Get Your Bake On

A week off from school clearly called for some baking: I made my mom's crispy chocolate chip cookie recipe. Featured here are all the ingredients needed: 3.5 cups white whole wheat flour, a cup of sugar, a cup of light brown sugar, a tbsp baking soda, a tsp salt, a tbsp milk, 2 tsp vanilla, an egg, a stick of butter, a stick of margarine, 3/4 cup canola oil and chocolate chips, oats, and corn flakes (1 cup each). This recipe makes A LOT of cookie dough and it freezes really well, so today I only made a few cookies and then froze the rest of the dough for when the girls come to visit next week. First I sifted the flour with the baking soda and salt. Then I used the mixer (I am a lucky duck to have a kitchen aid; an amazing gift from ADG's mom--I believe it first belonged to adam's grandma-- the gift that keeps on giving!) to cream the butter/marg/sugar/brown sugar/vanilla/milk/egg etc. Then I slowly added the oil and flour to mix together and voila: crispy chocolate cookie dough! Pictured here are the cookies on my new plate, an awesome bday surprise from LKK.

Fish Taco Tuesday!

Ari and I decided to do a reprise of our famous fish tacos and we were not dissapointed. Pictured here is my signature pico de gallo (white onion, tomato, cilantro, jalepeno pepper and lime juice), ari's guac (avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro, lime juice), broiled tilapia (ari heated the glass pans under the broiler for 5 minutes, then put EVOO in the pan along with the tilapia fillets w/s&p and broiled for 5 minutes). Along with mini tortillas, this meal was the best. We had a really, really good night. Shout-out to the marg man, adg.

QCC is BACK with chicken curry!

After a terribly long semester of student teaching without nearly enough time to cook, QCC is back and better then ever. With my first year of grad school finally finished, I am using these early weeks of summer to cook, cook, cook. Apologies and lots of love to all my loyal readers--not to worry, there will be plenty of posts with new dishes this week and in the weeks to come.

Tonight, I attempted chicken curry. I first tasted this version of the dish at HPGK's house way back when, and Barbara and Hannah so graciously hooked me up with the recipe. Although this photo doesn't look too appetizing (for some reason it looked a lot better in person) it was absolutly delicious and Adam really enjoyed it as well. I served the dish with garlic and whole wheat Naan and Basmati rice.

The curry is surprisingly easy to make: saute red pepper and onion in EVOO, add chicken breast and cook through. Then to make the sauce, add mango chutney, curry powder, a can of cream of mushroom soup (clearly not a kosher friendly dish), some milk, and a tiny bit of light mayo. So good!

homemade dinner for one

Last week I made dinner for myself and I did it up: Salmon (so predictable), roasted asparagus (15 minutes at 350 degrees, with a little bit of EVOO, kosher salt, pepper, and lemon juice) and homemade cauliflower and garlic mash (steamed 8 cups of cauliflower and 4 garlic cloves, and then mixed in a food processor with 1/3 cup non fat buttermilk, salt, pepper, 1 tsp margarine, and 1 tsp EVOO). Low carb substitute for mashed potatoes and oh so yummy. No witnesses to attest to the deliciousness that was this meal, but I think the picture speaks for itself.

when the moon hits your eye like a big PIZZA PIE

QCC is back from another student teaching induced hiatus! Featured here is store bought whole wheat pizza crust, with our own addition of tomato basil pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes, onions and mushrooms. Delicious.

cupcake party!

This cupcake party was a long time in the make, and it finally happened last night and we had the best time. I think the pictures speak for themselves--they are about as delicious as they are adorable. We dyed the icing VDay colors and used tons of different edibles for decorations. So fun! We are thinking about making this a monthly event...

Salmon & Steak Frites

Last night I prepared a delicious salad, along with a salmon fillet for myself and a rib eye steak for the boys, accompanied with frites (frozen curly fries). A great meal! Ari taught me prepare and cook the salmon in a new way, and it was delicious: first I covered the fillet in a little bit of EVOO, then I squeezed lemon juice all over, and finished it off with some kosher salt and pepper. The salmon was cooked for 20 minutes in a glass dish at 375 degrees, and it was absolutely amazing. For the rib eye, just a little bit of kosher salt, and flash fried for about 6 minutes on high heat. A yummy Saturday night in the Sidway.