It's been a while since I posted pictures from the kitchen:
I'm gradually replacing our reusable containers to glass or BPA-free plastics and I had been looking for easy to-go containers for yogurt cups (yogurt, add fruit of choice, add honey if desired; is cheaper, more healthy since you control more of the ingredients, and less waste as opposed to individual small yogurt containers). I couldn't find something that I liked, until I checked Babies R Us when I was picking diapers and other things for gifts and found baby food containers. So now, we can pack our own yogurt cups. We've also used them for breakfast: grits!! I like mine with cheese, T with jam. Pack an apple and out the door.
Sparkpeople inspired: I like inspired, since I don't always follow the recipes exactly. I guess that's me rebelling against the constraints of science experiments where you have to be exact all the time. Plus, I don't always have all the ingredients. I made their salmon burgers accompanied with roasted carrots, potatoes, and asparagus (dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper), and served with a lime wedge and a dill pickle.
No photos for these two:
Pad Thai noodles (recipe said to use tofu, but we had leftover pork from Thanksgiving - see below -; I didn't have tamarind paste, so I used extra lime juice and extra peanut butter)
Slow cooker chicken marinara - I added 2 chopped carrots and 1 red pepper to the recipe since they were not going to last much longer, and didn't have zucchini. The first night we had it with whole grain penne pasta, second day with toast, and third day with Ramen noodles. As weird as it sounds, most Mauritians love Ramen noodles (which we call Apollo), and we cook the noodles with a bunch of veggies, leftover chicken, shrimps, eggs, etc...
Thanksgiving:
We went to our friend's place for a potluck meal(s) and watched the Packers play. Tom and I brought:
Cajun stuffing (cornbread stuffing with andouille sausage). I adapted my usual recipe for the slow cooker. It didn't have that crunch that you get from baking, but it was still yummy. It couldn't all fit in the slow cooker, so I baked whatever couldn't fit in the oven and stored it for future use.
We made a yummy sweet potato casserole that was topped with walnuts and brown sugar rather than marshmallows (no pictures).
We brought a baked brie - lessons learned: do not shop in a hurry (bought pie crust instead of puff pastry! d'oh!); do not attempt to modify this recipe (topped the brie with brown sugar and walnuts, and waited for the sugar to melt at 350 deg F, which didn't happen and we got to the party late); do not put this under the broiler (I looked at someone to say hi, and the moment that I looked away, the nuts got charred!). I scrapped the burnt nuts and people still ate a lot of it. Next time, I'm following the recipe.
Tom made a tequila lime roasted pork loin, which was fantastic!
I'm gradually replacing our reusable containers to glass or BPA-free plastics and I had been looking for easy to-go containers for yogurt cups (yogurt, add fruit of choice, add honey if desired; is cheaper, more healthy since you control more of the ingredients, and less waste as opposed to individual small yogurt containers). I couldn't find something that I liked, until I checked Babies R Us when I was picking diapers and other things for gifts and found baby food containers. So now, we can pack our own yogurt cups. We've also used them for breakfast: grits!! I like mine with cheese, T with jam. Pack an apple and out the door.Sparkpeople inspired: I like inspired, since I don't always follow the recipes exactly. I guess that's me rebelling against the constraints of science experiments where you have to be exact all the time. Plus, I don't always have all the ingredients. I made their salmon burgers accompanied with roasted carrots, potatoes, and asparagus (dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper), and served with a lime wedge and a dill pickle.
Pad Thai noodles (recipe said to use tofu, but we had leftover pork from Thanksgiving - see below -; I didn't have tamarind paste, so I used extra lime juice and extra peanut butter)
Slow cooker chicken marinara - I added 2 chopped carrots and 1 red pepper to the recipe since they were not going to last much longer, and didn't have zucchini. The first night we had it with whole grain penne pasta, second day with toast, and third day with Ramen noodles. As weird as it sounds, most Mauritians love Ramen noodles (which we call Apollo), and we cook the noodles with a bunch of veggies, leftover chicken, shrimps, eggs, etc...
Thanksgiving:
We went to our friend's place for a potluck meal(s) and watched the Packers play. Tom and I brought:
We made a yummy sweet potato casserole that was topped with walnuts and brown sugar rather than marshmallows (no pictures).
We brought a baked brie - lessons learned: do not shop in a hurry (bought pie crust instead of puff pastry! d'oh!); do not attempt to modify this recipe (topped the brie with brown sugar and walnuts, and waited for the sugar to melt at 350 deg F, which didn't happen and we got to the party late); do not put this under the broiler (I looked at someone to say hi, and the moment that I looked away, the nuts got charred!). I scrapped the burnt nuts and people still ate a lot of it. Next time, I'm following the recipe.
Tom made a tequila lime roasted pork loin, which was fantastic!
We also brought these goodies: baked croissants but stuffed with cream cheese, jalapenos, and bacon. Thanks Pinterest! Basically a jalapeno popper in a croissant! It was glorious, especially since all the jalapenos came from the garden!
Other kitchen happenings:
Last week, Ms. Paula came back from a 10 day trip to Europe. I had a bunch of apples that were not going to last for very long (and I had pie crust from Thanksgiving) so I baked my first apple pie for her. I still need to work on my pastry decoration. I made it one morning before going to lab - it didn't take that long once the apples are peeled and sliced. Bake while getting ready. Allow to cool while listening to tales of Europe! What a Friday! :)
It has gotten much cooler and this past weekend, I decided that our jalapenos were not going to get any bigger. I harvested all of them and pickled them following this recipe, omitting the bay leaves, using regular black peppercorns, using chopped garlic instead of crushed, and replacing apple cider vinegar with white vinegar. Cooled, labelled, and in the fridge. We have yet to try them.
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