Cheesy Risotto

Hello again! It's been a while... Looks like I haven't updated since April... A lot has happened from then and now.

I guess the most important thing is that I moved back to Vegas. I will probably write another entry explaining a bit more than that. But let's move on...

Today's food I prepared happens to be Risotto!

I can't really remember how to prepare risotto... and honestly I wish I just asked my grandmother for her recipe. I distinctly remember it tasting better...

I got this recipe from Joy of Cooking.

I first minced a small onion.

Then, I had to melt some butter. Thank you, microwave!

I had to use clarified butter... I wasn't sure how to go about "clarifying" it so I let it separate and spooned out the white parts.

I sauteed the onions until they were golden, then added the violone nano rice.

I then added hot chicken stock slowly and surely. About 9 cups of it. You can't forget the continuous stirring!

Mark took this picture of the cats chilling in the kitchen.

Here the risotto was starting to thicken nicely.

Cheese!

Add that cheese! Stir that risotto!

And that was it! Serve immediately! It was cheesy and delicious. I'm not sure how authentic it was though.

That's all for now people!

Grilled Cheese

If you're wondering why the site looks different, my boyfriend Mark made the banner all purdy-like. Thank you, Marky! :D

The last entry I have for today is a short one. I made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.


Tomato and red pepper soup with some cheese on top.


Grilled cheese.


Red sky!

The sky looked crazy being all red and such...

Told you it was short! :P

8 Oz. Burger

My parents decided to take me to this gourmet burger joint within walking distance of our apartment. I'm not a huge burger fan, but specialty burgers are always fun.


I first ordered this root beer. A brand I never heard of before.

I ordered the portobello mushroom burger. It was massive.......


It had fried mozzarella and avocado in it!!!

Mumsy's burger was... cheese?


Blurry pic is blurry.

And finally, Dad's burger.


House burger with no cheese.

We also ordered a side of sweet potato fries!


My favourite!!!

And we actually got dessert...


I got the carrot cupcake and shared with my dad.

All in all this was a fantastic, but gigantic meal. I would recommend this place to anyone!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Hello again. I owe another apology. I clearly haven't been updating every day as promised. I'm not going to lie, my mind has been elsewhere for the past few weeks. A lot has been going on and I chose different outlets to keep my mind off of things instead of the blog. (ie video games/ TV)

So, here it is, finally.

Homemade chicken noodle soup!


To start off, I chopped hearty slices of carrots.


Didn't stand a chance...

I also chopped up a white onion.


Slice and dice.

Although I didn't photograph it, I made the broth by sticking the leftover cornish hens and their bones in water and cooked it in the crock-pot over night. I then removed the bones and added the carrots and onions.


Smells good already!

I let it cook for about 4 hours or so. I then had to decide what kind of noodles to use.


I used these things.

I decided that the thickness of these pasta balls would withstand the heartiness of the soup without losing too much starch.


This was a gamble, cooking the pasta in the crock-pot.

I watched nervously and waited another hour for the pasta to cook.


Not too bad!

Looks like I won the great guessing game of cooking with this recipe. :) The noodles were cooked properly and everything tasted great. It really felt like a home cooked soup.

Delicious.

Needless to say, everyone went back for seconds. Some went for thirds.

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.