4 posts tagged “domestikitty”
Lots to do and we’re both getting sick here. Ugh, cold. This could be my last post till Monday, I hope all the meds we’re taking will zap the beejezus out of this virus.
In the meantime, go have some sunflower butter cookies or see my Silpat experiment.
Now that the weather here in AZ has cooled down to give me the luxuries of having open windows overnight and waking up to a cool breeze, I find it harder to get out of bed in the morning. Last Saturday, with nothing work-related to actively think of or act on, I treated myself to a morning of sleeping in. My boyfriend left early at seven to go to work, and as for me, I curled up in bed with my teddy bear. It was so nice. After a week full of stress, it was perfect to let everything go, just be, and not worry about anything. I love it!
Sunday was another relaxing day. Easy breakfast of cereal at home, late lunch at the mall and a movie. Michael Clayton was pretty good.
We picked up some groceries on the way home and cooked a homemade dinner of seared pork chops, with salad and fresh mashed potatoes (not shown).
We munched on the brownies I baked Saturday and downed that with the rest of our chardonnay. We were glued to the TV watching Brothers & Sisters and The Next Iron Chef.
[Alton Brown’s Cocal Brownie. Recipe below.]
The weekend was too short, darn it. TIll next weekend, I guess.
Cocoa Brownies (Alton Brown’s recipe @ Food Network)
Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted [I used cane sugar.]
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted [I used Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa]
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher saltPreheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it’s done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it’s mostly cool.
Dinner tonight: Pork chop baked in lemon juice, maple syrup, oloroso sherry, and spices; with mashed potato and green beans
Dinner Sunday night: Lemon-soaked almon baked in a ‘pocket’
of onion, celery, tomato slices, and herbs; with brown and wild rice
topped with broccoli and carrots
Recipes were my own invented concoctions–I just used what I had/found in the kitchen. Haha. The pork chop tastes like sweet ham. The idea for the fish baked in ‘pockets’ came from watching Restaurant Makeover. The chef there made a fish wrapped in paper (I used wax, I don’t know what he used) and I thought that would solve my problem with fish drying out while baking. My god, the fish tastes soooo good, I couldn’t believe it!
This…this cooking mania is the result of my freaking out. I’m freaking out. I have to pack up half a year of my life in two luggages. Do you know how many (small) boxes I transferred from the apartment? Twenty-five. Oh my god.
This is called cooking improvisation. When you’re too lazy to go out
for dinner, you make the best out of what you have. On a sucky Monday
like this, I thought I deserve to make myself a nice meal. Hah. After
reading Felicia’s post on pecan-crusted chicken, and enduring my boyfriend’s post of his take of her recipe (he’s a GREAT cook who’s happy to cook for me–yay–haha), I decided to make my own pecan-crusted chicken.
I massaged (sounds bad) salt and freshly crushed pepper on the chicken breasts before dipping in scrambled egg. Then it was dredged in whole wheat flour with crushed pecan and a hint of cayenne pepper. I fried it in savory butter. Lots and lots of butter. I can’t get enough of it!
The linguine sauce was made with red onions, crushed garlic, with a
base of low-fat Campbell’s (woohoo…college food!) cream of mushroom
soup, evaporated milk and one wrist action of oloroso sherry.
It was a good dinner. :-) The cooking and the cleanup took so much effort. Hahaha.
The rest of the day was crappy. I worked today and god it’s just one cause of my blood boiling over, after another. Monday has to end now already.
In other news, I hate reading camera manuals. I’d rather fold laundry (hate it).
