Cook more! I love to cook. It's more rewarding, less expensive, and healthier than eating out all of the time... plus it makes my boyfriend really happy.
The one thing that slows be down is my lack of creativity in the kitchen. Lately I have discovered this whole new world of food/ cooking blogs, and sheesh they are fantastic! A whole new world has opened up for me, and I'm completely addicted (and amazed).
Cook books also help, and I did receive two fantastic cook books for Christmas :
- Giada de Laurentiis' new cookbook:
- Tyler's Ultimate:
(I've made the Ultimate Ratatouille & the Cold Pasta Salad with Roasted Chicken, Plums, Blue Cheese, & Basil from this book in the past and they turned out amazingly delish.)
I'm proud to say that this week I have made two delicious home cooked meals (and I plan on making more).
Tuesday I made: Giada's Eggplant Timbale
Which looks super fancy, and tastes even better. Now I am a huge eggplant lover, and my bf is a huge baked pasta lover... so this little number knocked our socks off. Luckily we had dinner with my parents that night, because this could have fed a small army. (And we had tons of left overs!) The real secrets to this dish are having a mandolin to make those thin slices of eggplant, and spring pan so you can just pop it out after its done baking.. other than that, I just followed the steps and it was pretty simple. (I also used ground turkey instead of ground beef & sweet italian chicken sausages for regular italian sausages... just because... well, i'm a girl. I'll eat all of those other things, but to be honest there was so much flavor in this dish I didn't miss the beef/ pork at all.)
After the heavy-ness that was our Tuesday supper, I wanted to make something on the lighter side for dinner last night. I wanted it to be a less time intensive, but still flavorful, and satifying... Wandering around the web one of my favorite foodie bloggers The Wednesday Chef had just posted a recipe for Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp, with the first line "you should totally make this for dinner tonight." Well, I listened... and boy am I glad I did. I served the crispy broccoli and lemon-y shrimp over some wild rice, poured a couple glasses of chardonnay and called it day.
Here's the picture Luisa (The Wednesday Chef) posted:
Mine looked like that too, I was just way too hungry to take a picture before it was devoured.
That's what I'll have to work on if I want to be a snazzy food blogger. Taking pictures at every step. Adds a whole new challenge to cooking.
Tonight I have an information session for a graduate school program, so there wont be any home cooked dinner, but I plan to tackle a new recipe for either tomorrow or saturday night. Starting slow with three home cooked meals this week I think it a good goal, and a vast improvement over my previously excessive eating out ways.
6 comments:
That pasta dish looks fantastic. I used to cook :) I should try that again some day.
Since you have some time maybe we should get the pups together for a play date. My guy needs a small friend. He had so much fun with my friend's dogs in SB.
Did you know that Giada went to my high school?
I see that you're new to the blogging world. Just wanted to stop in and say hello! :)
Good for you! That's awesome! I want to cook more, too, but it's so challenging just cooking for yourself. You know?
A grad school program? Do tell!
Yes!! Giada is farrrrrr better than Rachel Ray!!
Glad to have found your blog girlie. :)
We sell both of those books at Williams Sonoma and they've been really popular, particularly the Giada one! Keep sharing your favorites so I know which ones to try :)
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