what's the deal, spring?

so on saturday, when mom was about halfway to minneapolis, i found out that my meet was canceled. so we just hung out for the day! we went to lunch at panera, it was pretty tasty. then we went on a hunt for the midtown global market--and got totally lost (as we always seem to do haha) on the way. we thought it was more of a big indoor market with ethnic groceries/ingredients, and there was some but not too much different from what you might find in your grocery store. it was mostly small food vendors selling prepared food--mostly people from latin america trying to get started in america. so it was interesting, but kinda disappointing because it wasn't what thought it was. once we got home i beat mom in 4 games of war (i'm just a natural at it, i guess :p), then mom, david, and i went to kahn's for dinner. it's a mongolian barbecue place where you choose your meat and veggies and sauce and then they stir-fry it for you on a big grill top (kind of like hibachi)..oh and they put peanuts in the mix for you if you want. it was pretty awesome. before you even began with the stir fry, they bring each person a plate of appetizers out, including hot and our soup, cabbage and ginger something or other, a plain fried wonton, and a chicken wing..and accompanying sauces. they also serve baozi (unlimited haha!)...steamed chinese buns with a sweet inside. they were SO good..kind of doughy and fabulous. i want to try to make them.

sunday morning we went to good earth restaurant for ten grain pancakes, which are amazing. then i worked on building a luminaire all day with a friend (a stupid project for lighting. um, we're designers..not engineers?). david and i went to romano's macaroni grill for dinner, where i had the spinach feta pesto pizza. that helped numb my frustration from that stupid light project. david had the chicken cannelloni, just so he'd have a greater appreciation for how good mine is haha.

moral of the story, food makes me verry happy haha.


what's cookin tonight: sloppy joes and mac & cheese. oh, to be a kid again! :p

it's snowing.

so yes, it is april 26...nearly may, and as i look out my window this morning, it's snowing--and sticking. that, along with the 30 degree weather, will provide the ideal weather conditions for my track meet today. :P oh well, hopefully it won't be too bad, as i make my official debut as a 800 meter runner! i'm excited to try the new race. mom's coming up to watch and spend the night here. :)

so tuesday we had some friends over for dinner, and i made mac and cheese pizza and stuffed-crust meatball pizza. the mac and cheese pizza was adapted from mesa pizza, the pizza place in dinkytown. they serve a whole slew of wacky pizzas. i've never had their's, but i hear mine topped their's. ;) for dessert i made apple pie a la mode.
















yesterday i made fat-free banana bread! there was minimal sugar, too. it turned out pretty good, but i think next time i'll adapt it a bit--i added a little salt (the recipe didn't call for any) because mom's recipe has it, maybe next time i'll put a bit more in. i might try adding cinnamon and maybe nutmeg, too. i also added walnuts. the batter was a little thick, so i had to add some water. but overall, definitely worth it. :)




and here is the cheese pizza i made for our potluck a few weeks back..











what's cooking tonight: mom's here, so we're going to go out for dinner. we'll see what we're in the mood for!

catching up

oh, it's been a few days. the weather has been fabulous and i think spring is here to stay. it's so nice to be running in 70 degree weather, you know without 3 layers of clothes on?

on thursday for dinner we ventured to make a peanut butter and jelly pizza. i put the peanut butter, then cherry preserves on the crust and baked it. it was good, but it all melted down a lot (especially the preserves), so i think next time i'll put the peanut butter on halfway through baking and then the jelly after it's out of the oven for good. we might even try pb & j pizzas based off of PB Loco's sandwiches.

on friday i made milk chocolate-peanut butter sandwich cookies for david to take to his meet. i hear they were one of my best. for dinner we were going to go to an indian restaurant we've been wanting to try, but instead were craving sweet and sour chicken from village wok, a chinese restaurant in stadium village.

saturday we went with our friend to clean up along the river, a volunteer event for earth day. it was fun, but a long walk there and back and were pretty tired for the rest of the day. for lunch we went to big bowl, and did their "create your own stir fry." you choose your meat and sauce, then they give you a bowl, and you go up to the veggie bar and fill up your bowl with all the veggies your hear desires. then they make the stir fry and bring it to you--it was pretty good! then we did some errands and shopping, and in the name of spring, i got a cute sundress and earrings from kohl's. for dinner i made chicken pot pie. mmmm!

sunday morning i met david for a short run, then he made his delicious oatmeal for breakast (with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts). for dinner we grilled out with a bunch of friends. i made hamburgers and kaiser rolls, potatoes (like mom's on the grill), and corn on the cob. we also grilled some smoked polish sausage that david's uncle made fresh. that was really good. for dessert i made caramel-walnut upside down banana cake, and served it with ice cream. it was a big hit!















last night for dinner i made mac and cheese with jumbo pasta shells and shredded cheddar, just as mom used to make. it was pretty good--a perfect childhood memory :)





what's cookin tonight: mac and cheese pizza and meatball pizza..we have a few friends coming over for dinner. fresh apple pie for dessert.

hot stuff

tuesday's dinner..not me. :P we had oven fried tilapia with remoulade (this recipe calls for catfish, and i used a different remoulade recipe), which was pretty good. the remoulade definitely had a kick to it--i think i went a little crazy with the hot sauce! i also steamed some mixed vegetables (carrots, wax beans, green beans) mom had sent me from market day. i made some crusty rolls, which were good, but rose way more than i had intended, so they all ran together in the pan and were kind of dense in some parts because of it. so next time i'll account for that and space them further apart.
it was 68 degrees yesterday! it was *perfect* weather for an outdoor workout. i think we will all appreciate the warm weather this spring/summer much more than in the past, due to what it seemed like the never-ending winter! and, today marks T-one week until grey's comes back and the farmer's market begins again!


what's cookin tonight: peanut butter and jelly pizza! i thought, hey i like pizza, and i like pb&j, why not combine the two? and then i actually googled the idea and it has been done before. but i'm going to make up my own recipe. let ya know how it goes ;)

it's all gone!

sadly, our leftovers from our delish cuban meal are a thing of the past. but the good news is that it looks as though spring has finally come! it's supposed to get up to nearly 70 today, but the wind is pretty rough. let's hope it doesn't just decide to snow tomorrow or something like that. i wouldn't put it past 'em.

what's cookin tonight: oven-fried tilapia with remoulade, steamed vegetables, and i think a good crusty loaf of bread would top it off perfectly if i have time!

oh..my..god.

so last night we had cuban pork roast and coconut rice with black beans and fried plantains. it was soo freaking awesome. the pork marinated all day and then roasted for nearly 2 hours. it was cooked just right, was so moist and succulent. the coconut rice was a great new flavor, too. it cooked pretty quickly, so if you need to let it simmer while preparing other dishes, you might add more than the 2 cups each coconut milk and water..i ended up adding water as necessary while i was waiting for everything else to finish up. the black beans were fabulous too. the recipe called for 4 cups dried beans, but i halved the recipe and used already-cooked beans. so i used two cans of black beans and then only 3 cups of chicken stock..perfect amounts :) the plantains turned out great too, david loved them but they were pretty sweet--a little too much for me to handle. everything was so perfectly seasoned and went great together. after we finished eating all we could say was, oh my god, how awesome was that!

last week we had my favorite, empanadas with raspberry coulis and refried pinto beans. for dessert we had fruit crisp with apples, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. we've been trying different ways to make the dish healthier, and david finally was able to omit the butter from the topping by using vanilla yogurt. we'd tried that before but this time it worked best. the filling, on the other hand, burned a bit. david learned ground ginger is not to be used in the same amounts as whole, fresh ginger. and that's all we'll say about that. :P






what's cookin' tonight: probably just the leftovers from last night (i have half a pork roast left), then a trip to the grocery store.

crumbs of dinners past

above: this is from jill's surprise birthday "cocktail" party. clockwise from top right: vegetarian
stromboli, stromboli, breadsticks, stuffed
mushrooms, ultimate meatballs al forno




top: pesto, spinach, feta, and tomato pizza
bottom: pumpkin pizza (pumpkin as the sauce, provolone, and topped with toasted pine nuts)






top: traditional pizza (red sauce, sausage, green peppers, onions, provolone)
bottom: famous apple pie



above: roasted garlic and chicken pizza with a white sauce (the sauce is a romano sauce i use in my cannelloni)





above: my record-breaking meatball pizza, for my highest crust ever.







southwest taco pizza: jalapeno cherry salsa (adrianne got it from michigan), ground beef taco meat, black beans, corn, cheddar cheese








stuffed pizza with a whole wheat crust
(inside was sausage, green peppers, onions, and roasted red pepper sauce)
















below: spinach and feta pizza with pesto, tomatoes, and chicken
(i broiled the chicken with dried basil and rosemary).





















below: roast beef with wild mushroom sauce
and portobello mushrooms with parmesan whipped potatoes

hello, blog

well, this is my first blog, and it's about time, as i've been hoarding pictures of my food for the past many months..and i finally have a home for them :) i revel in the sight of my food, as most cooks do, and as much as i love enjoying the meal, i spend probably about half of the time just inspecting my food and talking about how pretty it is...especially when it's pizza or something of the sort. i can barely keep from counting the number and size of the air bubbles :P

last night a bunch of us got together for a potluck: round two. i made a cheese pizza with my secret red sauce and colby jack. i cut it up into little squares so everyone could try it. needless to say, it didn't last very long. there was a lot of food--pasta with red sauce and melted mozzarella, pasta with spinach and cheese, a bean salad (garbanzos, kidney beans, green beans, wax beans), a salad with broccoli and cabbage, bean and potato soup, corn, mini pumpkin muffins, strawberry muffins, hard-boiled eggs, brownies, brownie cookies, marble cheesecake, and chocolate milk. it was a pretty good turnout. next weekend, if the weather is nice, we hope to all go to the park and have a cookout. what a better way to reel in spring? (and really, reel in. we're tryin real hard but it's putting up a fight!)

forgot to mention, i sent carrot cake cookies to arizona with david for his meet, and the guys *loved* them. they were supposed to be "inside out carrot cake cookies," with cream cheese frosting between two cookies, but didn't have cream cheese, so they were just by themselves. elizabeth said they're the best cookies she's ever had.


what's cookin tonight: cuban roast pork, and coconut rice with black beans and fried plantains. i know, if you leave now, you might be able to make it in time for dinner at 7.