She Was Bored

                                              

This picture, from a NYC trip in 2005, is one of my favorites of my sister.  

Thoughts from the Sick Bed

You know, I've been moving around a lot the past year or so, and I've kinda learned about what I do or don't mind having in my house.  Like, not having a dishwasher isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Same for not having cable tv.  Life is definitely better, however, with an in-home washer and dryer.  And the two little but necessary kitchen requirements: toaster and microwave.  I really like both of those appliances.  I also don't miss parking in a garage as much as I would've thought.  I might feel differently if I had a nicer car, though.  

These are the things I think about as I wonder around this new house, sneezing.

Other People's Kitchens Revisited

It looks like a lot of the cooking I'll be doing in the next few months will be in someone else's kitchen.  So, here's more of that. 

After Saturday's full day of seeing the sites and crowds of the big city, Crystal and I went back to her place to see what she had in her kitchen that we could make into a great dinner.  Using a couple of Joy of Cooking recipes as starting points, we made a yummy spaghetti alla carbonara and cute little salmon croquettes with a caper-dill sauce.  

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

1/2 lb. bacon
1 lb. spaghetti
1/3 c. grated cheese (goat or parm are good choices)
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. pasta water
half a bag frozen peas

Boil and drain pasta. Fry bacon, remove bacon when done.  Keep 3 T bacon grease in skillet, add pasta and toss.  Add peas.  Mix eggs, cheese, and pasta water together, then add to pasta.  Stir around over medium until eggs are cooked through.  Stir in crumbled bacon.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with additional grated cheese.

                                                           

It's a bit more difficult to write out how we did the croquettes, because we didn't measure much of what we used.  It pretty much went like this:

We took a large can of salmon and picked out the bones, then added a small can of tuna to make up for the several ounces we lost due to bone tossage.  We added a diced half onion and celery stalk that had been sauteed with a few garlic cloves.  Oh, at the end of the sauteing, I stirred in about 1/2 t. garam masala. Crystal diced a tomato and threw that in, we mixed in a couple of eggs, then added bread crumbs until the mixture was the right consistency to make little patties.  Poured a bit of olive oil in a skillet and browned the patties on each side.  Crystal made the dipping sauce, but I think she took plain yogurt and added capers and dried dill until it tasted great.  This croquette picture is from a google search, but this is pretty much what ours looked like.  But, you know, photographed much more prettily.  

                                                                     

Also, I'm still sick.

:(

Market Day

I did indeed make it to the Indy Winter Farmer's Market today. There were a lot of neat local vendors with all sorts of goods... honey, soaps, lotions, baked goods, tea, eggs, coffee, pasta, soup, herbs, meats, sandwiches, cheeses, beets. The beet guy was pretty cool, actually-- I got a jar of pickled beets from him. There was a bunch of really neat stuff there, but the crowds made it difficult to spend too much time looking around.


After that market, Crystal and I went to Goose the Market, an upscale grocery/deli type place with a good beer selection. We had yummy sandwiches there for lunch (mine was smoked pork loin with carrots, fennel, pesto and chimichurri sauce). Their cases look really cool:

After lunch we drove out to Mallow Run winery to meet Dad and Mollie. We drank some shiraz and listened to the guitar player they had entertaining the masses. The winery was also very crowded... I guess Crystal and I knew where the people were today. This is what it looked like at the winery. The sky and the ground are pretty much the same color.

Also, I'm sick this weekend.

Another Town, Another Farmer's Market

The coolest thing about moving too much is exploring. I like going to new places and trying new things, so that's what I'm going to try to do in my new town. I think I'm going here this weekend:

http://indywinterfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/

and if it's cool I'll blog it.

Cool.

What Do I Do When I Don't Cook?

I work, I guess. I've been working (!) this week, so I haven't been cooking, and therefore haven't been blogging. Last night I had a fun time at a Pacers game and then the Old Point Tavern with Crystal. You know how much Crystal and I are into the NBA, right? A few days before the Pacers game I was in the crowd at my cousin's basketball game. That's what it's like here in Indiana-- basketball basketball basketball!

(pictures courtesy my camera phone, which doesn't seem to take good pictures. But my readers demand photos, and I oblige!)

Ever Wonder What Old People Think?

Well, I've never really wondered either, but this blog is kinda neat. But is it really old ladies, as some of their commenters ask? I guess there's no way to know.

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

Thanks to my Aunt for this link.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Wow, look how different the blog looks! Also, there is this little thing at the bottom of each posting, have you noticed it? There are three little check boxes next to three words. If you find the blog entry you just read to be funny, interesting, or cool, you should put a check in one of those boxes. I don't know who is reading this besides Mom, Aunt Deb, and Matty, so if you just check a box it'll let me know that someone is reading these words. That's not to say that my three best commenters cannot check a box if they feel like it-- go ahead, guys.

Other People's Kitchens

Had a great Valentine's weekend in Fort Wayne. I spent Friday night at Mom's, where she and I had a good time making my current favorite meal... cardamom chicken, saag paneer, and cuke-mint yogurt with pitas. Yum! I forgot to add the salt to the saag paneer, though, so it was not as tasty as it should have been. :(

Saturday morning I had coffee and donuts at Laura's house real quick before she had to go to work; that was a fun way to start a day that ended in a different kitchen-- Aunt Deb's. I went over and made a pasta bake dinner, and she made a salad and a Rachel Ray recipe for garlic bread. And of course we had Uncle Nick's birthday cake, which was sugar cream pie. Although I had my camera in my purse all weekend, I took no pictures. I guess you'll just have to take my word that this following recipe will produce a meal.

Pasta Bake
a box of penne or ziti or whatever pasta you like
one large or two regular jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce
a stick of pepperoni
an onion, chopped
a green pepper, chopped
a hunk of mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350. Boil and drain pasta. Saute veggies in a bit of oil on medium for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Cut up the pepperoni into small, bite-sized chunks. Combine pasta, veggies, and pepperoni in a 9x13 pan, then pour some sauce over and mix the sauce in. Pour in as much sauce as you like, and you can freeze the rest of the sauce, if you have leftover. Cut mozz cheese into slices, and lay on top of the pasta (you can use shredded if you want, but I just like to use the block of mozzarella). Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted. Keep it in 10-15 minutes longer if needed to get it nice and browned, or if you're hungry and don't want to wait anymore, finish it off under the broiler for a minute or two.
(This is a picture I found online when I did a google search for 'pasta bake.' This is pretty much what it looks like when I make it, but this one looks to have ground beef in it instead of pepperoni. Also, the cheese is really piled on in this pic. Tastes good, but I usually don't use quite that much cheese.)

A Brunch of Fun

This is another variation on a recipe from the Noble Pig website. It's a very easy and fun way to bring something completely new to breakfast.



There's no real recipe per se, it's just a bunch of stuff thrown together and put in the oven until done. Well, I guess that's what a recipe is. Anyway, the basic ingredients are: dinner rolls (about the size of your fist, maybe a bit bigger), eggs, cream or half and half, cheese, herbs, salmon, and anything else you want to use. I first cut across the top of the roll to make the top straight, to make a little bread-lid. Then I cut a circle in the top of the roll and dug out the bread that filled the circle. Leave a thin layer of bread in the bottom of the roll... I guess you could say this has become a bread bowl. In one case we put the salmon on the bottom of the bread bowl then put the egg on top, and in the other case we put the egg in first then topped with shredded cheese and herbs. In both cases I put about a teaspoon of half and half or cream in with the egg, which added a wonderful, well, creaminess to the egg. Also in both cases I put salt and pepper on the egg. The egg took longer to cook when it was on top of the salmon-- it took about 30 minutes in a 350 oven. I put foil over the roll after about 20 minutes so the bread wouldn't burn. In the one with the egg, cheese, and herbs I took it out at about the 20 minute mark-- had I taken it out at about 17 minutes the yolk probably would've been a bit runny (I don't like that, but if you do, take it out at 15-17 minutes).