Dinner

No recipe. Only thing I made was the chicken which is already written about in chimichurri chicken. Made it for my friend who pretty much made me cook dinner twice on a Friday. Just sayin'...

Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast Burrito

Ingredients:

4 Eggs

1/4 Tomato

Frozen carrots & peas

2 Slices of Bacon

3 Breakfast sausage links

1/2 a small Onion

Cheese

Ketchup

Hot sauce

S&P

Soft taco shell

Oil

Non-stick spray

I have a friend in town for the weekend so it's mandatory that I make her feel "hospitable". Can't have her going back to Gainesville talking about how inhospitable people are here. So, I made breakfast at 9am. Why were we both awake that early on a Saturday? Apparently 4 eggs was enough to make enough for 3 shells.

Chop up 2 slices of bacon so it's easier to cook. Chop up 1/2 of an onion, tomato, and sausage links. Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and mix in some s&p and a little oil. 

First, spray pan with non-stick spray and add a little oil. Cook the bacon and then add the onions. After a few minutes, add the peas & carrots, then sausage and finally the eggs after everything is warmed up and happy in the pan. I microwaved the shells to soften them up, ripped up a slice of cheese, laid it on tortilla and scooped egg stuff on top and covered it with the tomatoes, ketchup and hot sauce (Texas Pete). Bam.

Cabbage and Vegetarian Stuff

Cabbage and Vegetarian Stuff

Ingredients:

Cabbage

Can of vegetarian chop suey

Oyster sauce

Oil

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Soy sauce

I barely ate today seeing as it was the first Friday of Lent and I wasn't prepared. I beat up two of my students at lunch for lunch money. Unfortunately the cafeteria ran out of vegetarian options and cheese pizza. My last resort was Mac and cheese but I'm lactose intolerant! Thus I came home and cooked dinner immediately. Immediately being after a quick trip to my local farmers market store to pick up a head of cabbage. 

Peel the cabbage leaves off so you use about half of a head. Cut and wash the half head of cabbage. Chop up some garlic and saute it with oil until the garlic is browned. Add the cabbage in there, add s&p and cover it so it cooks for a little while. 

I added some chicken broth so it wouldn't burn (you can use water). Uncover the cabbage when it looks like it's 75% done. 

Add the can of vegetable chop suey (which you can only get at Asian markets), mix it into the cabbage and cover for another few minutes. Add sugar, oyster sauce and soy sauce to flavor. 

And of course I have to eat it with rice...and have two heaping portions of it. 

Tofu and Italian Sausage

Tofu and Italian Sausage

Ingredients:

Italian sausage

Firm tofu

Frozen peas/carrots/corn

Oil

Salt

Pepper

A lot of people don't like tofu. That's not fair to poor tofu. It did nothing to you. I like it regardless, don't think it's bland at all! I threw this together one day with rice and it was tasty-licious.

Cook to the italian sausage first and then add the tofu. I cut the tofu a little bigger than bite sized because I didn't want the tofu to fall apart. Add the frozen vegetables toward the end. I only added a little salt and pepper at the end because the sausage had enough flavor to make the dish pretty fragrant and the tofu absorbed the flavor.

Nectarine and Fig Tart

Nectarine and Fig Tart
 Ingredients:
2 Nectarines
Jar of Fig Jelly
Egg
Pie Crust
Cinnamon
Sugar

All credit must go to Sunny Anderson. I watched her make a version of this on Food Network one afternoon and promptly fell in love with her.
Leave pie crust at room temperature so it softens a little. Roll out some pie crust. Slice the nectarines. Spread a decent layer of fig jelly onto the pie crust. Layer with the nectarines. I was too lazy to arrange the fruit nicely. Who cares, it'll all look the same in our stomachs. Leave some room to fold the pie crust up on the edges so it looks like above picture. Egg wash the crust and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, you're just going to have it watch it. It tastes AMAZING. I love figs and got the jelly/preserve at Publix. It all fit into a brownie pan so I put it all together and baked it in a brownie pan. It tastes so amazing. I only make it for special occasions or if I really like someone because I don't like spending $5 on a tiny jar of preserve. I'm cheap, so what?

See that sugar like substance toward the bottom of the picture. Holy cow...it's like...caramelized fruit sugar substance thing...It was divine.

Valentine's Dinner

 

Corn Casserole
Ingredients:
Creamed Corn
Kernel Corn
Shredded Cheese
Cornbread Mix
Sour Cream

I made these for the first time for Valentine's dinner. It was a big risk and a fail. I picked up two cans of kernel instead of one can of creamed. I was so upset and had a meltdown in the kitchen. I hate when the food doesn't come out right! Nevertheless, I tried to improvise and this is what I got. 

Chimichurri Chicken

Ingredients:
Garlic
CIlantro
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil 

This was actually my pride and joy because I marinated this overnight. I rarely cook meat because I don't like touching raw meat. Marinated the chicken in cilantro and lemon. I cooked the chicken on a skillet then finally dumped the chimichurri in at the end to cook in the flavor and made a little sauce with the stuff stuck on the pan. Well, I loved it. It took a lot of effort. Needed some more browning to give it some color.

Red Onions
Nothing special here. Just cut it up and cooked it down with a pinch of sugar. 

Chimichurri
Ingredients:
Garlic cloves
Cilantro
Vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Blend it all together. I refrigerated overnight to let the flavors marinade. Warning: Extremely strong breath from garlic and from the onions possibly. No kissing involved, hahaha!

Chinese Cupcakes

Chinese Cupcakes
Ingredients:
Strawberry Cake Mix
The rest is secret because I don't like sharing my momma's recipe on the intewebs

Not sure what you would call these in English so I called them Chinese Cupcakes. Not a legit name because you may be wondering where the icing is. NO ICING, you're suppose to toast some sesame seeds and add them to the top. If only all of them would open up so prettily into tri's.

I learned to make these last Chinese New Year from my mom because my cousin inspired me to tap into my Chinese cooking skills more. It's made from strawberry cake mix. I made chocolate ones for the man and got a burn scar because I wasn't careful. Idiot. Another reason why I don't like chocolate. Normal yellow cake is what I grew up eating and I made them last year for my co-worker!

Fingerless Hand Warmer

Fingerless Hand Warmer
Supplies:
Black Yarn (it's a baby soft version)
Crochet Hook 

Sitting at home and I didn't want to turn on the heat so I crocheted these in about an hour. All I did was crochet a rectangular shape that tapered and then I crocheted the short sides together leaving a slit for my thumbs. Not professional, but much warmer than before. I alternated a single and double.

Earring Holder

Earring Holder
Supplies:
Picture frame from thrift store
12x12 scrapbook paper
Black acrylic paint
Plastic canvas 12x18 
Glue (Elmer's, glue gun)

I have wanted to hang something on my bathroom wall for months now that would act as a storage for my earrings. Finally! I did it! I was inspired at Joann's. Took me an hour max only because I was waiting for the paint to dry. I snipped the plastic canvas to fit the back of the frame. Hot glued it. Elmer's glued the scrapbook paper to the sides of the frame and BAM. Like magic. I am so HAPPY with this! It's going to start clearing up my counter top. If you have earrings with posts, I don't know what you should do. I usually wear dangly earrings. Post earrings I keep in my little jewelry case.

Eggplant Mess

Eggplant Mess
Ingredients:
Eggplant
Red Tomato
Yellow Tomato
Red Onion
Yellow Onion
Portabello Mushroom
Cilantro
Celery
1 Can Diced Tomato
Balsamic Vinegar
Squirt of Hot Sauce 
Box of linguine

I went to Frugal Farmer and came home with a bunch of vegetables that needed to be cooked so I threw everything together with a can of tomatos that were diced. I feel like it was pretty successful. Very vegetarian friendly and healthy too. Since I am a carb addict I had to put that vegetable mess on top of something. Pasta cooks faster than rice, so pasta it was. Going to bring some to my co-workers tomorrow who are vegetarian.

How This Started

I started this blog because my friends told me to. I am sometimes a happy victim to peer pressure and this is the consequence of it. I don't claim to have hidden talents or aim to ever be on the Food Network, but I keep this as a record for myself. My food is generally the same with only small variety to the basic ingredients, but hey I'm the one eating it and I'm not complaining. I'm only going to post ingredients, not measurements. Like my mom says, we kinda just wing it.

I cook when I'm bored, when I'm sad, when I'm happy, when I'm hungry. I'm too self-conscious to cook for other people. I had an ex that criticized the way I drained spaghetti and ran cold water through it so it wouldn't stick. Obviously, his criticism didn't stick to me and follow me through the years...right...

If I were rich or had the opportunity to I would love to go to culinary school...and be just like my brother. Unfortunately, the realities of life get in my way and I am just going to stick with my amateur skills that I learned from my parents and through experience. 

I'm probably going to post the finished products of my crafty projects too. I feel like this blog will be taking up my time most nights.

Fajitas

Fajitas
Ingredients:
Chicken Breast
Monterey Jack Cheese
Sour Cream
Green Papper
Yellow Tomato
Red Leaf Lettuce
Yellow Onion
Salsa
Soft Tortilla
Fajita Seasoning 

I've been thinking of making fajitas for a while now. I meant to have it the day after Valentine's Day using leftovers from V-Day dinner. Turns out I didn't have leftovers and the little I had I sent off with the boyfriend so he would have lunch the next day. So nearly a week later, I'm finally using the tortillas I got at the store. I'm very happy I got to use the tomato and lettuce I got at the farmer's market store (Frugal Farmer) because I love that place.