Sausages and Soup

Tonight was one of those dinners where I was literally grasping at straws to put something together.

Ready for this? ...Sasuages and butternut squash soup. Yeah.

All I did was fry up some of these nice organic sausages.

They're just about as white as me!

Then, I heated up this low-sodium butternut squash soup.


Just souper!

And that was it. I put some cream in the soup to make it look nice. It wasn't a BAD meal, it just wasn't really well thought out. I did, however, like the combination of the saltiness of the sausage and the sweetness of the soup.


Not much else to say here.

That's all, folks.

Eggplant Casserole

Sorry about the late update again. I have another awesome dinner to update about. You may recall I had previously made eggplant gratin. Well, now I'm calling it eggplant casserole. I used better ingredients and a different preparation approach. The results were fantastic.

I also thought I would share the results of using dish soap instead of dishwasher soap in the dishwasher:


The person who attempted this wishes to remain anonymous.

This time I decided to make my own sauce, since I have a box full of canned tomatoes.

First, I cooked up some chopped yellow onions and garlic in some olive oil.


I won't lie, I cried a little.

I then chopped up some eggplant. This time, I sliced them horizontally.


Disks of doom.

After the onions were cooked a little more thoroughly, I dumped in the tomatoes and let the sauce simmer for about 25 minutes. I added fresh basil once the sauce was done cooking.


I guess in Italy, tomatoes are not round.

While the sauce was saucing it up, I fried each piece of eggplant in more olive oil.


Sizzle sizzle.

Once I had finished with both the sauce and eggplant, I assembled the casserole.


That's ricotta cheese! Get it? Ricotta instead of "a lotta"? No? Okay...

I baked the casserole at 400ºF for about 25 minutes. It had browned nicely at the top.


Looks good enough to eat.


Need I say more?


Delicioso!

It was such a fantastic meal. I enjoyed every bite. I think making the sauce myself added a lot of flavour, and the eggplant was very tender and delicious. My dad told me that is was a very filling and wholesome meal, despite it being vegetarian.

Sayonara, baby!

Cornish Hen

Hello again! Tonight's dinner was something special. Cornish Hens! These dinky little guys are really awesome. You're pretty much getting your very own chicken for dinner. Makes you feel special, don't it? :P

To prepare this meal, my grandma sent me a recipe for Cornish Hens. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to all of the ingredients on the list, so I took the cooking directions and did what I could with the ingredients I had.

First, I took the wrappers off of the hens and placed them on a clean chopping board. (You probably know this, but dealing with poultry can be harmful if you aren't careful. You have to wash your hands frequently and wash anything the hens touch.)

They're so small!

I then rubbed the meat down with lots of salt and pepper.


Ready to go!

Next, I heated a pan to medium-high heat and added olive oil and butter. I dumped the hen right in.


It's a bath of hot oil and butter.

I cooked the hens on both sides until they were a golden-brownish colour.


That is one bad sunburn, buddy.

I then made a broth out of the pan drippings, water, garlic and more oil to coat the top of the hens... more or less to prevent burning.


And in they go!

I cooked the hens for about 30 minutes, double checking with a meat thermometer to ensure they were done. In the meantime, I checked the freezer for an accompaniment. We had some frozen french-cut green beans. I ended up sautéing them with oil, a tiny bit of butter, chopped garlic, salt and pepper.


I honestly had no idea how this would turn out.

Once everything was done I plated it and served it! Talk about an awesome home cooked meal!


Ta da!

The meat was tender and moist and the green beans were extremely flavourful. I honestly felt like I did a pretty good job on this meal.

The end.

Egg Salad Sandwich

Good Afternoon, everyone. Today's update starts with lunch! A dinner update will be much later tonight.

This is what it looks like outside today. Just in case you were wondering.

I guess I should rename the blog again, but this time to: The food blog with skylines and dogs.

Eh.

Anyway...

Today I prepared an egg salad sandwich for lunch. I wanted to make deviled eggs, but we didn't have any paprika. You can't have deviled eggs without paprika. :(

So, I first hard-boiled the eggs for 15 minutes. They key here is to peel the shells off when they are still hot. If you let them cool too much, the egg shell starts to stick to the egg and it makes it quite difficult. Although not impossible, just don't count on perfect eggs.


Peeled eggs.

I then mashed the eggs up with a fork. (We used to have an egg slicer, but I don't know what happened to it.)


Smash it up, smash it up.

After this, I added a bit of mayonnaise, mustard, relish and fresh ground pepper.


Pretty simple...

I toasted the bread.


Toast toast toast...

Voilà! Egg salad sandwich.


Om nom nom.

In retrospect, I think it may have tasted better with white bread, but I did not have any.
And that's the end of that chapter!

Kones

I haven't updated in a while. We didn't go grocery shopping until today. Our meals consisted of sandwiches and lasagna from the deli downstairs and pizza. My dad and I walked to whole foods with our eco-friendly bags, got our groceries and walked all the way back. It was intense what with the humidity and the heaviness of the bags. I guess that was my workout for the day.

The point is, I'll finally be updating again this week. Today we had an interesting dinner. I didn't make it, but I thought it was interesting enough to share. We ordered "Kones", which are little hand roll-type sushi with tuna and salmon. They were a light and delicious meal.


Tuna Kone.


Tuna, Salmon and Roe Kone.

Presentation-wise they are pretty sloppy but it tasted yummy. Stay tuned for some more yummy food updates within the next week!
Same bat time. Same bat place.

Pasta

Hello again. I'm actually updating on time. Horray! What a change. So dinner tonight was a huge step up from yesterday, which is a relief. While I was brainstorming for ideas on what to prepare on our ever-dwindling grocery stock, my dad said to just make pasta. We have lots of awesome things my grandparents gave us. My grandparents are amazing because after getting laid off from their corporate jobs they started their own business importing olive oils and other fine foods from Italy. They sell to retailers but mostly restaurants. They visit Italy every year and personally meet and keep in contact with the people they do business with. It is a very genuine business and certainly delivers only the finest foods. (I would know, I've been helping them every summer since they started.) My brother who lives in San Francisco with them works for them too. Anyway, if this sparked your interest, feel free to check out their website below:

http://www.casesf.com/CasaDeCase/index.html

On to the meal! Dad decided he wanted to make it. I helped a bit. I wasn't thrilled, but his logic was: "I got the ingredients, so I get to make it." (He went to the store to grab a few things we didn't have.)


Minced some fresh garlic. I love garlic!


Canned tomatoes.


Pasta and Olive Oil.


The beginnings of the pasta sauce.


Yummy cooked pasta. :)


Cooking that sauce.


Olives on the side. No dyes, just the natural olive.


Beautiful!

In the end, the better ingredients you have, the better the meal tastes. This was a really satisfying meal. :)

Beef Skewers and Cheesy Rice

Yet again I have failed to update on time. I'm having a bit of trouble with motivation and whatnot. Last night's dinner was another simple one. It was so mediocre that I am surprised I am even bothering to blog about it. My only guess is this is just because I have very little meat cooking experience. Well, not so much anymore.

Mumsy had previously made some appetizers, which were frozen spinach...um... wontons? I can't think of what else to call them. They sucked so bad. I hated them. I love spinach, but this was a clear butchering of a very tasty leaf.

Later on, I cooked some beef skewers and microwaved some of that Country Crock cheesy broccoli rice. (Mumsy likes that stuff a lot.) That summed up dinner.


Cooking the meat skewers in a non-stick pan.


Gustav pesters me in the kitchen, like usual. He's so cute though!


The final result. Beef skewers over cheesy rice.

My parents didn't seem to mind eating this, but I did not enjoy it at all. I'm not one to complain about food when it is served to me, but I made this crap. I suppose not every meal is a hit. Later tonight I will prepare a much better meal I hope.

Hofbräuhaus

Hello again. I didn't update last night because I was really tired.
Oh well, here is the blog update for yesterday night.

First off, yesterday was Friday. Mumsy decided that we should go eat out tonight instead of me cooking. (Also, the only meat we have was in the freezer and there wouldn't be time to defrost it.)

It was still early in the day, so I made sandwiches for everyone. Sandwiches are a great way to save money in my opinion because you stretch out several meals with the same ingredients. My parents both requested their sandwiches on white bread and not toasted. I, on the other hand, decided to make my sandwich with some whole grain sunflower bread. Sounds really health freak-ish, I know. It tastes really good though! I toasted my sandwich with swiss cheese, added a little mayo and mustard, and last but not least salami. I slapped a dill pickle on the side and there we have it. A sandwich.


Surprisingly, it was delicious.

So the day went on and night finally came.


Why won't these boats leave???

We walked to Lincoln Road, which is a town square-like shopping/dining district/street. I don't know what else to call it. Anyway, they have amazingly awesome and high end stores as well as restaurants. This is where Hofbräuhaus Miami is located.


Check out my cool glass.


The atmosphere is nice and comfortable and the weather is brilliant!


I ordered the Jägerschnitzel. Yummy.

After our fine Bavarian meal, Mumsy wanted to grab some ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery. Well, I've never had it so I was curious. :P


Cold Stone. Yum.

Finally, we got home and helped ourselves to one of these clever little things. If you don't already know, these cupcakes have real cake batter on the bottom of a dark chocolate cup, then filled with ice cream and topped with icing and a little decoration. (Depending on the flavour.)


Yum city!

All in all it was a delicious day for the palette. It is always fun to eat out and not have to do the dishes yourself every once in a while. :)

Egg Rolls, Rice and Turkey

Tonight's dinner was a fairly simple one. When I say simple, I mean store-bought simple. While we were at Publix, (a grocery store I have only recently heard of) Mumsy grabbed this strange looking meat log of sorts. It was a teriyaki ginger flavoured turkey log. Ohhhkay. So pretty much "Asian" flavours, or at least the American take on them. I eventually decided to pair this turkey with rice and some egg rolls, all things my mother put in the grocery cart. She even bought a rice cooker! Well, having an Asian boyfriend sure came in handy in this instance because I finally perfected the art of rice cooking. Well, maybe not "perfected", but I can make some decent rice now!!! This is much more that I could say before I met Mark. :P


My rice! I found it strange that Publix didn't have a single Asian rice brand in stock...

Grilling the turkey...

Beautiful! The meat was EXTREMELY tender. I was amazed!

Eww I have to clean this nasty grill.... :(

Ta da! Very simple yet wholesome meal.

I guess that's all for today.