SPRRRIIING!

Phone: SPRRIIING! SPRRIIING!
Me: Hello? Voice: Don't forget to change your clocks! ::click::

Ok, so that didn't really happen to me, but it appears that spring has come early this year. That's right. With daylight saving time starting three weeks earlier than usual and the gorgeous weather we've been having down in HR, I do believe that winter is gone. At least for me.

We all went over to Sarv's last night, rather than go out and spend lots of money getting drunk and still having someone left out as DD. I made pasta (but, again, forgot to take pictures -sorry) and we watched Snatch. I've got a recipe for you anyway, sans picture (you get a picture of this tree in front of my house instead).

Tran's Standard Pasta

Ingredients: 1 lb. pasta of choice 1 28 oz. jar pasta sauce of choice 1 lb. ground meat of choice 1 large yellow onion (or 2 medium sized), diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 pkg button mushrooms, halved and sliced 1 red bell pepper, diced 1 tbsp Italian seasoning 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes salt and pepper shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta to desired doneness. Drain and set aside.

Brown meat in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Season with seasoning, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Add onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until onions are tender, about five minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for another five minutes. Add sauce and simmer over medium-low heat for ten minutes. Serve sauce over pasta and with bread. Sprinkle with cheese if desired.

Garlic Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 French baguette 2 tbsp butter 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tsp Italian seasoning shredded Parmesan and Romano cheese Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Halve baguette lengthwise. Melt butter with garlic and seasoning. Spread evenly onto baguette halves. Cover with cheese. Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted and bread is crisp, but not hard.


I got kind of lazy for dinner today. I was going to make a quick soup (a recipe for which I picked up at my last visit to Whole Foods), but I was too hungry when I got home from the market to be able to cook anything decent. Instead, I cooked the last of my asparagus with some Vienna Sausage I had sitting in the pantry. Just sauteed with garlic and olive oil. I ate it with some slices of sesame semolina bread I bought from Panera Bread today. It wasn't the best meal ever, but, surprisingly enough, it wasn't half bad.

Surprisingly. . . she was craving chicken. . .

For those of you who know me well enough, you will know that I'm a steak and potatoes kind of girl. I like my meat medium rare with some herb butter and my potatoes anyway you'd like to serve them to me. It was quite a surprise (to myself and especially to Ben) when I was craving chicken last night for dinner. I had e-mailed him suggesting a type of roast, but decided that the time put into it just wouldn't cut it for me. On the otherhand, steaks are pretty fast to cook, but I just wasn't feeling it. So, I opted to make chicken instead.

Roasted Chicken and Veggies:
Ingredients:
one chicken, cut up
1.5 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
splash of soy sauce
salt and pepper
Veggies: 5 carrots. 1 celery heart. 1 yellow onion. 10 pearl onions. 5 cloves of garlic. 1 pkg button mushrooms. or your choice.

Veggies should be cut to what I like to call "roasting size." This means the carrots and celery stalks are cut into thirds and halved (if necessary). The onion is cut into sixths. pearl onions and garlic are just peeled. mushrooms are halved or quartered.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil and butter in a roasting pan over two burners at med-high heat. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Add chicken pieces, skin side down. Add soy sauce. Cook on both sides for 4-5 minutes, until you get a nice brown color. Add veggies around chicken. Transfer to oven and roast until an instant read thermometer reads 175 degrees F in the thickest part of thigh piece and juices run clear, about 40-60 minutes. You can make a gravy from the drippings if you desire, but I didn't. Serve with rice.

Sorry, no pictures of this meal. By the time it was done, we were all so hungry that I forgot to photograph it. You get a picture of this Le Creuset set that I really want instead. ;-)

feeding my addiction. . .

I've forgotten to post about only the best website for food EVER! TASTESPOTTING! Ok, so yes, there's a link to the website on the side bar over there ---> (to the right), but that hardly does justice to the complete awesomeness of Tastespotting.

Here's all you need to know about it. . . Tastespotting is the food-obsessed brainchild of notcot.org (or is it notcot.com? In either case, both are very cool sites.), and its sole purpose in life is to deprive my day of any useful or productive work toward my thesis. It allows registered users (a group of which I can proudly - or shamefully - say that I am a member) to post pictures of and links to food related items all over the internet. It links random web-surfers who like to eat food to crafty bloggers who love to make food (and photograph it to no end - yay for food p**n!). If you don't have time to check all the wonderful food blogs out there (I, personally, subscribe to at least 20 - 10 of which have new posts every day), then it's a wonderful site that gives you small tidbits of information under each picture, and you can choose for yourself if you want more information.

My dear Broccolini, where have you been my whole life?

Ben made dinner last night - which means WE made dinner together. Baked salmon (seasoned before I got to his place, so I have no idea what was on it - but it was good) and sauteed broccolini. A very simple meal for a very simple evening, but, nevertheless, very tasty. He isn't a huge fan of the broccolini since he's more fond of the florets than the stems, but he knew that I liked them, which is why he purchased them the last time he was at the market. I have to say that the broccoli stems are my favorite, which is why I prefer broccolini or Chinese broccoli over the traditional broccoli you find in the produce section of the market. I like the crispness of the stems, in addition to the fact that the little green bits from the florets always get stuck between my teeth (like that elusive pepper).

Tonight's menu is just a mish-mash of what I have in my fridge. So much to choose from! I have veggies (grape tomatoes, celery, carrots, green bell pepper, asparagus, yellow onion, pearl onions, garlic), fish (tilapia, flounder, shrimp), one chicken thigh (bone-in), bacon, tofu, tortellini, half a jar of tomato basil pasta sauce (Paul Newman), dried pasta, in addition to my herbs and spices and oils and etc. etc. etc. Here's what I came up with: Pasta Carbonara (using tortellini instead of plain old dry pasta) and a side of roasted veggies (grape tomatoes, pearl onions, and asparagus spears with a garlic and herb butter), perhaps I'll also toast up the last of my tomato-basil bread as well. Since it's still the middle of the day (not even lunch yet, and I still have a trip to the gym or the runners source before I even start cooking dinner), just picture it in your head and a picture will be up later today. Here's a quick recipe though:

Tortellini Carbonara

Ingredients:
2 oz. bacon or pancetta
extra virgin olive oil
3 egg yolks
a splash of milk or cream
a handful of parseley, chopped (or 1 tsp of dried parseley flakes)
1/2 c. grated parmesan or romano cheese (or both)
1 pkg. tortellini (for 2)
black pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Throw in tortellini until they float to the top. Cut bacon into strips (crosswise). Cook in oil until translucent (do not burn). In a bowl, mix yolks, milk, cheese, and parseley. Toss cooked tortellini (quickly - this will cook the eggs). Add bacon and black pepper.

Roasted Veggies

Ingredients:
veggies of choice (I used grape tomatoes, asparagus, and pearl onions)
a few cloves of garlic (minced)
mixed dry herbs (your choice - an herb mix would also work well)
enough melted butter to coat all veggies (or extra virgin olive oil)
salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Melt butter in a small (oven-safe) pan over med-low heat. Add garlic and herbs. Stir. Add veggies and toss to coat. Salt and pepper pan before transferring to oven. Cook to desired done-ness.

UPDATE: Later that day. . .

So. . . dinner went off as discussed above (earlier today when I was starving - just before lunch). It was okay, but not the best. The veggies were a little over done and the tortellini a little underdone. I ended up not having dried parsley (or fresh parsley, for that matter), so I ended up seasoning with an Italian herb mix instead. All in all, not bad for cooking and watching a movie at the same time (Marie Antoinette).

I even had enough time to make cookies before I was off to buy myself a new bathing suit (TYR - so I can get my swim on at the Y).

Who needs to read when they can cook instead?

Here's a list of cookbooks that I'm dying to get my hands on (Ok, not dying, but you can understand from my choice of words how badly I want them): in no particular order

Nobu Now -Nobuyuki Matsuhisa













How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson












Can I Freeze It? - Susie Theodorou












The Reach of a Chef - Michael Ruhlman












Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook - Anthony Bourdain












I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 - Alton Brown












Cooking by Hand - Paul Bertolli












The Nasty Bits - Anthony Bourdain












Working the Plate - Christopher Styler












Washoku - Elizabeth Andoh












Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook - Martha Stewart












The Martha Stewart Cookbook - Martha Stewart















As of this moment, that's all of them. But as a striving cook, any and all cookbooks are helpful and welcome.

Oh Mackenzie!

Back from a weekend in DC, staying with the oh-so-lovely Karen. Festivities and eating included: Bravo! Bravo! for monthly meet-in happy hour; Fuddruckers for "before I get too drunk" dinner; Lucky Bar for a round of Royal Flushes; Sharon's for a night cap; returning borrowed furniture via Zipcar; new 'dos at Paul Mitchell the School (even minus 9 inches of length, I love it!); Sushi-zen; Man vs. Wild, Monopoly, tic-tac-toe, pyramid, dots, and wonderful company at Jeremy & Beth's; Mass; Dim-sum at Mark's Duck House ("Why, oh why, my little siu mai, Do I love you so?"); Target (the best store ever); and then home again (dinner at Fridays with Ben).

And after you browse through the links galore above. . .

Thanks to a recent post by Cybele on Tastespotting, I've been enlightened to Mackenzie Limited. And, if I weren't in such a bind with money these days, I would definitely throw a party this weekend catered by this company. The food just seems like the kind of classy food you'd serve at the celebration of your 50th wedding anniversary at your Victorian-era mansion - which you inherited from your father, who inherited it from his father, and so on and so forth - a black-tie event, of course. I don't even know where to begin to tell you about all the wonderful food they have for purchase (and which I want to taste) on this site. Perhaps the Gravlax Caviar, that is probably the cutest presentation I have ever seen. Or maybe the Chocolate Truffle Bars, which I just want to sink my teeth into regardless of how many calories it has or how many cavities it will give me. Or perhaps even these adorable Cappuccino Cups, for which we have famed chocolatier Christopher Norman to thank, and whose cups and saucers are edible. In any case, you all know how much I love chocolate and just food in general, so this site is wonderful. Perhaps I'll indulge myself a little for my birthday - which is coming up - in like two months (don't forget or it'll just sneak up on you like a ninja).

In other new, the latest Hay Hay It's Donna Day! is being hosted by Peabody (over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody). I'm going to try to create something for this event, just so I can start getting my feet wet in the food-blogging world. I haven't decided yet if I'll make a sweet or savory cheesecake. Savory would be something different, but this creme brulee cheesecake is almost screaming for the "Tran-touch" (I'm not sure what that comes off like, but I know how I wanted it to sound in my head). Perhaps a torch to the top and some berries would be just what it needs. In any case, the deadline for posting cheesecakes on my blog/submission of recipes to the competition is March 17th. I figured that I can take this week to decide what I want to make and next week to make it. Hopefully, it all turns out pretty good. I probably won't win because the other bloggers participating have been doing this for quite a while, and have been cooking for longer, but I'd still like to participate.

And in un-food-related news, in addition to participating in the 34th Annual One Day Hike at the end of April (only 50K, not the 100 K that Karen and I had originally planned), I will be starting to train for the Richmond Spring Triathlon, which will be held at the end of August. All is not lost with the latter event because Ben said that he would do it with me, and I will be signing up for membership to the Hampton YMCA later today. YAY! Tran's getting back into shape. Actually, "back into" makes the assumption that I was once IN shape, which is not completely true. So the correct thing to say would be, "YAY! Tran's getting into the best shape of her life!"

FLAUTAS!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE FLAUTAS! It's like the best kind of hand held food ever, dipped in guacamole and sour cream and salsa. So of course, I had to try to make it myself. The chicken filling was great! Shredded very easily, but could have used a little more hot sauce for that kick. The tortilla was a little on the hard side because I fried them for a little longer than I should have, but not so hard that they were completely inedible - and at least it looks yummy (you DO eat with your eyes first). I also made a corn salsa to go along with it. Also, the corn salsa could use a little more hot sauce (the one jalapeño just wasn't enough), but other than that, it was good.

Overall, I think Ben and I are spicy-food (at least two-star to three-star) kind of people. I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm cooking and remember to add extra hot sauce to everything.