Dish #6

Raisin Tea Biscuits

Such a lovely day. I walked to church; I gave the cashier at the grocery store some change to help pay for the lady in front of me's groceries; I went to the gym and then I made homemade raisin tea biscuits for afternoon tea with a friend. I bought the tea cup and saucer (actually 2) at the Goodwill a few weeks ago and was excited to use them. I found a tea biscuit recipe online and decided to try them since they seemed like a step up from my childhood go-to recipe for scones. They were super easy to make (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk and raisins) and tasted delicious with honey. For some reason this got me thinking of St. Patty's day (my favorite holiday for some reason) and how I love Irish soda bread. I'm totally going to make some sweet soda bread this year!

Dish #5

Minestrone

This week's "make something new" was a cocktail I made using cranberry juice and the Rock Coconut Rum I bought in Puerto Rico. I totally forgot that it technically fit into my new year's resolution of making something new each week until just now when I started typing. So, since there was no photo, I'm going to tell you about the new dish I made.

My first attempt at making Minestrone soup. [I want to keep saying min-es-tron-ey but I believe it is pronounced min-es-trown.] As with all the other new recipes I've used, I changed it up a bit. A simple soup to make, but next time I'll use my 5-quart pot b/c the 3-quart it called for just barely worked (I had a lot of splashing from the soup boiling and had quite a mess on my stove and burners that I had to clean up afterwards).

I started with olive oil, a cup of onions and some green peppers (both which I had frozen in my freezer). Next came the vegetable broth, 2 cans of Italian styled stewed tomatoes and a can of kidney beans. I couldn't find any yellow squash or zucchini so I ended up throwing in a can of drained corn and chopped up some peeled carrots. Then I added a cup of uncooked pasta. It took about 40 minutes to make from start to finish and was very filling. I did add some Parmesan cheese to it after scooping it into my bowl.

3-quarts is a lot of soup for one person and I can't freeze it because of the pasta. I think I might try smaller pasta next time. I used ditalini pasta but despite using 4 ounces more of broth than the recipe called for, there wasn't much broth when it was done cooking. When it came time to store the leftovers, it seemed as if the pasta absorbed more of the broth b/c I had mostly beans, vegetables and pasta than "soup".

Overall tasty, could use some Italian spices next time around if I wanted to jazz it up a bit, but not too bad for my first try; looks like I'll be eating soup for the next week.

Dish #4

Edamame and white bean salad w/ tofu and lemon

I know this is my second "new dish" of the week, but I know there's going to be weeks where I'm traveling and unable to make a new dish. Plus, I had a lemon going bad that I needed to use and this was just the recipe.

I clipped a recipe out of the Boston Globe last year and decided to dig it up and tweak it a tad. The original is made with prosciutto, which for obvious reasons I omitted.

I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic in 1 tbsp of olive oil. I then added 1 can of Cannellini beans (white kidney beans) which I drained and rinsed, 2 packages of my Costco frozen edamame which I cooked in the microwave before shelling and adding to the pan. I then added juice from 1 lemon, 1/4 tsp of crushed red peppers, 1 tsp of dried basil. The most time consuming part of this recipe was shelling the edamame.

Realizing I had some left over tofu, I decided to add some tofu to the salad.

This would make a good side dish, as it's not filling enough for a full meal. I ended up fixing some Quinoa to eat with the rest of the salad I had on my plate. I also cooked some Tri-color Rotini pasta to mix with the extra salad for a cold pasta salad dish to have later this week.

Dish 3

What a day. It started early and I deep cleaned my apartment, throwing out so much stuff and really cleaning every nook and cranny. I didn't leave the apartment today as I went room to room to do my New Year's cleaning. Since I was so busy I decided to make a dish using my Crock Pot. This is the first time I used my Crock Pot for making a dish. Mediterranean Bulgur and Lentils.

Bulgur wheat, lentils, corn, ground cumin, garlic and tomatoes. I mixed all the ingredients minus the tomatoes and cooked on low for 3-4 hours. I added the tomatoes at the end and when it was ready, I topped it with feta cheese and ate with pita chips. Tasty and healthy!

Dish 2

I woke up from a dead sleep this morning all thanks to a dream I had where I was flying to London while my was working the flight and I forgot my passport. I woke up when I went to sleep in my dream. Whenever I have weird dreams that I wake up suddenly [such as this one], someone from my past comes back (either in person or via communication). To top things off, I didn't notice this until 8 hours later, but sometime during the night I knocked over everything on my night stand, including a rather large palm tree candle holder. I'm really surprised I didn't wake myself up knocking that stuff over. Anyway...yes, that person from the past did contact me today. Weird!

Ok, now on to dish #2. I had fixed Quinoa last night, but since that's like boiling rice, I didn't count it as "make something new", even though it was the first time I had ever cooked it, let alone eat it. I must say, I'm a fan. So, tonight. Week 2 of the new year, I made Angel Hair Pasta Autumn Vegetable Ragout.


Angel hair pasta w/ sauteed garlic, chopped tomatoes (I used canned whole tomatoes and cubed them), sweet potato (diced), zucchini and yellow squash. A rather easy dish and quite tasty with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Ratatouille

First new recipe of the new year. After watching the movie Ratatouille a few times with my niece and nephew, I decided I wanted to make it as my first new dish of the new year. Sticking to my New Year's resolution "make something new each week"... here's my ratatouille.

First, I must not have paid much attention to the movie b/c I thought ratatouille [the dish, not the mouse] was a peasants soup, but it's not soup. I used Julia Child's recipe as a guide, modifying it a tad for ease and personal taste. I don't like peppers, so I added yellow squash instead. Instead of making my own tomato puree out of tomatoes, I used canned tomato puree.

I sauteed the veggies after having them sit in a bowl with salt for 30 minutes. Once they browned, I moved them to a side dish. Then I threw in some onions and garlic and sauteed those. I added the tomato puree until it started to bubble. In my casserole dish, I poured the tomato mixture then topped it with the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, alternating the veggies. Julia Child then says to put the fire proof casserole dish on the stove and cook for 10 minutes covered and then 10 or so minutes uncovered. I skipped that step. I made some couscous and topped that with the ratatouille. Stuck it in the microwave to heat a little longer. And ta-da...L's homemade ratatouille. Yummy with a glass of Cab.

When I go to reheat, I'll probably pop it in the oven and cook it for 15 minutes. I've read that ratatouille is even better the day after.

1

The first day of the new year, a new month, and a new week was interesting. I managed to make it to church, the first since the Catholic church decided to change the English text, so the wording is exactly the same in every English speaking country around the world. I'm not a fan. If they wanted a universal lanuage, they should have just stuck with Latin. Which, btw, I would prefer. I find listening and saying mass in Latin more soothing and beautiful.

After church, I waited, and waited and waited for a bus to take me to the South End to meet up with some new friends for brunch at Gaslight. It was a warm day here in New England. I wore my boots, jeans and a long sleeved shirt and ended up carrying my coat b/c it was way too warm in the sun. I get on the 66 bus, which I'm familiar with, but end up having to go farther than I've ever ridden that bus, through areas I wasn't so sure about and totally felt like I stuck out. I was wearing my sunglasses and listening to my iPod while looking at my phone to guide me so I didn't miss my stop. We get to Brigham Circle and an older [than me] Puerto Rican sat in front of me and started telling me that I wasn't wearing my sunglasses right and I'm doing my best to ignore him, but he keeps looking and talking to me.

We drive past a church, I don't think it was a Catholic church, but to be honest, there are so many churches in Boston who knows what denomination it was. He asked why I didn't make a sign of the cross when we drove past it and then asked if I believed in God, b/c he thinks I do. After coming from church, I said yes, but really didn't want to get into a discussion on my religious beliefs. He then started to say whenever you ride a bus or train and pass a church you're supposed to make a sign of the cross b/c there are so many bad and evil souls riding on the buses and trains [here I'm thinking, you're a crazy guy who could very well be "evil" and I never heard of such a think] and that you make a cross when you pass so the angels protect you. [I hate nothing more when people preach to me, and despite my best efforts to fiddle with my iPod, he wouldn't leave me alone.]

He then said I was pretty and beautiful eyes [having removed the glasses from my eyes to stop the whole sunglasses conversation...that didn't work so well]. He then asked if I thought he was ugly, I said no. He asked if he was attractive, to which I said I don't know. And then he said he through I was attractive. Then he asked if I liked Puerto Ricans [he told me he's from Puerto Rico] and I said no. He looked at me and asked why. I said because. I said I have nothing against them, when I was to PR, they were very friendly and hospitable. He asked if I was married or had kids or was single and I said I had a boyfriend [he's a stranger, I was hoping he'd lay off by telling this white lie...he didn't.] The next question was "only one boyfriend? You look like a girl that would have 4." I'm like, "no, I'm not that type of girl".

Next he went on saying how he loves white woman and he puts HIS women first and takes care of them. How he tried dating Puerto Rican women and they just didn't do it for him. He asked what my boyfriend was, I told him white. [OMG, at this point I was so annoyed, but I'm laughing as I type this.] He said I'll end up dating him [yeah, NOT-GOING-TO-HAPPEN]. I started tuning him out and thankfully my stop came up and I could get off. Yeah, I'm never taking the bus that far again. I don't want to run into Eddie every again.

I get to Gaslight and have a nice time. After ordering a much needed mimosa, I enjoyed our conversations over french toast. It was a great couple of hours and kind of fun for me. I received the call inviting me to brunch this morning and so glad I said yes.

I didn't get to see the Bills/Pats game, but was happy to learn that they [the Pats] won. I also managed to do yoga and all-in-all, this has been a great start to 2012. Can't wait to see what else the stars have in store for me.