Cookies!!

So I have a new blog obsession and while reading it last night I came across I delicious cookie recipe. Lo and behold I had all the ingredients to make the cookies, so of course I had to try them. They are basically Linzer Tart cookies, but I they were way easier than I ever imagined to make. I don't actually have cookie cutters, so I ended up using cups (a big cup and a small cup) to cut out the shapes. Lame I know. I really should invest in cookie cutters. The shapes I cut out were a bit too big, because the cookies came out massive, albeit delicious. Recipe from Momisodes: Linzer Tart Cookies. (Yes. I have an obsession with mommy blogs).

No they are not pretty.

But they were delicious!

Caesar Club Sandwiches

So yesterday I was supposed to be reading for class. However, I really really dislike the class and clearly would do anything to distract myself from this task. I spent the day cooking instead. For lunch I made these sandwiches that I saw on the Barefoot Contessa Thursday afternoon. After going to two different grocery stores to find Anchovy Paste and spending quite a bit of money on the ingredients (particularly the parmesan, chicken breast and pancetta), I knew this recipe would have to be amazing to be worth it. They were. Caesar salad is my favorite food. I make a point of trying them at almost any restaurant I've ever been to in order to compare. (My fave at this point is at the Homestead Steakhouse at the Borgata. It is to.die.for. Although really everything at that restaurant is.). And this time they were on a sandwich- built in crouton!! Anyways. The recipe is kind of a pain, in that you have to make the dressing homemade, crisp the pancetta, roast the chicken and then layer to make the sandwich. Typically I try to take shortcuts and buy some of this stuff (like the chicken) pre-made. But I really think it was worth it this time to go homemade. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious and I have enough left, that I'll be making another one tonight for dinner and probably a third for lunch tomorrow. Here's the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa herself: Caesar Club Sandwiches.

Roast chicken breast. (I must admit I disgustingly ate the crispy skin off of all three. Gross, I know.)

Crispy Pancetta.

Fresh Arugula. I couldn't find baby arugula.

Shavings of Parmesan.

Homemade Caesar Dressing.

Yummmmm.

Inside View.

Mushroom Bourguignon

So a few weeks ago I made a really yummy mushroom bourguignon, but never got around to posting it. It was super rich and delicious. I'm more of a veggie/fish person, than a big meat eater, so I loved that you could make this with mushrooms. Things to keep in mind: portobello's are pretty expensive- almost $6 a pound down here (and you need 2 lbs), as is the red wine if you don't keep any in the house (I don't, I'm a white wine person). However, this recipe makes a big portion and I had enough to get multiple meals out of it. I used a cheapy brand of red wine- Red Truck (like $6 a bottle). I thought it was fine, but people who know wine better than I may want a nicer brand. Also, at first the amount of mushrooms will look overwhelming (they were like overflowing out of my pot), but they cook down! I followed the recipe form Smitten Kitchen exactly and it came out really well: Mushroom Bourguignon.

Here served over egg noodles.

I served it with a quick salad: Baby Romaine, Crispy Prosciutto (Bake slices of Prosciutto at 450 for 7 min & then break into pieces), Crumbled Gorgonzola and mix with Annie's Shiitake & Sesame Vinaigrette.

The next day I served it without the noodles and had some French bread to dip in it. I actually preferred it like this over the egg noodles. (But then again, I'm a total sucker for bread).

Thankful

I'm not quite sure this post is going to live up to the title, but it was the word that kept appearing in my head, so we're going to go with it. I have been seriously slacking in posting over the past few weeks, but as time got closer and closer to THE DATE, I found other more effective ways of keeping busy. (Mostly watching mindless TV and finding new blogs to read obsessively). However, the big date arrived and I found that not only did I match, but will get to go to my first choice internship program. Thankful is the word that keeps appearing in my head, because this is an outcome that I did not for one real moment ever consider would happen. Even when applying I counted this program out, as being so competitive that I would never have an actual chance of interviewing- let alone matching there. So the moment that I realized that this amazing outcome- being able to spend a year interning at the program that had everything I wanted in a training experience, in Manhattan- the center of NY, spitting distance from my family and minutes away from where my sister works, and also meaning I that I FINALLY get to be with my partner after 3 long years of long distance- THANKFUL was the feeling that completely took over. When I matched I literally got down on my hands and knees after matching and thanked God. When I found out where I was going, I was so shocked and just sat there stunned with a giant smile on my face for several minutes. So yes, I am thankful that my hard work has paid off and that things have worked out in the most amazing way imaginable. I really am feeling so happy about this situation, that I feel like it cannot possibly be real. I'm almost waiting for someone to come take it away... Although I will fight anyone that tries. ;)

Sunday Cooking Spree

Alright so now for the recipes that I didn't have time to make this week and decided to cram in on Sunday. I figure I can eat these for lunch throughout the week.

Chicken Salad Pita

Blue Cheese Cole Slaw

Orzo Salad

Honey-Soy Broiled Salmon

I made these all at the same time, so first I got the water on the stove to boil for the orzo. While I did that I chopped the veggies that I was going to use in the orzo salad and the chicken salad. I used kalamata olives, champagne tomatoes, and cucumbers (I changed it up a bit from the recipe). I also got the marinade ready for the chicken (followed the recipe above). Once the orzo was cooked (took approx 5 min to boil and 10 min to cook) I ran it under cold water to cool down. Then I mixed the orzo with the veggies, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, parsley, salt and pepper. It had a really light and fresh summery taste.

After the orzo salad was done (and the chicken was done marinating- approx 15 min) I put the chicken in pan to cook. While the chicken was taking approximately 1o minutes to cook I worked on the cole slaw. I followed the recipe above, but instead of chopping my own cabbage I bought a package of pre-chopped, so I just had to add the seasonings. By the time I was done with the cole slaw, the chicken was done and then I stored everything in the fridge for later.

For dinner last night I popped a potato in the oven (45 min at 450). I was inspired to make salmon by the recipe above, but I didn't have alot of the ingredients. I mixed 2 tbs of honey with 4 tbs of soy, 2 tbs of white wine vinegar, 1 clove chopped garlic, salt and pepper. They marinated while the potato baked. Then I baked the salmon at 350 for 15 minutes. I had the orzo salad with the salmon. I also made a small caesar salad with left over dressing and croutons from Saturday.

For lunch today I put the pita together. I couldn't find the babaganoush called for in the recipe, so I spread olive-flavored humus over the pita, sliced some of the chicken over it and topped with tomatoes, olives and cucumbers. I had the coleslaw along with it.

All in all, a few hours of cooking for a bunch of lunches and dinners this week (I plan on having the leftover salmon tonight). Plus the meals were all really healthy and light. Success!

Catch Up...

So I'm just super behind in posting. I have two recipes I'm behind in sharing and a cute dog story to cover in this post. (I also spent some time today making the rest of the "new" recipes for this week, but I'll post those later).

First recipe- Stuffed cinnamon french toast. One of my childhood faves- my dad used to make this when I was a kid. I took two pieces of bread, and dipped it in an egg mixture (1 egg, 1/3 c milk, tsp of vanilla), dusted the dipped bread with cinnamon and then fried in a tsp of butter. Once bread is browned on both sides I took cream cheese and made a sandwich out of it. The cream cheese gets all melty and delicious. I topped with maple syrup. I actually had this for dinner one night this week when I got home late and didn't feel like cooking. It took less than 10 minutes to prep and cook.

The other recipe I tried out was a new caesar dressing. I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I didn't feel like making chicken, so I did it plain. I made the croutons by cutting some sourdough bread slices into cubes, mixing them with melted butter, garlic salt and pepper, and baking at 350 for 15 minutes. I topped the salad with parmesan cheese.

Finally, today is Superbowl Sunday. Unfortunately I have a midterm this week in a class that I don't understand at all and will also be giving a midterm to my class next week, so sadly this weekend is being spent making a midterm and studying for one. Yuck. While that leaves me not so excited about the big game, since there will be no yummy food or beer involved, I am excited about the Puppy Bowl shown on Animal Planet. Mostly because Reaghan loves it. For some reason Reaghan responds to the tv. When someone knocks on a door or rings a doorbell on the tv, Rae thinks that it's actually happening at our house and runs to our door. But when dogs bark on tv she is completely fascinated by it and will just sit and stare at it. Hence, I captured some cute pics of her watching the puppies. Enjoy her cuteness!

L'Oreal Lash Boost

So recently I became a BzzAgent and was able to test out the new L'Oreal lash boost serum and mascara for free! It's been about a month since I started using it and all in all I think it's a pretty good product.

I really liked the double-sided mascara. One side is the serum- which you apply first and I think almost acts like a base-coat. The other side is the mascara- which really seemed to make my lashes look longer. I really liked the combination and also liked knowing that my mascara was serving an additional purpose (helping my lashes grow!)

They also give you a serum to apply nightly. This was the only part of the system I didn't love. I think it did make my lashes slightly longer over the month. However, nightly application was kind of a pain, since it came out kind of goopy. You don't apply it onto your lashes like mascara, but kind of sweep it along the rim or your eye. This is why I hate eye-liner, I just can't seem to get it to stay along the eyelash line. I'm going to keep using it since it works, but I wish they would make it easier to put on for those of us too uncoordinated to sweep it across the eyelash line without gooping up our eyes...

Has anyone else tried out this product recently? What do you think?

Tired...

Quick post this evening. I got home late and was too exhausted to spend time marinating any chicken, so I didn't try that recipe out today. Instead I tried out Giada's 10 minute pasta recipe. It actually probably took 15 minutes in total. 5 to boil the water (I have a broken burner and when I turn it on high it gets ridiculously hot). Chopped the herbs & parsley. Toasted the ground pepper while the water boiled. Tossed the pasta in the water and let it cook for 10 min. At the same time I added olive oil to the toasted pepper and let that stay on low until the pasta was finished. And whala! (I had to google how to spell that. Sad I know.) A simple toss of the pasta with the chopped herbs, prosciutto, oil with pepper, parmesan and a little pasta water. Super quick dinner and it was REALLY good!! Perfect for a late work night when you're craving more than a PB&J. Which sadly I never crave, because I really want a gourmet meal every night. Whatevs. That's what Giada 10-minute pasta is for.

Oven Fried Chicken

Ok. So I tried out the oven fried chicken recipe this evening, but was too tired to cook anything else. Lunch tomorrow will just have to be leftovers. I ended up using some chicken breasts, as I prefer them to anything with a bone in it. I also used regular plain yogurt, because my grocery store was completely out of EVERY brand of Greek yogurt they usually carry. (It was like fate purposely wanted to interfere with my recipe. What's up fate?!) Even with this change I thought the chicken was delicious. It took about 10 min to prep and cooked perfectly in 30 minutes. I have no idea what Harissa sauce is, but it sounded like the chili sauce the Asian restaurant down the street serves, so I picked up a container of that when I was there getting take-out over the weekend. To make the sauce I mixed some of the chili sauce with the yogurt, some ketchup and salt. It wasn't abundantly flavorful on its own, but it went well with the chicken. The scallions were confusing... Obviously at 475 they burn, so I'm not sure what the deal is, but I ate them anyway and they tasted kind of like onion rings. I also made a small salad with romaine lettuce, blush wine vinaigrette, croutons and blue cheese. I would definitely make this again, but would think about roasting some other veggies with the chicken. We'll see how chicken recipe #2 comes out tomorrow...

This Week in Recipes

So I spent all day yesterday working on research and can now begin my food obsessing for the week guilt-free. This week I decided to spend about an hour over the weekend planning out the meals for the week, so that I could get all my grocery shopping done in one shot. "Well of course," you might say, "That's what people do." But alas prior to the past few weeks, I would normally just get a craving for some type of food on a given day and then go buy ingredients. This would lead to MULTIPLE trips to the grocery store every week and would also lead to me going to get take-out more often than not. Because I mean by the time I'm hungry enough to want to eat- having to go to the grocery store and then cook the food is going to take way too long. I tend to get lightheaded and cranky when I'm hungry. It's not a pretty sight. (This along with my hatred of people disrupting my sleep and my bad mood in the morning has led to Chris' super cute nickname for me: Monster. He says this very affectionately, but obviously his feelings are clear.)

So here are the recipes I'll be trying out this week. I'm going to try out the baked chicken for dinner tonight. If there's enough time I also hope to make the chicken for the pitas and the coleslaw in order to get a couple days of lunches out of it. We'll see how it goes...

Oven Fried Chicken
Chicken Salad Pitas
Blue Cheese Cole Slaw
Spaghetti with Prosciutto & Parmesan
Honey Mustard Glazed Salmon

How do you all plan your meals for the week? In advance? Daily? Any good recipes you'll be trying out this week?

This is what popped up when I googled "grocery shopping." For real.