Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

It is now technically Christmas day, and like the child I am at heart, I'm too excited to sleep (feel free to imagine that being said like the kid on the Disney commercials). I apologize for again not having a picture of my this post's dish, but by the time I realized I hadn't taken a picture, it was too late. I did have the opportunity to share this dish with others which is one of the main reasons I cook. Not only do I love eating food, I love being able to share it with others and see people enjoy something that I created. Cooking also makes me feel productive. But enough about my love for cooking. It's now time for me to explain the easiest dish of my project so far.

I made another dessert on Wednesday called Marinated Strawberries over Pound Cake. I used a store-bought pound cake seeing as Giada did not include a recipe for one. If there isn't a recipe for it, I do not feel obligated to make it. All I had to do was take two cups of strawberries and have them sit at room temperature in 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes, then add some sugar to sweeten it up. Then you spoon it over a slice of pound cake and top it with some whipped cream (there were instructions for whipped cream, but I will admit to taking a shortcut here and just using Cool Whip, sorry!).

I thought this was a pretty unconventional combinations and wasn't sure what to expect from it. It turns out that marinating strawberries in vinegar makes them quite tart on their own, but on top of pound cake with some whipped topping, it's delicious and balanced. It was incredibly easy and painless as well so I highly recommend it if you're in need of something simple.

Surprisingly, I didn't do much cooking today for Christmas Eve. My mom took on most of the duties today. I did make some ricotta cheese cookies though the other day and used a REAL vanilla bean for the first time ever. I felt like a real chef splitting the bean and scraping all the vanilla guts out. I even got fancy and created a glaze for the cookies but heating some powdered sugar, milk, Karo syrup, and the "shells" of the vanilla beans (I don't know if they're actually considered shells, but I'm not too sure what else to call them).

That's all I have for right now. I start the next cycle through the book sometime next week unless I get super ambitious on Saturday, but odds are I will be maxed out on everything foo-related by then. Check back soon for more though!

P.S. I got a juicer for Christmas so adding FRESH lemon to recipes will be exponentially easier now. I also received another GINORMOUS cookbook so once I'm through with my Everyday Italian project, this blog shall live on!! Feel free to thank Caitlin for all this good news :)

Verdure al Forno

...I believe it's an old, old wooden ship....or perhaps a vegetable dish. Couldn't resist the opportunity for an Anchorman quote. The title of this post is also the title of the dish for tonight, Verdure al Forno. According to Giada, this means "vegetables in the oven," though the only vegetable used is zucchini. She also gives permission to use any vegetable you want. Thankfully, since I'm home for break, I didn't have to substitute. I did later on in the dish as you will now see.

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then started cutting up five zucchini. The recipe says to cut them into one-inch-thick slices crosswise. I thought this would be far too thick and take forever to cook (leave it to me to always be questioning the recipe). So I cut my slices to about half-inch thick, but forgot about the whole "crosswise" part. I should have cut the zucchini on a diagonal, but it wouldn't be a dish made by me without some mishap and so I had perfectly straight zucchini slices. This didn't change the dish too much, but the slices weren't able to really overlap like I think they should have.

I then sprayed a baking dish with some EVOO spray, and put a layer of zucchini slices down. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, then poured on 1/3 cup of milk. The recipe says to use heavy cream, which I did have and it was NOT past due, but I wanted to add my usual healthy twist. A good swap for heavy cream is usually some fat-free evaporated milk. Luckily, my pantry had some. I shook it well as recommended on the can, opened it up, and stood face-to-face with something that should NOT be called milk. It was this terrible beige color. For all I know, it was supposed to be that color, but after seeing the date on it that read somewhere around August 2009, I ditched it real quick. Skim milk did the job just fine.

Like I said, I poured on some milk, then layered some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. On top of that I sprinkled some bread crumbs. I repeated this layering process two more times and then let it bake for about 40 minutes or so (actually, it was probably longer). Meanwhile, my mother made some delicious shrimp and scallop scampi over some angel hair. This was my first time eating scallops and that was another successful food tasting. As long as a food doesn't resemble tuna in anyway, I'm almost guaranteed to like it.

The Verdure al Forno was very good, the dish cooked properly and all the way through (it's amazing what an actual oven that can close when a baking dish is placed in it can do). The skim milk made the sauce a bit thinner than what it normally would be, but it was equally as tasty. My family and I agreed that if the zucchini had been sliced thinner (perhaps by a mandolin...the slicer, not the instrument), it would have been even better.

A random lesson learned today: I DO need coffee in order to function properly. I didn't make any for some unknown reason this morning and was sitting around watching football and could not stop yawning or falling in and out of sleep. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me since I honestly did not do anything strenuous today (wrapping presents doesn't really knock me out). I then realized, I had not had my coffee this morning and ran to the kitchen to make some. I didn't exactly spring to life after, but I suddenly became a much more functional human. In conclusion, I'm addicted to coffee. And I have no shame.

I will be making another dessert, this time for my girls, on Wednesday meaning I will have completed ANOTHER cycle through Everyday Italian! How crazy is that?? Until next time, I bid you good eating (sorry Alton Brown).

Steak N Shake

It's FINALLY winter break!!!!! It's relieving to be on break with no school work or projects or mandatory reading. It gives me plenty of time to cook! Tonight was the first time I made a Giada meal in a real kitchen. What a luxury :) Having counter space, an actual stove, all the necessary ingredients, and a dishwasher was the best...thing...EVER.

Tonight I ventured once again into the "Everyday Grills and Sautes" sections of the "Everyday Entrees" with Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Arugula-Roasted Pepper Salad. Cue the mouths watering.

First, I cut up the red peppers, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and EVOO spray, and roasted them in the oven. Giada recommends using her recipe for Roasted Red Peppers, but I have yet to reach that part of the book, so I did things my way (but what else is new?). Next, I prepared the steaks.

This was my first time making steak, and thankfully this recipe was simple enough for me not to mess up my first time (not to mention, with everything provided for me in my own home kitchen, I'm not really set up for disaster). I seasoned the steaks with salt, pepper, and EVOO as well and placed them in a heated pan. I cooked the steaks on each side for a little over five minutes each. Giada recommends not touching the steaks at all as they cook. This was easy to do considering I had to work on the rest of the meal. I was also cooking some macaroni and cheese for my niece (but of course, I didn't make the stuff from the box. I cooked some pasta then stirred in some milk, Parmesan, and mozzarella. I am so far from the average college student).

As the steaks cooked, I was making the pasta as I said, watching the peppers in the oven, and making the dressing for the salad. I started with some actual EVOO (shocker, I know) and balsamic vinegar. To this I added some salt and pepper. Once the steaks were done cooking, I removed them from the heat and let them rest for about 10 minutes. This is so the juices and settle within the meat to keep it nice and juicy. If you were to cut it right after cooking it, all the juices would spill out. And it wouldn't taste nearly as good.

I poured the steak juices from the pan into the dressing and whisked it all together. Now, for the assembly! I placed some arugula on each plate, then some of the roasted peppers on top of that. When the meat was done resting, I cut it into about 1 1/2 inch thick pieces and placed that on top of the salad along with some dressing.

Pretty simple, right? It was also very tasty. I was quite proud of my first steak dish. Had I attempted this at school, I feel as though it may not have gone as smoothly. Something would have been over-cooked, the would have forgotten an ingredient (as it is, I was supposed to put grated Parmesan on top of this, but it didn't really need it in my opinion), or some other catastrophe. Not to mention, when I cooked a type of steak in room (coughTUNAcough), it didn't go over so well.

My next day of cooking will be on Saturday when I attempt another vegetable dish. For now, I have an SNL Christmas special to watch and some crossword puzzles to show whose boss. You stay classy faithful readers :)

P.S. I forgot to take a picture of this lovely meal tonight (yes, I ate it too quickly) so please enjoy this random picture above.

More Lasagna I Say!!

Tonight was quite the successful dinner if I do say so myself. I made Classic Italian Lasagna...with a few tweaks of course. But it did come out great! We had a roommate dinner tonight and the lasagna was my contribution and THIS is how I did it.

I started by cooking the lasagna noodles. Fortunately I had a pot that was big enough to fit the noodles (believe me, this was a big concern. I was actually thinking about it all day). I had to cook them until ALMOST al dente, or approximately six minutes. I went for the six minutes because I'm not really sure what point is close enough to al dente. After they were at this point, I drained them, rinsed them with cold water, and covered them with a damp paper towel. Giada says to cook them in the water with some vegetable oil so they don't stick together, but my mother told me long ago not to do that since NOTHING will stick to them afterward. Lasagna has a hard enough time staying together, I didn't want to make it anymore difficult.

After the pasta had been transferred to a different bowl, I used my colander to strain my spinach. Spinach is a pain to strain (no rhyme intended). I had to push out the water by using another bowl on top of it which dirtied another dish. Anyway, next, I browned the ground beef.

Whenever I have to defrost a frozen item, I try to be a good little chef and put it in the fridge to thaw. However, this takes an eternity. So my meat was still slightly frozen when I threw it in the hot pan. This concerned me a bit, but hot pans have a way of defrosting things quite quickly, and all was fine.

The next step after the meat was browned was mixing the ricotta with some eggs. This step would have been less difficult if I had used a bigger bowl. I had to whisk the mixture VERY carefully rather than my usual vigorous method.

And now, for the assembly!! The lasagna was supposed to be assembled in a 13 x 9 pan, but I only have an 8 x 8. Needless to say, this was a tightly packed lasagna. I started by putting some marinara sauce (which I had made the night before. It may have been my best batch yet) in the bottom of a dish that was sprayed with canola spray. I then put about four noodles over this. Next came the ricotta mixture topped with the spinach. After that I layered more noodles and topped that with the ground beef and more marinara sauce. Then came some mozzarella cheese and more noodles topped with the last of the marinara. The very top was more mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan.

I brought this concoction up to the kitchen (because after the raw potato casserole incident, I wasn't about to take any chances) and baked it for about 45 minutes. Some other residents shared the oven and I think they had some sort of lasagna too. The kitchen smelled like melted mozzarella and you really can't go wrong with that.

After it was done, I brought it back down to the room to serve with some salad and appetizers. I definitely enjoyed it and my roommate told me it was really good. Not too bad for my first shot at making lasagna!

I probably won't be cooking for the first part of next week since I have finals and I don't want to buy too much food before going on Christmas break. I will try to make up for lost time once I'm home the second part of the week (and this time, I promise I WILL actually cook while home!) Check back in about a week :)

Cause We Need a Little Salsa, Right This Very Minute...

Yes, it is the Christmas season, and it's a night to try another one of Giada's "Everyday Sauces!" Tonight, I made Salsa All'amatriciana. I wish I knew how to pronounce that, but I won't be taking Italian next semester, therefore we may never know (actually I probably will find out eventually). This is a tomato-based sauce that was different than what I'm used to. It was a little like marinara, but also chunky like a meat sauce. Allow me to explain:

First, I sprayed a pan with some EVOO spray and heated it over medium heat. I then added some diced pancetta. This was my first time working with and eating pancetta. I've always been told that it's the Italian version of bacon, but you know me, I didn't believe anyone. I saw Rachael Ray and Giada herself use it on Food Network and was told I would like it, but I would respond with "no. It's ham. I hate ham." True, I do despise ham. It's right up there with tuna, it sets off my gag reflex. But, as with most other foods that I have strong aversions to, everyone was right about pancetta. It is Italian bacon. Whenever my idols cooked with it on TV, they talked about how they wish you could smell it as it cooked. I now understand why. The stuff is fantastic.

I cooked the pancetta for about eight minutes (in this time, it began to start foaming as if it were rabid pancetta). I then added some finely chopped onion and cooked that until it was tender. That took about five minutes. After that, I threw in some minced garlic and crushed red pepper. Giada says to cook this until it becomes fragrant or for about 30 seconds. I actually counted it out because it was difficult to smell it over the pancetta. But I wasn't one to complain. Our kitchen smelled great!

Next I added some tomato puree as well as some salt and pepper. You then lower the heat and let the sauce thicken for about 15 minutes. During this time, I boiled some water, made some perfectly al dente spaghetti, and caught up with the Kardashians (this is not something I'm proud of, but I'm just being honest).

After draining the pasta, I stirred some Parmesan cheese into the sauce. I then put it on top of the pasta and dug in! Like I said before, it was like a marinara sauce in how tomato-y it was and with the combination of onions and garlic. But the pancetta gave it a few chunks like a meat sauce. It was a nice balance between the two. Definitely something I would make again (I made two servings of the sauce so I could eat the leftovers tomorrow night. I'm sure they will be even better tomorrow!).

I'm sure by now you're wondering what's with the picture of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree at the top of the post. For starters, it's there because I don't know how to post pictures in the middle of my posts where they are most relevant. Second, it's there because I saw it in person this weekend in NYC!! I had an amazing time in the city with my best friend Katie and, as always, was sure to eat some exceptional food. I had some Honky Tonk pancakes at the Brownstone Diner (these were pancakes with peanut butter chips in them and were topped with slices of bananas), had my first slice of actual NYC pizza (and what are the odds that Ray's Pizza had my favorite: mushrooms and black olives), and had some Cuban food as well. On top of all that, I got a lot of Christmas shopping done and was able to experience the city without the hassle of being on a school trip :)

Anyhow, I will be cooking again on Thursday night and my dish will be part of a larger meal to be shared with my roommates. One of them just graduated this past weekend and will be leaving us after this semester (that's a scary thought considering I only have two semesters left after this one). Check back then for more food fun!

A Man Walks Into a Pub with a Squid...

Let's get right into it. Tonight's dish was from the "Everyday Seafood" chapter of "Everyday Antipasti" and was none other than Fried Calamari!! YUM. I first tried calamari at my grandparent's wedding anniversary back when I was in middle school and have been in love with it ever since. But, of course, being the health nut that I am, I simply could not fry my dish tonight. Believe me, I really wanted to. Especially because I have never fried something without the help of a commercial deep fryer. But I knew I would pay for it tomorrow morning when I would have cement legs on my morning run.

Therefore, I made Faux-Fried Calamari. Hungry Girl does this to her recipes all the time. Rather than frying the food, she bakes it. She also coats it in crushed up Fiber One cereal (honestly, don't knock it till you try it), but that seemed way to "un-Italian" for a recipe out of Everyday Italian.

I started by preheating the handy-dandy toaster oven to 400 degrees. I then took my defrosted squid bodies out of the refrigerator. Though I love eating calamari, handling it while raw is a completely different story. When squid are live, I have a terrible irrational fear of them. The thought of one of their tentacles latching on to my arm with their little suction cups makes me shudder (in fact, I just did as I typed that). Thankfully, the squid that I had bought did not come with tentacles. I feel many tears would have been shed if I had had to handle those.

What you may not know unless you've worked with squid before, is that raw squid has and absolutely disgusting texture. When the bodies were frozen, it was perfectly fine to touch them. But once they had defrosted, my God they were the most slimy, gummy things you have ever touched. I DEFINITELY shuddered when I first picked one up. I also made this weird noise that was a gross between nervous laughter and surprise. Thankfully, this was early in the morning and everyone was asleep.

I cut the bodies into half-inch thick rings, then worked on their coating. In Giada's recipe, she simply dredges them in flour and parsley, then sticks them in the oil to fry away. Considering I was baking these, I wanted a little more coating. At first, I followed the recipe by dredging them in flour and parsley. Then, I tossed them in some bread crumbs. Unfortunately, having been coated in flour first, the bread crumbs didn't really stick too well. I skipped them flour on a few rings just as an experiment.

I then baked the calamari for about 20 minutes. Giada's recipe recommends using her Marinara Sauce to dip them in, but I didn't have the time to make any tonight or last night. Therefore, I made a poor man's version. I took some tomato paste and watered it down to a sauce consistency and it was just fine.

Once the calamari were done, I gave it a taste, and was satisfied. It was definitely not the fried calamari that I was used to, but it was still very good. I dipped them in the sauce which was good, but I actually preferred them without it! The sauce overpowered the squid flavor (which is not as horrifying as it sounds. It's quite good). The coating was just enough to give it some crunch without filling my arteries with fattening oil :)

Overall, I think I could perfect THIS version of Giada's appetizer with a little more work, but it went well for my first time around! I'm now off to make some ricotta cookies as a gift for a friend (my cooking skills are really all I have to offer on a college student budget). Wish me luck with this new recipe!

Sweet Tooth

Good evening and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!! I apologize for not updating at all over my Thanksgiving break, but you would be surprised in how little time there is to cook during a 10 day break. Especially when most of it consists of quality time on my couch, with my dog, and a crossword puzzle book. It was a MUCH needed break, and I DID get to cook a bit. I made a chocolate pudding pie for the holiday all from scratch (crust and filling!). Compared to last year's soupy mess that I called a banana cream pie, this year was much more successful and the pudding filling actually set.

And now, on to tonight! I made my fourth dessert from Everyday Italian tonight, and it too was a success. I am now about halfway through the "Everyday Fruit" section of the desserts chapter after making Cantaloupe, Strawberries, and Grapes with White Wine and Mint. After typing that, I'm now realizing I can hardly call what I made that name. It was more like Peaches and Raspberries with Grape Juice and Basil. Allow me to explain...

For starters, I live on a dry campus and am not of age to buy or consume alcohol. Therefore, the white wine aspect was right out. Instead, I used some white grape juice (I'm sure this is not remotely the same as white wine, but you take what you can get). I boiled this along with some sugar till it was dissolved.

Next, the fruit. Unfortunately, the fruit required for this recipe (aside from the grapes which I didn't think to buy while grocery shopping at home this weekend) is no longer in season. This didn't break my heart when it came to the cantaloupe, because I"m really not a big fan (to me, it tastes like what I would imagine nail polish remover would taste like. Not that I would know). As for the strawberries, I could have easily bought some frozen ones, but I already had some frozen raspberries, so I didn't really see a point in buying anything more. To replace the cantaloupe, I used some frozen peaches. Thankfully, in her introduction to this recipe, Giada gives us college cooks (or any cooks in general) permission to substitute any fruit we like. IN FACT, she even states that this recipe is good for using up leftover fruit.

I combined these two frozen fruits after thawing them and draining the majority of the liquids that resulted. Once the sugar and juice mixture had boiled for about two minutes, I removed it from the heat. At this point, I was supposed to add some chopped fresh mint. Well, I didn't have any mint (I use it so infrequently that buying it fresh just doesn't make sense). I remembered seeing many of Giada's dessert recipes on TV using basil, so I figured a bit of that would be a good enough replacement. I added this to the hot mixture, then poured it all over the fruit. You are then supposed to chill the dessert in the fridge for about two to eight hours. I did not want to wait. I think I gave it about 15 minutes.

Going into this dessert, I wasn't particularly "jazzed" about it because I'm more of a chocolate lover when it comes to sweets. The richer, the better. I really only get excited about a fruit dessert if there's some sort of flaky crust or crumble with it. However, this dessert was actually quite good! It wasn't overly sweet and the peaches and raspberries worked well together. The basil got lost amongst all the other ingredients, and I could see where the mint would fit in nicely, but it didn't detract from the dish at all.

The picture of the dessert in Giada's book is really pretty with the sugar mixture crystal clear and the whole thing in a pretty little glass. Lucky for Giada, she didn't have to use frozen fruit that creates some pink juice and she had pretty little glasses at her disposal. I must say though, the colors in mine above are nice. In Giada's words, "look at how pretty that is!"

And there you have it! I've been through Everyday Italian FOUR TIMES! I'm definitely not sick of this project yet. I look forward to cooking each recipe and sharing my stories every single time. I start from the beginning once again on Thursday with my take on another seafood appetiser. Stay tuned :)

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off..

Ah, yes. I have recovered at last from the tuna debacle from Sunday. I'm positive it was a mind over matter thing, but my stomach was quite upset after trying that dish. I had to lay down and watch Meet the Robinsons to recover. Cute movie, by the way.

I was soo excited to make tonight's recipe out of the "Everyday Contorni" chapter. It is my first from the "Roasted and Baked" section (and if you know me, you know I LOVE my roasted veggies!). The recipe is called Tomato Vegetable Casserole and after reading all the ingredients, I was pretty sure I couldn't go wrong.

I started by peeling and chopping a small potato, small sweet potato, and a carrot. I was supposed to add a bell pepper into this mix, but I didn't see that I needed one and forgot to pick one up this weekend. Oops! I tossed all of these in my glass baking dish with some EVOO spray, salt, and pepper. Next, I added a layer of thinly sliced red onion and topped that with a layer of zucchini. I then seasoned this layer with more EVOO spray, salt, and pepper. On top of THIS, I put some slices of tomato, then sprinkled some bread crumbs and shredded mozzarella on top. The recipe called for Parmesan cheese, but I ran out and will be going home at the end of the week, so there was really no reason to buy more.

I had the toaster oven preheated to 450 as the recipe tells you to do, then put the dish in to cook. Now, when I put this glass dish into the toaster oven, it remains open just a crack. This wasn't an issue when I made brownies in there this past weekend, but then again having half-done brownies is one of my favorites and just plain delicious. This is not the case when it comes to potatoes. When I first took the casserole out (the bread crumbs and cheese were beyond "browned" on the top), the top half was nice and tender, but the potatoes were still pretty raw. I don't know if you've ever eaten a raw potato. They don't taste bad, but they certainly don't taste like much.

I stuck the casserole back in for a bit more, but then took it out again for fear of the top completely burning. What's pictured at the top is my first serving of the casserole. Like I said, raw vegetables aren't bad, they just don't taste like much (with the exception of the tomatoes and such on top. THOSE were exceptional). I decided to mix up the entire casserole and spread it out in the dish to make a thinner layer and hopefully cook the rest of it. Well, some of it cooked, but not all. That's what I get for being lazy and not just marching up to the kitchen and cooking it properly.

That being said, I could imagine the casserole being delicious if cooked in a proper oven with the door completely closed. I will have to try it again when this is possible.

This is my last update for the week as I gear up to get ready to go home for Thanksgiving!! My next two updates will be from my own house (hooray for space, proper supplies, and all resources in one place!) and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am!! I'm also excited to get this computer to the Apple store to figure out why my keyboard hates me. Until then, bon apetit!

Dear Tuna...

...and so, we meet again. This dish is sitting here before me, and I wanted all of you to be here with me as I face my foe once again. Current status: TERROR. Alright. Here we go...

First bite: not bad. Still can't get the thought of tuna out of my head though. Let's continue. Second bite: still alive. Tried it with a little less of the pesto so I could really get the taste of it. I had a bite of my Brussels sprouts in between and those have turned out to be an excellent compliment to the dish. We progress. Third bite: gag reflex is setting in. I don't think I can do this. Fourth bite: last bite. The fact that I bit my lip really hard in the process was the tell-tale sign. Alas, tuna, we will just never be friends.

I think that may have been the last time I will try tuna. For awhile at least. I'm sitting here having cleaned all the dishes from that endeavor trying to keep my food down. I just glanced through the index of Everyday Italian and saw that there is one more recipe requiring some canned tuna, and I think I may substitute either chicken or another kind of fish for that one. In the words of a post-it not from Sex and the City, I'm sorry...I can't...don't hate me.

The grilling of the tuna was quite simple. I should mention here that the Grilled Tuna Steaks recipe is from the "Everyday Grilles and Sautees" section of the "Everyday Entrees" chapter. The steaks are brushed (or in my case, sprayed) with some EVOO and seasoned with salt and pepper. Giada recommended cooking them about two minutes on each side so that the outside was browned, but the inside was still pink and rare. I personally can't even eat a beef steak that's pink in the middle, so I knew I couldn't handle one made of tuna in that state. Therefore, I cut the steak in half to make it thinner so I could cook it through the whole way.

It turns out I'm pretty bad at trying to cut tuna steaks evenly, so one half was thinner than the other. I decided I would cook one well done and leave the other slightly pink in the middle, but unfortunately, I couldn't get through the well done one in order to try the slightly less done steak.

After allowing the steaks to sit for about five minutes, I had to slice them and drizzle them with some lemon juice. You then serve them with some basil pesto (rather than using Giada's recipe for basil which I've yet to encounter in the "Everyday Sauces" chapter, I just bought some from the store). Thankfully I also served the steaks with some roasted Brussels sprouts (which are quite filling thanks to their abundance of fiber) in case I didn't like them.

The rest of the story you already know. I was successful in cooking the steaks, however, I just did not like them.

I was having a pretty decent day until this point. Especially now that I feel sick. Allow me to share this day with you.

It started with me attending the induction for Lambda Pi Eta (of which I am already a member). The ceremony was very nice, and from there I took the bus downtown. I went into my favorite little bookstore on Main St. and bought Julie & Julia at last! I went to the coffee shop next door and got some Maple Nut iced coffee and a garden salad for lunch. I sat alone at a table in the back corner eating my lunch and reading my book. Honestly, it was one of the more enjoyable things I've done lately. I got through about three chapters of the book in my own little world in the back of the coffee shop. Through my reading, I realized that the only thing that Julie Powell and I really have in common is our love for food and admiration of chefs.

I found that the two of us also enjoy reading cookbooks (I've been known to read through really anything that's on the kitchen table while eating breakfast in the morning, but it's always a plus when a cookbook is out). Aside from that, we are quite different. For starters, she had to go through a billion excuses before biting the bullet and just visiting her family back in Texas. If someone told me I needed to go back home and visit, I would be there in a heartbeat. I love visiting home and spending time with my family. Not to say that she doesn't love her family, but she didn't seem all that thrilled with seeing them.

Another difference: Julie Powell was filled with negativity prior to her cooking project. Seriously, reading the book, all I could think was "find something good about your life!" But that's just how I am. I pride myself on finding the silver lining in most situations or least finding something to be thankful for. I can recognize that there are much worse things in life than anything I could be going through.

To top off her negativity (or maybe the reason for her negativity) is Julie Powell's lack of belief. She did say that cooking was more of a belief system for her, but for me, it's the other way around. There's times when I cook something and it tastes so good that I know I can't be the only one responsible for it being so.

I should mention here that the reason I was able to recall the above points is that I made a note of them as I read in my iPod Touch. I felt like such a hotshot business person making notes in my PDA (my business casual attire that had been required for the induction could have also contributed to this).

At 3, I went to my roommate's wind ensemble concert at a local church and I was probably the youngest audience member in attendance. The concert was very good despite the fact that the iced coffee came back to bite me mid performance. Not knowing where to find the restrooms in the church, I waited till the end then went on the hunt. I did eventually find them in the basement through some creepy dark rooms. The bathrooms themselves were also dark. I decided not to use them for fear of some sort of ghost walking in on me.

Long story short, I ended walking a block or two to Walgreen's to use the bathroom and bought my roommates some Christmas peanut butter cups so I didn't feel guilty about using Walgreen's for their bathroom.

I think this saga of a blog entry will suffice for tonight. That tuna is still haunting me and wreaking havoc on my stomach as I type. This is all for tonight, check back on Tuesday for more food fun!

P.S. This has nothing to do with what I just wrote, but I love it. And this sort of thing is probably more dangerous than texting while driving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsvDvEatBUs

Yup, I got nothin'

There aren't too many plays on the word "tortelllini" so I won't even try to stretch for one. Let's get right to it! Tonight we venture once again into "Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto." We begin a new section in this chapter: "Everyday Stuffed Pastas!" I was very excited when I saw this section. Most stuffed pastas are stuffed with cheese and, let's be honest, there's very few cheeses in the world that I don't like (one exception would be the Horseradish cheese that I accidentally ate at my sister's house. Never again.).

Tonight's recipe was Cheese Tortellini in Light Broth. Doesn't sound too exciting, right? I thought the same thing. It was extremely easy to make. I started by bringing some chicken stock to a boil. I then added the tortellini and let it cook for about seven minutes and added some pepper to the stock. My tortellini of choice was ricotta and spinach stuffed (it actually wasn't by choice, it was the only kind I could find at the grocery store, though I really don't mind. I love both of those things). Once it was al dente, I scooped it into a bowl along with some of the broth, topped with with fresh parsley and cheese, and it was finished!

I wasn't sure whether the dish was supposed to be like a soup, or just have a bit of broth below the pasta. The instructions merely say to ladle the broth and tortellini into serving bowls. A little confusing, and kind of strange if you ask me. I've never had tortellini served this way. It was good, though I wish it was in a sauce rather than a broth. Definitely good for a quick fix meal.

Me being me, I decided to make a side dish to go with the pasta. I halved some cherry tomatoes, added some pre-sliced mushrooms, and tossed them with my vidalia onion dressing and some salt, pepper, and mozzarella. It was a different spin on a traditional caprese salad. My tomatoes were definitely not at their peak though, and I'm beginning to realize why Ina Garten encourages you to use "really good" ingredients. They really do make all the difference.

Seeing as I don't have much work to do tonight, I'll give a little more to this blog entry. My earlier entries seemed much more interesting and chaotic, but I've really got this cooking thing down lately (not to mention the recipes haven't been too involved as of late). I've been trying to think of ways to incorporate cooking into my future without completely derailing the plan I have now (considering I DO enjoy my current career path) and without having to spend hundreds of dollars on cooking school (yes, I have looked up the prices). My goal is to be a music journalist, but what if I could add food into that as well? When I'm home, I rarely ever cook without music. To me, they seem to be inseparable. Now to find a way to make money from writing about food and music...hmm....

Anyhow, I will be cooking again HOPEFULLY on Sunday. It all depends on whether or not I can obtain the main ingredient. The dreadful main ingredient....tuna steaks. I'm hoping these taste different than canned tuna. Regardless, I have yogurt and granola as my back up plan for that night. Join me then to see if I survive.

P.S. My first order of business upon arriving home for Thanksgiving break is to have the Apple store clean my laptop. My mouse has been sticky lately and has developed a mind of its own. It's driving me insane.

Caliente!!

Forgive the cross-cultural reference in the title, but I don't know how to say "spicy" in Italian. Unfortunately, I won't know how to say it for awhile considering my crazy schedule for next semester won't allow me to take Italian :(

Tonight I explored another tomato sauce...Spicy Tomato Sauce! According to Ms. Di Laurentiis, this sauce is also known as "all'arrabbiata" which translates to "in the angry style." It's an angry sauce. Mine wasn't quite as hot as I may have liked it, but it packed a nice punch. And this is how I made it.

I started by sauteing some chopped onion and garlic for about three minutes in some EVOO. I've gotten very good at trying to keep my hands garlic-smell-free and am proud to say that despite the enormous size of the clove I used, my hands only smell like my Lime Basil kitchen soap :) I next added some chopped black olives, capers, salt, and crushed red pepper flakes.

I tried not to go overboard on the red pepper flakes, but I think my sauce could have used more. I would classify it as a "mild medium" sauce. I could've kicked it all the way up to "hot," but I didn't want to overpower the other flavors the first time making it.

Next, I added some crushed tomatoes and let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes while I cooked some penne. I use spaghetti or angel hair pasta more often than any other form, so I had forgotten how much longer it takes to cook other types. Luckily, I started cooking it early enough that it was ready at about the same time as the sauce.

As I said before, the sauce wasn't as spicy as I would have liked, but it was great nonetheless. The tomatoes weren't overpowered by the red peppers and the olives and capers made it a little salty. The penne was Giada's suggestion which, as expected, was perfect for this sauce. The bigger pasta scooped up more sauce than something like spaghetti could.

I must say, thus far the sauces from the "Everyday Sauces" section have been pretty quick (with the exception of the marinara sauce that needs at least an hour) which is nice considering a college student like myself doesn't have all the time in the world to cook. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like a sauce that took an entire day to cook, but these ones have been just as good and I can eat them sooner!!

The next update will be Thursday with another pasta dish! Can't wait!

Fear and Loathing in My Apartment

Here goes cycle number three through Everyday Italian! Let me tell you, this round has started off with a bang. We're back once again in the "Everyday Antipasti" chapter in a new section: "Everyday Seafood Starters." Sounds delicious, right? Well, it was. But I'll have you know this recipe was no walk in the park. Allow me to tell you the story of Clams Oreganata.

My first order of business was to buy some clams. I read through the recipe and learned that I needed fresh clams in their shells for this one. No big deal. Katie and I took a trip to the grocery store last night and I got a dozen of them (or so I thought. Mr. Seafood Man decided I needed 16 clams because he didn't know I asked for 12 which was MORE than I needed). I got the clams home, but them in a bowl of ice, and covered them with a wet paper towel.

That brings us to today. There was a lack of communication between my mother and I on how the clams were going to be cooked, so she told me to just stick them in a bowl of water for five minutes. I did this and didn't see any of them opening up. This concerned me seeing as a closed clam is a dead clam. I was also concerned that they themselves were alive. As I reached into the bowl to get them out of the water, I had this terrible image of one jumping out and clamping onto me. Yes, I know, this is highly unlikely. And probably impossible.

My mom didn't know I needed to actually open the clams before cooking them. Thank God for the Internet. After searching both chow.com and foodnetwork.com for tips on working with clams and failing, I turned to bing. From there, I found a video from a Legal Seafood worker on how to shuck clams. He went on and on about the difference between and oyster knife and a clam knife. I didn't have either. He then proceeded to show me exactly how to open the clams, then get the actual meat out of them. I was completely grossed out.

After my education, I went for it. First, I went at the clams with a butter knife. Lesson learned: a butter knife will NOT open a clam. After giving it some thought, I went for the sharp knife. I couldn't use the same shucking stance that Mr. Legal Seafood used because if I slipped, my palm would have been sliced open. Instead, I went at it vertically so if anyone were to get hurt, it would be the counter top. That being said, I didn't sustain two minor injuries. Nothing that some Band-Aids couldn't fix.

I will also note here that I felt like a murderer the entire time I was doing this. You can tell me all you want that clams don't have feelings and wouldn't feel a thing if you kill them, but I'm pretty sure that they have to feel SOMETHING. Thank God they don't make any noises. I would have cried.

An hour after starting this endeavor, my clams were shucked and ready to go. I preheated the broiler and started the oreganata mixture. I mixed bread crumbs with oregano and parsley (the recipe called for mint too, but mine went bad so I used some basil instead) and a touch of olive oil. I then placed a clam into each shell and topped it with the bread crumb mixture. They went into the oven for about two minutes (obviously mine went a little longer, hence the over-browning of the crumbs).

These were definitely delicious, but I'm still trying to decide if the five minutes it took me to eat them was worth the hour and a half of making them. It was quite the adventure though. And I can now proudly say that I have shucked clams!! Not too shabby!

Check back on Monday for some more food fun. My sister and brother-in-law are visiting this weekend and I can't wait!!!

Remind Yourself That It's OK Not To Be Perfect...

According to my Dove chocolate wrapper, improvisation is just fine. Good to know considering this is another recipe that probably turned out much differently than intended. Pictured above is MY take on Peaches Stuffed with Amaretti Cookies. This is my third recipe from "Everyday Dolci" and the "Everyday Fruit" section.

The first part of the recipe is making some whipped cream. As I went to reach for my whipping cream, I saw that it went bad around mid-October, so I opted for my dessert without the whipped topping.

Next problem: certain produce is not available year-round. Peaches included. Therefore, the frozen food industry came to my rescue once again. I used frozen peaches but, of course, they don't come as whole fruits. They're sliced, so I sort of had to form the slices of peaches into a faux-peach half. This wasn't too big of a deal until I attempted to transfer them to a plate. More on that later.

Next problem: amaretti cookies aren't exactly all that common in all stores. Therefore, my mother was crafty and found these 100 calorie packs of Stella D'oro breakfast cookies. They may not have the same almond taste, but they did the job just fine.

All right. So I started this recipe by first crushing up my cookies after preheating the toaster oven. The recipe said to use a food processor, but I really didn't feel like using my chopper. The piercing sound of it just didn't seem like a great idea today. Instead, I broke the cookies up by hand and crushed them into crumbs. They were surprisingly fragile for such hard cookies.

I then measured out about 1 1/2 cups of the now thawed peaches (after getting into a wrestling match with the bag that refused to open) and arranged them onto the baking sheet. I spooned the crumbs on top of the peaches (in the recipe, you're supposed to heap them into the hollowed center of the peach. This would have been a MUCH easier task), dabbed a bit of butter on top of each heap, and sprinkled some sugar on top. Then into the toaster oven they went for about 25 minutes.

Once the peaches were done, I used a spatula to transfer them to a plate. They didn't really stay together too well and the crumbs kind of went all over the place. Had I put a full-blown pat of butter on top of each, I may not have had this issue, but the extra points really weren't worth it to me.

Despite my many alterations to the recipe, the dessert was delicious. The cookies toasted up and actually took on a nuttier flavor and the natural sugars of the peaches caramelized them and made them sweeter. I think my version of these would have been even better over some good vanilla bean ice cream, but I didn't have any and, again, didn't feel like using the WW points.

This marks my third full cycle through Everyday Italian! I've made soo many good recipes and I'm always looking ahead to see what's in store next :) Only about 22 more cycles to go! Check back on Thursday when I start from Chapter One once again!

You Say Tomato...

...and so do I. I'll start this entry off by saying I almost didn't cook tonight. On our way home from our away game last night we stopped at Arby's and I went for that side of fries with my otherwise somewhat healthy meal (let me mention that it has been a LONG time since I have eaten fast food fries), and I was still feeling those fries today. I don't think I will ever have a random fast food craving again because of the feeling those fries gave me. It probably doesn't help that I haven't eaten all that well the past two days. Time to get back on the wagon!

Long story short, I did in fact cook tonight just for all my foodie followers (the things I do for you all) and I'm glad I did. Tonight was another stuffed vegetable from the "Everyday Contorni" chapter, Stuffed Tomatoes! I've had stuffed mushrooms, stuffed banana peppers (mmmmm), but never a stuffed tomato. But honestly, I don't think you could possibly go wrong with a tomato stuffed with something. Unless that something was tuna.

First things first, I had to cook some couscous. The recipe says to use arborio rice, however, being the poor college student that I am and the difference between couscous and rice being small, I didn't feel bad about the substitution. I cooked the couscous in some salted water which didn't take long, then set it aside.

Next, I had to cut the top off the tomatoes and hollow them out. Easy, right? No, not really. I cut off the tops then dug in with my spoon and found it to be almost as difficult as trying to hollow out a pumpkin. The difference is that a pumpkin is much more sturdy and thick and you can cut a bigger hole in the top. A tomato is smaller and it's easy to go right through its walls. The first one I hollowed out ended up having a small hole in the bottom, and then I got the hang of it on the second one. Too bad I only made two tomatoes.

As the toaster oven heated, I tossed the pulp from the tomatoes with my couscous along with some garlic, basil, parsley, salt and pepper. I also stirred in a bit of Parmesan cheese. After this was all mixed to my liking, I filled each tomato with the mixture, heaping it a bit on top (Giada's rules). I then placed the tops of the tomatoes on top of this, and baked them for about 20 minutes.

I had a good amount of couscous left over so I decided to eat it as my tomatoes cooked. Turns out this was just as good on its own (aside from biting into some raw garlic. Luckily I don't plan on socializing outside of my apartment tonight. And maybe this will ward off any Edward Cullen wannabes. Did I mention there's a creepy cardboard cutout of him in a window on the top floor? I digress). I decided I needed to create a meal out of this mixture at another time when I was feeling more creative.

The picture above puts my tomatoes side-by-side with the picture in Everyday Italian. I don't think Giada covered her tomatoes with the tops when she cooked them because hers are nice and browned on top. She also probably cooked hers in an actual oven, not a toaster oven. But she also has a state-of-the-art fully loaded kitchen in Malibu, and I do not.

Despite all of that, the tomatoes were delicious, and messy. I wasn't sure how to dig into them, so I opted for a fork rather than using my hands like the barbarian I tend to be in the privacy of my own room. The tomatoes were soo juicy and of course, the basil enhanced their flavor. Giada recommends serving these to guests I'm assuming in some sort of party setting, but I think they may be a little messy for such an occasion. I recommend them as a side dish to a meat entree, personally.

Sunday will be my next day to cook when I try out another dessert and complete my third cycle through the book! Holy cow times flies!! Check back then for more updates :)

P.S. Congratulations to the cross-marketing campaign between Dove and Wal-Mart. Your "Real Beauty" campaign has been stuck in my head for the past week (you know, the one to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"). Luckily, I refuse to fall for your advertising antics and will NOT be going to Wal-Mart to stock up on Dove beauty supplies. Take that Man!

Make Way for the Queen of Improvisation...

As I type this blog, I am being blinded by the sun while trying to watch football (but of course, not the Bills game because it's nowhere to be found!) on my TV that is poorly positioned in relation to my window. Despite these trivial annoyances, I do have a lot to be grateful for like being able to burn over 250 calories while playing DDR today, or having two available washers on a Sunday in a dorm, or eating a delicious meal inspired by Everyday Italian.

My use of the word "inspired" is not merely a way to diversify my word usage. Today's dish probably came out much differently than what Giada would have intended it to be. It was from the "Everyday Entrees" chapter in the "Everyday Grills and Sautees" section. It's name? Grilled Seafood Salad. I will point out that it is a Seafood salad and that no specific seafood is mentioned in its title, therefore, I feel less guilty in having to change its contents. It went a little something like this:

I started by making the dressing in a different method than I had ever used before. I heated some EVOO (the real thing, NOT the spray) in a pan then added some chopped garlic and herbs. The recipe calls for fresh parsley (which I have plenty of thanks to my mother's bountiful herb garden), marjoram, and thyme. I didn't even have the dried variety of the last two and didn't really see the purpose in spending money on them when all I needed was some fraction of a teaspoon of each. As I was about to proceed minus two herbs, I decided to look at the ingredients of my Italian Seasoning. Alas! It contained both marjoram AND thyme and even some oregano for good measure. Crisis averted.

I sauteed all of this for about 30 seconds just to emulsify all the flavors, then removed it from the heat and let it cool. As it cooled, I plugged in the George Foreman and moved on to the seafood portion.

The seafood called for in this recipe is scallops and squid. My problem was not with trying either of these (I am a big fan of calamari and have been meaning to try scallops anyway), but in finding them without spending an arm and a leg. My good friend Katie was kind enough to give me a lift to Wal-Mart the other night so I could pick up some other things I needed, so I decided to look there for the seafood as well. Unfortunately, neither was anywhere to be found. But as luck would have it, I still had some frozen shrimp back at my room and decided this seafood would do just fine. I once again had to go through the trauma that is peeling shrimp (one of the legs got stuck on my finger and literally made me shudder) and dried them as well.

Once my dressing was room temperature, I whisked in some lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I then dipped each shrimp in the dressing then placed them on the hot grill. Shrimp doesn't take long at all to cook, so from this point on, it became similar to an episode of "Chopped" since I hadn't thought to take any of my other ingredients out from the fridge or prepare them in any way.

First, I had to peel then chop a carrot. The recipe said to cut the carrot into two inch long, thin strips which was difficult to do quickly and without losing a finger. I escaped that task unscathed. Next, I had to chop half a yellow bell pepper in the same manner. This was slightly easier, but still time consuming for safety purposes. Once again, I made it through. I had my half cup of cannelini beans stored in the fridge having used the other half in a previous dish so I dumped the rest of those and the now chopped veggies into the remaining dressing. I tossed them all together to evenly coat them.

At this point, my shrimp were ready to be flipped, and then it was time to start assembling. Giada's salad uses arugula leaves and some radicchio. Well, Wal-Mart also failed to carry either of these produce items. However, I had a bag a Spring Mix salad back at home and was able to substitute this instead (I'm pretty sure there was a bit of radicchio in the mix which was a bonus). I placed some of the salad on my dish then topped it with the veggie and bean mixture. I then placed the hot shrimp on top of this.

As I've mentioned before, the George Foreman grill allows the "fat" of your food drip off the grill and into this little collection tray. Seeing as shrimp really don't have any fat to drip off of them, all that ended up in the drip tray was some excess dressing. I decided not to waste a drop of it and drizzled it on top of the salad.

It's difficult to see all the elements of the salad in the picture above because this was post-tossing to get the dressing throughout it. However, it was amazing and quite filling. It was extremely flavorful and balanced. I was actually very proud that I didn't overdo any of the potentially strong seasonings! My shrimp wasn't over cooked at all and there was plenty of dressing to go around without leaving a pool of it at the bottom of the plate. Personally, I love when there's a hot (temperature-wise) element in salads so this was right up my alley. Another successful recipe!

The next day of cooking will be this coming Thursday when I go for another stuffed vegetable recipe in the "Everyday Contorni" chapter: Stuffed Tomatoes!! I can't wait!

Mmm...Toasty!!

I know I was supposed to make a dish last night, but a spur of the moment girl's night happened and I ended up eating some excellent, authentic Mexican food instead. I had a California burrito with veggies in it. Delicious!!

Moving on to today I finished the "Fresh From the Pantry" section of the "Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto"chapter with Orecchiette with Toasted Bread Crumbs. As all the recipes in this section are, it was easy and didn't use too many exotic ingredients. It was also worthy of a "yum-o!"

First things first, I cooked the orrecchiette (aka the pasta). This is pretty much a fancy name for shells. However, thanks to Giada's side note, I now know that orrecchiette means "little ears" which makes total sense.

Once the pasta was added to the boiling water, I began making the "dressing" of bread crumbs. This type of recipe is one that was probably used in order to use leftover stale bread (this is not my inference, it's totally from the side notes). I always think of bread crumbs as more of a coating for meat, so I found this use for it really interesting. I sprayed some EVOO into a heated pan, then added the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. This only needs to toast for about two minutes and it's very easy to tell when it's ready. You definitely don't want to let this cook too long otherwise it WILL burn.

I drained the pasta (but not completely) and tossed it into the pan with the bread crumbs. Some of the pasta water stayed in the little ears which I think helped since the bread crumbs stuck to the pasta a lot easier. I also tossed in some finely chopped prosciutto.

Prosciutto is another new thing for me. I'm definitely not a fan of ham (though I could probably eat my weight in bacon or ribs) and I know that prosciutto is a type of ham. For years, people have told me that it doesn't taste like ham and that it's just salty. Me being me, I didn't believe them and refused to try it because I KNEW it tasted like ham. Well, I was wrong again. I tried a little piece of it before adding it in with everything else and alas, it really just tasted salty. You win again world.

After tossing all this together, I transferred the food to a bowl and added some chopped fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese, then dug in. It was really good, though I think next time I need to go a little easy on the salt. Between the bread crumbs, prosciutto, cheese, and actual salt, it was a bit much, but not enough to ruin the dish. I also needed some other wet element in it since the bread crumbs make it very dry (this may not have been the case had I used the amount of oil called for in the recipe rather than spray oil). With a few tweaks, I could probably make this dish even better, but for today, it was just fine :)

I'm off now to make some more pumpkin cookies to bring over to a friend's house tonight. I'm going to try putting a glaze on them this time instead of using cream cheese frosting since it dries much quicker. Wish me luck and check back tomorrow (so soon!) for my next dish: Grilled Seafood Salad!

Checca yoself...

...before you make another terrible pun. I may have another new love, and it's name is Checca Sauce. Not only is this "no-cook" sauce incredibly easy and quick to make, it's also incredibly delicious. Giada says that there is no point to making Checca sauce if tomatoes are not at the peak of their ripeness, but I did it anyway and it was still great.

The amount of time it took to make this sauce is basically the amount of time it took to make the pasta. As I brought the pasta water to a boil, I started the sauce by putting some cherry tomatoes, scallions, garlic, Parmesan cheese, basil, and oil into my chopper. I have to say, the best thing about my chopper is that I don't actually have to chop anything before adding it in there. It saves my hands from smelling like garlic for days on end. Anyhow, you pulse all of this together until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped, NOT pureed. No problem there. I pulsed it until it looked about the consistency of tabbouleh. If you don't know what that consistency is, then you probably haven't had tabbouleh and are therefore missing out on another delicious food.

Next, I transferred the sauce to a bowl and mixed in some salt, pepper, and mozzarella cheese. The recipe said to use some fresh mozzarella cut into cubes, but the shredded part-skim mozzarella I used seemed to work just fine.

Once the pasta was cooked to al dente, I tossed the sauce with it and I was ready to go! This whole "no-cook" sauce thing is great. Less mess, less time, but without cutting back on any flavor. Tomatoes and basil are always a winning combination and were the stars of the sauce. It was very fresh tasting. One thing I've noticed from all these recipes I've made is the spicy element of garlic. Especially raw garlic. I think the spice of the garlic in this sauce enhanced the flavors and kept them from being bland (since it's not really peak tomato season anymore).

As i was eating this, I realized this sauce would also be great as bruschetta. Some crispy Italian bread would've been perfect for soaking up the tomato juice that was left over once my pasta was gone but alas, I didn't have any. Anyway if you're looking for a very quick meal solution, I highly recommend this recipe!!

The next cooking day will be Friday when I take on another pasta dish: Orecchiette with Toasted Bread Crumbs!!

Side Note: I absolutely love that the sun is shining right now, but it's picking the most terrible spot in the sky to be at the moment. It's just at the top of my window shining directly on me and into my eyes (which are extremely light-sensitive). It's also in just the right place where I can't really avoid it unless I hover over my computer which is far from comfortable. Oh well, I'll take it shining in my eyes in the middle of the day over a dark cloudy or snowy October!

P.S. Happy Birthday Doug!

A Whole New Hummus

Good evening! It's time for another installment of me versus the cookbook, hooray! We're back to square (actually chapter) one with some "Everyday Antipasti." This recipe was the last one in the "Fresh from the Pantry" section of this chapter. This also marks my third time going through the book! Very exciting!

All the "Fresh from the Pantry" recipes have been pretty easy, and this one is no exception. Tonight's recipe was White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. I didn't see the point in buying pita bread for this little recipe when I still had 1/4 of a baguette in my freezer from the crostini recipe, therefore I used that instead. I sliced the bread extremely thin to make them more chip-like, sprayed each piece with some EVOO, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and dried oregano. I then placed them on the mini baking sheet and into the toaster oven at 400 degrees.

I recently discovered that lining the mini toaster oven baking sheet with aluminum foil saves me time in clean up. I felt bad because every time I was done using it, one of my roommates needed it and they would end up cleaning my mess. Rather than have them go through that trouble just to dirty it up again, I figured it would be much easier on them (and me!) to use this method. I must say, it's been great :)

As the bread crisped up, I put half a can of cannellini beans, a small clove of garlic, lemon juice, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper into my little chopper (holy run-on sentences Batman!). Once this was coarsely chopped I added two teaspoons of olive oil, then continued to mix it till it was nice and smooth. As much as I love this little chopper, I absolutely hate the sound it makes. If you've ever seen the movie Dumb and Dumber, you'll know what the most annoying sound in the world is. Well this is that sound combined with nails on a chalkboard. At a high amplitude. It's so terrible. Needless to say, I persevered, lost some of my hearing, and got my dip to the proper consistency.

The bread chips came out exactly as i wanted them to. They weren't burned at all, just a nice brown color and EXTREMELY crunchy (my father can attest to this. I was crunching in his ear on the phone). In Giada's notes in her book, she says this dip is the Italian version of hummus. That's what I was expecting when I made it, but there are some subtle differences between the two. This dip is lighter and almost fluffier than hummus. This may be due to my decreasing the amount of oil needed. But I think I prefer the fluffier texture. It was very smooth in texture and the parsley with the raw garlic gave it some spice. I would recommend this for your next party. Maybe I'll even make it for my next family party!

My Dove chocolates have been giving me the same message lately (I eat one chocolate every night. If I didn't, I would go on a crazy chocolate spree). This recurring message is "Patience is a virtue." I do agree with this, but the fact that I keep getting this one makes me wonder, is there something I should be waiting for? Is all this work with cooking going to take me somewhere? Or maybe my bag of chocolates just didn't get mixed up enough. The world may never know.

My next day to cook is Sunday when I take on a new sauce: Checca Sauce! Check back then to see if it's a success, or if I go hungry for the night (ha, me? Hungry? Never!)!

P.S. Happy Birthday Madison!!

Goin' to the Country, Gonna Eat A Lot of Peaches...

And we're back!!! Thank goodness, I was going crazy without my biweekly dosage of Giada's wonderful recipes. Tonight, I made Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese which was my second dessert out of Everyday Italian. Thanks to our well-stocked and...I guess furnished?...kitchen, it went off without a hitch.

There is no supplementary picture to accompany this recipe in the cookbook, so ever since seeing it in there, I had a specific idea of what I thought it was supposed to look like. I've mentioned before that I sometimes look the recipes up on foodnetwork.com in order to see how long it takes to make the recipe, and that is what I did today. The recipe on there did come with a picture, and it was completely different from my idea. I had this picture of peaches topped with the cheese just open on a plate. The real recipe puts the peaches in glasses of wine. Needless to say, I decided these would be peaches with my own spin and stuck to my original idea.

To start, you mix some sugar with some lemon juice and set it aside. You're also supposed to add brandy to the mixture, but seeing as I live on a dry campus and am not legally able to consume alcohol myself, this just wasn't going to happen. I didn't think it would really take anything away from the recipe anyway.

Next, I had to fire up the grill! Mr. Foreman's innovation came in handy once again and this time, I even remembered to position to drip tray beneath the slanted grill (of course, this time time there were maybe two drops in the entire tray by the time I was finished). As the grill heated, I had to pit and quarter my peach. Sounds easy, right? Oh no, of course not. I cut the peach all the way around to the pit and then desperately tried to rip the two halves apart. After much effort and my hands being thoroughly covered in juice, I decided to cut it in half again to finish the quarters. It was just as difficult to pull apart. I then decided to try to maneuver the knife against the pit and sort of pry each piece off of it. This was actually successful, though bits of peach were still left on the pit. I'm sure Giada doesn't do it perfectly either. Or maybe she does. It really doesn't matter, these are peaches done my way.

After the peach ordeal I sprayed the grill with some EVOO spray (whoever thought to make this spray is a fat-free genius. I save so much by spraying food and cooking surfaces lightly with this rather than tossing it or covering it in oil). I then placed each peach quarter on the grill. Since it is slanted to "grill" the fat off of food (yes, it is the "lean, mean, fat grillin' machine"), the peaches slid right to the edge of the grill. This didn't bother me since they were secure and not falling off. The peaches are supposed to be cooked for about five minutes or until they're heated through and just brown. Well, mine weren't getting quite warm enough for me, so I decided that they needed to be in the center of the grill where most of the heat probably was. This took some skill with my tongs in order to place the peach quarters just right so they wouldn't slid down to the bottom. I was able to do this, but then was scared to even breathe for fear of the slightest change in atmosphere making them fall.

I unplugged the grill when the peaches were just brown and nice and warm, then transferred them to a small plate. The recipe tells you to put them in the bowl with the sugar and lemon juice mixture, but I drizzled that on top of the peaches instead. I should also mention that I did use some of the wine necessary for the recipe, cooking wine that is. I put it in the sugar lemon mixture just to get the full taste of the recipe, but not enough to get drunk off my peaches. I then let the peaches sit and absorb the mixture.

While this was happening, I combined the mascarpone cheese with some vanilla extract. I've seen this cheese used numerous times on Food Network, but had never tried it and had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. Well, it is an extremely mild cheese that has the slightest hint of that tell tale cheese taste. It takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it and gives it that nice, creamy texture. The vanilla cheese that I created was money.

I then dolloped some of the cheese onto each peach quarter and sprinkled some cinnamon on top (my own personal touch, not Giada's). I absolutely LOVE any type of grilled or roasted fruit so the peaches were great. The cheese was really good with it and was the perfect accent since the natural flavors of the grilled peaches still stood out. I'm guessing that this would be even better if I had used a REAL grill, but not only is one not available to me, but it was far too cold out today to be grilling (unless you were tailgating at a Bills game like my family probably was without me today. It's fine. I'm over it).

So I have officially gone through each chapter of the cookbook TWICE now and feel I'm really starting to improve my cooking! I'm picking up tips and tricks each time I try a new recipe and have made some delicious creations. I had Shrimp Scampi while out to dinner the other night (since I am an official shrimp eater now) and I think mine was actually better! I thought moments like that only happened when I tried things while out that my mom made better. I start back at Chapter One again on Thursday with some White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. Delish!

P.S. Happy One Year Anniversary Steph & Doug!

Delicioso!!

OK. So I didn't cook a Giada dish tonight (see previous entry), but I did cook and I was going through blog withdrawal, and so here we are! My intention was to make the Hungry Girl Crazy Good Coconut Chicken Taco. I didn't have any coconut, so I knew that wasn't going to be part of it (the recipe said to use coconut syrup anyway, but who has that?). It also wanted me to use pineapple salsa which I also didn't have. Instead, I took my excellent sweet corn salsa from the cider mill and mixed it with a cup of pineapple. Same thing right?

Bottom line, I ended up completely reinventing the recipe, but kept it to a simple five WW points (woohoo!). I started by cooking a clove of chopped garlic with half a chopped onion in my pan on the new double burner (let's hear it for the double burner, it truly is fabulous). I then added half a chopped red pepper. I seasoned all of this with some salt and some chili powder (heat is definitely necessary in Mexican cooking).

To the veggies I added a chopped chicken tender that was also seasoned with some salt and chili powder. For future reference, I might add more chili powder to the raw meat or maybe treat it more like a rub, or even make it into a marinade. Thankfully the other flavors of the dish were able to flavor the chicken enough. As all of this was cooking, I mixed some chopped pineapple with two tablespoons of the corn salsa and let them sit. Just as the chicken was done cooking, I threw in the pineapple salsa and turned off the heat. I wanted the flavors to emulsify but not actually cook the salsa (plus, I LOVE fruit that's been roasted or grilled in some way so this was a plus).

As I let it cool a bit, I put my tortilla onto a plate and sprinkled some Gorgonzola cheese in the middle. I then put the hot mixture on top of that and attempted to roll up the burrito. No such luck. The filling was far too big for the tortilla. I suppose this is something I will need to work on in the future, though it really didn't take away from the dish at all. Anything that fell out of the burrito I scooped up with my fork :)

The dish came out VERY well. The pineapple, corn salsa, and cooked onions were all sweet in flavor and it was balanced out by the chili powder. The sharpness of the Gorgonzola also helped to cut the sweetness. I'm glad I added the salsa to the pan at the end because it actually helped to deglaze it and pick up all the flavor from the bottom of the pan. It ended up making a nice chili powder sauce. Not too shabby for throwing it all together without much of a plan!

It's days like today that I wish I was on the show Chopped on Food Network. I think it would be so cool to be given this random set of ingredients and try to make an edible dish out of them. Granted, I wouldn't want to work as fast as they have to or feel that crazy pressure, but I would love to have these random things in front of me and somehow make them work. Yes, I am a food nerd to the max. This, I will admit.

It's about halfway through the week and I'm trying to survive without my Everyday Italian!! I plan to start again this coming Sunday (possibly Saturday if I'm feeling adventurous) so please check back then for another dessert!!

P.S. Obviously I did not include a picture of my meal tonight, but check out the pretty view outside my window! Don't you love fall?

So Sorry to Disappoint...

...but I will not be cooking from good old Giada's cookbook this week :( My lack of car here at school forbids me to go grocery shopping at my leisure and the campus convenient store doesn't sell peaches, or cannelini beans, and most certainly not mascarpone cheese (they don't even have cream cheese). I am going to attempt to guilt a friend into taking me before Friday, but if that fails then we will have to wait till next week since my parents will be here on Friday for my field hockey game. Believe me, I am much more disappointed than you are!! Until next time, baci (according to Google translator, that means "kisses" in Italian. I apologize if it doesn't and actually means something offending).

Insert Clever Title Here

Good evening faithful foodies! Please forgive my lack of creativity, but I just couldn't think good word play around "Eggplant Rollatini" that wasn't the epitome of cheese ball. Moving on, tonight we plunge into more "Everyday Contorni" with the second recipe in the "Stuffed Vegetables" section; Eggplant Rollatini!! I'm a HUGE eggplant fan, so I was pretty stoked for tonight. More often than not, I will opt for eggplant Parmesan over chicken Parmesan. It's not even for healthy reasons (because a breaded and fried piece of eggplant is pretty much on par with a breaded and fried piece of chicken), I just LOVE eggplant.

Bottom line: I was excited. I began to gather all my necessities once I got back from field hockey practice. As I was packing my little kitchen travel bag, I realized just how much was involved in this recipe. I figured it would be worth it in the end so I continued up to the kitchen with a ten pound bag on my shoulder. On my way up, I couldn't help but think I had forgotten something. It's a familiar feeling for me, and I don't know why I didn't pay more attention to it, because more often than not I get this feeling because I have forgotten something (I once left my field hockey jersey at home when it was needed at a tournament across the country. I will never live it down).

I made it to the kitchen, started unpacking (the other girl in the kitchen probably thought I had packed to spend the night in the kitchen), and realized that I had indeed forgotten something. My cutting board. After approximately two minutes of standing and staring at everything, I decided against venturing back downstairs and instead took on the role of the Great Improviser.

My first order of business was to slice the eggplant. You need to slice it lengthwise, then make 1/2 inch thick slices. In place of my cutting board, I turned my baking dish upside-down and cut the eggplant on top. After cutting it lengthwise, I saw how difficult it would be to make slices of the eggplant with the open half facing one side without losing some fingers in the process. Instead, I put the half cut side down, and cut horizontally. I won't lie, my first cut was pretty jagged, but I really did get better as I went on. I made six slices and discarded the "heels" of the eggplant. I then put salt on each side of the slices and set them aside for 15 minutes (according to Giada, this helps take some of the moisture out of the eggplant. I wish I had known this sooner).

I should probably mention that I made this recipe completely out of recipe order. Rather than bore you with how it should have been carried out, I'll just tell you how it all played out. As the eggplant sat, I mixed the ricotta cheese with the egg. The recipe calls for two eggs, but I wasn't making six servings so I used only one egg. I beat the two together, and realized I probably shouldn't have used the entire egg. Giada didn't indicate what color the mixture should be at this point, so I didn't have anything to compare mine to. I added a little more ricotta, but it didn't make much difference, so I made the executive decision that it WAS supposed to be that yellow.

I next added some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese and "gently" stirred it in as recommended. I was then supposed to add in the toasted pine nuts. Well, I hadn't yet toasted the pine nuts. I quickly threw some in my pan and cranked up the heat. Luckily, they toast up and turn golden brown relatively quickly (and as Rachael Ray says, your nose will know when they're done). Then, I had to play the waiting game and wait for them to cool off. Had I just thrown them into the cheese mixture, I'm pretty sure the egg part would've cooked or the cheese would have curdled or caused some other minor disaster.

As I waited, I added some fresh basil to the cheese mixture. I was feeling kind of lazy so rather than chopping it on my absence of cutting board (the eggplant was currently in the baking dish so that was a no-go), I just tore it apart. Giada cautions not to over-mix the mixture, but I'm pretty sure I did. I don't know if it would have tasted any different if I had mixed it any less. Finally, my pine nuts cooled enough and I tossed them in and continued to over-mix.

After the 15 minutes had expired, I rinsed each piece of eggplant and patted it dry (I should mention here that I hadn't brought anything to dry these with, so I settled with my terry cloth oven mitt). The recipe says that you're supposed to grill the eggplant slices for about four minutes on each side. Well, I didn't feel like schlepping the Foreman grill all the way up the stairs, and I really try to keep my cooking in one room if at all possible (side note: this will be more possible now that we have a double burner in our room! Woohoo!). Instead, I decided to cook the eggplant in the frying pan with some EVOO spray. It cooked up just as well and became tender enough to roll up.

Next, I let one batch of eggplant cool (I had to cook three slices at a time seeing as my pan isn't all that big), and put the other in the pan. Once it was cooled, I put about one tablespoon of the cheese mixture on the smaller end of the slice, then rolled it up and put it seam side down in the baking dish. Of course, me being the slightly impatient cook that I can be, I didn't let all the pieces cool enough and burned myself a little when rolling the slices. You live and you learn.

After all the slices had been cooled (well, let's be honest, not completely cooled) and placed in the baking dish, I covered them with the remainder of my marinara sauce from last week (yes, I did freeze it for the week. I've had too many run-ins with improperly preserved food to take any chances. It only took eating bad chili once and eating Ponderosa and puking all the way back home on a bus to learn this). I then baked the rollatinis for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

I made some friends in the kitchen today and saw that college students DO cook more than mac and cheese and ramen. These girls were cooking pasta with chicken and pesto. YUM. It looked really good. Between the three of us, we made the kitchen smell pretty awesome.

While my dinner was baking, I re-packed my bag. Luckily, most of the food I had brought up was the last of its container so I ended up packing up less than I had brought up. Once it was ready, I took the eggplant rollatini out of the oven, and carried it downstairs. My oven mitt was feeling pretty worthless at this point because that dish was HOT. However, rather than running back to my room, which I was given considerate thought, I walked briskly back and practically threw the dish onto the counter upon my return.

You have to trust me, the picture above doesn't really do the dish justice. It just kind of looks like a plate of marinara sauce. I tried to get a close up of my beautiful rolls of eggplant, but my room unfortunately does not have adequate light as a photo studio should, and it simply wasn't feasible.

This dish, was AWESOME! It was like eggplant Parmesan, but without the breading or frying. The cheese mixture was prefect and not too egg tasting. It started seeping out the sides and crisped a little at the edges (so delicious!). Between pan-searing the eggplant and baking it in the oven, it was so tender that I could cut it with just my fork and the sauce and cheese flavors really enhanced the natural eggplant flavor. De-lish!

For dessert, I decided to finally break into my low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt :) Rather than topping it with chocolate syrup, or caramel, or whipped cream, I opted for a teaspoon of Nutella and a dash of cinnamon. I mixed it up, and it was like an entirely different flavor. I HIGHLY recommend it!

The complete meal was absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to make this one again. My next day of cooking with Giada will be this coming Monday. I will be doing my second dessert, Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese! Check back soon!