Ok, I'm a terrible updater and did not do anything worth posting this week. I am so sorry! I hate when people don't keep their word so I truly do feel bad about not cooking all week (well, I did cook, but it wasn't from this project, and wasn't anything ground breaking).

You know what this means? Expect some updates pretty much every night next week when I'm back at school. Well, every night other than Friday which is my birthday! I will not be cooking that night, hopefully I'll be getting food made for me at a restaurant or something.

Again, I'm sorry! I've been as lazy as my dog is in the above picture this week and haven't gotten around to many productive things. Until next week!

Hello all. I'm sorry, but there won't be any food updates this week :( I will be home for break next week so check back for more then, but this week I have way too much to do between work, tests, and everything else I'm suddenly involved in! Did I mention I also need to get a tire fixed before traveling 4 hours home on Friday? Good times. Like I said, come back next week, or stay connected with me through the music blog (which may be updated at least once this week). Here's a clip of a funny commercial to make amends.

Click Here!

Holy Tricolore!

Hello all, sorry for such a late update today. I made and ate this recipe at approximately 5 p.m., then was pulled into about a billion different directions causing my update to be about five hours late. Oops!

We start off our eighth cycle through Everyday Italian in the "Tricolore" section of the "Everyday Antipasti" chapter. As the name implies, "tricolore" refers to three colors, specifically the three colors of the Italian flag; red, white and green. How might one take the colors of the flag and translate them into a dish? Why by using tomatoes, cheese, and basil of course! Honestly, could it get any better? I think not.

Tonight's recipe was called "Panino Alla Margherita." Obviously, it was a panini. But, I would like to call mine the poor man's version of the panini. For starters, I was supposed to use "rustic white bread." In my attempt to save my own money and use the abundance of declining dining dollars I have here at school, I went shopping at the campus convenience store which is hardly any sort of specialty store. Instead, I bought some stone ground whole wheat bread (equally delicious, possibly more flavor).

On top of one of these bread slices I was supposed to place a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese. Though sometimes the sub line has fresh mozzarella displayed with the various salads offered in our convenience store, it did not have any, to my knowledge, this week. Luckily, I happened to have some light string cheese in my fridge that I was willing to use in its place. I sliced up my string cheese and placed it on the bread.

This is topped with some salt and pepper (which I of course had), and some fresh basil leaves. If I had asked for fresh basil leaves on campus, they would have laughed in my face. Dried basil took its place. Definitely not the same, but it worked just fine.

Next I placed two slices of tomato on the sandwich. I actually was able to scrounge up half a tomato from Katie's house (Lawn Ave, I owe you) and it's a good thing too. I was about to replace it with either tomato paste of crushed tomatoes. DEFINITELY not the same.

I seasoned this with more salt and pepper then placed the other piece of bread on top. The recipe then asks you to brush each side of the sandwich with oil. I opted for the EVOO spray, just as good AND fat-free.

You're supposed to cook the panini on a griddle or grill pan. I really didn't feel like lugging the George Foreman out just for a sandwich, so i just cooked it in a pan. Sure, it didn't have pretty grill marks, but it DID have a pretty golden brown color.

This was really quick and easy to make and very flavorful despite my many substitutions. The bread was nice and crispy, and the cheese was just melted enough to hold the sandwich together. The warm tomato was the star of the show. When you heat a tomato, it seriously brings about flavors that you didn't know it had. The basil enhances the flavor even more.

Did I mention that this was healthier than your average panini? Well it was. And it's the closest thing I've had to grilled cheese in a long time (and to be honest, it was way better than any grilled cheese I've ever made). I give this one two thumbs up.

All this talk of red, white and green definitely had me in Jersey Shore mode (sorry Alyssa Milano, I know you would take offense to that). I didn't fist pump, but I did think of Pauly D and his DJ equipment covered in the Italian flag. I tried to find of clip of this, but it was a situation.

All right I swear I'm done with the Jersey Shore references. Good night!

Puddin's and Creams

In the words of Buddy the Elf, "I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!!" What you see above is to die for. And soooooo simple. Allow me to explain.

As suggested by the title of this post, we are now in the "Everyday Creams and Puddings" section of the "Everyday Dolci" chapter. Honestly, how can you NOT be excited about that (well, maybe because YOU don't actually get to eat it, and I do). Tonight, I made Affogato. Don't be fooled by the tricky name. According to Giada, this is the Italian version of a hot fudge sundae. In my opinion, it's the adult hot fudge sundae. No, it does not contain alcohol of any sort, it contains COFFEE!!

Here it goes. Giada's recipe asks you to make your own homemade whipped cream. I opted for the healthy version and bought some Cool Whip Free (you are not surprised by this). Next, you boil some water, then dissolve one tablespoon of espresso powder in it. Considering I was only making one serving of this, I microwaved two tablespoons of water rather than boiling it. I was a little concerned about buying espresso powder (you'd be surprised about what you CAN'T find in stores around here), but luckily, my campus just got a Starbucks. A Starbucks that sells Via! Did I mention that it accepts the $1000 of declining balance that I need to use up before the end of the semester?

I dissolved the Via into the water and made it quite strong (I absolutely love strong coffee). I then poured the coffee over some chocolate ice cream. No, this was not regular chocolate ice cream or chocolate gelato as suggested (if I knew where to find gelato around here, believe me, I would've splurged), it was Perry's Fat Free No Sugar Added chocolate ice cream.

You may be thinking "that diet crap doesn't taste anything like the real stuff." Well, you are wrong. This ice cream is just as good as any full fat kind, and you know what? I can eat more of it without feeling guilty. What's not to love?

I topped this off with my Cool Whip Free and dug right in. You know that song "Just One Look" by Doris Troy? I swear that was playing as I took a bite. This. Is. AWESOME! It's like a mocha, but better especially since it's somewhat healthy. I never thought to pour coffee over ice cream. It's just so obvious. Obvious and delicious.

So that's it. That is Affogato. Easy, right? Come back tomorrow night when I take on another easy appetizer in a new section of the chapter, and start my EIGHTH cycle through the book!

Shameless plug: Check out my side project music blog! http://thesoulkitchenmusic.blogspot.com/

A Day Late...

...but not a dollar short. I actually made my recipe last night, but due to a few missteps after eating it, and then a night of fun, I wasn't able to update until today.

I made another dish from "Everyday Contorni" last night called Herb-Roasted Root Vegetables. It was basically what I make as a side dish to my meals every night. Super easy, simple, and probably not nearly as interesting as what followed it. But I'll go over it anyway.

I started by preheating the toaster oven to 400 degrees and covering the tray with foil as usual. I then cut up some carrots, Brussels sprouts, and a sweet potato. The recipe called for parsnips as well, but it turns out that both Wal-Mart and Hannaford didn't have any at all. It would've made my search a little easier if I had known what a parsnip looked like, but I didn't. And I still don't.

I sprayed down the veggies with some EVOO and added some dried oregano and basil. I also chopped some fresh rosemary and threw that it with some salt and pepper. I then placed them evenly on the tray and allowed them to roast for about 35 minutes (stirring them occasionally).

Yup, that's all there was to it. an easy side dish (or big veggie meal) for any night of the week. Did I mention that the potatoes were actually cooked through this time? Anyhow, before taking on this recipe, I was invited over to my best friend's house for dinner. I explained to her that I was scheduled (yes, I do schedule when I make these recipes) to cook for the blog tonight and told her I would be over after. She was having a rough couple of days and wanted to make some comfort food, so I thought why not bring her something comforting for dessert?

I had two overly ripe bananas in my kitchen and decided that my semi-famous banana bread would be the way to go. However, I would need to use the actual oven upstairs, and the recipe takes over an hour to bake. I had a "brilliant" idea as I usually do, but this time it got me a one-way ticket on the fail boat.

I made my banana bread batter and poured a bit of it into my little ramekins (see Individual Vegetarian Lasagna pictures). Once my veggies were done, I placed the ramekins in the toaster oven...without turning down the temperature. It was at 400, but my banana bread needed to be at 325. Having it higher would just cook it faster, right? I was so very, very wrong. It turns out they put oven temperatures on recipes for a reason.

When one of the mini breads appeared to be nice and brown on the top, I removed it from the oven and let it sit. Honestly, it looked completely done, but when I flipped it out onto a plate, it went EVERYWHERE. The very top of it was bread-like, but the rest was just raw batter. At this point, I was more than a hour late to my best friend's, and decided to nix the whole idea. I even threw out the extra batter (after indulging in some, of course. I have no will power around raw batter).

I went over to my friend's, talked for awhile, tried some okra for the first time in the gumbo she made, and played the Game of Things. I highly recommend it.

So that was my night! I won't be cooking for the next couple of days. Sunday is the Super Bowl meaning I'll be making some dips, and then hopefully Tuesday I'll be back at it. Come back soon!

Mary Had A Little Lamb...

Dear friends and family, tonight, I feel as though I have committed a terrible crime against humanity. What you see above (if the title didn't give it away), are lamb chops. LAMB chops. Chops from a sweet, innocent, little lamb. I bought them yesterday, and had a very hard time bringing myself to do it. They're from a LAMB!!! Come on now, how adorable are lambs? And yes, I said lamb, not sheep, meaning it was just a baby!

I made the last recipe in the "Everyday Grills and Sautes" section of the "Everyday Entrees" chapter. And yes, it was Grilled Lamb Chops. I started by making a marinade of EVOO (yes, the real stuff), fresh rosemary, garlic, salt, and cayenne pepper. I put this all in my food chopper to form a paste, but lo and behold, the blade on my chopper don't quite hit the bottom of the barrel. And there wasn't much to the marinade. So really all the copper did was fling the ingredients around. Luckily, I had chopped most of the ingredients pretty well, so at that point I just said "screw it" and rubbed it on the chops and let them marinate.

As the chops marinated, I preheated the toaster oven and prepared some Brussels sprouts for a side dish. These grills and sautes recipes are never complete meals, and I never really know how they will turn out (let's face it, I'm no grill pro yet) so I'm always sure to roast some vegetables for the side. That way I know I won't starve.

I let the chops marinate for about half an hour (the very minimum suggested. I would have let them sit all day, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days, and I really didn't have time to do this at 6 a.m.). I then placed them on the smokin' hot George Foreman grill. According to the recipe, you need to sear the chops for two minutes on each side, then cook them for an additional three minutes per side to achieve a medium-rare doneness. I personally don't do medium-rare (I like my meat thoroughly dead), so I went for about five minutes per side.

I had no idea how these were supposed to look (or that they would contain so little meat, but it was a lamb after all), so I was a little freaked out at the abundance of red juice that resulted from cooking the chops and kept telling myself that it wasn't blood (cause it wasn't...right?).

It's obvious in the picture above that my marinade was hardly a paste. You can see some pretty full pieces of rosemary on those chops. This is probably why it tasted mostly like rosemary. I think I got a hint of lamb, it tasted like a mild steak, and it wasn't bad from what I could tell. It probably would have tasted better had it sit longer in the marinade, and if I had actually made a paste. I did eat the little bit of meat that was on there though. It was hardly a tuna situation. And of course, I ate every last Brussels sprout because they were roasted to perfection :)

And that is my crime story for the night. I've still got a guilty conscience about the whole thing. I think there was an episode of the Simpsons where Lisa couldn't eat meat because she kept seeing this lamb talk to her and make her feel guilty. I now know how she feels. But I'm not about to give up eating other meat.

I will be cooking again on Thursday so check back for some fun with veggies!!