air bubble blog

because i live for the bubbles.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

back to minnesnooowta

well, tomorrow is back to school. well, back to minneapolis, and tuesday is back to class. ready? not so much. summer wasn't quite long enough; i think after this past winter, we all deserve twice the amount of summer. and before long, it will be fall and get cool again, then cold, then frigid..and we all know where that ends. oh, in about may. such is life. if cold weather is the worse that it gets, we have it pretty good.

okay let's backtrack here...

i last left you with a next dinner of vietnamese chicken salad. while it turned out okay, i wasn't a huge fan of it. i think it was because of the fish sauce--i can't stand the smell of it (but who loves it, really?), and after cooking with it i could smell and taste it too much in the dish. mom and dad seemed to like it okay though. if i had to pick a favorite part, it would be the nuts. but then again, you are what you eat. (a nut, not vietnamese.)



next i did beef with spicy vinegar sauce--although i just baked the beef in the oven with some of the sauce, then finished up cooking it in some more of the sauce, in a saucepan, on the stove. i served it with caramelized onions with barbecue sauce, since we have an abundance of onions from the garden. finished it off with some oven fries and steamed green beans, both fresh from the garden.


then it was grilled peaches with prosciutto and balsamic, which was simple and pretty tasty. i maybe should have reduced the balsamic a little more to make it a little more thick and syrup, but it still turned out alright. in addition we had arugula salad with grilled pears and pistachios. delsih! a nice summer meal. :)



next we had roasted spiced chicken with cinnamon and honey-glazed sweet potatoes. the chicken was alright, i forgot to buy the habenero (and didn't realize we had them in the garden), so it was lacking that kick. the sweet potatoes were pretty good, but didn't quite compare to the ones mom made a few days back with olive oil and sea salt (they were cooked just right, a little crispy and delicious!!). i also made warm roasted mushroom and feta salad. it was good--i love feta--but wasn't quite feeling the mushrooms that day.





friday for dinner i made dad is pre-run pasta; for his sauce i used tomatoes from the garden. i made him tilapia, breaded with garbanzo fava flour, dried thyme, dried oregano, (salt and pepper). fried it in the skillet with olive oil. mom and i got mac and cheese pizza! as i was rolling out the dough and noticed all of the air bubbles all ready, i knew it was going to be a good one. :) the bottom crust, which is usually a little thinner, turned out a little thicker this time. in addition, of course, to be traditional huge crusts on the edges. mmmm so good!


then yesterday for lunch i made andouille and beef burgers with caramelized onions. well, not quite andouille, we couldn't find it at the store, so we used spicy sausage instead. worked close enough. the burgers had pecans in them, which was different but actually quite good. i think it was my first time being in charge of watching and flipping the burgers on the grill, and i think i did quite well. so juicy and succulent. we had them on pretzel rolls from city market, and i toasted them on the grill as well. success!

tonight is the last supper in wisconsin, till thanksgiving. going over to jen and bryan's, should be delicious as always. then tomorrow morning, it's hit the road jack! we plan on going to good earth for lunch, and i hope to try something other than breakfast food. but it's just so hard, cuz it's so good! won't get to cook much this week, due to moving in and team dinners, etc. but i'll try to keep you in the loop! meet ya back here next weekend! ;)


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