1 oz of goat cheese. I made it in my little egg pan (which I love) and it was perfect. I had it with a mini rye muffin that we made on Sunday and ate a grapefruit along with it. Lovely. And I'm not getting hungry!

Will be happy to take suggestions for other exciting breakfast options...

More Food!

OK, The Pedant reminded me with his last post that I've been bad at posting. We've done some great cooking and I should share. Since I just don't have time to let you know what I've made the last month, I'll start with the last weekend:

Rye and Cornmeal Muffins: I saw this recipe in the New York Times and it was great. Super easy to make and really tasty. We had them for dinner with a Quick Belgian Salad from the salad cookbook. Very yummy.

Minestrone Soup: I have to say that I've become known (well, with TP) for my Minestrone soup. It' a pretty easy recipe: cook some veg in broth (usually water though - then it makes a broth plus LOTS of spices), add a can or two of tomato paste, put in beans and pasta, let it get thick and yummy. I made it again this weekend from a batch of vegetable soup I made a few weeks ago. It's super tasty.

Fennel and Onions with Capers: Lidia Bastianich (whom I love) has a great and easy recipe for fennel and onions with capers. We made it in a much smaller pan than usual (since we were making it with some chicken soup and turkey meatballs for TP - I'll let you hear about it from him) so it took longer for the veg to caramelize but man, this dish is tasty!

New obsession: Trader Joe's. I like their low fat string cheese so much. Also, they have mini goat cheeses that come in a pre-packaged 1 oz block. Perfect for omelets. Or anything else. Mmmm.... And they have these super cheap pouches of beans - soybeans and chickpeas. So tasty.