Tonight we were both in a salady mood, so I fixed a caesar salad, and J fixed fruit salad.
Mine consisted of romaine lettuce and some leftover mixed greens, green onions, caesar dressing, fresh avocado, and parmesan cheese. Over the top, I put some chicken that I marinated in black pepper sauce, and grilled on the GeoFo.
J’s consisted of all fresh fruit, some that had been in the fridge awhile, and some I picked up at the co-op today: pineapple, gala apples, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, mangoes, mandarin oranges, and bananas… No sugar needed, they really blended well together!
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
Tod & I tidied up the scary pantry - pulling out all the cans and bottles and packets for reorganization. We had a lot of forgotten jars and duplicates, so we vowed to use at least one item a day until we had consumed at least half of our stock.
Our first application of the vow was a lasagna (noodles from pantry) with pesto (commercial pesto from pantry), soymilk bechamel, and potatoes. Tod whipped up one of his famous million-ingredient, no dressing necessary salads and included some tinned soy beans from the pantry.
What I had for dinner tomorrow night: same thing, reheated!
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
My gyoza fascination continues - as mediatinker mentioned below we made dinner together - she with a yummy eggplant tofu dish and me with gyoza.
I didn’t actually make thousands - just 62. Two types - one with chicken mince, Japanese cabbage and shiitake mushroom, the other type with tofu, Japanese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, carrot and grated ginger.
The trick to the success of the veggie ones was boiling the diced carrot first as the other ingredients cooked quickly just in the frying/steaming process.
As you can see I folded them differently to make sure we could tell the difference between the two.
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
Although the day started out a little chilly, the afternoon began to warm up and the thought of a nice evening barbeque came to mind. G and I picked up a bottle of Gundlach Bundschu 2005 Mountain Cuvée and a secondary bottle of Dog House Merlot. Grabbing our remaining asparagus and some of our Costco spinach and Parmesan sausages we bundled our supplies and made our way over to Q and J’s backyard grill.
After playing some Wii Mario Kart races we fired up the grill and marinated some red peppers, yellow squash, baby portabella mushrooms, red onions, and zucchini in olive oil, salt, and pepper. The asparagus were rubbed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The vegetables were all quickly and quietly sliced into quarters and eighths. Using the handy barbecue stir fry tray, we flipped the sliced vegetables over high heat for a few minutes, then replaced them with the asparagus. The scent of roasting vegetables mixed and mingled with the fragrance of roses as the sun slowly sank towards sunset. Once the stalks had gotten a light browning on them we replaced them with the sausages. [Read more →]
Categories: I Cooked
We dined at gomichild’s last night and shared the kitchen duties. While gomi finished putting together the 1,000th gyoza (some were chicken and shiitake, and some were tofu and shiitake), I fried up a dish of eggplant, green pepper, erengi mushrooms and tofu with a spicy sauce.
It was way more food than four people ought to eat, but we put a good dent in it. I think gomi and The Boy will be eating gyoza for a couple of days, though.
We ate like mandarins, then settled in to watch hysterical Japanese TV before discussing sober topics like the world food crisis and child-rearing.
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
Ok, so enthusiasm for writing these posts is wearing thin, as is evidenced by my shorter and shorter posts, and the near lack of anyone else posting. How do we fix this? It was fun to start with and now…
Yeah, so G&T and L were here this evening and we made pizzas again, four personal pan pizzas and one big one. My personal pan pizza had italian sausage and mushrooms and red peppers and fresh mozzarella on it as well as tomato sauce, tomatoes and basil, and the base cheese slice was provolone.
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
What can I say? We like it. And it’s fairly nutritious and easy to make. I breaded the turkey cutlet and J fried them up, and L sliced them. J also made some basmati rice and steamed some carrots. I made a bag of TJ’s Asian stir-fry veggies and mixed in the carrots with the incuded sauce and sesame seeds.
Categories: I Cooked · Someone Else Cooked
J baked some bread recently that we converted to breadcrumbs and saved for just this sort of use. I took the breadcrumbs and ran them through a sieve to get them even. I then mixed them with some italian seasoning, as well as additional oregano from the garden, garlic powder, salt and black pepper, and grated Parmesan cheese. Tossed all the crumbs and spices in a big zip-loc bag and shook it up good, real good. Then added some split chicken breasts and coated them thoroughly. Put ‘em in a Pyrex dish and baked at 350°F for just about an hour. Good stuff.
Side dishes— fresh broccoli steamed in garlic, and tossed in more with some sesame oil, and a bag of Trader Joe’s gnocchi a la Gorgonzola, which was surprisingly good… I looked at the ingredients, and there was some nutmeg listed, which I could taste.
Another one of these meals that seems glam, but was really a cinch to make. How come Rachel Ray has a show, and I don’t?
Categories: I Cooked
At the grocery store today, I picked up some beef short ribs, and J decided to fix them, marinating them in Heinz chili sauce, with some garlic and black pepper. After roasting them in the oven with some sliced onions, they were still a little tougher than hoped, but quite flavorful.
Since we have been having a lot of rice lately, J decided to fix scalloped potatoes as a side dish, as well as some green beans and a garden salad, with one of my vinaigrettes. Included with the usual salad citizens (tomatoes and cucumbers, et al.), tonight we had avocado, and as a special treat, nasturtium flowers that I picked from the garden. You can see all three colors (red, orange and yellow) in the photo.
Categories: Someone Else Cooked
Spring and early summer in Japan brings a lot of fun wild greens to the supermarket. Yesterday I bought some fiddlehead ferns and cooked them up for a grainy salad. Accompanied by roasted cauliflower (thanks for the inspiration, j-ster), we dined well last night.
I put the Fern, Farro & Feta Salad recipe on mediatinker, in case anyone wants to try it.
Categories: I Cooked · You Cook It
